Palo Alto Weekly 02.15.2013 - Section 1

Vol. XXXIV, Number 20 N February 15, 2013

w w w.PaloA ltoOnline.com

>/53 $ Neighborhoods 7

Transitions 12

Movies 22

Puzzles 46

N Arts Cantor Arts Center introduces tours for tots

Page 19

N Sports Soccer rivalry heads to the CCS playoffs

Page 24

N Home South of Midtown: quiet and family-friendly

Page 29

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Upfront

Local news, information and analysis

Paly could get $20 million gift for gym ‘Largest single gift’ to district could benefit sports teams, PE and community groups

by Chris Kenrick Palo Alto family is considering making a $20 million donation to renovate Palo Alto High School’s indoor athletic facilities — the largest single gift ever made to the school district.

While requesting anonymity, the three-generation Paly family is in-

A

terested in combining its donation with $5.4 million in school-district funds to create a state-of-the-art athletic center by August 2015, school officials said.

The center would be modeled after the three-year-old, $18 million Athletic Center at Menlo School in

Atherton, which includes two “sunken” gyms surrounded by lockers, fitness rooms, classrooms and offices.

Board of Education members on Tuesday, Feb. 12, gave Superintendent Kevin Skelly the go-ahead to pursue the plan while acknowledging obstacles, including the possible need to raze the existing gyms and also possibly the recently built aquatic center, which was constructed with donated funds.

Board member Melissa Baten Cas-

well also warned of potential watertable problems with below-grade construction, citing such issues with the recently built subterranean gym at nearby Castilleja School.

“We’re incredibly lucky to have a community that cares about our schools and facilities as much as this community does,” Caswell said, echoing the thanks to the prospective donor expressed by the other four board members.

An upgrade of Paly’s indoor

athletic facilities had been on the school’s wish list but was a lower priority than other needs, said Bob Golton, who is managing massive, school-district-wide construction and renovation under the $378 million “Strong Schools” bond approved by voters in 2008.

The private donation has the potential to speed up the process by years, Golton said. (continued on page 9)

PUBLIC SAFETY

On-call nurses allege they must sleep in cars After Packard nurse is victim of smash-and-grab auto burglary, questions raised about hospital’s responsibility

by Sue Dremann

T Veronica Weber

In their faces Natalie Fowler, center, and fellow protestors shout their objections to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of $7.5 million for family planning in his state. The protest took place in front of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Palo Alto home, where he was hosting a private fundraiser for the governor.

EDUCATION

Parents confront school board about bullying Superintendent apologizes for failing to fully disclose federal report on local case

by Chris Kenrick

A

mid tearful recountings by parents of painful school bullying situations, Palo Alto school board members and district Superintendent Kevin Skelly Tuesday night, Feb. 12, apologized and vowed to learn from a recent federal finding that school officials violated the civil rights of a student who was repeatedly bullied.

The outpouring by parents, and a few students, at a Board of Education meeting followed publication last week of federal findings that school officials failed properly to investigate and respond to the ongoing bullying of a Palo Alto middle

school special-education student in 2010-11.

It coincided with a staff report on the district’s months-long efforts to revise its existing bullying policy, which apparently was not followed in the case described in the federal report, issued in December by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

School board member Melissa Baten Caswell said she was “embarrassed” about the bullying in the federal case.

“I wish this hadn’t happened. ... I wish we didn’t have this happen to any children at all, not just in our

district but anywhere. It’s awful to be a person that’s targeted.”

Caswell said any new procedures should extend beyond keeping track of bullying incidents to circling back with parties later on to see whether the resolution was effective.

Other board members said the bullying stories were “gut-wrenching” and called for better procedures in handling such situations.

“I want to see consistency and I want to see our numbers go down,” board member Camille Townsend said. (continued on page 10)

he Jan. 23 burglary of a Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital nurse’s car while she slept in it has become a lightning rod for nurses who allege hospital managers are not providing the safe sleeping quarters required by their union contract.

The on-call nurses, who often work late at night, said they are sleeping in their cars between assignments. Though some said they have asked for a bed in the hospital, they haven’t been given one or they were reprimanded when seeking a spot on their own.

The hospital insists it is in compliance with the contract, and a room is given to any nurse who requests one. But there is a huge discrepancy between the hospital’s and the nurses’ claims, in what appears to be a breakdown in communication.

Since at least 1998, Packard Hospital’s contract has required that oncall nurses who request a sleeping room be provided one.

The contract states that a patientcare manager or supervisor must “identify a location to sleep for those nurses on restricted or unrestricted on-call who have worked a minimum of 16 consecutive hours or who have less than eight hours before their next scheduled shift begins.”

Four sleeping locations were designated in a 1998 agreement but are subject to change: patient rooms, the post-anesthesia care unit isolation room, the perinatal diagnostic center and at the Packard Children’s Day Hospital.

But a number of nurses said they were never told about the contract provision. One nurse who has worked in the obstetrics unit for two decades said getting a sleeping space has rarely been supported.

“When people ask, the manag-

ers say, ‘We’ll see what we can do.’

We’re the last resort. Nurses are supposed to make do because that’s what nurses always do,” she said.

A hospital spokesperson said nurses need to request a space. The location can change, but a patient room at the day hospital is most frequently used. The hospital does not track the usage of accommodations, spokesperson Kelly Frank said in an email.

“We’ve been able to comply with all nurse requests for sleep space,” she said.

Transport nurses in the obstetrics and gynecology unit disagreed and said they are left to sleep in their cars, which creates unsafe situations.

New hospital construction has exacerbated the problem, nurses said.

Nurses must now either park farther away and walk or wait in the dark for a shuttle, they said. A rash of auto burglaries has them worried.

The victim of the Jan. 23 burglary is an on-call nurse who is assigned to ride with patients on helicopters. She sleeps between transport assignments. The nurses are required to be near or in the hospital during their shifts and to be reachable by phone.

But the nurse said she lives about an hour away. She sleeps in her SUV on days when she comes off transport work at 3 a.m. and is scheduled to work on the hospital floor at 7 a.m., she said. Other nurses who live out of the area said they do the same.

On the night of the burglary, the nurse was parked in a lot across from the hospital at 770 Welch Road, where Packard has a clinic.

She parked in a spot that was illu(continued on page 8)

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Upfront 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

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‘‘

‘‘

PUBLISHER William S. Johnson (223-6505)

I blew it. — Kevin Skelly, Palo Alto school district superintendent, on his failure to provide the school board with a federal report on a mishandled bullying case.

See story on page 3.

Around Town LANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES ... Palo Alto’s elected officials have a hearty appetite for grantfunded transportation projects, particularly ones that involve bikes and pedestrians. But this week, the council agreed that the latest staff proposal for a grant application goes a few steps too far. The city is applying for One Bay Area Government, a grant program administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. But rather than seeking funds for one or two projects, city planners suggested 10, arguing that the more projects you apply for, the more likely you are to receive regional funds. Some projects are old standbys, such as the proposed bicycle and pedestrian bridge over U.S. Highway 101, the Magical Bridge playground at Mitchell Park and enhancements to Arastradero and Charleston roads. Others are new and controversial, including a plan to build a parking structure near the downtown transit mall and a new proposal to reduce lanes on Birch Street. The latter proposal proved particularly irksome for the City Council, with several members noting that the project had not even been vetted by any local board or commission (not to mention, the council). Chief Transportation Official Jaime Rodriguez took the position that when it comes to grant proposals, the more the merrier. “It’s kind of like playing the lottery,� Rodriguez told the council. “If you don’t submit a ticket, you’re not going to win.�

Councilman Larry Klein disagreed and said the city would pay a price in reputation for pursuing projects that have not yet been reviewed. “We have a lot more at stake than just the money that we’re likely to get here,�

Klein said. “We’re being bedazzled by some of the big dollars that aren’t going to occur. ... We’re going to get a lot of blowback.� After a long discussion, the council voted unanimously to scrap the Birch Street proposal from the application. They then voted 5-4, with Mayor Greg Scharff, Vice Mayor Nancy Shepherd and Councilwomen Liz Kniss and Gail Price dissenting, to scuttle the parking-garage project from the grant proposal as well.

A GYM BY THE BAY ... It began as a regional effort to calm the floodprone San Francisquito Creek.

Along the way, it also turned into a way to completely reconfigure and strengthen the Baylands feel of the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course.

Then the City Council stretched the project further by adding three

athletic fields to the golf course proposal. Now, in the latest twist for the flood-control project, city officials are considering a new gymnasium by the Baylands. While the gym plan is tentative and completely unfunded, the city plans to evaluate it in the upcoming environmental analysis for the golf course renovation. The city’s Planning and Transportation Commission, which learned about the gym proposal Wednesday night, had some hesitation about the proposed facility, though it agreed that the environmental-impact report would detail its pros and cons. “As soon as I saw mention of gymnasium, I felt uncomfortable,� Commissioner Alex Panelli said. “It doesn’t seem to be a particularly compatible use.�

HILL’S BILLS ... California’s highspeed rail project may have left the station last year, when the state Legislature approved funding for the first segment by a single vote, but Palo Alto officials still have plenty of concerns about the locally unpopular project. The city is now working with its newest representative, Sen. Jerry Hill, to clean up the funding bill. One concern is ensuring the funding allocated for Caltrain’s electrification actually gets delivered. Another is making sure the project remains in the Caltrain right of way. According to the city’s lobbyist, John Garamendi Jr., Hill has been meeting with officials from the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Caltrain and the Legislature to discuss a new bill that would alleviate some of the Peninsula’s anxieties. The bill, in Garamendi’s estimation, is no slam dunk. After approving the first phase of construction by a single vote, legislators are far from anxious to revisit this highly controversial topic, Garamendi told the council’s Rail Committee on Wednesday. Given the political climate, the committee agreed not to ask for too much and to get behind Hill’s proposed legislation. The law would ensure Caltrain’s electrification funds but would create a new “hurdle� for the rail authority, should it decide to move from a two-track system to the deeply unpopular fourtrack one that had been proposed earlier. Under Hill’s bill, the agency would need a unanimous vote from both the rail authority’s board and Caltrain’s to even study this alternative. Councilman Larry Klein characterized the clean-up bill as a limited step but one worth taking. “This isn’t where the real battle is going to be fought,� Klein said. “We’re getting something beyond what we had before. This is a skirmish.� N

Upfront

Happy Chinese New Year Year of the Snake

HOUSING

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Planned senior-housing complex wins key vote Palo Alto’s planning commissioners agree to launch zone change to allow a 60-unit affordable-housing complex for seniors

by Gennady Sheyner

P

alo Alto, a city with a growing population of seniors and jaw-dropping real estate prices, is about to get a little help in the affordable-housing department.

The Palo Alto Housing Corporation, a nonprofit group that develops and manages affordable-housing properties, scored a major victory for its latest project Wednesday night, Feb. 13, when the city’s Planning and Transportation Commission agreed to launch a zone change that would enable a residential complex for seniors at 567 and 595 Maybell Ave. to be built. Located at the border of the Barron Park and Green Acres neighborhoods, the project consists of a four-story, 60-unit apartment complex for low-income seniors and 15 single-family homes that would be sold at market rates.

The project already received an early blessing from the City Council, which agreed in November to loan the agency $3.2 million to purchase the two parcels that comprise the 2.46-acre site. The apartment complex will be 46 feet tall and will include 59 one-bedroom apartments, along with a two-bedroom manager’s unit. The rents will be priced between $590 and $1,181 per month. The 15 market-rate houses will help finance the nonprofit component of the project.

The planning commission voted 4-2, with Greg Tanaka and Alex Panelli dissenting, to initiate a “planned community” zone, a typically controversial designation that allows developers to exceed zoning regulations in exchange for “public benefits” that are negotiated with the city.

The commission opted to initiate the rezoning process after a lengthy, wide-ranging discussion touching on architecture, the number of parking spots provided and the prospect of having fewer (but larger) marketrate homes. But remarkably for a PC-zoned development of this size, there was no public opposition. Commissioners disagreed mainly over whether they should initiate the zone change Wednesday night or do it at a later date, after a thorough discussion of public benefits. Chair Eduardo Martinez, Vice Chair Mark Michael and Commissioners Arthur Keller and Michael Alcheck all chose the former option, with Michael calling the proposed development “an excellent and timely project.”

Commissioners had some quibbles, with Martinez requesting that the architect add decorative features to the apartment complex and Michael recommending adding parking underground (the proposal includes 47 street-level parking spots for the senior-housing development). Martinez also suggested the Housing Corporation provide additional public benefits, including a community garden, an electric-vehicle charging station and a community room that is available to the public at large, rather than just the building’s residents.

These details will be worked out in the coming months, as the Housing Corporation refines its proposal and conducts a traffic analysis before going to the City Council for final approval. Like his colleagues, Martinez acknowledged that housing for seniors is, in itself, a public benefit.

City staff took a similar stance. A report from the planning department notes that Palo Alto’s senior population is booming (it’s the second-fastest-growing age group in Palo Alto, according to U.S. Census data). According to the Silicon Valley Council, 20 percent of the city’s seniors live at or below the poverty level.

“The project will provide affordable housing on a long-term basis to this rapidly increasing population at a density that would not otherwise be allowed in any multi-family residential district,” the report states.

Keller agreed, calling the project “intrinsically worthwhile.”

Jessica de Wit, project manager with the Palo Alto Housing Corporation, said units in the agency’s existing housing developments are in high demand.

“All of our properties in Palo Alto have very lengthy waiting lists,” de

Wit told the commission. “Being able to increase affordable-housing stock here in Palo Alto is very critical and important.”

Keller made the motion to initiate the zone change. The Housing Corporation now hopes to get the council’s approval in June and begin construction in November. If all goes according to schedule, the construction would be completed in October 2014.

Commissioners Wednesday night marveled at the lack of opposition to the project, given the proposed senior complex’s height and proximity to single-family homes. Alcheck told the applicants that the lack of opposition “speaks a lot about your reaching-out process.” Tanaka was more skeptical and surmised that people didn’t show up to criticize the project because they didn’t know about it.

“I think if the people in the (neighborhood’s single-family houses) really knew what was being built across the street, there would be more of an outcry there,” Tanaka said. N Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.

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Upfront EDUCATION

A headmaster’s parting lesson for parents Too much focus on college preparation ‘extinguishes childhood,’ says head of Menlo School

by Chris Kenrick

A

n overemphasis on college preparation is “extinguishing childhood” for too many of today’s kids, says Norm Colb, who is nearing completion of his second decade as head of Menlo School in Atherton.

Constant anxiety over grades and performance is a losing strategy for nurturing the self-confident, resilient, morally centered young adults who will succeed in the world, he believes.

More than anything, today’s teens need “less worry and more enjoyment” from their parents — and opportunities for autonomy, the avuncular headmaster told a major gathering of Menlo parents and alumni Saturday, Feb. 9.

Colb — who leaves Menlo this summer after nearly 50 years in public and private education — gently but firmly implored parents to resist the impulse to micromanage their children’s lives.

Parental anxiety — which is contagious to kids — and “the pernicious quest for grades won’t lead us to where we want to go with our children,” he said.

Colb illustrated his hour-long talk with a series of New Yorker cartoons, including his favorite: a clearly distraught teenager sitting on her bed with her mother at the door saying, “Try and tell me what’s bothering you — and use your SAT words.”

He outlined four well-meaning parental behaviors that he warned have the perverse effect of undermining competence and self-confidence in teens: micromanagement of kids’ lives; overemphasis on grades and college admission; the “subcontracting of parenting” to others, including schools and the media; and worrying.

“When parents correct the grammar, the spelling, the punctuation, the paragraphs, the student never learns those things. They get better grades, but they don’t do the learning,” he said.

Cash incentives or other bribes for good grades as well as the increasing

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 or click on “News” in the left, green column.

Woman mugged, robbed in downtown Palo Alto

use of “study drugs” such as Adderall promote superficial, short-term learning and are “very worrisome,” Colb said. Grade obsession has led to a plethora of cheating scandals at top schools such as the hypercompetitive Stuyvesant High School in New York City and Harvard University, he noted.

“When I say the pursuit of grades is a toxin, this is what I mean,” he said. “It extinguishes engagement, can promote a barter economy in the family and does not promote the genuine learning I think we all want for our kids.”

Pushing a child just enough so that she “gets into that next tier” of colleges also can backfire, he warned.

“So I’ve spent four years of high school pressing my kid to get higher and higher Norm Colb grades so they can go to a university where they feel below average.

“I’d much prefer a slightly less competitive college where the student ends up feeling powerful. I think kids would be much better served thinking of themselves as powerful than as marginal.”

Colb said the “subcontracting of parenting” to schools is an honor for the schools, but parenting really needs to happen at home. And substituting television and other media for in-person parental attention is especially dangerous, he said.

“Kids learn their values, their sense of self, at your breakfast table,” he told parents.

Colb said his personal specialty as a parent — his kids are now well into adulthood — was worrying, “morning and night.”

“The pressure is communicated very readily to kids,” he said.

“These behaviors don’t launch

our kids into lives of great purpose.

They just don’t.

“If you worry about them incessantly they’ll worry about themselves. If you’re calm and competent about them, you give them a gift that lasts a lifetime.

“What kids need from us is authentic, patient, loving, unloaded, unworried time.”

Colb, who announced more than a year ago he would leave Menlo this summer, originally planned to retire but has changed plans. He will become head of school at Sage Ridge School, a 15-year-old independent school in Reno, Nev. Before joining Menlo in 1993 he spent nearly 30 years in public education, first as an English teacher in Brookline, Mass., and later as superintendent of schools in Mamaroneck, N.Y., where he dealt with seven separate employee unions.

He said he switched to private education “to get closer to kids.”

The teaching profession doesn’t have the status that it should, he believes.

“The way I read the news, it’s progressively more debased, and I think that’s a tragedy.

“Every profession has its marginal employees, but the press and political establishment seems to delight in focusing on (failed teachers) as opposed to the gifted teacher who works so hard day in and day out to raise up the next generation.

“It’s really remarkable that the profession doesn’t enjoy that status, and I think we will pay a price for that.”

Teachers should be viewed as an asset, not as labor, and need certain conditions to thrive: to be respected; to be paid well enough to live in the local economy; to be involved in decision-making; to have a certain degree of job security and professional renewal.

“If you put these ingredients together, you could start to move the needle,” he said. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

A woman was thrown to the ground and robbed of her purse in downtown Palo Alto Wednesday evening, Feb. 13, and the robber is still at large, police have announced. (Posted Feb. 13 at 10:48 p.m.)

Better Place to drive out of Palo Alto Better Place, a Palo Alto company that in recent years has become synonymous with the city’s drive to promote electric vehicles, plans to shutter its local headquarters in the coming months and focus its energies on Israel and Denmark. (Posted Feb. 13 at 5:20 p.m.)

Stanford trustees approve tuition hikes Stanford University’s undergraduate charges will rise 3.5 percent next year to $56,441, the board of trustees decided this week. A similar 3.5 percent increase was approved for general graduate, graduate engineering, medical and law students, while business students will see their tuition rise by 3.9 percent. (Posted Feb. 12 at 1:33 p.m.)

Police chief invites public on ‘virtual ride-along’ Palo Alto Police Chief Dennis Burns will don his police uniform, get behind the wheel of a patrol car and bring the community with him on a “virtual ride-along” this Friday as part of his department’s recent effort to expand its social-media presence. (Posted Feb. 12 at 11:07 a.m.)

Silicon Valley is second in U.S. in wealth Silicon Valley had the second-highest concentration of wealthy households during the period of 2007-2011, according to a report the U.S. Census Bureau released Monday, Feb. 11. (Posted Feb. 12 at 9:37 a.m.)

Big transformation underway for San Antonio area Clearly, the recession is over in the local housing sector. New development could bring more than 1,300 new homes to the San Antonio Road and El Camino Real area of Mountain View, so many that a new school may be needed to accommodate the new population. (Posted Feb. 11 at 10:03 p.m.)

Menlo Park man shot in East Palo Alto Police in East Palo Alto are investigating a shooting that sent a Menlo Park man to a hospital Saturday night with non-life-threatening injuries. (Posted Feb. 10 at 2:23 p.m.)

Man robbed at gunpoint near Greer Park A man was robbed at gunpoint in the carport of an apartment complex on the 1000 block of Tanland Drive on Saturday morning, Feb. 9, according to police. (Posted Feb. 9 at 5:57 p.m.)

Man killed by train in Palo Alto identified A pedestrian who was struck and killed by a train in Palo Alto on Friday has been identified as Jonathan Lazarus, 28, of Sunnyvale, the Santa Clara County Coroner’s office said on Tuesday. (Posted Feb. 8 at 8:29 p.m.)

Palo Alto teacher salaries compared statewide The average public school teacher in Palo Alto earns somewhere in the middle — not the highest, not the lowest — compared to teachers in surrounding communities. (Posted Feb. 8 at 9:56 a.m.)

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Upfront

Neighborhoods

A roundup of neighborhood news edited by Sue Dremann

AROUND THE BLOCK

NEIGHBORHOOD VALENTINE ...

The trees at Bryant Street and Lowell Avenue in Palo Alto are blooming with hearts of love to the Stanford University football team this Valentine’s Day. The hearts each contain a player’s name and jersey number, in a tribute to the team’s Rose Bowl win. “They deserve a parade,” said resident Catherine Debs, who has made decorating the trees for holidays an ongoing project for the past year. The decorations usually stay up for a month.

LOCK UP! ... A Crescent Park resident recently became the target of a residential burglary while he was at home. Two burglars claimed to be checking on a water problem behind the property on the 1800 block of Pitman Avenue near Newell Road. As the homeowner accompanied one of the men to the backyard, the second man entered through the open door and stole jewelry, according to an email the resident sent to neighbors.

BURGLARIES REDUX ... At least eight residential burglaries occurred in a four-day period from Feb. 8 to 11, according to the Palo Alto Police Department. Three occurred in the Midtown neighborhood, with one each in Crescent Park, College Terrace, Triple El, Old Palo Alto and Charleston Gardens. Police suspect the crimes could be related.

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.

Andre Zandona

CELEBRATING PRESIDENTS DAY ... Palo Alto resident Joseph Baldwin will display his collection of original letters, documents and signatures of all 44 U.S. presidents on Feb. 17 and 18, in the parish hall at All Saints Episcopal Church, 555 Waverley St., Palo Alto. Starting with President Barack Obama, visitors can “step back in time” all the way to George Washington as they peruse original autographs, hand-written letters, notes and other assorted manuscripts on display between noon and 4 p.m. on both days. The exhibition will include a 1799 letter from George Washington (complete with writing errors and crossed-out lines), a letter James Madison wrote during his last days, a note from Ronald Reagan, and a 1969 Gerald Ford letter from his time as House minority leader.

Michele Moore gets a good-luck kiss from a Chinese lion on Feb. 9 at Barron Park Elementary School during the neighborhood celebration of the Lunar New Year.

BARRON PARK

Celebrating cultural diversity Palo Alto neighborhood seeks to get residents involved through Lunar New Year, other events

by Sue Dremann

W

hen colorful lion dancers appeared at the Barron Park Association Lunar New Year celebration on Feb. 9, the gathering drew about 160 residents for food and entertainment. But the event had a deeper purpose, organizer Lydia Kou said.

Barron Park is creating a series of “Celebrate Cultural Diversity” events to attract new membership and leadership from its ethnically diverse neighborhood. Lunar New Year was the kickoff for the new project, with a celebration of the Indian Holi festival to follow this spring, Kou said.

The events are a way for neighborhood organizers to cultivate the next generation of neighborhood leaders.

Associations are the watchdogs and advocates for residents, addressing issues with city leaders ranging from parking and traffic to flood control and crime. But Kou said the same people are serving in the roles over and over, and some want to step down. There just isn’t anyone willing to fill their shoes.

“For a lot of organizations, the board is finding it harder and harder to replace themselves,” she said.

Hopefully, if people take part in their culture’s celebration, they will see a place for themselves in the organization, she said.

The idea to celebrate diversity builds on former Palo Alto Mayor Yiaway Yeh’s efforts last year to help neighbors get to know one another. Yeh, who grew up in Palo Alto, hosted a series of recreational events known as the Mayor’s Challenge and launched a grant program that funds community-building projects in the neighborhoods.

Kou said the cultural celebrations springboard off that idea. Many Barron Park residents are from China and India, she said — and more than 27 percent of Palo Alto residents are Asian, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But often new immigrants don’t participate in community events or take on leadership roles.

Kou said she hopes people will find common ground through the events.

Everyone can relate to a New Year’s celebration, for example. She hopes residents will embrace the colorful Holi celebration, in which powdered pigment is thrown at participants. It’s a common theme to celebrate rites of

spring in many cultures, she added.

At last Sunday’s event, which launched the Year of the Snake, residents shared traditional foods, such as pot stickers, which look like gold ingots used in long-ago China and signify wealth. The “tray of togetherness” holds special snacks signifying close family relationships. It includes foods representing happiness, longevity, health, unity and friendship, prosperity and fertility — lychee nuts, red melon seeds, peanuts, candied melon, coconut, kumquat and lotus seeds.

Shopping for the many items meant residents went where perhaps they had not gone before, venturing into Chinese grocery stores that are a world away from Safeway.

Kou provided a list of stores. But she worried when few people signed up to bring food. On the day of the event, however, there was an overabundance, she said: dumplings, pot stickers, tangerines, oranges and trays of togetherness.

“There were many trays of togetherness,” she said.

The event did bring people together, forging special connections

that could prove lasting, she said.

One woman had planned to make fried noodles, but her next-door neighbor, who is Asian, instead invited her to come over and learn how to make dumplings.

“And it was a really good dumpling, too,” she added.

A mix of people from all ethnicities attended the event, including many Asian residents whom Kou said she had never seen before. A wide range of ages also attended, from the very young to elderly.

“It was nice to get a whole new group of people,” she said.

Now she is turning her attention to the Holi festival, which tentatively could take place March 23 or 24.

Kou also plans to consult with the association board about adding a pet parade to the annual neighborhood May Fete celebration.

The goal of bringing more people into the association won’t be achieved with one or even a few events, Kou acknowledged. Building momentum will be key, and she hopes people who want the celebrations to continue will get involved in the association.

For the Holi festival, Kou doesn’t want to be the only one brainstorming.

“I’m hoping to get together a committee,” she said. N

SEE MORE ONLINE

www.PaloAltoOnline.com Watch a video and see more photos of Barron Park’s Lunar New Year on Palo Alto Online by searching for “Celebrating the new year.”

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Healthy Adult Volunteers Needed for Stanford University Study on Molecular Analysis of Human Skin Aging

Upfront

Nurses (continued from page 3)

minated and was closest to the hospital, she said.

She was sleeping soundly and

awoke to the sound of breaking glass at about 3:40 a.m. A man with a gun in his hand grabbed her purse from the front-seat center console, snatched a bookbag and rifled through the glove compartment before jumping into a get-

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CITY OF PALO ALTO NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Finding Main Library Project “Substantially Complex�

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City Council of the City of Palo Alto, California will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. or as near as possible thereafter on Monday, March 4, 2013 in the Council Chambers at 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301 for the purpose of receiving public comment regarding the ďŹ nding that the Palo Alto Main Library Renovation and Expansion Project (CIP PE-11000) is “Substantially Complexâ€? and the contractor retention amount be increased from 5 percent to 10 percent.

Persons with disabilities needing special services or accommodations for this hearing should contact the City of Palo Alto’s Americans with Disabilities Coordinator at (650)329-2550.

DONNA J. GRIDER, MMC City Clerk

away car driven by another person, she said.

In a statement to the Weekly last week, hospital spokesperson Robert Dicks said the nurse put herself in harm’s way. “The nurse involved did not request of a patient care manager or supervisor an in-hospital sleep space. Space would have been available had it been requested. ...

The nurse involved in this incident chose to rest in an area that is not controlled by the medical center,�

Dicks said in an email.

But the nurse said she was never told she could request a bed or that the area had increased crime. Had she known, she would not have slept in her car.

Other nurses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, supported her claims. “If there is a room, it is the best kept secret in town,� one nurse said. “I have not heard one transport nurse in my unit say that they knew of or made use of this contract provision. ... While there may be contract language regarding on-call sleep room or space, the stark reality is these provisions are on paper only,� she said.

A nurse who commutes from the Central Valley said conditions have her seriously evaluating her job. “The burglary has made me much more aware of my surroundings. It’s really not safe. I’ve decided that I don’t want to be a transport nurse anymore because I fear for my safety,� she said.

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Upfront In an email last week, Lorie Johnson, president of the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA) union, stated: “CRONA is very concerned about the safety in the parking lots, and we have been raising these concerns with the hospitals for several months, including asking for improved lighting and security features. CRONA is also concerned that hospital managers and supervisors may not be complying with their obligation under the contract to provide sleep locations for on-call nurses. ... The easiest way for the hospital to comply would be for there to be designated sleep rooms.”

Dicks said in an email: “Hospital leadership clearly communicated to CRONA information on safe walking paths and parking areas controlled by the medical center. ...

Additional lighting is being placed along the safe walking paths of travel we have recommended to CRONA, and in parking areas controlled by the medical center.”

A security detail patrols the designated parking lots and offers doorto-door escort between the medi-

‘If there is a room, it is the best kept secret in town.’

—anonymous, nurse, Packard Children’s Hospital

cal center and parking areas, he said. Nurses said the door-to-door service has not been consistent in the past.

Frank refuted nurses’ claims that they have not been notified about the sleeping space since the burglary.

“We have taken this unfortunate incident as an opportunity to have safety discussions with nurses on all of our patient units. Not only do we want to be absolutely certain that everyone understands the process for requesting sleep space, but we also are actively communicating other important safety measures,” she wrote in an email.

CRONA and the hospital held a meeting on Tuesday to specifically discuss the matter. The hospital and union are also currently in contract negotiations, a union attorney said. Union officials did not return requests for additional comment after the meeting.

Stanford Hospital’s contract has the same provision, but a spokesman did not return a comment about how the hospital is handling its sleeping-room requirements.

Packard nurses did have a final observation: “While it may be true that the hospital is not responsible for our safety on public streets or adjacent private property, it is most important to look at the systems and practices the hospital has implemented that put the nurses in harm’s way while traveling to and from work and while on call,” one nurse said. N Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.

Gym (continued from page 3)

“The Paly master plan has $5.5 million allocated for a weight room,” he said.

“That amount is not sufficient to provide for these improvements, so it would be combined with perhaps $20 million in donor money, so it is partly bond money.”

Golton said in a report that the donation “could be the largest single gift to the district in its history.”

Asked specifically whether the new center would require razing both existing Paly gyms, Skelly said, “Decisions haven’t been made on

those things. What we’re outlining is some of the initial thinking, measuring out where things would go.

“There’s a potential you’d need to do a lot of different things and the purpose here is to put those on the table. ... We anticipate it taking up at least the two gym spaces we have right now.”

With an accelerated construction schedule and potential conflicts with other bond construction on campus, school officials said they also would need to make sure there are adequate temporary facilities for students during the building process.

Paly officials, including Principal Phil Winston and Athletic Director Earl Hansen, stressed the new ath-

letic center would expand opportunities for athletic teams as well as for physical education, intramural sports and community uses.

“In any given week, we’re contacted from five to 10 times by organizations looking to book either a field or a gym, and we have to say ‘no,’” Assistant Principal Kim Diorio said.

“This will have a huge impact on our entire community because we’ll be able to offer more times in the day, weekends and nights when we can make these spaces available for youth basketball, soccer, volleyball, Stanford programs, adult leagues and nonprofit organizations that want to host tournaments with us.”

According to preliminary plans,

the new athletic center would increase Paly’s total gym space from 19,552 square feet to 24,704 square feet and add a 5,275-square-foot wrestling room as well as 744 square feet of classroom space.

It would replace the existing weightroom space of 1,500 square feet with 5,753 square feet of space and slightly shrink the dance room from 2,752 square feet to 2,413 square feet.

By comparison, Gunn’s athletic facilities, currently under renovation, contain 25,285 square feet of gym space; a 4,350-square-foot wrestling room; a 1,890-square-foot weight room; a 2,100-square-foot dance room and 2,592 square feet of classroom space. N

YOUR VOTE AT WORK Year 11 of your program

This year marks the completion of the 11th year of the Clean, Safe Creeks and Natural Flood Protection Plan, a 15-year countywide special parcel tax to fund Santa Clara Valley Water District initiatives to protect homes and businesses from floods, add recreational trails, and safeguard creeks and watersheds.

As part of the plan, voters approved the formation of an Independent Monitoring Committee (IMC) to oversee the plan’s progress and ensure outcomes are met in a cost efficient manner. The IMC has recently published its Annual Oversight Report detailing our independent, annual review of the program.

In November 2012, the voters of Santa Clara County overwhelmingly passed Measure B, the Safe, Clean Water and Natural Flood Protection Program. The voters of Santa Clara County clearly recognize the importance of a safe, reliable water supply. They value wildlife habitat, creek restoration and open space.

They want to protect our water supply and local dams from the impacts of earthquakes and natural disasters, as well as invest in the levees protecting our shoreline and vigilantly prepare our streams for major storms.

With the continuation of the work first outlined and funded through the Clean, Safe Creeks and Natural Flood Protection Plan, the water district will be able to make progress on these critical projects with local funds, should securing federal infrastructure funding continue to remain a challenge.

We are eager to see the implementation of the many worthwhile, community-supported projects included in the Safe, Clean Water measure and will continue to provide oversight of the transition from the original measure to the new one over the coming year.

Flood protection: Guadalupe River

Before

After

Preservation and Restoration

Coyote Ridge

Calabazas Creek

Stevens Creek

Lions Creek Trail

New trails

The full Fiscal Year 2011-2012 oversight report, as well as previous reports, can be downloaded at valleywater.org. We hope you find this report overview helpful and informative and welcome your questions or comments.

Clean, Safe Creeks and Natural Flood Protection Plan Independent Monitoring Commitee Hon. Jim Foran Chair

Hon. Jeffrey Cristina

Jeffrey Kenton Lee

Edward Rast

David Ginsborg

Dr. Shani Kleinhaus, Ph.D.

Terry A. Trumbull

Robert J. Baldini

Lonnie Gross

Marc Klemencic

W. Charles Taylor

Hon. Marc Berman

Hon. Nancy Hobbs

Mark Lazzarini

Pat Waite

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Upfront

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Bullying (continued from page 3)

Superintendent Kevin Skelly apologized to board members for failing earlier to fully and promptly inform them of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) findings and the district’s “resolution agreement” with the government.

“When this thing came out I informed you about it, but I didn’t give you the report or share the findings of the OCR group, and I should have done that, bottom line,” he said.

“I know the effort that was put in there that wasn’t captured in the report, but my responsibility was to share it with you and the community and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got an issue, let’s go after it.’

“From a transparency issue, I blew it.”

Skelly said he was embarrassed by the federal report, which was dated Dec. 26.

In the resolution agreement that Skelly signed and dated Dec. 14, he agreed on behalf of the district to implement voluntary remedial steps in bullying policies and procedures but specified that the district did not admit to any violation of the law.

About 20 community members testified Tuesday night, including a number of parents who told stories of their own children being bullied.

They asked for clearer and more consistent policies throughout the district.

“When I read the article I saw my own family’s situation in every word,” one mother said, referring to coverage of the report last week in the Palo Alto Weekly, which broke the news.

“I’m hopeful the district will take into account changing policies right now. Earlier it was mentioned the wonderful bullying programs each school has, but I request you provide a universal bullying prevention program to provide consistent language to children so they can all receive the same training and know what to say to each other,” the parent said.

Representing its membership of 300 Palo Alto special-education families, the Community Advisory Committee on Special Education called on the district to enact and publicize an anti-harassment policy that includes immediate investigations and clear grievance procedures.

The district should consider hiring an “ombudsperson or parent liaison” to deal with harassment issues or consider using voluntary mediation services offered by the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service, committee members told the board.

Another parent group, We Can Do Better Palo Alto, cited the federal findings as a failure of a culture in the district that leaves decision-making to individual schools and called for an independent investigation of what went wrong in the middle school case described in the report.

The group challenged the district’s analysis of student survey data that concluded Palo Alto has low bullying rates compared to Santa Clara County as a whole.

Members said Palo Alto’s bullying rates are probably about the same as “state and national norms

for similar schools.”

“This is a total system failure — there’s no other way to describe it,” said We Can Do Better member Wynn Hausser, a Gunn High School parent. “We don’t need to look at how we compare with other districts. The federal government

told us how we’re doing and it’s a failure.

“We need to speak in plain, honest language about what’s going on here.” N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

CityView A round-up of

Palo Alto government action this week

City Council (Feb. 11)

Housing: The council approved a letter appealing the housing mandate issued by the Association of Bay Area Governments. The letter focuses on reassigning 350 housing units from the city’s allocation to Santa Clara County’s. Yes: Berman, Burt, Holman, Kniss, Price, Scharff, Schmid, Shepherd No: Klein 2455 El Camino Real: The council discussed a proposal by Pollock Financial Group for a four-story building at the intersection of El Camino Real and Page Mill Road.

The council asked the developer to return with a revised package of public benefits.

Action: None Procedures: The council voted to raise from two to three the number of council members required to remove an item from the agenda’s consent calendar. Yes: Berman, Burt, Kniss, Price, Scharff, Shepherd No: Holman, Klein, Schmid

Board of Education (Feb. 12)

Construction bonds: The board authorized the issuance and sale of $70 million in bonds as part of the $378 million “Strong Schools” bond program approved by voters in 2008. Yes: Unanimous State legislation: The board endorsed Senate Constitutional Amendment 3, which would lower the two-thirds majority required for passage of a parcel tax to 55 percent. Yes: Unanimous Bullying policy: The board discussed potential updates to the district’s policy on bullying and heard testimony about a December 2012 finding by the U.S. Department of Education that a Palo Alto middle-school student’s civil rights were violated in a poorly managed, long-term bullying case. Action: None Paly athletic construction: The board discussed the possibility of rebuilding Palo Alto High School’s indoor athletic facilities by 2015 because of a prospective $20 million donation by an anonymous family. Action: None Summer school: The board heard a report on plans for 2013 summer school dates and fees. Action: None

Council Policy and Services Committee (Feb. 12) Liaison: The committee discussed the role of a council liaison, including the frequency with which a liaison should attend commission meetings, and voted to direct staff to revise the definition of a liaison. The committee agreed that a council liaison should be appointed for two years and that the liaison should not be asked to attend every meeting of the commission to which he or she is assigned. Yes: Klein, Kniss, Price Absent: Holman

Council Rail Committee (Feb. 13)

Funding: The committee discussed proposed modifications to SB1029, which approved funding for high-speed rail. Additional language would create further assurances that funds would be provided for the electrification of Caltrain. Yes: Burt, Klein, Kniss Absent: Shepherd

Planning and Transportation Commission (Feb. 13)

Senior housing: The commission voted to initiate a “planned community” zone at 567 and 595 Maybell Ave. to enable construction of a 60-unit affordable-housing complex for seniors and 15 single-family homes. Yes: Alcheck, Keller, Martinez, Michael No: Panelli, Tanaka

Utilities Advisory Commission (Feb. 13)

Finances: The commission discussed the city’s water-resources alternatives and saw a presentation on financial projections for electric, gas, water and wastewater utilities. Action: None

Public Agenda A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week CITY COUNCIL ... The council has no meetings scheduled this week.

ARCHITECTURAL RESOURCES BOARD ... The board plans to discuss 180 El Camino Real, proposed exterior storefront changes for Marimekko at the Stanford Shopping Center. The board also plans to discuss the proposed pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Highway 101 at Adobe Creek and proposed streetscape improvements for California Avenue, including changes to sidewalks, crosswalk improvements and new furniture such as benches and seatwalls. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 21, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

PUBLIC ART COMMISSION ... The commission plans to allocate funds for the Youth Art Awards, approve the updated Municipal Art Plan and get updates on the Color of Palo Alto, maintenance of the city’s collection and Juana Briones Park restroom mural. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 21, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

Upfront

Home Sweet Home.

News Digest Palo Alto fights state mandate for more housing In what one council member called a fight “for the soul of our city,” Palo Alto officials agreed on Monday, Feb. 11, to formally appeal a state mandate calling for the city to plan for more than 2,000 units of new housing over the next decade.

The council voted 8-1, with Larry Klein dissenting, to contest the requirement from the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) that the city plan for the additional housing units between 2014 and 2022.

The mandate is part of the agency’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation process, which projects how many homes will be needed throughout the region and requires cities to plan accordingly.

Palo Alto, which is often referred to by council members as a “built-out city,” has been fighting these mandates for years, arguing that the city has no way to accommodate that level of housing.

Because ABAG rejected the city’s prior protests of the allocation, the majority of council members Monday advocated a narrower, more pragmatic approach, one that urges ABAG to reallocate 350 of Palo Alto’s units to Santa Clara County. Stanford University, which is governed by the county under a general-use permit, is already planning to build 350 units on Quarry Road, just west of El Camino Real.

Klein advocated using the broader, stronger arguments and remaining aggressive in opposing ABAG’s mandates. N — Gennady Sheyner

Paly students arrested on weapons charges Two Palo Alto High School students have been arrested in separate incidents after allegedly bringing a stun gun and a homemade, corkshooting “gun” to school.

In both cases — one on Friday, Feb. 8, and the other on Monday, Feb. 11 — fellow students reported the weapons to administrators, who notified police.

Police emphasized there was no indication the two were working together or that either planned “any sort of mass-casualty incident at the school.”

In each case, police said they “quickly detained” the suspect, no one was injured and the school took “immediate disciplinary action” against the student.

In the first incident, police said they got a report of a stun gun on Friday about 1:25 p.m. An investigation found that two students left campus together during school hours to buy and sell marijuana to each other.

During the off-campus transaction, one student allegedly produced a stun gun and made two attempts to apply it to the chest of the other student.

The victim, who was not injured, returned to campus and reported the incident to administrators, who escorted the teen with the gun to the office and called police and the teen’s parents.

Police found a commercially sold stun gun in the student’s backpack.

In the second incident, police responded to the school about 11:45 a.m.

Monday.

Students had told administrators the suspect had shown them a makeshift weapon, described as a homemade gun that was charged by a carbon-dioxide container and able to fire rubber corks.

The suspect told police the weapon was accidentally left in the backpack after it was put there over the weekend.

Police arrested both teens for possession of an illegal weapon on school grounds, a misdemeanor, and released them to the custody of their parents. N — Palo Alto Weekly staff

Busy intersection could get road work, building One of Palo Alto’s most prominent and congested intersections may soon have a signature building serving as its anchor as part of a proposal that the City Council weighed for the first time Monday night, Feb. 11.

The council held a broad-ranging discussion on the proposal from Pollock Financial Group for a four-story office building at El Camino Real and Page Mill Road. The newly proposed building would occupy the northeast corner. If ultimately approved, the 50-foot-tall building would include a three-level underground garage and 15 surface spots.

Until recently, the 19,563-square-foot site at 2755 El Camino Real has served as a parking lot for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Last year, the transportation agency sold the property to Pollock, which is based in Portola Valley and plans to construct the building for a single financial-services tenant.

Because the building’s density would far exceed what’s allowed in its current zoning, the developer is asking for the parcel to be rezoned as “planned community,” a controversial designation that allows developers to exceed local zoning regulations in exchange for “public benefits” negotiated between the city and the developer.

The council on Monday directed Pollock to return with benefits in addition to those the firm proposed: a widening of Page Mill to create a right-turn lane from Page Mill to El Camino; new pedestrian lighting for California Avenue; an upgrade of a dilapidated pedestrian tunnel beneath El Camino; and transit passes for all tenants in the new building so that they can commute using public transportation instead of driving themselves. N — Gennady Sheyner

Who says you have to leave your home just because you’ve gotten older? Avenidas Village can help you stay in the home you love.

Mark your calendars!

Our next Open House is on February 28 at 2 pm.

For a private consultation, call (650) 289-5405 or visit us online at www.avenidasvillage.org.

Your life, your way, in your home

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

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F O U N D AT I O N

FOR A

C O L L E G E E D U C AT I O N

Transitions

Leah McDonough

Harry Press

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Given his last name, perhaps it was no surprise that Harry Press was a lifelong journalist. That life ended on Feb. 6, in Palo Alto, at the age of 93.

He was a newspaperman in Anaheim, Palo Alto and, for the majority of time in San Francisco, working for the Anaheim Bulletin, Palo Alto News, San Francisco News, and finally the San Francisco Call-Bulletin. In 1966 he left his city editor position to return to his alma mater, Stanford University, where he worked until 1989, as both editor of the Stanford Observer, and managing director of the Knight Journalism Fellowships Program.

While a student at Stanford (class of 1939) he worked on the Stanford Daily and also played clarinet in the Stanford Band. He met his wife, Martha (also a college journalist) when they both served in the United States Army during World War II. Harry and Martha were married in 1944 and had three children, Lindi Press, Tina Press and Tony Press.

!GE s 3CHOLAR AND 'ENTLEMAN $ECEMBER &EBRUARY

taught at Columbia when General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the University President.

Devoted to the classics of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and modern Thomas Aquinas philosophy (known as Thomists) such as Jacques Maritain. He was a colleague and friend of Dietrich Von Hildebrand of Florence and became a Phenomenologist. He met the love of his life Connie O’Brien at Villanova University and they had one son, Vince in California. They came to California as part of the Master Plan of California Higher Education. He spoke German, Latin, enjoyed music, singing, writing, the outdoors, baseball, stick ball, the mountains, swimming and a good Scotch at the pub. He was a staunch defender of God and Country and the benefits of a classical and liberal arts education for all.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, February 20 at 11am at Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park. Fr. Michael Healy celebrant. He will be laid to rest in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos.

Toasts will follow at Fiddlers Green Millbrae PA I D

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Dr. Leah McDonough died Jan. 16 in Redwood City of complications from Alzheimer’s.

Born and raised in New York City, she and her husband Joseph McDonough had lived in Palo Alto since 1962. She was preceded in death by her husband of 61 years in 2010. They had known each other since they were 3 years old.

She attended the College of New Rochelle (CNR), received a master’s degree at Fordham University, and earned her doctorate in psychology at Michigan State University. CNR awarded her a scholarship during the Great Depression, allowing her to pursue a career in psychology.

A clinical psychologist, she worked for San Mateo County for more than two decades. For 12 years, she directed the forensic unit of San Mateo County’s Mental Health Division. Her psychology research was published in numerous articles and book chapters. After retiring from the County, she took up writing essays and short stories, publishing locally and nationally. She enjoyed babysitting for her granddaughter Carrie. She and her husband traveled extensively, and loved to take Carrie along with them.

She is survived by her daughter, Susan McDonough (Warren Mar); and her granddaughter, Caroline Mar (Sandy Metivier).

Diane Gibbs

Vincent Larkin II

Professor of Philosophy and Logic Vincent Larkin II went to his eternal award on Monday morning in Palo Alto. A 10 year resident of Menlo Park and a 30 year resident of Los Altos. He is survived by his only son Vincent Larkin III, and his sister Agnes Marozan of Orlando Fl., and Nephew and God Son Bill Larkin of Philadelphia, and Connie Kane of Atlanta Ga. He is preceded in death by his wife of more than half a century Constance M. Larkin Professor of Nursing and his Brother Robert and Parents Alma and Vincent Larkin I of Riverdale and the Bronx, New York.

A graduate of Good Shepherd Parochial school, Towns’ and Harris High School, The City College of New York and Columbia University.

He taught Philosophy and Logic at Manhatten College, Columbia, Villanova, Loyola of Los Angeles and several junior and private colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area. He served as Captain of the Port in New York during the war and taught many Gi’s night school as part of the GI bill program. He

Martha died in 1999, and Lindi died just five weeks before her father, on Dec. 31, 2012. In March 2001, Press married Mildred Hamilton (herself a retired San Francisco journalist), and they enjoyed almost 10 years together before her death in December 2010.

He lived in the Southgate neighborhood of Palo Alto for 46 years in a house he loved. Soon after a serious fall exactly a year to the day of his death, he moved into The Birches Residential Care Home in Midtown, where he was grateful to receive care for the last year of his life.

He was known for his love of allthings Stanford, especially the baseball team, and for his ambidextrous tennis skills.

He is survived by two of his children, daughter Tina, of Fayetteville, N.Y., and Tony, of Brisbane, Calif.; four grandchildren, Jessica, Patience, Katie and Andy; and four great-grandchildren, Keith, Clark, Finn and Georgia.

Contributions in his honor can be sent to the Friends of the Stanford Daily — Harry Press Scholarship, and mailed to the Stanford Daily, 456 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA 94305.

A celebration of his life will be held at Sunken Diamond, probably in May.

O B I T UA RY

Mrs. Finley J. (Diane) Gibbs passed away peacefully at her Atherton home on January 28, 2013, after a brief illness. She had th just celebrated her 100 birthday in October.

Diane was born in Manila, The Philippines, to Camille Glubetich Pickering and John Kuykendall Pickering. She moved to California as a little girl to live with her aunts and attend school. She graduated from Castilleja School in Palo Alto (’31) and UC Berkeley (’35), where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority. After college, Diane returned to Manila, where she married the late Finley J. Gibbs. The Gibbses raised their four children in Washington, D.C., Manila, Palo Alto, and finally Atherton. Diane loved to play golf and bridge, and was a world traveler. She volunteered at the Allied Arts Guild and the MRI, was a member of both the Century and Town & Country Clubs in San Francisco, and was a long time member of the Menlo Country Club in Woodside.

She is survived by her children Finley P. Gibbs (Patricia), Judith Gibbs Brown (Dwite), Camille Gibbs Herrick (Sherman), and Christina Gibbs Thrash (Wallace). She also left behind twelve grandchildren, twenty five great-grandchildren, two nieces and four nephews.

The family requests that any donations in her memory be directed to Castilleja School and to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.

PA I D

OBITUARY

Visit

Lasting Memories An online directory of obituaries and remembrances.

Search obituaries, submit a memorial, share a photo.

Go to: www.PaloAltoOnline.com/obituaries

miki's

Farm Fresh Market WINE DEPARTMENT

Bob Van Hoy, comes to Miki’s with a vast experience in the wine business.

He is an avid wine collector as well with a personal collection of over 800 bottles from wines all around the world. Personal favorites are California Cabernet Sauvignons such as Peter Michael Les Pavots and Schrader Cabernet.

Bob’s wine experience covers over 20 years working at wineries such as David Bruce in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and Cuvaison in Calistoga.

Has spent the past 5 yrs as Wine Buyer for Draeger’s Supermarket in Menlo Park and a short time at Piazza’s in San Mateo as Wine Manager. Bob is extremely helpful in pairing up wines for special events with all types of foods and is eager to help customers with all their wine buying needs.

3445 Alma St, Palo Alto Alma St. El Camino Real

E. Charleston

Miki’s

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Try out Palo Alto’s newest full-service market, featuring locally grown produce foods at great prices.

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3445 Alma Street, Palo Alto | MikisFarmFreshMarket.com | Mon-Sat 7am-8pm, Sun 9am-7pm | 650.485.8600 ÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÊ iLÀÕ>ÀÞÊ£x]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 13

Judith Podolsky

Visit

November 28, 1938-January 29, 2013 Judy Arlene Podolsky, in Ashland, OR, on January 29, 2013 at age 74.

Born November 28, 1938 in Chicago, IL, Judy moved to California in 1965 with her husband Joe Podolsky, and her first child, Jill. While in Chicago, Judy was a social worker. After the birth of her second child, Joni, she began her work as a Jewish educator by teaching Sunday school at Congregation Beth Am and became a certified Jewish educator. She worked at Temple Emanu-El in San Jose, Temple Sinai in Oakland and religious schools in Austin and Seattle. With a love for music, Judy went back to school and received a minor in choral directing so she could bring music into the lives of the children and adults at her temples.

Judy was passionate about Judaism, education, children, music and the arts. She inspired many people throughout her life, and left a lasting mark on the many kids she taught in Sunday School and with whom she worked as a Jewish Educator. Most recently she lived in Ashland where she inspired a whole new group of people in her temple there.

Surviving her are her daughters Jill and Joni Podolsky, her sister Lynne Aronson and brother-in-law Mark Aronson.

A memorial service and reception will be held on Wednesday, February 20 at 12PM at Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Road, Los Altos Hills, CA. Donations to Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos, Havurah Shir Hadash in Ashland, or SMART (Start Making a Reader Today) in Ashland (getsmartoregon. org).

PA I D

OBITUARY

Lasting Memories An online directory of obituaries and remembrances.

Search obituaries, submit a memorial, share a photo.

Go to:

PaloAltoOnline.com/ obituaries

Support Local Business

The online guide to Palo Alto businesses ShopPaloAlto.com

Beatrice Hubbard

March 19, 1916-February, 4, 2013 Beatrice Cilker Hubbard, a resident of Palo Alto for more than 65 years and a direct descendent of Santa Clara Valley pioneers, died of natural causes Monday evening, February 4. She was 96.

Bea, as she was known to friends and family, was born March 19, 1916, in Los Gatos.

Her parents, Hazel Beatrice Lester Cilker and William Hamilton Cilker, hailed from two of Santa Clara County’s early and most wellknown fruit-growing families.

It was on the Cilker Family’s 174-acre ranch, with hundreds of prune, apricot and olive trees that Bea grew up.

The oldest of four siblings, Bea attended public school in Los Gatos and was involved in community service through the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls. In her senior year at Los Gatos High School, she was crowned queen of the Santa Clara County’s annual Festival of Roses.

Bea attended San Jose State University where she met her husband-to-be and future Santa Clara County Supervisor Wesley L. “Bud” Hubbard. The two were married on February 5, 1938 in San Jose. The couple relocated with their family to Palo Alto and was one of the first residents of Fulton Street, which later became known as “Christmas Tree Lane.”

While husband “Bud” focused his atten-

tion on the Hubbard & Johnson Lumber Co., Bea not only raised five children but also became one of Palo Alto’s most devoted civic supporters. Her volunteer work spread across dozens of public and private organizations throughout Palo Alto and Santa Clara Valley. Her 50 years of community service did not go unnoticed. In 1994, she was named a Palo Alto Lifetimes of Achievement honoree by Avenidas, a senior services organization.

The distinction earned the active Republican a congressional tribute from U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo (CA-18th District).

A globetrotter well into her 80’s, Bea traveled extensively with family members, including cousin (deceased) Rixford Snyder, a former dean of undergraduate admission and history professor at Stanford University responsible for founding its alumni travel/ study group. Bea was an avid gardener and a passionate supporter of local arts and culture.

Throughout her life, she remained an active member of the Christian Science Church.

She is survived by her five children, Michael, Russell, Sidney, Taylor, and Lauren, along with 21 grandchildren and great grandchildren, and her brother William “Bill” Cilker Jr. She is predeceased by her brother George Cilker and sister Marion Cilker.

Private services are to be held.

PA I D

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OBITUARY

Pulse

A weekly compendium of vital statistics

POLICE CALLS Palo Alto Feb. 7-13 Violence related Armed robbery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Child abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Domestic violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Theft related Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Vehicle related Abandoned auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Bicycle theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Driving with suspended license . . . . . . .2 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . .2 Vehicle accident/property damage . . . .5 Vehicle impound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Alcohol or drug related Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Drunken driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Miscellaneous Disturbing the peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Found property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Other/misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Possession of stolen property . . . . . . . .1 Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .3 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Vehicle related Driving with suspended license . . . . . . .2 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Vehicle accident/property damage . . . .1 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Alcohol or drug related Drug activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Miscellaneous Coroner case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Info. case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Warrant arrest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Atherton Feb. 7-13 Vehicle related Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Suspicious vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Vehicle code violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Vehicle accident/no injury . . . . . . . . . . .1 Alcohol or drug related Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Miscellaneous Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Medical aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Outside assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .2 Suspicious person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Warrant arrest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Civil matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

VIOLENT CRIMES Palo Alto Unlisted block Fielding Drive, 2/7, 3:53 p.m.; domestic violence/battery.

Unlisted block Bibbits Drive, 2/8, 4:33 p.m.; child abuse/physical.

1094 Tanland Drive, 2/9, 8:48 a.m.; armed robbery.

Unlisted block Wellesley St., 2/10, 5:30 p.m.; child abuse/neglect.

Unlisted block Channing Ave., 2/10, 2:01 p.m.; domestic violence/battery.

Unlisted block Channing Ave., 2/10, 11:26 p.m.; domestic violence/violation of court order.

3772 La Donna Avenue, 2/13, 12:14 a.m.; domestic violence/battery.

Menlo Park Feb. 7-13 Theft related Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Thursday February 28, 2013 7:00 - 8:30 pm

A free “How To” workshop for Family Caregivers

at Avenidas Rose Kleiner Center 270 Escuela Avenue Mountain View

Understanding Early Stage Dementia with Grace Lee, LCSW Memory Clinic, Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center and

Stefanie Bonigut, MSW Family Care Specialist Alzheimer’s Association

Please RSVP to 650-289-5499 Light refreshments will be served.

Free professional care for your loved one is available so you can attend the workshop—just call us 48 hours in advance to make arrangements.

Quality Daytime Care for Older Adults

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

I Flippin’

Love This Place!

Beautiful Designer Furniture, Accessories & Jewelry

CAMPBELL 408.871.8890 CORTE MADERA 415.924.6691 DANVILLE 925.866.6164

MOUNTAIN VIEW 650.964.7212 SAN CARLOS 650.508.8317 16 LOCATIONS IN CALIFORNIA, NEVADA & TEXAS

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Cover Story

BVS `SPW`bV

3WQVZS`

]T bVS

Courtesy of Palo Alto Library

Courtesy of Nancy Goldcamp

Veronica Weber

This original Eichler, above, designed by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons, was offered for $41,750. Left, a two-story Eichler on Cork Oak Way in Palo Alto recently on the market features the original pull-out table at the end of the galley kitchen.

Monique Lombardelli

Real-estate agent re-envisions Joseph Eichler’s ‘dream homes’ for today’s world

by Carol Blitzer

he moment she saw her first Eichler home in Sunnyvale in 2008, Monique Lombardelli fell in love. “I was driving down the street and came upon them. I felt like I landed on the moon! I was immediately in love,� she said.

Initially it was just because they were so different. “I had never seen anything like that before.

People have that reaction to them: It’s so out of this world; you don’t see (them) anywhere else,� she said. “For me, it was sort of like when you meet a soul mate; you have an instant connection.

It’s not just the style; it’s the spirit of them. It’s like a euphoric feeling. It’s hard to explain,� she added.

Today, Lombardelli doesn’t just want to live in or own an Eichler; she wants to build them for others. And not copies. The real thing, only better: energy efficient and made with sustainable materials.

The Eichlers that struck Lombardelli’s fancy

B

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were mostly built in the mid-1950s by developer Joseph Eichler — 11,000 homes in the Bay Area, including Palo Alto (2,700), Sunnyvale (1,100), Lucas Valley (900) and San Mateo (800), and a smattering in Sacramento and southern California.

Working with a series of architects (S. Robert Anshen and William Stephen Allen, Claude Oakland, Aaron Green, all of San Francisco, as well as A. Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons of Los Angeles), Eichler created a distinctive midcentury modern look that included post-andbeam construction, an open courtyard or atrium, large glass windows and sliding doors, radiant floor heating, an expandable kitchen counter and a laundry center in the bedroom wing.

While not at the lowest price point for postWorld War II housing (homes in Palo Alto’s Fairmeadow neighborhood went for under $16,000 in 1951, with Atherton’s Lindenwood houses selling for $42,500 in the 1950s), the homes were accessible to the average person.

Eichler’s target homebuyer was a 32-year-old

junior executive with two children who earned between $420 and $500 per month, according to a 1954 newspaper account.

The homes quickly garnered architectural kudos from the Housing Research Foundation, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Sunset and Parents’ magazines and the St. Louis University Home Building Institute.

They were even named Life Magazine’s House of the Year in 1953.

As a Realtor in Menlo Park for the past four years, Lombardelli, 34, has seen first-hand how seldom Eichlers turn over. “Eichlers are so hard to find; the average days on market is nine,� she said, noting that one can find seven homes on the market in a good month all over the Peninsula. “Normally there are just two or three in Palo Alto,� she added, noting that she has clients waiting four or five months for the right atrium model to come on the market.

The passion for Eichlers seems relatively new. “Before, Realtors were embarrassed to list

Cover Story

Courtesy of Palo Alto Library

Dan Friedman

Ned went on to become president of Levitt and Sons, another large home developer.

Forty years later, along came Lombardelli. “She’s devoted herself to making herself the Eichler expert.

She has a tremendous amount of energy,� he said.

While not a full partner, Ned “agreed to teach her what worked. I would inspect the plans to see if they stood up to aesthetic (standards) and inspect the construction. For that I will get a share of the profits,� he said. He will be assisted by his son David, who’s a photographer.

No one else had ever approached Ned about reviving the company. “She’s making it work. I’m not an investor or a partner, but Architect Mark Marcinek has worked on many Eichlers, including this I’m very pleased she’s doing it one on Holly Oak Drive in Palo Alto, to improve their energy efficiency and will help her as best I can,� while keeping true to their indoor/outdoor sensibility. he said.

His son wholeheartedly conan Eichler,� she said, and seldom plans (she’s gathered about eight of curs. posted photos of the front of the the original 100 or so) and market“I think it sounds like a great home. Instead, they’d feature the ing materials. idea,� he said. “Many of (the origiliving room or dining room.

Her goal is to work with local nal Eichlers) are old at this time “A lot of Realtors five or six architects and contractors to in- and require a lot of work to renoyears ago would not even show dividually build 2013 replicas of vate. If you could have something Eichlers. They didn’t want to show Eichlers, complete with atrium, ready to go that fits that aesthetic (buyers) something that looked like radiant-heated floors, foam roofs that’s brand new, why not? a trailer,� she added. and masses of double-paned glass. “I think it takes someone with But in the last two years, sales She’s already contracted with Ned real interest and passion for the have soared even as home prices in Eichler, Joseph Eichler’s son, who homes. There are a lot of people general have risen. provided her with original market- selling homes and builders buildNancy Goldcamp, a Realtor ing materials. ing contemporary-style homes, but with Coldwell Banker, Palo Alto, She met him while she was re- I think it takes somebody who’s acknowledges pent-up demand searching a film, “People in Glass really dedicated and enthusiastic and multiple offers. She could only Houses: The Legacy of Joseph (about Eichlers), in addition to seefind about 30 Eichler sales in Palo Eichler,� which she made after ing a simple business opportunity,�

Alto in 2012, along with another interviewing clients and friends he said.

50 or so “contemporary� homes. who had Eichlers. Her passion for ombardelli wasn’t born or Her listing on Cork Oak Way drew Eichlers comes through in the trailraised an Eichler aficionado. three offers and at press time was er, which can be viewed at eichlerShe grew up in a ranch-style set to sell above asking price. magazine.com. “It seems in the last five years Lombardelli was entranced with home in Portland, Ore., then studthere’s a greater preference for hearing how the original Eichler ied media broadcasting and went things contemporary (with) cleaner Homes Development Corporation to work for MTV in New York. “I learned a lot about film, got lines. ... Renewable materials — came about. Ned Eichler, 82, who cork, bamboo, recycled glass — now lives in Tiburon, recalls work- an agent in L.A., started working lend themselves to simple execu- ing for his dad as a day laborer put- on films in L.A., but I always loved tion,� Goldcamp said. ting up homes in Sunnyvale while architecture,� she said. “I realized that not a lot of people “If you go back and look at going to college. After the Korean Eichlers, they were very simple — War, Ned went into sales and later knew what Eichlers were or didn’t like the style or thought they were plain lines, easy living, not-com- became marketing director. plicated flooring, windows without “After World War II, there was ugly. I wanted to do something that moldings that didn’t obstruct the enormous pent-up demand (for showed how beautiful they are,� view. There’s a real desire for that housing). ... Local governments she said.

Serendipitously, she had the oplook again. were very receptive, and there was “People are looking for more a big highway program and favor- portunity to rent part of the Bazett house in Hillsborough, the very open spaces, less-defined eating able financing. areas. They like things more open, “My father ... set out to prove Frank Lloyd Wright-designed especially in the social areas of the that you could follow the tenets of home that inspired Joseph Eichler house,� she said. (architect) Frank Lloyd Wright and to produce his simple, indoor/outdoor homes for the masses.

Whether it’s hitching onto the make it work,� Ned said. “I basically experienced what he Mad Men craze or the desire for Joseph Eichler was also remidcentury modern, Eichlers are nowned for his sense of social jus- did; he lived there and came up with making a comeback. tice: He sold his homes race-blind, the idea to develop them. People say Lisa Knox, an agent with Mid- offering African Americans and I’m weird and insane ‘channeling town Realty, agreed.

Asian Americans an equal oppor- Joseph Eichler,’� she said.

Joking around one day, a col“Everything comes in cycles. tunity to buy at a time when restric(Eichlers are) that retro, futuristic, tive deed covenants excluded them league said, “What are you, a reincarnation of Joseph Eichler? Are optimistic sensibility that appeals in other parts of town. to us in these troubling times,� she Ned said he advised his father you going to start building them said. “And they’re beautiful — against expanding geographically now?� “And my response was, ‘Why quintessentially California.� or building high rises. “None of the things we were not?’� she said. oday, Lombardelli specializes good at could be applied to highSo far, Lombardelli’s real-estate in selling only Eichlers through rise building. Unfortunately, I was practice is fueling her entry into her Mid Century Modern Homes right,� Ned said. The company the building industry. And she’s company in Menlo Park. But she’s filed for bankruptcy in 1967, al- starting small, planning to build also recreating the Eichler Homes though a few Eichler homes were Development Corporation, com- built through the early 1970s. Jo(continued on next page) plete with the original architectural seph Eichler died in 1974.

:

B

Eichler homes came with an instruction pamphlet, offering handy hints on how to care for the cork and asphalt tile, the roof, expected condensation and a suggested schedule for setting the thermostat for the radiant heating.

1`SObW\U b]ROgÂa à 3WQVZS`Â Materials, building codes have changed in last 60 years ecreating an Eichler isn’t as simple as it sounds. Building codes have changed, with new requirements for insulation and wiring, for example.

Some of the original materials are now “endangered,� according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and others are considered toxic.

The 2013 Eichler homes, just like the originals, are expected to emulate Frank Lloyd

@

Wright’s “dry construction� method, which meant having no applied finishes — no paint, wallpaper or plaster, according to Monique Lombardelli, who plans to build individual Eichlers. “Wood is wood; brick is brick; concrete is concrete,� she said.

Here’s a comparison of materials that were used to build an Eichler and those that could be used in 2013. — Carol Blitzer

ORIGINAL EICHLER

2013 EICHLER

Flooring

Asbestos tile; Armstrong cork tile (in custom homes, colored concrete)

Slate; cork; concrete

Paneling

Philippine mahogany

Drywall needed to meet code; many different looks, including mahogany

Ceilings

Douglas fir; pine

Redwood

Roof

No attic; 1 inch of fiberglass insulation

No attic; foam

Countertops

Formica; stainless steel

Natural stone, slate, concrete

Stoves

Electric (Thermador)

Gas and electric induction

Insulation

None

Sheetrock walls, drill holes in exterior wall and add insulation in wall cavity

Windows, sliding doors

Single-paned glass

Double-paned glass

Sources: Mark Marcinek, Monique Lombardelli, www.rainforestinfo.org. au, www.iucnredlist.org ĂœĂœĂœÂ°*>Â?Âœ Â?ĂŒÂœ"˜Â?ˆ˜i°VÂœÂ“ĂŠUĂŠ*>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ7iiÂŽÂ?ÞÊUĂŠĂŠ iLÀÕ>ÀÞÊ£x]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 17

Cover Story

Courtesy of Palo Alto Library

Original marketing materials for Eichler developments in Garland Park and Fairmeadow, for example, as well as floor plans, pamphlets and newspaper clippings, can be found at the Historical Desk of the Palo Alto Main Library.

(continued from previous page)

individual homes rather than tracts as Eichler did.

She’s scouting for property and would even consider a teardown, as long as it isn’t an Eichler, she said.

Finding the right lots is Lombardelli’s greatest challenge right now. She’s seeking land that’s already been developed, with utilities in place and that is flat.

Knox, who lives in a Greenmeadow neighborhood Eichler, noted:”You can’t just build them everywhere. You don’t want to be surrounded by a two-story house when you’re made of glass.”

The next biggest issue is how to improve on the 1950s designs to make them more energy efficient and reliable. Being able to site the homes to take better advantage of sunlight is one advantage of not building in a tract.

“The (old) wiring is awful, more than half of the home is glass, and then you have the roof — a huge issue of leaks. We have to do a foam roof ... with solar heating, solar panels,” Lombardelli said, adding that she’s aiming for certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Lombardelli insists on including radiant heating, despite that system’s history of problems in original Eichlers.

“It’s part of the Eichler culture; these people grew up in them like this,” she said. When selling an older Eichler that no longer has radiant heat, her clients just sigh, she added, pointing to “one of the joys of having an Eichler — putting your feet on warm floors.”

One thing she will replace is the glue that held the paneling in place; turns out it was highly flammable, she said.

But she insists on going back to the original palette, which Joseph Eichler took a very personal interest in. Those exterior colors included earthy tones of oak brown, Coast Guard gray, spruce blue, desert sand and aspen green, with accents in turquoise, sunflower, pumpkin or paprika.

She retold a story from Ned in which his father allegedly knocked on the door of someone who had painted

his front door a color his dad didn’t like. Joe told the man he painted the wrong color blue. The guy said, “This is my house, and I can paint it whatever color I want to,” but Joe just told him it wasn’t his house.

So far, Lombardelli’s accumulated eight of the original plans, which were either designed by Claude Oakland or Anshen and Allen. Her sleuthing led her to visit the Palo Alto and Berkeley city planning departments to find out who the original architects were so she could contact their heirs and license use of the plans. Once she’s paid the fee, she then can pass on the plans to an architect who can redraw them, reflecting changes in code relating to earthquakes, insulation and wiring, for example.

She’s managed to track down the creators of three- and four-bedroom atrium models, a gallery model and several A-frames. She’s still missing the source for a double A-frame.

She’s hoping an original owner may have the plans with the name of the architect. oday, Lombardelli’s company is still in the design phase, gathering information and working on fine-tuning building costs, code

B

requirements and product availability.

Costs won’t be low because even Joseph Eichler used expensive materials at the time, said Mark Marcinek, a Palo Alto architect who has done extensive Eichler renovations. He’s designed homes damaged by fire for which the insurance covered replacement costs plus code upgrades — which is similar to what Lombardelli is attempting. He can replace the old cork tile flooring but would need to find a substitute material for the asbestos tiles, perhaps using slate. Marcinek said the old Thermador stoves were very high-end at the time.

But building homes one at a time is always more costly than erecting a tract. Eichler “got into mass production, had a block, poured all the slabs. He was building like Henry Ford. That’s how he could offer a reasonable cost,” Marcinek said.

Without those efficiencies of scale, each home will reflect today’s building costs.

“If the money is there and the desire is there, you can make it work,” he said. “With a cost-plus contract (where a contractor is paid for expenses up to a set limit plus addi-

tional payment to allow for a profit), she can’t lose.”

Knox agreed: “I think that sounds like a great idea — as long as you could get it to a price point to where it would be comparable to a remodeled Eicher.”

But will a true Eichler aficionado buy one?

Deborah Simon-Lurie, a secondgeneration Greendmeadow neighborhood homeowner, says she’s not sure.

“Some might think it’s better, and some might get stuck on it not being an authentic Eichler,” she said.

She agreed with Knox that the cost difference in building a brandnew, energy-efficient version, compared to buying an older Eichler and redoing it, could be a deal killer.

Other longtime Greenmeadow Eichler owners were enthusiastic about Lombardelli’s project — especially since she’s focusing on improving their energy efficiency.

“A new architect needs to pay attention to tightening up the Eichler.

They’re very hard to heat,” said Laura Rankin, a Greenmeadow resident since 1964.

Nonetheless, she called the idea “marvelous.”

Veronica Weber

Eichler

Many original Eichlers, including this home on Holly Oak Drive, featured an atrium, with beams overhead and sliding-glass doors leading indoors.

Page 18ÊUÊÊ iLÀÕ>ÀÞÊ£x]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V

Rankin had worked with her late husband, Carroll Rankin, to get the neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

She pointed to the many Eichler imitations around. Developers who shared some of the aesthetic included Mackay, Brown & Kaufman, Coastwise and Stern & Price — who mainly built one-story, flatroofed, ranch-style homes in the 1950s.

“It doesn’t take much creativity to duplicate it because it’s very simple,” she said. But what made Eichlers unique was their use of materials, such as redwood, which are now too expensive or no longer available.

Greenmeadow resident Walter Hays said he “can’t see why anyone would have any objections (to the project). ... My own feeling is that Eichlers have a lot of nice aspects — the indoor/outdoor feeling and light. The problem has been that there’s no thought given to energy efficiency. Sounds like she’s improving on that. That’ll make it even more attractive.”

Hays and his wife have already converted their windows to doublepane and added insulation, accessing a $10,000, interest-free loan from the city. His one regret is that they didn’t change the tar-and-gravel roof to foam, he said.

Lombardelli hopes to eliminate the need for people to buy and renovate an old Eichler. And if she’s successful in building individual homes, she’s not averse to trying a modern-day planned community, possibly in southern California.

“My goal is to really stretch down there. I think there’s a huge market down there in L.A.,” she said.

“It’s my job to put people together and make it happen.”

In the meantime she’s got her eye on an Atherton Eichler that she calls “her dream. I’m not going to say where it is, but it’s my favorite so far. I told the owner to think of me when they want to sell.” N Associate Editor Carol Blitzer can be emailed at cblitzer@ paweekly.com.

About the cover: Photo of Monique Lombardelli by Veronica Weber.

Design by Shannon Corey.

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

Cantor’s new Family Sundays feature sketching in the galleries, art projects in the studio, and pint-sized tour groups Story by Rebecca Wallace / Photographs by Andre Zandona hen art speaks to them, kids don’t hold back.

In the middle of a museum tour, a little girl looks up at a painting and shrieks, “Pretty!”

When the tour moves to a display of Venetian glass vessels, other kids shout: “I like the red one!” and “That one looks like a coffee pot!”

Docent Rosalyn Voget remains calm. In this situation, being interrupted is hardly a bad thing. These kids are engaged and enthusiastic.

There are also a lot of them.

The new Family Sunday programs at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center are only in their second weekend, and already the groups of attendees are so large that some of them need to be split in two. Family tours have been filling the main lobby, and young artists have been packing the dropin art activities down in the Moorman Studio. Upstairs in the galleries, kids are drawing away with the colored pencils they’ve been given to sketch the art around them.

On the first Family Sunday, which happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, 80-some people showed up for the tours and more than 100 lined up at the art studio. Museum director Connie Wolf, who is spearhead-

Above: The Moorman Studio in the Cantor Arts Center is buzzing with kids’ art activities on a recent Sunday.

Left: Luka and Pauwelyn Peterjan draw in the contemporary gallery. orful Chinese snuff bottles of glass, porcelain, crystal, silver.

The common theme?

Beautiful objects that you give people you love, often on Valentine’s Day. The kids seemed fascinated. With wide eyes, they peered at the bottles, chose their favorites and speculated what might have been kept in them. Mint. Lavender. “Spells,” one ing the new initiative, was “overwhelmed” and pleased.

“It indicates that there is a huge hunger for (families) to find meaningful things to do together that provide new ways of thinking and educational, but are not classroombased,” Wolf said. “There’s a time to put all that technology aside and just be in the moment.”

This past Sunday, more than 35 people were on hand for the 12:30 tour, with more showing up for later tours. Voget chose two display cases and a painting — Astley David Middleton Cooper’s circa-1898 oil “Mrs. Stanford’s Jewel Collection” — to show her young charges. The first case was filled with ornate Venetian glass vessels; the second, with col-

suggested.

Family Sunday tours tie into the drop-in art activities held in the studio from 1 to 3 p.m. On this day artist Stephanie Crowell also centered the project on glass bottles. Small bottles had been glued to heavy paper, with children encouraged to be creative about what their bottles could hold — or what could be spill-

ing out onto the paper. A crowd of kids and parents filled the room, the young artists descending on the crayons, construction paper, glue, red lacy hearts and “glitter station.”

Crowell, an art teacher at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, supervised a table where kids squeezed colors out of droppers, getting to see what happened when primary hues met secondary ones.

Four-year-old Charlie was the picture of concentration as he carefully snipped away at a bit of blue construction paper. “Whatever ends up as the final product is the mystery,” his father, Aidan Yeaw, said with a laugh.

This was the first time Charlie and his family had visited the Cantor, which is exactly what museum officials are hoping for: new artlovers, big and small. Or, as Wolf puts it, “the future of culture for our (continued on page 21)

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Louisa May Alcott, Sherlock Holmes and Stephen Sondheim get star billing in a new program of plays and musicals

by Rebecca Wallace

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in 2005 and earned Sutton Foster a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Jo. It opens at the Lucie Stern on Dec. 7.

A tale of a pioneering woman astronomer follows, in Lauren Gunderson’s “Silent Sky.� It’s a man’s world at the turn of the 20th century, which means challenges ensue. Opening night is Jan. 18 at the Mountain View center.

It’s off to the Caribbean (and the Lucie Stern) on March 8 with “Once on This Island,� with book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty, the team that created “Ragtime� and “Lucky Stiff.�

Peasant girl Ti Moune has her life upended when an aristocrat in white races by.

A send-up of Sherlock Holmes follows, with “Hound of the Baskervilles,� adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson. Three actors, dozens of roles and one peculiar dog. Opening night is April 5 at the Mountain View center.

The season closes with a lesserknown musical from one of the theater’s greats. Stephen Sondheim’s “Marry Me a Little� is about lonely young New Yorkers singing about their dreams. The songs include many numbers that didn’t make it into other Sondheim shows, such as “Can That Boy Foxtrot� (not in “Follies�). The musical opens June 7 at the Mountain View center.

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f you mixed all the shows in TheatreWorks’ new season into one giant stage gumbo, you might get something like this: Koko the gorilla meets a dashing politician while star-gazing at a desert estate. “Marry me a little,� Koko signs, and Jo March runs in, pen in hand, to cover the unlikely love story. But who is the stranger in white driving by? Could this chap in the deerstalker help solve the mystery?

Fortunately, TheatreWorks thought it would be better to present its shows one at a time. This week, the veteran Peninsula group announced its 44th season. Five plays and three musicals, including one world premiere, will be performed in Palo Alto and Mountain View beginning in July.

Once again, the company is starting off with a brand-new work that was popular at the previous season’s New Works Festival. This year, playwright Catherine Rush offers “The Loudest Man on Earth,� which features the deaf actor Adrian Blue in a romantic comedy about a reclusive stage director who can’t hear and a journalist who has a lot to say.

As their romance blossoms, they encounter a wild bunch of characters including Ms. Koko. Opening night is July 13 at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre.

On Aug. 21, “Other Desert Cities,� by Pulitzer Prize finalist Jon Robin Baitz, opens at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. The show is a dysfunctionalfamily, home-for-the-holidays tale set on a movie star’s desert estate.

One family member is a writer with a juicy memoir.

The comedic political drama “Warrior Class� opens Oct. 12 at the Mountain View center. Playwright Kenneth Lin centers his story on a politician and son of Chinese immigrants who seems to be rising high as “The Republican Obama� — until scandal rears its head.

Next, TheatreWorks goes all Broadway musical with “Little Women,� penned by Allan Knee (book), Mindi Dickstein (lyrics) and Jason Howland (music) after the classic Louisa May Alcott novel. The show opened on Broadway

Lauren Gunderson wrote “Silent Sky,� about a pioneering woman astronomer.

Arts & Entertainment how museum guards should handle little hands touching the art, for example, or where strollers can go.

All seems to be running smoothly on this Sunday, especially upstairs, where families are sketching in the Sigall Gallery of early-20th-century works. In one corner, a girl and mom sit on the carpet while dad lies on his stomach, the family cozily drawing together in the company of Theodore Roszak’s sunny-yellow abstract 1943 sculpture “Lighter than Air.” It’s all quiet, and it’s all about the art. N

(continued from page 19)

community.”

Nearly all the new family programs are free: the family tours and drop-in art activities on Sunday afternoons, and the materials for gallery sketching and self-guided family tours, which are always available when the museum is open. (There will be a cost for the week-long summer art classes for kids.) Museum admission is also free, as is parking after 4 p.m. and on weekends.

The museum has had family programs in the past, but this new endeavor is more widespread, Wolf said. “I want to make sure that any time a family comes into the mu-

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This Sunday: Who Needs Wealth, Fame and Power?

Rev. David Howell preaching An Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ

What: New Family Sunday art activities at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center

Kiana Gerritsen drips color on paper with a dropper.

Tours for tots

Inspirations

seum ... there is something you can pick up to do with children.”

Wolf and her staff have done very little outreach on the program so far, wanting to see what kind of turnout they would get. They plan to expand outreach, including disseminating program brochures at several East Palo Alto locations.

As part of the new program, Wolf hired a new staff member last fall.

Lauren Hahn brings an education background to her role as familyprograms coordinator. A mother and self-described “museum junkie,” she has a goal, she says, “to allow families respite in their busy lives.”

Wolf also arranged more training for Cantor staff as a whole. When you expand family programs, there are a lot of things to think about:

Where and when: Family halfhour tours start in the main lobby at 12:30, 1 and 1:30 p.m.

Sundays, with drop-in art activities from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Moorman Studio on Sundays.

Families can sign out art supplies for focused drawing activities in the gallery from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sundays. On all days the Cantor is open (Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m and Thursdays until 8 p.m.), museum patrons can pick up family guides for self-guided tours, and sign out colored pencils and paper for drawing in the galleries.

Cost: Free

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

Info: Go to museum.stanford.edu or call 650-723-4177.

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Movies OPENINGS

Safe Haven 1/2 (Century 16, Century 20) Remember when romance novels used to be described as “bodice rippers” and all seemed to be written by the same person? Well, now they’re prescreenplays whose unholy cinematic offspring look like the result of “People” magazine mating with a glossy “Romantic Getaways” calendar; that “same person” is corporate-friendly romance novelist/entrepreneur Nicholas Sparks; and the end result is cineplex-filler “Safe Haven.”

In the good old days when Fabio was sort of relevant, romance novels got to be winkingly self-aware about their absurdities, inviting readers to laugh with the author rather than being laughed at. And if genitals began curiously to stir, well, what could be the harm in that?

Movies based on Nicholas Sparks books are like the “natural flavors” synthesized in a laboratory to trick your taste buds. The romantic-drama results remain pretty much the same: a date movie that’s likely to induce friskiness in couples. But does Sparks have to treat people like total idiots in the process? (Don’t answer that.)

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With “Safe Haven,” producer Sparks — along with his screenwriting adapters Leslie Bohem and Dana Stevens — risks killing the mood by introducing “thriller” elements. The picture begins with a barefoot, cocktail-dress-clad young woman (Julianne Hough) escaping a suburban crime scene. Once she goes on the run, only a few perfunctory scenes of the stock-unsympathetic Boston detective (David Lyons) on her trail interrupt the iron-clad Sparks formula.

There’s no “secret sauce” here.

There’s a Pretty Young Thing (Hough) who, seeking solace, travels to a picturesque seaside idyll (this time, in North Carolina). There, our romantic hero immediately walks right into a job and housing (hey, don’t we all?), meets another Pretty Young Thing (Josh Duhamel as a widowed, hunky, caring father of two — awww), resists romance, succumbs to romance, then almost loses romance due to the emergence of a Dark Secret.

There are cute kids in the vicinity (Mimi Kirkland and Noah Lomax), as well as wrinkly, twinkly-eyed mentors (demo appeal!), the requisite striptease for the stars (beach day!), significantly timed cloudbursts

drenching the P.Y.T.s (oh God, you devil!), and letters carefully crafted to drown eyeballs. Other options available in certain models (like this one): dancing in the moonlight and a climactic fireworks display (sparks, get it?).

All this and two (count ‘em, two!) inane twists that spit in the face of sense. Even if one accepts the absurd circumstances under which Hough’s character turns fugitive, one has to survive a thuddingly ineffective, rug-pulling resolution involving — well, I won’t say, but I will say these people have no shame when it comes to cramming in gauzy emotionalspiritual manipulation.

And it’s all directed by Lasse Hallström who — despite being capable of making such films as “My Life as a Dog,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” — continues to make Sparks adaptations like “Dear John” and “Safe Haven.” Duhamel can and does nominally act here, but Hough can’t be bothered to do anything other than flash toothy smiles and crinkle her dimples just so. Given the soulless-cash-grab material, who can blame her?

Yeah, I know it’s Valentine’s Day. How about dinner and dancing? You can thank me later for your safe haven from “Safe Haven.”

JEAN-LOUIS TRINTIGNANT

EMMANUELLE RIVA

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AMOUR A Film by MICHAEL HANEKE

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TOP TEN LISTS

Fri and Sun 2/15 & 2/17

Life of Pi 2D - 4:00, 10:00 Life of Pi 3D - 1:00, 7:00 Argo - 1:10, 4:10, 7:10, 9:55

Sat 2/16

Life - of Pi 2D - 4:00, 10:00 Life of Pi 3D - 7:00 Argo - 1:10, 4:10, 7:10, 9:55

Mon thru Thurs Life of Pi 2D - 4:00 2/18 - 2/21 Life of Pi 3D - 1:00, 7:00

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For more info, visit

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Movies MOVIE TIMES 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 Good Day to Die Hard (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: Fri.-Sat. 11 & 11:50 a.m., 12:40, 1:30, 2:20, 3:20, 4:10, 5:10, 6:10, 7:10, 8:10, 9:10, 10 & 10:45 p.m. Sun. 11 & 11:50 a.m., 12:40, 1:30, 2:20, 3:20, 4:10, 5:10, 6:10, 7:10, 8:20, 9:20 & 10:15 p.m. Century 20: 11:40 a.m. and 1:20, 2:15, 3:50, 4:45, 6:20, 7:15, 8:55 & 9:45 p.m. In XD at 12:30, 3, 5:30, 8:05 & 10:40 p.m.

Amour (PG-13) (((( Aquarius Theatre: 1:45, 4:45 & 7:45 p.m.

Matched CareGivers

Argo (R) (((1/2 Century 20: 11:15 a.m. and 2, 4:45, 7:35 & 10:20 p.m. Palo Alto Square: Fri.-Sun. 1:10, 4:10, 7:10 & 9:55 p.m.

Beautiful Creatures (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 12:20, 3:30, 7 & 10:20 p.m. Century 20: 11:05 a.m. and 1:55, 4:50, 7:45 & 10:40 p.m.

Cinderella (1950) (G) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: Sat.-Mon. 3 p.m.

Cinemark Oscar marathon (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: Sat. noon.

Cinemark Oscar Shorts (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: Fri. noon and 4 & 8 p.m.

Django Unchained (R) ((( Century 16: 11:40 a.m. and 3:50 & 8 p.m. Century 20: Sun. 11:10 a.m. and 2:50, 6:25 & 10 p.m.

Escape from Planet Earth (PG) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 11:15 a.m. In 3D 1:40, 7 & 9:40 p.m. Century 20: 11:45 a.m. In 3D at 2:10, 4:35, 7:05 & 9:35 p.m.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: 11:05 a.m.

Identity Thief (R) ((1/2 Century 16: 11 a.m. & noon & 1:50, 3, 4:40, 6:10, 7:40, 9:10 & 10:30 p.m. Century 20: 11:40 a.m. and 2:25, 5:05, 7:45, 9:10 & 10:25 p.m. Fri. also at 12:50, 3:40 & 6:20 p.m.

Lady and the Tramp (1955) (G) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: Sat.-Mon. 1 p.m.

Life of Pi (PG) (((1/2 Century 20: 1:25 and 7:15 p.m. In 3D 4:20 and 10:20 p.m. Palo Alto Square: 4 and 10 p.m. Fri. & Sun. also at 1 p.m.

Lincoln (PG-13) (((1/2 Century 16: 11:25 a.m. and 2:40, 6:05 & 9:20 p.m. Century 20: 12:20, 3:35, 7 & 10:15 p.m.

Oscar-Nominated Short Films 2013: Animated (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Aquarius Theatre: 12:30, 2:30 & 7 p.m.

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Oscar-Nominated Short Films 2013: Live Action (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Aquarius Theatre: 4:30 & 9 p.m.

Peter Pan (1953) (G) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: Sat.-Mon. 5 p.m.

Quartet (PG-13) ((( Century 20: Noon and 2:30, 4:55, 7:25 & 9:50 p.m. Guild Theatre: 1, 3:30, 6 & 8:30 p.m.

W E S T

OH, INVERTED WORLD

by Trey McIntyre set to music by The Shins

C OA S T

P R E M I E R E

O F

COLD VIRTUES

by Adam Hougland

3 SHORT WORKS

by Michael Smuin

Rebecca (1940) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: 7:30 p.m. (plus 3:20 Sat. and Sun.) Rigoletto at the Met Opera (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: Sat. 9:55 a.m.

Safe Haven (PG-13) 1/2 Century 16: 11 a.m. & noon & 1:40, 2:50, 4:20, 5:30, 7:30, 8:40 & 10:30 p.m.

Century 20: 11:15 a.m. & 12:40, 1:55, 3:25, 4:40, 6:15, 7:25, 9 & 10:10 p.m.

Secret Agent (1936) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Fri 5:55 & 9:05 p.m. Sat 5:55 & 9:05 p.m. Sun 5:55 & 9:05 p.m.

SMUIN

WINTER PROGRAM

Side Effects (R) ((( Century 16: 11:20 a.m. & 12:10, 1:50, 2:40, 4:30, 5:10, 7:20, 8:10 & 10:10 p.m. _Century 20: 11:25 a.m. and 12:30, 1:55, 3, 4:35, 5:35, 7:10, 8:10, 9:45 & 10:45 p.m.

Silver Linings Playbook (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 12:10, 3:10, 6:20 & 9:20 p.m. Century 20: 11:15 a.m. and 2, 4:50, 7:35 & 10:25 p.m.

Stand Up Guys (R) (( Century 20: 2:15, 4:40, 7:05 & 9:30 p.m. Sat 2:15, 4:40, 7:05 & 9:30 p.m. Also 11:55 a.m. on Fri. and Sun. Suspicion (1941) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: 5:40 & 9:50 p.m.

Warm Bodies (PG-13) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 11:30 a.m. and 1:55, 4:20, 7:10 & 9:50 p.m. Century 20: 12:40, 3:05, 5:30, 8 & 10:40 p.m.

FEBRUARY 20 — 24 Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

Young and Innocent (1938) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Fri 7:30 p.m. Sat 4:20 & 7:30 p.m. Sun 4:20 & 7:30 p.m.

Zero Dark Thirty (R) ((1/2 Century 16: 11:50 a.m. and 3:40 & 7:40 p.m. Century 20: 11:10 a.m. and 2, 4:50, 7:35 & 10:25 p.m.

( Skip it (( Some redeeming qualities ((( A good bet (((( Outstanding Aquarius: 430 Emerson St., Palo Alto (266-9260) Century Cinema 16: 1500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View (800-326-3264) Century 20 Downtown: 825 Middlefield Road, Redwood City (800-326-3264) CinéArts at Palo Alto Square: 3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto (493-3456) Guild: 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park (266-9260) Stanford: 221 University Ave., Palo Alto (324-3700) Internet address: For show times, plot synopses, trailers and more information about films playing, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/movies

Call 650.903.6000

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Sports Shorts

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Pac-12 title still very much up for grabs

DIAMOND NOTE . . . Preseason All-Americans Brian Ragira, Austin Wilson and Mark Appel have been named to the Golden Spikes Award Watch List, as announced Thursday

by USA Baseball. Sponsored by Major League Baseball, the award goes to the top amateur baseball player in the country. Stanford and LSU led all schools with three players named to the Watch List. The Watch List features 50 of the nation’s top amateur players. The Golden Spikes Award trophy will be awarded live July 19 on MLB Network. July 19. Appel, the 2012 NCBWA Pitcher of the Year, was a finalist for last yearís Golden Spikes Award.

Co-leading Stanford heads into very important weekend with must-win games at USC, UCLA

by Rick Eymer

T

CARDINAL NOTES . . . The fourthranked Stanford men’s gymnastics team (4-1) will play host to Bay Area rival No. 10 California (1-4) on Sunday (6 p.m.) for the 2013 installment of the Big Flip Off. It will be the first men’s gymnastics meet televised live on the Pac-12 Networks. Admission is free . . . Teagan Gerhart threw a one-hitter over five innings and the Stanford softball team beat visiting Santa Clara, 8-0, in its home opener Wednesday night. Gerhart walked one and struck out four in throwing her first shutout of the season. The 20th-ranked Cardinal (5-2) hosts the Stanford Nike Invitational beginning Friday. Stanford meets Cal State Northridge at 2:15 p.m. and Cal State Bakersfield at 4:30 p.m.

ON THE AIR Friday College baseball: Stanford at Rice, 2:30 p.m.; KZSU (90.1 FM) Women’s basketball: Stanford at USC, 8 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks; KZSU (90.1 FM)

Saturday College baseball: Stanford at Rice, noon; KZSU (90.1 FM) Men’s basketball: UCLA at Stanford, 1 p.m.; ESPN2; KNBR (1050 AM)

Sunday College baseball: Stanford at Rice, 11 a.m.; KZSU (90.1 FM) Women’s basketball: Stanford at UCLA, 12:30 p.m.; ESPNU

Tuesday College baseball: California at Stanford, 5:30 p.m.; KZSU (90.1 FM)

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

Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike (13) and Joslyn Tinkle (44) hope to maintain their share of first place in the Pac-12 Conference when the Cardinal visits USC and UCLA this week.

(continued on next page)

STANFORD BASEBALL

PREP ROUNDUP

Season opener begins quest for trip to the CWS

SHP-Menlo boys’ soccer rivalry heads to CCS

by Rick Eymer

by Keith Peters

S

tanford’s leading hitter, first baseman Brian Ragira, had a decision to make about his baseball future. He narrowed his college choices to Stanford and Rice.

“I grew up around Rice,” Ragira said.

“I know the coaches. But I always wanted to go to Stanford.”

Ragira returns to Rice this weekend as the No. 7 Cardinal baseball team opens its season with a three-game series against the No. 18 Owls beginning today.

Stanford (48-18 last year) lost in the NCAA Super Regional at Florida State in 2012, one step from the College World Series in Omaha.

With a large group of returning players, the most significant being right-hander Mark Appel, the Cardinal has set its sights on even bigger goals.

“Our goals never change,” Ragira said.

“We reached the Super Regional but we want more than that. Having the best pitcher in the country back is huge. He leads by example. He exemplifies what a work ethic looks like.” (continued on next page)

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W

Keith Peters

READ MORE ONLINE

Bob Drebin/stanfordphoto.com

GAFFNEY BACK . . . Running back Tyler Gaffney will rejoin the Stanford football team April 1 for the first time since the 2011 season. Gaffney is leaving professional baseball to return to The Farm for his football senior season and the completion of his Stanford degree. April 1 is the first day of the spring quarter on campus and starts the second session of the Cardinal’s spring practices. Gaffney is pursuing a double major of sociology and psychology. Gaffney’s football path left off after the 2012 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. He completed his junior season with a career-high 449 yards (6.1 yards/carry) and seven touchdowns on the ground, plus 79 receiving yards and one more touchdown.

he Pac-12 Conference women’s basketball title chase may not be decided this weekend, though there’s a good chance things will become much, much clearer.

Nationally No. 4 Stanford, No. 6 California and No. 17 UCLA — the top three teams in the conference and the only teams with 20 wins so far this season — will be playing each other. USC is also on the schedule and ready to steal a victory should one of the Bay Area teams get caught looking forward or behind.

Fourth-place Washington has flown under the radar so far and, in case there are a few slips among the leaders, is ready to step up a level or two. Fifth-place Colorado, ranked No. 21, is also hanging around.

“This trip separates the girls from the women,” Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We have to play well both nights. USC is dangerous and UCLA plays a big lineup. At this point, I think we’re talking about having five teams from our conference in the NCAA tournament. There is all the makings of a great tournament at the end of the season.”

Stanford (11-1 in the Pac-12, 22-2 overall) has six games remaining on its regular season schedule, four on the road. The most important one is Friday’s matchup with the Women of Troy (5-7, 8-15) because without a win at the Galen Center, Sunday’s game in Pauley Pavilion against the Bruins (10-2, 20-3) won’t mean as much.

The Cardinal faces its tightest race in many years.

Should it continue to win, that 13th consecutive title

Menlo’s Max Parker (left) and SHP’s Ricky Grau both head into CCS action next week.

hen it comes to boys’ soccer, Sacred Heart Prep has one of the most successful programs in Central Coast Section history. The Gators have won seven titles and finished second seven times.

It also must be noted that all those finishes came when Division III played in the fall and the competition was not as difficult as it is today.

In the “modern” era of section soccer that saw Division III move to its current winter berth, Sacred Heart Prep hasn’t been quite as successful. Four straight years in the playoffs have resulted in no victories. Thus, the quest continues.

Sacred Heart Prep will begin its fifth straight year in the CCS Division III postseason next week and will be joined by rival Menlo School. They won’t be alone.

The girls’ bracket will include automatic qualifiers Menlo, Priory, Sacred Heart Prep, Palo Alto and either Pinewood or King’s Academy. For the boys, it’s SHP, Menlo and possibly Palo Alto. The Menlo-Atherton boys and girls both will need (continued on page 26)

Stanford baseball (continued from previous page)

Ragira hit .329 with four home runs and 50 RBI. Only right fielder Austin Wilson drove in more among returning players.

Menlo School grad Danny Diekroeger earned the starting nod at second base, after hitting his way into the lineup toward the end of last year.

“That guy works,” Ragira said.

“He loves the game and he has a nice swing.”

Diekroeger, who hit .354 in 96 at-bats, recorded a .512 slugging percentage.

He’s joined by fellow Menlo School grad Freddy Avis, a freshman who is in the mix as a possible weekend starter. Stanford coach Mark Marquess said he’s one of three freshmen from whom he must pick to start Sunday. The others are Logan James and Daniel Starwalt.

Sophomore left-hander Josh Hochstatter will start Saturday.

Dean McArdle, Sahil Bloom, David Schmidt and A.J. Vanegas give Stanford depth in the bullpen or in the rotation.

Vanegas, who finished last year as the team’s closer, is recovering from a herniated disc and will not be available until the end of March.

Schmidt, who recorded three saves last year, makes the loss a little easier to take.

Garrett Hughes, Spenser Linney and Sam Lindquist also pitched last year, while newcomers Avis, James, Starwalt, Marcus Brakeman, Gabe Cramer, Jordan Kutzer, Tyler Maxwell and Andrew McCormack give the Cardinal one of its strongest staffs in a long time.

Appel is, by far, the ace of the staff.

“He’s a high-profile player and he leads by example,” Marquess said.

“No one works harder than Mark and that’s a real benefit.”

In addition to Ragira and Diekroeger, the starting infield will be comprised of shortstop Lonnie Kauppila, who missed half of last year with a knee injury, and third baseman Alex Blandino, perhaps the biggest surprise from last year’s

Stanford hoop (continued from previous page)

becomes one of the hardest to obtain. Since losing at home to the Golden Bears (11-1, 21-2) on Jan. 13, Stanford has won eight consecutive games by an average margin of 16.6 points.

The Cardinal handed UCLA a 75-49 setback in its first game following the loss and then survived a scare from USC, winning 75-66 two days later.

There’s no margin for error, no time to ease the foot off the pedal and nowhere to go but down. All eyes, as in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and places east and north, are focused on the road ahead.

“We feel like we have been scrapping and scraping every game,” VanDerveer said. “We have to prepare for everybody.”

Stanford enters the weekend with a few dings. Toni Kokenis remains questionable and Erica Payne is dayto-day.

Alex Green, who saw her first action in 15 months, could prove a fac-

2013 STANFORD BASEBALL SCHEDULE Date Today Saturday Sunday Tuesday Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 24 Feb. 26 Mar. 1 Mar. 2 Mar. 3 Mar. 5 Mar. 8 Mar. 9 Mar. 10 Mar. 22 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 26 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 30 Apr. 1 Apr. 5 Apr. 6 Apr. 7 Apr. 9 Apr. 12 Apr. 13 Apr. 14

Opponent at Rice at Rice at Rice vs. Cal vs. Fresno State vs. Fresno State vs. Fresno State at St. Mary’s vs. Texas vs. Texas vs. Texas at Santa Clara vs. UNLV vs. UNLV vs. UNLV vs. Utah * vs. Utah * vs. Utah * at UC Davis at Washington St. * at Washington St. * at Washington St. * vs. California * TV at USC * at USC * at USC * at San Jose State vs. Washington * vs. Washington * vs. Washington *

Time 2 p.m. noon 11 a.m.

5 p.m.

5 p.m.

1 p.m.

1 p.m.

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5 p.m.

1 p.m.

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6 p.m.

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Date Opponent Time Apr. 16 at Pacific 6 p.m.

Apr. 19 vs. Arizona * TV 7 p.m.

Apr. 20 vs. Arizona * 2 p.m.

Apr. 21 vs. Arizona * 1 p.m.

Apr. 23 vs. San Jose State 5 p.m.

Apr. 26 at Oregon * TV 7 p.m.

Apr. 27 at Oregon * 2 p.m.

Apr. 28 at Oregon * TV noon Apr. 30 vs. Saint Mary’s 5 p.m.

May 3 at Arizona State * TV 7 p.m.

May 4 at Arizona State * 6 p.m.

May 5 at Arizona State * noon May 7 vs. San Francisco 5 p.m.

May 10 vs. Oregon State * 6 p.m.

May 11 vs. Oregon State * 2 p.m.

May 12 vs. Oregon State * 1 p.m.

May 14 vs. Santa Clara 5 p.m.

May 17 at California * TBA May 18 at California * TBA May 19 at California * TBA May 21 vs. Pacific 5 p.m.

May 24 vs. UCLA * 5 p.m.

May 25 vs. UCLA * TV 7 p.m.

May 26 vs. UCLA * 2 p.m.

May 31 - Jun. 4 NCAA Regional Jun. 7 - 10 NCAA Super Regional Jun. 15 - 26 College World Series

COMMUNITY MEETING Review the proposed landscape renovations for

Eleanor Pardee Park Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 7:30 PM Lucie Stern Center Fireside Room 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301 The City of Palo Alto seeks the community’s input on this proposed landscape renovation project.

Email pwecips@cityofpaloalto.org for more information.

Meeting hosted by City of Palo Alto Public Works, (650) 617-3183

BUY 1 ENTREE AND GET THE 2ND ONE

*Pac-12 Conference games TV -- Televised

freshmen group. Blandino, a Palo Alto resident, hit .294 with eight home runs and drove in 40. He can also pitch a little bit.

Wilson, who led Stanford with 10 home runs and 54 RBI last year, anchors an outfield that will also include Dominic Jose, a productive player in a limited role last year and the son of former major leaguer Felix Jose.

Freshman switch hitter Jonny Locher is the most likely candidate to start in center field and lead off.

Junior Brian Guymon and freshmen Matt DeGrew and Zach Hoffpauir will add depth in the outfield.

Sophomore Wayne Taylor will start at catcher. He’ll be backed up

by Austin Barr, Luke Pappas and Brant Whiting.

“We have a lot of experience,” Ragira said. “Jonny is a great leadoff hitter and I’m excited about our defense and pitching.”

Marquess echoed his junior first baseman.

“A lot of guys returning, a lot of good, solid freshmen. We have a lot of high hopes,” he said.

The Pac-12 remains one of the top conferences in the country. Arizona, one of the best hitting teams in the nation, is the defending national champion. UCLA returns its entire pitching staff and Oregon State had one of the best young staffs in the conference last year.

Oregon also had an impressive pitching staff, Arizona State, USC, Washington and California are all solid programs.

The Cardinal has won each of its past five season-opening contests and as many series. Since 2000, Stanford has won 12 of 13 opening weekend series, including three-game sets at No. 17 Rice (2011) and against No. 10 Vanderbilt (2012). This will be Stanford’s third season-opening series against Rice since 2010, and its fourth in as many seasons against a top-20 team. N

tor down the stretch though she’s not quite in basketball shape.

Bonnie Samuelson scored a career-high 19 points in Stanford’s win over Arizona State last Sunday and has reached double figures in two of her last three games.

“It was great for her to get her career high,” VanDerveer said. “And for her, that wasn’t even her shooting as well as she’s capable of. She missed some open ones. But it was really great to see her get her rhythm going, get her shot going.”

Samuelson owns the record for most 3-pointers within a 30-second point during a Stanford practice.

Mikaela Ruef and Joslyn Tinkle each recorded a double-double last weekend, suggesting the Cardinal is beginning to find different sources of offensive production aside from National Player of the Year candidate Chiney Ogwumike.

“In the next month we’ll need more from Taylor (Greenfield), Jasmine (Camp) and Tess (Picknell),” VanDerveer said.

Of course, there is always Ogwumike.

“Chiney is being talked about as

player of the year, and looking at her stats, if you were to look at Chiney compared to Jayne Appel, compared to Nneka (Ogwumike), I think Chiney has been more consistent than anybody we’ve ever had,” VanDerveer said. “I don’t want to jinx her, but I don’t even look at her stats. I go to the other people. Mikaela had a double-double, Jos had a doubledouble. It’s a given that Chiney has one, and if she doesn’t it’s because I was able to take her out and get her some rest. She’s also not in the top five in terms of minutes played in the conference games. The more rest we can get her the better, I feel.”

Ogwumike has reached double figures in scoring in every game this season, something that her older sister Nneka (the WNBA Rookie of the Year) nearly accomplished last year.

Nneka reached double figures in 35 of 36 games.

“Chiney is a really special player that comes out excited and motivated every single game,” VanDerveer said. “It’s more usual that someone would have an off night, and we can’t afford that and I think Chiney knows that.” N

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an at-large berth to get in.

First-round action begins Tuesday and Wednesday with finals set for March 2 — at Oak Grove (boys) and Valley Christian (girls).

The Menlo, SHP and Palo Alto girls are past champions, as are the Paly boys. The SHP and Menlo boys would like to join that group some day. First, of course, they must win that first match. “We’ve been trying to focus on this season, rather than past years in the CCS,� said SHP boys’ coach Armando del Rio. “CCS, that’s our new season,� said Menlo first-year coach Marc Kerrest, who told his players the plan is to be playing after SHP is eliminated.

Should the teams meet in the postseason, Menlo will have to find a way to finally beat SHP. That hasn’t happened since both schools began playing in the West Bay Athletic League in 2009. Since then, the Gators hold an 8-0-2 lead in the series.

That streak continued Wednesday as SHP wrapped up its fifth straight WBAL title with one match remaining in the regular season following a 2-0 victory.

The Gators improved to 11-0-2 in league (14-2-3 overall) while the Knights concluded their regular season at 9-3-2 (12-5-3) and in second place. Menlo needed a victory plus a SHP loss to King’s Academy on Friday in order to tie the Gators for first place. Sacred Heart Prep, meanwhile, needed only a tie to claim the crown. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t share it,� said del Rio, who now has won three consecutive league titles since taking over for Matt Dodge. “We didn’t go into this game thinking we were going to tie.�

Both SHP goals came after throw-

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ins, the first by Nick Salzman in the 31st minute of the first half on an assist by Ricky Grau. Matt Denton made the throw-in, which Grau volleyed to Salzman for the goal.

In the second half, Denton made another long throw-in that was first headed by Robert Hellman, who deflected it to Willy Lamb. He turned and rifled a hard shot past Menlo keeper Timmy Costa for a 2-0 advantage with just under eight minutes to play. “It’s a game of inches,� said Kerrest. “They scored two goals on throw-ins; we didn’t score goals . . . in the next game we have, if we make those mistakes we won’t have another game.�

In Portola Valley, host Priory wrapped up its season with a 3-2 victory over visiting Crystal Springs on Senior Day. After falling behind 1-0, Max Reines got the equalizer for the Panthers just before halftime.

Trailing 2-1 in the second half, Sergio Lopez assisted on a goal

by Austin Mirabella for the tie.

The game-winning goal came late in stoppage time when Joe Farned chipped a through ball to fellow senior captain Cesar Perez, who controlled the pass before sending an unstoppable volley into the side netting for the win.

In the SCVAL El Camino Division, Palo Alto capped its regular season with a 2-1 win over host Cupertino. After failing to win a single match last season in the SCVAL De Anza Division, the Vikings made a massive improvement to finish 8-3-1 in the El Camino.

The Vikings (13-5-2 overall) now will await for this weekend’s seeding meeting to see if they have qualified for the CCS playoffs.

Cupertino grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute and made it hold up for the halftime lead. Paly got the equalizer from junior Cina Vazier at and the winner 10 minutes later when Vazir’s shot bounced off the cross bar and senior Chris Meredith

nailed a header into the upper right corner of the cage.

Alex Chin, Kirby Gee, Jacob Dorward, Steve Blatman, and Neal Biswah teamed together to limit Cupertino to two shots on goal in the game.

In the SCVAL De Anza Division, visiting Gunn dropped a 1-0 decision to Mountain View. The Titans finished their season 3-8-1 in league (5-13-2 overall) and on a sevenmatch losing streak.

In the PAL Bay Division, MenloAtherton (6-6-2, 9-7-3) wrapped up its regular season with a 2-0 loss to host Woodside. The Bears suffered a crucial 4-0 loss to San Mateo on Monday, which allowed the Bearcats to finish third and earn the final automatic berth.

In girls’ soccer, Palo Alto put the finishing touches on a near-perfect season in the SCVAL El Camino Division with a 3-1 victory over visiting Cupertino on Wednesday. The Vikings got first-half goals from Heidi Moeser, Jacey Pederson and Isabelle Kelsey to finish 11-0-1 in league (13-4-2 overall) and on a 14match unbeaten streak. Paly hasn’t lost since Dec. 8.

In the SCVAL De Anza Division, Gunn most likely will switch places with Paly in the El Camino Division following a 4-0 lead to visiting Mountain View on Wednesday night. The Titans finished 2-9-1 in league (3-12-3 overall).

In the WBAL Foothill Division, Priory wrapped up second place with a 3-1 victory over two-time defending champion Menlo School on Tuesday in Portola Valley. The Panthers won their final four matches and had a six-match unbeaten streak to finish 6-2-4 in league (7-4-6 overall) while relegating Sacred Heart Prep (5-2-5) to third place.

The Knights, after clinching the division crown with four matches to play, finished up 2-1-1 and saw its (continued on next page)

NOTICE OF VACANCIES ON THE THREE PALO ALTO BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Palo Alto City Council is seeking applications for volunteers on the following Boards and Commissions: UĂŠĂŠ ÂˆĂƒĂŒÂœĂ€ÂˆVĂŠ,iĂƒÂœĂ•Ă€ViĂƒĂŠ Âœ>Ă€`ĂŠ UĂŠĂŠ Փ>Â˜ĂŠ,iÂ?>ĂŒÂˆÂœÂ˜ĂƒĂŠ ÂœÂ“Â“ÂˆĂƒĂƒÂˆÂœÂ˜ĂŠ UĂŠĂŠ ˆLĂ€>ÀÞÊ œ˜`ĂŠ"Ă›iĂ€ĂƒÂˆ}Â…ĂŒĂŠ ÂœÂ“Â“ÂˆĂŒĂŒii Â?Â?ĂŠ ÂœÂ“Â“ÂˆĂƒĂƒÂˆÂœÂ˜ĂŠ i“LiĂ€ĂƒĂŠĂƒiÀÛiĂŠĂœÂˆĂŒÂ…ÂœĂ•ĂŒĂŠÂŤ>ÞÊ>˜`ĂŠ>Ă€iĂŠ >ÂŤÂŤÂœÂˆÂ˜ĂŒi`ĂŠ LÞÊ ĂŒÂ…iĂŠ ÂˆĂŒĂžĂŠ ÂœĂ•Â˜VˆÂ?°Ê Ă?ÂŤiĂ€Âˆi˜Vi]ĂŠ `Ă•ĂŒÂˆiĂƒ]ĂŠ ĂŒÂˆÂ“iĂŠ VÂœÂ“Â“ÂˆĂŒÂ“iÂ˜ĂŒĂƒ]ĂŠ >˜`ĂŠ Ă€iĂƒÂˆ`i˜VÞÊ Ă€iÂľĂ•ÂˆĂ€i“iÂ˜ĂŒĂƒĂŠ Ă›>ÀÞÊ ÂŤiÀÊ ÂœÂ“Â“ÂˆĂƒĂƒÂˆÂœÂ˜Â°ĂŠ ÂœĂ€ĂŠ `iĂŒ>ˆÂ?i`ĂŠ ˆ˜vÂœĂ€Â“>ĂŒÂˆÂœÂ˜]ĂŠ ÂŤÂ?i>ĂƒiĂŠ Ă›ÂˆĂƒÂˆĂŒĂŠ ĂŒÂ…iĂŠ ÂˆĂŒĂžĂŠ ÂœvĂŠ *>Â?ÂœĂŠ Â?ĂŒÂœĂŠ 7iLĂƒÂˆĂŒiĂŠ >ĂŒĂŠ ĂœĂœĂœÂ° VÂˆĂŒĂžÂœvÂŤ>Â?Âœ>Â?ĂŒÂœÂ°ÂœĂ€}ÉVÂ?iÀŽ] or call the City Clerk’s OfďŹ ce >ĂŒĂŠĂˆxä‡Îә‡ÓxÇ£° ÂŤÂŤÂ?ˆV>ĂŒÂˆÂœÂ˜ĂƒĂŠ>Ă€iĂŠ`Ă•iĂŠLÞÊx\Ă¤Ă¤ĂŠÂŤÂ“ĂŠÂœÂ˜ĂŠ >Ă€VÂ…ĂŠn]ÊÓä£Î°Ê vĂŠ>Â˜ĂŠÂˆÂ˜VՓLiÂ˜ĂŒĂŠ`ÂœiĂƒĂŠÂ˜ÂœĂŒĂŠĂ€i>ÂŤÂŤÂ?Ăž]ĂŠĂŒÂ…iĂŠ`i>`Â?ˆ˜iĂŠvÂœĂ€ĂŠ ĂŒÂ…>ĂŒĂŠVÂœÂ“Â“ÂˆĂƒĂƒÂˆÂœÂ˜ĂŠĂœÂˆÂ?Â?ĂŠiĂ?ĂŒi˜`ĂŠĂŒÂœĂŠx\Ă¤Ă¤ĂŠÂŤÂ“ĂŠÂœÂ˜ĂŠ >Ă€VÂ…ĂŠ ÂŁĂŽ]ÊÓä£Î°

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Sports ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

Zoe Zwerling

Andrew Segre

Gunn High

Sacred Heart Prep

The junior guard produced 52 points, 16 rebounds and 13 steals as the Titans won three basketball games, one victory coming against division leader Lynbrook, and moved to within a half game of first place.

The junior forward scored five goals and added two assists as the Gators scored 11 goals in two must-win soccer victories while taking over sole possession of first place in the West Bay Athletic League race.

Honorable mention Alex Bourdillon Sacred Heart Prep soccer

Kelly Branson Pinewood soccer

Hashima Carothers* Eastside Prep basketball

Mariana Galvan Priory soccer

Sunny Lyu Palo Alto soccer

Sienna Stritter* Menlo soccer

Eric Cramer Gunn wrestling

Ian Cramer* Gunn wrestling

Aubrey Dawkins* Palo Alto basketball

Andrew Frick Palo Alto wrestling

Gary Hohbach Palo Alto wrestling

Bobby Roth Menlo basketball * previous winner

To see video interviews of the Athletes of the Week, go to www.PASportsOnline.com

(continued from previous page)

streak of 21 straight WBAL victories end.

Mariana Galvan scored twice and Caitlin Teoman had two assists and one goal. Galvan will miss the CCS playoffs as she’ll be training with Mexico’s Under-20 National Team.

Wrestling Gunn senior Eric Cramer (126) and sophomore Ian Cramer (132) both won their respective weight divisions, but the Titans needed a few more as they came up short in defending their title at the SCVAL Wrestling Championships on Saturday at Homestead High.

Gunn advanced a record seven wrestlers into the finals and led in the team scoring throughout most of the tournament. During the final round, however, an inspired Monta Vista team slipped past the Titans in the team scoring, 215.5 to 200.5 Meanwhile, Palo Alto finished fifth with 120.5 points.

Although not known at the time, Gunn needed to win seven of its last 13 “medal matches” to clinch the team title. Instead, the Titans won four. Frustratingly, Gunn lost two overtime and two one-point decisions in the finals.

The top five from the league meet in each weight qualify for CCS and the sixth-place finishers go as alternates.

Eric Cramer had one technical fall and one pin on the way to winning the 126-pound crown with a 12-4 major decision over Jacob Jagelski of Los Gatos. Ian Cramer had two pins while capturing the 132-pound division with an injury default over Max Dygert of Monta Vista.

Second-place finishers included Cadence Lee (overtime at 106), Daniel Papp (overtime at 120), Blaze Lee (145), Stephen Martin (9-8 at 182) and Sean Lydster (3-2 at 195).

Palo Alto had two individual champions in Gary Hohbach (152) and Andrew Frick (195). Hohbach pinned Josh Robinson of Wilcox his finale in 3:19 while Frick decisioned Gunn’s Lydster, 3-2.

Paly, which took only 10 wrestlers to the league final, had more than half drop a weight class — James Giaccia (106), Eric Oshima (138), Hohbach (152), Jordan Gans (160), Erik Anderson (170) and Frick to 195.

Alex Taussig went up a weight class to 220. All qualified to the CCS tournament along with Jordan Smith. N ÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÊ iLÀÕ>ÀÞÊ£x]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 27

Atherton Median Price 2012 year end

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