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P u b l i c a t i o n Profile: Animal Farm Spotlight: A Marriage of Love — and Work Micro Climate: University Art's Window Artist
ISSUE SEVENTY EIGHT • FEBRUARY • 2022
Longevity:
New Ideas About Old Age
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR•
This month’s feature on longevity grows out of a feat that I hadn’t stopped to think about much until I read writer Elizabeth Sloan’s story: Human lifespan is dramatically longer than it has been throughout history. All good but that has far-reaching implications for individuals and for society. The number of centenarians will grow exponentially in coming decades, and we need to be preparing for a world where kids of today will be living much longer. That calls for the kind of strategic thinking provided by the Stanford Center on Longevity, which gathered international experts for a conference last December to share new visions for a world when people will be living a lot longer than great-grandpa did. The Center has produced “A New Map of Life,” which presents a number of recommendations about preparing for careers that last 60 years, and promoting opportunities in an “age-diversified society.” (Illustrated so well by this month’s cover photo of Kaylee (4) and Kaiden (6) Warren with their great-great-great-great Auntie Lou Prado.) No matter where you are on the age spectrum, this is a relevant, thought-provoking topic. Elizabeth’s story, which includes a resource list for putting some of the recommendations into action, begins on page 8. Nielsen’s Automotive in San Carlos is a familiar landmark on El Camino Real, a fourth-generation business dating back about 75 years and owned by brothers Jeff and Chris. They’ve been rescuing distressed vehicles for decades. In this month’s Profile, writer Dan Brown brings us the story of the amazing sanctuary for animals that Chris, his wife Robin, and their children operate at their ranch in Woodside. With a background as 4-H families, the Nielsens were just looking for a property big enough for their own barnyard animals, but they have a heart for those in need of a rescue and have gathered in quite a menagerie. You can read about their remarkable generosity in Dan’s story, which starts on page 18. With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, Climate spotlights four couples who are together 24/7 because they work in a family business. We wanted to know how they manage to keep “the office” from coming home with them and about the challenges—and the bonuses—of being partners in both marriage and work. We thank these four couples for sharing their stories and think you’ll be impressed by the positive approach they bring to providing businesses that serve the public, as well as support their families and employees. That story is on page 24. Take that as a prompt, if you need reminding, that Feb. 14th is Valentine’s Day—so don’t forget to show the love to the love of your (longer and longer) life!
Janet McGovern, Editor
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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S •
FEATU RE Longevity
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PROFILE Animal Farm
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SPOTLIG HT A Marriage of Love – and Work
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MICRO CLIMATE University Art's Window Artist
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AROUND TOWN ���������16 HISTORY......................30
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Cover: Kaylee (age 4) and Kaiden (age 6) Warren with their great-great-great-great aunt Louise "Auntie Lou" Prado (age 105).
Helping Adults with Developmental Disabilities Live their Best Lives
Kainos’ mission is to enable adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities to maximize his/her potential while becoming active, contributing integrated members of the community. Kainos, which means 'new beginnings' in Greek, was launched in1974 and still embodies the dream of its founder by providing love and support to hundreds of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in nine Kainos homes as well as employment and community integration programs.
www.kainosusa.org 3631 Jefferson Avenue Redwood City, CA 94062 (650) 363-2423
A non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Donations are tax-deductible. Tax ID 23-7408490
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February 2022 · CLIMATE ·5 Neighbors helping neighbors - since 1938
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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 ©2022 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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Community oriented Peninsula born and raised
Fiercely loving Mom to North Star and Woodside High School students
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Lori Burrows Warren 650.642.8042
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The Hundred-Year Life Is Here Are We Ready?
To prepare for old age, say longevity experts, start young.
By Elizabeth Sloan
Walk into any kindergarten classroom and look around. What’s obvious? Bright faces, squirmy bodies, young minds just embarking on the learning journey. Maybe, in this era, face masks? One thing that’s not visible, but will have more impact on society than anything else? More than half of these five-year-olds will live past the age of 100.
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• Human lifespan has made a stunning jump in a short time. For most of human history, lifespan hovered around 20 years. It rose to the 30s in the 1800s; today, it’s 78. Because of medical science, technology, better nutrition, and advances in sanitation and public health, the average person alive today can reasonably expect 20 to 30 more years of life than their parents had. What will people do with that extra time? Are there ways to make those extra years vibrant and meaningful, rather than dysfunctional and unhealthy? And, is society ready for this seismic shift? The answers, according to Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, lie in rethinking old, outdated models, attitudes and assumptions. “The old map of life worked well when we lived 50 years,” said Carstensen in the opening session of the 2021 Century Summit, a December 2021 conference that gathered international thinkers across research, business, culture and government to share new visions for the second half of life. “Get your education early, work like a dog, raise your kids. Things like primary schools and high schools worked when life was relatively short.” But those institutions and others (think Social Security, Medicare, retirement at age 65) need reimagining. The healthy 100-year life requires strategic thinking and careful investments for every stage along the way, starting in early childhood. “We don’t want to wait until we are already living to 100 regularly,” says Carstensen. “We need to begin to prepare children to be centenarians.” A Look at the Numbers To understand what a longer-lived society will feel like, consider these statistics culled from the U.S. Census. • Today, there are 97,000 centenarians in the United States—a number that could reach 600,000 by 2060.
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Laura Carstensen
“Get your education early, work like a dog, raise your kids. Things like primary schools and high schools worked when life was relatively short.” • By 2030, there will be more Americans over 65 than under 15. • It will soon become commonplace for children to have four living grandparents. At the turn of the 20th century, only six percent of children did. • By 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that of the 164 million people in the American workforce, 13 million will be age 65 or older. • For the average couple of age 65 today, at least one can expect to live to age 93. Numbers like these often prompt doomsday scenarios. Old age is inevitably unhealthy and isolated. Old people drain the economic system. Over-50 workers can’t learn new things. But these are myths that need busting, according to the experts. Older adults are among society’s happiest; older workers make important contributions to their workplaces and the economy; with the right planning, later years can be vibrant.
“Older people have been such an untapped resource in our society,” says Martha Deevy, associate director and senior research scholar at the Stanford Center. “What I get excited about is changing the conversation. Rather than: ‘Oh great, my knees are going to hurt that much longer,’ we can start with optimism and potential: ‘I am going to have time to try so many different things!’” The key is distributing the extra years across all stages of life—not tacking 30 not-so-healthy years on the end. A more flexible approach to life’s ages and stages is critical. “Kids probably don’t need to be little learners by age five if they are going to live to be a hundred,” says Deevy. Likewise, if a career is going to last 60 years, maybe it’s not required to cram 40-plus hours of work into weeks that are already overwhelmed with family, caregiving and other obligations. A New Map of Life Among the offerings of the Century Summit was “A New Map of Life,” a Stanford-generated body of work that rethinks everything from education to industry, to health care and family structures, and from urban design to financial planning. The map’s key recommendations: • Reimagine the old sequential model of education-work-retirement. Make it easy for people to flow flexibly in and out of these stages as circumstances demand, and above all, start early. The data are dazzlingly clear: investments in early childhood—education, nutrition, health, social services—dictate how well children will do in all aspects of their lives, and through every stage of life, including old age. • Prepare for lifelong learning. Finishing education in the early 20s in no way prepares an individual for a career that could last 60 years. Think creatively about how learning can be woven into various stages
• of life, and where it might come from: not just schools, but employers, community centers, government programs and more. • Seize the unprecedented opportunities of the new, age-diversified society. The world stands on the cusp of having four or five generations of people alive, in comparable numbers, all at the same time. That’s never happened before, and it represents an incredible opportunity to tap what Carstensen calls the “complementarity of skills.” “If you look at the 20s and 30s,” Carstensen says, “people have energy, ambition, speed of new learning. If you look in the later years of life, people have volumes of knowledge that they have acquired over the years, emotional stability, and a tendency to become more invested in others; what psychologists call ‘pro-sociality.’ Put the groups together, and it’s kind of extraordinary to daydream about the problems we could solve; the ways we could benefit societies today to improve life at all ages.” An End to Age Silos To help people of all ages thrive, society needs to consciously pursue “intergenerational compacts” — interactions that tap age-related skills to foster connectedness and address important social needs. America is currently one of the most age-segregated societies in the world. It separates children into narrow age bands for learning; it eschews multigenerational living (although early indicators suggest Covid might be changing this); it encourages people, through social programs and financial incentives, to leave the workforce by age 65. When generations come together—in housing arrangements, workplaces, teaching/mentoring programs, and the like— the benefits are dramatic, reciprocal, and well-documented. “We know that older people who are engaged in caring for younger generations
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Martha Deevy
“What I get excited about is changing the conversation. Rather than: ‘Oh great, my knees are going to hurt that much longer,’ we can start with optimism and potential: ‘I am going to have time to try so many different things!’” are three times as likely to be happy as those who are not,” says Summit presenter Trent Stamp, CEO of the Eisner Foundation. “We know that young people who have a caring adult in their lives—even if that person is not related to them—are far more likely to attain success. As we have more and more older people who are viable and vibrant and have things to give back; and we have young people who are struggling, who need access and opportunity and mentoring; not putting them together seems like societal malpractice.” Stamp and his organization, which promotes intergenerational solutions to society’s problems, is particularly interested in “shared site” programs: for example, putting a preschool literally inside a senior home or senior housing on a college campus. What happens as a result?
Mutual Benefits “The health benefits for the seniors are measurable,” says Stamp. “Their blood pressure goes down, their cholesterol goes down, they lose weight, their mobility increases. They feel valued. They feel needed.” It’s also true for the kids, he says. “Their test scores skyrocket, just having another caring adult in their lives. “ Increasing numbers of American families are tapping the power of intergenerational compacts through their living choices. Fueled in part by the Covid pandemic, multigenerational living more than quadrupled in the last decade, according to a survey by Generations United, a national organization that promotes intergenerational collaboration. Seventy-two percent of respondents said they will continue the arrangements after the pandemic, citing benefits like family bonds, better physical and mental health, sharing elder and childcare requirements, more flexibility to pursue education or job training. Even if it’s not found within families or housing, there’s a raft of data to back up one simple conclusion: One of the best things an older person can do to age well is volunteer with children or youth. Misconceptions abound about the reliability and productivity of older workers. But a growing body of research suggests that multigenerational workforces are more productive, more satisfied with their employers, and less likely to leave the company. Andy Briggs, CEO of the Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement company, tackled some of the false narratives about older workers at the Summit. (The international research he cites mirrors American trends.) No Learning Lag “There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that an over-50-year-old is any less able to learn, and develop, and grow skills than an under-50-year-old,” says Briggs. “The over-50-year-old is something like three or February 2022
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• four times more likely to still be with you in five years’ time than somebody you hire who is 20 to 25. The over-50-year-old is half as likely to take off sick time as a 20-to-25year-old.” And yet, over-50s are the least likely to find new jobs or have meaningful career development conversations. Another compelling reason for companies to seek out, invest in, and retain older workers is simple economics: more than half of all consumer spending is done by people over age 50. “If you’re an organization without any over-50’s in your workplace,” says Briggs, “the ability for your people to get their heads together and represent your customer base, where the spending is, can be very limited.” So having multiple generations in a workforce is good business. What about from the individual’s point of view? Is working longer a necessary component for aging well? Most experts say yes—with some caveats. Individuals should consider working longer at something—for the social engagement and, if their circumstances dictate it, the financial security. But that doesn’t mean in the same job, industry, or income level. “If you can work longer and save more, you really do set yourself up for a better life,” says Briggs. He acknowledges that not all jobs lend themselves to it. It’s less feasible in physically demanding work than so-called knowledge-based jobs. But with flexibility, creativity, and investments in retraining, solutions are there. Briggs cites the example of Jaguar/Land Rover, where older workers were retrained from stitching the hand-sewn leather seats to teaching the next generation of stitchers. Employers, he says, should look for opportunities like this—for their own financial viability. Government's Role In addition to investing in early childhood programs, government can do a lot to get
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“People on both sides of the aisle are beginning to think about chang but it’s likely going to happen when the crisis (the financial unsustainability of entitlement programs) is right in front of us. They will move when they see the crevasse they are about to fall into.” citizens ready for the 100-year life. Much of it comes down to looking at social policy through a longevity lens, and funding programs that improve well-being at all ages. Paid family medical leave (the U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t guarantee it) could prevent individuals from leaving the workforce and falling into a retirement-savings abyss if they encountered serious medical issues. For the one-in-five Americans who are both full-time workers and family caregivers, more robust support programs would likewise keep people in the workforce and prevent lasting damage to retirement savings. Cities, housing, and transit could all be designed with older people in mind— an important consideration as 70 million baby boomers age up. Programs like Social Security and Medicare, established in 1935 and 1965 respectively and predicated on life expectancies in the 60-to-70-year range, will almost certainly need changes for financial sustainability. Raising retirement age is an incendiary idea politically, but a host of other suggestions have been floated to
keep people working longer and these entitlement programs solvent, as well as tap the benefits that older workers can render to both society and themselves. One is the “paid up” proposal, whose lead proponents are economists John Shoven of Stanford and Robert Clark of North Carolina State. Social Security benefits are currently based on the highest 35 years of earnings. So there’s not much incentive for older people to stay in the workforce—often at a lower income— when they are required to keep paying into Social Security but won’t get any benefit back for those additional low-income years. Instead, says this proposal, once people have reached an agreed upon threshold (say, 40 years) exempt them from payroll taxes, immediately boosting their take-home pay. Conversely, exempting employers from payroll taxes on the “paid up” group would effectively lower their costs for hiring these older workers. A Medicare Change Another idea is to make Medicare the primary health care provider at age 65, regardless of work status. This would incentivize companies to hire older workers (absent the requirement to cover their health care) and would cost the government “approximately nothing” according to Shoven, as the costs of providing Medicare would be offset by more work, higher wages, and more income tax at both state and federal levels. Is Washington ready to make these moves? Yes and no, says Deevy of Stanford. “People on both sides of the aisle are beginning to think about changes,” she says, “but it’s likely going to happen when the crisis (the financial unsustainability of entitlement programs) is right in front of us. They will move when they see the crevasse they are about to fall into.” Companies will make senior-friendly changes when they see the effects on their bottom
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• lines, she adds—something that is already beginning to happen. It’s worth noting: Joe Biden ran for—and won—a presidency on a platform that contains many of the social investments longevity experts yearn for. Last year’s American Rescue Plan Act, targeting pandemic relief, had such elements: child tax credits, food and housing assistance, emergency grants for education. Build Back Better, the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill hotly debated in Congress, has even more. (At press time, BBB’s fate was uncertain.) Living Old, Well What can an individual do to live not just long, but well? Most experts echo this list: cognitive fitness, physical fitness, and financial security. Deevy nets it out this way. “The number one thing is to have a reason to get up in the morning,” she says. “Find something that gives you social engagement, meaning and purpose. If you get paid for it, great. If you don’t get paid for it, that’s fine, too.” The second thing is keep moving. Exercise doesn’t have to be intensive or long, and it’s never too late to start. “There’s evidence that people who never exercised before and then start at age 60 reap benefits,” she says. “The number of chronic conditions diminishes; the number of medications they have to take goes down.” The third component—financial security—requires planning, saving, maybe a talk with a financial professional. And yes, consider working longer, even if it means a pivot to something new. People don’t necessarily resist the idea of working longer, says Deevy. “What they say is: I want to
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Louise Prado, 105
Deevy nets it out this way. “The number one thing is to have a reason to get up in the morning,” she says. “Find something that gives you social engagement, meaning and purpose. If you get paid for it, great. If you don’t get paid for it, that’s fine, too.” work more flexibly; I want to work fewer hours; I may want to change industries or professions.” The key is to stay connected to something. Beyond these, research and practice in the science of longevity suggest some other concrete recommendations for vibrant aging. • Find ways to be involved with young people—as an employee or volunteer, in a family or neighborhood setting, through a community center, within a housing situation.
• Look into housing arrangements that ward off isolation and provide stimulation, like home-shares and co-housing developments. The Village Movement is a national membership network that helps older adults stay connected and supported in their own homes and communities • Use technologies that keep people functional and connected. Thanks to a 2017 bill passed in Congress, hearing aids will soon be more widely and cheaply available “over the-counter”—without a medical exam or special fitting—for those with mild to moderate hearing loss. Monitors and biometric sensors continue to drop in price and improve in user-friendliness. Myriad apps connect older people with companions, help them with meds or groceries, support interactions over shared interests, and pair them with young people who seek caregiver jobs or social interaction. For a topic so often marked by gloom and doom, the picture for long life is actually quite bright. As the old saw goes, aging beats the alternative by a country mile. But beyond that are the seismic shifts society is already beginning to make. Maybe it’s the aging baby boomer effect, but never before in history have so many people been working so hard on the research, policies, laws, leadership, attitudinal shifts and social vision required to deliver not just the extra time, but the extra life. By the time those five-year-olds are staring down the barrel of 100, who knows what tools will be in place?
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Some Resources for Aging Well To build a plan for vibrant, meaningful aging, here are some local resources readily available to Bay Area residents. The 2021 Century Summit on Longevity: To view recordings of all three days of the Summit: www.longevity-project.com/century-summit The New Map of Life, a guide to staying mentally sharp, physically fit and financially secure through century-long lives filled with a sense of purpose, meaning and worth: https://longevity. stanford.edu/the-new-map-of-life-report/ A Long Bright Future: Happiness, Health, and Financial Security in an Age of Increased Longevity, by Laura Carstensen is an interesting read about the possibilities of aging with vitality. To connect with kids: Call your local senior center or volunteer clearinghouse to explore the options. Here’s a sampling of local possibilities. Eldera: Connects kids around the world with vetted older mentors, one-on-one or in groups, for weekly virtual conversation, story time and activities. www.eldera.ai Avenidas Senior Center: The Palo Alto organization offers older adults programs for connection, education, support, and volunteerism—including a tutoring program for children in early literacy. https://www.avenidas.org/ Project Read: The Redwood City-based program offers literacy tutoring for children and adults. www.projectreadredwoodcity.org Friends for Youth: The mentoring program helps youth at risk of failing in school or in life skills. www.friendsforyouth.org San Mateo County 4-H: It offers youth development programs in STEM, civic engagement, leadership and healthy living. https:// ucanr.edu/sites/smsf4h/
To continue learning: Check out your local community or senior center, community college or adult learning program for classes. California residents who are 60 or older can attend Cal State Universities tuition-free. The Age-Friendly University Network, launched out of Dublin City University in 2012, now comprises more than 80 colleges and universities worldwide. Member institutions adhere to 10 principles that welcome and support older learners, including tuition waivers and digital access. Nearby institutions include Palo Alto University, Dominican University in Marin County and University of the Pacific in Stockton. https://www.dcu.ie/agefriendly To find community connections and support: Village-to-Village Network is a national nonprofit membership organization that helps older adults age in place through delivery of practical assistance, social connections and educational opportunities. There are more than 300 “helpful villages” in the country, including in Foster City, Palo Alto and San Francisco. www.helpfulvillage.com Home Shares: This San Mateo County organization matches home seekers with those who have a room or accessory unit to rent. Options exist for reduced rent in exchange for doing household duties. www.hiphousing.org Co-Housing: These developments foster multigenerational/multicultural connections by combining private living spaces with public areas like kitchens, dining room and gardens. Examples include the San Mateo EcoVillage and the Mountain View Cohousing Community. https://www.cohousing.org/ Institute on Aging’s Friendship Line: IOA operates many programs in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. It offers seniors both crisis intervention and “warmline” support for non-emergency emotional support calls. https://www.ioaging.org
The Elder Wisdom Circle connects older people to young people seeking guidance on relationships, family, self-improvement or school. www.elderwisdomcircle.org Febuary 2022
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Dragons Have Their Day The dragons were out celebrating at Fernside Drive in Redwood City on Jan. 16. It appears that date is "International Appreciate a Dragon Day" and local aficionados Megan Gardner and husband Taylor Pope took full advantage of it. As reported in Climate's August 2021 issue, Gardner and Pope have been entertaining passing locals with their homemade inflatable dragons for several years. Children were delighted to wander freely amongst the 17 figures on display and engage with a live dragon (Gardner is wearing a dragon suit she made). Left: Taylor Pope and wife Megan Gardner.
Willis Richard Richardson Will Richardson, a Redwood City real estate broker whose community activities earned him recognition as Citizen of the Year in 1997, died Jan. 4 in San Diego at the age of 83. His family, which plans a celebration of his life this spring, says he’d had a long battle with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The Cincinnati native’s family moved to Redwood City in 1949, where Richardson spent most of his life. After college, he worked for United Airlines but then joined his father as a real estate agent, and later a broker at Terrace Realty. He retired from real estate in 2012 after 48-plus years. Family members say he was known for his generosity, his poetry-writing and his love for the San Francisco Giants and the 49ers. An avid outdoorsman, Richardson enjoyed fishing, skiing, and bicycling, pedaling thousands of miles across the country many times. Active in the Catholic Church, Richardson was also instrumental in the creation of the Bethlehem A.D. live nativity. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, LaVonne; his children Jeff (Penny) Richardson of Redwood City; Karen (Carl) Wallstedt of San Diego; and Mark (Jill) Richardson of Reno; as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations be made to the Sequoia Awards, one of his activities.
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8/2/1938 ~ 1/4/2022
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49er Rally Lights Up the Neighborhood
In order to pump up excitement for the pending playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, Russell Muzzolini and wife Leslie dressed up their house on Valota Street in Redwood City and the trees across the street with 49er-themed lights. Programmed to music, the ever-changing light show wowed spectators—and perhaps the devotion even aided the 49ers in their 23-17 win.
Bay Cities Soccer Holds Tryouts Bay Cities Football Club held tryouts for their women's team on Jan. 15. Second year head coach Jason Brown was on hand to run prospective team members through their paces. A former professional soccer player from London, England; Brown spent 17 years as a player before turning his attention to coaching. After years of coaching in England and around the world he decided to take a sabbatical. "I've been playing professional soccer since I was 15 years old," he says, "and was out here looking for a little break." That break turned to yet another coaching job.
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Robin Nielsen with one of her many peacocks.
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Animal Farm A family’s home in the hills becomes a haven for animals in distress
By Dan Brown
There’s a heavy mist on this gray Saturday afternoon atop the wooded terrain of Kings Mountain, where the fresh coat of moisture will again prevent the persistent mud from drying. But should the soft rain turn into downpour that lasts, say 40 days and 40 nights, the Nielsen family would wellpoised to pull off a Noah’s Ark imitation and float right out of here.
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wo of everything? By the looks of it, they’d be covered with plenty of creatures to spare. There are legions of ducks, turkeys, peacocks, cattle and babydoll Southdown sheep on the premises. There are also six dogs, seven cats and, consequently, a lot fewer mice than there used to be. There’s a skittish pony named Tony Macaroni, a rescue lamb named Joey Bean and a honking ball of angry feathers that accounts for the prominent warning sign: “Area patrolled by attack goose.” There are quirky animals, too, such as a family of zebus (domestic cows with Asian origins), dozens of Guinea keets
(ground-nesting birds like partridges) and a rhea (a flightless, ostrich-like bird from South America). Perhaps most exotic and endangered of all, there are two human children who actually love their hours of daily chores. Adventure Begins at Home “My kids have lived more adventures in life than sitting in the living room or in their bedroom playing computer games all day,’’ said Robin Nielsen, the one-liner slinging matriarch of this eclectic animal farm. Welcome to the Forest Meadow Ranch, a 14-acre haven located in unincorporated San Mateo County (the listed address is
Woodside). The sprawling but well-kept farm serves as something of an accidental animal sanctuary. The Nielsen family moved here because they needed ample room for their own menagerie. And as something of a happy accident, they wound up serving as an impromptu rescue operation for animals across the state. Forest Meadow Ranch is where animals come after they’ve been abused or neglected or sick or unwanted or otherwise discarded. How they get here is often a mystery because the Nielsens don’t advertise (other than a rapidly expanding Instagram account at @forest_meadow_ranch). But the critters keep on coming, including two sets Febuary 2022
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of fowl that were dumped out on the side of Cañada Road by their previous owners. The ranch doesn’t formally function as a charity or nonprofit. Everything here is privately funded by Robin and her husband, Chris. Somehow, though, the word seems to get to the right place. “The animals in distress that need us,’’ Robin said, “make it here.’’ Before the days of Covid-19, the Nielsens would also take their friendliest animals to children’s hospitals and family homeless shelters for the purpose of emotional support. Bethlehem A.D. Stars By early January, many of the happy (and noisy) animals on this ranch were essentially out-of-work local actors. They were fresh off their costarring roles in Bethlehem A.D., the popular annual Christmas event in Redwood City, where organizers aim to recreate the village of Bethlehem on the night of the first Christmas. The public can walk through the scenes and, as the website says, “travel 8,000 miles and 2,000 years back in history.” Costumed citizens peddle their wares in the marketplace, cook over fires or create pottery. But the biggest attraction for the younger set tends to be the furry cast members, dozens of whom come from Forest Meadow Ranch. No wonder there’s a Noah’s Ark vibe here. This is a ranch of biblical proportions. “I think we started doing it even before we moved here,’’ Robin said of her Bethlehem A.D. contribution. “Gosh, it’s been a long time. We’d bring rabbits and chickens. As we got bigger, we started bringing larger animals. So, that meant our whole herd of sheep. The chickens. All the peacocks went.” Longtime locals might better recognize the family name for Nielsen Automotive, the turn-back-the-clock service station that opened in San Carlos more than 75 years ago. Chris and his brother Jeff co-own the fourth-generation business
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PROFILE •
“The stuff that makes it here, we tend to have an emotional connection. It’s important that (the animals) feel safe." these days, and it is undoubtedly the only gas station in town at which people sometimes drop off a spare rooster or two. From there, Chris will ferry the birds 35 miles up the road to a new life. “I always told my wife that the sheep are not going to dictate where we live,’’ he said, smiling wide, “but apparently they are.” Chris and Robin moved from San Carlos to Forest Meadow Ranch about eight years ago, and their daughter Nicole (now 23) and son Christopher (20) still live on the ranch and embrace a life where every day can feel like a zoo. It’s an automotive family by trade, but this endeavor is also a gas. And nothing fills their tanks quite like providing a haven for creatures that deserve a better life. A Rescued Horse Tony Macaroni, the nervous horse, for example, was part of a rescue mission that began with somebody else wresting Tony and four mares from a property where the horses were beaten as well as dangerously malnourished. “(Tony) and the mares were skin and bones,’’ Robin said. “Nothing left.” The man who rescued the five horses kept the mares, but retaining Tony proved too much to ask. The stallion was wild, tried to bite and was clearly suffering from trust issues when it came to humans. But that
formula is right up the Nielsens’ alley, so they brought Tony to this remote section of Woodside and gave him a second chance. “The stuff that makes it here, we tend to have an emotional connection. It’s important that (the animals) feel safe,’’ Robin said. “The pony has never been safe. Even where he was at before—the guy fed him and made sure he was not sick. But he wasn’t doing anything with him. Tony didn’t feel safe. He was just in a field.” Warning Signs The Nielsens, especially Nicole, are attuned to warning signs regarding the animals available on Craigslist. Nicole will often peruse the for-sale listings with the specific goal of identifying creatures in distress. “If there’s a picture of a cow and you can see every rib, you know it’s not good,’’ Robin said. Nicole specializes in recognizing the telltale signs of even reptiles in trouble. Whenever something’s not right, the Nielsens spring to action like Bruce Wayne spotting the Bat Signal. For example, not long ago the Nielsens spotted a Craigslist ad in which a young woman in Concord was offering two free lambs. Robin recognized the red flags instantly. “I thought, ‘Aww, this person’s gone and gotten herself into some sort of trouble,’’’ she said. Her suspicion only grew after learning that several people had inquired about the lambs only to change their minds after arriving to pick them up. As it turned out, Robin said, “they were catastrophically ill.” Both of the animals had “sore mouth’’ disease, a highly contagious herpes virus that results in open sores around the mouth and skin. Worse, both sheep had a neurological disease. But what scared off other parties only made the Nielsens more interested. They took both lambs in and did the best they could to give them a better life, albeit to mixed results. The female died after a few months, but the male survived and is thriv-
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PROFILE •
Robin and Nicole Nielsen oversee some of their animals, including two 2,400-pound black Angus 4-H show cows (above, right) and Humphrey, the miniature zebu (with horns). Below left, are Nicole and her boyfriend Brandon Lyons and Tony Macaroni, and, above, Kenny, a South American rhea.
ing on the ranch now. “He’s in great shape,’’ Robin said. “We did a lot of therapy work with him.” Though knowledgeable about various animal maladies, the Nielsens trust the important stuff to a few local veterinarians who are happy to assist with their cause, among them a specialist who gets a kick out of the unexpected challenges. “I tend to use an equestrian vet down at Stanford barn, where they treat your halfa-million-dollar polo pony,’’ Robin cracked. “They treat our animals just because it’s interesting to see something different.” It Started with 4-H None of this was the plan, even if it’s easy to see the path in retrospect. Robin grew up on two-and-half acres in lower Portola Valley, where she was active in 4-H as a child. Her father was an electrician and always wanted his children to grow up and find a place in the redwoods. That’s what
happened, even if it took a while. About a decade ago, Chris and Robin were married and living with a handful of backyard animals, when Nicole, too, became an enthusiastic 4-H member. Nicole wanted to raise sheep—but not for meat. After the San Mateo County Fair, she decided she wanted to keep her woolly friends. But where? The Nielsens dispatched some of their miniature sheep to a friend’s property in Redwood City. Later, they arranged for some big cows to stay at another friend’s property in Woodside. Predictably, Robin quickly tired of spending three hours a day driving around to feed sheep and cattle, so she and Chris began looking for a proper ranch property. It took three years—and lots of checking on Zillow—but they finally found a winner when a seller decided to break a 54-acre parcel into two parts, one of which the Nielsens could afford. They bought 14 acres; the rest of the lot became publicly
owned open space. The animals here stay in well-protected pens, fortified by an electric fence designed to keep the wild fox and mountain lion population at a safe distance from an easy dinner. While Chris works during the day at the automotive business, Robin’s “real” job is teaching general human biology at Cañada College, where most of her students are studying to go into health-care careers. Robin joked that she’s been teaching at Cañada for “for the past 9,000 years,’’ which certainly explains her qualifications for the Bethlehem A.D. event. How much does it cost per day to feed the 150 to 200 animals on this sprawling farm? On this question, the creature Robin most resembled was a clam. “The answer would lead to a divorce,’’ she joked. “So, I’m not going to tell you.” C To donate to the Nielsens’ rescue mission, follow the link in their Instagram bio at @forest_meadow_ranch February 2022
· CLIMATE · 21
•
M I C R O C L I M AT E •
This Window Artist Makes Paper and Scissors Rock All he has to go on is the color of the month—white, teal, red, green, you name it—but artist Steve Luke manages to turn those marching orders into a clever and original store window display. He works at the University Art Center store on El Camino Real in Redwood City, where co-workers and customers alike look forward to what the window wizard is going to come up with each month to support the store’s “Color of the Month” advertising. Luke, who says his job is “cashier/art department,” doesn’t like being watched while he’s working on the next month’s creation and comes in about an hour before most people arrive. And then at the first of every month comes the big reveal. “His fellow employees are amazed at how quickly he can go from the design idea to the finished product,” says Tina Ford, the assistant store manager. “Customers are constantly in awe of the monthly window art.” Luke studied graphic art at San Jose State University—his parents urged him to get a degree in something that would earn an income—but by the time he graduated, he realized that wasn’t what he wanted to do. He ended up going to work for Mervyns in display merchandising, and then 23 years ago, landed a job at University Art’s San Francisco store. Since then, he’s worked at the San Jose and Palo Alto stores and had done windows at almost all of the locations. He’s been doing window displays to reinforce the advertising department’s “color” campaign for about three years. Customers can read a blog about the highlighted color’s history and its variations (pink, for example, shades into rose, flamingo, taffy, bubblegum and champagne; or brown, can be mocha, carob, umber, cedar or chocolate.) Luke used to do a painting
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with acrylic markers but it took so long that he switched to creating his paper sculpture displays. Says Ford, his displays “have morphed into incredibly intricate colorful paper designs that wow customers.” Luke cuts out multiple basic shapes which can be used for leaves, petals and so on, and just keeps “repeating that shape over and over again.” He works entirely freehand and doesn’t sketch out his complex creations in advance. Each
display takes about eight days, about an hour per session. “To me it’s very easy doing this because it’s just like basic shapes,” Luke says. “And just multiply it.” He uses a fairly heavy colorfast paper which will keep its shape and not fade being in the window for a month. (Each design requires a surprisingly large amount of paper, Luke says.) He just hotglues all that paper to thick foam core board and, voila! A work of window art,
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which has gotten him more attention than anything he’s created before. “It’s actually my favorite kind of art I’ve ever done.” The color for January was white, so Luke came up with a Wedgewood-inspired display with white flowers and a blue border. He gave December’s color theme—metallics—a seasonal twist. He’s not a great fan of brown but managed to come up with a clever cuckoo clock with autumn-hued leaves. “Some of this stuff comes to you like that,” Luke says, with a shrug,” fast with no trouble.” A tiki-themed design highlighting the color yellow took more time than most of his creations because it’s in three large pieces. When the month ends, the displays go up for sale, with prices ranging from $250 to $500. Luke says some customers have expressed interest but none of the displays has yet sold. Maybe they just need the right window.
The leaders of Redwood City’s historic Union Cemetery put out regular appeals to residents who may have all or part of a grave marker or memorial that used to be at the Civil War-era cemetery on Woodside Road. Now they’ll be deciding whether to take in an 1888 headstone for someone who wasn’t buried there, but whose sad life calls out for a “final resting place.” The headstone of Ernest Williams was discovered recently in a dumpster in San Carlos by Jerry Georgette, of the Peninsula Rose Society, who contacted Kathy Klebe, president of the Union Cemetery board. The white granite headstone is inscribed with the key particulars: Died Dec. 2, 1888 at the age of 19 years and 5 months, and the wistful message, “I will give you rest.” But who was he and why was his headstone in a dumpster? Board member Maggie Coleman did some research and found that Williams was born in Australia in 1869 but apparently be-
M I C R O C L I M AT E •
came an orphan because he was listed in a San Francisco census in 1880 as being the ward of a widowed music teacher there. Coleman managed to locate his death certificate, which indicated that he had died from “inanition” (exhaustion from lack of nourishment) and exposure while in jail in Oakland. She speculates that he was possibly homeless. He was buried in the Oddfellows Cemetery in San Francisco, a 27-acre undeveloped site in what is today the Inner
Richmond District. It and three other surrounding cemeteries were established before the era of “perpetual care,” and they deteriorated over the years. In 1933 and 1934, Williams’ and 26,000 fellow Oddfellow remains were dug up and moved to Greenlawn Cemetery in Colma. Williams’ headstone is in great shape and is not water-damaged, which is remarkable because, during the mass removal, unclaimed headstones were tossed into the Pacific at Lands’ End and used in the construction of the Marina District’s St. Francis Yacht Club break wall. Others were used in street projects. How the wayward headstone ended up in a San Carlos dumpster is a mystery. But Union Cemetery has its own Oddfellows Section—and, assuming the board members approve, the orphaned boy from Australia may finally have a home, and with it a reason to recount his life story to visitors touring the cemetery. C
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February 2022
· CLIMATE · 23
Love •
SPOTLIGHT•
A Marriage of
and Work
By Janet McGovern
When they come home at night, these couples don’t have to ask each other “What did you do today?” because they’ve been sideby-side at the family business. To the time-honored vows about sticking together for better for worse, in sickness and in health; these are couples who upped the ante: Building an enterprise that supports them, their families and their employees. Being together 24/7. Partners in two places, trying not to bring the job home with them at night. With Valentine’s Day in view, Climate asked four local couples with family businesses to share their love/work stories. All four pairs have some things in common: They backfill and support their partners—and take pride in their joint success. This year in particular, looking back on the challenges the pandemic imposed, these couple have good cause to celebrate two anniversaries: another year together and another still in business. 24 · CLIMATE · February 2022
Anna and Dexter Chow Cheeky Monkey Toys 640 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park
Anna and Dexter Chow’s introduction might seem to have been hexed: They met in San Francisco at an “anti-Valentine’s Day party” that a fraternity brother threw. He happened to be friends with Anna’s roommate, who had dragged her along to the party so she wouldn’t have to go alone. After a few dates with Dexter, Anna called off her plans to move to Boston. They got married in 2000—but could never have imagined that two decades later they’d be running an acclaimed toy store. Coming out of college, Anna had been a professional equity stage manager who had particularly enjoyed bringing theater to kids. Dexter, who had been doing computer-related work with some start-ups, got laid off after the dot. com boom around 2001 went bust. Anna was expecting their first baby and they decided that owning a small business could be a way to be around more for their child. When Cheeky Monkey Toys came on the market in 2002, they took the plunge. “Seven months pregnant, I think we were a little naïve about what it meant to be parents,” Anna says. “I think we didn’t quite realize the amount of work both would take,” Dexter adds. (They have two sons, now 19 and 16.) When they started in business, it was harder to keep home and work separate, but in 2007 the Chows expanded to their current location, which is about four times larger. That made the business more viable and they also had to add
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SPOTLIGHT•
Four couples reflect on the rewards of being partners in the business of life
Anna and Dexter Chow
staff. “It’s given us some freedom in some regards,” Anna says. “We don’t have to call our boss and say we’re going to be out. We have an amazing team that can handle day-to-day operations. If our kids need us for something we can be there. And that’s probably the best part of running our own business. But then on the other hand, we’re on vacation and we’re answering emails as well. So it’s a give and take.” Dexter adds, “I think it takes a little concerted effort not to talk about the store, to be default conversations a lot, just because it’s on our minds a lot.” That burden weighed especially heavy in 2020 because the couple’s goal was to keep their full-time staff employed, which they were able to do. A Paycheck Protection Program loan was a lifeline, Anna says. “And then you have to build it back. Last year was our best year ever.” Many customers said they wanted to buy local, and grandparents who hadn’t seen grandchildren in two
years wanted to spoil them. Toys are, after all, fun. The Chows laugh a lot and clearly enjoy their work. He handles computer-related tasks, the website and some toy orders; she oversees the staff (about 12) and does a lot of the product-selection and buying. Dexter has been involved in the Chamber of Commerce and, when the boys were younger, Anna volunteered in their schools. Owning the store, she says, has “defined who we are. It’s defined our relationship in a lot of ways. I can’t imagine it any other way. We’re known in the community as Mr. and Mrs. Cheeky Monkey. Between our kids and our store, that’s who we are.”
Mike and Fera Hashemi Arya Steakhouse 885 Middlefield Road, Redwood City It’s hard not to identify something starcrossed in what brought Mike and Fera Hashemi together. “We met in a restaurant and we’re still in a restaurant,” she says of the grand opening in Irvine where they were introduced. She was the assistant manager; Mike came in that night to help his cousin out. Three whirlwind months
later, they were married. Fera quit that job and became a surgical tech. She’d work 12 hours at the hospital and then help with the lunch shift at her new husband’s restaurant. “Since then, we’ve been working together and loving each other,” Mike adds. “… For all these years, 1996 until now, we work together and we’re still married.” The Hashemis, who own Arya’s Steakhouse, have much in common. They clearly love being in the hospitality business. Both are immigrants: She came to the United States at the age of 5, when her parents had to leave Afghanistan because of the Russian war. Mike left Iran because of the revolution there, and moved to Italy, where two sisters lived. His mother had taught him to cook Persian food but he picked up Italian cuisine while there. After he came to the States in 1992, he opened a pizzeria and later an Italian fine-dining restaurant in Irvine. Both Hashemis say the number one trait that drew them together is a strong drive. They are so much in synch that when one has an idea, the other is all-in because they’re already thinking the same thoughts. “It’s a passion, it’s a push,” Fera says. “It’s really really hard for someone to kind of match that.” The Hashemis this month are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Redwood City restaurant, and the pandemic is just one of the challenges they’ve weathered. They had relocated from Southern California and opened their first Arya, in Cupertino, in 2007. (They later sold it.) In 2012, February 2022
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• they brought their unique combination of steaks and Persian cuisine to Redwood City’s revitalized downtown. A few months after they opened, though, they noticed that a nearby parking lot was shutting down because of the construction of the Box headquarters. Nobody, they say, had warned them. In the years that followed, more office building construction impacted their business—and then along came the Covid pandemic. They resolved not to blame anybody but simply fight to stay open. “We don’t go back and forth about whatever happened,” Mike says. “We don’t blame each other. Never.” Arya, he adds, has a good name and offers something unique, which “brought people from far away. … We’re just doing what we’ve always done: Stick together for what’s best for our customers and ourselves.” The Hashemis are devoted parents to their three children, and agreed early-on not to sacrifice time for their kids, who slept in a bassinette in the back of the restaurant when they were babies. Fera and Mike have always had a weekly “date night.” Sunday was family night; the kids got to pick the place or have Dad make dinner. During the three months when Arya had to close because of Covid and both parents were home, Mike would pick a different country or cuisine and slide the menu du jour under the doors of the kids’ rooms every morning. Their youngest daughter, Rayhana, 15, is a competitive figure skater and Fera rises early in the morning to drive her to ice rinks to train—and then is on duty at Arya from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. If that turbo-charged schedule weren’t enough, she does real estate during the day. But the marriage
26 · CLIMATE · February 2022
SPOTLIGHT•
Mike and Fera Hashemi
partnership is two-way: Mike puts out her open house signs, stays with her if the house is vacant and even talks to prospective buyers. “It helps to have a partner that not only backs you up but participates to help,” Fera says.
Rosalba Farias and Alfonso Angulo Plaza Jewelers 3303 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park Situated in a strip of shops at the convergence of Semicircular and Middlefield roads in North Fair Oaks, Plaza Jewelers is a neighborhood store with a largely Latino clientele. When Rosalba Farias’ former boss sold it to her in 1993, it was the only one of his five jewelry stores which was struggling. She’d learned the jewelry business working for him for five years at his San Jose store. But taking the leap to solo entrepreneurship was scary. “I started with nothing,” says the native of Mexico. Her old boss let her make payments for the next 10 years and recommended to suppliers that they extend credit. (She retains the same ones today.) Her landlord also wanted her to succeed and when she couldn’t make the rent, he’d cut her some
slack. “He was a beautiful person with me,” she says. “Never charged me interest or late fees, nothing. Very easy and very nice person.” From that start, Farias has built a business and a loyal clientele of about 200 regular customers, most of whom are Spanish-speaking. They can come to Plaza Jewelers for items they might not find elsewhere: baby bracelets, religious medallions, gold crosses and quinceañera rings, celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday in Latin culture. A mother of four, Farias also sells bracelets that one of her adult daughters make. She says she has been able to make the store successful because she’s always there and she knows her customers. “When I started the business, I worked seven days a week,” Farias says. “My kids helped me after school because I could not afford employees. I like to make sure my customers are happy what they buy. … I’m trying to give them the best customer service, good quality in my merchandise. Because I don’t have advertising. I don’t have radio or TV. Nothing. My best advertisement is person to person. And it works for me because I don’t lose customers. Every year I have more.” She rents a corner space in the front of the store to an insurance agent, which brings in revenue as well as customers who might also be interested in jewelry. And vice versa. During the pandemic, she had to close for three months but a grant from San Mateo County helped her pay the rent. About 10 years ago, her husband Alfonso Angulo joined her in the business. He’d worked in construction but painful rheumatoid arthritis made it impossible for him to continue. At the store, he waits on customers, does repairs and replaces watch batteries—but also constantly monitors security and looks for suspicious activity. “If he’s not here, I’m not working because I don’t feel safe,” Farias says. Angulo says he misses construction but likes being able
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SPOTLIGHT•
that is still a private office,” Curtis observes. “More than likely when they call here, they’re going to talk to a person instead of going to voice prompts. … I think if they had a choice, this would be the model they like but it’s not necessarily the most sustainable model going for 10, 20 years or Rosalba Farias and Alfonso Angulo so.” Before she came to work for her husto help his wife and enjoys the interaction band, Melissa had been the home-based with customers he’s come to know. So who’s the boss? Says Farias: “Any Northern California “sales office” for a Cadecisions, always we do them together.” nadian hotel company. The couple’s two Her friends ask how it’s possible to be to- young daughters were at home, making it gether 24/7, to which she responds, “Be- harder to stay focussed, and Melissa was cause my husband respects me a lot and working longer hours to make up. The “job respect him. I tell my kids the same thing opening” at the family podiatry office gave all the time: You need to respect your wife her more structure but also an opportunior your husband. … Respect is the most ty to use her experience in hiring, trainimportant thing, in the house, in work, ing and technology. “That’s where I felt I could be an asset,” she says. “I could do everywhere.” that and let him be the doctor. … I enjoy organizing things and making decisions and Dr. Curtis and Melissa Leviant seeing how I can make Associated Podiatry Group it easier.” 961 Laurel St., San Carlos At the office, he’s Melissa Leviant had vowed she’d nev- busy with patients er work in her husband Curtis’s medical and she’s up-front phones practice, but then an employee went on answering maternity leave and “it just kind of hap- and greeting patients. pened,” she says. Some 27 years later, she The Leviants try not still there, managing the busy two-physi- to bring work home cian podiatry office started in 1952 by her with them, but on a late father-in-law. When she and Curtis recent evening, it was were students at Cal Berkeley, Dr. Norman unavoidable. “Long Leviant had told his son, “If you want to go day here,” says Meto podiatry school, there’s a practice here lissa. “Came home, ate dinner, went back to work till about 10:30.” For her, it was waiting for you.” Dr. Curtis Leviant and his wife take accounts payable; for the doctor, patient pride in the style of care they provide. “I charts. Married 39 years this year, they think patients like this concept of medicine have a lot of shared interests, including a
love of cooking and travel, and being in business for themselves gives them flexibility to get away. “I always try to find that hot restaurant in the cities that we’re going to,” Curtis says. Though his office was an “essential” business and could stay open, following Covid protocols has been challenging. Curtis tried to do video appointments, but “this specialty does not lend itself very well to telehealth. It’s more hands-on.” Long-time Redwood City residents, the Leviants like the feeling of community that still exists and being able to get to know their patients. “It’s the people that make this more so than what I do each day,” says Curtis, who is in his 36th year as a podiatrist. “It’s people that make you want to come in and enjoy practicing here.” “We treat our patients like customers, not like patients,” says Melissa. “We want them to have a good experience. We want them when they leave here to be happy, to have their questions answered, look forward to coming back. So there’s a lot of satisfaction you get out of doing this and I think that motivates me a lot.” C
Dr. Curtis and Melissa Leviant
February 2022
· CLIMATE · 27
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SPOTLIGHT•
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28 · CLIMATE · February 2022
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C L I M AT E •
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February 2022
· CLIMATE · 29
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H I S T O•R YC LbI M y A J iTmE • Clifford•
Is it Curtains for a Redwood City Mural? Until recently, people lined up to see a mural at the Wells Fargo branch at 1900 Broadway, now vacant and the proposed site of a seven-story building housing offices, apartments and retail stores. Okay, a bit of a stretch because the approximately 30-foot-long mural was directly across from the teller windows. Waiting customers could hardly be expected not to see the mural that depicted Redwood City’s early years, a time when today’s downtown was a bustling waterfront featuring piles of lumber ready for shipping. “We have asked Wells Fargo to leave the mural in place,” said Mark Murray, spokesman for Lane Partners, the firm that has proposed the multi-use structure which will replace the bank. “Our intent is to donate it to the appropriate group so that it can be preserved.” Unfortunately, that won’t be easy. According to bank spokesperson Melanie Tobin, “Whoever created the mural applied it directly like wallpaper.” Wells Fargo, which is known for featuring murals at its branches, had little information about the mural. Its backstory is in limbo for now, but, on the plus side, researchers in the history room of the main Redwood City library found some interesting facts, among them that the mural’s origins can be found in “The Illustrated History of San Mateo County,” a collection of lithographs published in 1878 by Moore & DePue. Apparently, a photo was taken of the book’s waterfront scene and enlarged to mural size. However, no one seems to be sure, so we will stick with “apparently.” One thing is for sure, the lithograph was
30 · CLIMATE · February 2022
the work of Grafton T. Brown, who depicted 72 views of the county in the illustrated history book. Brown, who died in 1918, was a highly successful black artist, which was unusual for that time. The Community Mural Program Murals are a hallmark of Wells Fargo banks. Its Community Murals Program is described in a bank statement as honoring “the legacy of the communities we serve, highlighting the geography, industry and cultural diversity that gives each community its unique character and sense of place.” The program has resulted in murals in more than 2,300 Wells Fargo locations in the nation, among them the Marsh Manor shopping center in Redwood City. The 20-foot-long mural provides a crash course in Redwood City history, consisting of 12 photos, one snapped in 1921 at what was then the city’s main fire station, expanded and converted into the library’s central branch in 1988. The building’s exterior, including its distinctive red lamps, pretty much remained the same. The city founders included a bearded Simon Mezes, looking out in his 1854 portrait with an aloof expression. He was the agent for the Arguello family which held title to Rancho de las Pulgas, the Spanish land grant that would become Redwood City. Mezes wanted the city to be called
Mezesville, an idea that didn’t last long. A park on Howland Street, however, bears his name, although Mezes Park is better known as “Tank Park,” for the World War II Army tank that has stood guard since the 1940s. Mezes donated the land for that park as well as acreage for California Square, which served as a downtown plaza until the 1950s when it was replaced by the current County Government Center. The other photos in the Marsh Manor mural include the familiar “Climate Best by Government Test” sign; the stately San Mateo County Courthouse from the 1900s; the once prominent Bank of San Mateo County in 1891, a Renaissance Revival structure that is reportedly the oldest stone-faced building in the county; and a 1914 photo of a flower grower taking chrysanthemums to market. The mural also features an 1884 map of San Mateo County; a 1917 photo of the Wells Fargo Redwood City staff; and two advertisements from the bank’s early days. A Postscript The December History column about the Chinese laundry housed in Redwood City’s oldest commercial building jogged former Mayor Brent Britschgi’s memory. His family owned the Occidental Dairy just across the creek on Jefferson Avenue. “Most of the property today is the parking garage,” he reported. “The dairy was on the front and the back had a two-story building, including a barn. Next door was the Lang-Tinney funeral parlor. Across Jefferson was the county jail with inmates leaning out the windows yelling at us.” Britschgi was mayor from 1984 to 1986. C
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