Climate RWC – June 2021

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P u b l i c a t i o n Feature: On Board with Electric Cars Spotlight: The Future of Outdoor Dining Profile: Tea Time in Redwood City

ISSUE SEVENTY • JUNE • 2021

Electric Cars Power into t he Fut ure

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR•

This is the month when a young family’s fancy turns to thoughts of vacation, so how fitting that our cover story involves the push to get on board with electric vehicles. Only about 2 percent of the 28 million cars on the road in California are EVs, however. Writer Vlae Kershner goes through the factors that people weigh in deciding whether to purchase an EV, including the tax incentives. Worries about running out of juice, of course, are one of the major drawbacks, but there are more and more charging stations so drivers aren’t left stranded. As Vlae points out, even under California regulations, after 2035 people will still be allowed to drive vehicles that run on fossil fuels, so manufacturers will have to work to overcome resistance. Government and other entities are playing a part, too, notably Peninsula Clean Energy, which has launched several initiatives to enhance the attractiveness of EVs and multiply those charging ports. The story is on page 8.

During the past year, Climate has reported on how local restaurants and retailers have been coping with Covid-related restrictions. Trying to help restaurants survive, most cities have allowed restaurants to expand outdoors and even blocked off downtown streets. It’s created a kind of European café atmosphere that has been one of the few plus sides of the pandemic. What to do now that life is returning to normal is the question writer Scott Dailey looks at in this month’s Spotlight.

It’s on page 24.

Redwood City loves its status as an “historic” city dating back to its early port days, but it was a surprise to us to learn that the oldest tea importer in the United States is a Redwood City business.

The G.S. Haly Company started in San Francisco in 1889 and is known throughout the industry as a premier specialty tea company. They relocated to Redwood City in 1985 and run an international operation from inside a charming, restored house built in 1910. Company President Mike Spillane and his staff clearly are dedicated to providing quality teas and were most generous in showing what’s involved in their work. That story is on page 18.

Also in this issue, Nicholas A. Veronico, who has written several stories for Climate, provides a first-person account of discovering the site of a U.S. Navy transport which crashed in the San Carlos hills in 1945. Nick ends by expressing the hope that some group will see fit to put up a memorial to recognize the airmen who lost their lives. Placing some sort of a permanent remembrance sounds like a great idea and let’s hope a civic-minded group steps forward.

Please enjoy the June issue!

June 2021 ·

CLIMATE · 3

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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S •

FEATU RE Electric Cars

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PROFILE Tea

18 SPOTLIG HT Outdoor Dining

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AROUND TOWN ���������14 CHANGING CLIMATE ����16 MICRO CLIMATE...........22 HISTORY......................29

4 · CLIMATE · June 2021

Carrying our community forward

Help Someone

Who’s Lost Their Home The homelessness crisis in Silicon Valley is exploding by the minute.

You can help by supporting LifeMoves. With 26 facilities in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties and a full suite of support services, we get people off the streets and back on their feet. Support a proven program.

Donate Today lifemoves.org/pandemic-recovery

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Juneneighbors 2021 · -CLIMATE Neighbors helping since 1938· 5

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C L I M AT E •

CLIMATE POPART M A G A Z I N E Publisher

S.F. Bay Media Group Editor

Janet McGovern janet@climaterwc.com Creative Director

REMEMBER ALL THE SPECIAL PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE...

UART HAS ALL KINDS OF COOL STUFF TO MAKE THEIR DAYS GREAT!

Jim Kirkland jim@climaterwc.com Contributing Writers

Vlae Kershner Scott Dailey Janet McGovern Nicholas A. Veronico 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 ©2021 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.

6 · CLIMATE · June 2021

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C L I M AT E •

San Mateo County History Museum

Now Open

Special event opening Friday July 2, 10 am to 9 pm on Courthouse Square

(with COVID protocols)

"Hidden Gem" bookstore, Encore Books on the Square re-opens in Redwood City!

Tuesday thru Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

650 299-0104, or www.historysmc.org

Come browse to let the book you've always wanted find you.

Over 30,000 titles. Choose from Aardvarks to ZYZZVIA. Open Saturdays 10 to 3 Co-sponsored by the San Mateo County Historical Association and the City of Redwood City

Lori’s grandparents settled in Burlingame

Lori grows up on Mid Peninsula going to Open Houses with her real estate Mom

Lori closes on her first real estate listing

Lori is raising three kids in Redwood City public schools and Woodside High School

Lori surpasses $100 Million in real estate volume in less than six years

Does Lori help you make a move in your future?

Lori Burrows Warren 650.642.8042 | lori.burrowswarren@compass.com loribwarren.com | DRE 01963678

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F E AT U R E •

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F E AT U R E •

Charging Into the Future The electric car transition has begun.

Ready to make the switch?

By Vlae Kershner

Everyone’s finally doing this electric car thing, right?

It’s been 31 years since the California Air Resources Board first voted to require the production of zero-emission vehicles. In those days, the main enemy was smog, while now it’s climate change due to greenhouse gases.

The regulations didn’t have many teeth until last September, when Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order requiring that all new passenger vehicles sold in the state produce zero emissions by 2035.

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• With its green mindset and temperate climate, Northern California has surged into the lead in EVs, with more than 327,000 registered in PG&E’s service area, about one-fifth of the national total.

San Mateo County, through the community-controlled Peninsula Clean Energy joint powers agency, has created a $28 million EV Ready Program that seeks to install 3,500 charging ports in the county over four years. “Our overall mission is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in San Mateo County. The biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the county is transportation,” said Jan Pepper, chief executive of the agency.

Pepper drives a Kia Niro. “It’s so much less expensive to operate. The fuel is way less expensive.”

Even under the 2035 regulations, Californians will be allowed to drive cars that run on fossil fuels and buy them used.

That means EVs will have to satisfy consumers’ desires for the changeover to take full effect.

Barriers to Buying According to a survey by cars.com, 66 percent of consumers in a national survey expressed a desire to buy an EV after hearing President Biden’s plan to invest $174 billion in the technology, but 81 percent saw barriers to purchase. The main ones were cost, limited range and a lack of charging stations.

The drawbacks are overstated, according to Carleen Cullen, founder and executive director of Drive Clean Bay Area, which runs weekly online seminars for potential EV buyers.

“The primary issue is consumers have not been able to keep up with the advancements. People don’t know there’s more than Tesla and the Bolt,” said Cullen, who has been driving electric for nine years and has a Chevy Bolt, Tesla Model Y and Kia Niro. Besides not pumping carbon into

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F E AT U R E •

Peninsula Clean Energy CEO Jan Pepper

“Our overall mission is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in San Mateo County. The biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the county is transportation.” the air, advantages include “technology, cost, the fact that vehicles are fun to drive, being able to accelerate immediately merging into traffic. It’s kind of a no-brainer when people understand.”

So what’s keeping people from buying an EV? For many, it’s range anxiety.

Most new EVs come with a range of 250 to 300 miles. Since heat or air conditioning draws directly from the battery, it degrades range. A Car and Driver magazine test in Michigan showed a Tesla Model 3 Long Range lost over 60 miles with the seat warmers on and heat at full blast.

Consider this nightmare scenario: Driving to Tahoe in heavy winter traffic in a loaded SUV, shivering with the heat turned off to save the battery, and the range gauge (an estimate, not a precise figure) drops into the single digits.

Relief is on the way as the charging network gets built out. Maps on chargehub.

com show dozens of ports in San Mateo County and along major highways. Along Interstate 80, stations are concentrated in Auburn and Truckee, with a handful at the exits on the climb in between.

Recharging on the Road For road trips to Southern California or the Pacific Northwest, there are frequent charging stations on I-5 both north and south.

Charging comes in three levels.

Bare-bones Level 1 is sufficient for many people’s daily needs, said presenter Annika Osborn at a recent Drive Clean Bay Area online seminar. “If you are able to charge at home, the system that works is to plug into your standard 120-volt outlet,” with four to six miles per hour of charging.

Since most Bay Area residents drive less than 35 miles a day, an overnight charge is sufficient.

• “If you drive over 50 miles a day, you can charge at work or purchase a Level 2 charging system,” installing 240-volt outlets (like those used for home dryers) at the side of the house. This produces up to 22 to 25 miles of charge per hour, but may require upgrading the electrical system, especially in older houses. Most public charging stations are also built at Level 2.

Finally, there are Level 3 systems, also called Direct Current Fast Charging.

Tesla operates its own Supercharger network, while other manufacturers use shared systems. These can add a 50 percent charge in 20 to 30 minutes, which makes them ideal for restaurant stops on road trips. Charging speeds vary depending on the battery.

Drivers will have to become accustomed to starting out with less than the equivalent of a full tank. Cathy Zoi, CEO of the charging network EVgo, told a Stanford Energy Seminar, “The difficult part in fast-charging is that the further the customer goes in charging, the lower the charge rate than results, and in fact when we go past 80 percent charging we’re effectively turning DC into something not much faster than a Level 2 charger. Fifty to 80 percent is the place where most people charge.” Charging only to 80 percent also protects the battery.

Access at Apartments Charging at home can be tricky for apartment dwellers. University of California at Davis researchers found that 18 percent of all-electric EV owners went back to gasoline-powered vehicles, the main reason being lack of access to Level 2 charging at home.

This problem is being addressed, Pepper said. Peninsula Clean Energy provides technical assistance for apartment owners to build charging stations. In older apartments, only Level 1 charging may be possible because of the electrical limita-

F E AT U R E •

“The difficult part in fastcharging is that the further the customer goes in charging, the lower the charge rate than results, and in fact when we go past 80 percent charging we’re effectively turning DC into something not much faster than a Level 2 charger.

Fifty to 80 percent is the place where most people charge.” tions. For new buildings, PCE is suggesting municipalities require electricity for every parking space, including a number of Level 2 chargers depending on size.

Another big issue, costs, is headed in the direction of the EV. Consumer Reports found that in most cases, EVs cost more upfront but save money over the lifetime of the vehicle, estimated at 200,000 miles. “For example, a Chevrolet Bolt costs $8,000 more to purchase than a Hyundai Elantra GT, but the Bolt costs $15,000 less to operate over a 200,000mile lifetime, for a savings of $7,000, our study found.”

The American Automobile Association found over five years and 75,000 miles, “The overall cost of owning a new compact electric vehicle is only slightly more expensive—about $600 annually— than its gas-powered counterpart.”

The longer a vehicle is driven, the better the EV compares because of reduced maintenance and fuel costs.

New EVs are boosted by a federal rebate of up to $7,500. This is not available for Tesla or General Motors because they maxed out by selling 200,000 vehicles, but the ceiling would be raised under rebate extension legislation proposed by the Biden administration.

Finding the Incentives Other incentives include a $1,500 state Clean Fuel Reward and reduced-interest loans for buyers with low credit. Consumers can see what incentives they are eligible for at ev.pge.com. The site also includes a comparison of ranges and costs for 71 battery electric and plug-in hybrid models.

Another benefit is a decal that allows single-occupant use of carpool lanes on Bay Area highways and bridges, with some restrictions.

Heavy incentives—including free parking and reduced road and ferry tolls—have been instrumental in making Norway the first country where more than half of all new vehicles sold are all-electric and most of the rest hybrid.

In California, EVs had about a 9 percent share of new car sales in California in the first quarter of 2021, but only account for a little over 2 percent of the 28 million vehicles on the road, Cullen said.

Nationally, battery EV is dominated

by Tesla with a 70 percent market share in the first quarter, while Toyota commands the hybrid market, surprisingly led not by the pioneer 20-year-old Prius line but by the RAV4 Hybrid and Sienna.

Nearly 20 percent of those in the cars. com survey said a lack of SUVs in the current vehicle lineup was deterring them from buying. But new models are proving popular, with waiting lists for the Tesla Model Y and Ford Mustang Mach E. The

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• Volkswagen ID.4, popular in Europe, is just coming on the market.

Behind the Wheel A fun way to check out a variety of models is during National Drive Electric Week.

Enthusiastic owners bring their vehicles and provide test drives. The shows went online only last year due to Covid-19 but are coming back, with one scheduled for Daly City on Sept. 26.

Drive Clean Bay Area partners with a car broker twice a year to offer discounts on a variety of models averaging $2,000 savings, Cullen said.

Another concern is availability of electricity. The state’s goal is to produce all its electricity carbon-free by 2045. To do that while also electrifying transportation and other sectors of the economy is expected to require nearly tripling the capacity of the electric grid.

F E AT U R E •

With solar production increasing rapidly, peak load on the system has moved from the afternoon into the early evening.

The California Independent System Operator has labeled the phenomenon the duck curve because a graph of net electricity demand dips like the back of the waterfowl during peak solar hours before climbing like the neck as the sun sets. Twice during last August’s unusual heat wave, Stage 3 power emergencies forced outages in the 6 p.m-to-8 p.m. timeframe.

The duck curve means California generates more solar than it can use at times, especially cool spring days, requiring deliveries to be curtailed. CAISO spokeswoman Ann Gonzales said, “It’s too early to tell, but in general we recognize electric vehicles as a promising way to reduce oversupply in the middle of the day and curtailments.”

Peninsula Clean Energy is looking at adding battery storage to its 200 MW Wright Solar facility in Los Banos to capture the sunshine for evenings.

Power for Power Further off are projects that will allow twoway power transfer. EVs would feed on cheap solar during the day, then disgorge it into the grid during the early evening, with the owners being paid. “Vehicle manufacturers aren’t there yet. I’m hopeful the day can come soon,” said PCE Director of Power Resources Siobhan Doherty.

PG&E offers special rates for EV charging at home, with overnight charging costing the equivalent of about $1.70 per gallon of gasoline. Under time-of-use rules being phased in, electricity will be most expensive from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., especially during the summer.

PG&E offers special rates for EV charging at home, with overnight charging costing the equivalent of about $1.70 per gallon of gasoline. Under time-of-use rules being phased in, electricity will be most expensive from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., especially during the summer.

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F E AT U R E •

Chart courtesy of CAISO

Another way to shift the load is to encourage daytime charging at work. The seven-story government center parking structure under construction on Middlefield Road in downtown Redwood City is a prime example. Helped by a $248,000 grant from Peninsula Clean Energy, 124 charging ports are being installed, with pre-wiring allowing expansion to all 1,100 parking spaces if customer demand grows.

The parking center is expected to open in September. Stalls will initially be for government employees only but could be expanded to the public on evenings and weekends.

Beyond EVs, zero-emissions requirements can be met by hydrogen-powered vehicles, because fuel cells provide more energy density than batteries in a limited amount of space.

Forklifts in warehouses, where indoor air quality doesn’t allow for diesel or gas engines, have been moving from batteries to hydrogen because of faster refueling and less downtime, said Joe Powell, retired Shell chief scientist, in a Stanford talk.

Those advantages could extend to other sectors.

“For trucking and heavy-duty, hydrogen is more cost-effective,” Powell said. In addition, “hydrogen storage makes sense for truck stops,” because it would be difficult to store enough electricity to overcome power outages and periods of low solar and wind.

Toyota already has a hydrogen car on the market, the Mirai, with range up to 402 miles. But fuel costs are higher than for battery EVs, and there are few hydrogen stations.

Most hydrogen today is produced either by reforming natural gas molecules or by electrolysis. Under the state’s Senate Bill 100 goals, 65 percent of retail electricity is supposed to be generated from renewable and non-carbon sources by 2030 and all of it by 2045.

“If you use excess solar for hydrolysis conversion, then you have hydrogen that’s totally renewable, no greenhouse gases,” Pepper said. “If you’re using natural gas to produce hydrogen, that’s not really moving in the right direction.” C

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AROUND TOWN•

In A Year Like No Other

A Historic Five-Way Tie For Outstanding Student For the first time in its 31-year history, The Sequoia Awards awarded five students its prestigious Outstanding Student Award. The award carries a scholarship of $16,000 per student.

The 2021 Outstanding Student Award winners are: Ashley Barraza-Cazares, Sequoia High School Janet Lara Alvarez, Sequoia High School Nataly Manzanero, Sequoia High School Rohan Patel, Carlmont High School Itzel Ramos, Everest Public High School The organization also named community volunteer and Redwood City Planning Commissioner Nancy Radcliffe as the Outstanding Individual for 2021.

"This was an unusual year to say the least," said Sequoia Awards Board Chair Ellen Haas. "These students managed to find a way to make a significant positive impact on our community through volunteerism during a pandemic when the need for their service was never more critical, and the challenges of volunteering were never greater. These five students stepped up in a way that was truly extraordinary, and we simply could not recognize only one of them as the outstanding student of the year."

A total of $214,000 was awarded to 24 students. The amounts ranged from $6,000 to $16,000. In addition to the five Outstanding Student Award winners, the 2021 scholarship winners are: Hudson Acreman, Sequoia High School Emilio Barajas-Navarrete, Everest Public High School Asher Becker, Summit Preparatory High School Simone Beilin, Carlmont High School Noah Camerino, Carlmont High School Alejandra Cortez, Woodside High School Alexa Gomez, Sacred Heart Preparatory Vanessa Gonzales, Sequoia High School Sonia Herrera Barriga, Sequoia High School Kobe Ly, Woodside High School Gabrielle Melamed, Woodside High School Kimberly Miranda, Sequoia High School Chad Morrison, Junipero Serra High School Mia Palacios, Sequoia High School Stephanie Robles Angel, Sequoia High School Melanie Sarmiento, Sequoia High School Sharon Song, Sequoia High School Bianca Vail, Sequoia High School Oscar Villa Cornejo, Sequoia High School Alice W. Coghlan, R.N. Scholarship

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Ashley Barraza-Cazares

Rohan Patel

Janet Lara Alvarez

Itzel Ramos

Nataly Manzanero

Nancy Radcliffe, Outstanding Individual

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Street Life Ministeries

Launching New Service

AROUND TOWN•

Rotarians Plant City Trees Members of local Rotary Clubs met at Clifford School May 22 to plant 30 native oak trees surrounding the staff parking lot, restoring meadows around the school where eucalyptus trees had been removed to reduce fire risk. The Rotarians represented Peninsula Starlight, Belmont, Woodside/Portola Valley and San Carlos chapters. City Trees, the Redwood City urban forestry volunteer organization, and the Redwood City School District were also partners in the tree-planting project. Funding came from a Rotary Club grant. City Trees coordinated on where to plant the trees and which species to select, and the school district will be responsible for their ongoing care. Besides adding to the beauty of the campus, among other benefits, the trees will capture rainwater and reduce the temperature in the parking lot by blocking sunlight, which provides habitat for wildlife.

Street Life Ministries is launching a new night of service: Fridays in Redwood City and is looking for volunteers.

"The homeless population in Redwood City has tripled since Covid started and there is no place for our homeless neighbors to get food on a Friday night. Every week, Monday to Thursday, we are serving food, clothing, music, and an encouraging sermon. But it’s time we step that up and start serving Monday to Friday. The need is there, we just need some help to make it happen." says Pastor and Executive Director Dave Shearin.

Especially needed are drivers, cooks, and servers. The new night will launch July 16th.

For more information or to donate go to: www.streetlifeministries.org

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C H A N G I N G C L I M AT E •

Remembering the 1945 Navy Plane Crash in San Carlos Hills

By Nicholas A. Veronico As Memorial Day fades into the past, I was saddened to see there was no remembrance and no memorial to the seven servicemen who perished when a large Navy transport plane crashed into the hills of San Carlos during World War II. The transport, carrying a crew of three and 20 passengers, was en route from San Pedro in Southern California to Oakland on the night of March 14, 1945.

That evening there was a rainstorm with clouds reported as low as 1,000 feet and visibility of only three miles. As the Douglas R4D transport (similar to the commercial DC-3 airliner) flew north toward Oakland, the weather closed in and the cloud ceilings dropped to 500 feet, but this updated information was not passed to the pilots. Unsuccessful at landing during their first attempt at Oakland, the pilots chose to go around and try again.

They followed the “missed-approach” procedure for the airport, but seem to have gotten lost in the clouds above the bay.

At 8:12 p.m., the Navy transport impacted the San Carlos hills at an altitude of 630 feet. Of the 23 on board, the three-member crew were killed along with four servicemen sitting in the forward passenger cabin while the remaining 16 passengers survived with various degrees of injury.

Killed were pilot Lt. (j.g.) William Karlick, copilot Ens. Clois Holmes Jr., and flight orderly Robert A. Trout, along with passengers LCdr. Robert H. Allen, LCdr. John Brahtz, as well as Richard Johnston and Victor Salazar Jr., both seamen first class.

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Worst Accident Until Then At the time, the Navy transport crash was the worst aviation accident in San Mateo County. Eight years later, the Navy transport’s grim record was eclipsed by the tragic Oct. 29, 1953, crash of the British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-6, named “Resolution,” which claimed the lives of eight crewmembers and 11 passengers. The most famous of Resolution’s passengers was American pianist William Kapell, who was returning from a concert tour in Australia.

Having located Resolution’s crash site in the early 1990s, I became interested in finding the crash site of the Navy R4D. Little did I know it would take more than a decade of searching.

From the newspaper accounts of the time, I learned that Charles L. Gracy, a guard at the property that had been the San Carlos War Dog Training Center, heard the transport fly over, very low, followed by the terrific sound of the aircraft impacting the hill. Gracy phoned the San Carlos police. Chief Edward J. Wheeler and patrolman Russell Rodgers responded to the scene. Soon after, 16 ambulances arrived to take the injured to San Mateo General Hospital and Dibble Army Hospital in Menlo Park.

I asked around town as to the location of the Dog Training Center, but, at the time, no one could pinpoint the base.

I later learned that the center was on the former H&H Ranch property and was adjacent to the Devonshire Country Club’s clubhouse at the top of Club Drive.

During the war, more than 2,500 military dog handlers trained 4,500 dogs at the facility— so it was no small place. From the Navy crash report for R4D-5 Bureau of Aeronautics serial number 17228, I learned that the plane impacted the hills 630 feet above sea level.

A Systematic Search Having established a search area, I began the systematic search of the east-facing canyons along San Carlos hills. Up canyons and down canyons, through the brush, but never any luck. I needed more information to solve this puzzle. I knew I was not looking for large sections of aircraft because the March 19, 1945, edition of the San Mateo Times reported that the aircraft wreckage was hauled down Club Drive and over to the Alameda Naval Air Station for investigation and ultimately, disposal.

Eventually a number of photos of the crash were posted for sale on eBay. Unfortunately, I was not the winning bidder.

Luckily, I was able to arrange to purchase copies from the new owner. These images were the key to finding the crash site.

Armed with the photos, my friends and I began lining up the hills with those in the photos. To everyone’s surprise, the wreck site was determined to be on public land in the 16-acre Big Canyon Park.

The park is bordered by Brittan Avenue and by Crestview and Melendy Drives. The best entry point to the crash site is Tank Trail off of Crestview Drive, which happens to be approximately 630 feet above sea level. From high up in the park, the wartime crash photos line up with the hills along the eastern rim of the canyon. After reviewing the photos and comparing the size of the wreckage, it was also determined that the street that later became Regent Court was cut with a dozer to give the Navy access to remove the wreckage.

First Search Unsuccessful A group of friends gathered early one Saturday morning to scour the canyon for the wreck site. Neighbors along Regent Court

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C H A N G I N G C L I M AT E • Left: This Navy R4D is a sister ship to the one that crashed in the hills of San Carlos. The aircraft is the military version of the Douglas DC-3 airliner.

(Ed Davies Collection)

A group of friends interested in locating the crash site of Navy R4D-5 serial number 17228 gathered on a warm Saturday to search Big Canyon Park for remnants of the World War II transport’s crash site. The plane’s final resting place was located on a subsequent hike. (Nicholas A. Veronico)

were most courteous as we covered the area of the park bordering their homes.

Apparently during the 1960s, when homes were built in the area and before the canyon became a park, it was an accepted practice for neighbors to dump their trash in the canyon. This refuse buried debris and frustrated our attempts to find the R4D’s final resting place. We covered a lot of ground but our first expedition was unsuccessful.

Jeff Christner and his son Paxton returned a few weeks later and were able to locate pieces of the transport. In subsequent months, others have returned to the site to pay their respects to the lost servicemen.

For me, it was a mystery solved, and an historic aircraft crash site was found and recorded. I would be remiss had I not gone searching for such a site only 1.3 miles from my home. Certainly not the easiest aircraft to find, but one that needed to be accounted for.

Wreckage of the Navy R4D transport plane that crashed in the hills of San Carlos on March 14, 1945, is examined by local authorities in the days following the accident. This crash took the lives of seven servicemen.

This photo and others shot the same day helped researchers locate the crash site more than 75 years after the accident. (Author’s Collection)

I’m a member of a community unique in aviation history research known as “Wreckchasers” or “Aviation Archaeologists.” We seek out these sites to document them for posterity and honor the memory of those lost in the accident. The work we do to record parts for patterns may also help keep other historic, flying vintage aircraft. A quick search of Amazon will bring up a number of Wreckchasing books covering most of the western United States.

Although there is little of the Navy transport plane’s wreckage to see in Big Canyon Park, I hope this brief remembrance will motivate some civic group to place an interpretive plaque at the park’s entrance in memory of the seven U.S. servicemen lost during World War II within the city limits.

In Memoriam: Navy Personnel Killed in San Carlos Plane Crash Lt. (j.g.) William Karlick, pilot Ens. Clois Holmes Jr., copilot Robert A. Trout, flight orderly LCdr. Robert H. Allen LCdr. John Brahtz S1c Richard Johnston S1c Victor Salazar Jr. Died March 14, 1945

Nicholas A. Veronico is the author of more than 40 books on military, transportation, art and local history subjects, including “Hidden Warbirds: The Epic Stories of Finding, Recovering and Rebuilding WWII’s Lost Aircraft.”

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Marketing Director Mo Sardella stands in front of company president Michael Spillane, with trusty mascot Charley.

Inset: Founders George Standish Haly and Thomas Haly.

18 · CLIMATE · June 2021

PROFILE•

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PROFILE•

TEA Setting the Table for

For more than a century, The G.S. Haly Company has delivered America’s cup

By Janet McGovern

America’s defining experience with tea importation set irate colonists on course for war—and turned generations into coffee drinkers. Tea, of course, long ago reclaimed a place on the country’s beverage menu, with ice tea far and away the top seller. But consumers today also have their choice of thousands of premium teas from around the world—on grocery shelves or on coffee bar menus, right alongside the cappuccinos and lattes.

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family-owned company headquartered in Redwood City since 1985 deserves much of the credit for the specialty tea industry renaissance in America.

Begun in San Francisco in 1889, The G.S. Haly Company is the oldest tea importer in the United States and typically carries about 250 varieties at a time. Warehoused in Alameda, the teas are sold to businesses in the U.S. and a few other countries, including wholesalers, retailers, coffee houses and online sellers, as well as other importers—from 500 to 700 tons, depending on the year.

Someone ordering tea at a Philz or a Peet’s could well be drinking a Haly import without realizing it. But the company doesn’t sell direct to consumers. “Unless you want a hundred pounds,” quips President Michael Spillane.

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• He and a three-member staff operate the business from an historic, renovated house on Arch Street, where tea samples coming from five Asian countries go through a meticulous and time-honored, international evaluation protocol.

“We have enough knowledge in this company to maintain standards so people don’t have to worry about what they’re buying,” Spillane says. “Because not everybody can be a tea person, a tea taster, so they need to rely on us and our products and they also need to rely on us to explain why it is. That’s our role. That’s a big part of what we do.”

Keeping the Name Spillane is the third member of his family to have worked at the firm, which was begun by George Standish Haly, who also traded in coffee and spices. Mike’s father, Edward Spillane, had been an apprentice and bought the illustrious company in 1930—retaining the Haly name.

“The G.S. Haly Company was a very important part of the San Francisco coffee and tea industry,” Mike Spillane says. “I know that he appreciated what the Halys had done for him and the name of the company meant something around the world … To this day, it still means something. It is an important name still.”

After World War II, Edward Spillane stopped importing coffee, cocoa and spices and concentrated solely on tea. The Haly company began to shape the growing postwar tea industry, and during the 1950s fostered a tight-knit tea community centered on the West Coast. After Edward’s untimely death in 1961, his widow, Marie Spillane suddenly had to take over and learn a very complicated business.

Her late husband’s friends—from global tea producers to the local community—helped her to succeed, and she built

20 · CLIMATE · June 2021

PROFILE•

Edward Spillane bought the company in 1930

up a customer base which was interested in quality tea. Marie became the first female tea importer in the United States and the first woman to sit at the Calcutta Tea Auction.

Son Mike, who had swept tea leaves and emptied spittoons at the old company office growing up, had thought he’d enjoy a career in engineering. After he got out of college, his mother needed some help and he came to work in 1977.

“I started to meet the people from the trade from all over the world,” he recalls.

“It blew me away. I was hooked. I was hooked on the people before I was hooked on the tea.”

British Roots Especially before World War II, the tea world had been “a very proper British industry,” and Spillane, now 67, found the close-knit fraternity to be honest and straightforward. “It’s kind of a select group of people,” he says, “and we were part of that group. So as a young person to be treated like I was by aristocrats and so forth, it was like—I can’t explain it—it was over the top. And it still is today.”

The San Carlos resident earned his own place among that elite, in large part because of his leadership in educating both the industry and the general public

about “true tea”— the kind that comes from a species of the camellia. He became the first president of the American Premium Tea Institute, created in order to provide the first tea education program in the United States.

James Norwood Pratt, a widely read author on wine, tea and tea lore, has called Spillane the “tea education” president.

“From the beginning of his business career,” Pratt writes, “he has devoted countless and sometimes thankless hours to the cause of lifting America’s tea consciousness, one individual at a time.” In the 1980s, America began taking a new interest in tea, and Pratt thinks Spillane’s “years of educating and proselytizing nationwide” contributed to that awakening.

Like his father, Spillane has served as chairman of the United States Tea Board of Experts, and was recognized in 2016 at the World Tea Expo with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Marie Spillane died in 2002 at the age of 91.

The company moved its office to Redwood City in 1985 (to Veterans Boulevard) and then in 1990 to a Craftsman-style house at 156 Arch St. Mike Spillane restored it as much as possible from a fourplex to its original 1910 architecture.

Cupping Tea Mo Sardella had worked at Peet’s Coffee & Tea in Berkeley before joining Haly 10 years ago and is director of marketing.

Knowing the company’s reputation for professionalism, he felt a little intimidated by one of his first experiences at “the cupping table,” where teas are evaluated. It takes place in a light-filled room (the better to “read” the tea leaves) where small white cups and trays are set out along the top of an antique cabinet from a Gold Rush-era sailing ship.

• About two dozen teas from different tea gardens and producers in Sri Lanka were lined up to be assessed for possible purchase. There was no way they’d taste different, he thought, but the team spent hours poring over every tea.

Most consumers would probably say they all tasted alike, says Sardella, who drew “a life lesson” from that experience. “Clearly I need to look closer. I need to think longer about things. It just slowed me down to realize that sometimes the devil is in the details.

You have to understand those details before you make informed decisions.”

It begins at the source—the plantations and gardens where tea is grown— and the Haly company has deep connections with the suppliers where most of their tea comes from: China, India, Japan, Sri Lanka and Taiwan. Spillane says he’s seen the world four or five times over and is happy to let his staff make the three-tofour-week trips visiting the producers.

Their family members, including many of the tea pluckers, go back generations. The respect they have for the land and their role in tea-growing is obvious, both men say.

“Those people are the ones we care about,” Spillane says as he eyes a photo of Chinese pluckers working a hillside, “not the guy that lives in the big house on the bottom but the people in the field because they’re families and they’ve been doing it for years.

They love the tea too.”

The trips solidify relationships, but Spillane says they’re also necessary to help growers keep up with the increasing number of federal regulations for purity and transparency. “I mean it’s a book. We bring a three-inch thick binder to people saying, ‘This is what you have to do if you want to sell to the U.S.’”

PROFILE•

The G.S. Haly Company crew (L to R): Aaron Vick, Mo Sardella, Marissa Reddy, and Mike Spillane

Reasons for the Revival Until the 1960s, what consumers could buy was generally limited to mainstream teas that big distributors supplied to grocery. A number of converging factors opened the market opportunity for the specialty tea niche. Snapple’s bottled ice tea and Celestial Seasonings products were advertised on television. Consumers got interested in the process—starting with the tea gardens and plantations where the many varieties of tea (technically Camellia Sinensis) are harvested. Within basic categories (black, green, white, oolong, etc.), there are endless varieties and blends (gunpowder, Jasmine, dark, flavored, English Breakfast, Russian Caravan and more), and tea drinkers wanted to sample and learn about them.

“It wasn’t until the ‘50s and ‘60s when customers became more aware of tea quality and they started creating demand from the bottom up,” Sardella says.

Snapple ice tea, introduced in 1987, was a game-changer. Teabags make things easy, but not as easy as a to-go Snapple with a deli sandwich. “There were multiple little fires popping up around the industry and Mike was basically right in the center of it all trying to navigate and direct products in the right direction and for the most part do-

ing it all on his own,” Sardella says.

“There weren’t that many people doing what we do.”

Tea’s purported antioxidant and other benefits have boosted demand too. Matcha is a very fine, green Japanese tea, for centuries reputed to have strong health benefits. “We can’t keep the stuff on the shelf,” Sardella says. “… And I think it’s become this poster child for healthy tea.”

Coffeehouse culture also played a role. Customers looking to wean themselves off coffee found tea alternatives that were more than a consolation prize. The coffee industry was also on board. “Some of the most enthusiastic coffee people I know in the industry are just as enthusiastic about tea,” Sardella says.

Having deep relationships with international growers and experienced, knowledgeable tea tasters; the Haly staff was positioned to connect customers with quality teas. “The table was set,” Sardella says.

“We just needed to wait for the guests to show up.”

It comes down to the cupping table.

“Most people eat things and they don’t even try and taste it,” Spillane says. “We eat. We taste. That’s what we do. We feel with our tongues. We feel the viscosity.

We smell. You can smell better than your taste buds. We take in the aromas. We look at the leaf because we know there’s sometimes when the leaf looks a certain way, it tastes a certain way. It takes many years.”

A video on the company website (G.S.Haly.com) gives an idea of what cupping is like. For an entry level book on tea, Spillane suggests “The New Tea Companion,” by Jane Pettigrew and Bruce Richardson. C

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•

M I C R O C L I M AT E •

Local Feline Wins High-Five Honors; Mural Brightens the Vista Downtown A Redwood City cat who was transformed by training from a gun-shy semi-feral into quite a pussycat has won top prize in a national competition aimed at helping shelter cats become adoptable. Matilda, a 2-plusyear-old tuxedo cat who came to live at Whis-purr Rescue, Inc. in March 2019, has been named the Grand Prize Winner in the Third Annual Cat Pawsitive National High-Five Day Contest. Matilda’s paw-erful performance scored a $5,000 grant for Whis-purr Rescue, which will also receive personal consultation training with Jackson Galaxy, well-known as a cat behavior expert who hosts the Animal Planet show “My Cat From Hell.”

Lucy Brock, co-founder and rescue director of the center at 346 El Camino Real, says Matilda is just one of the shelter’s 27 cats who have benefitted since they started Galaxy’s training method in January 2020.

“There’s been so much change in these cats’ lives since we started,” she says. “It’s just amazing.”

The cats have been learning to do “behaviors”—not to be confused with “tricks”—such as ringing bells, spinning around, playing a piano, “nose touches,” and sitting up, in addition to “high-fiving” with an outstretched paw.

This year’s Cat Pawsitive contest kicked off March 22, and Galaxy selected the top 25 high-five finalists for the public to vote on from April 8 to 14. Among the feline few was Matilda, whose bipartite bell-ringing/high-five combo was posted online for all to see.

Whis-purr Rescue staff and supporters pushed to get out the vote for the local girl. Matilda’s clever bell-ringing high-five won 4,997 votes, according to a news release from the organizers, who say the contest celebrates the success of

22 · CLIMATE · June 2021

the life-saving Cat Pawsitive initiative of The Jackson Galaxy Project, a program of Greater Good Charities.

The initiative aims to save the lives of shelter and rescue cats by increasing their adoption rates. Shelter staff and volunteers are taught how to implement Galaxy’s positive reinforcement training for cats and includes “a signature move—teaching them to high-five.” To see Matilda and the semifinalists, go to felinehighfive.com.

Matilda and her sister Moxie and brother Maverick were rescue cats who came to Whis-purr from Half Moon Bay at about three months old. All three were “pretty feral and didn’t want to have anything to do with people,” Brock says.

Volunteer trainer Talia Martin can’t have cats of her own (her husband is allergic) so she’s happy to spend hours at the shelter training a dozen cats. Their behavior and reactions, down to body language, posture and making eye contact, have been recorded in a binder since the training started. Gradually, curiosity—or

perhaps the scent of treats—got the best of shy or invisible cats who began to come down from cat trees to train on the floor with Brock, Martin or volunteer Sydney Leung. One of the cats wouldn’t come close enough to be petted, Martin recalls.

Now he grabs her hand.

Whis-purr Rescue picked up a cat called Ryder who was going to be euthanized at another shelter because he was “too feral,” Brock says. “We couldn’t pet him. And if you went to him, he’d run.

And if you did stay, he’d whack you.” So she was quite surprised one day while training another cat when Ryder came weaving in and out between other cats, rolled around and started purring.

Brock wants to get more tips from Galaxy about moving Ryder to a higher lovability level. “We want to get him homed,” she says. “It’s great in this (training) room, but we need to be able to translate it into a home environment.” A shelter cat, she adds, isn’t the “yippy skippy cat that’s going to come and get right up on your lap,” and it takes effort to bring out the pussycat within. “They’re becoming more adoptable every day,” Brock says. “And I’m not in a hurry. I just want to make sure they get the right home.”

•

Long May It Wave Department: The flags and flagpole at the Sequoia Veterans Memorial on the high school campus were missing for many weeks, about a month ago. The flags were quite tattered and the pole needed repairs and a new coat of paint. Salutes to Mark DeMacsek with the Sequoia district’s ground crews and Assistant Vice Principal Gary Gooch for getting the job done and flags flying over the patriotic garden again.

Redwood City brags about having over 30 parks, some as small as a quarter acre, but nobody says much about the orphan park.

Yes, little “Roosevelt Park”—which boasts one tree, a stop sign and a marker—is easy to miss. As a matter of fact, Parks, Recre-

M I C R O C L I M AT E •

ation and Community Services Director Chris Beth was unaware that it existed until someone asked him about it a few years ago. “Somebody had to point it out to me,” he says. “I didn’t even know the plaque was there.” The little bit of ground at the corner of Main and Heller streets was dedicated as a city park Nov. 7, 1904.

The co-owner of the Eureka Brewery gave the dedication speech honoring President Theodore Roosevelt, and a small stone monument bearing the names of the current town council (Carl Plump, Joe Dickey, W.C. Havey, Gus Stalter, John Dhue and Charles Cullen) was added a year later. The park once had a 50-foot flagpole (long gone: Perhaps because there was no Sequoia High staff to look after it?) Roosevelt Park is a curiosity for sure—but not considered part of the city park system.

For the second year, there will be no Fourth of July parade, festival and fireworks, even if things ease up considerably after June 15, when Gov. Newsom is to ratchet down Covid rules. There’s a lot of lead time in planning a parade and getting permits, and the uncertainty about whether crowds will be allowed outdoors close together makes it hard to plan, Beth says.

“It’s a heavy lift that takes several months to plan.” That said, the city parks staff is looking at whether it might be possible to introduce a limited concert series late in the summer. “If we can do it,” he says, “we’re happy to do it.”

“Colorful” seems too tame a description for a 100-foot-long mural which was painted last month on the formerly blank wall of a building at 55 Perry St., near the Caltrain tracks in downtown Redwood City. Oakland-based artist Jet Martinez is known for his dynamically patterned floral compositions, which take inspiration from the folk art of his native Mexico. The mural is entitled “Chrysanthemums (Amate)” and includes birds among the enormous blossoms. Martinez’ inspiration came from doing historical research on Redwood City and learned about how Japanese-American farmers were the force behind the city becoming one of the largest chrysanthemum producers in the world. “My hope is that viewers will find something that reminds them of their own culture in this mural,” says the artist.

Funding for painting the mural came from the owner of the building, who has a desire to work with the Redwood City Arts Commission to bring more high-quality art work to the city. C

June 2021 ·

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•

SPOTLIGHT•

After Covid,

Will Outdoor Dining Remain?

By Scott Dailey

The pandemic is winding down on the Peninsula, and city leaders, restaurant owners and retailers find themselves at a crossroads – and possibly cross-purposes.

Do they keep the outdoor dining and partial street closures that have come to characterize local downtown districts? Or do they return to the pre-Covid world, losing the European ambience but freeing up traffic and hundreds of parking spaces? Or are there perhaps other options that, for the most part, might satisfy city governments, businesses and the public?

24 · CLIMATE · June 2021

•

SPOTLIGHT•

City officials and business owners put their heads together – but many lock horns

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estaurateurs and their patrons love the outside eating areas that now occupy sidewalks and the edges of downtown streets.

On the other hand, merchants worry about the resultant loss of parking spaces in front of their shops. As for continuing to close off entire blocks – and extending outdoor dining permanently – one downtown business association manager warns, “We have to be very careful.”

Among those who see opportunity is Lisa Grote, an independent, Redwood Shores-based urban planner whose career has included stints with San Mateo County and three Peninsula cities. Although not all merchants might agree, Grote believes the eating areas and partial street closures can potentially benefit both restaurants and stores.

Even when people park a block or two away, she says, “They go to a restaurant, then will go to other shops along the street and do some browsing and hopefully some buying.” Regarding areas closed to traffic, Grote says reports are anecdotal but “There’s some indication that once people do get parked and they get to that pedestrian street, they’re likely to stroll and look into other shops, not just restaurants.”

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• Limited Re-opening Emily Paul, manager of a retail store on Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park’s main shopping street, is more equivocal. In response to the pandemic, the city first created outdoor eating spaces by closing two non-consecutive blocks of the street, then later switched to one-way traffic in a single lane. Paul says the limited re-opening, which includes the block that contains her store, has made a difference.

“When the street was completely closed off on both sides, people didn’t come down here because they thought everything was closed, and I thought that was a hindrance on the business,” she says. “Now that we have one side open, we have more people. They know that the businesses are open.”

To welcome downtown visitors, Paul has opened her own outdoor space in front of the store. It includes benches for customers and passersby. “We kind of use it to our advantage now,” she says.

Should the partial closure be made permanent?

“I think that’s a good question,” says Paul, whose shop sits on the closed side of the avenue. “I think I like the way it’s a pedestrian walkway now, and kids can ride their bikes on the street.” But, she continues, “I think it would be better if it were completely open now. I just think for parking and for business, people can drive up, they can do pick-up orders, they know it’s open.”

Paul is also concerned about traffic safety, as is Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Fran Dehn.

Both sayWW drivers have occasionally become confused, missing stop signs and traveling in the wrong one-way direction.

As if on cue, a car blew through a stop sign on Menlo Avenue, a block south of Santa Cruz, as a reporter waited at a corner.

26 · CLIMATE · June 2021

SPOTLIGHT•

Downtown Menlo Park

“When the street was completely closed off on both sides, people didn’t come down here because they thought everything was closed.”

Survey Support Dehn recently completed a survey of Menlo Park businesses and residents that found 91 percent in favor of keeping the current configuration downtown. Of those, 57 percent were business owners, although the study did not differentiate among restaurateurs, retailers or service providers such as hair stylists, attorneys and insurance agents.

One merchant decidedly unhappy with the present arrangement is Fredy Joudieh, owner of Sarrtori, a men’s apparel store in downtown San Carlos. Joudieh’s shop is on the 700 block of Laurel Street, currently closed to traffic. The city sacrificed 150 downtown parking spaces for outdoor dining; Joudieh says his customers, often from Woodside, Atherton, Hillsbor-

ough and Portola Valley, have told him that they don’t want to search for street parking or spaces in a lot and a garage in the next block. (The block-long city lot behind Sarrtori is frequently filled, or nearly so.)

Joudieh estimates his business is down by 55 to 60 percent, and says he goes three or four days at a time without a customer in a store where the typical sale ranges between $300 and $600. He’s also miffed at city leaders, who he believes favor restaurants over retail in an attempt to create what he calls a “Disneyland” atmosphere on Laurel Street.

San Carlos City Council member and former mayor Ron Collins sympathizes, saying, “I do have concerns about the non-restaurant businesses on that block.”

Nonetheless, Collins expects the council to keep the outdoor eating areas and closure of Laurel Street’s 700 block until at least September. He and fellow council member Adam Rak are currently investigating the effects of the city’s program downtown and are scheduled to report to the full council this month.

Longer-term, Mayor Laura Parmer-Lohan says the city – the first in San Mateo County to create an outdoor dining program during the pandemic – will begin a formal “visioning” of the entire downtown in January. The evaluation will consider cementing the current changes, along with modifications that might be needed, for example, to improve access to businesses.

Proximity of Parking Parmer-Lohan acknowledges that, “for certain merchants, adjacent parking is a problem.” Any permanent plan, she adds, would have to accommodate “a number of variables that would need to be reviewed to try to figure out how to create a sustainable program – and by ‘sustainable,’ I mean that it works for a variety of different types of businesses and restaurants.”

• What does the public think? Collins says San Carlos council members have received more than 300 emails, most of them supporting today’s layout. Collins believes many of the messages may have been prompted by a recently created advocacy website, www.keeplaurelclosed.org.

In Redwood City, circumstances resemble those in San Carlos. At present, 42 restaurants offer outdoor dining, according to Executive Director Regina Van Brunt of the Redwood City Downtown Business Group. Also as in San Carlos, one block of Broadway in downtown Redwood City is closed to traffic (with businesses open), between Jefferson Avenue and Main Street.

The current program will continue until at least Dec. 31, after which the City Council will consider whether to extend it. Van Brunt says an undisclosed number of restaurant owners have asked the city to make their outdoor eating areas permanent.

She thinks it’s necessary, even after indoor dining was restored to 100-percent capacity in San Mateo County last month. “I believe that a lot of people are still very nervous about dining indoors,” Van Brunt says. “So I do feel it’s very important that (the city) take these temporary outdoor spaces and make them permanent for the restaurants, because it is necessary to make people feel comfortable when they’re downtown. Otherwise, they might stop coming, or not come as frequently as they would.”

As with other cities, “the parking is an issue,” Van Brunt observes. “We have to be very careful,” she says, adding that “Redwood City, in my opinion, has done a heck of a job with this whole thing over the last 15 months … We’ve worked very hard to take care of all of our businesses, not just the restaurants. Can you make everybody happy? No, unfortunately, we can’t. It’s not a perfect world.” Van Brunt

SPOTLIGHT•

Regina Van Brunt

“Redwood City, in my opinion, has done a heck of a job with this whole thing over the last 15 months …

We’ve worked very hard to take care of all of our businesses, not just the restaurants. Can you make everybody happy? No, unfortunately, we can’t." hints, however, at a possible magic-bullet solution that she is discussing with city officials, promising details in a few weeks.

suffering from a lack of customers, among them drivers who no longer pass by and notice merchants’ businesses.

Like others, he’s also concerned about front-of-store parking.

In particular, Rapp cites an upscale consignment shop in downtown Palo Alto; its customers, he says, are reluctant to lug armfuls of clothing and other items between the business and parking spaces a block or two away.

Palo Altans against the car-free streets (Rapp says he supports the restaurants’ outdoor areas, but not the traffic closures) will have to wait. The City Council voted 5-2 in April to keep the current blocks closed on both streets until Oct. 31, and outdoor dining until at least Dec. 31. Opponents may also be greatly outnumbered; as reported by the Palo Alto Weekly, a recent city survey showed 96 percent of respondents approved keeping blocks closed to traffic on California Avenue and 97 percent said the same about University.

Mayor Tom DuBois and council member Lydia Kou aren’t so sure. They voted against extending both the street closures and outdoor dining areas, and the Weekly quoted Kou as saying, “It’s only fair, now that (retailers) are allowed to be open that they be given the opportunity to succeed, as well. So it distresses me that a lot of emphasis has been put into restaurants only and they're given so much leeway. The least that we can do is ensure fairness and ensure visibility for these businesses and ensure that their access is easy to get to.”

C

Carless in Palo Alto One business person who thinks his city has performed less than optimally is developer and downtown landlord Roxy Rapp of Palo Alto. There, various blocks of University and California avenues are now pedestrian-only. In a sharp critique of the City Council and City Manager Ed Shikada, Rapp says his retail tenants are June 2021 ·

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•

HISTORY by Jim Clifford•

A Child’s Life in the Sequoia Hotel The Sequoia Hotel in downtown Redwood City became a historic landmark in 1981 when city officials designated it a reminder of an era when “several impressive hotels graced the area around Main and Broadway.” Gordon Seely, a retired history professor, remembers those days quite well.

Like author Kay Thompson’s Eloise—the precocious fictional 6-year-old who lived in New York’s Plaza Hotel and became beloved in both books and movies—Seely spent his early years in the Sequoia Hotel. (The April edition of Climate featured a detailed story on a proposal for its redevelopment.)

“I lived in the hotel from 1930 to 1934 with my parents,” said Seely, who taught at San Francisco State and was named emeritus in 2000. The hotel was operated by his grandparents, August and Mae Smith Fromm. August Fromm was the major shareholder in the company that owned the building which also housed a drugstore and candy store. The Fromms had prior hotel experience, having operated the Capitol Hotel located a half block away on Broadway. That hotel lost two floors in the 1906 earthquake, leaving the city without a major hotel. Seely’s dad, also named Gordon, was the proprietor of a cigar store about a half block from the Sequoia.

Just 4 years old when he started living in the Sequoia, Seely’s earliest memory of his time there is from 1932 when a nearby paint shop burned to the ground. “I can vividly remember being held in my grandfather’s arms and looking out from the second-floor parlor” as the store burned to the ground, along with an inventory that included large plaster of Paris Santa Clauses that were put out at Christmas time. I can still see the Santas amid the flames.”

panache of the New England Realtor’s cliché that “George Washington slept here,” but it adds an historical footnote that, apparently, is wrong.

The Sequoia Hotel in 1921

Lavish in its Day The three-story Sequoia Hotel, which opened in 1913, was expensively decorated and furnished, Seely wrote in the Journal of Local History’s winter 2012 edition. “Every two rooms had a bath and hot and cold running water. There were public restrooms on every floor and the ground lobby led to a dining room and public restaurant.” The Sequoia had three parlors where business and social meetings were held.

The grand opening April 17, 1913, drew much fanfare, including one newspaper’s estimation that the Sequoia was the “finest hotel” on the Peninsula. The circular lobby had a polished hardwood floor extending to the main dining room. There was an oak staircase that stretched from the lobby to the second floor, which led to a parlor. “As well as managing the hotel, my grandfather tended bar and handled the front desk while my grandmother ran the restaurant and dining room,” Seely said.

The Sequoia Hotel was popular with fraternal groups, such as the Kiwanis, who met in the dining room. It was also a temporary home to attorneys who came for cases in the nearby courts. President Herbert Hoover was, according to some reports, the hotel’s most famous guest. ‘’Hoover slept here” doesn’t quite have the

VIP Guests According to Seely, Hoover never stayed at the Sequoia. “My parents were staunch Republicans and, believe me, if he had they would have told everyone.” The most important politician Seely recalled meeting as a little fellow was Governor “Sunny” Jim Rolph who “bounced me on his lap during a visit to the hotel.”

The Hoover legend just keeps feeding off itself. The accepted line is that the President stayed at the Sequoia in 1928 and rode in a car during the July 4th Parade. The claim is made in several city publications, including a 1976 city planning department report on historic structures. This, despite the fact that the Redwood City Tribune’s July 4, 1928, issue reported there was no parade; the city “was deserted” with citizens attending events elsewhere because fireworks were banned in Redwood City.

Seely does, however, recall Hoover passing through town in an open touring car. Conceding his memory “may play tricks,” Seely thinks Hoover, who was an 1895 Stanford graduate, was on his way to the university. According to the book “Redwood City: A Hometown History,” Hoover rode in a car in a parade in 1928 shortly after his election but before his inauguration. The “special parade” gave citizens a chance to see and cheer their new President who would soon face the Great Depression.

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C L I M AT E •

TOGETHER, WE DESIGN PLACES THAT INSPIRE PEOPLE

851 MAIN STREET

30 · CLIMATE · June 2021

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Hidden

The Redwood City Downtown • C L I M A T E

Moving Sucks!

So were having a sale on Miele Vacuums While we wait, ever so patiently, for our new super store to finish construction, Ralph's Vacuum and Sewing is holding a sale on vacuums and sewing machines. Come on in and get a deal. We don't want to move this stuff again!

Ralph's Vacuum and Sewing

• 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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Gems

Business Group Presents

Locally grown, Organically raised

Proud member of the historical Redwood City Woman's Club DRE 01886755 cell: 650.430.8220 office: 650.556.8674 www.kathyzmay.com email: kathyzmay@gmail.com 1629 Main St., Redwood City

FIRE ALARM. SECURITY. CCTV. With the highest quality and unparalleled customer service, we design and install custom alarm systems for the families, businesses and property owners of San Mateo County!

Contact us: 650.362.4841 • clientcare@redwoodcityalarms.com

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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.

Electrolux Laundry Front Load Perfect Steam™ Washer with LuxCare® Wash and SmartBoost® - 4.4 Cu.Ft. The Electrolux Front-Load washer machine with the exclusive SmartBoost technology provides the most effective stain removal by premixes water and detergent before the cycle begins, maximizing the cleaning power of the detergent. It features the industry’s first Adaptive Dispenser that accepts detergent packs to give you the flexibility to clean with all detergent types for a thorough clean.

Unlike many washers, our Perfect Steam rises from the bottom, gently lifting dirt and stains from fibers. The 15-Minute Fast Wash quickly deep cleans your items you need most.

Mention our Climate magazine ad and get free normal delivery and installation valued at $200!

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