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Spotlight: Smart News Profile: From the Street to the Theater Micro Climate: Big Birthdays and Motorcycles Changing Climate: Magical Bridge
ISSUE SIXTY FIVE • JANUARY • 2021
Temperature Check on
A Return to Normal
OPPORTUNITIES Volunteer at the Magical Bridge Playground Kindness Ambassador volunteers (18+) will assist the City of Redwood City to keep the playground safe during COVID-19 and provide support for future events and programs at the playground. Read the Q&A and apply at: www.rwcpaf.org
Sponsor the Mosaic Mural Local artist Elizabeth Gomez has designed a mosaic mural depicting the natural beauty of native California ora and fauna that will adorn a section of the playground. Donate to sponsor a section of the mosaic mural and be recognized on a plaque at the mural. Learn more about mural sponsorship at:
rwcpaf.square.site/magical-bridge
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR•
If you’re like me, my “Happy New Year” greetings this year were far from perfunctory. We have good reason to want to shred 2020 calendars and put that snake-bit year behind us. The Covidrelated restrictions that still define practically every area of our lives are likely to be with us for a while longer, and we’re all left to wonder when “normal” will return and what it will look like. Because of the wintertime resurgence of Covid numbers, Climate is once again available online only for this month and probably longer. It makes no sense to print magazines when the restaurants, cafés and other businesses where they’re usually available are closed and people are under shelterin-place orders. We look forward to a return to print as soon as it makes sense. We asked writer Don Shoecraft to tackle the big subject of what the future likely holds “post-pandemic.” He reached out to a number of experts and authorities in the county for their assessments; one of the major takeaways from Don’s story is the uneven economic and social impact on those already disadvantaged before the pandemic. Schools have played a major safety net role in assisting the kids and their families in these struggles. Don’s story begins on page 8. This issue brings you stories about two men whose backgrounds could not be more different. Scott Dailey profiles Rich Jaroslovsky, a Stanford grad who had a long career with the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News and today directs the news and business operations development of SmartNews app. The Emerald Hills resident is therefore well-situated to offer a perspective on how to bring reliable news to readers online. The story about his journey through journalism begins on page 16. At the other end of the spectrum is the story of William “Joey” (for Joseph) Alexander, who in a little over a year has immersed himself in facilities management at the Fox Theatre. This despite spending almost his entire adult life in homelessness and addiction. His transformation is a remarkable story that we can also take something from: a reminder about the importance of extending a “hand up” to those who want help to change. We thank Joey for his openness in telling his story—the bitter with the sweet—and congratulate him on his awesome success. The December opening of the Magical Bridge Foundation’s Playground in Redwood City was one of the bright notes from 2020. It’s an innovative, delightful space for kids of all abilities, and all of those who contributed to make it a reality deserve our thanks. Even if you don’t have a child to bring along for cover, go: A ringside view of the kids at play will brighten any adult's day.
Janet McGovern, Editor
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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S •
FEATU RE
Covid: Unequal Burden
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SPOTLIG HT Smart News
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PROFILE
From the Street to the Theater
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CHANGING CLIMATE 14 MICRO CLIMATE...........22 AROUND TOWN ���������30 HISTORY......................33
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Every home should be filled with nutritious food
Photo: Silicon Valley Community Foundation 2020
This ad was provided as a courtesy of
NeighborsJanuary helping neighbors since 1938¡ 5 2021 ¡ -CLIMATE
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C L I M AT E •
CLIMATE M A G A Z I N E Publisher
S.F. Bay Media Group Editor
Janet McGovern janet@climaterwc.com Creative Director
Jim Kirkland jim@climaterwc.com Contributing Writers
Don Shoecraft Scott Dailey Janet McGovern Jim Clifford Photography
Jim Kirkland Editorial Board
Janet McGovern Jim Kirkland Adam Alberti Advisory Board
Dee Eva Jason Galisatus Connie Guerrero Matt Larsen Dennis Logie Clem Molony Barb Valley CLIMATE magazine is a monthly publication by S.F. Bay Media Group, a California Corporation. Entire contents ©2020 by S.F. Bay Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use in any manner without permission is strictly prohibited. CLIMATE is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. CLIMATE offices are located at 570 El Camino Real, Ste. 150 #331 Redwood City, CA 94063. Printed in the U.S.A.
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6 · CLIMATE · January 2021
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It took a village to build the Magical Bridge Playground in Redwood City. We thank the 1,000+ individuals and organizations who brought this MAGICAL SPACE to life.
THANK YOU!
January 2021 ·
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F E AT U R E •
The Pandemic’s
Unequal
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Burden Covid-19 lays bare pre-existing social and racial inequities By Don Shoecraft
Three crises crushed norms in 2020, falling most heavily on the young and old. Life ceased to be familiar nine months ago; numerous observers say the pandemic set in motion evolutionary changes in education, government, business and private life. The question haunting those who have had to deal with its harshest effects in San Mateo County is this: Could life be better, society more egalitarian, after the pandemic? Possibly. Those whose work underpins the most basic functions of Peninsula life are working to make it happen. Social and racial equity are key.
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n March, Covid-19 arrived and months of confusing, intrusive and isolating social regulation followed. This in the midst of a vitriolic presidential campaign built on racial, economic and political divisions. The killing of George Floyd under the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin in May generated unrest that brought into the streets social, racial and demographic groups not used to uniting at standoffs with riot police. Previous generations experienced disaster and trauma, but in modern American history not the equivalent of three in a year. From nonprofits to government to
business to health care, everyone confronted challenges and responded in distinctive ways, but one word, equity, has emerged as the unifying plea. Triple tragedy brought into relief the fact that greatest damage has been done to those least equipped to survive it. Suffering has been unequal. Supervisor Warren Slocum did not foresee in January how prescient were his remarks as he addressed the public as the newly elected President of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. The presidential campaign was in full swing, but the pandemic and the Floyd killing January 2021 ·
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• were not on the horizon. The goal of his term, he said, would be equity. He asked public and county staff to consider their behavior through an “equity lens.” A Defining Term “Vast disparities exist in San Mateo County and we know that systemic inequality diminishes us all,” he said, using “systemic inequality” just before a time when those words provoked civil unrest. Four months later, Covid-19 removed any doubt that systemic inequality guaran-
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cause but equity the overriding purpose. Forty-five outside community partners joined. In September the group published 125 action items organized around “a collective restart …To create an equitable community,” declaring that “systems, policies, and practices of oppression must be dismantled” in social services, health care, housing, and technology. Though the future is unclear, both positive and negative trends are emerging. More than a dozen educators, technology analysts and medical professionals shared
youth present. Pre-pandemic, school counselors and staff saw drop-in visitors. Today counseling is online electronic. That’s far from ideal even if a child stuck at home can sign on without siblings or parents—some of them part of the problem—being in on the call. Mental health counseling requires manipulation of objects, from writing to drawing to shapes. Professionals must be expert at reading subtle cues like breathing and eye movement, very hard to follow over Zoom. Mental health professionals report a so-far
The public school system, not government, is emerging as the primary agent of social change. In the pandemic, authorities say, students and youth experienced a generational trauma the equivalent of parental divorce, the Great Depression, assassinations, even war. teed privileged treatment for a few and neglect for those who lost jobs, couldn’t feed families, lost homes, and got sick. Low-income workers became frontline and essential workers. School districts lost track of families and children, a major problem considering that a third of the county’s 93,000 public school students were on a free or reduced-price school lunch program and were most at risk. The pandemic’s toll reinforced Slocum’s call for equity, prompting the board and County Manager Mike Callagy to empanel what may be the county’s largest task force ever: 168 community, government and nonprofit leaders organized to produce the San Mateo County Recovery Initiative. Covid-19 was the proximate
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views that shaped this forecast. Most emphasized their opinions were theirs alone. Schools at the Forefront The public school system, not government, is emerging as the primary agent of social change. In the pandemic, authorities say, students and youth experienced a generational trauma the equivalent of parental divorce, the Great Depression, assassinations, even war. Educators are dealing with increases in severe mental health issues among students, from personality dissociation to anger management to depression to self-injury. Technology, such a boon to work-at-homes, is an obstacle when dealing with mental health issues
unexamined decline in reports of child abuse. Educators are concerned about an uptick in teen pregnancy. Condoms are readily accessible on campus, but perhaps impossible to get at home. Beyond having to invent a new way to teach, schools now go far outside conventional responsibilities to meet the pandemic. Staff are learning to locate food and housing, navigate government assistance programs and see to the health of entire families. They are toting Wi-Fi hotspots into neighborhoods and providing technology training. Beyond the Daily Headlines After nine months, it’s time to banish the idea that “normal” in two years, five years, or 10 will look like pre-2020. Things will be
• different, possibly more equitable if 2020 institutional initiatives pan out. San Mateo County’s is a diverse economy, which cushions the impact of stay-athome orders and business closures. Technology companies are scattered throughout Peninsula cities and generally have done well, despite emptying offices of workers. It is not an unalloyed benefit, but the pandemic will give tech a huge boost in the long term. Tech sustained the pre-pandemic real estate sector, pushing home prices to re-
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mute. Biotech and life sciences officially are essential businesses and are spared much of the pandemic’s disruption. Public Transit Suffering Public transit, however, has been clobbered and Bay Area Rapid Transit, Golden Gate Transit, San Francisco Muni, Muni Metro and the Silicon Valley Transportation Authority have not been able to predict when, or even if, they might recover. Happy news for certain Peninsulans: Caltrain service will continue. In Measure
on if commuters get back on the road, Heminger said. “People are willing to try things,” he said, “(but) if you tell them it’s permanent, they take a different look than if it’s something they’ve got to do for a week, a month, a year and they’ve got a chance to go back to normal. Because people are dying to go back to normal.” The Hospitality Industry No sector suffered ravages of the pandemic as severely as travel and leisure. On a
Public transit, however, has been clobbered and Bay Area Rapid Transit, Golden Gate Transit, San Francisco Muni, Muni Metro and the Silicon Valley Transportation Authority have not been able to predict when, or even if, they might recover. cord highs, and continues to do so. Urban techies are gravitating to bigger suburban homes with more space and better schools, like those on the Peninsula. Massive office campuses like Google’s and Apple’s are virtually empty and likely to remain that way for a year and longer; however, because commercial real estate demand was strong before the pandemic and the market is resilient, that may not be a big problem. The longer the downturn lasts the greater the damage, but those taking the long view remain optimistic. Further, biotech and biological science companies are hedges against collapse of the commercial office sector economy. These buildings have specialized spaces and infrastructure not available to homebased workers, so staffs continue to com-
RR, voters approved a new tax base for Caltrain, without which it would not survive a pandemic-caused 95 percent drop in farebox revenues. The new tax money won’t start arriving until September, but Caltrain can and will borrow against it. Steve Heminger, formerly chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments, says transit and highway transportation “won’t return to the old normal,” adding that, “some amount of working-at-home telecommuting is going to survive and that’s going to have an influence on the demand on highway and transit systems.” To address climate change, increased telecommuting had been baked into the region’s 2020–2050 transit plan. How much will actually happen depends
trend to serve 57 million passengers in the year 2020, San Francisco International Airport lost 40 million. Fallout spared no Peninsula city, but few fared worse than Burlingame. Of the 9,000 jobs the county lost as of early September, 16 Burlingame businesses, 13 of which served SFO, accounted for 2,000 layoffs, almost 700 of them at the Hilton and Marriott airport hotels alone. Cities collect Transient Occupancy Tax on hotel guest stays. Burlingame’s TOT dropped $6 million this year, accounting for most of its $8 million pandemic-era revenue loss. All told, the Mid-Peninsula area lost $65 million in TOT. Recovery will be very slow. San Francisco drives tourism, and that city’s controller projects it will take six years at least for visitor business to return. As San Francisco visitor business January 2021 ·
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• goes, so goes the Peninsula. Fortunately, the property tax mainstay has suffered little. Cities earn virtually automatic two percent per year property tax growth. In hard-hit Burlingame, for example, property tax will continue to rise about $1 million a year. Construction fee revenues, both residential and commercial, also remain strong. That said, almost all cities face growing unfunded public employee pension liability. Unless they finance their own pension system, cities and employees contribute to the California Public Employees
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holding certain Peninsula social circles together, but they appreciate it now. Cities jumped to protect their gourmet ghettos as best they could, giving over traffic lanes to restaurant parklets, short-circuiting paperwork and coming up with money. San Carlos closed a block of Laurel Street thick with restaurants, perhaps permanently, depending on experience. Not everyone’s happy. Brick and mortar merchants, facing extinction by online shopping, compete for parking and object to any loss. In fact, probably no one’s happy.
world rushed to Zoom, but immigrant families shunned technology out of fear. Most had connections to the undocumented population. Their social connections were low tech, cell phones and free food lines. Even before the pandemic seven of 10 female heads of households living alone locally were overextended and living month-to-month. One in 10 residents reported mental or emotional problems, almost two in 10 under age 40. One in four showed symptoms of chronic depression; among blacks, Hispanics and Coastsiders it was one in three.
San Carlos closed a block of Laurel Street thick with restaurants, perhaps permanently, depending on experience. Not everyone’s happy. Brick and mortar merchants, facing extinction by online shopping, compete for parking and object to any loss. In fact, probably no one’s happy. Retirement System. CalPERS’ investment performance affects how much they have to offset. CalPERS budgeted a 7 percent rate of return last year; its June 30, 2020, estimate is 4.7 percent. Local agencies and employees must make up the difference. Cities have tools that help them react relatively quickly to circumstances. San Carlos Council member Sara McDowell pointed to the bioscience building boom under way on the east side of town. The city will fold the lessons of the pandemic into a new land-use plan for the area that will take most of a year to develop. New travel modes, different commuter needs, a new commercial mix will be taken into account. Pre-pandemic, few appreciated how much restaurant dining was the glue
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What Economists Predict The San Mateo County Economic Development Association recently published the assessment of nine famous international economists, who agreed economic recovery will be like the “Nike swoosh,” not the V-shaped snap-back the Trump administration hoped for. After a big crash to levels of two to eight years ago, indicators will come back, but slowly, growing more slowly than before the pandemic. For some, sunshine. For others, cloudy days. For minorities, immigrants, the poorest, the young, and the elderly, the outlook is darkness and shadows. Low-income minority communities lost more jobs and were also more often frontline workers exposed to infection. The
A half million individuals and families in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties now depend on distributions from Second Harvest Food Bank, double what it was pre-pandemic. African-American and Hispanic families are two to three times more likely to report not having enough food. Second Harvest CEO Leslie Bacho says those at the bottom will recover much more slowly than those at the top. “If you’ve completely wiped out your savings, if you can’t pay the rent, if, God forbid, more people are infected,” she said, “it takes a long time to recover from those challenges, … when people go back to work, they’re in debt. It takes a long time to build back up to where they were.”
• Schools Carrying the Load The pandemic has at least helped break down the siloed approach to social services. For years, nonprofits picked up programs that government could no longer afford. With schools at the forefront, the need to consolidate is gaining traction, race-baiting, police violence and a worldwide plague making plain that inequality is at the root. As Stanford professor and futurist Paul Saffo said, “These problems have been a constant. Covid-19 merely caused the tide to recede, thus revealing what was hidden.” Children today have learned to look at other people differently, as threats. “Outside” means a walk, not play. High school students have lost a year in the search for self- and social identity, for which hanging out with friends and trying on new personalities is critical. Educators report a huge increase in mental health problems among youth, from depression to suicidal thoughts to cutting. For the sufferers, the education system has never been more important. Schools are direct links to families. Today families need food, physical and mental health care, access to pandemic income relief, rent assistance and housing. Because education has gone online, educators, even bus drivers, are in the community setting up Wi-Fi and teaching technology. Hubs and pods will never go away. In the Redwood City School District, which is typical, small instructional pods, socially distanced, provide in-person classes for students most in need of one-on-one instruction. They will continue even if the district succeeds in returning to classrooms early this year. The same with web hubs that put teachers in the middle of groups of families as they reach out to remote learners. Now established, those methods will work their way into the post-pandemic education system.
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Educators have become vocal about what they always knew. The quality of health, housing and access to food depends on where families live. Property values, the fundamental revenue source for city and school services, vary widely. Melissa Ambrose, wellness coordinator for the Jefferson Union High School District in Daly City, says teachers there earn $30,000 to $40,000 less than those mid-county. “I sometimes question myself … how can we close the gap?” she said. “Schools are doing what they were designed to do, they were designed in a system of white supremacy, to keep the status quo. So, there are a bunch of us inside the system trying to batter away at a system that’s doing what it’s supposed to do.” Impact on Seniors Seniors represent 13 to 15 percent of county population but account for a quarter of Covid-19 deaths. Those who work in the field say the coronavirus crisis will reduce socialization, mobility, and group activity for the elderly, permanently. Mary Griffin, VP of Home Care and Support Services for the Institute on Aging, a private senior home care company, expects future home-care standards to emphasize isolation, eliminate common spaces, segregate entrances and exits, and evolve because of new emphasis on disease prevention, among staff as well as clients. Personal protective equipment for staff and hand sanitizer “are here to stay,” she said. Isolation, loneliness and depression will increase. New ways to address the problem will have to be found. Despite Covid‘s terrible toll and bleak outlook, nearly everyone contacted for this story held an optimistic long-term view. The county’s Recovery Initiative plan contains a Social Progress Index, which will provide public access to numerous measures of social equity for every census tract in the county, indisputable granular
data anyone can use. “I think the recovery work will become standard operating procedure,” Supervisor Slocum said. Covid Revealed Inequities Adding to pressure for change, County Manager Callagy is to hire a Chief Equity Officer, a new brand of administrator with authority to push. “This thing called the pandemic put a bright light on inequities in this county,” he said. “When I talk about inequity I talk about out-of-school care and workforce development, the digital divide and mental health care and physical health care and food and housing balance, the businesses we support, the support we provide through nonprofits and childcare. All those things are harder for those who don’t have the necessities to get by in life, who are struggling for work. Who are struggling with the basic need for food and housing.” The pandemic, he said, was “fortuitous” because it pointed the way to equality, defined as the state of all areas of the county being at “functional zero,” as the PSI calls it. “The fact is this really shined a light on that.” Callagy continued, “Let’s use this pandemic as a social revolution of some kind that really makes a difference in the way we look at society and the way we contribute to society so that everyone has an equal opportunity. We’ve got so many people pulling in the right direction. We’ve got legislators here, we’ve got really good people, but that’s something we’ve got to focus on. I’m telling you, that’s something I’m passionate about. It breaks my heart to see kids left behind and have it depend on where they live.” C
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Magical Bridge Playground Opens Kids experience swinging, swaying fun at accessible new facility By Janet McGovern Redwood City had a “quiet” opening for the highly anticipated Magical Bridge Playground Dec. 1, but word’s out and kids and their families have been descending in droves on this innovative addition to the city’s parks in the weeks since it made its debut. The culmination of four-plus years of planning and $6.9 million in public and private funding, the new facility at Red Morton Park opened with social distancing and some other Covid-related restrictions in place. But it was hard to think about that amid the high-pitched shrieks and the thunder of little feet racing from slides to swings and back again. “It is a wonderful feeling to deliver something that people really enjoy,” says Claudia Olalla, the city’s Magical Bridge project manager. “It’s so much work involved, so much planning and so many things have to go right. … And then when it all comes together it’s a big sigh of relief and joy at the same time.” The day the park opened, for example, Olalla watched a neighborhood child who had to wait in line until it was her turn to be let in. She stood at the entrance, put her hands on her face—and let out a loud squeal. That moment, Olalla says, summed up her feeling of satisfaction: “To have it done and people playing in it and all those kids just having so much fun feels amazing.” Begun in Palo Alto The first Magical Bridge playground opened in Palo Alto in 2015, the result of the vision and many years of work by founders Olenka Villareal and Jill Asher to create a play area where all family and community members would be welcome,
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regardless of age, size or ability. Villareal has two daughters, one of whom is “developmentally very young.” Now 17, she’s a senior at Palo Alto High School in a special program. Villareal’s realization that there were no parks designed for families like hers set her on course to research playground standards and equipment and develop Magical Bridge Playground’s signature features. Among them are distinct play zones, retreat spaces for those needing a break from play, smooth, seamless pathways and fully accessible swings, spinning features, wide slides and wheelchair access to a two-story playhouse. The Magical Bridge Foundation was formed in 2016, and the nonprofit worked in partnership with Redwood City to build its new playground. The foundation raised $3.2 million of the cost, the remainder coming from park impact fees paid by developers. Villareal says it was difficult to raise funds for the prototype Magical Bridge Playground because “nobody knew what I was talking about and what I was building.” When people visit one—especially those who become “kindness volunteers”— they can see for themselves how welcoming these non-traditional facilities are. In Redwood City, Villareal says, her organization had a governmental partner that “has been nothing short of magical to work with.” Donors Bridged the Gap More than 600 individual donors and families contributed “from nickels and dimes from lemonade stands all the way up to donors like Jay Paul Co. that gave us
over $1 million toward the project,” Villareal says. The largest single contribution, it was in addition to an existing Jay Paul sponsorship and came at a critical point for the project, which has had a number of funding and construction challenges over the years. Among them were delays from smoke drifting from wildfires, heavy rain and more recently, a temporary shutdown because of the Covid pandemic. The city’s public works and parks staff took on some of the project elements in-house to reduce construction costs. Since opening day, the Covid-related restrictions have included a limit on the number of people who can be in the playground at once (80); monitors stand at the entrance to control the flow. The limit had been reached many times last month, but people have been good about leaving so others can come in, according to city staff. During the initial period, however, some unanticipated problems occurred with skateboarders and bicyclists entering the playground. City staff and other volunteers were called in to keep an eye on things and explain the rules. The city has also tried to communicate through social media and other means that skaters and bikes aren’t allowed. “This is a unique space for a totally different constituency of user,” Olalla says, noting that there is a nearby skate park. “It’s sad because perhaps what they don’t realize is the damage that they cause when they go in.” Among those who showed up to staff the park on a Saturday in December was Chris Beth, the director of the parks
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and recreation department, filling in for someone who called in sick. One of the surprises about being on duty at Magical Bridge during the opening weeks, Beth says, is realizing how much he and his staff have missed being around the kids who use the parks. “We’re used to gathering people for events and it’s been a year almost and we’ve missed that,” he says, “and having these families enjoy it together has been a wonderful reminder.” An Energy Release For neighbors like Erin Meredith, opening day couldn’t come soon enough. Living across the street, she and her husband had been following the construction progress and had been coming over almost every day with their two little boys after it opened. Though her children aren’t disabled, “it’s something for everybody,” Meredith observes, “an all-inclusive place, which is nice.”
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For young children cooped at home, the merry-go-round, slides, slopes and climbing apparatus provided plenty of opportunities to burn off energy. Patrick Foley, who lives in the Woodside Plaza area, brought his 21-month-old daughter, Piper, to the playground for the first time. “Piper is a very rambunctious little one,” he says, one eye on his daughter as she heads up a slope. “For us it’s always swing, swing, and higher is kind of her goto. She is fearless, which is great, but also for Daddy a little nervous(-making).” Theresa Dito of San Carlos had taken her two children to the Magical Bridge in Palo Alto and had been waiting for the one closer to home to open. “I think it’s cool to have the kids interact with all types of kids so they’re used to and exposed to people who are different,” she says. Dito liked the fact that the park is fenced so she doesn’t have to worry about one of her kids running out into the street while she’s watching the other one.
Future Magical Bridges Other Magical Bridge Playgrounds are planned at cities including Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Mountain View and Morgan Hill, and plans are also under way for a Magical Bridge design at CuriOdyssey in San Mateo with all the components but not as much space as Redwood City’s ¾-acre playground, according to Villareal. She acknowledges that Magical Bridge Playgrounds are more expensive to build than traditional ones—they require more space and site preparation and they don’t use a prefabricated ramp. The foundation’s focus now is on making Magical Bridges “more of a destination playground.” Villareal notes that there are also ways to incorporate some of the design features in the renovations of existing parks and schoolyards, such as replacing intimidating play structures with swings. “Swinging is sort of the original therapy for autism,” she says. C
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SPOTLIGHT•
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SPOTLIGHT•
Doing It the Silicon Valley Way SmartNews executive Rich Jaroslovsky shunned prestigious jobs to have fun and bet the house on tech
By Scott Dailey
It was a cold, sparkling-clear October day on the campaign trail in 1976. President Gerald Ford surveyed the exuberant college crowd, which seemed to hum with anticipation. Red, white and blue bunting adorned the sprawling Midwestern campus. Ford confidently stepped to the microphone, cleared his throat and enthusiastically proclaimed, “It’s great to be here at Ohio State!” The expected roar never erupted. Instead, the crowd noise rapidly diminished into an awkward silence, punctuated by murmurs of utter bewilderment. For on this bright morning, Ford was nowhere near Columbus, Ohio. He was 665 miles away in Ames, Iowa, on the campus of Iowa State University.
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he moment was not lost on a bemused press corps, which included a young reporter from The Wall Street Journal. Just a year-and-a-half before, Rich Jaroslovsky had been a college senior, finishing his degree in political science at Stanford and writing for the student newspaper, The Stanford Daily. Now, at age 22, he was accomplishing his lifelong dream, covering presidential politics for an international publication.
On this day, Jaroslovsky was doing better than the President. The campaign trip had been conceived as a train ride to evoke the whistle-stop tours of President Harry Truman. From Iowa to East St. Louis, Ill., Ford gave the same speech a dozen times – and kept flubbing the same line. He was supposed to say, “Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick.’ Jimmy Carter speaks loudly and carries a flyswatter.” Every time, Ford stumbled over “flyswatter.” Making things worse, Jaroslovsky says, the day’s bitter January 2021 ·
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SPOTLIGHT•
cold inspired Ford to nip from a hip flask between arrivals. But near midnight, at the final stop, he paused, gathered himself and triumphantly enunciated, “FLYSWATTER.” Hearing the President finally get it right, the media people, as weary (though perhaps not as tipsy) as Ford, broke out laughing and cheering. Ford joined in. And the crowd in the parking lot of an East St. Louis shopping mall was left to wonder what in heaven’s name was going on. A Journalism Journey Such are the tales that Washington correspondents gather through the decades. In his continuing 45-year career with The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, a New York investment firm, academia and now an app called SmartNews, Jaroslovsky has collected dozens of stories. But what has long captivated him even more has been the evolution of print news to a largely electronic and Internet-based medium. With the current pandemic, Jaroslovsky directs the news and business-development operations of Tokyo-based SmartNews primarily from his study at his home in Emerald Hills. Available through the Apple app store and Google Play, SmartNews runs on smartphones and standalone computers. The eight-year-old company, started by two Japanese engineers, says 50 million people worldwide now use the app, which employs proprietary algorithms to select and deliver news stories from major media as well as small, local outlets. Numerous times a day, readers receive alerts for stories about everything from international politics and major-league sports to a burglary in their hometown. Lifewire, a provider of technology information and advice, last January ranked SmartNews eighth among news-aggregation sites in 2020. Lifewire also called
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Jaroslovsky (seated center on the couch) with President Reagan.
After 18 years of covering politics, including the first Reagan Administration from the White House, the intellectually restless Jaroslovsky was ready for something new. SmartNews the “best aggregator for a balanced perspective.” That’s pleasing news for the company, which seeks to cover the entire political spectrum on various issues. Joining SmartNews six-and-a-half years ago seemed a natural for Jaroslovsky, who helped lead the team in the 1990s that developed wsj.com for The Wall Street Journal. Back then, colleagues told him he was committing career suicide by leaving his post as a Washington correspondent to jump into the nascent world of online news. But after 18 years of covering politics, including the first Reagan Administration from the White House, the intellectually restless Jaroslovsky was ready for something new. From Safety to the Unknown “This was pre-Internet,” Jaroslovsky recalls. “Nobody really knew what the online medium even was, including me, or what it might become. But the job was too interesting to pass up.”
Two decades later, when SmartNews asked him to become the company’s first U.S. employee, he sensed the same allure. He had left Bloomberg, where he had most recently been the technology columnist, and was mulling offers for jobs he knew he could do. But once again, it was time to leap off the high-dive. “The reason I took the job at SmartNews, which at that time was tiny – I think I was employee number 14 – was because I didn’t know how it would turn out,” Jaroslovsky says. “And in a lot of ways, it was very much the same as when I took the wsj. com job. I was going to learn new stuff – win, lose or draw.” While at Bloomberg, Jaroslovsky had negotiated a move from New York back to his native Northern California (he grew up in Santa Rosa). After 35 years in the East, coming home was a long-held dream. Jaroslovsky and his wife, Mindy, found a house in Emerald Hills, perfectly situated to survey Silicon Valley for Bloomberg and ultimately to take the job with SmartNews.
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SPOTLIGHT•
At the company, which maintains U.S. offices in Palo Alto, San Francisco and New York, Jaroslovsky holds the twin titles of Vice President for Content and Chief Journalist. In the former role, he signs up publishers whose news stories appear on the app in exchange for fees and advertising revenue. [They currently number 499, including The McClatchy Co. (owner of the Sacramento Bee and other media outlets), the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, the Huffington Post, USA Today and ABC News.] In the latter job, he’s responsible for the complete editorial product. Gaining Readers The publishers appear to be satisfied. Executive Distribution Editor Jennifer Polland of Insider, Inc., which produces Insider and Business Insider, told a recent virtual meeting of the Online Publishers Association that reader views had risen by 200 percent since her organization began using SmartNews. Polland added that Insider’s readership “spikes” for breaking news stories published on the app were “shocking to me – in a great way.” Angela Lunter, senior director for business strategy and operations for McClatchy, told the meeting that SmartNews’s referrals of readers to McClatchy’s sites had quickly risen to rank third behind those of Google and Facebook. Lunter also noted SmartNews’s commitment to promotion, including television advertising for the app, soon after the company moved into the U.S. market. “It was very clear,” she said, “that they were investing and building the user base in the U.S., and that they really wanted to approach this market in a smart way – no pun intended.” The company’s growth has been aided by the confidence of investors that include Japan Post Capital Co., ACA Investments, Globis Capital Partners, D.A. Consortium
Jaroslovsky with then-Vice President George H.W. Bush
Certain stories, chosen by the algorithms, are sent to individual readers based on the interests they express when they select various topics. That said, Jaroslovsky emphasizes that SmartNews does not collect or sell data about its users. and international advertising giant Dentsu. SmartNews’s total startup funding as of November 2019 was a reported $182 million, on a valuation of $1.2 billion. The startup cash has helped create a current employee base of more than 400 persons. Much has also gone into SmartNews’s computer software, which enables the company’s distribution and a large share of its news collection. Choosing the Stories SmartNews scours the web for news from thousands of publishers, using machine learning algorithms to identify, evaluate and select the stories displayed in the app. The articles appear either as links to the publishers' websites, sending them free traffic, or, increasingly, appear in SmartNews’s native format, for which publishers are paid directly. A team of editors selects stories for breaking-news pushes and highlights special content from the hundreds of "publisher partners.”
Certain stories, chosen by the algorithms, are also sent to individual readers based on the interests they express when they select various topics. That said, Jaroslovsky emphasizes that SmartNews does not collect or sell data about its users. Rather, he says, the SmartNews systems learn that “this phone displays an unhealthy obsession with the San Francisco Giants. But we don’t know this phone belongs to Rich Jaroslovsky. That’s as opposed to Facebook, which knows exactly who you are and what you’re doing.” Even with the expansion of computer-based news-gathering, Jaroslovsky believes the human element remains critical. “The use of algorithms, the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence in surfacing and curating news is the cutting edge right now,” he says. “But as we’ve seen through the Facebook debacle in 2016 (when the company’s site was overrun by fake news), and the polarization of January 2021 ·
CLIMATE · 19
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SPOTLIGHT•
American politics, if you can use technology without human oversight and human responsibility, the consequences can be horrific. … Where I think we have to go is (to create) a greater sense of ethics and responsibility on the part of the platforms that wield the technology.” It’s a subject that Jaroslovsky hammers home every fall semester to the UC-Berkeley undergraduates who take his weekly class about online media. (Jaroslovsky has also taught at Columbia and Duke.) He also frequently points out that whereas people today may take Internet news for granted, it wasn’t so long ago that the medium didn’t exist. What’s New Is Not That Old Jaroslovsky says his students often initially believe “something is the way it is, and it’s always been that way, because they don’t remember anything different. But (it’s rewarding) when you see them start to understand that things are the way they are because of a process, because of things that may have happened several years ago, and then they’re able to sort of extrapolate when something happens now.” What’s happening now is always on Jaroslovsky’s mind, and is the focus of SmartNews and other online news providers. And even though he was a pioneer in the medium, he still sometimes marvels at its capabilities – as when he pushed a breaking story onto the SmartNews site from his cellphone while riding a bus in Tel Aviv, Israel. Still, he’s always aware of the historical perspective – in this case, dating back to the mid-1990s. “These things that today seem so completely self-evident – back then, it was a whole new paradigm. Looking back on it, you go, ‘Well, duh.’ That was not exactly a flash of blinding insight. But at the time, nobody knew anything. And that’s what made it so much damn fun.” C
20 · CLIMATE · January 2021
Jaroslovsky talks about Reagan: “As an experiment, the White House invited a few of us regulars on the beat to off-the-record drinks with the President one afternoon in, I think, 1983. Reagan was his usual charming, maddening self — spinning some of his wonderful Hollywood stories while completely avoiding anything substantive. Finally, as we were getting up to go, one of my colleagues tried one more time to get him to say something interesting: ‘So, Mr. President, who do you think the Democrats will run against you next year? Think it will be Teddy?’ (Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who in 1969 drove a car off a bridge, causing a young woman to drown.) Reagan, with his hand on the doorknob, paused, tilted his head and, with a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eye, said: ‘Well, I’ve always thought if I ran against that fella, all I’d have to do is get out the old pictures of me in my lifeguard uniform.’ And with that, he was gone — leaving us stunned for a moment until someone said, ‘Did he just say what I think he said?’ Oh, yeah. The single nastiest crack I’ve ever heard one politician make about another, and he did it so deftly that you’d never even feel the blade. Told me a lot about the guy.”
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C L I M AT E •
Redwood City Joins in Wreaths Across America Day
Photo by Maggie Coleman
Redwood City was among 2,557 locations across the country which participated in National Wreaths Across America Day in December, honoring the nation’s heroes by placing a total of 1.7 million veterans’ wreaths on their headstones and remembering them, by saying each name out loud. Redwood City’s observance took place at the historic Union Cemetery, which includes a plot containing 55 graves of veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic. That area of the cemetery, located off Woodside Road, is guarded by a statue of a Union Army soldier at parade rest. From a first wreath-placing in 1992 at Arlington National Cemetery, the Wreaths Across America tradition continues to grow. Each live, balsam veteran’s wreath is a gift of respect and appreciation, donated by a private citizen or organization and placed by volunteers as a gesture of gratitude. The local observance was a joint project of the Historic Union Cemetery Association and the Gaspar de Portola chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Local residents were invited to participate by purchasing a wreath. A group of volunteers gathered bright and early on Dec. 19 to place 100-plus wreaths. Among them were seven ceremonial ones decorated with flags to recognize branches of the military, as well as veterans missing in action. Donors had contributed enough to be able to place wreaths on all the headstones of the men who fought in the Union Army, as well at several gravesites and memorials around the cemetery. C
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M I C R O C L I M AT E •
Coping with Covid in a Time of Big Birthdays Redwood City resident George Sepulveda celebrated his 90th birthday on Nov. 28 the way a lot of celebrations have had to be done this year – outdoors. But if logging that many laps on life’s racetrack had been his aim in life, decades earlier the motorcycle racing legend would have been well-advised to park his Harley. Known as “Bobo,” Sepulveda was a champion motorcycle racer in the 1950s who raced on dirt tracks all over the Bay Area, as well as in Southern California, South Dakota and Florida. He racked up wins in the same era and on the same tracks as famed racers such as Joe Leonard and Dick Mann. Along the way, Sepulveda says he had his share of accidents but was never hurt badly enough to go the hospital. With his 90th birthday on the horizon, Sepulveda’s wife Laureen and sister, Jackie Mussynski, enlisted his family and friends to surprise the motorcycling icon with a drive-by parade past his home near Woodside High School. Just after 1 p.m., revving motorcycle engines announced the arrival of the entourage on wheels, and his friends and admirers had a chance to listen to the honoree’s reminiscences of his storied career. Sepulveda worked as a flagman at the old Belmont Speedway as a teen-ager but started racing himself at 18. He became a protégé and subsequently raced for Sam Arena, who was one of the top motorcycle riders from the 1930s to the early 1950s and ran his own dealership after World War II. Cyclists raced on halfmile or mile-long tracks, hitting speeds of 120 miles per hour on the longer tracks. Though Sepulveda was racing at the amateur-class level, he beat riders racing at the expert level. “He was just a natural talent,” says Sepulveda’s friend, Christopher Rudy. “He was small but it didn’t intimidate him … His light weight combined with his good talent made him a fast guy
22 · CLIMATE · January 2021
Top: George "Bobo" Sepulveda watches his motorcycle tribute go by. Right: Sepulveda in his racing days.
on a motorcycle, the way I understand it. He wasn’t afraid.” Despite his success, Sepulveda gave up motorcycle racing when he had a family, and drove as a Teamster. Until only a few years ago he was running half-marathons and working out at the senior center. And that nickname “Bobo?” “My brother hung it on me,” he says. “That’s the only thing he could say when he was young.” Kathy Klebe of Redwood City managed to celebrate her 70th birthday with friends in Covid-appropriate designer masks. She went with a half dozen friends in September to her favorite place – Sequoia National Park, where she’d had a summer job in her younger days. The birthday girl’s very talented friend Marian Wydo made masks for everybody embroidered with “Sequoia NP” and a stitched sequoia. Way cooler-looking than an N95. For years Emerald Hills resident Steve Johnson has been a regular customer at DeHoff’s Key Market. Since the arrival of Covid-19, he’s been impressed with
and grateful for the way the employees of this longtime family business have stayed the course, showing up for work with the same helpful and cheerful attitude as ever. An accomplished, albeit late-blooming photographer, Johnson, 80, decided to convey his respect and thanks for these “essential workers” by creating individual 8-by-10-inch black-and-white portraits of them on the job. Key Market General Manager Chris DeHoff gave the go-ahead, and Johnson went to work. The portraits are displayed on a wall at the north entrance to the market, each picture with a caption telling a bit about the lives of the checkers, butchers, deli and other workers who keep customers provisioned with their daily bread and more. “They have a life,” Johnson says. “I wanted to somehow point up that life. This person not only works here but she babysits and she has a job as a cook somewhere else too. Folks are working like the devil these days if they can find a job. So the whole logic was to point up those folks and give them a thank-you.” Johnson adds
• that employees thank him when they see him in the store and tell him “’We look great out there. Customers are talking to me. They didn’t talk to me before.’” So it’s had a nice effect.” He had been a schoolteacher in the East Bay in the 1970s but then made a career change and became a residential remodeling contractor. He retired about 13 years ago and then got into photography via Stanford University’s Continuing Education program. Johnson created a previous series about people and work; about 30 of his “Hands On” portraits are on display at Freewheel Brewery. He gave each of his Key Market subjects two different 8-by-10 portraits and insists he’s not interested in earning money from his photog-
M I C R O C L I M AT E •
raphy. Having worked fulltime from the age of 18 to 67, “I don’t want to work,” Johnson says. “I’ve had enough work.” Be sure to check out Johnson’s varied and interesting photos on his website, www. shollisjohnson.com. Sixteen years ago, Dr. Monica (Thompson) Rudiger DVM founded the Nine Lives Foundation in a small warehouse space as a safe haven for cats that are considered unadoptable—cats and kittens with “problems,” elderly cats, those needing surgery and so forth. Nine Lives was established as a no-kill shelter to give these forlorn felines what the name alludes to, a second chance at life. Nine Lives today operates a low cost spay and neuter clinic on Jefferson
Avenue serving cat rescue groups and the local community and an adoption center on Rolison Road. Rudiger can look back on rewarding years in practice pursuing her passion for “rescue medicine,” saving quite a few more than nine lives from euthanasia – try 20,000-plus—and “fixing” something like 100,000 cats and kittens. “I know we did a ton of good,” Rudiger, 55, says. So it was with decidedly mixed feelings that she announced her retirement in August, effective Dec. 31. For almost a decade, she’s been struggling with the effects of a rare form of cat scratch disease that is a hazard of the profession. In her case, that has meant powering through headaches, fatigue and balance issues to care for cats and kittens. “Sadly,” she told Nine Lives supporters, “I realize as a health professional that it is time now for me to start taking care of my own health and allow my immune system to recover.” Rudiger says her illness is more manageable than it once was but she can’t put in the long hours she used to, such as doing surgery. “I just need to sort of step back and let another generation of people come in and hopefully understand why shelter medicine is so important.” A wife and a mother of two grown children, Rudiger says she “hasn’t had a lot of time just to try to get better from my illness and so retiring seemed to the only way to make that happen.” Nine Lives’ board of directors is searching for a replacement veterinarian, and retiring while things are a bit up in the air gives her pause. But Rudiger hopes someone comes forward who shares her passion for helping the most in-need animals get fixed up and ready for adoption. Shelter veterinary medicine, she says, “has been the best job I ever could have had.”
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January 2021 ·
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•
PROFILE•
From the Street World
24 · CLIMATE · January 2021
•
PROFILE•
to the Theater World With unexpected friends in his corner, a homeless man gets a second act
By Janet McGovern
William “aka” Joey Alexander landed his job at the Fox Theatre thanks to connections. He’d be the first to say that if it weren’t for a cop, a pastor and, hey, a higher power, he’d never in a million years be where he is today, working with clients and vendors and involved in getting the historic theater ready for patrons again. Now 50, he’d only had two real jobs before he got hired last January as facilities manager. One was at a commercial dry-cleaners. And the other? “I stole,” Alexander responds without hesitation. That was to feed a drug addiction which began in high school and had dominated his life until the miraculous kind of break that only happens in the movies, or in this case, a theater. He’d cut the locks of businesses, taking what he could grab to a drug connection who would in turn sell it – generators, power tools, power washers, “pretty much anything you can get. Washer-dryers. You name it.” Living on the street, “I didn’t see money for the longest time because it was just about drugs, just about drugs.”
January 2021 ·
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•
PROFILE•
Yet Ernie Schmidt, the Fox Theatre’s general manager, had no hesitation about giving Alexander a second chance despite some sizeable baggage: 30 years of homelessness and a couple of felonies and prison time on his résumé. Alexander, he says, was forthright about his past and “extremely passionate” about starting his life over. “His past is his past. I’m only concerned about the work that he is doing, which he is doing extremely well.” Help from His Friends Schmidt’s decision might seem a pretty large leap of faith, but that elusive commodity has poured out like a geyser in this rags-to-responsibility tale. Since being discovered camping in a Woodside Road cloverleaf about 2½ years ago, the newly minted renter and car owner has come through rehab and found steady employment, thanks to a network of supportive friends. “It’s people being in your corner,” says Alexander, who still can’t get over the fact that anyone thought, “There’s a better life for you. I just never would have thought of it. Come on, a drug addict?” Today he lives in a church-sponsored sober-living home for men in Mountain View, makes payments on his dream Camaro, has credit cards – and responsibility. “I go shopping. I do the normal things and you know what? It’s healthy. That’s what you’re supposed to do.” Alexander holds back nothing in recounting his life story and the improbable encounter on a June day in 2018 when, scruffy and bleary-eyed, he was awakened from a sound sleep by a Redwood City police officer standing over him. Chris Rasmussen had been cruising the city doing homeless outreach, along with Pastor David Shearin of Street Life Ministries and a police intern filming for the department’s social media unit. “I saw a sleeping bag with somebody in it,” recalls Shearin, himself a one-time homeless drug user. “Cops just naturally,
26 · CLIMATE · January 2021
A frame from the film showing the moment Officer Chris Rasmussen first met Joey Alexander.
they don’t care, they just run towards it. He’s (Rasmussen) going over and I’m kind of holding back and praying, ‘Dear Lord, please don’t let it be a dead body.’” Alexander had just come through yet another failed attempt at rehab, and before falling asleep, had sent up a desperate prayer. “I said, ‘Look God, I can’t do it on my own. I can’t. Can you help me please?’ And I remember falling asleep and the next thing I know, I wake up and there’s Officer Chris (asking) ‘Hey man are you okay?’ And I’m looking to run because I’ve usually done something wrong.” Rasmussen says he threw out his hands to signal that they came in peace and asked Alexander what they could do to get him off the streets. “It was very unusual,” Rasmussen adds, “because he said ‘I’m ready to go.’” The duo got Alexander into a shelter that night, and from there he was on his way on to a treatment program in San Francisco. Getting Reconnected About six months went by and they lost track of each other. Rasmussen called Shearin one day to ask if he knew where Alexander might be so he could do a follow-up interview for the social media video. Alexander, meanwhile, had lost their
phone numbers but was doing laundry one day and found their business cards in an old pair of pants. Alexander said pastor Shearin answered the call and says, “‘Dude. Me and Chris was just talking about you. Did you relapse?’” Quite the contrary. “I had a sponsor and I really started doing the program. My conscious contact with God was continuous.” Weeks later, after Alexander was graduated from the Walden House program, Shearin helped him get an entry-level job at Purple Tie, a commercial dry-cleaners, doing shipping and receiving. Jonathan Kaech, the company’s vice president of customer operations, is a member of Peninsula Covenant Church and welcomed the opportunity to put his faith into action. “I think William is probably the fourth or fifth person that we’ve hired through my relationship with David and Street Life Ministries and by far is probably the most successful individual that’s come through that program,” Kaech says. “He’s done really well. Hard worker—just the kind of guy that when you meet him, you can’t walk away not having a smile or feeling better for talking with him.”
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PROFILE•
“I’m like, excuse me? San Quentin. That’s like … prison. And they’re like, ‘no kidding.’ I roll all my stuff up. I get on the bus, they transport me in and the first thing I see is (a sign with the words) ‘No Warning Shots Fired.’"
Fox Theatre General Manager Ernie Schmidt, retired officer Chris Rasmussen and Joey Alexander.
Indeed, it’s hard to square notions about the unsavory homeless with Alexander’s engaging, upbeat personality and candor. He jumped right into Kaech’s Bible study and they’ve become close friends. Rasmussen, who retired from the Police Department last year and ran for the City Council, regards the former prodigal like a brother. The Rasmussen family has had Alexander over for Christmas and Chris is working with him to get his record expunged. Rasmussen even toured Alexander through the PD to meet Chief Dan Mulholland, who “shook my hand—really good grip—and he pulled me in close and these words always stay in my head. ‘Son, opportunities like this don’t come very often. … Don’t squander it.’” A Wrong Turn During his years on the street, Alexander “ran from the cops and my motto was, ‘It’s my job to break the law, and it’s your job to catch me.’ Stupid but that came with the lifestyle I chose.” One of four sons of a professional couple, he grew up in Modesto in a good home but got into drugs at 16. “I think I got into the wrong crowd and the first time I tried meth it was a love af-
fair. … It was just like that: I was instantly hooked.” He hid his drug use from his parents but by the time he turned 18, they gave him an ultimatum to “pull your own weight” or leave. “Yeah, birthday cake in one hand and suitcase in the other,” he says, hands palms-up to illustrate. “’When you get your act together, let us know.’” Alexander joined the National Guard but after about a year of sobriety, he ended up back on drugs, in Stockton. Though he stole property to buy drugs, it wasn’t until he was in his 40s that he started doing time. When he arrived for his first stint at Tracy’s Deuel Vocational Institution, all his friends greeted him and he started thinking “Hey this ain’t so bad.” Then one day he heard his name called for transfer to San Quentin. “I’m like, excuse me? San Quentin. That’s like … prison. And they’re like, ‘no kidding.’ I roll all my stuff up. I get on the bus, they transport me in and the first thing I see is (a sign with the words) ‘No Warning Shots Fired.’ My heart was in my throat. You go in, you see five tiers of just —screaming, yelling, toilet paper being thrown, fishing lines out.” (Inmates
cut their sheets into thin lines and throw a strand out to a neighboring cell to trade things back and forth.) Alexander lived in perpetual fear. “This went on for nine months. I read my Bible every day. I really tried my best to have a relationship with God. But as soon as I got out, I was off and running again.” For 30 years, he was unsheltered all but about five, part of that time when his parents allowed him the use of a rental house. His brief marriage broke up. That, along with the rift with his parents, is among his life’s broken relationships. People adjust to homelessness, he says. “You do what you want. You wake up. You sleep. You don’t have any responsibilities. The only thing you’re worried about is getting high and that’s what my goal was.” A New Lease on Life At Purple Tie, he made a point to be a half hour early for work and soon got a raise and then a promotion. Out of the blue after about a year, Schmidt asked Rasmussen if he could recommend someone who could do maintenance at the Fox Theatre. He had just the guy. Alexander came on board before the Covid-related restrictions shut down the January 2021 ·
CLIMATE · 27
• historic theater. It is now undergoing extensive renovations, some of which are being done to make leery patrons feel comfortable about coming back. Restrooms are being remodeled with touchless features. The antiquated heating and air conditioning system is being replaced, and an air filtration system is being installed which uses ultraviolet light to kill germs and bacteria. The Fox’s entire lighting and rigging systems are also being replaced. “He (Alexander) does a lot,” Schmidt says. “He helps manage the venue from a facilities standpoint ensuring that everything is operating correctly. I’ve also given him the responsibility to be my liaison between myself and the vendors that are currently in the theater doing the renovation.” Alexander also works on events and with clients who rent the theater, making sure they have enough power or tables and chairs. Solving problems. After a lifetime of not being able to get it right, Alexander relishes handling important responsibilities. The difference this time, he says, is having other people – Rasmussen, Shearin, Kaech, Schmidt and Mulholland—on his side. And finally being ready to change. “In my program, you’ve got to put God first, but you have to put some action into it,” Alexander says. “You’re not just going to sit here and say, ‘Hey God, I’m here.’ We put action—we put effort into our addiction, we have to put action into our recovery. I think a little bit more, because 30 years is a long time. Long time.”
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28 · CLIMATE · January 2021
C L I M AT E •
Fox Theatre Preps for Patrons’ Return The show “must go on,” but will patrons be ready to return to theaters after they’re allowed to reopen? An extensive renovation program is underway at the Fox Theatre to help them feel comfortable coming back after Covid-related restrictions end. Among the upgrade’s components, the outdated heating and air conditioning system is being replaced which will do a better job of replacing “bad air with clean air,” according to General Manager Ernie Schmidt. The new system uses state-of-the-art ultraviolet technology to keep viruses and other microorganisms from replicating because UV light damages the genetic material that controls reproduction. The idea is to stop illness-producing microbes in their tracks. Restrooms are also being retrofitted with features like touchless towel dispensers to reduce potential contact with germs. “We are investing a great deal of time and money to ensure that when patrons do get back to enter a closed environment they feel safe,” Schmidt says. Audience members tend to fall into three categories, he says. The first is ready to get back to normal now. “They’re just waiting for the doors to open up.” The second group is more skittish and management hopes that renovated bathrooms and “a phenomenal air filtration system” will win them over. The third group will probably need to see a lot of success, likely with the vaccines, before they’ll buy tickets for a show. “We’ll be ready to welcome them when they’re ready,” Schmidt says. The lighting and rigging systems will also be improved, but Schmidt says the Covid-related projects took precedence over another priority, creating an automated orchestra pit which would rise up and have storage underneath. That will have to wait. “The theater is an extremely important element to our community,” Schmidt says. “We recognize that and we’re going to try to do our best to make sure that people are going to want to go and watch a play or a concert and so forth.” – Janet McGovern
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Check out the daily news and read Climate Magazine at: www.climaterwc.com Some of the local businesses where you can pick up a copy: Fox Theatre Fox Forum Stuff on the Square Powerhouse Gym La Tartine restaurant Ralph's Vacuum Nick the Greek Peet's Coffee
Ikes Sandwich Crouching Tiger Tea Spoon The Sandwich Spot Sakura restaurant San Mateo Credit Union Talk of Broadway Patty Shack
Harry’s Hofbrau County Courthouse 24 Hr Fitness Noah's Bagels Franklin St. Café Whole Foods Bianchini’s Market Key Market
Hassett Hardware Round Table Pizza Popeyes Canyon Inn Sanchez Taqueria San Carlos Airport Hiller Museum Devil's Canyon
January 2021 ·
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AROUND TOWN•
Samaritan House Celebrates the Holidays with Gifts San Mateo nonprofit Samaritan House held its annual holiday event at the San Mateo Event Center where 2,600 children and teens received gift cards in a festive, safe drive-through experience. Congresswoman Jackie Speier helped hand out $100 Visa gift cards to each registered family and each child received a $25 Target gift card. All gift cards were donated by community members and local small businesses. Samaritan House serves over 23,000 clients in San Mateo County and provides food services, rental assistance, clothing and medical care throughout the year. (One of its free medical clinics is located on Fifth Avenue in Redwood City.) The need has more than doubled as a result of Covid and the faltering economy, with many people seeking help for the first time. “The pandemic is far from over and hope is thin on the ground right now. With so many families struggling to stay in their homes, it’s especially important to provide a bit of holiday cheer to those who have been impacted the hardest,” said Samaritan House CEO Bart Charlow. Anyone who would like to support Samaritan House can visit samaritanhousesanmateo.org to learn more about this organization. Right: Congresswoman Jackie Speier was on hand to give out gift cards.
Hometown Holidays Adjusts for Covid The annual Redwood City Business Group-sponsored Hometown Holidays celebration was hampered by Covid restrictions this year, but that did not keep the group from creating a venue that encouraged community spirit while protecting loved ones. A parade of decorated vehicles rolled past Courthouse Square in the afternoon and early evening Dec. 19, where Janet Borgens and Ian Bain judged the entries. Meanwhile, Santa Claus (Ralph Garcia), posed at a safe distance with families and children. Hometown Holidays promises to return in full force in 2021.
30 · CLIMATE · January 2021
Top: Contest judges Janet Borgens and Ian Bain and their spouses dance in the street.
Santa Claus poses with some spectators.
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AROUND TOWN•
Union Cemetery Photo Contest Winners Named Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the fourth annual “Autumn in Union Cemetery” photo contest went ahead this year, with entries from Sequoia, Woodside and Menlo-Atherton high school students. Elementary and middle schools which participated in the past are doing remote learning and couldn’t take part in the competition, which ended Nov. 20. The winners were: Sienna Gersick (Sequoia High School), Grand Prize; Evelyn Harrington (first place, Sequoia High School); and Madison Truby (first place, Woodside High School). The grand prize was $100 and each high school winner received $50. Speaking on behalf of the Union Cemetery board, Kathy Klebe expressed thanks to photo teachers Aaron Campbell (Woodside) and Lauren Yukovich (Sequoia) for their help with the contest. The winning photographs, and selected other photos, are on display in the kiosk of the historic Civil War-era cemetery located off Woodside Road.
Sienna Gersick, Grand Prize
Top: Evelyn Harrington photo Left: Madison Truby photo
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More Than Tires BRAKES RETREADING WHEEL ALIGNMENT AIR CONDITIONING
(650) 369-0351 1630 Broadway, Redwood City www. redwoodgeneral.com
Independent Tire Dealer
Shop Local January 2021 ·
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FLEET SERVICE COOLING SYSTEMS ENGINE FLUSH OIL CHANGE
SMOG CHECK FREE SHUTTLE SERVICE ROAD SERVICE TOWING
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HISTORY by Jim Clifford•
Redwood City Man was King of the Pulps Many people think of a movie when they hear the term “pulp fiction,” but there was an era when those words meant fiction magazines printed on cheap pulp paper, a vanished publishing world in which a Redwood City man was a key player. The 1994 Quentin Tarantino film by that name starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson drew its title from the magazines, many of them featuring violent crime and lurid, seedy characters and a good deal of sex. There was more than that, however. The so-called “rags” also were loaded with tales of adventure, the Old West, and science fiction. Edgar Hoffman Price, who died in Redwood City in 1988, sold more than 500 stories to the pulps. His byline appeared in a broad range of widely popular fiction with a strong appeal to male readers, including Argosy, Black Mask, Dime Detective, Terror Tales, Speed Detective and Spicy Mystery Stories. He was, however, most readily identified as a writer for Weird Tales. Price’s stories even appeared in translation in Scandinavia and were pirated in Latin America. His work is still available for sale on the Internet, including mega packs of 14 stories. Price was in good company in the ranks of fellow pulp authors, including Agatha Christie, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Dashiell Hammett. According to The Pulp Magazine Project study group, pulps were “one of the Twentieth Century’s most influential print culture forms,” a nearly 100-year period from the 1880s to the mid1970s. A good example was Blue Book, which lasted from 1905 to 1975 and is said to have reached a readership of over 200,000.
The 1947 movie comedy “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” captured the colorful world of pulp magazine publication with tonguein-cheek lines akin to “You killed him on page 30 and he comes back on page 50.” (A personal aside: This writer remembers, as an eighth grader, sitting in the living room reading Blue Book’s Tales of the Foreign Legion, while my father and uncles avidly consumed pulp fiction Westerns.) Price’s life reads like pulp fiction. Born in Fowler, California, in 1898, he became a professional soldier, graduating from West Point and going on to serve in Mexico, the Philippines and in World War I. Science-fiction author Jack Williamson called Price “a real soldier of fortune.” He was a fencer, boxer, a student of the Orient as well as a student of Arab language. Price’s memoirs include “Trooper of the 15th Horse” and “The Book of the Dead.” According to blogger Joshua Buhs, in the
1950s Price saw the handwriting on the wall (sounds like a line from a pulp fiction story) and knew his market was ending. He took a job with San Mateo County as a microfilm technician, a position he held long enough to receive a pension. He still did occasional writing and died sitting at his typewriter, Buhs told Climate. Interviewed by the Redwood City Tribune in the 1960s, Price blamed conformity and regimentation for the death of the pulps. “Used to be each magazine had distinctive style and flavor – a personality of its own,” he told reporter Gail Granzow. “Then one editor began taking over five or six magazines, and they soon all looked alike. It was like a Ford assembly line. Then, too, reading habits changed. People began to buy more and more inexpensive paperbacks.” Price, who started writing for pulp magazines in 1932, estimated that about 95 percent of his writing was fiction, but he also “wrote some historical novels. When I say novels, I mean six-part serials for the pulps.” During his 20-year full-time writing career, he wrote science-fiction, whodunnits and adventure. Stories, getting fresh ideas simply by reading the daily newspaper. “I’d read over the world events – about a spy or some other story of international intrigue,” he explained before saying something he probably would regret today: “Then I’d create a hero, always Anglo-Saxon Protestant.”
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TOGETHER, WE DESIGN PLACES THAT INSPIRE PEOPLE
851 MAIN STREET
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The Redwood City Downtown • C L I M A T E
Gems
Business Group Presents
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Ralphs Vacuum & Sewing Center !
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Well folks, we moved. Sort of. For the time being we will be located at 2011 Broadway until our new super store at Woodside Plaza is completed. So stay tuned — and stay safe! • Sales & Service • Bags, Belts & Filters • Sewing Classes
2011 Broadway • 650-368-2841 • ralphsvacnsew.com
SUE LEHR MITCHELL Realtor
®
EXPERIENCE MATTERS
650.619.9311 suelehrmitchell@gmail.com suelehrmitchell.com DRE# 01087715
SPONSOR AND CHAIR, HOMETOWN HOLIDAYS Downtown Redwood City Office located at 555 Middlefield Rd. Each office is independently owned and operated.
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avies
APPLIANCE
The Davies Family has been doing business on the same block since 1916
Shop where designers, architects & contractors shop Always honest competitive pricing, industry wide selection and extraordinary assistance to guide you to your perfect kitchen, laundry or outdoor living space.
We have a full showroom of top name barbeques
daviesappliance.com • (650) 366-5728 • 1580 El Camino Real, Redwood City, CA 94063 Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 8:30am - 6pm • Friday & Saturday 8:30am - 5pm • Closed Sunday/Monday