MICROCLIMATE

Plant Bar Offers Coffee, Too

By Aimee Lewis Strain

From its terra cotta floors to its attractive, beamed ceilings, Little Green in downtown Redwood City is packed with an eclectic array of local artisan goods and offers one of the best coffee deals in town.

The brainchild of Sharon Grant and Michael Bell, Little Green opened last June at 1101 Main Street. Grant and Bell met during the pandemic, when Bell was managing S'Bastians Coffee on Woodside Road and Grant was renting artisan space there to sell her handcrafted succulent plants. They became friends and created a vision for Little Green that included not only handmade goods, but also an urban feel for shoppers who could browse, pot a plant and enjoy a 10-ounce cup of coffee for $2.

Beyond featuring Grant’s plants, the establishment offers vintage clothing, lotions, pottery, jewelry and other items. There’s a plant bar in one section and a coffee bar in the other. Grant, a longtime Redwood City resident, says the seemingly unusual combination works in unexpected ways.

“We knew that coffee and plants went well together from our days at S’Bastians, but we wanted to create a place where we could curate other artists and bakers to come in and offer their goods, too,” she says. “This would encourage residents to shop local and also enable us to offer interesting things from different vendors.”

Grant took up creating succulent centerpieces as a hobby following nearly three decades as an elementary schoolteacher. Soon her new pastime turned into a business venture. She started selling to local grocers such as Dehoff’s Market, Bianchini’s and Draeger’s. She also began teaching classes and eventually landed in the business partnership with Bell, a coffee and music connoisseur.

Sharon Grant

The plant section welcomes both individuals and groups. Customers can select a container, succulents and various soil toppings such as sand, pebbles, moss and rocks to create personal plant arrangements.

While planting or shopping, patrons hear vintage music playing on vinyl. Bell, with his years of experience at coffee houses, enjoys his simple coffee bar, which offers selections from Red Bay Coffee, an Oakland roastery. He considers his $2 cup of joe “the best coffee deal in town.”

With an abundance of natural light, 16-foot ceilings and more than 2,300-square feet, the location is also available as a meeting spot. The place already has been rented for small-business retreats, brunches and birthday parties. It also presents live music and has a side space for artisans’ popups where local vendors can “pop in” to sell their goods. With Little Green’s wide assortment of offerings, it will be interesting to see what sprouts in 2023. C

More information about Little Green: www.littlegreenplantbar.com

History Writer Gets a Lesson

By Jim Clifford

I encountered Redwood City Transportation Manager Jessica Manzi at the recent dedication of the city’s new mural along the Jefferson Avenue underpass, near City Hall. It gave me a chance to ask Manzi whether the city might bring back the fleet of mini-buses that operated successfully until being displaced by SamTrans in 1978. (See the history column in the December issue of Climate.)

I got a quick email reply in which Manzi noted that during her tenure the city has run two shuttles “that were discontinued for lack of ridership.” She added that the ways people get from one place to another have changed dramatically in just a short time.

“Many families have multiple cars, and the default is to drive even for short trips that we used to walk or ride bikes to complete,” Manzi wrote.

Still, things could change. Manzi said the city has adopted a transportation plan that she hopes will “provide safe, high-quality networks that encourage people to walk and ride bikes for short trips.” In addition, she noted SamTrans ridership is up, although she added it isn’t at “the level of service Redwood City had in the past.”

The New Mural on Jefferson Avenue

Sitting next to the Box Building and adjacent to the Sequoia Station shopping center, the piece covers approximately 4,700 square feet on the wall beneath the Jefferson Avenue underpass. The artwork by Oakland painter Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith is billed as an “equity mural,” designed to show Redwood City’s commitment to social justice.

Wolfe-Goldsmith wrote on the website of the city’s Parks, Recreation & Community Services Department that she wanted to “tell an honest recount of history” to share “our hopes and dreams for the future.” The artist added that she wanted to illustrate “historical travesties alongside accomplishments.”

For example, the mural sums up World War II by picturing “Rosie the Riveter,” a popular illustrated character who symbolized U.S. women who worked in military factories. It also depicts the internment of people of Japanese ancestry, along with a segment showing the chrysanthemum fields Japanese Americans cultivated in Redwood City before being forced from their homes. Their success as flower growers in the first half of the 20th Century gained Redwood City the nickname of “the chrysanthemum capital of the world.”

The dedication was held in front of City Hall, just feet away from a monument that lists the names of Redwood City residents killed in World War II.

Oakland painter Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith

Art Commissioner Ashley Quintana says she hopes the mural will enhance Redwood City’s sense of shared heritage. “I’m a strong believer that art brings people together, and that’s exactly what this mural does,” Quintana says.

Electronic Distribution for History Journal

A few changes are in store at the Karl Vollmayer Local History Room at Redwood City’s main library. The library’s Archives Committee, which publishes The Journal of Local History, is the victim of rising postage costs, and that means the publication will now be emailed to its 100 or so subscribers. Memberships to the committee are available to the public; members who lack an email address on file will continue to receive the journal via the postal service, says committee president Marian Wydo. She adds that a few copies of each issue will remain in the Vollmayer Room.

The archives committee lost two of its most knowledgeable and dedicated members in 2022. John Edmonds, who died April 8 at age 82, was the author of several books on local history, particularly about Union Cemetery. He contributed many articles to The Journal of Local History, and was the committee’s president for years.

Florian Shasky, a Sequoia High School faculty member and former head of special collections at the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford, died June 26 at 79. Active in the world of rare books and manuscripts, Shasky has been described as “a true bibliophile.”

Wydo’s mother, Frances Aragon, was another committee member; in Wydo’s words, “She loved Redwood City and saw many changes during her lifetime.” Aragon died June 10 at age 107. C