Palo Alto Weekly 01.25.2013 - Section 1

Vol. XXXIV, Number 17 N January 25, 2013

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Enjoy summer classes w w w.PaloA ltoOnline.com

More heart-attack victims could survive — with this device page 19

Donate to the HOLIDAY FUND page 14

Spectrum 12

Transitions 18

Shop Talk 26

Eating Out 27

Movies 29

N News Not dead yet: underground Palo Alto railroad tracks Page 3 N Arts New York jazz musicians spotlight black composers Page 23 N Sports Stanford’s goal — a familiar ring

Page 31

ANTIQUE CARPET SALE

Antique Sultanabad | Central Persia | 7’6� x 14’5� | $35,000 Sale: $16,000

Featuring the World Class Collection of a Famous Collector and Palo Alto Resident

Antique Khorasan Northeast Persia | 10’4� x 13’

Antique Sultanabad Central Persia | 8’3� x 10’9�

Antique Serapi Northwest Persia | 9’8� x 10�8�

Antique Farahan Central Persia | 8’11� x 11’3�

Antique Agra India | 7’10� x 9’8�

$40,000 Sale: $18,500

$24,500 Sale: $13,800

$30,000 Sale: $16,500

$22,500 Sale: $10,800

$17,500 Sale: $9,450

WORLD’S FINEST CARPETS AND TAPESTRIES 532 Ramona Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301 | Phone: 650.326.7900 | Open 7 days a week, 10am–6pm | www.pejmancarpet.com Page 2ĂŠUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°Vœ“

Upfront

Goal $350,000

See who’s already contributed to the Holiday Fund on page 14

As of Jan. 22 495 donors $388,785

Donate online at PaloAltoOnline.com

with matching funds

Local news, information and analysis

Cars under tracks at Churchill, Meadow, Charleston?

Council members say Palo Alto soon will have to face up to ‘very contentious’ issue

by Chris Kenrick

T

he “very contentious issue� of how the train tracks will cross at Alma, Churchill, Meadow and Charleston streets is something Palo Alto is going to have to confront in the coming years, City Council members said Tuesday

night, Jan. 22. “This is something that’s been very much on our minds, and it’s a very, very contentious issue,� councilman Larry Klein said.

The discussion came in the context of the council’s approval of a

“vision statement� for the rail corridor, which runs the length of Palo Alto. The statement takes no position on grade separations other than that the city “supports a non-elevated alignment� of the tracks, leaving open the question of whether cars would go under the tracks, cross them at road level or go over them if the tracks were placed underground.

However, the statement says there’s a need to assess the rail crossings for safety and engineering sound-

ness before deciding which way to go, Planning Director Curtis Williams said.

The vision statement calls for a “vibrant, safe, attractive transit-rich area with city and neighborhood mixed-use centers that provide walkable, pedestrian and bicyclefriendly places that serve the community and beyond, and to connect the east and west portions of the city through an improved circulation network that binds the city together

in all directions.�

The cost of placing the tracks underground is unknown, Klein said. “We’ve seen $500 million, and (architect) Tony Carrasco says $1.5 billion. These are huge numbers, but the detailed study, which some of us think is a good idea for HSR (the California High-Speed Rail Authority) to undertake remains to be done,� he said. (continued on page 6)

CITY HALL

Few good options on pensions, council is told Members vote to explore ‘hybrid’ system of smaller pensions, Social Security

by Chris Kenrick

D

AndrĂŠ Zandona

Totally in sync In an upside-down look at synchronized swimming by Weekly photography intern Andre Zandona, swimmers from Stanford University appear to be launching in unison. The team members were practicing their routine underwater while competing individually to secure a spot on the Seniors National Team, which will represent the U.S. at the 2013 Fina World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. The first phase of the U.S. Junior and Senior National Team Trials was hosted by the Santa Clara Aquamaids on Jan. 19.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Palo Alto residents form anti-gun-violence group Members ask City Council to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns

by Sue Dremann

A

group of Palo Alto residents have started a campaign to support President Barack Obama’s push to develop new gun laws.

Silicon Valley Community Against Gun Violence held its inaugural meeting on Jan. 17, and people from Atherton, Fremont, Hayward,

Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Carlos, San Mateo and Sunnyvale attended after the meeting was announced on the MoveOn. org web page, founder Bonnie Bernstein said.

The group is lobbying city officials to support Obama’s gun-control push, and it hopes to encourage

a variety of local actions, including gun-buyback programs. Former California Assemblywoman Sally Lieder, who attended the meeting, will be holding a community forum on gun control and violence reduction on Sunday, Jan. 27, at 1:30 p.m. (continued on page 9)

espite pension reforms passed in Sacramento last summer, Palo Alto remains severely restricted in its power to rein in the escalating costs of retiree pay because of state law and pension regulations, the City Council learned Tuesday night, Jan. 22.

Retired city employees this year will cost Palo Alto a projected $23.37 million — a tenfold increase from the $2.4 million liability of 2003.

Council members voted to explore, in conversations with staff, the possibility of attacking the problem through creation of a hybrid system that would allow at least some city employees to join the federal Social Security system and combine that with a lower city pension. The vote was 6-3, with council members Liz Kniss, Gail Price and Nancy Shepherd opposing, saying the move was premature before legislative changes are sought.

As part of the California Public Employees Retirement System, Palo Alto is bound by rules of that agency, and any meaningful change will require legislation, said Kathy Shen, the city’s human resources director.

The council voted unanimously to pursue legislation to close loopholes in the 2012 pension reforms and also give cities more power over their retiree pay programs. “The situation is not going to get any better until we take (legislative) action,� Shen told the council.

As a newcomer to city government 18 months ago after 35 years in the private sector, Shen said her initial impulse was to have the city withdraw from CalPERS. But she was told an exit would cost the city $600 million to $1 billion and still leave the city with the task of finding another plan of its own.

Between current and past employees, the city is covering 2,940 people, Shen said. “That’s a lot of people, and we’re going to be covering them for a long time.�

Even with the state reforms — as well as a second-tier pension for new hires adopted by Palo Alto in 2008 — all but the newest employees remain under the old, more generous pension formulas, and it will take 30 years for them to work through the system, she said.

Under formulas in place until recently, a city worker who retires after 30 years with a salary of $70,000 would get about 80 percent of that — or $56,700 — in pension, plus health care coverage. “Pension costs really limit our choices,� Shen told the council. “There’s pressure on the size of our workforce, benefits and salaries.

We have to prioritize our services because we can’t do everything at once with those costs rising.�

The concept of retirement has changed in the 100 years since California’s public pension system was established, she said.

Back then, people retired at 65, typically had paid off their home and had no expectation of earning their working salary in retirement, or even 60 percent of it, Shen said. “That’s now turned upside down. “Now we have people retiring at 55 or even 50 and at the same time the average life span is higher, so you could conceivably be retired for as long as you were working. That was never the paradigm when pensions were put in place,� she said. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

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Upfront

Palo Alto Historical Association presents a public program

Speaker: Paul Price of the Paul Price Society Orchestra

PUBLISHER William S. Johnson (223-6505)

Sunday, January 27, 2013, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Lucie Stern Community Center 1305 MiddleďŹ eld Road, Palo Alto Refreshments No admission charge

Paul Price

NEWCOMER’S COFFEE Thursday, February 21, 3 – 4 p.m.

We welcome those who are new to the bay area. Please call for more information or to RSVP.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE FIELD OF ELDER CARE Wednesday, February 20, 7-9 p.m.

Find out how to break into the booming field of elder care.

Free workshop, but please RSVP.

february highlights FOR THIS MONTH:

ADMINISTRATION Receptionist Doris Taylor Courier Ruben Espinoza

David Ramadanoff Conducts Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra and Anna Maria Mendieta Excerpts from Shylock Suite Pamela Martin, conductor

Piazzolla Tango Suite Anna Maria Mendieta, harp

Gen Admission

$20

Haydn

Seniors (60+)

$16

Saturday, January 26 at 7:30 pm

Under 18 FREE

Symphony No. 96

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park Free reception follows concert Sunday, January 27 at 2:30 pm

This ad sponsored by Ginny and Joe Kavanaugh of Coldwell Banker, Portola Valley.

Visit them at www.thekavanaughs.com

ADVERTISING SERVICES Advertising Services Manager Jennifer Lindberg (223-6595) Sales & Production Coordinators Dorothy Hassett (223-6597), Blanca Yoc (223-6596)

BUSINESS Payroll & Benefits Susie Ochoa (223-6546) Business Associates Elena Dineva (223-6542), Mary McDonald (223-6543), Claire McGibeny (223-6546), Cathy Stringari (223-6544)

debor ah’s palm

Tickets:

ADVERTISING Vice President Sales & Advertising Tom Zahiralis (223-6570) Multimedia Advertising Sales Adam Carter (223-6574), Elaine Clark (223-6572), Janice Hoogner (223-6576), Wendy Suzuki 2236569), Brent Triantos (223-6577), Real Estate Advertising Sales Neal Fine (223-6583), Carolyn Oliver (223-6581), Rosemary Lewkowitz (223-6585) Inside Advertising Sales David Cirner (223-6579), Irene Schwartz (223-6580) Real Estate Advertising Assistant Diane Martin (223-6584) Legal Advertising Alicia Santillan (223-6578)

EXPRESS, ONLINE AND VIDEO SERVICES Online Operations Coordinator Rachel Palmer (223-6588)

For further details, visit our website: deborahspalm.org 555 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto 650 /473-0664

Faure

EDITORIAL Editor Jocelyn Dong (223-6514) Associate Editor Carol Blitzer (223-6511) Sports Editor Keith Peters (223-6516) Express & Online Editor Tyler Hanley (223-6519) Arts & Entertainment Editor Rebecca Wallace (223-6517) Assistant Sports Editor Rick Eymer (223-6521) Spectrum Editor Tom Gibboney (223-6507) Staff Writers Sue Dremann (223-6518), Chris Kenrick (223-6512), Gennady Sheyner (223-6513) Editorial Assistant, Internship Coordinator Eric Van Susteren (223-6515) Staff Photographer Veronica Weber (223-6520) Contributors Colin Becht, Dale F. Bentson, Peter Canavese, Kit Davey, Iris Harrell, Sheila Himmel, Chad Jones, Karla Kane, Kevin Kirby, Jack McKinnon, Jeanie K. Smith, Susan Tavernetti Editorial Interns Rebecca Duran, Ranjini Raghunath

DESIGN Design Director Shannon Corey (223-6560) Senior Designers Linda Atilano, Diane Haas, Scott Peterson, Paul Llewellyn Designers Lili Cao, Rosanna Leung

— Women’s Support Group — Career Check-Up Workshops — Assertive Woman Workshops — Professional Women’s Networking Group — French Conversation & Culture

Los Altos United Methodist Church 655 Magdalena (at Foothill), Los Altos Free reception at intermission

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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The Palo Alto Weekly (ISSN 0199-1159) is published every Friday by Embarcadero Media, 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306, (650) 326-8210. Periodicals postage paid at Palo Alto, CA and additional mailing offices. Adjudicated a newspaper of general circulation for Santa Clara County. The Palo Alto Weekly is delivered free to homes in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, East Palo Alto, to faculty and staff households on the Stanford campus and to portions of Los Altos Hills. If you are not currently receiving the paper, you may request free delivery by calling 3268210. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302. Š2013 by Embarcadero Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. The Palo Alto Weekly is available on the Internet via Palo Alto Online at: www.PaloAltoOnline.com Our email addresses are: editor@paweekly.com, letters@paweekly.com, digitalads@paweekly.com, ads@paweekly.com Missed delivery or start/stop your paper?

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‘‘

‘‘

Music in Palo Alto 1910-1920

When we get to it, these chambers will be packed.

— Palo Alo City Councilman Larry Klein, referring to a potential decision to change railroad crossings, which could involve taking out about 100 homes. See story on page 3.

Around Town YAKETY-YAK ... Palo Alto City Council Chambers were deserted Tuesday night by the time the council got to its last agenda item — long-winded members. The nine readily agreed to spend “about an hour� at their upcoming Feb. 2 retreat discussing voluntary — or perhaps mandatory — provisions to limit council members’ questions and comments during meetings.

Worried that lengthy meetings are “undermining public confidence� in the political process, Mayor Greg Scharff and council members Larry Klein and Gail Price have suggested that mandatory time limits be considered if council members cannot voluntarily refrain from making voluminous comments. The average length of council meetings — held almost weekly — crept up from about four-and-a-half hours in 2008 through 2011 to five hours in 2012. “We risk undermining public confidence in our processes if we can’t this problem under control,�

Scharff, Klein and Price said in a memo to colleagues.

OH-BAMA! ... As if their trip to Washington D.C. wasn’t exciting enough: Five students from the Midpeninsula Community Media Center’s Youth Video Corps (YVC) traveled with former Palo Alto Mayor Yiaway Yeh for the Inauguration last weekend. On what was to be their last day — Tuesday, Jan. 22 — they all went on a tour of the White House, only to get the surprise of a lifetime. “Oneby-one we stepped into the Blue Room, and there they were,� YVC member Dakota Baker wrote on a blog on Palo Alto Online’s Town Square forum. “President Barack Obama was standing next to First Lady, Michelle Obama waiting to shake my hand!!!!! I was completely awestruck; my cheeks felt hot and pink; I was tingling all over. I wanted to have somewhat of a conversation with them, but I found it was extremely difficult to speak intelligently or intelligibly.� YVC member Kenny Jones wrote: “Although I have been starting my blog posts from the start of my day, in this one I will start from the middle because, well, WE MET THE PRESIDENT! ... I SHOOK THEIR HANDS! The experience was beyond amazing. ... This has been one of the crazier days of my life, and I am so thankful. ... I continuously count my bless-

ings and pinch myself because I am pretty sure that I’m dreaming.

And, as Channel 4’s newscaster once said: Don’t act like you’re not impressed.� And YVC member Caroline Clark wrote: “One-by-one guests were ushered into the Blue Room. To our absolute astonishment, Barack was there with Michelle. I had a good 10 seconds of processing time and mind screaming before approaching the President and shaking his hand. ... I’m amazed that I managed to speak.

The entire time I was completely in shock; ‘I’M TALKING TO THE PRESIDENT!!!’ were the only words I could think of. ... Today has been completely surreal. I can’t believe I met the Obamas, or got a chance to tour the West Wing. It’s been beyond any dream of mine. Words can’t even explain how overjoyed I am.� The students, who missed their flight home because of the unexpected turn of events, caught a flight home the next day.

BUH-BYE BAGS ... The City of Menlo Park has just leapfrogged over Palo Alto when it comes to banning plastic bags. This week, the Menlo Park City Council voted 5-0 to enact a new ordinance banning the use of plastic bags at check out by retailers. The ban prohibits retailers from providing plastic bags, except those used by restaurants and for produce, and also implements a 10-cent fee for paper bags. On Jan. 1, 2015, the fee increases to 25 cents per paper bag and reusable bag provided to customers. Retailers that fail to comply with the ban will be fined $100 for a first violation and $200 for a second. Starting with a third violation, a retailer will be fined $500 each day the store remains non-compliant. The ordinance authorizes the San Mateo County environmental-health department to enforce the ban. Menlo Park, along with 24 other Peninsula cities, decided last year to support the county’s ordinance, in part to save the city the expense of conducting its own environmental review. The Menlo Park ban will take effect on Earth Day. City staff will give free, reusable bags to residents and retailers through July 1 to help with the transition. Palo Alto is considering expanding its plastic-bag ban, which applies to major grocery outlets, to retailers citywide. N

Upfront

Veronica Weber

“Be Bold,� advises author Karen Kang while speaking to students at Castilleja School in Palo Alto about marketing and how to brand themselves while applying to universities.

EDUCATION

Brands: not just for businesses anymore Consultant teaches Castilleja seniors personal branding in the digital age

by Rebecca Duran

T

he rise of social media in professional and social situations has made deciding how to present one’s self more important — even for teenagers, according to branding consultant Karen Kang.

As part of Castilleja School’s Global Week, in which the all-girls

school welcomes speakers for a series of lectures, Kang explained the importance of personal branding, which she described as a person’s reputation and image. Kang, the founder and CEO of BrandingPays and author of a new book on the subject, stressed that building a per-

sonal brand is a practical pursuit. “I want to dispel this myth that personal branding is narcissistic,� the Palo Alto resident said.

Kang has consulted for more than 100 organizations and has given numerous seminars at business schools, including Stanford University.

She told the group of seniors that women can be at a disadvantage when it comes to the perception of them in the workplace. Some might not see them as stern enough or as decision-makers. To respond to this, she encouraged the girls to have presence in a room and to “own their space.�

She said it is important for a person to decide how to present themselves, what messages they will present to their audience, their strategy and how they network. “This is an opportunity for them to learn the tools for branding in a changing world,� said Stacey Kertsman, director of the Awareness, Compassion and Engagement Center at Castilleja.

Kang talked about how she hired her intern, whose resume caught her eye because she was an intern for Disney and a blogger at a digitalmedia firm. She said that catching someone’s eye is important.

Kang explained her own branding strategy, which is summed up as “bake the cake, then frost it.�

The cake includes the “hard skills� and the frosting includes the “soft skills.�

Hard skills include being a strategic thinker or having clear, persuasive communication. Soft skills include emotional intelligence and social skills.

She said it’s important to stay consistent with one’s core values and to think about what brand attributes are being put out there.

She gave a local example of Hillary Freeman. Freeman, who was known in the community but not by the electorate, was elected to Palo Alto’s City Council in 2001. She won with the most votes that year.

Kang helped her develop an image as a politician. “You can’t be known for everything. You have to be known for

something,� Kang said.

Going into college, “it’s important to at least put a stake in the ground� and pick a major of interest, even if it will change down the road, she said.

Student Sarah Shen said the information will be useful going into college and internships.

Kang had the students try “elevator pitches.� A 10-second pitch might include a brief description of what school they go to and where they want to go to college.

A 30-second pitch would allow for them to reveal more information, such as volunteer work or other accomplishments. A 60-second pitch would allow even more examples and might include hobbies. She directed students to walk around the room in pairs while giving their pitches, a simulation of trying to present yourself to someone in a short amount of time. “They want to see a little of your personality, a little of your humanity,� Kang said.

Afterward, the students said they felt challenged to make sure the pitches flowed and were memorable and to list things they were passionate about and to provide a context. “It was exceptionally helpful,� student Camille Townshend said. “Learning how to present yourself was a great opportunity. I’m definitely going to take it with me through the application process.�

Students Gabriela Castro and Rebecca Pless echoed Townshend’s thoughts, saying they felt it was a great opportunity to advance women and something they would never be taught in class. “We don’t have to be men in the workplace,� Kang said, stating the importance of embracing all types of skills. N Editorial Intern Rebecca Duran can be emailed at rduran@ paweekly.com.

LAND USE

Image courtesy of Stanford University.

Arrillaga’s Menlo project grows by adding housing Joint Stanford development increases by 5,000 square feet

by Sandy Brundage

I

s this a case of “be careful what you wish for�? The latest revision of a proposed development in Menlo Park by Stanford University and philanthropist John Arrillaga added some housing, which may mollify city officials. But there’s a catch: The addition comes without sacrificing office and retail space — meaning that the already massive 8-acre project along El Camino Real would grow by about 5,000 square feet, making some residents even more unhappy. “Stanford/Arrillaga project leaders did not listen to the objections of Menlo Park neighborhoods — Instead of reducing the traffic and safety concerns — they have increased it,� Perla Ni, a spokesperson for the group Save Menlo, wrote in an email. “This is the largest medical office complex that has ever

been proposed for Menlo Park, and now they are proposing to add more housing on top of it.�

Save Menlo, a grassroots effort to oppose the proposed plan, met with Stanford University representatives Jan. 18. During the meeting, the group reviewed the revised plans the university submitted to Menlo Park last week.

The project will replace car lots along 300 to 500 El Camino with a mixed-use complex of 96,000 square feet of medical offices, 133,500 square feet of offices, 10,000 square feet of retail, and housing.

The latest changes propose adding 15 to 30 apartments for a maximum of 150 units. Architects also modified the public plaza on Middle Avenue with what Stanford described as “bicycle and pedestrian friendly improvements.�

A rendering of the mixed-use office, retail and residential housing complex next to a public plaza at Middle Avenue as seen from El Camino Real in Menlo Park, according to revised plans submitted by Stanford University and John Arrillaga.

The proposal remains consistent with the city’s specific plan for the area, according to city staff, and won’t trigger discussions about the developer providing the city public benefits. That leaves Menlo Park without much control over the project since it won’t require approvals for anything beyond the Planning Commission signing off on architectural details.

Some city officials, including planning commissioners and council

members, have not been shy about expressing disappointment with the project. They said that throughout creation of the downtown/El Camino Real specific plan, Stanford appeared to support developing the empty car lots as senior housing.

Instead, the university is now forging ahead with a project composed primarily of office space, which is expected to increase traffic along the city’s main corridor.

On Monday, Jan. 28, the Plan-

ning Commission will hold a study session for the project. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at the Civic Center at 701 Laurel St. The latest version is expected to be posted by Friday, Jan. 25, on www.menlopark.org. N Sandy Brundage is a staff writer with the Almanac, the Weekly’s sister paper. She can be reached at sbrundage@almanacnews.com.

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Neighborhoods

A roundup of neighborhood news edited by Sue Dremann

AROUND THE BLOCK

LUNAR NEW YEAR ... The firstever Barron Park Lunar New Year Celebration will take place on Feb. 9. The event, sponsored by the Barron Park Association, will feature holiday foods, crafts and a traditional lion dance performance to celebrate the New Year.

High school students are needed to help with the event, which will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Barron Park Elementary School multipurpose room. It is the first in a series of the neighborhood association’s “Celebrate Cultural Diversity� events to embrace residents from different backgrounds.

Students and persons who want to help with the event can contact Lydia Kou, organizer, at Lkou@apr. com.

EDGEWOOD PLAZA: SLOW OR GO? ... The Palo Alto City Council will consider the process for moving forward with a project review of the Edgewood Plaza development, which has come under fire by several residents after developer Sand Hill Properties tore down a historic Eichler retail building after agreeing to move and restore the structure.

The meeting will take place Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at the City Hall Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto.

NEIGHBORHOOD BEAUTIFICATION ... Barron Park Neighborhood President Lynnie Melena reports that the City of Palo Alto has just finished planting droughttolerant plants around the new well equipment at the Matadero Well Site. The association is looking for volunteers to help the plants grow with occasional watering.

City crews are also removing a few dead acacias closer to the creek bank. N

Send announcements of neighborhood events, meetings and news to Sue Dremann, Neighborhoods editor, at sdremann@paweekly.com. Or talk about your neighborhood news on Town Square at www.

PaloAltoOnline.com.

Catching neighbors who fall through the gap Neighborhood food drives help residents in need through hard times

by Sue Dremann Palo Alto neighborhood group is working to turn a holiday food drive for needy neighbors into a monthly grocery giveaway. Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a volunteer group in Midtown, plans to work with schools and other groups to provide not just canned foods but to target specific nutritional needs not generally taken care of in other food programs. Volunteers hope to kick off the program on Feb. 2 at El Carmelo Elementary School.

Caryll-Lynn Taylor, a leader of Midtown Court Neighbors and Friends, said she became aware of the the growing need as part of the City of Palo Alto’s Family Resources Ambassador Program. There are families who don’t qualify for safety-net programs. “So many neighbors were being turned away because their income level was too high, but yet they were unable to pay for their basic needs,� she said.

A greater number of people are finding themselves in need as rents have risen in the improving economy, she said. “They said, ‘What do I do now?

I’m in crisis,’� Taylor recalled of the residents she’s spoken to.

Food is critical to helping people move out of their financial dilemmas, Taylor said. “When we feed families, we begin to have stable households when these families are fortified nutritionally.�

Dr. Lars Osterberg, co-director of the Stanford School of Medicine’s Arbor Free Clinic in Menlo Park, agreed. The problem isn’t so much a lack of food as it is one of a nutritionally deficient diet, he said. “We see a lot of patients who rely on food services in the area. However, a lot of it is cheap food that is high in carbohydrates and promotes diabetes and high cholesterol,� he said.

A clinic study several years ago screened people at food-service centers. Many clients had cardiovascu-

A

Rail crossings (continued from page 3)

In separate, later testimony before the council, Adina Levin of Friends of Caltrain cited a “very interesting proposal� in San Francisco to fund realignment and undergrounding of tracks through the sale of land that then would be freed up.

But short of undergrounding the

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lar disease, he said. Factors such as smoking and substance abuse contributed to the problem, but food choices and lack of availability exacerbate health problems, he said. Among immigrant populations that are not used to American diets, cheap fast food and refined sugar are creating more heart disease and diabetes, he said.

Osterberg and Taylor discussed how to strategically provide a balanced diet. “We’d love to see more of that,� he said, praising the group’s focus on high-fiber and fresh foods.

Taylor said the idea for a food drive came after seeing a notice in the Palo Verde neighborhood newsletter. She contacted the food-drive leader, Jana Baxter, about how to set up one for her neighborhood. The outreach led to serving 62 households. Among them, there were 12 seniors and 39 children. Some residents have disabilities, she said.

Taylor spoke to the food recipients and learned that some had specific dietary restrictions. Several seniors also said they had been diagnosed with anemia. Taylor started thinking about how to supplement their nutrition.

For the holiday food drive, the group received cash to purchase fresh fruit, vegetables and meats.

Volunteers put together a menu and wish list of iron-rich foods such as frozen spinach and beef liver. They added edamame (soybeans), frozen and dried lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans and other foods to supplement diets. Eighteen families received holiday pork roasts, she said. “We were extremely mindful of not providing packaged foods,� Taylor said.

Local stores also chipped in, offering items at or below cost, and in some cases, even for free.

There was enough food for a week of breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and snacks, Taylor said.

One 48-year-old recipient who lives in Midtown said the groceries have helped greatly. tracks, the community will need to decide what to do about the rail crossings, council members said.

If the trains are at grade, running along four tracks instead of the current two, “roughly 100 homes would have to be taken to put in a grade separation, and we’ve been cognizant of that as a very contentious impact,� councilman Pat Burt said. “When we get to it, these chambers will be packed,� Klein said.

Weekly file photo/Veronica Weber

REPAIR CAFE ... Got a broken toaster or frayed electrical cord?

Palo Alto’s second Repair Cafe will take place to help with those odd fix-its on Feb. 24 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Museum of American Heritage, 351 Homer Ave., Palo Alto. Damaged items such as small household appliances, lamps, PCs and computer products, luggage, jewelry, furniture and bikes are welcome. More information is available at http://repaircafe-paloalto.org.

Persons who want to volunteer their repair expertise can contact Volunteer@RepairCafe-PaloAlto. org.

MIDTOWN

Caryll-Lynn Taylor stands in the plaza of 2727 Midtown Court last June. She is currently helping to organize monthly food drives for her neighbors in need.

The mother of three asked that when helping those in need was a her name not be published. She and given within communities. her children all have food allergies, “I remember my grandmother and she cannot eat canned and pro- telling me about having a strong cessed foods because preservatives community.� she said of the generatrigger intense migraines, she said. tions of farmers from which she is One of her sons may be developing descended. diabetes. “When neighbors were in trouble, The mother, who is disabled, neighbors came to their aid before reached a financial crisis last year anyone asked. There was no shame after a substantial rent increase, she in needing help. There was none of said. The groceries arrived at a criti- this business of coming on the sly cal time. — of ‘I don’t want my neighbors to “I couldn’t use my credit card know,’� she said. N Neighbors Helping Neighbors anymore. I was using that to shop,� food drives are being coordinated she said.

The food donations fit her chal- through Caryll-Lynn Taylor, who can be reached at midtowncourt. lenging family needs, she added. “It’s well-rounded. It’s not a bunch neighbors@gmail.com. Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at of pasta and canned foods.�

Taylor said Neighbors Helping sdremann@paweekly.com.

Neighbors harkens back to a time “People will say, ‘Oh, I thought it was a great idea, but now that you’re taking houses in my neighborhood — or my house — people will get very excited about it. It’s something we’ll get to, but it’s not an easy one for the community.�

Councilwoman Liz Kniss said other cities to the north of Palo Alto have been able to secure funding to build grade separations and asked city staff members whether that has been explored.

But Klein said, “What you suggest assumes you think grade separation is desirable, and the council has not made that decision. “It’s a major decision for us to take as to whether we want to have a grade separation at a particular place. It’s not a slam dunk, so it’s premature to discuss funding.� N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly.com.

Upfront

REAL ESTATE TRENDS

by Samia Cullen

SENIORS

Avenidas makes plans for Palo Alto wellness center Consortium seeks land for ‘big, audacious idea’ for senior services

by Sue Dremann

A

consortium of senior and health-services organizations are looking for land to build a wellness center that would focus on seniors.

Lisa Hendrickson, president and CEO of the nonprofit Avenidas, floated the idea by the Palo Alto City Council Jan. 14, saying her organization is running out of room and will face an onslaught of aging baby boomers in the next few years.

The wellness center is “a big, audacious idea� that would also offer services to the larger community as well as seniors, Hendrickson said.

The consortium includes Avenidas, the Cardiac Therapy Foundation, Betty Wright Swim Center and Pacific Stroke Association, which would provide services at the center. The group is looking for a fifth partner to provide land within Palo Alto, she said. “Our over-65 population is growing twice as fast as the total population growth. It’s a large population — 17 percent of the total population in 2010 — which makes Palo Alto one of the oldest cities in Santa Clara County,� she said.

People older than 65 make up 11 percent of Santa Clara County’s population, she said.

Palo Alto’s population ages 55 and older is now about one out of three. “So we’ve got our work cut out for us,� she said. “I spent a lot of time thinking about capacity and resources, and what are

we going to do to continue to be as relevant to everybody that knocks on our door in the coming years as we have been in the first 40 years.

Boomers, she said, will have different needs and expectations and will live longer than previous seniors. “We’re going to have to figure out how to be there for them — or for us, I should say,� she said, noting the number of gray heads sitting in the council chairs.

Avenidas is currently housed in the city’s old fire and police building. “We are bursting at the seams at Bryant Street,� she said. “It’s a charming building, and a lot of folks that come into Avenidas have history with the building. They remember getting parking tickets and going in front of the judge and spending time in the holding cells — and every once in a while they’ll tell you that. “But that is a history that boomers don’t have with our building,� she said, adding that other local organizations serving seniors have “wonderful, brand-new facilities.�

Two of those facilities, the 25,000square-foot Mountain View Senior Center and the 45,000-square-foot Santa Clara Senior Center, opened in 2007. Avenidas’ newest facility is the six-year-old Avenidas Rose Kleiner Center in Mountain View, which offers health care and senior day care.

Avenidas currently leases 450 Bryant from the city for $1 a year, but its lease runs out in 2026. The

organization would like to keep 450 Bryant and expand and upgrade the facility, but it also wants to build the wellness center in south Palo Alto, Hendrickson said.

Avenidas serves 6,000 people annually. The organization offers social services, care-management coordination, case management, transportation, caregiver support and many classes and connections with other agencies serving seniors.

Thirty-two percent of Avenidas’ $4.1 million budget comes from fees, 28 percent from the endowment, 18 percent from community support and 12 percent from other sources.

The City of Palo Alto provides 10 percent of the budget, which Hendrickson called “significant.�

That figure is down from the 30 percent the city provided in 1978 when Avenidas first started. Hendrickson did not make an overt appeal to the council for assistance other than to ask that they spread the word that Avenidas is looking for land.

On Tuesday, she told the Weekly that she spoke to a committee deliberating on the future of Cubberley Community Center “to plant the seed with them if there is a way for land there to be utilized.�

She stressed that although the consortium has been considering the possible size of the facility and its potential cost, the numbers are speculative at this point. “It’s a very exciting idea, but it’s far from being firm,� she said. N

Title Insurance Why Is It Important?

A title insurance policy is a contract issued by a title insurance company, insuring or indemnifying owners, holders of liens or encumbrances, or others with a title interest in real property, against loss or damage to the property title.

In a typical residential real estate transaction, a title policy is issued to the buyer at the close of escrow, insuring the buyer against loss or damage suffered because of defects in title to the property itself. In addition, if the buyer obtains a loan to acquire the property, a title policy is issued to the lender to provide assurances that the lender’s insured lien has priority over other liens and encumbrances on the property.

Customarily in San Mateo County, the buyer is responsible for the cost of both policies. In Santa Clara County, it is customary for the seller pay to pay for the buyer’s title policy, with the lender’s policy paid for by the buyer.

Title policies are not required to be

identical. The cost, extent of coverage and terms can be as unique as each parcel of real property, since no two parcels are exactly alike.

Generally, a title insurance policy insures the buyer against loss or damage arising out of: a) title to the property being vested in someone other than the insured, b) any defect in or recorded lien or encumbrance on the title, c) un-marketability of title, or d) lack of right of access to and from the property.

Each of the covered items listed above typically is limited by speciďŹ c or generic exceptions, exclusions or other conditions speciďŹ ed within the title policy.

Title insurance policies are complex legal documents, and readers who require speciďŹ c advice should consult an attorney.

I offer complimentary staging when I list your home. Contact me at (650) 384-5392, Alain Pinel Realtors. To learn more, log-on to samiacullen.com

Inspirations a guide to the spiritual community FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UCC £™nxĂŠ ÂœĂ•ÂˆĂƒĂŠ,Âœ>`]ĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠUĂŠÂ­ĂˆxäŽÊnxĂˆÂ‡ĂˆĂˆĂˆĂ“ĂŠUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°vVVÂŤ>Â°ÂœĂ€}ĂŠ Sunday Worship and Church School at 10 a.m.

This Sunday: Too Big For His Britches Rev. David Howell preaching An Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ

CIVIC SERVICE

Why no applicants for library commission?

Council concludes panel is ‘viable’ but reduces membership to five

W

hy didn’t anybody apply for a recent vacancy on Palo Alto’s Library Advisory Commission?

The dearth of applicants for the advisory panel to the City Council — despite recruitment efforts from July to October — led to a council inquiry on the “viability� of the commission.

The council concluded this week that the commission indeed serves a useful purpose after hearing so from Library Director Monique le Conge and library commissioners themselves.

But council members voted to reduce the number of commissioners from seven to five — a more “manageable� number, le Conge said, and one they hope will ease recruitment troubles in the future.

With library use steady and residents consistently rating libraries as one of their most-valued city services, the lack of applicants for the commission following the July 2012 resignation of Noel Bakhtian

by Chris Kenrick remained something of a mystery.

Councilman Larry Klein in October asked for a discussion of the viability of the commission. “I hope the length of the meetings isn’t why we’re seeing so many vacancies,� council Klein said this week, referring to the four-hour meetings that have been held roughly every month. “The LAC has way more vacancies than any of our other commissions, almost by a factor of two. It’s a disturbing number.�

The board’s need for new members is about to be exacerbated, with three more commissioners’ terms set to expire Jan. 31.

Le Conge said she values the advice of library commissioners, who also regularly stay in touch with two other library interest groups in town, Friends of the Palo Alto Library and the Palo Alto Library Foundation.

In their own response, library commissioners said they perceive that they are “providing a valuable and rewarding service to the city,�

lending perspectives on long-term outlook for programs, services and use of space; technology, finance and marketing expertise and advocacy for libraries. “We have a lot to discuss, especially with new facilities coming on line,� library commissioner Bob Moss told the council Tuesday.

Councilwoman Nancy Shepherd said she expects a “vigorous debate� over library staffing in 2014, when the new Mitchell Park Library is opened and people will seek longer hours for the College Terrace Library, which currently operates just four days a week.

Besides Moss, current library commissioners, according to the city’s website, are Toluope Akinola, Leonardo Hochberg, Eileen Landauer, Theivanai Palaniappan and Mary Beth Train. The terms of Akinola, Moss and Palaniappan expire Jan. 31. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

Inspirations is a resource for ongoing religious services and special events. To inquire about or to reserve space in Inspirations, please contact Blanca Yoc at 223-6596 or email byoc@paweekly.com

Support Palo Alto Weekly’s print and online coverage of our community.

Join today: SupportLocalJournalism.org/PaloAlto ĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°VÂœÂ“ĂŠUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 7

Upfront

Families from Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills help rid the Palo Alto Baylands of invasive species as part of Mitzvah Day activities on Jan. 21.

A day of good deeds Annual ‘Mitzvah Day’ draws 900 volunteers photos by AndrĂŠ Zandona Some came to paint, some to garden, still others to create mixed-media collages or blankets for the underserved. In all close to 900 volunteers of all ages spent Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 21, working on 25 different hands-on projects at the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life and nearby.

All the “mitzvah� (good deed) projects had one thing in common: addressing poverty, hunger, housing and homelessness, aging and the environment. Scheduling the event for Monday was both a way to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to create a Jewish day of service, where local nonprofits were showcased and volunteers encouraged to make their participation an annual event. N

Clockwise, from left: Mitzvah Day volunteers create a community-wide art project, a “tree of life,â€? which will be hung in the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center’s fitness center; projects included painting bookcases for the nonprofit 10 Books A Home, which provides educational Page 8ĂŠUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°Vœ“

materials to underserved 3- and 4-year-olds; Orly Schube takes a break from her painting project.

WATCH THE VIDEO

www.PaloAltoOnline.com A Mitzvah Day video by Weekly Staff Photographer Veronica Weber has been posted on www.PaloAltoOnline. com.

Upfront

News Digest

Gun violence

Two robbed at gunpoint near downtown Palo Alto

at Mountain View City Hall.

Bernstein brought the group’s message to the Palo Alto City Council Tuesday, Jan. 22, when the group asked the city to take two actions to support gun control: join the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which now has 800 members nationally; and issue a proclamation in support of Obama’s gun-violence policies.

Members of the group are approaching mayors throughout the Peninsula to make similar commitments, she said.

Although the killing of 27 people, including 20 children, in Sandy Hook has become the flashpoint for a call to reshape gun laws and address mental health intervention, Bernstein said communities such as Palo Alto and its schools are vulnerable to gun violence on many levels.

Palo Alto contractor faces felony charges The owner and chief financial officer of a Palo Alto construction company have been charged with several felonies in a scheme that allegedly defrauded an Atherton homeowner, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Richard James Smith, 54, who owned R.J. Smith & Associates, a California Avenue firm, and Tariel Gusseinov, former chief financial officer, allegedly over-billed the homeowner by thousands of dollars and diverted money owed to a subcontractor of the project, the DA’s office said.

Smith’s company was contracted to perform a construction job on the Stockbridge Avenue home, but in 2009 and 2010 they allegedly engaged in practices that included diversion of $28,000 owed to subcontractor Plumbing & Things, inflated a subcontract by $39,000 to Dimmers Electric and billed the victim for it, and had a fraudulent change-order that billed the victim for windows at $5,000 more than the cost of the windows that were originally ordered and installed, according to the DA. The fraud came to light when fixtures from the subcontractor arrived late and the victim started communicating with the subcontractors. The victim then called the police.

Smith faces three counts of larceny with grand theft and a count of fraud/forgery.

The case against Smith is set for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 28 in San Mateo County Superior Court. He is out of custody on $75,000 bail.

Gusseinov’s case is set for jury trial on March 11. He is out of custody on his own recognizance. N — Sue Dremann

LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com

“Not only are thousands killed each year in homicides or suicides, but the impact affects so many others. Each death leaves grieving loved ones in its wake. Those disabled from gun injuries are not counted in statistics, yet their lives are forever changed. Domestic-violence situations are escalated to a threatening level by guns. The fear of safety in parks and neighborhoods affects all citizens’ quality of life,� she said.

Bernstein’s interest in the antigun-violence campaign occurred due to “a confluence of things in my life,� she said. She has always been politically active, although not specifically with gun issues. She contributed to the Brady Act campaign, but this is the first time she has taken an activist role on the issue, she said.

As the group discussed the impact of gun violence locally, many members said they had been personally affected, she said. “A trauma surgeon spoke about how she has seen horrors in her work; a school teacher survived a sniper attack in her school where she worked; another person had a member of their family be killed in L.A. This is the rippling effect of gun violence,� she said.

Bernstein and Barbara Harley, a neighbor, said that during discussions of what group members wanted, one of the first things everyone agreed on was a gun-buyback program. They said they could encourage sponsorships to get guns out of homes and off the street.

Each member took on a task, such as looking at gun-related safety policies in the schools and talking to the police department, Bernstein said.

One way to protect local students would be for schools to send letters to parents informing them that they

next meeting will include a Twitter workshop for the less-technology savvy members. “The Tea Party did this, and they got so much power, so why not those against gun violence?� she said. “It’s the time — it’s a critical time,� she said. N Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.

TALK ABOUT IT

www.PaloAltoOnline.com What do you think appropriate gun legislation should look like? Share your opinion on Town Square, the community discussion forum on Palo Alto Online.

T BA

A

—Bonnie Bernstein, founder, Silicon Valley Community Against Gun Violence

would be legally liable if their child were to use a gun that they have in the home. “A lot of parents are not aware of it, although it is the law. It would be good for Palo Alto schools to have a straightforward and uncomplicated policy,� she said.

Harley said the group is being sensitive to their use of language.

They want to communicate in a nuanced way that is not alienating to people who own guns but who also can see a need for change. “We want to present ourselves in a way that is a catchment of both sides,� Bernstein added.

The group plans to use social media to spread their message. The

Y

A laptop computer containing limited medical information on pediatric patients was stolen from a physician’s car on the night of Jan. 9, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital has reported.

The hospital and the Stanford University School of Medicine are notifying patients by mail of the theft, which was reported to the hospital and school of medicine on Jan. 10 after the theft was discovered.

The laptop is password protected, and the theft took place away from the hospital and school campus, hospital spokespersons said.

Authorities said they launched “an aggressive and ongoing investigation� with security and law enforcement.

The medical information on the computer was mostly related to past care and research, according to the hospital. The patient data did not include financial or credit-card information, nor did it contain Social Security numbers or any other marketable information. So far, there is no indication that any patient information has been accessed or compromised, hospital staff said.

Potentially affected patients are being offered free identity-protection services, and a toll-free phone line (855-731-6016) has been established for patients’ families. An information page for patients regarding the incident is available at www.lpch.org. N — Sue Dremann

Bonnie Bernstein, left, and Barbara Harley, organizers of the Silicon Valley Committee Against Gun Violence, sit at Bernstein’s kitchen table in Palo Alto, where the group held its first meeting earlier this month.

WE S

Packard Hospital pediatric medical info stolen

‘Each death leaves grieving loved ones in its wake.’

Veronica Weber

A man and woman walking near downtown Palo Alto were robbed at gunpoint Tuesday night, Jan. 22, Palo Alto police said.

The victims, a man in his 50s and a woman in her 20s, were walking together northbound in the 300 block of Ramona Street near Hawthorne Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. when they were approached by a man who stood in their way on the sidewalk. He produced a black handgun and demanded their wallets and the woman’s purse. The victims complied, police said.

The gunman told them to walk back in the direction from which they had come, which they did. They heard him running away northbound on Ramona, police said.

There was no known vehicle associated with the crime. Neither victim was injured. They walked to a restaurant in the 400 block of Emerson Street near Lytton Avenue and sought help from an employee, who called police at about 8:45 p.m.

The gunman is described as a black male in his early 20s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 165 pounds. He was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.

Police recommend that people remain aware of their surroundings when out for walks and report suspicious behavior immediately via 911. Anyone with information about this crime may contact the 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@ tipnow.org or sent by text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984. N — Sue Dremann

(continued from page 3)

OPER

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Upfront

Online This Week These and other news stories were posted on Palo Alto Online throughout the week. For longer versions, go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news

Home-schooled Palo Altan among Intel finalists A math project has earned a Palo Alto student a spot among 40 finalists in the 2013 Intel Science Talent Search, where the top prize is $100,000. (Posted Jan. 24 at 9:43 a.m.)

Google pitches big plans to Mountain View City Council Google wowed the Mountain View City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 22, with its most detailed presentation yet on its North Bayshore development plans, but council members were hesitant to embrace the company’s plans for a bridge over Stevens Creek. (Posted Jan. 24 at 8:13 a.m.)

Menlo Park bans plastic bags at checkout Earth Day (April 22) will see the end of single-use plastic bags at the checkout counter in Menlo Park. The City Council voted 5-0 to join the county in enacting a new ordinance banning the use of plastic bags by retailers, but made a few modifications to the law. (Posted Jan. 23 at 4:27 p.m.)

Concours d’Elegance show shifts to San Mateo After a six-month search for a new venue, the Palo Alto Lions Club will hold its 47th annual Concours d’Elegance auto show at the San Mateo County Event Center instead of Stanford University’s athletic field, where it has been held for the past 38 years, organizers announced. (Posted Jan. 22 at 11:21 a.m.)

SamTrans buying 25 hybrid buses The San Mateo County Transit District is adding 25 new hybrid buses manufactured by a Hayward company to its fleet by the end of the year. (Posted Jan. 22 at 8:20 a.m.)

Report: Home burglaries up 52 percent from 2011

Jobs’ home burglar receives seven-year sentence

Residential burglaries in Palo Alto jumped 52 percent in 2012, from 149 to 226, according to an annual crime-statistics report released by the Palo Alto Police Department. (Posted Jan.

Kariem McFarlin, the man who burglarized the home of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, was sentenced to seven years in state prison by a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge, according to the deputy district attorney in charge of the case.

21 at 11:05 a.m.)

(Posted Jan. 18 at 9:38 a.m.)

Woman dies in fiery Mountain View crash A woman was killed early Sunday morning, Jan. 20, when her car struck a tree in Mountain View, police said. (Posted Jan.

Want to get news briefs emailed to you every weekday?

Sign up for Express, our new daily e-edition.

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20 at 1:03 p.m.)

Vallejo man injured in East Palo Alto shooting Police in East Palo Alto are investigating a shooting that took place early Sunday morning, Jan. 20. (Posted Jan. 20 at 1 p.m.)

Man sentenced for theft of college textbooks An Oakland man was sentenced to three years and four months in jail Thursday, Jan. 17, for stealing science and math textbooks from Peninsula community colleges, according to San Mateo County prosecutors. (Posted Jan. 18 at 3:54 p.m.)

New Palo Alto Fire Chief Eric Nickel sworn in After two and a half years without a permanent fire chief, Palo Alto held a promotional ceremony Thursday, Jan. 17, for Eric Nickel, the former Novato deputy fire chief hired to lead Palo Alto’s $26.6 million department. (Posted Jan. 18 at 1:02 p.m.)

Local man gets 16 years in prison for carjacking A 51-year-old East Palo Alto man pleaded no contest to carjacking and received a 16-year prison sentence in San Mateo County Superior Court Thursday, Jan. 17. (Posted Jan. 18 at 10:56 a.m.)

Page 10ĂŠUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°Vœ“

First Person video: Scott Sagan, nuclear-disarmament expert Scott Sagan, nuclear-disarmament expert, senior fellow at CISAC and Stanford University professor of political science, talks with Lisa Van Dusen about his lifelong career in academic research, teaching and policy devoted to disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation. Watch the video on www.PaloAltoOnline.com by searching for “Scott Sagan.�

Upfront

CityView A round-up of

Public Agenda A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week

Palo Alto government action this week

City Council (Jan. 22)

Transportation Element: The council voted to amend the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan to incorporate the vision statement of the Palo Alto Rail Corridor Study. Yes: Unanimous Employee pensions: The council voted to request staff to return to the council prepared to discuss the potential of opening participation by city employees in the Social Security system as part of a hybrid pension system. Yes: Berman, Burt, Holman, Klein, Scharff, Schmid No: Kniss, Price, Shepherd 2013 legislative priorities: The council voted to discuss its 2013 legislative priorities with the office of Assemblyman Rich Gordon. Yes: Unanimous Library Advisory Commission: The council voted to reduce the number of commissioners from seven to five. Yes Unanimous

Parks and Recreation Commission (Jan. 22) Selection of chair and vice-chair: Chair Ed Lauing was re-elected as chair of the commission and Jennifer Hetterly was elected vice-chair, replacing Daria Walsh.

Yes: Unanimous Other business: The commission also discussed potential changes in field-use policy and its upcoming retreat. Action: None

Public Art Commission (Jan. 17)

University Avenue tunnel: The commission approved a plan to move forward with temporary art in the tunnel that would have little to no cost to the commission.

Yes: Unanimous Maintenance of collection: The commission adopted a plan to allow staff to use up to $3,000 for art maintenance and report its use after the fact, instead of asking the commission beforehand. Yes: Unanimous Juana Briones restroom art: The commission approved “The Apricot Tree of Life� to adorn the side of the Juana Briones restroom for $2,000. Yes: Unanimous Other business: The commission discussed the youth art awards, the commission’s upcoming retreat, plans for upcoming events and workshops, the status of projects at Mitchell Park Library and a staff report on the possibility of receiving the Our Town grant. Action: None

CITY COUNCIL ... The city plans to discuss a colleague’s memo from Mayor Greg Scharff and Council Member Larry Klein regarding the Ad Hoc Committee on Infrastructure; request for proposal for the scope of services for the Downtown CAP study; and the City Manager’s Council Priorities Report. The special meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 28, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

BOARD OF EDUCATION ... The board will vote on a proposed boundary change between the Addison and Walter Hays school attendance areas. The board also will discuss proposed new course offerings, proposed new course literature, a conceptual design for renovations of the Palo Alto High School library and a resolution of support for Senate Constitutional Amendment 3, an effort to reduce the majority required in a parcel-tax vote from two-thirds to 55 percent. In a separate special meeting, principals of Gunn and Palo Alto high schools will discuss their progress against goals set in their accreditation reports by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The special meeting begins at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29, in the boardroom of school district headquarters (25 Churchill Ave.). The regular meeting will convene at 6:30 p.m. in the same place.

PLANNING AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ... The commission plans to hear an update on the California Avenue transit hub corridor streetscape improvements project and offer input on street-lighting options; and to hold a public hearing on rezoning properties in the 600 block of Emerson Street. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 30, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

COUNCIL RAIL COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to discuss the Professional Evaluation Group, Inc.; proposed SB 1029 clean-up legislation; possible changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); proposed revisions to guiding principles; and updates to the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board/California High Speed Rail Authority Memorandum of Understanding. The meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

REGIONAL HOUSING MANDATE COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to discuss the City of Palo Alto appeal of the Adopted Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the 2014-22 Housing Element Cycle. The meeting is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31, in the Council Conference Room at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

CITY COUNCIL RETREAT ... The council plans to discuss its top priorities for 2013 and optimal ways to shorten city council meetings, among other topics. The retreat is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2, in the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium (1313 Newell Road).

Announcing the Embarcadero Media

Gap-Year Media Internship Thinking about taking a gap-year before starting college? The Palo Alto Weekly and Palo Alto Online invite graduating high school seniors to apply for a unique one-year paid internship between mid-June, 2013 and July, 2014.

Working as an assistant to the publisher, you will learn about all aspects of print and digital publishing and be assigned a wide variety of tasks and projects, ranging from routine administrative support to helping with events and promotions, creating web content, assisting with research on reporting projects and learning about sales & marketing.

For more information and an application, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/gapyear

Deadline: February 1, 2013

(We also offer limited unpaid summer internships for high school seniors.)

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Editorial You helped set new Holiday Fund record Twentieth annual community fundraising campaign raises $390,000 for local nonprofits

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t is sometimes easy to forget that within our community are kids and families that have critical needs they cannot meet on their own. Some may need help to be successful in school. Others face health care challenges or are trying to overcome the impacts of unemployment, homelessness or other family tragedy. Many simply need a caring adult to lend support, guidance or mentoring.

Working hard to serve these families are dozens of local nonprofit organizations, and the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund serves as a simple and important funding source for those that serve residents of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

Now in its twentieth year, the Holiday Fund raises money from hundreds of people and organizations and then disburses all of it through grants to nonprofits providing programs and services to the neediest members of the community.

The Holiday Fund has become a simple way for anyone to help others without having to research and decide on donating to a specific agency. By giving to the Holiday Fund, donors know that a committee of Palo Alto Weekly employees, with the additional resources of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, are carefully reviewing grant applications and the qualifications and effectiveness of nonprofits seeking assistance.

And since the Palo Alto Weekly and the community foundation donate all the administrative and marketing costs, 100 percent of the money donated ends up in the hands of the grantee nonprofits.

Donors this year ranged from $10 individual donations to $100,000 given by a long-time Palo Alto family for the second year in a row.

Critical support has for years come from donations made by the Packard, Hewlett, Arrillaga and Peery foundations, whose funds enable all individual gifts to the fund to be matched. And each of the more than 2,000 participants in the annual Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run and Walk also helped, since all proceeds of that event go to the Holiday Fund.

If you let the holidays pass without making your donation, it’s not too late! Simply return the coupon below and, with any luck we can surpass the $400,000 mark by the time our grant decisions are made in March.

On behalf of those who ultimately benefit from your donations, we thank you.

Support our Kids with a gift to the Holiday Fund.

Enclosed is a donation of $_______________ Name __________________________________________________ Business Name __________________________________________ Address ________________________________________________ City/State/Zip ___________________________________________ E-Mail _______________________________________ Phone _____________ Q Credit Card (MC, VISA, or AMEX) __________________________________ Expires _______/_______ Signature _______________________________________________________ I wish to designate my contribution as follows: (select one) Q In my name as shown above – OR – Q In name of business above: Q In honor of: Q In memory of: Q As a gift for: ________________________________________________ (Name of person) For information on making contributions of appreciated stock, contact Bill Johnson at (650) 326-8210.

The Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund is a donor advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization. A contribution to this fund allows your donation to be tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

All donors and gifts amounts will be published in the Palo Alto Weekly unless the boxes below are checked.

Q I wish to contribute anonymously. Q Please withhold the amount of my contribution.

Please Make checks payable to: Silicon Valley Community Foundation and send to: Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund c/o Silicon Valley Community Foundation 2440 W. El Camino Real, Suite 300 Mountain View, CA 94040

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Spectrum Editorials, letters and opinions

Prying parking points Editor: It looks as if the City Council, city manager and the Planning & Transportation Department finally may be on the verge of giving downtown parking at least some of the attention it merits.

Those of us concerned about the situation would be well advised to keep the following points in mind: Since 2004 the City Council and Planning Department have been aware of the fact that the downtown business district’s twohour parking zones would lead to intrusive parking in the adjacent residential neighborhoods. To date they have done nothing to alleviate the burgeoning problem.

The Planning Department in a recent report to the City Council presented a series of parking policy strategies intended to address the downtown parking deficiency.

Those proposed strategies are so inadequate that they would have no effect whatsoever on the intrusive parking problem in the adjacent residential neighborhoods.

Downtown workers will continue to park in the adjacent residential neighborhoods as long as the parking there is free.

If the City Council immediately empowered the Planning Department to implement an affordable Resident Permit Parking program in the adjacent residential neighborhoods the downtown businesses would implement suitable parking solutions for their employees, which is what they should have been doing all along.

In short, the downtown developers and businesses created the current intrusive parking problem in the adjacent residential neighborhoods by failing to provide adequate parking for their employees.

They now have a civic obligation to solve it!

Michael Hodos Bryant Street Palo Alto

Bad bag ban Editor, If the so-called Plastic Bag Ban, which Menlo Park’s Council votes on this month, were only a ban on these bags, it would not involve suddenly charging shoppers for every paper bag the store hands out.

Of course people will purchase disposable plastic bags for the messy jobs they currently re-use grocery bags for anyway. But should city government order residents to stop using safe, hygienic, plastic bags, forcing them to incur increasing costs in their everyday expenses? Should government force retailers to charge for bags?

In truth, the “ban� is actually a

fee — a fee on every paper bag you get from groceries and all other stores. (Interestingly, in D.C. they charge 5 cents a bag, not the 25 cents that Menlo Park seeks to mandate.) Such charges on everyday items unfairly especially burden people on low incomes. Ah, but let them buy reusable plastic bags, you say? Those bags are notorious for harboring burgeoning E. coli colonies, cross-contaminating foods and making people sick.

But what about the garbage in the ocean and the poor sea turtles, you say? The environmental arguments are scare tactics and falsehoods. There is no direct connection between the plastic bag you get at Draegers and the “Pacific Garbage Patch,� whose size, by the way, has been grossly exaggerated. However, there is a connection between allowing government to micromanage our day-to-day lives, and the “garbage police� (aka trash supervisors) active in cities like Cleveland, who literally prowl through residents’ trash and

fine them $100–500 if they are not recycling “enough� and/or generating “too much� trash. Is that the future you want?

Cherie Zaslawsky Oak Lane Menlo Park

Postpone landfill cap Editor, Of course the city should postpone the final capping of the landfill until the question of building a composting facility on the land is settled. That’s a no-brainer.

Application for a waiver of state rules requiring immediate capping can be based on trading off a minor increase in methane emissions during the year or so the area in question remains uncapped versus the major reduction in methane emissions brought about by the operation of the composting facility over its lifetime, should that option be proven the best use of the land.

William Cutler Park Boulevard Palo Alto

WHAT DO YOU THINK? The Palo Alto Weekly encourages comments on our coverage or on issues of local interest.

?

How should the city of Palo Alto deal with growing pension obligations?

Submit letters to the editor of up to 250 words to letters@paweekly.com.

Submit guest opinions of 1,000 words to editor@paweekly.com. Include your name, address and daytime phone number so we can reach you.

We reserve the right to edit contributions for length, objectionable content, libel and factual errors known to us. Anonymous letters will generally not be accepted. Submitting a letter to the editor or guest opinion constitutes a granting of permission to the Palo Alto Weekly and Embarcadero Media to also publish it online, including in our online archives and as a post on Town Square.

For more information contact Editor Jocelyn Dong or Editorial Assistant Eric Van Susteren at editor@paweekly.com or 650-326-8210.

Check out Town Square!

Hundreds of local topics are being discussed by local residents on Town Square, a reader forum sponsored by the Weekly on our community website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Post your own comments, ask questions, read the Editor’s blog or just stay up on what people are talking about around town!

On Deadline

‘Overflow parking’ emerging as a battle over cumulative impacts

by Jay Thorwaldson

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n what Palo Alto resident and former community planner Ken Alsman terms “amazing,� cumulative building plans for the downtown Palo Alto commercial area will add nearly 700 more “overflow� parkers to already saturated neighborhoods both north and south of University Avenue.

Alsman found 20 new projects and based his parking-need estimates on city staff reports. Alsman, who lives in the South of Forest Avenue (SOFA) neighborhood, went into the antiques business after serving 28 years as a professional planner in Mountain View, working on significant projects and even serving as planning director there.

He and some residents from north of University (including Neilson Buchanan, a former top administrator at El Camino Hospital) have completed a detailed new report and map of the sprawling area between Alma Street and Middlefield Road, extending from the San Francisquito Creek to Embarcadero Road.

City staff members have the report and map but haven’t had time to prepare an analysis or response, yet.

Historically, toting up cumulative impacts is not something city planners have done extensively, or well, in my journalistic experience over several decades. They often are simply overwhelmed by the flow, sometimes a flood, of specific proposals with which they must by law deal.

But in this case the residents are doing their own analysis of cumulative-impact, perhaps heralding a renewed trend of “do-it-yourself� planning, as has been done for years on traffic matters. (Ted Noguchi, a long-ago city traffic engineer, once quipped that there were 60,000 traffic engineers in Palo Alto — the city population at the time.)

The residents have done a block-by-block count of how many overflow cars park on their neighborhood streets on a daily basis.

Their conclusion — summarized in an email to the City Council and Planning and Transportation Commission — is that between 85 and 100 percent of curbside parking spaces in the neighborhoods is taken by folks parking there all day and walking the six, eight or 10 blocks to work in downtown.

And it will get worse, they predict.

The added demand for parking “basically fills the entire remaining capacity of the residential neighborhoods north and south of University Avenue,� Alsman said in a summary email to city officials. “We assume that eventually the unmet commercial employee parking need will begin to seriously overflow across Middlefield Road into the Crescent Park and Community Center neighborhoods.� That prediction should awaken some of the neighborhood-alert online listservs in neighborhoods east of Middlefield Road.

The residents call their project the “Pipeline Study 695.� Pipeline in this case refers to the projects “in the pipeline� for city approval, not to the state of city or PG&E natural-gas pipelines, which also have explosive potential.

The “695� is the estimated number of additional parking spaces expected from a surge

of proposed new projects downtown.

And that number isn’t even the full count.

It doesn’t include the huge four-building proposal at the west end of University Avenue, adjacent to the train and bus station, by developer John Arrillaga.

Nor does it include added employees in existing buildings. “It does not include the additional 100,000 square feet likely to be approved to reach the ‘CAP’ of 350,000 square feet (for the downtown area), it does not include further intensification of existing space, it does not include future development outside of the downtown, and it does not include 27 University Avenue impacts,� Alsman continues. “Amazing isn’t it. But downtown development interests love the direct and significant subsidy these neighborhoods provide through the loss of each neighborhood’s character, livability, safety and value. And, we are sure the employees must love the daily 6-, 8- and 10-block walks along our ‘tree-lined’ streets to their places of employment.�

The intensity of neighborhood feeling begins to show through in that statement.

The “overflow parking� issue has spread to other areas of town, and now even has involved spillover parking from the Triangle area of East Palo Alto near the Newell Road bridge, where parking enforcement along Woodland Avenue and some fees by apartment developments have caused up to 50 residents to spill onto Palo Alto streets.

(See blog, “That curbside parking space in front of my home is MINE!!!� posted on www.PaloAltoOnline.com — below Town Square.)

In the world of community planning, the

oft-esoteric issues of what should be allowed to be built, or not, tend to emerge in cycles.

Those cycles depend on what types and sizes of projects are being proposed, as well as on the initiative and capabilities of leaders who emerge from neighborhoods or the community at large in response to impacts of traffic and parking.

Today the issue of “overflow parking� has emerged forcefully as one of those battles — more than a skirmish and far more specific than “issues,� the usual term for such confrontations.

The battles, skirmishes or debates go back decades.

Sometimes, as is happening in Palo Alto right now, the parking debates draw in residents with deep credentials.

Alsman knows the frustrations and rewards of community planning. During his career in Mountain View he played significant roles in neighborhood design, North Bayshore design and implementation, downtown revitalization, bringing light rail to town, street and public-improvement design, historic preservation, even the public art program.

In Palo Alto, he heard the old firebell ringing. “Since the City did not have the resources I have reviewed and summarized all of the 20-plus projects in the pipeline using city reports. So we think the estimates are pretty good, if not too damn conservative.� N Former Weekly Editor Jay Thorwaldson can be emailed at jthorwaldson@paweekly. com with a copy to jaythor@well.com. He also writes blogs posted on the Weekly’s community website, www.PaloAltoOnline. com (below Town Square).

Streetwise

How would you tackle the increase in the number of burglaries in Palo Alto?

Asked on Homer Avenue, Palo Alto. Interviews and photographs by Ranjini Raghunath.

Peter Coughlan

Design consultant Mariposa Avenue, Palo Alto “Strengthen the Neighborhood Watch programs.�

Chris Perry

Leather worker University Avenue, Palo Alto “Take a less-than-subtle approach.

Maybe cops should pay more attention to burglaries than things like jaywalking.�

Karen Johnston

Homemaker South Palo Alto “People are careless sometimes and they should make sure they lock up properly and be more vigilant.�

Justin O’Hearn

Meat clerk Mountain View “I didn’t hear about any increase in burglaries.�

Janelle Klenzing

Hair stylist Gilman Street, Palo Alto “People should be more aware of their surroundings and there should be increased patrolling.�

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CLICK AND GIVE

Thank you for your generous support of the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund You helped us set a new record!

Last Year’s Grant Recipients 10 Books A Home .......................................$5,000 Able Works..................................................$5,000 Adolescent Counseling Services ..........$10,000 Art in Action ................................................$5,000 Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula........7,500 Break Through the Static..........................$2,500 Breast Cancer Connections .....................$5,000 Canopy .........................................................$3,000 CASSY ........................................................$15,000 Children’s Center of the Stanford Community ..................................$4,000 Cleo Eulau Center.......................................$5,000 Collective Roots .........................................$7,500 Downtown Streets Team ........................$15,000 DreamCatchers ........................................$15,000 East Palo Alto Center for Community Media ................................$3,000 East Palo Alto Charter School .................$7,500 East Palo Alto Children’s Day ..................$5,000 East Palo Alto Kids Foundation ................$5,000 East Palo Alto Youth Court ........................$3,000 Environmental Volunteers ........................$3,000 Family Connections....................................$7,500 Foothill College Book Program ................$5,000 Foundation for a College Education ........$7,500 Hidden Villa .................................................$5,000 InnVision ......................................................$7,500 JLS Middle School ....................................$5,000 Jordan Middle School ..............................$5,000 Kara ............................................................$15,000 Mayview Community Health Center .....$10,000 Midpeninsula Community Media Center.........$5,000 Music in the Schools Foundation ............$5,000 My New Red Shoes ...................................$3,000 New Creation Home Ministries ...............$5,000 Nuestra Casa ..............................................$5,000 PaciďŹ c Art League .....................................$2,500 Palo Alto Art Center Foundation ..............$5,000 Palo Alto Community Child Care ..............$6,500 Palo Alto Council of PTAs .........................$2,128 Palo Alto High School Get Involved!.......$1,500 Palo Alto Housing Corporation ................$5,000 Palo Alto Library Foundation ..................$17,500 Palo Alto Youth Collaborative.................$10,000 Peninsula Bridge Program .......................$5,000 Peninsula Youth Theatre ...........................$3,000 Project Safety Net....................................$20,000 Project WeH.O.P.E. .....................................$7,500 Quest Learning Center ..............................$5,000 Ravenswood Education Foundation .......$5,000 Silicon Valley FACES..................................$7,500 South Palo Alto Food Closet .....................$1,000 St. Francis of Assisi Youth Club ...............$5,000 St. Vincent de Paul.....................................$6,000 TEDxGunnHighSchool ...............................$2,000 TheatreWorks .............................................$5,000 Youth Community Service .......................$10,000

O

nce again, our readers came through with generous donations to support local nonprofits serving children and families in the Palo Alto area. Thanks to you, over $385,000 in grants will be awarded this spring.

Thanks also to our foundation partners: Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Packard, Hewlett, Arrillaga and Peery foundations, and an anonymous Palo Alto family foundation that made a $100,000 gift for the second year in a row. Together, they helped us set a new record for donations raised. And thanks also to all of you who participated in the Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run and Walk, whose $28,000 in proceeds all went to the Holiday Fund.

It’s not too late to donate to this year’s campaign. Use the coupon or go to www.siliconvalleycf.org/pawholiday-fund and donate online.

See you in the fall when we launch our 2013-2014 campaign!

495 donors through Jan. 22 gave $388,785 to the Holiday Fund Donate online at siliconvalleycf.org/paw-holiday-fund 47 Anonymous .....................28,189 Diane Doolittle ............................** Leslie and Douglas Murphy-Chutorian ..................1000 David and Diane Feldman.........400 Herbert Fischgrund and Alice Fischgrund .......................100 Susan & Harry Dennis ................** Jocelyn Dong ............................100 Annette Fazzino ........................500 John and Ruth DeVries ...............** Bjorn and Michele Liencres ...1,000 Sue Bartalo and David Fischer..100 Al and JoAnne Russell ..............250 Larry Klein ................................500 David and Karen Backer ...........150 Tony and Jan DiJulio...................** Don and Dee Price ......................** Ellen and Mark Turbow ............200 Anna Wu Weakland ..................100 Peter and Anne Koletzke...........500 John and Martha McLaughlin ...200 Lynda and Richard Greene..........** Ruth and Dick Rosenbaum .........** Martignetti Family ......................** Melanie Austin ..........................150 Tobye and Ron Kaye ...................** Ken Bencala and Sally O’Neil ..100 Jonathan J. MacQuitty ...........1,000 Craig and Susie Thom...............100 Kenyon Scott .............................200 Carolyn Razzano .........................** Joan Norton .................................** Marion Lewenstein ................2,000 Gwen Barry ...............................100

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Amy Renalds...............................** Richard Ellson...........................100 Wynn Hausser ...........................150 Jim Lobdell and Colleen Anderson......................250 John Wilkes ...............................300 Charles Katz ..............................400 Katherine Jarvis ..........................50 Alan Wachtel .............................250 Charlotte S. Epstein ..................100 Eileen E. Brennan .....................250 Elgin Lee ...................................250 Elisabeth Seaman ........................50 Gargi Mitra................................100 Jill Bicknell ...............................100 Kathleen Levitt..........................100 Kim Orumchian ........................250 Linda Selden .............................125 Lynn and Dave Torin ...................** Guido and Madeleine Smeets ...500 Madeline Wong ...........................75 Victor and Norma Hesterman .....** Stephen Westfold ......................500 Timothy P. Collins..................2,500 Marc Igler and Jennifer Cray ......50 Bryan Wilson and Geri Martin Wilson ...................100 Kenneth Schroeder and Frances Codispoti......................500 Ralph R. Wheeler ......................200 Susan E. Hyder............................10 Nan Prince.................................100 Gavin and Tricia Christensen ......** Reed and Judith Content ...........100 Leannah Hunt ............................250

Roland Hsu and Julia Noblitt ....250 Mr. and Mrs. Donald Stites .........** Seth and Rosalind Haber...........200 CNC Foundation .......................350 Carolyn Williams and Michael Keeler ..........................200 Laura and Robert Cory..............150 Claire and Ed Lauing ................250 Donald Kennedy .......................100 Rosalie Shepherd ........................** Rita Vrhel ..................................200 Nancy Moss.................................** Ellen M. King..............................** Bob Barrett and Linda Atkinson .....** Rita and John Ousterhout ..........500 Erin Redfern ................................50 Nancy Lobdell ...........................150 John Muller ...............................300 Marcie and Chet Brown ..............** Mark and Betsy Friebel...............** Annette Glanckopf and Tom Ashton ...............................100 Carol and Mahlon Hubenthal ......** Merrill and Lee Newman ..........250 Barbara and Charles Stevens.......** Ralph Britton...............................** Helen and Hershel Smith ..........100 Martha Cohn .............................300 Stewart Family Trust .................100 Catherine Crystal Foster and Jon Foster ....................................** Roxy Rapp ..............................2000 Peter and Lynn Kidder ..............100 Irene Beardsley and Dan Bloomberg .........................200

George and Ruth Chippendale ....** David & Betsy Fryberger ............** Lawrence Yang and Jennifer Kuan ..........................1000 Brian and Susan Ashworth........100 Diane Sikic ..................................** Werner Graf.............................1200 Sandy and Rajiv Jain .................101 Heidi Arnold .............................500 Joanne Koltnow .........................100 Steve and Missy Reller .............250 Tversky Family ...........................** Veronica S. Tincher .....................50 Jane Holland................................** Nancy S Steege .........................100 Shari Ornstein ...........................200 Patrick and Emily Radtke .......1000 Jean Doble...................................75 Deirdre C. Dolan .......................500 Susan Graham .............................50 Thomas Rindeisch ....................** Paul Heft ...................................100 Daniel Cox ................................200 Lori Nelson and Dave Thom .....300 Kathleen & Tony Hughes ..........100 Steve and Diane Ciesinski...........** Ellie and Earl Caustin .................** Ellie and Elliot Eisner .................** Gary Ellmann ..............................50 Jean M. Colby .............................** Mr. and Mrs. K. A. Kvenvolden..50 Robert Balint .............................100 Bob and Kay Schauer................100 Judy and Warren Goodnow .......100

Ray and Carol Bacchetti .............** Karen L. Sipprell.......................250 Ruchita Parat .............................200 Laurence L. Spitters ................1000 Ellie and Dick MansďŹ eld ............** Hugh O. McDevitt.....................200 Joan and John Barksdale ...........200 Lawrence Naiman .......................50 Bonnie Packer .............................50 Bonnie and Bryan Street .............** Win and Barbara Foster ............150 A. Carlisle Scott ..........................** Jean and Chuck Thompson .........** Hoda Epstein ...............................** Lynnie and Joe Melena ...............75 Miriam Jacob ............................100 Stuart and Carol Hansen .............** Van Whitis and Laurie Miller ...200 Ted and Jane Wassam .................** Allan and Marilyn Brown ...........** Robert and Connie Loarie ...........** J. and Gayle Brugler ..............1,000 Gil and Gail Woolley ................400 Michael Kieschnick ...............1,000 Betty Gerard ..............................100 Jay Crosson and Sharon Levine 200 Anne and Greg Avis ....................** Rae Cole ....................................100 Frances and Ted Jenkins .............50 Tom and Pat Sanders ...................** Zelda Jury....................................** David F. Labaree .......................150 Claude Madden ...........................** Daniel and Lynne Russell .........250 Carol Kersten and Markus Aschwanden .................250 John and Lynn Wiese ................100 Lori and Hal Luft ......................100 Steve and Mary Chapel .............200 Ludwig and Carol Tannenwald ...** The Edward Lund Family .........100 John and Olive Borgsteadt ..........** Gerry Gilchrist ............................30 Dexter and Jean Dawes ...............** Don and Bonnie Miller ...............** George Cator .............................250 John Tang and Jean Hsia .............** Tish Hoehl .................................100 Micki and Bob Cardelli...............** Art and Peggy Stauffer ..............500 Lani Freeman and Stephen Monismith .....................50 Steve and Nancy Levy.................** Jim and Nancy Baer ....................** Janice Bohman and Eric Keller ... 250 Martha Shirk .............................500 Robert and Betsy Gamburd .........** Helene Pier ..................................** Susie Richardson.......................250 Marlene and Joe Prendergast ......** John and Thelma Smith ............150 Harry Press ................................100 Morgan Family Fund .............5,000 Powar Family Fund ...................500 Richard A. Baumgartner and Elizabeth M. Salzer .....................** Tony and Judy Kramer ................** Judith and Hans Steiner ..............** Brigid S. Barton ........................200 Sallie I. Brown ............................** Rich Cabrera ...............................** Don and Ann Rothblatt ...............** Dr. Richard Mazze ....................200 Neta Miller ................................100 Romola and Mark Georgia..........** Roger Lau....................................50 Carol Cleary-Schultz...................50 Katharine Esslinger ...................100 Deborah Ruskin ........................200 Theresa Carey ...........................250 Russell and Alice Evarts ...........300 Skyles Runser............................500 Michael and Lenore Roberts .....100

Donate online at siliconvalleycf.org/paw-holiday-fund Make checks payable to

Enclosed is a donation of $___________________________ Name _______________________________________________________________ Business Name ______________________________________________________ Address _____________________________________________________________

Silicon Valley Community Foundation and send to: PAW Holiday Fund c/o SVCF 2440 W. El Camino Real, Suite 300 Mountain View, CA 94040

City/State/Zip ________________________________________________________ E-Mail __________________________________________________ Phone _______________________________ Q Credit Card (MC or VISA) ________________________________________ Expires______________________ Signature ________________________________________________________ I wish to designate my contribution as follows: (select one) – OR –

Q In name of business above

Q In honor of:

Q In my name as shown above

Q In memory of:

Q As a gift for:

_________________________________________________________ (Name of person) The Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund is a donor advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization. A contribution to this fund allows your donation to be tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Q I wish to contribute anonymously.

Meri Gruber and James Taylor....** John and Florine Galen ...............** Les Morris .................................250 Virginia E. Fehrenbacher ..........100 Bonnie Berg RN ..........................** David and Nancy Kalkbrenner ....** Matt and Donna James ................** Harry and Susan Hartzell ............** Margaret Fisher ...........................50 Mike and Cathie Foster .............500 Nanette Stringer ........................250 Nancy and Norman Rossen .......100 Ruth and Ben Hammett.............200 Ellen and Tom Wyman ..............250 William E. Reller ...................1,000 John and Michele McNellis 10,000 Ron and Elaine Andrews...........500 Susie and Matt Glickman ..........250 Caroline Hicks and Bert Fingerhut ...........................100 Eric and Elaine Hahn .............1,000 Jean-Yves Bouguet ...................100 Scott and Kathy Schroeder..........** Lucy Berman ..........................1,500 Karen and Steve Ross .................** John and Mary Schaefer............100 Caroline and Richard Brennan ....** Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bonini.......50 Freddy and Jan Gabus .................** Ted Wassam ................................50 Barbara Klein and Stan Schrier...** Edward Kanazawa.......................** Eugene and Mabel Dong ...........200 Penny and Greg Gallo ...............500 Eve and John Melton.................500 Nancy and Joe Huber ................100 Larry Baer and Stephanie Klein .... ** Bill Johnson and Terri Lobdell .... 500 Peter S. Stern...............................** Leif and Sharon Erickson..........250 Luca and Mary CaďŹ ero ...............** Denise Savoie and Darrell DufďŹ e** Faith Braff .................................500 Tom and Neva Cotter .............2,000 Patricia Levin ............................100 Richard Kilner.............................** Bob and Corrine Aulgur..............** Roy and Carol Blitzer .................** Linda and Steve Boxer ................** Ted and Ginny Chu .....................** David and Virginia Pollard........300 Debbie Ford-Scriba & Jim Scriba . ** Diane Moore ...............................** Harriet and Gerry Berner ............** John and Susan Thomas ..............** Marc and Ragni Pasturel ...........200 Margot Goodman ........................**

Q Please withhold the amount of my contribution.

Beth and Peter Rosenthal ..........300 Don and Jacquie Rush...............200 Mark and Virginia Kreutzer ........75 Mary Houlihan ..........................100 Sally Dudley..............................200 Adrienne Dong ..........................100 Ann M. Pine ..............................100 Craig and Sally Nordlund .........500 Drew McCalley & Marilyn Green ...........................100 Joseph and Diane Rolfe ............100 Richard A. Zuanich ...................100 Arthur and Helena Kraemer ......100 Bobbie and Jerry Wagger ............** Leonard Leving ...........................** Robyn H. Crumly ........................** Sue Kemp ..................................250 Andrea B. Smith........................100 Katherine Bass ..........................100 Tatyana Berezin.........................100 Gwen Luce ..................................** Roger Warnke ...........................300 Alice Smith ...............................100 Boyce and Peggy Nute ................** Richard Morris ............................** Scott Wong ................................200 Tom and Ellen Ehrlich ................** Barbara Berry ............................100 The Havern Family ................4,000 Solon Finkelstein ......................250 Walter and Kay Hays ...............100 Hal and Iris Korol .......................** Ferrell and Page Sanders ...........100 Lynn H. Drake ...........................100 Owen Vannatta .......................2,500 Arden King..................................20 Bruce F. Campbell..................1,000 George and Betsy Young.............** Doug and Barbara Spreng ...........** Andy and Liz Coe .....................100 Dena Goldberg ..........................100 Jim and Alma Phillips ...............250 John and Lee Pierce ....................** Andy and Joyce Nelsen ...............** Karen Latchfor ............................50 Mary Lorey .................................** Michael and Nancy Hall ........1,000 Patti Yanklowitz and Mark Krasnow...........................200 Phil Hanawalt & Graciela Spivak .500 Kathy and Steve Terry .................** Arna and Hersh Shefrin ..............** Marc and Margaret Cohen ........100 Michael and Jean Couch ...........200 Kroymann Family .....................250 Mandy Lowell .............................** Julie and Jon Jerome ...................** Jody Maxim ................................**

Josephine B. Spitzer ..................150 Rick and Eileen Brooks ..............** Maria Gault .................................40 Debbie Mytels .............................50 Marcia Katz ...............................200 Bob and Edith Kirkwood ............** Jerry and Linda Elkind ..............250 Adele and Don Langendorf .......200 Susan and Doug Woodman .........** Larry Breed ...............................100 Dr. Teresa L. Roberts .............1,000

In Memory Of Helene Macaluso.......................100 Edward and Elizabeth Buurma ...** Emmett Lorey .............................** Becky Schaefer ...........................** Philip Gottheiner .........................** Paul Hamilton ........................1,000 Carl W. Anderson ......................100 Bob Markevitch...........................** Helen Rubin ..............................150 Dr. Irving & Ivy Rubin..............150 Anna & Max Blanker ................150 Nancy Payne Peter Milward........** Robert Makjavich......................100 Our Son Nick ............................500 Gary Fazzino ...............................25 Julia Maser ..................................** C. Howard Hatcher, M.D. ...........** Fraser MacKenzie .......................** John Johnson ...............................** Winyss Acton Shepard ................** Sara Doniach-Sandra Goodwin...** Mrs. Melena Kirhin.....................** Tad Cody .....................................** John Tuomy.................................** Tinney Family ...........................500 Sally Probst .................................** Dr. Thomas McDonald................** Gary Fazzino .............................500 Jim Burch, from Bill and Kathy Burch .........................** Derek E. Smith ..........................200 John D. Black ............................500 Pam Grady.................................200 Wanda Root and Jacques Naar ....** Robert Spinrad ..........................500 Sally and Bob ..............................30 Steve Fasani ................................** Rich Scherer ............................... ** Nate Rosenberg .........................100 August L. King............................** Paul Wythes...............................500 Helene F. Klein ...........................** David Zlotnick MD .....................** Jim Byrnes ................................300 Audrey BernďŹ eld .......................200

John Smitham............................100 Ryan ............................................** William Settle ...........................500 Steve Fasani ..............................100 Florence Kan Ho .........................** Ro Dinkey ...................................35 Our Dad Al Pellizzari..................** Marie and Don Snow ................100 Leonard W. Ely Jr......................250 Leo Breidenbach .........................** Thomas W. and Louise L. Phinney.** Helene Klein ...............................** Carolyn Reller .............................** Carol Berkowitz ..........................** Al and Kay Nelson ......................** The Kurland Family and Samuel Benjamin Kurland ........300 A.L. and L.K. Brown ................100 Dorothy Horton ...........................** Alan Herrick................................50 Ernest J. Moore ...........................** Bert Page ...................................100 Isabel Mulcahy ............................** Yen-Chen Yen ...........................250 Mae and Al Kenrick ...............1,000 Al Bernal and John Warren .........50 Mary Floyd..................................** Betty Meltzer ..............................** William Kiely ............................100 Ruth & Chet Johnson ..................** Robert Lobdell ............................** Gary Fazzino ...............................** Dr. Thomas McDonald..............500 Bertha Kalson..............................** Bob Donald .................................** Gary Fazzino .............................100

In Honor Of Nancy Cassidy...........................150 The Breakie Girls, The Janes, The Teatime Bouquet ..................** Richard Van Dusen and Kaye H. Kelley ..........................250 Paul Resnick, from Eric Richert100 Roy Blitzer ..................................** Sallie Tasto, from Sandy Sloan .100 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Mullen .....100 Palo Alto High School Guidance Department .................** Hamilton Avenue Friends ...........** Our Grandchildren ......................** Rema I. Cotton ............................** The Barnea-Smith Family ...........** Sandy Sloan ..............................100 Marilyn Sutorius .......................150 Jack Sutorius .............................150 Dr. Kenneth Weigel Stanford Animal Hospital .........100 Lady Vikes Waterpolo .................50

Businesses & Organizations Palo Alto Business Park ..............** Lasecke Weil Wealth Advisory Group, LLC .................50 Communications & Power Industries LLC ...............500 Zane MacGregor .........................** deLemos Properties...................200 Alta Mesa Improvement Company ................................1,000 Crescent Capital Mortgage .........** “No Limit� Drag Racing Team ...25 Harrell Remodeling, Inc..............** Thoits Bros. Insurance .........10,000 Carl King, Mortgage Broker .....250 Attorney Susan Dondershine ....200 Arrillaga Foundation ............10,000 Peery Foundation .................10,000 Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run .....................28,518 Anonymous Palo Alto family foundation ...............100,000 David & Lucile Packard Foundation ...........................50,000 William & Flora Hewlett Foundation ...........................25,000 ** Designates amount withheld at donor request

ĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°VÂœÂ“ĂŠUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£Î Page 15

We’re hiring Seeking a Multimedia Editor Visit The Palo Alto Weekly/PaloAltoOnline.com is looking for an online news and multimedia editor to join our award-winning team of journalists.

Candidates must have a vision and excitement for where digital news is headed as well as an unflinching commitment to the traditions of our trade: solid news judgment, integrity and hard work. Experience in TV or video production, superb news-writing skills, social-media savvy and a fearless attitude are desired.

Lasting Memories An online directory of obituaries and remembrances. submit a memorial,

Palo Alto Online, the Weekly‘s community website, features upto-the-minute news and analysis, videos and photos, sports and arts reporting, a popular discussion forum, bloggers and more. It attracts more than 120,000 unique visitors a month and complements our daily e-edition, Express, which is emailed to residents and workers throughout the Peninsula.

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Send cover letter, resumÊ with references and web links to your writing and multimedia portfolio to Editor Jocelyn Dong, Palo Alto Weekly, 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA, 94306, or email jdong@paweekly.com with the subject line �Online editor.� No phone calls, please.

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Daniel H. Hale Nov. 8, 1924-Dec. 2, 2012 Daniel “Danâ€? Hills Hale, 88, retired certiďŹ ed property manager, died at home following a short illness in Bend, Ore., Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, Dan began a successful career in commercial real estate, ďŹ rst with Coldwell Banker in San Francisco, Calif., and then with Hare, Brewer and Kelley in Palo Alto, Calif., initiating and developing the commercial property management department.

In 1984, Dan retired and moved with his wife, Peggy, to Sunriver, Ore., and several years later to Bend, Ore. He earned acknowledgement and appreciation for his volunteer work with the Sunriver Owners Association Board of Directors, and for reading with and mentoring elementary school children with SMART (Start Making a Reader Today).

Dan, an exceptional athlete, was inducted into the Burlingame High School Athletic Hall of Fame for football, basketball and tennis; he lettered in tennis at University of California, Berkeley, as a freshman. After retirement, Dan focused on tennis and golf. A member of Bend Country Club, Dan enjoyed weekly golf games until a few years ago. He was able to shoot his age on several

occasions and once recorded a double eagle at Sunriver’s Woodlands golf course. Dan was also an experienced y ďŹ sherman.

Dan was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1924, and moved to California with his family as a young boy. Upon graduation from Burlingame High School in February 1943, Dan enlisted in the Army Air Corp, serving as a pilot and ight instructor until the end of World War II. Loved and appreciated for his sense of humor, Dan also had a reputation among close friends and family for his compassionate support and wise counsel. Family and friends cherish a rich repertoire of memories and stories.

Survivors include his loving wife of 42 years, Peggy Hale; sister, Margot Jacobs; two children from his ďŹ rst marriage, David Hale (Penny Bayless) and Cindy Hackett (David); and two step-sons, Dan Burkhalter (Diana) and David Burkhalter (Vicki Silvera); seven grandchildren; seven greatgrandchildren; and a network of nieces, nephews and their children.

Memorial donations may be made to The Humane Society of Central Oregon, 61170 SE 27th St., Bend, OR 97702; or a charity of choice.

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Page 16ĂŠUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°Vœ“

A weekly compendium of vital statistics

POLICE CALLS Palo Alto Jan. 17-23

The ideal candidate will be a self-starter who thrives on breaking news and a collaborative environment. Must be available on some evenings and weekends, as news coverage requires. It is strongly preferred that candidates live in or have knowledge of the Palo Alto area.

450 Cambridge Avenue | Palo Alto, CA 94306 | 650.326.8210

Pulse

OBITUARY

Violence related Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Child abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Domestic violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Sexual assault. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Theft related Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Shoplifting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vehicle related Auto recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Bicycle theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Driving w/suspended license . . . . . . . . .4 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . .2 Vehicle accident/property damage. . . . .2 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Alcohol or drug related Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Miscellaneous Animal call. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Casualty/fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Other/misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Outside assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Psychiatric subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .2 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Menlo Park Jan. 17-23 Violence related Domestic violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Theft related Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vehicle related Auto recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Driving w/suspended license . . . . . . . . .6 Hit and run 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . .2 Vehicle accident/property damage. . . . .4 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Alcohol or drug related Drug activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Drug registrant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Under influence of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Miscellaneous Coroner case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Disturbing/annoying phone calls. . . . . . .1 Info. case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Juvenile problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Other/misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Possession of stolen property . . . . . . . .3 Probation violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Property for destruction . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Atherton Jan. 17-23 Violence related Attempted suicide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vehicle related Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Parking/driving violation . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Suspicious vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Vehicle accident/no injury. . . . . . . . . . . .3 Vehicle accident/property damage. . . . .1 Vehicle code violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Vehicle/traffic hazard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Alcohol or drug related Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Miscellaneous Citizen assist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Construction complaint . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Fire call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Medical aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Outside assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Property for destruction . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .2 Suspicious person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

VIOLENT CRIMES Palo Alto Unlisted block Pasteur Drive, 1/18, 8:45 p.m.; sex crime.

300 block Kipling Street, 1/20, 2:41 a.m.; battery.

Unlisted block High Street, 1/20, 7:13 p.m.; domestic violence/battery.

3000 block University Avenue, 1/22, 11:02 p.m.; battery.

Unlisted block Colorado Avenue, 1/22, 8 p.m.; child abuse.

Menlo Park 1100 block Sevier Avenue, 1/21, 1:35 p.m.; domestic abuse.

Atherton 500 block Middlefield Road, 1/18, 9:42 a.m.; attempted suicide.

James M. Waychus Oct. 23, 1952-Jan. 1, 2013 Jim Waychus of Palo Alto died on January 1, 2013 at 60 from melanoma. Jim was born in Indiana, and grew up in Kansas and New Jersey, before landing in Mountain View as a high schooler.

He graduated from Stanford in 1974. After graduation he was an operations manager for AT&T for many years until his retirement in 2008.

Jim was a huge fan of all Stanford sports as well as a supporter of the SF Giants and 49ers.

He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Andrea Barnes of Palo Alto, and his daughter, Casey Barnes-Waychus of New York, and his sisters, Patricia Waychus Pearson and Barbara Atkinson.

Memorial donations may be made to the Cardiac Therapy Foundation of the Midpeninsula, 4000 MiddleďŹ eld Rd. Suite G-8, Palo Alto, CA 94303.

Link: http://www.cardiactherapy.org PA I D

O B I T UA RY

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Transitions Births, marriages and deaths

Paul Hamilton Paul Hamilton was born in South Dakota and died in early December in Palo Alto, where he lived for more than 50 years.

He was a skilled woodworker and demanded of himself as a craftsman.

The part of his childhood he most fondly remembered was in Idaho. Born the fourth child of Lee and Inge Hamilton, he was a brother to his older siblings Gladys, Viola and Merlin, all of whom preceded him in death, as did his younger sister Leanne. His sister Jean survives him.

At the age of 17 he volunteered for the Marine Corps, lying about

his age so he could accompany his 18-year-old best friend into the military. They volunteered one week before Pearl Harbor. In addition to the standard Marine Corps training, he volunteered and trained as a parachute trooper. He served two tours of duty in the Pacific theater, one in Choiseul and the second at Iwo Jima, where he was wounded and earned a Purple Heart.

After the war was over, he became a serious student, graduating from Scripps University with a bachelor’s degree in experimental psychology. He then worked for 11 years at the Navy Electronics Laboratory, giving him the chance to do research as a deep-sea diver specializing in acoustics. He then worked for many years in the aerospace field as a human-factors specialist and was particularly valued as a writer and editor. Later he re-

turned to the field of psychology, and received a master’s degree in clinical psychology, after which he and several colleagues opened a low-cost counseling clinic in San Jose.

A staunch Democrat, he took pride in his participation in the civil-rights movement when he was young, remembering sit-ins at lunch counters to lend solidarity to blacks in their struggle for equal rights.

While still in the Marine Corps, he married Joanie Duryee, with whom he parented two children, Brad and Penny, both of whom he cherished. Between them they produced many grandchildren: Minka (who died in 1995), Alpin, Moses, Koa, Caleb, Ian, Forest and Satchel. Several of these have had children of their own, and he became their proud great-grandfather.

George Oswald Mckee George Oswald McKee was born in Portadown, Northern Ireland to Elsie Alexandra and Hugh George McKee. He died peacefully at home in Saint Helena, California surrounded by his family on January 13th, 2013.

George is survived by his loving wife, Joan; children, Katie, Geordie, Heather and Adriana; grandchildren, Ryan, Elsie, Ali, Jack and Olivia. He is also survived by his sisters, Yvonne Dutton and Eithne Hobson, and former wife Pamela Seitz.

George’s early years were spent in London, England in the midst of the turmoil of World War II. His 18 year old brother, Valentine, was killed while serving as a RAF Pilot when his plane was shot down over the English Channel. During the London blitz, George and his older sister Yvonne were evacuated to Sheerness in Southern England leaving his younger sister, Eithne, and parents in London. After three years, George and his sister were moved to Clabby, Northern Ireland to live with relatives.

These childhood experiences during World War II had a profound and lasting impact on George, which ultimately sparked a lifelong fascination with World War II. His family reunited in Northern Ireland in 1945. He later attended Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland) followed by University of Oxford (England).

As a boy, George, affectionately known as Ossie in Great Britain, developed a love for playing both rugby and cricket. It was while playing rugby for Oxford that he first visited the United States to play against UC Berkeley. After suffering a devastating leg injury and facing post war devastation in Europe, he decided to immigrate to America. George came through Ellis Island with his cousin, Norman Ballantyne, and only $50 in his pocket.

George attended UC Berkeley on scholarship and worked at the Union Service gas station on Nob Hill to make ends meet. After receiving his Master of Engineering degree from UC Berkeley, George held positions at Peerless Pump and General Mills before embarking on his career in commercial real estate in 1964.

Throughout the following decades George was a prolific real estate developer, broker and prominent figure in the growth of what is known today as Silicon Valley. While at Renault & Handley, he partnered

with Raymond Handley in the development of dozens of industrial buildings in Palo Alto, Mountain View and Sunnyvale. The two were instrumental in assisting such valley pioneers as Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Apple Computer, Netscape and Yahoo with their early stage real estate needs.

Highly respected by his peers, George was universally well liked and considered a man of integrity. Many a young broker and developer sought his counsel through the years, and George was never too busy to take the time to mentor them or lend a helping hand.

George was also an active volunteer having served as a board member and past president for the Mid Peninsula Tennis Patrons, an organization that provided financial aid for local junior tennis players to travel and compete in national tournaments. In addition, George served on the boards of the Northern California Tennis Association, the Portola Valley Unified School District, the Palo Alto Club (where he was a past president) and was passionate in his support of Stanford University Athletics, the Cardinal Buck Club, the Daper Fund, and the Hoover Institute.

George was known for his intelligence, his continued curiosity and his intellectual striving, but perhaps most importantly for his graciousness and kind heart. He was also known for telling a great story and regaled many with tales from his childhood and the early years of development in Silicon Valley.

The hearty laugh of George McKee will live on in our memories reminding us that, although life can be challenging, we must celebrate the joy!

A memorial service for George Oswald McKee will be held at 2pm on Tuesday, January 29th at Stanford Memorial Church. Please visit morrisonfuneralchapel.com for important parking information.

In lieu of f lowers, donations may be made in George’s name to: Napa Valley Hospice 414 South Jefferson Street Napa, CA 94559 or: Martin O’Neil Cancer Center St Helena Hospital 10 Woodland Road St. Helena, CA 94574 PA I D

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OBITUARY

Later in life he married Dorothea Rubinstein, becoming stepfather to her three children, Marion (married to Jonathan Salzedo), Teddy and Francis (married to Antoinette Gathy).

Towards the end of his life he converted to Judaism, a choice that proved deeply meaningful to him.

He was a devoted husband to Dorothea and a father to her three children and two grandchildren, Simon and Laura.

Pierino “Paul� Robbiano Pierino “Paul� Robbiano of Menlo Park, Calif., died Jan. 6 surrounded by family. He was 91.

Born Oct. 19, 1921, in Palo Alto, Calif., he was an active ham radio operator, “W6PKM,� since the age of 16 and recipient of an electronics engineering degree from Stanford University in 1943. A retired employee of Varian Associates in Palo Alto following 33 years of service, he contributed much of his free time serving in the local St. Vincent de Paul group.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Mary Ann; three children, Kathleen, Paul and Angela; two grandchildren, Vincent and Joseph; and great-grandchild, Henry. He will be greatly missed.

A vigil service was held Jan. 11 at St. Raymond’s Catholic Church and a funeral mass was held Jan. 12 at the church followed by committal at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Menlo Park.

Ted Wellings Ted Wellings, a longtime resident of Woodside Hills, died at his home Jan. 5 of heart failure. He was 87.

Anniversary Pat and Bill Robertson of Atherton will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, Jan. 29, at a private family event.

They were married in 1943, moved to the area in 1944 and have lived in the same house in Atherton for 60 years. Both were raised in the East Bay and attended UC Berkeley. Bill Robertson completed three finals on the same day of their evening wedding in 1943.

They have three children, two grandchildren, five greatgrandchildren and five greatgreat-grandchildren.

He was a family man, golfer, retired Navy man and businessman.

He was born in Boston, Mass., to Timothy F. and Antoinette Wellings. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1946.

After serving 20 years in the Navy and living several places, he settled in California and started his own CPA business.

He was a partner with his son, Bruce, and a financial adviser in Menlo Park. He continued to work up until March. When he wasn’t working, he and his wife Peggy loved to travel and play golf.

He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Peggy Gills Wellings; son, Bruce Wellings of Redwood City; daughter, Cindy Wellings Hayes of Sacramento; and son, Tim Wellings of Spring Branch, Texas. He is also survived by nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

James Marvin Wrenn

November 24, 1940 – January 14, 2013 Resident of Palo Alto Jim passed away after a battle with multiple myeloma and plasma cell leukemia and is survived by his wife of 44 years, Joan, as well as children Gregg, Becky, Colleen, son-in-law Jason Sampson and granddaughter Helena Joan.

A native of Texas, Jim attended SMU before moving to Palo Alto to attend Stanford. There he received a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and met Joan Theobald, a fellow Stanford grad student. After graduating, Jim began a long career in engineering, working for an assortment of Silicon Valley companies including Hewlett Packard, Aehr Test Systems, Thermawave and KLA Tencor.

An avid photographer, Jim spent many hours behind the lens snapping photos of everything from travel destinations to nature scenes to his kids’ sporting events. After an unexpected stint as a youth soccer coach blossomed into a love of the game, Jim moved from the sidelines to the ďŹ eld, becoming an active adult league player and a nationally certiďŹ ed referee and referee instructor.

When he wasn’t chasing a ball around the pitch, Jim and Joan co-wrote several published articles on botanical prints and salt cellars. Community service was another keystone of Jim’s life; he was especially dedicated to supporting the Monterey Bay Aquarium and was named a Hero for Cancer Research by the Stanford Cancer Center. As a natural engineer, he never stopped building, tinkering, ďŹ xing, improving or rewiring, happily helping friends, family and strangers alike. His proudest achievement, however, was raising three wonderful children.

A funeral mass was held on Friday, January 18th at 1:15pm at St. Thomas Aquinas in Palo Alto. Funeral arrangements were entrusted to Roller & Hapgood & Tinney. In lieu of owers, please consider donations in Jim’s name to the Second Harvest Food Bank (www.shfb.org), the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society (www.lls.org) or the Ecumenical Hunger Program (www.ehpcares.org).

PA I D

OBITUARY

Cover Story

Palo Alto

mom with a

mission At running races, in schools, defibrillators save lives, says Stephanie Martinson

by Chris Kenrick

W

hen popular Monta Vista High School teacher and coach Ron Freeman collapsed and died of a heart attack at a school basketball game in 2011, the school community was galvanized into action.

Less than two years later, the Cupertino high school — as well as each of the other four campuses in the Fremont Union High School District — has at least seven automated external defibrillators (AEDs) on hand around campus, including units that are carried by school athletic trainers to practices and games.

During a sudden cardiac arrest, defibrillators deliver an electric shock to the heart to restore normal rhythm. After the shock is delivered, the typical AED will prompt the operator to perform CPR while the device continues to analyze the victim.

As the machines have become user-friendly and portable since the 1990s they have proliferated in offices, campuses, police cars, airports, golf courses and houses of worship.

Palo Alto resident Stephanie Martinson, a speech therapist and the mother of daughters at Palo Alto High and Ohlone Elementary schools, is on a mission to bring AEDs to schools and elsewhere. “We are so far behind other states and other places in the adoption of these machines,�

Martinson said. “Defibrillators are easy to use — they talk (continued on page 20)

Stephanie Martinson is the founder of Racing Hearts, a nonprofit that seeks to raise money and awareness for automated electronic defibrillators.

About the front cover

Veronica Weber.

Illustration by Shannon Corey

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Cover Story

A heart races, then

stops

Menlo Park businessman credits quick action, AED for saving his life Veronica Weber.

J

Ambulances from San Mateo and Santa Clara counties sit in front of Stanford hospital while patients are admitted.

Courtesy of John Carrington

ohn Carrington’s heart raced at more than 300 beats per minute — then stopped while he was on a conference call in 2006 in his General Electric office in Pittsfield, Mass.

The next thing the then40-year-old businessman knew, he was in a hospital in New York City under the care of specialists. “Fortunately, at the GE offices we had an AED (automatic external defibrillator) in the building, and they rushed that to me,� Carrington, who now lives in Menlo Park, said.

John Carrington Although it took 13 minutes for paramedics to arrive, Carrington’s chief technology officer, trained in resuscitation, had come to his aid immediately. “They eventually hit me three times — the heart would start and stop, start and stop,� he said. “I know these machines save lives.�

Carrington credits the AED and GE’s quick response in getting him to the right hospital for saving his life. “I compliment (GE CEO) Jeff Immelt because they did put more of these devices in after my occurrence, and I know they’ve been used and saved lives.� (AEDs are among the products offered

by GE Healthcare.)

After he recovered, Carrington sent an email to 13,000 GE managers urging them to secure AEDs for their offices and plant sites. He’s received notes back indicating the defibrillators were installed — and successfully used. “We all hear the story of a high school cheerleader or football player who drops dead at school. A state like California that’s pretty progressive should be embracing this with some sort of public support.�

Carrington, now CEO of the Santa Clara-based thin-film solar company MiaSole, said he has the portable defibrillators at his site, “and there’s no doubt we’ll continue, at any plant site we’d open, to put them in. “People get gun-shy on the liability piece, but when I’ve seen how these machines operate it’s very, very clear and straightforward how to use them. “I assure you, had I died after four or five shocks, my wife would have said, ‘Well, they did what they could.’� N — Chris Kenrick

—John Carrington, heart attack survivor Page 20ĂŠUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°Vœ“

Veronica Weber.

‘People get gun-shy on the liability piece, but when I’ve seen how these machines operate it’s very, very clear and straightforward how to use them.’

Automated electronic defibrillators use electric shocks to restore a heart in cardiac arrest to its normal rhythm.

Heart

(continued from page 19)

the responder through and determine if the person needs a shock or not. “We do a phenomenal job with asthma — we have EpiPens everywhere and they’re mandated in our schools — but we also need the same standard of care for sudden cardiac arrest.�

Martinson partners with organizers of local running events to lend the portable defibrillators in case a runner collapses — and to promote awareness of their life-saving potential. She shows up on race days with friends and volunteers from Racing

Hearts, a nonprofit she founded last year. Its mission is to raise money and awareness for AEDs. “I think what Stephanie is doing is really compelling,� said John Carrington, a Menlo Park executive and survivor of sudden cardiac arrest.

Carrington, now CEO of the thinfilm solar company MiaSole, credits his survival after a 2006 heart attack to an alert colleague and an AED. “The more people that can become aware of this, the better,� he said.

Martinson has secured AED endorsements from Olympic athletes, doctors, politicians, opinion leaders and survivors like Carrington.

She has researched AED litigation records in an effort to talk people

out of their fear of lawsuits.

She asks participants in running events to donate an extra $3 above the race fee to fund the spread of the defibrillators and training on their use.

There’s just a 5 percent survival rate among the more than 300,000 Americans stricken with sudden cardiac arrest every year, Martinson said. “People don’t realize this could happen to anyone. Every three days it’s a young athlete who dies. “But we have a simple solution to improve the survival rate — AEDs everywhere.�

Martinson is not a heart-attack (continued on next page)

Cover Story

Courtesy of Monte Vista High School

Monte Vista High School teacher Ron Freeman, pictured right, died of a heart attack at a school basketball game in 2011. His death was a catalyst for area schools to begin making automated external defibrillators available on campus. said. (continued from previous page) By that summer, trustees of the survivor herself. But her medical Fremont Union High School Discondition, hypertrophic cardiomyo- trict had approved a defibrillator pathy, puts her at heightened risk. policy and by fall “we rolled out a For several years she lived with program,� said Walukiewicz, who is an internal defibrillator implanted now the district’s maintenance and in her chest, but it caused her “noth- operations coordinator and oversees ing but trouble.�

37 defibrillators in the five high The internal device was removed schools. after it malfunctioned in 2007, mis“Fortunately we haven’t had takenly delivering 26 shocks to her to use them, but the good thing heart. is that if we ever had to, the units “People say it’s like being kicked are there,� Walukiewicz said, addby a horse but I say, ‘No, it was like ing that the district so far has spent a 777 jet crashing in on me,’� she about $80,000 on the program. said of the experience. “All the elec“We have them all over the place trical circuits were just exploding. because you want to be able to get “I had to heal myself. There were one and be back in one and a half so many paarts of my brain I had minutes. We typically have one to rework and study to try to heal on the pool deck, one in the gym, myself. “People who have gone through cancer or sudden cardiac arrest say, ‘People don’t realize this ‘There’s just a new me.’ “We all have a story, and this is could happen to anyone. my story, and I’m finally willing to share it.�

Every three days it’s a

E

rik Walukiewicz, a former teacher and coach, used to play poker and golf with Freeman, the Monta Vista coach, who was 52 when he died on Jan. 21, 2011. “It was at the end of a basketball game and he was out there and he said, ‘OK guys, it’s time to go home.’ And then he collapsed and died right there on the site. It was really sad,� Walukiewicz said. “He was a great teacher and coach of kids.�

Though nobody can say for sure whether an AED would have saved Freeman, the shock of his death was a catalyst for Monta Vista and its sister schools — Homestead, Fremont, Cupertino and Lynbrook — to get serious about a defibrillator program that already had been on the drawing boards, Walukiewicz

young athlete who dies.’ —Stephanie Martinson, a speech therapist and founder of Racing Hearts usually one in the theater, one in the main office — and the athletic trainers have them to carry to athletic events. “Anybody could have a sudden cardiac arrest at any time, but sometimes kids get struck by a ball or a blow to the chest, so that’s why we place them where there are athletic events going on,� he said.

Walukiewicz said he personally checks each unit monthly to make sure it is functional and that the batteries and adhesive electrode pads, which are to be placed on the victim, are up-to-date.

Maintenance and training are crit-

ical to sustaining a successful AED program, said Julianne Brawner, a founding partner of Menlo Parkbased Health Education Services, a health training company that sells ready-to-use AED programs.

The Lodi Unified School District paid $400,000 in a 2009 legal settlement after an AED failed to resuscitate a Lodi High School student who collapsed in a physical education class. The student ultimately was resuscitated by paramedics using their own defibrillator and taken to the hospital, where it was determined he suffered a brain injury, according to the Lodi News.

The student’s lawyer alleged that an expired battery had caused the school’s machine to malfunction.

But if organizations observe state guidelines requiring that machines be maintained and that some staff be trained, even untrained users of AEDs are protected under California’s Good Samaritan law, which offers legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance in an emergency, Brawner said.

AEDs “are very simple and intuitive to use,� she said. “They’ve done studies where sixth-graders score just as well as paramedics. I haven’t heard about the outcome, but I believe they were even testing third-graders to see how well they could follow the prompts.�

It’s estimated that 40,000 or 50,000 of the 330,000 who die after sudden cardiac arrest each year could be saved if AEDs were nearby, she said.

Brawner cited casinos in Las Vegas and Reno as “wonderful learning labs for the science of resuscitation because they have every inch of their properties under surveillance. “When someone goes down, all their security forces are trained to do CPR and apply defibrillators, so the typical time from the time of collapse to defibrillation is one to three minutes, which is ideal. “They report a 60 percent to 70 percent save rate, so we know that this works,� Brawner said.

A victim’s chances for surviving sudden cardiac arrest are “close to 90 percent� if defibrillation occurs within the first minute of collapse, according to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association. “For every minute that defibrillation is delayed, survival decreases by 7 percent to 10 percent. If it is delayed by more than 10 minutes, the chance of survival in adults is less than 5 percent,� the association says.

Brawner said organized AED programs are in place at schools in Menlo Park, Foothill and De Anza colleges, the San Mateo County Community College District, the University of California at Berkeley, Alameda County and Los Angeles. “They’re popping up all over,� she said. “It’s our mission to have defibrillators as available as fire extin(continued on page 22)

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Cover Story (continued from page 21)

guishers. The deterrent is cost, and in schools that is a huge issue.�

Price of AEDs vary by make and model, but most cost between $1,500 and $2,000, according to the American Heart Association.

Machines then must be monitored and maintained, with regular replacement of batteries and adhesive electrode pads.

The American Heart Association supports school-based AED programs as long as they are supported by�effective and efficient communication throughout the school campus; coordinated and practiced response plan; risk reduction; training and equipment for first aid and CPR and implementation of a lay rescuer AED program in schools with an established need.� “While getting AEDs placed is important, we want to assure it is done strategically and is supported by appropriate training and planning,� Kate Lino, the heart association’s communications manager for CPR & First Aid said.

A

t Stanford University, Assistant Fire Marshal Alison Pena oversees a database that tracks nearly 160 AEDs spread all around campus. “This landed in my lap in 2003 and at that time we had just 15 units, but we knew this was going to take off,� Pena said.

Stanford leaves it up to individual departments to purchase and manage their AEDs, but Pena tracks the machines and sends monthly maintenance reminders to every site coordinator, who must check their units and report on their condition.

Pena also sends reminders, 60 days

member in 2012 and a baseball spectator at the Sunken Diamond in 2004 — succumbed, she said. She declined to disclose any additional information about the circumstances or victims. “These machines are so easy to use — really anyone can use them — but they’re used under very stressful situations,� she said. “We need to start getting comfortable with seeing these units and using them. Of course, we always encourage people to be trained in CPR and AEDs. I really believe in another decade AEDs are going to be as common as fire extinguishers — and people should know how to use fire extinguishers as well.�

‘For every minute that defibrillation is delayed, survival decreases by 7 percent to 10 percent.

If it is delayed by more than 10 minutes, the chance of survival in adults is less than 5 percent.’

A

rmed with a two-for-the-priceof-one coupon for AEDs, Stephanie Martinson in the fall of 2011 approached friends and the Palo Alto Council of PTAs for purchase of defibrillators for Palo Alto schools.

The PTA Council purchased the machines last June, with a plan to have three at Paly and three at Gunn, she said.

The machines currently sit in school district offices, but will be deployed on the campuses — probably in February — after athletic and office staff members on both campuses complete training, according to Associate Superintendent Charles Young. “Stephanie is quite an amazing woman,� Brawner said. “It’s a small community of peo-

—Julianne Brawner, a founding partner of Health Education Services, Menlo Park in advance, for scheduled replacements of batteries and pads. “We’ve had a couple of uses — three to be exact,� Pena said. “They were all over in the athletic facilities.�

Of the three victims, just one — a Senior Games participant who was stricken while swimming at Avery Aquatic Center — survived after use of an AED, Pena said.

The other two — an athletic staff

ATTENTION PENINSULA PARENTS

n e n c o t i C o n p m a C

The Almanac’s, Mountain View Voice’s, Palo Alto Weekly’s popular, annual Camp Connection magazine will be inserted in the newspaper the week of February 18.

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Veronica Weber.

Heart

An automated electronic defibrillator sits in a fire extinguisher case in Stanford Memorial Church. ple who have this same passion and mission, and she’s coming up with some very innovative ways to fund the defibrillators. “Her creativity is just unique.

She’s taken it upon herself to do outreach to these organizations to get funding, so my hat is off to her.�

Martinson works days as a speech pathologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, seeing many patients in the critical care unit.

After her own six surgeries between 2002 and 2008, and ultimate removal of her internal defibrillator,

it took her some time to recover. It was only last August that she obtained nonprofit status for Racing Hearts from the Internal Revenue Service. “People can overcome their life’s difficulties,� she said. “I always knew I would advocate for AEDs in the schools; I just didn’t start it until last fall,� she said. “I finally felt healed enough that I knew I could do it.� N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

Find.... * Summer Activities * Camps * Schools * and more ....in one magazine that’s delivered to your home!

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Arts & Entertainment A weekly guide to music, theater, art, movies and more, edited by Rebecca Wallace

A

As sung in the 1944 musical “On the Town,� the Leonard Bernstein song “Some Other Time� was a wistful ballad. Three American sailors had just had momentous shore leaves with three pretty girls, and now they were headed back to war.

On a recent evening, when “Some Other Time� is played on piano and bass in a Palo Alto house, it’s a jazzy lullaby with hints of Chopin.

Never one to be limited by genre, the veteran pianist Valerie Capers has crafted an arrangement with both rich, lulling bass patterns and delicate filigree high up on the keyboard.

With Capers on piano and longtime collaborator John Robinson on an electric bass plugged into a small amp, the song croons, pitter-pats and moves. Robinson’s head bows as his big hands skate up and down the neck of the bass. Capers’ motions are easy and smooth. Dynamic changes seem effortless, with the unspoken communication that comes from playing together for 35 years. “Mesmerizing,� fellow musician Josephine Gandolfi says when the song ends.

Everyone is gathered together at former Palo Alto councilwoman LaDoris Cordell’s house for an excited reunion. Conversations buzz; favorite pieces of music swish out of folders; reminiscences and laughter pop. Capers and Robinson are in town from New York City again for an annual concert that has become a tradition: a performance that highlights the music of African-American composers, some contemporary

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(continued on page 23)

New York jazz musicians spotlighted at annual concert featuring black composers

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Top: Valerie Capers’ hands on the piano keys are reflected in her glasses as she plays. Above: John Robinson on bass and Capers on piano are all concentration. Right: LaDoris Cordell will join the New York musicians on stage at the Jan. 27 concert, singing and playing piano. ĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°VÂœÂ“ĂŠUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 23

Arts & Entertainment

Empire state

Veteran jazz pianist Valerie Capers has performed in venues ranging from the Knickerbocker Bar & Grill in Greenwich Village to Lincoln Center.

(continued from page 23)

and many not widely known.

This year’s show is on Jan. 27 at 3 p.m., held at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto; ticket sales benefit the school. Compositions by Capers have been on the program for three years, and this will be the second year that she and Robinson have flown in to perform as well.

Capers is one of the biggest names on the bill. A graduate of both the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind and the Juilliard School, she has been performing, composing, recording and teaching jazz and classical music for decades. She has recorded five albums and played in venues ranging from the Knickerbocker Bar & Grill in Greenwich Village to Lincoln Center. Before retiring, she chaired the music and art department at Bronx Community College.

Robinson studied with Capers and later joined the Bronx faculty. He’s performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis and Celia Cruz, to name a few, playing jazz, Latin and classical bass, as well as recorder.

Gandolfi and Cordell are clearly thrilled to have the New York musicians in town. “Just living the dream!

Who gets to do this?� Cordell exclaims after singing a few songs with Capers and Robinson.

Cordell, a retired judge, has long had an artistic bent as well. She’s a longtime piano student of Gandolfi’s, and a few years ago the pair

began researching music by AfricanAmerican composers. They were surprised at how little they knew beyond some spirituals and jazz. These concerts have become a labor of love and a mission to educate listeners.

The pair are longtime fans of Capers’ music. They got to meet her a few years back after Gandolfi, a private music teacher and conservatory graduate, became taken with her collection called “Portraits in Jazz.�

Capers penned the pieces as simple arrangements to introduce children to jazz, inspired by the works that Schumann and Bach wrote for young people. In turn, Gandolfi arranged the pieces for voice, and then got in

touch with Capers to tell her so. “I was just completely bowled over,� says Capers, clearly delighted. “We’ve worked together ever since.�

There’s been good give-and-take among the musicians for several years now. At the 2011 concert, Cordell sang one of Capers’ compositions, “Billie’s Song� (a tribute to Billie Holiday), after writing her own lyrics to it. Capers loved it, but said the key was too low. So she reworked the piece and coached her singer, and Cordell sang the revised version at last year’s concert. “She brought the house down,�

Capers says. “She tore it up.�

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To find new music for this year’s concert, Gandolfi went on a research trip to Columbia College in Chicago to delve into an archive of music by black composers. “I went through dozens and dozens of scores,� she says. From that treasure trove she chose several pieces for this year’s program, including three solo piano pieces that will be performed by Deanne Tucker: “Azuretta� by Regina Baiocchi, “Glaciers� by Dolores White� and “Flight� by Zenobia Powell Perry.

The concerts always begin with performances by the Eastside Prep choir singing. This year’s selection is Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today.� Fittingly, the program also includes two of Capers’ “Portraits in Jazz�: “Bossa Brasilia� and “Ella Scats the Little Lamb.�

In addition, the concert will feature several jazz songs by the late Abbey Lincoln, an American singer, songwriter and actress. Lincoln’s songs “Bird Alone� and “Rainbow� will be sung by Cordell, accompanied by Capers, Robinson, percus-

sionist John Neves, violinist Susan C. Brown and cellist Victoria Ehrlich.

Then, Capers will present her own new settings of the Lincoln songs, with Gandolfi playing the piano and soprano Yolanda Rhodes singing.

On this evening in Palo Alto, visitors get a taste of the new settings, with the musicians playing them in an impromptu performance. “Rainbow� is youthful, while “Bird Alone� is gentle and melancholy, with Cordell singing, “Are you on your way somewhere?� “With my setting of ‘Bird Alone,’ I got inspiration from Ravel,� Capers says. “My ‘Rainbow’ I wanted to be childlike, almost sing-song.�

Composing doesn’t come easily to Capers, she says: “I get ideas, but then I have to work.�

Cheerfully, she figures she’s in good company. Composing may have come naturally to some, such as Mozart, but others like Beethoven struggled. “Beethoven is the greatest composer who ever walked the earth,� she says. “Beethoven dug ditches to compose. That’s what I have in common.� She beams. N What: “Music of African-American Composers: The Story Re-Told,� a concert featuring vocalists and instrumentalists performing works by black composers Where: Eastside College Preparatory School’s Performing Arts Center, 1041 Myrtle St., East Palo Alto When: Sunday, Jan. 27, from 3 to 5 p.m.

Cost: Suggested donations are $20 general and $5 for seniors and students, with proceeds benefitting Eastside Prep.

Info: Call 650-688-0850. Tickets are available only at the door.

WATCH ONLINE

www.PaloAltoOnline.com To watch a video of Valerie Capers and John Robinson playing piano and bass at LaDoris Cordell’s house this week, go to PaloAltoOnline.com.

NOTICE OF A PUBLIC MEETING of the City of Palo Alto Architectural Review Board (ARB) 8:30 A.M., Thursday, February 7, 2013 Palo Alto Council Chambers, 1st Floor, Civic Center, 250 Hamilton Avenue. Go to the Development Center at 285 Hamilton Avenue to review filed documents; contact Diana Tamale for information regarding business hours at 650.329.2144.

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180 El Camino Real [12PLN-00424]: Request by Jacobs, on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, for Architectural Review of new exterior storefronts, signage and awnings for the American Girl store at the Stanford Shopping Center. Zone District: CC (Community Commercial).

This item was continued from December 20, 2012 meeting.

780 Welch Road [12PLN-00429]: Request by WRNS Studio on behalf of Stanford University Lands and Buildings for Architectural Review of the replacement of a 3 story 30,648 sq. ft. building with a new 3 story 31,353 sq. ft. building, including one level of below grade parking and associated site improvements.

The project also includes a landscape reserve in lieu of 24 parking spaces for both 780 and 800 Welch Rd. Zone District MOR. Environmental Assessment: An initial study/Negative Declaration has been prepared. This item was continued from January 24, 2013 meeting.

Amy French Chief Planning OfďŹ cial

Tracy Martin

Rebecca (Michelle Cabinian), the youngest child in the stagestruck Candelaria family, is instructed by family friend Jamie (Leo Ash Evens.)

One home, one heart Tenement family dreams of stage stardom in tender TheatreWorks drama

by Chad Jones

I

n a program note for his play “Somewhere� at TheatreWorks, playwright Matthew Lopez says the characters aren’t based on his family but “based on my love for my family,� and that’s a defining quality of this warmhearted drama.

If you could distill American drama down to two themes, they might be family and dreams, especially if dreams can also encompass delusions. Lopez’s play, which had its premiere last fall at San Diego’s Old Globe and has been seriously revised for its bow in Mountain View, is all about a family of dreamers. “We force the world to look like our dreams,� the starry-eyed mother tells her disillusioned son. “We do not force our dreams to look like the world.�

That’s the truth. How else to account for just how happy the Candelarias are when the reality of their situation could make for a depressing evening of theater.

An immigrant family from Puerto Rico, they live in a tenement on New York’s Upper West Side. Dad is nowhere to be seen, except occasionally in letters from distant places, so it falls to oldest son Alejandro (Michael Rosen) to be the man of the house.

His mother, the sparky Inez (Priscilla Lopez, the playwright’s aunt), works odd jobs so her talented kids can take acting and dancing lessons. Her eldest even has the

THEATER REVIEW claim to fame that he was a kid actor in “The King and I� opposite Yul Brynner. Mom is in thrall to musical theater, and how could she not be? She’s living blocks above Times Square at the end of what would come to be known as the Golden Age of the Broadway musical.

She ushers by day and is a nightclub hostess by night. Her current stage obsession is “West Side Story,� even though there are so few actual Puerto Ricans playing the Puerto Rican gang members. The entire family follows mom’s lead and worships at the shrine of musical theater, playing cast albums non-stop and dancing up a storm, mostly for each other’s amusement.

When the Candelarias connect, it’s usually when they’re dancing along to a show tune. Early in Act 1, with the pas de deux music from “West Side Story� playing, Inez dances with Alejandro, and there’s just no denying the emotional power of watching a son dancing beautifully and tenderly with his mother.

But it’s not all show tunes in the apartment. Alejandro, who’s in his early 20s, has given up his Broadway dreams because he spends so much time working to put food on the family table. Younger brother Francisco (Eddie Gutierrez) is obsessed with becoming a movie

actor, and youngest child Rebecca (Michelle Cabinian) is anxiously awaiting her turn in the spotlight.

Just when you think the Candelarias are delusional and their musical fantasies will get the better of them, in waltzes the real possibility of showbiz glory in the form of Jamie (Leo Ash Evens), a neighborhood boy who practically grew up with the Candelarias. Jamie is now assistant to Jerome Robbins, a Broadway legend and the director of “West Side Story� on stage; Robbins is soon to co-direct the motion picture.

Of course Inez wants all her talented children in the movie, but there’s just one problem. The City of New York is evicting them. Their building is about to be torn down to make way for Lincoln Center.

Watching the Candelarias strive for things that seem way out of reach and help each other maintain their dreams/delusions calls to mind other plays about families, most notably “The Glass Menagerie,� “Death of a Salesman� and, appropriately for this family, “Gypsy.� There’s even a potential gentleman caller in Act 2 who may or may not be coming to dinner.

Director Giovanna Sardelli strives for a realistic tone and rhythm to the often rambunctious family life, and then contrasts that with lovely flights of fantasy when the characters dance into an altered, often euphoric state. She and Lopez rely on those flights a bit too much, so they lose some impact, even when they’re beautifully performed (the music is recorded and the choreography is by Greg Graham).

She gets strong performances from her cast, and Lopez, a member of the original Broadway cast of “A Chorus Line� and a Tony Award winner, dominates the stage in a role inspired by her own mother (whose maiden name happened to be Candelaria). As effective as Lopez is, she is nearly upstaged by Rosen’s Alejandro, a soulful young man whose sense of responsibility only barely outpaces his desire to dance. And to dream.

While it’s easy to set up dreamers and squash them with a mighty blow of reality, playwright Lopez is more compassionate with his characters. There could be more grit and less gloss in this story, but ultimately it’s not sappy.

There’s a certain degree of realworld grimness puncturing the show-tune delirium, especially in Act 2, but there are also small, deeply felt triumphs and acts of tenderness that keep hope alive and root the family’s happiness in each other rather than in pipe dreams.

That really makes “Somewhere� something. N What: “Somewhere� by Matthew Lopez, presented by TheatreWorks Where: Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St. When: Through Feb. 10, with shows at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays Cost: Tickets are $23-$73, with discounts for students, seniors and educators.

Info: Go to theatreworks.org or call 650-463-1960.

Joyce Goldschmid

Arts & Entertainment

Roy (Keith Marshall) and wife Irma (Shannon Warrick) struggle with Roy’s gender dysphoria.

The big change Sensitive treatment of a tough topic in Players’ ‘Looking for Normal’

by Karla Kane

P

alo Alto Players tackles the big change that rocks a family to its core in an excellent production of Jane Anderson’s “Looking for Normal.�

Roy and Irma, married more or less happily for a quarter-century, have raised two kids, attend church regularly and appear to be an average family in the unspecified American heartland. Roy (Keith Marshall) comes from a farming family and works for John Deere.

Irma (Shannon Warrick) takes care of the home with a steady hand and loving authority.

A wrench is thrown into the works of their otherwise “normal� lives, however, when, shortly after their silver wedding anniversary, Roy admits the secret he’s been keeping for years: gender dysphoria. In other words, he’s a woman trapped in a man’s body and is no longer willing to live as a male.

Naturally, Irma is upset. At first she assumes her marriage is over, but Roy (later Ruth) insists that while he is transgender, and intends to not only “change pronouns� but go through with a sex-change operation, his love for Irma is unchanged.

Irma still loves Roy, too, but is their bond strong enough to survive the upheaval? Roy is happy to finally stop living a lie, but the decision has far-reaching ramifications, not just at home but at work and in the community. It also raises questions

THEATER REVIEW such as: What’s the correlation between gender and sexual preference? Is Roy gay or straight? And if she stays with Roy, what does that make Irma?

The plot follows Roy through the process of gender reassignment, including both physical and emotional developments along the way, and it’s a fascinating and often touching journey. Loved ones wonder how they or others might have impacted Roy’s condition. Did Irma emasculate him by being too competent?

Was his tough father too hard on him, or his mother and sisters too soft?

And Roy’s not the only family member struggling with issues of gender, sexuality and aging. Tomboyish pubescent daughter Patty Anne (Samantha Gorjanc) bemoans the onset of adolescence. For her, becoming a woman is a cross she’d rather not bear, and she finds it hard to believe her father would do so willingly. She struggles with her changing body and sexual identity, and delivers one of the frankest descriptions of the menstrual cycle and its side effects (complete with chart) I’ve ever witnessed.

Her big brother, Wayne (Tom Doud), has troubles (and a chart) of his own, including some dysfunction (continued on page 26)

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Arts & Entertainment YOGURT AND PRETZELS AT THE MALL ... The Zagat-rated Red Mango Frozen Yogurt, with nearly 200 locations, and Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, which recently introduced its first whole-grain pretzel, are both planning to open in the Stanford Shopping Center.

Shop Talk

by Daryl Savage

PALO ALTO GOING VEGAN? ... In many cases, yes, according to a few chefs with restaurants in Palo Alto. “Eating vegan is a growing trend,� said Calafia restaurant owner and chef Charlie Ayers, who has readjusted his offerings to reflect the changing trends. “We’ve launched a whole new menu and converted some of our dishes into vegan entrees. I look at my sales, I look at the trends and I respond to what the community requests.� The menu at Calafia, in Town & Country Village, now lists at least a dozen vegan items, including Brussels-sprouts fricassee and a spinach dragon-noodle bowl.

Over at the First Baptist Church at 305 N. California Ave., where the nonprofit Peninsula Macrobiotic Community has been serving vegan

meals on Monday nights for 25 years, demand is also growing. Palo Alto resident and Monday-night dinner manager Jay Whitcraft said the sixcourse meals, created by two macrobiotic vegan chefs, have become increasingly popular. “We serve about 100 dinners now on Mondays. A year ago, it was maybe 60 to 70,� Whitcraft said.

Several other restaurants are also responding to the vegan trend, including Loving Hut at 165 University Ave., which has only vegan items on its menu. At 460 Ramona St., Garden Fresh serves Asian vegan dishes including mock versions of lemon chicken, pineapple ham and cashew shrimp. Curry Up Now at 321 Hamilton Ave. offers vegan food, Indian-style, on a separate menu.

Lyfe Kitchen at 167 Hamilton Ave. has also noticed a big demand for vegan food and has begun offering a separate menu with vegan items. And Reposado, an upscale Mexican restaurant at 236 Hamilton Ave., offers a vegetarian menu with a handful of vegan options.

SCHOOL OF ROCK OPENS ... A new music studio in the Midtown neighborhood of Palo Alto has scheduled its grand opening for Jan. 26. School of Rock at 2645 Middlefield Road teaches young musicians to perform like rock stars, with students working together to create a rock show. The event is planned from 1 to 4 p.m. and will include giveaways and tours of the facility.

LISA’S TEA TO STAY ... Lisa’s Tea Treasures in Menlo Park is taking a line from Mark Twain, who once wrote: “Reports of my death are an exaggeration.� Contrary to an earlier report, Lisa’s Tea Treasures, at 1175 Merrill St., continues to host its high teas and private parties and to offer catering. “Lisa’s Tea Treasures in Menlo Park is open for business, and we do take reservations. We are looking forward to serving customers as always,� Thao Nguyen, manager and co-owner, said.

Neighboring Crepes Cafe also remains open for business. A new restaurant operated by celebrity chef Bradley Ogden is expected to debut later this summer in the space formerly occupied by Gambardella’s, which closed in December, a spokesman for Ogden has announced. It will be called. B.F.D. (Bradley’s Fine Diner).

Our life here

Palo Alto Is The

BEST PLACE To Retire.

Webster House is now a member of Episcopal Senior Communities, the not-for-proďŹ t organization that owns and operates Canterbury Woods, Los Gatos Meadows, Lytton Gardens, San Francisco Towers, Spring Lake Village, and St. Paul’s Towers. Ideally located near the wonderful mix of shops, restaurants, and art galleries, our newly renovated apartments, gracious amenities, enriched services, and new programs make living here a style of life that offers you real peace-of-mind in a welcoming community with the advantages of continuing care. To learn more, or for your personal visit, please call 650.838.4004.

Your style, your neighborhood.

401 Webster Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301

websterhousepaloalto.org

A non-denominational, not-for-proďŹ t community owned and operated by Episcopal Senior Communities. License No. 435294364 COA #246. EPWH645-01BA 011113

Page 26ĂŠUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°Vœ“

Heard a rumor about your favorite store or business moving out, or in, down the block or across town?

Daryl Savage will check it out.

Email shoptalk@paweekly.com.

‘Looking for Normal’ (continued from page 26)

in the bedroom. Meanwhile Irma, at age 45, is going through menopause. She’s suffering through hormone imbalances, hot flashes and the loss of her fertility. So watching her teen daughter (begrudgingly) and husband (eagerly) blossom into womanhood is like rubbing salt in a wound.

And Roy’s elderly parents (Jack Penkethman and Jackie O’Keefe) are dealing with the formidable Roy Sr.’s decline into senility. Roy Sr., we learn, pushed his wife into having Roy Jr. after birthing several daughters because he couldn’t imagine leaving his farm to anyone but a son. Back even farther up the family tree, the puckish spirit of Roy’s long-lost grandmother Ruth (Bille Harris), appears from time to time to blithely share some revelations of her own, suggesting that gender fluidity is something of a familial tradition. “Looking for Normal� is, at least in this commendable production directed by Marilyn Langbehn, noteworthy in that every character is quite sympathetic. Irma, Roy and their children seem like a natural, loving (albeit strained) family with realistic relationships. Their pastor (Dave Iverson), while clueless and ultimately hurtful, is well-meaning and earnest. Even cantankerous old Roy Sr., who at first comes across as loathsome, is revealed to be vulnerable and deeply wounded by his past. And Grandma Ruth is a delight, even (or perhaps especially) when confessing to some scandalous actions.

Warm, humorous moments combine nicely with the serious scenes, and the tone never veers too far in either direction. The play is well written, paced and directed, but much of the credit is also due to the excellent cast. It’s a rare show in which every player is equally skilled. In this case, that’s a good thing.

I have but one complaint: Some scenes were set so far downstage as to be rendered out of sight from my mid-theater seat. “Looking for Normal� is highly recommended for its edgy-yet-sweet story, and Palo Alto Players executes it splendidly. Though not everyone will go through what Roy’s family does, everyone can relate to the theme of challenges worth facing in the name of love. N What: “Looking for Normal� by Jane Anderson, presented by Palo Alto Players Where: Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto When: Through Feb. 3, with shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Cost: Tickets are $29, with discounts for students, seniors and groups.

Info: Go to paplayers.org or call 650329-0891.

Eating Out RESTAURANT REVIEW

Neptune’s treasures revealed The Sea offers sensuous bounty in rarefied setting

by Dale F. Bentson ttention to detail defines excellence. The Sea by Alexander’s Steakhouse is all about details: handsome decor, attentive service and everything in between.

Unlike the Alexander’s Steakhouse in Cupertino, The Sea isn’t quite Michelin-star quality yet — that might come with time and consistency — but the overall dining experience is of the highest quality.

Opened last November and located in the former Trader Vic’s at Dinah’s Garden Hotel in Palo Alto, The Sea is the first non-meat-centric entity from the Alexander’s group. The menu includes beef and bird alternatives. But the focus is superior seafood first, expertly prepared, artistically presented, with enough wow to engage most of the senses.

Executive Chef Yu Min Lin has more than two decades of experience in Japanese and French cuisine, hav-

Veronica Weber

A

Seared John Dory is prepared with peas, Meyer lemons, mushrooms, carrots, bell peppers and potatoes.

ing honed his culinary skills in the Far East and refined them in California. He was recruited to be the opening executive chef at The Sea. Inside, the ceiling is high and the wall palette composed of sea-soothing creams and aqua. Comfortable padded chairs and linen-lined tables are judiciously placed; vases of fresh flowers abound; and a glass wall separates the otherwise open kitchen. The full bar is separate from the main dining room and private dining areas, which reduces noise levels.

Dining expectations are high.

On a recent evening, an amusebouche also readied our palates for what was to come. Served just after we placed our orders, it was a wedge of perch with chipotle jalapeùo and pickled onion. Unfortunately, the waiter didn’t know where the perch came from and never bothered to find out.

For starters, there were hot ap-

petizers, cold appetizers, chilled seafood platters, oysters and caviar.

It was a lot to contemplate, and the waiter also recited various seafood specials, truffle availability and the stunning price for Wagyu beef, priced by the ounce. It would have been helpful had all the additions been printed. This was just too much information to digest coupled with questions on the menu itself.

Nonetheless, we settled on hamachi shots ($12) for the table as a pre-appetizer: six shot glasses on a tray of rock salt. The tuna was sweet and delicate and sat on a base of truffled ponzu (citrus sauce), avocado, ginger and jalapeĂąo.

Then came the appetizers: togarashi wild Hawaiian tuna tatake (tuna with chili pepper pounded in), priced at $18. Again, the tuna was melt-on(continued on page 28)

La Cucina di Venti Recipe

DINNER BY THE MOVIES AT SHORELINE’S

Cucina Venti

ons ervati s e r g in accept

able l i a v a ng cateri Now

Linguine alle Vongole con Broccoli 4HE !MALFI #OAST SEDUCES ITS VISITORS NOT ONLY FOR THE WONDERFUL PANORAMAS AND THE INTENSE BLUE SEA BUT ALSO FOR THE FLAVORS AND TASTES OF THE LOCAL TRADITIONAL GASTRONOMY %ACH TOWN AND VILLAGE FEATURES TYPICAL SPECIALTIES FROM THE LOCAL PRODUCTS 0ASTA ALLE 6ONGOLE CON BROCCOLI IS ONE OF THE GRANDEST OF ALL !MALFI #OAST SEAFOOD DISHES ALLOWING FOR THE ROMANCE OF 0OSITANO BY TEASING THE PALATE WITH THE FRESHNESS OF SPRING BROCCOLI AND WARMTH OF SUMMER STILL TO COME IN THE SPICY RED PEPPER 4HE SEA PROVIDES ITS FRUITS AND THE LAND ITS BOUNTY 4HE PEOPLE

THEY PROVIDE THE LOVE 3ORRENTO .APLES 4HE )SLE OF #APRI 3ORRENTO WHERE ON ALL OF THE EARTH HAS AND AREA BEEN SO BLESSED ) WEEP NOW AS YOU ENJOY THIS DISH From our kitchen to yours.Buon appetito! #HEF -ARCO 3ALVI %XECUTIVE #HEF

ingredients: s ¢ CUP WATER s ,ITTLENECK OR -ANILA CLAMS IN SHELLS SCRUBBED ABOUT POUNDS s QUARTS WATER s CUPS BROCCOLI FLORETS s TABLESPOONS EXTRA VIRGIN

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preparation:

1390 Pear Ave., Mountain View (650) 254-1120 www.cucinaventi.com

Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday

"RING CUP WATER TO A BOIL IN A LARGE STOCKPOT !DD CLAMS COVER AND COOK MINUTES OR UNTIL SHELLS OPEN 2EMOVE CLAMS FROM PAN RESERVE CUP COOKING LIQUID $ISCARD ANY UNOPENED SHELLS "RING QUARTS WATER AND TEASPOONS SALT TO A BOIL IN LARGE POT !DD BROCCOLI

AND COOK MINUTES OR UNTIL THE BROCCOLI IS BRIGHT GREEN 2EMOVE BROCCOLI WITH A SLOTTED SPOON DO NOT DRAIN WATER FROM STOCKPOT 0LACE BROCCOLI IN A COLANDER

AND RINSE WITH COLD WATER $RAIN BROCCOLI COARSELY CHOP 2ETURN WATER TO A BOIL 3TIR IN PASTA AND RETURN TO A BOIL STIRRING FREQUENTLY #OOK MINUTES OR UNTIL THE PASTA IS AL DENTE

STIRRING OCCASIONALLY

7HILE PASTA COOKS HEAT TABLESPOONS OIL IN A LARGE NONSTICK SKILLET OVER MEDIUM HEAT !DD GARLIC COOK SECONDS OR UNTIL FRAGRANT AND TRANSLUCENT STIRRING CONSTANTLY !DD BROCCOLI AND RED PEPPER COOK MINUTES OR UNTIL BROCCOLI SIZZLES 3TIR IN CLAMS AND RESERVED CUP COOKING LIQUID BRING TO A BOIL 2EDUCE HEAT AND SIMMER MINUTES OR UNTIL BROCCOLI IS TENDER !DD PASTA TO SKILLET STIRRING WELL TO COAT "RING MIXTURE TO A BOIL 3TIR IN TEASPOON SALT AND CHOPPED PARSLEY COOK MINUTE

STIRRING CONSTANTLY 3ERVE IMMEDIATELY AND DRIZZLE EACH SERVING WITH TEASPOON OF EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND SHAVINGS OF !SIAGO

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Eating Out (continued from previous page)

Veronica Weber

the-tongue tender, served with slivers of radish, avocado, crispy garlic and a delicate soy vinaigrette.

The five mini crab cakes ($14) dazzled. The cakes were presented on a black slate plate dotted with the yellows, reds and greens of lemon sauce, barbeque sauce and parsley pesto. It was as if Vermeer had set his paint board in front of me.

The bread was delicious, with a choice of three house-made, savory to sweeter. I chose the croissant with seaweed: delicious. Later, the waiter asked if we wanted more bread. The answer was yes, but the bread server never reappeared.

For entrees, the seared mero (grouper) from Hawaii ($40) straddled a wedge of sweet potato and pearl onions. Sauteed broccolini crowned the firm and flavorful fish, and swirls of port wine reduction sauce encircled the dish.

Triangle tiers of seared New Zealand John Dory ($36) were playfully arranged with just shucked peas, a zest of Meyer lemon, petite shimeji

Togarashi tuna meets up with avocado, radish, soy vinaigrette and crispy garlic. mushrooms (with a slightly nutty flavor), carrots, dried bell peppers, potato and smoked salt. It was a flavor-intense dish with all ingredients complementing each other.

On a whim, we ordered a side of truffle fries. Served in a deep cone, the earthy, aromatic fried potatoes were sprinkled with parmesan cheese. The heady essence wafted across several tables, inducing more orders from nearby diners. With

truffle garlic aioli, they were $10.

Pastry chef Dan Huyhn’s desserts didn’t disappoint. The red velvet ($12) was red genoise (sponge cake), cream cheese and cranberry that was constructed to resemble a sponge.

The cake was silky and sweet, and had eye appeal atop a black plate. “Pucker Up� ($12) was a combination of yuzu (an agreeably sour Japanese citrus), pate sucre (sweet crisp pastry), huckleberry, recom-

PENINSULA

Discover the best places to eat this week!

AMERICAN

CHINESE

Armadillo Willy’s

Chef Chu’s

941-2922 1031 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altos www.armadillowillys.com

948-2696 1067 N. San Antonio Road www.chefchu.com

The Old Pro

Ming’s

326-1446 541 Ramona Street, Palo Alto www.oldpropa.com

856-7700 1700 Embarcadero East, Palo Alto www.mings.com

STEAKHOUSE

New Tung Kee Noodle House

Sundance the Steakhouse

947-8888 520 Showers Drive, Mountain View www.shopmountainview.com/luunoodlemv

321-6798 1921 El Camino Real, Palo Alto www.sundancethesteakhouse.com

INDIAN

Janta Indian Restaurant Read and post reviews, explore restaurant menus, get hours and directions and more at ShopPaloAlto, ShopMenloPark and ShopMountainView

462-5903 369 Lytton Ave. www.jantaindianrestaurant.com

Thaiphoon 323-7700 543 Emerson Ave, Palo Alto www.ThaiphoonRestaurant.com

powered by

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posed creme fraiche and dots of meringue. The dessert was as tasty as it was playful.

Just when we were coming up for air, a post-dessert dessert, compliments of the kitchen, was presented: chocolate pops, espresso macaroons and jelly patÊs. If those weren’t enough, a teeth-shivering pompon of grape-flavored cotton candy crowned the table just before the check arrived.

The wine list, close to 20 pages, would satisfy most oenophiles. I thought the prices were reasonable given the high-caliber restaurant. The sommelier was knowledgeable and offered apologies when she noted the wrong wine glasses on the table, and had them immediately changed.

I grade on a curve, so I don’t mind being a little nitpicky. For a lesser restaurant, I would have dismissed the couple of little waitstaff missteps. But there is one problem — a house policy — that leaves me a tad miffed. I made my reservations online the day before dinner. About two hours later, I retrieved a voice mail informing me that I had to call the restaurant to con-

firm the booking.

Most restaurants call to confirm and ask you to call them only if there is a problem. I took the time to book once; why did I have to call again?

That being said, I give very high marks to The Sea. It’s pricey, but if you love the fine dining experience in beautiful surroundings, with an accomplished chef and a waitstaff that aims to please, it’s a must. N The Sea by Alexander’s Steakhouse, 4269 El Camino Real, Palo Alto; 650-213-1111; theseausa. com Hours: Sun.-Thurs. 5:30-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5:30-9:30 p.m.

Reservations

Lot Parking

Children

Credit cards

Alcohol

Outdoor dining (except in winter)

Private parties: up to 200 Noise level: Low Bathroom Cleanliness: excellent

Movies OPENINGS

Quartet ---

(Aquarius) In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dustin Hoffman remarked that he made the film “Quartet� his directorial debut because “I’m most attracted to stuff that’s been done to death and never done correctly.�

Consider that a sideways glance at the many cutesy and sometimes condescending old-age-pensioner movies that make it to the movie marketplace. In telling its tale of four retired musicians, “Quartet� doesn’t avoid all of the traps of the genre, but Hoffman does show good taste, particularly in casting.

The film derives from a play by Ronald Harwood, who also penned the screenplay. The setting is Beecham House, a home for retired musicians. No dreary institution, this, but rather a rambling estate, wellappointed with amenities and lush greenery, that warmly embraces its residents — all of whom daily practice their vocation. Though we’re reminded of Bette Davis’ crack that aging is not for sissies, this seems like the way to do it.

Still, there is trouble in paradise.

The following is a selection of films recently reviewed in the Weekly. For a full list of movie reviews and times, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/calendar.

Amour ---(Guild) Life can change in a heartbeat.

An elderly, cultured Parisian couple (Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant) have their worlds fall apart when one of them suffers a pair of debilitating strokes.

Seeing these French iconic actors in their 80s is shocking in itself, and director Michael Haneke also creates a story and a world that is one of his most difficult to watch. The film is also one of his most masterful. As the couple’s life together unspools in flashbacks, moving toward the painful present day, Haneke unblinkingly and compassionately presents universal truths, while revealing the illusion of filmmaking and our role as spectators.

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including a disturbing act, and brief language. In French with English subtitles.

Two hours, seven minutes. — S.T. (Reviewed Jan. 11, 2013) Argo ---1/2 (Century 16, Century 20) The Ben Affleck of old has been shed like a husk, and what remains is a sharp and thoughtful filmmaker who is still in the embryonic phase of an impressive career. Sure, Affleck the actor is also along for the ride, but his skill behind the camera is what shines. After the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, 52 Americans are taken hostage as Iranian revolutionaries storm the embassy, but six manage to escape amidst the turmoil and hide out in the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).

Back in the U.S., CIA operative Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston) tasks “exfiltration specialist� Tony Mendez (Affleck) with hatching a plan to get the six Americans safely out before their true identities and whereabouts are discovered: Mendez conceives of a faux movie production that would make the six part of his filmmaking team. “Argo� is a nail-biter from beginning to end, and one of the year’s best films.

Affleck and his crew do a phenomenal job capturing the time period and cast-

Aside from a bit of cranky bickering (caused mostly by Michael Gambon’s community organizer), the residents fret about the home’s dwindling funds and the necessity of a boffo success for the home’s annual benefit performance. This concern coincides with the arrival of a new resident who throws everyone into a tizzy: bona fide opera diva Jean Horton (Maggie Smith).

Depressed by the fading of her limelight, Jean arrives bitter and emotionally fragile, the wrong frame of mind to handle being treated as the big “get� for the benefit. Jean’s demands for special treatment are the least of her disruptions.

She immediately complicates the lives of her former colleagues — irrepressible horndog Wilf (Billy Connolly) and friendly but addled Cissy (Pauline Collins) — but the shock waves of Jean’s arrival especially blindside her ex-husband Reggie (Tom Courtenay, star of Harwood’s “The Dresser�), for whom she harbors hopeful feelings of reconciliation. “I wanted a dignified senility,�

Reggie complains. “Fat chance now she’s here.�

Reggie’s love-hate passion for Jean constitutes much of the film’s ing actors who both look like their reallife counterparts and have the thespian chops to hit all the right notes. Rated R for language and violent images. 2 hours. — T.H. (Reviewed Oct. 12, 2012) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ---

(Century 16, Century 20) Director Peter Jackson (the “Lord of the Rings� trilogy) rekindles his Middle Earth magic in adapting the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s seminal novel “The Hobbit� for the big screen. Those fond of the “Rings� pictures will feel a sense of deja vu in watching “An Unexpected Journey,� as cinematography, costuming, score and set design are all virtually identical, not to mention several cast members. While “Journey� gets off to a ploddingly slow start, the colorful characters, action sequences and visual effects quickly help pick up the pace.

Overall, there’s a paint-by-numbers feel to the film, since the groundwork was already well laid with “Lord of the Rings.� “Journey� introduces a host of interesting new characters. Martin Freeman makes a wonderful Bilbo, striking a perfect balance between humor and heart, and Ian McKellen serves up another terrific performance. Some have wondered if three films (at nearly three hours each) are really necessary in adapting one 300page novel. The easy answer is no, but for those who relish the fantasy genre — and Tolkien’s works specifically — three movies might not be enough. Rated PG-13 for intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images. 2 hours, 49 minutes. — T.H. (Reviewed Dec. 14, 2012) Hyde Park on Hudson -(Palo Alto Square) “Awkward� doesn’t begin to describe the first intimate moment between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his distant cousin, Margaret “Daisy� Suckley. Playing the polio-stricken president, a poker-faced Bill Murray gazes straight ahead, his liver-spotted paw reaching for Laura Linney’s hand as the couple sits in his convertible. British director Roger Michell compounds the clumsiness of the exchange by cutting to an extreme long shot that captures the car bobbing up and down, as though the scene were taken

Pauline Collins and Maggie Smith play retired musicians who just may perform together again. dramatic action, which eventually fixates on the problem of convincing Jean to reprise the third-act quartet from “Rigoletto� that she, Reggie, Wilf and Cissy once legendarily performed together.

Clever cat that he is, Hoffman adds to already sturdy material a few smart touches, such as a welltimed classical montage for the title sequence and a subtle refusal to follow through on the cliche of the “Camille cough� (i.e., the con-

spicuous symptom that guarantees a character’s demise).

One genre expectation remains firmly in place. The senior-citizen movie remains a showcase for elder talent, which Hoffman maximizes not only with stars but also with supporting players who, once upon a time, made theatrical, operatic and musical history (stay tuned to the credits for resume highlights).

Connolly and Collins expertly balance loveable comic relief with

directly from a teen-sex comedy. The tone is off and off-putting. Scenes do heat up when King George VI (Samuel West) and Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) arrive for the weekend. America’s president and the stuttering British royal of “The King’s Speech� do have great chemistry. Murray’s performance is drolly understated, and Linney’s character is so dull that the role offers the talented actor nothing to do. West and his stammering provide much more than meets the ear: His acting crafts a sweet-natured and devoted public servant who will steal your heart, if not the show. Rated R for brief sexuality. 1 hour, 35 minutes. — S.T. (Reviewed Dec. 21, 2012)

Reacher in the airport-novel adaptation of “Jack Reacher.� Oscar-winning writer Christopher McQuarrie does double duty as screenwriter and director, lending a veneer of intelligence to otherwise dopey material, layering in some snappy dialogue, sleek suspense sequences and punchy action to distract from a plot one character aptly describes as “grassyknoll ludicrous.� The picture begins with a gripping sniper set piece running into a wordless montage that ends with a fishy suspect in Pittsburgh P.D. custody. The suspect’s only communication: “Get Jack Reacher.� Before you can say, well, Jack Reacher, the preternaturally confident former “Army cop� makes the scene and, on reflection, reluctantly agrees to serve as the investigator for public defender Helen Rodin. As played by Cruise in a notunskilled but largely generic action-hero performance, Reacher is a hard-bitten man with no patience for fools. “Jack Reacher� is by no means a good film. It’s not even a particularly good movie. But the thing does have two fistfights, a car chase and a shootout. So if you’re on the run from three-hour awards-season dramas, it may fill the bill. Rated PG-13 for violence, language and drug material.

Two hours, 10 minutes. — P.C. (Reviewed Dec. 21, 2012)

The Impossible --(Aquarius, Century 20) “The Impossible� takes dicey material — the story of one privileged family’s suffering during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami — and transcends its political incorrectness by focusing on the human condition.

Most problematic is the focus on the pains of these tourists to the exclusion of hundreds of thousands of South Asian locals, whose roles in the film amount to good-hearted rescuers of our heroes at best, and set dressing at worst. Most impressively, “The Impossible� provides one of the most visceral experiences of 2012 cinema. As a sheer feat of directorial ingenuity, “The Impossible� has no equal among the year’s films. The breathtaking tsunami sequence sweeps away the family and splits them into two groups, Maria with Lucas and Henry with the other boys.

Watts ably embodies maternal focus under extreme duress, and McGregor has a heartbreaking scene of emotional breakdown that suggests unplumbed depths to his talent. A real-life disaster shouldn’t be the basis for a cinematic thrill ride, but the film’s tsunami puts a lump in one’s throat to accompany white knuckles. Rated PG-13 for intense disaster sequences, including injury images and brief nudity.

One hour, 54 minutes. — P.C. (Reviewed Jan. 4, 2013) Jack Reacher --1/2 (Century 20) Resurgent star Tom Cruise plays stoical tough-guy hero Jack

Life of Pi ---1/2 (Palo Alto Square, Century 20) In Ang Lee’s exhilarating “Life of Pi� — based upon the bestselling novel by Yann Martel — a boy adrift reads a “Survival at Sea� manual. “Telling stories is highly recommended,� it says. “Above all, do not lose hope.� In the hands of Ang Lee, “Life of Pi� elegantly walks Martel’s philosophical line while also brilliantly using every modern cinematic tool to tell an epic yarn.

Most prominent among these tools is 3D. Lee joins the ranks of auteurs using new 3D cameras, gainfully employing the technology for its full ViewMaster “pop� effect, but also in more magical ways.

Suraj Sharma plays the teenage Piscine Molitor (aka “Pi�), who, having been raised in South India, winds up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, warily sharing a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger. As a boy, Pi (Ayush Tandon)

dramatic weight, and Smith remains reliably resonant, but Courtenay provides the most touching turn as the character with the deepest thoughts and most tender feelings. “Quartet� is no classic, but with the talent involved, it’s certainly catchy.

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and suggestive humor. One hour, 39 minutes. — Peter Canavese becomes something of a “Catholic Hindu,� who sees the gods of various religions as his “superheroes.� Pi’s spiritual picaresque shifts into a high gear once he’s fighting for survival on the “life�boat. Pi’s attempts to reach detente with the tiger create a fearful intimacy analogous to some people’s experience of God. “I have to believe there was more in his eyes than my own reflection staring back at me,� Pi says, but the film’s visual motifs of mirrored surfaces might just as well suggest that people under sufficient emotional duress see what they want to see. Rated PG for emotional thematic content throughout, and some scary action sequences and peril. Two hours, seven minutes. — P.C. (Reviewed Nov. 23, 2012) Lincoln ---1/2 (Century 16, Century 20) Spielberg’s “Lincoln� — which focuses on Lincoln’s tragically shortened second term in office, the conclusion of the Civil War and the president’s fight to pass the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery) — plays a bit like a $50 million history lesson. And while that’s a boon for history buffs, the pacing suffers sporadically. Still, Spielberg and his team (including an A-list cast that features a spotlight-stealing performance

by Tommy Lee Jones) deserve a wealth of credit for embracing a monumental task and succeeding. The film follows Lincoln (Day-Lewis) as he seeks to outlaw slavery and, thus, end the bloody Civil War. Lincoln juggles nation-changing decisions with personal-life issues: his wife Mary’s (Sally Field) migraines, his older son Robert’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) military ambitions and his young son Tad’s (Gulliver McGrath) upbringing. Day-Lewis captures Lincoln as well as any actor could. From his vocal inflections to his mannerisms, it’s clear he truly immersed himself in the difficult role. But it’s Jones’ performance that lends the film the spark it needed and would not have otherwise had. Rated PG-13 for war violence, strong language and carnage. 2 hours, 29 minutes. — T.H. (Reviewed Nov. 16, 2012)

(continued on next page)

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Movies (continued from previous page) Zero Dark Thirty --1/2 (Century 16, Century 20) By most cinematic measures, “Zero Dark Thirty� is one of the best-made films of 2012. It also probably shouldn’t exist. An encore presentation by the team of director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal — who collected Oscars for 2008’s “The Hurt Locker� — the film recounts the CIA’s hunt for

Osama bin Laden. By following a fiercely determined CIA officer (Jessica Chastain’s Maya), “Zero Dark Thirty� creates an identification with her agony of defeat and thrill of victory along the way, building a rooting interest while otherwise eschewing character development in favor of detail-oriented procedural. While Boal’s screenplay is based on journalistic research, one might well say, “Consider the sources.� And the calendar. It’s fair to suggest that the Holly-

wood treatment of such politically delicate history comes “too soon,� and lacks the historical perspective that comes with time. Instead of dealing with the inherently political dimensions of their narrative, the filmmakers have disingenuously insisted upon the film’s apoliticism in its embrace of procedural narrative. Rated R for language and strong violence including brutal images. Two hours, 37 minutes. — P.C. (Reviewed Jan. 4, 2013)

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OPENINGS All showtimes are for Friday through Sunday only unless otherwise noted. For other times, as well as reviews and trailers, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/movies.

A Haunted House (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 11:05 a.m.; 1:25 & 10:20 p.m.

Century 20: 11:05 a.m.; 1:20, 3:30, 5:45, 8 & 10:15 p.m.

Amour (PG-13) ((((

Guild Theatre: 1:15, 4:30 & 7:45 p.m.

Argo (R) (((1/2 Century 16: 4:05 & 7:20 p.m.

Century 20: 4:45, 7:35 & 10:20 p.m.

Bedtime for Bonzo (1951) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Fri.-Mon. at 7:30 p.m.; Sat. & Sun. also at 4 p.m.

The Best of RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 From Outer Space (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: Thu. at 7:30 p.m.

Century 20: Thu. at 7:30 p.m.

Jack Reacher (PG-13) ((1/2 Century 20: 11:40 a.m. & 9:50 p.m.

The Last Stand (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 12:20, 3:20, 7:10 & 9:55 p.m. Century 20: 1:10 & 7:05 p.m.

Les Miserables (2012) (PG-13) ((( Century 16: 11 a.m.; 2:25, 6:05 & 9:30 p.m.

Century 20: 11:20 a.m.; 3, 6:35 & 10:05 p.m.

Life of Pi (PG) (((1/2 Century 20: 1:25 p.m.; In 3D at 4:20, 7:20 & 10:20 p.m. Palo Alto Square: 1 p.m.; In 3D at 4 & 7 p.m.; In 3D Fri. & Sat. also at 10 p.m.

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Lincoln (PG-13) (((1/2 Century 16: 11:20 a.m.; 2:40, 6:05 & 9:20 p.m. Century 20: 12:20, 3:35, 6:55 & 10:15 p.m.

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Mama (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 11:30 a.m.; 2, 4:50, 7:50 & 10:30 p.m.

Century 20: 11:55 a.m.; 2:25, 5:10, 7:50 & 10:25 p.m.

Broken City (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 12:20, 3:30, 7:10 & 10:05 p.m.

Century 20: 11:30 a.m.; 2, 4:55, 7:30 & 10:10 p.m.

Monsters, Inc. (G) (((1/2

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969) (PG) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: Wed. at 2 & 7 p.m.

Century 20: Wed. at 2 & 7 p.m.

Movie 43 (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 11 a.m.; 1:20, 3:50, 7:40 & 10:30 p.m.

Century 20: 12:45, 3:10, 5:35, 8:10 & 10:35 p.m.

Django Unchained (R) ((( Century 16: 11:50 a.m.; 3:50 & 8:10 p.m. Century 20: 11:10 a.m.; 2:50, 6:25 & 10 p.m.

One Night Stand: Overnight Musicals (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: Wed. at 7:30 p.m. Century 20: Wed. at 7:30 p.m.

Gangster Squad (R) (1/2 Century 16: 11:10 a.m.; 1:50, 4:30, 7:30 & 10:25 p.m.

Century 20: 11:30 a.m.; 2:10, 5:05, 7:45 & 10:30 p.m.

Parental Guidance (PG) 1/2 Century 20: 11:45 a.m. & 2:15 p.m.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 5 & 10:40 p.m.; In 3D at 11 a.m.; noon, 1:30, 2:30, 4, 7, 8 & 9:50 p.m. Century 20: 11:25 a.m. & 9:05 p.m.; In 3D at 1, 1:50, 2:40, 3:20, 4:10, 5, 5:45, 6:40, 7:25, 8:10 & 10:35 p.m.

Harvey (1950) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Fri.-Mon. at 5:35 & 9:05 p.m.

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Quartet (PG-13) ((( Aquarius Theatre: 1, 3:30, 6 & 8:30 p.m.

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Skyfall (PG-13) (((1/2 Century 20: 3:50 & 9:45 p.m.

Hyde Park on Hudson (R) (( Palo Alto Square: 1:30, 4:30 & 7:25 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. also at 9:45 p.m.

Imitation of Life (1959) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Tue.-Thu. at 7:30 p.m.

Written on the Wind (1956) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Tue.-Thu. at 5:40 & 9:45 p.m.

The Impossible (PG-13) ((( Aquarius Theatre: 1:30, 4:15, 7 & 9:45 p.m.

Century 20: 11:35 a.m.; 2:35, 5:15, 7:55 & 10:35 p.m.

Zero Dark Thirty (R) ((1/2 Century 16: 11:10 a.m.; 12:30, 2:35, 4:10, 6:20, 8:10 & 10:05 p.m. Century 20: 11:05 a.m.; 1:15, 2:30, 4:40, 6:45, 8:20 & 10:10 p.m.

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Parker (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 12:30, 3:35, 7:15 & 10:25 p.m.

Century 20: 11:25 a.m.; 2:10, 4:50, 7:40 & 10:30 p.m.

Silver Linings Playbook (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 12:10, 3:10, 6:40 & 9:40 p.m.

Century 20: 11:15 a.m.; 2, 4:50, 7:35 & 10:25 p.m.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13) ((( Century 16: 3:40 p.m.; In 3D at 11:40 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.

Century 20: 11 a.m.; In 3D at 2:35, 6:15 & 9:55 p.m.

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Century 20: In 3D at 11 a.m.

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Sports Shorts COLLEGE BOUND . . . Palo Alto High senior wide receiver Jayshawn Gates-Mouton will be reunited with his brother, Morris, after verbally committing to Montana State to continue his football career. Morris, a 5-foot-9, 185-pound freshman, was a walkon running back for the Bobcats this past season. Jayshawn was named the Outstanding Wide Receiver in the Central Coast Section as Palo Alto finished 8-3 last fall after losing to Serra in the first round of the Open Division playoffs. The 5-foot-9, 165-pounder hauled in 35 catches for 738 yards (21.1 yards per catch) and eight touchdowns. . . . Sacred Heart Prep senior Kendall Jager’s exceptional efforts both on the field and in the classroom have been rewarded with an invitation to enter Brown University to play soccer for the Brown Bears as a member of next year’s freshman class. Jager was a First Team All-West Bay Athletic League (Foothill Division) selection both in 2011 and 2012, the latter a season where she led the Gators in both scoring and assists.

Friday Prep basketball: Menlo-Atherton at Woodside (girls 6:15 p.m., boys 7:45 p.m.); KCEA (89.1 FM) Women’s basketball: Utah at Stanford, 7 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks; KZSU (90.1 FM)

Sunday Women’s basketball: Colorado at Stanford, 4 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks; KZSU (90.1 FM) Men’s basketball: Stanford at Utah, 6 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks; KNBR (1050 AM)

Wednesday Men’s basketball: Oregon at Stanford, 8 p.m.; ESPNU; KNBR (1050 AM)

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www.PASportsOnline.com For expanded daily coverage of college and prep sports, please see our new site at www.PASportsOnline.com

The two-time national champion Stanford women’s water polo team will be strengthened by 2012 U.S. Olympians (L-R) Maggie Steffens, Melissa Seidemann and Annika Dries.

Stanford’s goal has familiar ring(s) to it Two-time defending national champion Cardinal women going for a three-peat in water polo

by Rick Eymer SA Olympic gold medalists Annika Dries and Melissa Seidemann weren’t completely absent through the Stanford women’s water polo team’s run to the national title last year. They would send the occasional text or show up at a match while preparing for the 2012 London Games.

Now they’re all in, along with FINA’s Women’s Player of the Year and Olympian Maggie Steffens, as

U

the top-ranked Cardinal looks for a three-peat this season.

Stanford (26-2 last year) opens its season Friday with a nonconference match against visiting Michigan at 2 p.m. The Cardinal heads to the UC Santa Barbara tournament for four more matches Saturday and Sunday. “It’s so fun to have them back,� said Stanford senior goalie Kate Baldoni, who stopped over 90 percent of the shots (29 of 32) she faced

in the national championships. “We saw them in the stands last year and it’s like they were always part of the team.�

Baldoni, an All-American and the MVP of the National Collegiate Championships last year, is just one of several players with distinguished awards to display.

In addition to the three Olympic gold medalists, Cardinal coach John Tanner, last season’s national Coach of the Year, can also look for help

from sophomore Kiley Neushul, the reigning college Player of the Year (Dries won the award two years ago), returning All-Americans Kaley Dodson and Ashley Grossman and two members of the Canadian National Team in freshmen Anna Yelizarova and Gurpreet Sohi.

Neushul led the team in scoring last year with 58, followed by Gross(continued on page 33)

PREP SOCCER

Division races getting interesting following important showdowns

by Keith Peters s the high school soccer season approaches the halfway point, this is what we know for sure: the Menlo School girls, Sacred Heart Prep boys and Palo Alto girls are all leading their respective divisions.

The Pinewood girls are tied for their division lead. The Palo Alto, Menlo School and Menlo-Atherton boys, meanwhile, aren’t far behind — nor are the Sacred Heart Prep girls.

Thus, the next few weeks should be pretty interesting as teams jockey for league titles and Central Coast Section playoff berths.

Speaking of interesting, the West Bay Athletic League boys’ race cer-

A

tainly fits that description with Sacred Heart Prep and Menlo School nearly identical in every way. Prior to Wednesday’s first of two showdowns this season, the Gators and Knights had the same league and overall records.

That has changed, following Sacred Heart Prep’s 1-0 victory. The Gators came into this season never having lost to Menlo in the WBAL. That streak remains intact as the Gators took over sole possession of first place.

The Gators improved to 6-0 in league (9-2-1 overall) while the Knights fell to 5-1 (8-3-1). SHP is 7-0-2 against Menlo since both (continued on page 34)

Keith Peters

ON THE AIR

Keith Peters

HOT STOVE . . . The 29th annual Hot Stove Banquet returned to the San Jose Elks Club on Tuesday night to honor Santa Clara County baseball players from the youth level to the professional ranks, as well as other individuals from the area who have contributed to the game. Master of ceremonies Ted Robinson, who for 13 years was the radio voice of Stanford football, began the evening with a quick Q-and-A with each of the head coaches from San Jose State, Santa Clara and Stanford. When introducing Stanford head coach Mark Marquess, Robinson simply said “And next, the man who needs no introduction.� Marquess gave a quick preview of the upcoming season and gave note to the rising parity in the college game. Stanford’s Mark Appel was named College Player of the Year.

Former Cardinals Eric Davis (Minor League Pitcher of the Year) and Eric Smith (Minor League Catcher of the Year) also copped hardware. Other award winners included Palo Alto High grads Joc Pederson of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who received a minor league honor, plus B.J. Boyd and John Dickerson, honored at the high school level.

Sacred Heart Prep’s Andrew Segre (14) eluded a diving Menlo School goalie Tim Costa to score the game’s only goal Wednesday. ĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°VÂœÂ“ĂŠUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 31

Sports selected with the 15th pick of the Major League Soccer Supplemental Draft by the San Jose Earthquakes Tuesday.

Jahn finished his Stanford tenure with a career year, posting career bests of 13 goals, 30 points and four match-winners as the Cardinal went 9-8-1 overall and 5-4-1 (16 points) in conference play to place third.

Over his Cardinal career Jahn accumulated 60 points on 24 goals and 12 assists.

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NOTICE OF A PUBLIC MEETING of the Palo Alto Planning & Transportation Commission Please be advised the Planning and Transportation Commission (P&TC) shall conduct a public meeting at 6:00 PM, Wednesday, January 30, 2013 in the Council Chambers, Ground Floor, Civic Center, Palo Alto, California. Any interested persons may appear and be heard on these items.

Staff reports for agendized items are available via the City’s main website at www.cityofpaloalto.org and also at the Planning Division Front Desk, 5th Floor, City Hall, after 2:00 PM on the Friday preceding the meeting date. Copies will be made available at the Development Center should City Hall be closed on the 9/80 Friday.

NEW BUSINESS. 1. California Avenue Transit Hub Corridor Streetscape Improvements Project - Update on California Avenue Street Alignment and Request for Planning and Transportation Commission Input on Street Lighting Options for California Avenue Public Hearing 2. Initiation of a Rezoning to apply Ground Floor (GF) Combining District to the 600 Block of Emerson Street Fronting Properties Questions. For any questions regarding the above items, please contact the Planning Department at (650) 329-2441. The ďŹ les relating to these items are available for inspection weekdays between the hours of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. This public meeting is televised live on Government Access Channel 26.

ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn more about the City’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), please contact the City’s ADA Coordinator at 650.329.2550 (voice) or by e-mailing ada@cityofpaloalto.org. *** Curtis Williams, Director of Planning and Community Environment

Page 32ĂŠUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°Vœ“

Don Feria/isiphotos.com

www.pafns.org.

Or call our office: 650.856.6152

by Rick Eymer

S

orry Chiney, you’re just involved in Stanford’s offense way too much. It’s time for your teammates to contribute a little more.

That’s what Cardinal women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer suggested about All-American Chiney Ogwumike as No. 6 Stanford (5-1 in the Pac-12, 16-2 overall) prepares for home games against Utah (1-5, 10-7) Friday at 7 p.m. and No. 20 Colorado (4-2, 15-2) at 4 p.m. Sunday. “In some ways we’re trying to not get her more shots,� VanDerveer said. “We want people to look for her when she’s open and get her the ball more, but we are so Chineycentric already that we’re really looking for other people to help us.

We don’t want to just be all about Chiney.�

Ogwumike was named as a midseason candidate for the John R. Wooden Award, it was announced Tuesday. She ranks seventh in the country in scoring (21.4 ppg), rebounding (11.6 rpg) and field goal percentage (58.3 percent). She’s the only player among the national top 10 in all three categories.

Her scoring average also tops the Pac-12 while she sits second in both rebounding and field-goal percentage and third with an 85.7 freethrow percentage.

Ogwumike was a big factor in Stanford’s 75-66 victory over visiting USC on Sunday. She scored 29 points, 23 in the second half, and grabbed 16 rebounds. The Cardinal beat UCLA, 75-49, on Friday night. “We do want to look for her more when she’s open,� VanDerveer said. “But we’re not going to run more things for her.�

Meanwhile, it’s another big weekend for Stanford as the Utes and Buffaloes each present unique problems. “They’re a lot better than their Pac-12 record indicates,� VanDerveer said about Utah. “They’re very physical, they have big Canadian kids, (Michelle) Plouffe and (Taryn) Wicijowski, and they have an excellent point guard with (Iwalani) Rodrigues.�

With co-leader No. 7 California (5-1, 15-2) playing the same schedule, the Cardinal cannot afford to slip if it has designs on a 13th consecutive conference title.

Colorado has been one of the big surprises in the conference, thanks in large part to freshman Arielle Roberson, whose older brother plays for the Buffaloes men’s team.

Colorado over took Stanford as the conference’s best defensive team and is fourth in the Pac-12 in

Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike ranks No. 7 nationally in scoring (21.4 ppg). scoring. Utah is third in scoring defense.

Meanwhile Stanford continues to get healthier. Joslyn Tinkle and Toni Kokenis missed practice earlier this week due to nagging injuries. Tinkle has a sore ankle and Kokenis has a brace to protect her right thumb.

Redshirt freshman Alex Green is getting closer after missing last year with a torn Achilles’ tendon.

The Cardinal has been without its top recruit Aly Beebe all season.

Beebe, the nation’s No. 13-ranked recruit, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in May. “I showed our team the Pac-12 statistics when we’re working on being more aggressive,� VanDerveer said. “We’re 12th in the Pac-12 in steals, we’re 11th I think in o-boards. We’re living a lot on what Chiney does and we need some people to carry more of a load.�

Fencing The Stanford men were ranked No. 10 in the first College Fencing 360 Coaches’ Poll of the season, announced Tuesday.

The men’s team opened its season at the Western Invitational going undefeated with four victories. The Cardinal defeated Air Force (17-10), California Institute of Technology (25-2), UC San Diego (16-11) and Florida (23-4).

Men’s gymnastics Stanford senior Eddie Penev was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week for the second week in a row, announced by the conference Tuesday.

The five-time All-American recorded two second-place finishes on floor exercise and parallel bars to help lead the No. 2 Cardinal to a Stanford Open quad meet victory over No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 9 Nebraska and No. 10 California.

Penev is currently ranked second in the NCAA on floor and third in the all-around with average scores of 15.650 and 86.200, respectively.

Stanford is currently 4-0 with each victory coming against a Top 10 opponent. The Cardinal heads to Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday to take on No. 3 Michigan.

Men’s soccer Stanford senior Adam Jahn was

Softball Stanford begins the 2013 season ranked No. 21 in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association preseason poll, the organization announced today.

The Cardinal finished the 2012 season with a 40-19 record and advanced to the postseason for the 15th consecutive year. The team finished sixth in the always-competitive Pac12 Conference and ended the year with a No. 21 final ranking in the NFCA poll.

Men’s tennis The winter/spring dual-match season continues this weekend for No. 10 Stanford, with the Cardinal slated to host a pair of matches at Taube Family Tennis Stadium.

Stanford is participating in ITA Kick-Off Weekend and serving as one of 15 host sites around the country.

The ITA Kick-Off Weekend features four teams at each site vying to advance to the National Team Indoor Championships during Feb. 15-18 in Seattle.

No. 10 Stanford plays Texas A&M at 2 p.m. Friday. That match will be preceded by a match between San Diego and Texas Tech. The winners meet Saturday at 2 p.m.

Men’s volleyball Extra work on serves helped Steven Irvin and the Stanford end a modest two-game losing streak Tuesday night. The fourth-ranked Cardinal downed visiting UCLA, 27-25, 19-25, 25-14, 25-12, in an important MPSF match.

Stanford (2-2 in the MPSF, 5-2 overall) hosts UC Santa Barbara at 7 p.m. Saturday as it looks to rebound from its lost weekend in Southern California.

The Cardinal avoided its first three-game losing streak since dropping the final six matches of the 2007 season. Stanford last lost two straight during the national championship season of 2010, so perhaps this is an omen. “Our passing has been phenomenal all year,� said Irvin, who recorded 14 kills and hit at a .480 clip. “It’s just been our serving.�

Stanford used Monday to work out the kinks in its service game and it worked just the way coach John Kosty had hoped. Irvin had four of Stanford’s eight service aces, matching UCLA’s output as a team. The Bruins also committed 20 service aces to Stanford’s 10.

Stanford won its 11th straight at home and has beaten UCLA at home the past six meetings. The Cardinal moved into a four-way tie for fourth place in the Pac-12, a game behind co-second place Long Beach State and Pepperdine and two behind leader BYU. N

Sports

COMMUNITY MEETING Safe Routes to School for Gunn High School Review and comment on Draft Walk and Roll Maps and Route Improvements

Tuesday, January 29, 7:00-8:30 PM Gunn High School, 780 Arastradero Road

David Gonzales/stanfordphoto.com

Richard C. Ersted/stanfordphoto.com

Stanford sophomore Kiley Neushul is the reigning national collegiate women’s player of the year.

Stanford’s John Tanner was the national coach of the year.

Water polo

its players. She was the starting goalie for Hungary at the Olympics.

Australian National Team member Hannah Buckling transferred in from Sydney University.

Sophomore Monica Vavic, the daughter of coach Jovan Vavic, is also one of the top players in the country. Priory grad Constance Hiller, who played for the Stanford club team, returns for her senior year.

Arizona State features six foreign players with international experience, include senior national team members Alicia Brightwell (Australia) and Ao Gao (China). “There are so many more good players now,� Tanner said. “Each team has 10 to 14 solid players and three or four that require special attention. You have to game plan for every opponent now. Five or 10 years ago, that wasn’t the case.�N

(continued from page 31)

man with 50. Dodson was fourth with 34 goals.

Steffens led all Olympians with 21 goals, making over 70 percent of her shots. Adding to the wealth of talent will be Kaitlyn Lo, who scored 29 goals for the Cardinal last year, Jillian Garton (18), Alexis Lee (14) and four others, Cory Dodson, Kelsey Suggs, Catherine Carpenter, Lexie Ross, who combined for another 21 goals.

Victoria Kennedy, who netted 13 goals last year, is using her redshirt season. “We need to be our own best competition,� Seidemann said. “In practice we get beat up by them and we have to make a stellar play to score because they are playing stellar defense. There are still a lot of challenges.�

Did we mention that Dries scored 65 goals and Seidemann added 51 two years ago? “We have a lot of people who can score,� Tanner said. “It’s a matter of seeing what they are doing against us and seeing where the openings are.�

The Cardinal also has a local presence again with sophomore goalie Emily Dorst, a Menlo-Atherton High grad, and freshman driver Skylar Dorosin out of Palo Alto.

Gabby Stone, Melena Masson and Rachel Johnson complete a solid freshmen class that will be contributing to a team that outscored its opponents, 342-130, last year.

The offensive firepower that Stanford possesses will be a nightmare to defend. Steffens will certainly draw a lot of attention but that may open the way for Neushul, Grossman, Seidemann, Dries and others. “On a daily basis these guys stay hungry,� Tanner said. “They are eager to prove themselves. They have launched themselves from the podium to what’s next.�

With at least four players capable of scoring 50 goals, and adding Steffens to the mix, sharing the scoring load could become complicated.

“I don’t think we’re going to be over confident,� Neushul said. “There are a lot of egos but that’s just a challenge coming in. It’s about suppressing the ego and getting everybody to work together. These guys make the team environment fun. The team doesn’t feel any different than it did last year.�

Neushul, who has previously trained with Steffens, Dries and Seidemann, said that by staying in contact last year, was special. “Because we were always going to be teammates, I felt like it helped prepare us for this year,� she said.

Steffens, whose older sister Jessica was also on the U.S. Olympic team and also played at Stanford, still feels like a rookie despite her international experience and renown. “We’re trying to be a family,� she said. “I’m new coming in and there are so many things I needed to learn. Yes, I had my sister but I also have older sisters on this team and I’ve learned through them. It’s a hard transition to come from an arena where all you do is practice and play, almost like a pro, and now to be a student-athlete. I have people here I look up to and who can guide me through the year.�

Dries said she’s enjoying the fact she’s reunited with some of her former Laguna Beach high school teammates Masson and Ross. “It’s like coming back in with a fresh start with a new team,� Dries said. “It’s about playing as a group and working hard to play at a certain level. It’s also about coming together as a team.�

While Stanford will be the oddson favorite to win its third straight title, Tanner warns it won’t be as easy as people think. “A lot of teams have gotten better,� he said. “I went to London to watch the five Stanford players (Brenda Villa was also there as team captain) and I saw a lot of coaches throwing a fishing pole into the pool and getting after it. The level of play will be exquisite.�

USC, which met the Cardinal in last year’s championship match, counts junior Flora Bolonyai among

2013 STANFORD WOMEN’S WATER POLO Date Opponent Time Friday Michigan 2 p.m.

Saturday Cal Baptist at UCSB 10:50 a.m.

Saturday UC Irvine at UCSB 3:30 p.m.

Sunday LMU at UCSB 9:10 a.m.

Sunday CS Bakersfield at UCSB 12:40 p.m.

Feb. 2 Olympic Club 8:30 a.m.

Feb. 2 San Jose St. 4 p.m.

Feb. 3 UC Davis 8 a.m.

Feb. 3 Stanford Invite finals Feb. 9 at UC Davis noon Feb. 23-24 at UCI Invitational Mar. 2 CS Bakersfield 1 p.m.

Mar. 9 San Jose St. 1 p.m.

Mar. 22 Harvard 7 p.m.

Mar. 24 at Arizona St. noon Mar. 24 Colo. St. at ASU 3 p.m.

Mar. 25 Hartwick at ASU 10 a.m.

Mar. 29 UCSD at Hawaii 11 a.m.

Mar. 29 UCSB at Hawaii 1 p.m.

Mar. 30 SD St. at Hawaii noon Mar. 30 at Hawaii 5 p.m.

April 6 UCLA 1 p.m.

April 13 at USC 4 p.m.

April 14 at LMU noon April 20 at California 1 p.m.

Apr. 26-28 MPSF tourney at Cal May 10-12 NCC tourney at Boston

The Palo Alto Safe Routes to School program is documenting suggested routes to school and identifying opportunities for engineering improvements and enforcement which, when combined with safety education and promotion activities, will encourage more families to choose alternatives to driving to school solo.

More info: Contact Sylvia Star-Lack at saferoutes@cityofpaloalto.org or (650) 329-2156

City of Palo Alto ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Draft EIR environmental analysis has been prepared by the Palo Alto Department of Public Works for the project listed below. In accordance with A.B. 886, this document will be available for review and comment during a minimum 20-day inspection period beginning January 22, 2013 through February 21, 2013 during the hours of 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. at 250 Hamilton Avenue, 6th Floor, Palo Alto, California.

1875 Embarcadero Road (Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course): Request by the City of Palo Alto Community Services Department for a Community Scoping meeting regarding the scope and content of the Draft EIR’s environmental analysis for the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course ReconďŹ guration and Baylands Athletic Center Expansion Project. Zone District: PF(D).

The scoping meeting will tentatively be heard at the Planning & Transportation Commission meeting on Wednesday, February 13, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. in the Palo Alto City Hall Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto. For further information, please contact: Joe Teresi, Senior Engineer, Public Works Engineering Services, 250 Hamilton Avenue, 6th Floor, Palo Alto, California 94301, (650) 329-2129, Joe.Teresi@CityofPaloAlto. org

Curtis Williams, Director of Planning and Community Environment In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, listening assistive devices are available in the Council Chambers and Council Conference Room. Sign language interpreters will be provided upon request with 72 hours advance notice.

Give blood for life! b l o o d c e n t e r. s t a n f o r d . e d u ĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°VÂœÂ“ĂŠUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 33

Sports CITY OF PALO ALTO NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Palo Alto City Council will hold a public hearing at the regular Council meeting on Monday, February 11, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. or as near thereafter as possible, in the Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, for the Review of Potential Options for Downtown Visioning and 27 University Avenue Site Planning.

This item will not be heard as a public hearing on the February 4th Council date.

DONNA J. GRIDER, MMC City Clerk PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL CIVIC CENTER, 250 HAMILTON AVENUE BROADCAST LIVE ON KZSU, FM 90.1 CABLECAST LIVE ON GOVERNMENT ACCESS CHANNEL 26 ******************************************** THIS IS A SUMMARY OF COUNCIL AGENDA ITEMS. THE AGENDA WITH COMPLETE TITLES INCLUDING LEGAL DOCUMENTATION CAN BE VIEWED AT THE BELOW WEBPAGE: http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/knowzone/agendas/council.asp

(TENTATIVE) AGENDA – REGULAR MEETING – COUNCIL CHAMBERS JANUARY 28, 2013 - 7:00 PM CONSENT CALENDAR 1. Utilities Advisory Commission Recommendation that the City Council Adopt a Resolution Approving the City of Palo Alto Utilities Legislative Policy Guidelines for 2013 2. Adoption of a Resolution Approving Amendment No. 1 to the Amended and Restated Project Agreement No. 5 Between and Among the Transmission Agency of Northern California and its Participating Members 3. Appeal of Director’s Architectural Review Approval of the Collocation by AT&T Mobility LLC of Pole-Mounted Wireless Communications Equipment and Associated Equipment Boxes on 20 Existing Utility Poles Within City Rights-ofWays Near the Following Locations: 747 Loma Verde Ave; 3284 Cowper; 3412 Ross/ 3374 Ross Rd; 3132 David Ave; 3415 Greer Rd; 3539 Louis Rd; 2385 Waverley; 3094 Greer Road on Maddux; 390 El Dorado Ave; 452 Loma Verde; 3524 Waverly on E. Meadow; 3706 Carlson Circle; 3757 Corina Wy; 3915 Louis Rd; 631 E. Meadow; 3901 MiddleďŹ eld Rd; 412 Ferne; 3945 Nelson Ave.; 1772 Hamilton Ave.; 109 Lois Lane. AT&T DAS Phase 3 Project [12PLN-00127] 4. Appeal of Director’s Architectural Review Approval of the Collocation by AT&T Mobility LLC of Pole-Mounted Wireless Communications Equipment and Associated Equipment Boxes on 20 Existing Utility Poles Within City Rights-of-Ways Near the Following Locations: 4131 El Camino Way, 550 Georgia Ave, 4101 Park Blvd (on W. Meadow), 4255 Ruthelma Ave, 669 Maybell Ave, 110 E. Charleston Dr (on Alma), 493 W. Charleston Dr, 4298 Ponce Dr, 429 Monroe, 231 Parkside Dr., opposite 106 Loma Verde, 516 Barron Ave, 4257 McKellar, 320 Lambert Ave, 3989 La Donna, 397 Ventura Ave, 3364 Emerson St, 820 Chimalus Dr, 715 Barron Ave, 915 Matadero Ave. AT&T DAS Phase 4 Project [12PLN-00258] (PLNG) 5. Approval of $114,165 for the Consolidated Maintenance Contract between the City of Palo Alto and Public Safety Systems, Inc. For Computer Aided Dispatch, Police Records Management, Fire Records Management, Mobile Data, and Geovalidation 6. Authorization for the City Manager to Enter Into an Eleven Month Contract with Professional Evaluation Group/The Ochoa & Moore Law Firm, P.C. (PEG/OM) in a Total Amount Not to Exceed $115,000 for Rail Legislative Advocacy Services 7. Finance Committee Recommendation that Council Adopt Two Resolutions: 1) Approving the Policy Pertaining to the Purchase of Energy from Potential Green Waste-to-Energy Facilities and 2) Amending Utility Rule and Regulation 2 (DeďŹ nitions and Abbreviations) and the Six Rate Schedules Covering Medium and Large Commercial Customers (E-4 and E-7) to Include Standby Service Charges ACTION ITEMS 8. Colleagues Memo from Mayor Scharff and Council Member Klein to add a 4th Member to the Council’s Committee on Infrastructure 9. RFP Scope of Services for Downtown CAP Study (Staff requests Item be moved to February 11, 2013) 10. Council Priorities Report from the City Manager STANDING COMMITTEE MEETINGS The Regional Housing Mandate Committee meeting will be held on Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 2:30 PM regarding; 1) City of Palo Alto Appeal of the Adopted Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the 2014-2022 Housing Element Cycle The Rail Committee meeting will be held on January 31, 2013 at 8:30 am regarding, 1) Report from the Professional Evaluation Group, Inc., 2) Proposed SB 1029 Clean Up Legislation, 3) Changes to the CEQA, 4) Guiding Principles Update, and 5) Discussion of the Planned Updates to the Existing Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board/California High Speed Rail Authority Memorandum of Understanding

Good for Business. Good for You. Good for the Community.

Page 34ĂŠUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°Vœ“

PREP BASKETBALL

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

Palo Alto’s 16-1 start best since Lin

by Keith Peters

T

he last time the Palo Alto boys’ basketball team started the season 16-1, the Vikings finished on a 24-game winning streak, ended 32-1 and won the 2006 CIF Division II state championship behind Jeremy Lin and crew.

The Vikings once again are 16-1, ranked No. 35 in state Division I play and No. 7 overall in the Central Coast Section according to MaxPreps. There is no one named Lin on the team and no one is talking about state titles. At least not yet.

Right now, the focus is on the SCVAL De Anza Division race, which Paly (6-0) leads at the halfway point. The Vikings begin the second half of league play Friday against visiting Mountain View at 7:45 p.m.

Paly’s next two games could well determine the league title. Mountain View is in third place at 4-2 and Saratoga (5-1) is second. The Vikings will visit the Falcons on Tuesday at 7 p.m. By handing Saratoga a second loss, Paly will have a two-game lead with four to play.

The Vikings tuned up for the stretch run with an impressive 79-60 victory over De Anza (Richmond) on Monday morning in the Martin Luther King Day Classic at Haas Pavilion on the Cal campus. The win was Paly’s 14th straight.

Senior Aubrey Dawkins led the way with 23 points, six rebounds and four steals. The Vikings grabbed a 49-27 halftime lead and had 10 players score while registering one of their more impressive victories of the season.

While Palo Alto is in control of its divisional race, the West Bay Athletic League is still very wide open with Sacred Heart Prep, Menlo School and Harker all tied for first with 5-1 marks.

That logjam won’t survive the weekend because Menlo will host Harker on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Sacred Heart Prep, meanwhile, plays Crystal Springs (Friday) and Priory (Saturday).

The Gators remained tied for first place with a 54-43 win over host Priory on Wednesday. The Gators moved to 9-7 overall while the Panthers fell to 2-4 and 5-9.

SHP grabbed a 17-8 first-quarter lead maintained a solid advantage throughout. Ian Bennett led the way with 16 points with Ricky Galliani adding 11. Andy Dolezalek paced Priory with 16 points. The Panthers got to the free-throw line for only nine attempts (making six) while the Gators were 17 of 25.

In the PAL South Division, Oliver Bucka scored 14 points for MenloAtherton in a 58-43 loss to visiting Aragon. The Bears (1-4, 5-12) got to within 40-35 before the end of the third period, but no closer. Now, they face not making the Central Coast Section playoffs if they fail to have a .500 mark in either preseason or league. N

Melissa Holland

Max Parker

Sacred Heart Prep

Menlo School

The senior helped the Gators to a pair of basketball victories by scoring 52 points and grabbing 23 rebounds while providing the winning points in each game that included a 48-47 win over first-place Menlo.

The senior scored three goals and added two assists in three soccer victories that kept the Knights tied for first place in the West Bay Athletic League.

He either scored or assisted on all three winning goals.

Honorable mention Maddy Atwater Palo Alto basketball

Emma Heath Menlo-Atherton basketball

Kendall Jager Sacred Heart Prep soccer

Nina Kelty Palo Alto soccer

Sunny Lyu Palo Alto soccer

Sienna Stritter Menlo soccer

Tim Costa Menlo soccer

Ricky Galliani Sacred Heart Prep basketball

Stephen Martin Gunn wrestling

Hugo Sanchez Sacred Heart Prep soccer

Andrew Segre Sacred Heart Prep soccer

Ryan Young Menlo basketball * previous winner

To see video interviews of the Athletes of the Week, go to www.PASportsOnline.com

Prep soccer (continued from page 31)

teams began WBAL play in 2009.

Prior to that, the Knights competed in the Peninsula Athletic League and the Gators played in the PSAL’s fall schedule.

Sacred Heart Prep’s Andrew Segre provided the winning goal in the 27th minute, taking a pass from Robert Hellman and dodging an onrushing Menlo keeper Tim Costa, before finding the back of the net in an open cage. “I was happy with our intensity and team attitude, and while we moved the ball and touched the ball with more ease, I felt we were too tense,� said SHP coach Armando del Rio. “We are capable of playing at a faster tempo with the ball on the ground. When we combined quickly and decisively on the ground, we created. “In the second half, they sent more numbers forward, and they are capable of creating havoc off of loose balls and set pieces. I was proud of our fierce defending as a team, our goalie (Hugo Sanchez) and our backline. I thought we managed the lead well through unnerving moments. Our experience

and character prevailed.�

Despite coming into the game tied for first, Menlo was shorthanded with a number of injuries.

Standout freshman Andrew Arnold, for example, suffered a skiing injury last weekend during a school trip and landed in a Reno hospital.

Two other Menlo players were sidelined by concussions. Bottom line, the Knights were not at full strength and first-year coach Marc Kerrest had to bring players up from the JV squad.. “I know they were missing a key starter (Andrew) Schmitt, but we also had a starter out with mono and players sick,� del Rio said. “Last week the flu went through us like a plague and now it’s the cold.

So one of our mottos is next man up because we trust our players to make an impact when called upon, and our ethos is win the day, live/ play/enjoy/focus on the current moment. We can’t worry who we have or don’t have and the same for the opponent because right now illness and injury is present for all.�

The Knights came out with renewed vigor in the second half.

They had a few good chances after three successive corner kicks, but (continued on next page)

Sports

Prep soccer

(continued from previous page)

Keith Peters

Sanchez was solid in the cage. Menlo senior Ryan Karle nearly evened the match a few minutes later with a solid volley, but again Sanchez was up to the task. “Menlo has a great team,� del Rio said. “It was a competitive game and it will be again at our place.

To us, every league game is a big game and a rivalry because everyone plays us with everything. It’s why league play is tough.�

In the SCVAL El Camino Division, host Palo Alto opened the second half of league play as it did the first half with a 2-0 victory over Monta Vista on Wednesday. The Vikings moved to 4-1-1 in league for 13 points (8-3-2 overall) and remained in third place, one point out of second. Fremont has a near-insurmountable lead with 21 points.

Monta Vista controlled the ball early in the first half before giving up a quick counter to Paly senior Chris Meredith, who picked up a loose ball and dribbled past a Monta Vista defender before facing a one-on-one with the keeper and scoring.

Paly keeper Tony Maharaj twice deflected shots away from inside the penalty box early in the second half. Senior Kirby Gee made it a 2-0 match in the 33rd minute on an assist from Meredith.

In the PAL Bay Division, MenloAtherton lost a share of first place following a 2-0 loss at San Mateo

Alexandra Walker (2) and Amber Mallett (right) congratulate Sienna Stritter on her game-winning goal. in a battle between last season’s co-champs. The victory gave the Bearcats 11 points in league and left the Bears (3-2-1, 6-3-2) with 10.

Girls’ soccer A year ago, Menlo School was trying to find a way to win its first WBAL (Foothill Division) title.

The Knights were successful.

Now, Menlo is working toward finding a way to defend it. On Tuesday, the Knights were successful in taking a very big step toward doing just that.

Getting three-second half goals, host Menlo opened a four-point lead over second-place Sacred Heart Prep with a 3-1 victory. The Knights improved to 5-0 in league (7-2-4 overall) heading into a home match against Priory on Thursday while the Gators fell to 3-1-2 (7-2-3). “It was big,� Menlo coach Donoson FitzGerald said of the first of two head-to-head meetings with the neighborhood rival. “It’s Prep versus Menlo. They (the Gators) played well. We had our hands full.�

Menlo played without senior goalies Julia Dressel and Kelly McConnell, both sidelined by concussion symptoms. Junior striker Jay Boissiere also remains sidelined by injury and has yet to play this season. Freshman Elena Gray missed the match and sophomore Alexandra Walker is facing knee surgery at any time, Still, she plays on.

That’s sort of the attitude Menlo has this season after reaching all of its goals last season — winning the WBAL title (its first league crown since 1991) and its first-ever outright CCS Division III crown. The Knights will do whatever it takes to repeat 2012. “We still have a lot of work to do,� FitzGerald said. “But, we’re in a good spot right now.�

The Knights sat atop the Foothill Division with 15 points before the

Priory match while the secondplace Gators have 11.

Sacred Heart Prep grabbed a 1-0 halftime lead following a goal by senior Taylor Ruegg with about 14:25 left.

The Knights came out after intermission with a determination that paid off when Walker pounced on a loose ball in the penalty box following a corner kick by Chandler Wickers and finished it for a 1-1 match.

With 16:40 left in the match, Menlo junior Sienna Stritter took advantage of another loose ball after Wickers’ corner and headed it in for the eventual winning goal.

Menlo picked up an insurance goal with just under 2:00 to play after Walker knocked a shot off the crossbar. The ball bounced around and eventually got to senior Rachel Pinsker, who ripped a shot from 35 yards out over the reaching SHP keeper Blair Hamilton.

Menlo 5-foot-10 1/2 freshman keeper Schuyler Tilney-Volk came up big, making a couple difficult saves to maintain Menlo’ 2-1 lead — including a long free kick by SHP scoring leader Kendall Jager in the second half. Tilney-Volk finished the game with nine saves.

Jager played despite reportedly suffering dizzy spells the night before, necessitating a visit to the hospital. She was held scoreless as Menlo’s Amanda McFarland marked her well throughout the match. SHP has a number of players injured, as well.

Menlo’s defense of Hannah Ru-

bin, Pinsker, Walker, McFarland, Jamie Corley and Lizzie Lacy was instrumental in the victory.

Priory took on Menlo after playing to a 1-1 deadlock with Castilleja on Tuesday, leaving them 1-1-3 in league (2-3-5 overall).

In the SCVAL El Camino Division, Palo Alto remained in first place following a 2-0 victory over second-place Santa Clara on Wednesday on the Bruins’ field.

The Vikings, who played to a 1-1 deadlock with Santa Clara in their first meeting, improved to 6-0-1 (7-4-2) for 19 points while the Bruins fell back to 4-1-2 and 14 points.

Palo Alto now has scored 32 goals in its six division wins.

Paly outshot Santa Clara 9-1 in the first half, which ended scoreless. After intermission, Sunny Lyu took a pass from Aoi Sugihara and found the net from 25 yards out. Nine minutes later, Nina Kelty made it a 2-0 game. Paly keeper Erin Chang made the shutout stand up with some solid play.

In the SCVAL De Anza Division, Gunn ended a five-match losing streak with a 1-1 deadlock with host Monta Vista. The Titans are now 0-6-1 in league (1-8-3 overall).

In the PAL Bay Division, junior Sabiha Viswanathan provided an unassisted goal in the second half to lift host Menlo-Atherton to a 1-0 victory over San Mateo. The Bears (4-2, 6-4-2) remained tied for third place with Burlingame, just one point behind second-place Carlmont (4-1-1) and four points behind division leader Woodside (5-0-1). N

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Palo Alto Historical Property Values - 2012 BARRON PARK

MIDTOWN

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 40 33 25 15 30 33 31

Median $ 1,823,500 1,482,000 1,400,000 1,500,000 1,607,000 1,695,000 1,258,000

Min $ 1,050,000 830,000 682,500 1,055,000 675,000 950,000 755,000

Max $ 4,300,000 2,275,000 2,969,250 2,700,000 2,500,000 3,495,000 2,800,000

Avg $ / SF 842 805 781 737 917 889 782

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 68 63 59 54 55 57 61

Median $ 1,669,500 1,380,000 1,365,000 1,337,000 1,515,000 1,475,000 1,200,000

Min $ 931,000 770,000 835,000 745,000 720,000 860,000 762,000

Max $ 3,300,000 2,950,000 2,615,000 2,499,000 2,722,000 3,100,000 3,000,000

Avg $ / SF 985 844 800 754 865 957 835

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 25 22 24 18 16 25 27

Median $ 1,450,000 1,275,000 1,735,000 1,105,000 1,441,000 1,365,000 1,420,000

Min $ 850,000 630,000 675,000 746,000 892,000 723,000 484,000

Max $ 2,850,000 3,695,000 2,700,000 2,310,000 2,778,000 2,150,000 2,650,000

Avg $ / SF 960 853 801 860 1,063 959 866

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 40 47 30 21 35 41 50

Median $ 2,576,500 2,575,000 2,044,000 2,000,000 2,085,000 2,500,000 1,915,000

Min $ 710,000 740,000 755,000 815,000 960,000 810,000 750,000

Max $ 9,000,000 5,800,000 7,300,000 3,500,000 7,800,000 8,250,000 6,500,000

Avg $ / SF 1,204 1,016 994 925 1,031 1,030 989

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 34 22 21 18 19 29 26

Median $ 2,409,000 2,151,000 1,790,000 1,827,000 2,000,000 1,850,000 1,726,500

Min $ Max $ 800,000 5,550,000 800,000 4,908,000 985,000 3,650,000 1,170,000 4,830,000 750,000 3,900,000 729,000 15,000,000 767,000 4,250,000

Avg $ / SF 1,135 948 881 1,000 975 1,068 898

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 14 13 15 14 6 8 16

Median $ 2,225,000 2,350,000 1,990,000 1,400,000 1,767,500 2,300,000 1,427,500

Min $ 1,350,000 1,100,000 775,000 810,000 1,300,000 1,625,000 788,000

Max $ 3,800,000 4,900,000 7,995,000 3,270,000 9,850,000 4,600,000 2,600,000

Avg $ / SF 1,054 834 933 742 1,080 873 884

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 29 33 25 28 20 34 19

Median $ 2,400,000 2,535,000 2,425,000 1,910,000 2,075,000 2,375,257 1,700,000

Min $ 840,000 701,000 710,000 800,000 1,269,000 710,000 1,010,000

Max $ 4,800,000 6,025,000 4,450,000 4,995,000 6,900,000 9,750,000 4,500,000

Avg $ / SF 1,043 940 879 842 1,022 995 938

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 99 100 120 121 94 117 127

Median $ 1,455,000 1,229,000 1,246,500 1,188,000 1,350,000 1,350,000 1,150,000

Min $ 850,000 760,000 802,500 775,000 845,000 935,000 800,000

Max $ 2,750,000 2,388,000 2,350,000 2,300,000 2,690,000 2,400,000 2,296,000

Avg $ / SF 880 794 719 704 839 840 740

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 18 22 19 14 20 31 27

Median $ 1,801,000 1,610,000 1,367,000 1,544,000 1,658,500 1,700,000 1,425,000

Min $ 880,000 610,000 645,000 1,000,000 899,000 975,000 575,000

Max $ 3,225,000 3,775,000 2,200,000 2,995,000 3,800,000 4,850,000 4,900,000

Avg $ / SF 1,032 967 815 812 954 934 813

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold Median $ 15 1,205,000 9 900,000 13 815,000 9 903,000 6 900,000 8 1,244,000 20 888,500

Min $ 760,000 672,000 690,000 703,000 825,000 815,000 580,000

Max $ 2,300,000 1,590,000 918,000 1,195,000 1,285,000 1,617,000 1,500,000

Avg $ / SF 836 651 735 776 906 848 746

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 12 15 18 6 4 12 14

Median $ 1,777,500 1,610,000 1,360,500 1,412,000 1,565,000 1,814,000 1,508,500

Min $ 1,550,000 1,250,000 840,000 1,151,000 915,000 950,000 862,500

Max $ 2,200,000 3,350,000 2,450,000 1,900,000 1,860,000 2,750,000 2,600,000

Avg $ / SF 845 833 809 751 829 891 712

Year 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

# Sold 63 55 61 50 39 44 70

Min $ 1,100,000 813,000 850,000 845,000 950,000 980,000 799,000

Max $ 6,000,000 2,470,000 3,150,000 4,050,000 4,150,000 3,595,000 3,400,000

Avg $ / SF 1,024 812 866 796 914 915 810

COLLEGE

COMMUNITY CENTER

CRESCENT PARK

DOWNTOWN

GREEN ACRES

MLS data based on single family home values Page 36ĂŠUĂŠĂŠ >Â˜Ă•>ÀÞÊÓx]ÊÓä£ÎÊUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°Vœ“

OLD PALO ALTO

PROFESSORVILLE

SOUTH PALO ALTO

VENTURA

GREEN GABLES

Median $ 1,750,000 1,500,000 1,470,000 1,413,000 1,550,000 1,567,000 1,425,000