Palo Alto Weekly January 3, 2020

Vol. XLI, Number 13 Q January 3, 2020

Three plans unveiled for Ventura neighborhood Page 5

Donate to the HOLIDAY FUND page 10

Pulse 13 Eating Out 17 Movies 18 Real Estate 22 Q News Sandwich staple Village Cheese House closes Page 5 Q Living Well For grandparents, baby care has changed Page 19 Q Sports Palo Alto, Gunn open league seasons this weekend Page 26

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Page 2 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Why are Negotiation Skills so important to Sellers?

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-Steven and Sabrina “Negotiation skills were at the top of my list of criteria when interviewing realtors. Derk aced ‘the test.’”

-Deborah R. “All-around awesome -- Derk has all of the great personal qualities that you’d want in a realtor, such as intelligence, humor, and a perfect mix of pragmatism and optimism. He is also extremely generous with his time and always made us feel that we were his most important client.”

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Call Derk to leverage the Local Advantage

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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 3

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Page 4 â&#x20AC;¢ January 3, 2020 â&#x20AC;¢ Palo Alto Weekly â&#x20AC;¢ www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Upfront

Local news, information and analysis

New plans envision more housing, retail in Ventura Ambitious options come with buzz-killing caveat: Property owner indicates no interest in residential redevelopment

by Gennady Sheyner ith Fry’s Electronics closing in Palo Alto last week after three decades of supplying local techies, the city has no shortage of ideas for improving the central and

W

much-studied site in the Ventura neighborhood.

From beer gardens and makerspaces to townhomes and apartment buildings, the latest concept plans for what’s known as “Fry’s

site,” proposed by consultant Perkins & Will, aim to find something for just about everyone in the planning process to like — or gripe about.

Reflecting the desire of Ventura residents for less through-traffic, the plans include new bike paths, less street-level parking and new pedestrian-oriented corridors lined with retail. For those concerned about Palo Alto’s housing shortage, it proposes adding an

entirely new residential neighborhood south and west of the Fry’s building at 340 Portage Ave. And for those who want to see the Fry’s building — an early 20th century cannery — retained, it offers an alternative that would do exactly that and effectively build around the industrial structure.

But for all of their goals and ambitions, the plans come with a buzz-killing caveat. Because the city doesn’t own the site, it

has little control over what — if anything — can be built here.

The Fry’s property owner, The Sobrato Organization, recently indicated that it has no interest in redeveloping the site for residential use, putting a dent in the city’s plan to have more than 250 housing units.

That has not, however, kept the city from moving ahead with (continued on page 8)

RETAIL

Village Cheese House closes Town & Country Village seeks new owner for deli

by Elena Kadvany illage Cheese House, which has been serving deli sandwiches at Town & Country Village in Palo Alto since 1959, suddenly closed this week.

A public relations company announced on Monday that Village Cheese House would be closing on Dec. 31 but that Ellis Partners, which owns the 855 El Camino Real shopping center, hopes to find a new owner to “continue Village Cheese House’s heritage at Town & Country Village.”

On Monday afternoon, however, the deli was already closed, the space completely emptied out and dark. A note on the front door said it would be closed until the end of January for remodeling. Sarah MacIntyre, vice president of asset management at Ellis Partners, which owns Town & Country Village, later said the sign is inaccurate and wasn’t put up by the shopping center.

The owners of Village Cheese House, Bernard and Joni Pailma, took over the longtime business from Lindsey Hiken four years ago.

(Hiken’s family bought the deli from the original owners, Frank and Donald Staehnke, in 2007.) On Tuesday, Joni Pailma declined to answer questions about the closure.

The PR company said only that the Pailmas closed “to focus on other ventures.”

In an interview, Ellis Partners co-founder Jim Ellis said “for reasons I can’t really go into, they were unable to continue operating the store.”

The Pailmas had several years left on their lease, Ellis said.

The Pailmas opened a second

V

HOLIDAY FUND

Leveling the playing field

Fit Kids Foundation brings fitness programs and skill-building to underserved children

by Sue Dremann

here’s a video made for the nonprofit Fit Kids Foundation that warms founder Ashley Hunter’s heart.

In it, a 7-year-old girl wearing her favorite sequined cat-ears headband is running with a group of children at a playground at Costano Elementary School in East Palo Alto.

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In another shot, Brianna joins other kids in doing frog jumps, jumping jacks, push-ups and squats. When her mother comes to pick her up from the Fit Kids after-school fitness program Brianna proudly demonstrates her jumping jacks.

Brianna’s enthusiasm is the kind of response Hunter hoped

for when she started Fit Kids in 2011. A Menlo Park resident, Hunter saw that children in east Menlo Park and East Palo Alto schools did not have equal access to strong fitness programs, safe playgrounds or after-school sports teams.

So she founded Fit Kids Foundation to help children ages 4-13 who may otherwise be “couch

potatoes” become energetic, confident, outdoors-loving enthusiasts. Through exercise and outdoor games, the program builds kids’ fitness, motor skills and social and emotional development.

This year, Fit Kids received a $5,000 grant from the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund so that it could achieve its goals.

Despite Brianna’s family’s hectic schedule — her parents work separate shifts — they make time for Fit Kids. Brianna’s mother takes her to the after-school program Mondays through Wednesdays.

“She tells me she loves it when (continued on page 11)

Gino De Grandis/courtesy Fit Kids Foundation

Warm-up activities at Fit Kids, which received a Holiday Fund grant, gets children ready for an hour of fun, physical activity.

(continued on page 7)

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 5

Upfront 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 326-8210

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

PUBLISHER William S. Johnson (223-6505) EDITORIAL

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Editor Jocelyn Dong (223-6514) Associate Editor Linda Taaffe (223-6511) Sports Editor Rick Eymer (223-6516) Arts & Entertainment Editor Karla Kane (223-6517) Home & Real Estate Editor Heather Zimmerman (223-6515) Assistant Sports Editor Glenn Reeves (223-6521) Express & Digital Editor Jamey Padojino (223-6524) Staff Writers Sue Dremann (223-6518), Elena Kadvany (223-6519), Gennady Sheyner (223-6513) Chief Visual Journalist Magali Gauthier (223-6530) Staff Visual Journalist Sammy Dallal (223-6520) Editorial Assistant/Intern Coordinator Lloyd Lee (223-6526)

The DeLeon DifferenceÂŽ 650.543.8500 www.deleonrealty.com

Editorial Intern Jonathan Guillen

We are aware that there will be a more robust conversation about density. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Gail Price, former Palo Alto city councilwoman, on developing the Fryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s site. See story on page 5.

Around Town

Contributors Chrissi Angeles, Mike Berry, Carol Blitzer, Peter Canavese, Edward Gerard Fike, Yoshi Kato, Chris Kenrick, Jack McKinnon, Sheryl Nonnenberg, John Orr, Monica Schreiber, Jay Thorwaldson ADVERTISING Vice President Sales & Marketing Tom Zahiralis (223-6570)

650.543.8500 | www.deleonrealty.com | DeLeon Realty CalBRE #01903224

Multimedia Advertising Sales Tiffany Birch (223-6573), Elaine Clark (223-6572), Connie Jo Cotton (223-6571) Lloyd Lee

Real Estate Advertising Sales Neal Fine (223-6583), Rosemary Lewkowitz (223-6585) Legal Advertising Alicia Santillan (223-6578) ADVERTISING SERVICES Advertising Services Manager Kevin Legarda (223-6597)

Notice is hereby Given that proposals will be received by the Palo Alto <UPĂ&#x201E;LK :JOVVS +PZ[YPJ[ MVY IPK WHJRHNL! Contract No. RFQW-20 Description of the Work: ;OL ^VYR PUJS\KLZ I\[ PZ UV[ SPTP[LK [V! H JVTWYLOLUZP]L YLMYLZO VM [OL ^PYLK L[OLYUL[ UL[^VYR [V HKKYLZZ [OL L_PZ[PUN HUK NYV^PUN ULLKZ VM OPNO ZWLLK OPNO KLUZP[` JVUULJ[P]P[` MVY KL]PJLZ \ZLK I` Z[HÉ&#x2C6; HUK Z[\KLU[Z ;OL WYVWVZLK YLZWVUZL [V [OPZ 9-7 ZOV\SK WYV]PKL H YVI\Z[ ZJHSHISL HUK LHZPS` THUHNLK ZVS\[PVU [OH[ ^PSS TLL[ [OL ULLKZ VM [OL +PZ[YPJ[ÂťZ Z[HÉ&#x2C6; HUK Z[\KLU[Z MVY H[ SLHZ[ [OL UL_[ Ă&#x201E;]L `LHYZ ;OLYL ^PSS IL H THUKH[VY` WYL IPK JVUMLYLUJL H[ ! W T VU 1HU\HY` H[ [OL +PZ[YPJ[ 6É&#x2030;JLZ *O\YJOPSS (]LU\L 7HSV (S[V *HSPMVYUPH Bid Submission 7YVWVZHSZ T\Z[ IL Z\ITP[[LK LSLJ[YVUPJHSS` VY YLJLP]LK PU WLYZVU H[ [OL +PZ[YPJ[ 0; 6É&#x2030;JL I` ! W T VU -LIY\HY` PREVAILING WAGE LAWS: ;OL Z\JJLZZM\S )PKKLY T\Z[ JVTWS` ^P[O HSS WYL]HPSPUN ^HNL SH^Z HWWSPJHISL [V [OL 7YVQLJ[ HUK YLSH[LK YLX\PYLTLU[Z JVU[HPULK PU [OL *VU[YHJ[ +VJ\TLU[Z 7HSV (S[V <UPĂ&#x201E;LK :JOVVS +PZ[YPJ[ ^PSS THPU[HPU H 3HIVY *VTWSPHUJL 7YVNYHT 3*7 MVY [OL K\YH[PVU VM [OPZ WYVQLJ[ 0U IPKKPUN [OPZ WYVQLJ[ [OL JVU[YHJ[VY ^HYYHU[Z OL ZOL PZ H^HYL HUK ^PSS MVSSV^ [OL 7\ISPJ >VYRZ *OHW[LY VM [OL *HSPMVYUPH 3HIVY *VKL JVTWYPZLK VM SHIVY JVKL ZLJ[PVUZ Âś ( JVW` VM [OL +PZ[YPJ[Z 3*7 PZ H]HPSHISL MVY YL]PL^ H[ *O\YJOPSS (]LU\L )\PSKPUN + 7HSV (S[V *( ( WYL QVI JVUMLYLUJL ZOHSS IL JVUK\J[LK ^P[O [OL JVU[YHJ[VY VY Z\IJVU[YHJ[VYZ [V KPZJ\ZZ MLKLYHS HUK Z[H[L SHIVY SH^ YLX\PYLTLU[Z HWWSPJHISL [V [OL JVU[YHJ[ 7YVQLJ[ JVU[YHJ[VYZ HUK Z\IJVU[YHJ[Z ZOHSS THPU[HPU HUK M\YUPZO [V [OL +PZ[YPJ[ H[ H KLZPNUH[LK [PTL H JLY[PĂ&#x201E;LK JVW` VM LHJO WH`YVSS ^P[O H Z[H[LTLU[ VM JVTWSPHUJL ZPNULK \UKLY WLUHS[` VM WLYQ\Y` ;OL +PZ[YPJ[ ZOHSS YL]PL^ HUK PM HWWYVWYPH[L H\KP[ WH`YVSS YLJVYKZ [V ]LYPM` JVTWSPHUJL ^P[O [OL 7\ISPJ >VYRZ *OHW[LY VM [OL 3HIVY *VKL ;OL +PZ[YPJ[ ZOHSS ^P[OOVSK JVU[YHJ[ WH`TLU[Z PM WH`YVSS YLJVYKZ HYL KLSPUX\LU[ VY PUHKLX\H[L ;OL +PZ[YPJ[ ZOHSS ^P[OOVSK JVU[YHJ[ WH`TLU[Z HZ KLZJYPILK PU [OL 3*7 PUJS\KPUN HWWSPJHISL WLUHS[PLZ ^OLU [OL +PZ[YPJ[ HUK 3HIVY *VTTPZZPVULY LZ[HISPZO [OH[ \UKLYWH`TLU[ VM V[OLY ]PVSH[PVUZ OHZ VJJ\YYLK )PKKLYZ TH` L_HTPUL )PKKPUN +VJ\TLU[Z VUSPUL H[ O[[WZ! NV WH\ZK VYN UL[^VYR

Sales & Production Coordinators Diane Martin (223-6584), Nico Navarrete (223-6582) DESIGN Design & Production Manager Kristin Brown (223-6562) Senior Designers Linda Atilano, Paul Llewellyn Designers Kevin Legnon, Amy Levine, Doug Young BUSINESS Business Associates Jennifer Lindberg (223-6542), Suzanne Ogawa (223-6541), Rushil Shah (223-6575), Giang Vo (223-6543) ADMINISTRATION Courier Ruben Espinoza EMBARCADERO MEDIA President William S. Johnson (223-6505) Vice President Michael I. Naar (223-6540) Vice President & CFO Peter Beller (223-6545) Vice President Sales & Marketing Tom Zahiralis (223-6570) Director, Information Technology & Webmaster Frank A. Bravo (223-6551) Director of Marketing and Audience Development Emily Freeman (223-6560) Major Accounts Sales Manager Connie Jo Cotton (223-6571) Circulation Assistant Alicia Santillan Computer System Associates Chris Planessi, Mike Schmidt 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 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. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Palo Alto Weekly, 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306. Š2020 by Embarcadero Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. The Palo Alto Weekly is available on the Internet via Palo Alto Online at: www.PaloAltoOnline.com Our email addresses are: editor@paweekly.com, letters@paweekly.com, digitalads@paweekly.com, ads@paweekly.com Missed delivery or start/stop your paper?

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(SS X\LZ[PVUZ JHU IL HKKYLZZLK [V! 7HSV (S[V <UPĂ&#x201E;LK :JOVVS +PZ[YPJ[ ;LJOUVSVN` :LY]PJLZ *O\YJOPSS (]LU\L 7HSV (S[V *( ([[U! +LYLR 4VVYL ,THPS! KTVVYL'WH\ZK VYN

Page 6 â&#x20AC;˘ January 3, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Palo Alto Weekly â&#x20AC;˘ www.PaloAltoOnline.com

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PARKING GONE WRONG ... All Joshua Barba heard was a loud thump before he noticed a car catch some air and roll over to its side, making the parking lot of the Stanford Shopping Center look like a film set with a stunt gone wrong. â&#x20AC;&#x153;(The driver) might have pressed on the gas on accident and just flew up,â&#x20AC;? said Barba, a server at California Pizza Kitchen, who saw the action play out near the American Girl store on Monday around 2:30 p.m. Barba and other shoppers watched from the sidelines as firefighters and police swept the lot by the restaurant. A gray Jeep was overturned on its right side with its windows shattered near scattered remnants of a few damaged vehicles. According to Palo Alto fire Battalion Chief Shane Yarbrough, the Jeep driver was picking up his wife from the shopping center and, in an attempt to park his car, made a peculiar maneuver into a â&#x20AC;&#x153;no parkingâ&#x20AC;? space that caused him to hit two cars â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a white Honda Civic and a crossovertype vehicle â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the side of a planter before his car landed on its side. Yarbrough was perplexed by where the driver tried to park or go and how the car landed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would have to see it to understand what actually happened,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Using a glass cutter, firefighters broke through the Jeepâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s windshield to rescue the driver.

Though the man did not sustain any injuries, he was given medical attention. No pedestrians or other drivers were hurt during the crash.

The crossover-type vehicle was quickly hauled away before a reporter from the Weekly arrived on the scene. Only the right side of the Honda was severely damaged. Firefighters quickly applied a stabilization tool on the Jeep to ensure it stayed still until a tow truck arrived to put it back into an upright position.

COMING IN HOT ... A driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quest to find gasoline after his car ran empty during Mondayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s morning commute on Interstate Highway 280 ended up in the center of a major police response that turned plenty of heads along Page Mill Road. According to the Santa Clara County Sheriffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office, after the driver ran out of gas on the freeway near the Page Mill exit, he headed on foot to the nearest residential neighborhood to find help. Not long after, a man answered the driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s knock on his front door and offered to help out the stranded driver, who waited out front while the man went to fill a gas can. In the meantime, the manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife spotted the driver loitering outside and called police at around 8:30 a.m. to report a possible burglar.

About 13 sheriffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cars quickly arrived to the scene at Old Page Mill Road before deputies discovered that the man was, in fact, not a burglar. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was just a big misunderstanding,â&#x20AC;? said Sgt. Michael Low, explaining that the sheriffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office â&#x20AC;&#x153;came in kind of hotâ&#x20AC;? with such a massive response because they thought they were facing an active situation.

UNLEASHING THE POWER ...

Could a local karate school hold the world record for most kicks thrown by a group of people in a week? Silicon Valley Shotokan Karate, which offer karate classes at Palo Altoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cubberley Community Center, flirted with the idea in a report on its weeklong kick-a-thon. The organization recorded 114,520 kicks and 25,260 punches from Dec. 13-19. While those swings add up to 140,780 repetitions, it could very well surpass 142,000 based on some students who performed 1,000 kicks outside of the dojoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regular classes and others who threw kicks at home. Sensei Jon Keeling held the record for most kicks in the group with a total 13,320 repetitions during the weeklong event. On the final day, he executed 3,860 kicks and 2,020 punches. The marathon was held to raise money for Challenge Day, a program that aims to strengthen social relationships, build cross cultural connections and reduce conflict and bullying. Q

Upfront TRANSPORTATION

Rep. Jackie Speier looks to lower airplane noise with 5 bills

Congresswoman proposes legislation to allow airports to impose curfews, include noise-related health impacts in evaluation criteria for new flights

by Gennady Sheyner and Bay City News Service esponding to growing concerns about airplane noise, U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier has proposed a series of bills that would allow airports to restrict flight times, require the Federal Aviation Administration to give greater importance to noise impacts when developing flight routes and procedures, and allow local communities to have a significant say in developing flight plans.

The bills, which are co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jimmy Panetta, were introduced last month to address the spikes in complaints about airplane noise throughout the region. The problem became acute in 2014, when the FAA rolled out its NextGen program, which created new routes and concentrated many flights into what some have referred to as aerial “super highways.” Residents who live under those paths and waypoints, including those in Palo Alto, Woodside and Portola Valley, have since reported a significant rise in airplane noise.

“The nonstop noise from flights is seriously affecting residents’ sleep, mental health, and overall quality of life,” Speier said in a statement. “There is a certain expectation for noise when living near an airport, but this crosses a line. Residents who are at their wits’ end have used every available public channel to address this issue to no avail. Our legislation would create new pathways for change

and improve overalls responsiveness by the FAA — a public agency that has a responsibility to be accountable to the people.”

One of the new bills, known as the Restore Everyone’s Sleep Tonight Act, would allow airports to impose restrictions for certain hours and to assess penalties against air carriers that fail to meet the curfew. Another, called the Fairness in Airspace Includes Residents Act, would continue to prioritize safety of the aircraft but also establish two co-equal secondary priorities: the efficient use of airspace, and “the minimization of the impact of aviation noise, and other health impacts, on residents and communities, and other impacts of the use of airspace on the environment.”

Three other bills aim to make it easier for legislators and residents to get information from the FAA and to provide feedback on new policies. The All Participating in Process Reaching Informed Solutions for Everyone Act directs the FAA administrator to ensure that aviation roundtables be allowed to appoint a representative to working groups involved in NextGen. These representatives, according to the bill, would be able to participate “on the same terms and conditions as a representative of the industry, an airport or a participating proponent of a procedure.”

The Responsive Employees Support Productive Educated Congressional Talk Act would require FAA staff to respond to members

of Congress regarding flight procedures affecting their district within 90 days. The Notified Officials to Inform Fully Impel Educated Decisions Act would require the FAA to notify local governments about new or modified flight paths.

While the issue of airplane noise has been on Palo Alto’s radar for years, the city is one of several in the region that have struggled to make headway with the FAA on the topic. In June, the council considered suing the FAA over its flight plans. But despite pleas from dozens of residents, some of whom argued that the city has become a “trash heap” and a “dumping ground” for FAA’s noise pollution, the council ultimately opted not to move ahead with the lawsuit.

Instead, much like in April 2018, when it had similarly considered litigation, the council agreed to pursue regional partnerships on the issue and to continue its lobbying efforts.

Palo Alto is one of a dozen cities that are participating in the Santa Clara/Santa Cruz Community Roundtable, an organization that aims to foster “collaboration and resolution” on aircraft noise. Other cities involved in the roundtable, which is open to any city in the two counties, are Capitola, Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Monte Sereno, Mountain View, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Saratoga and Sunnyvale. Q Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.

Cheese House

imported cheeses and generously sized sandwiches, such as the “Double Decker” (a half pound of smoked ham and roasted turkey on three slices of sourdough bread).

Village Cheese House appears to have been the oldest food business at Town & Country Village, which has changed vastly over the last 60 years, with restaurants such as Stickney’s, Hobee’s and the Cook Book giving way to the likes of Gott’s Roadside, Boba Guys and Telefèric Barcelona.

Town & Country Village is now looking — and has been for a little while, Ellis said — for a new operator to take over the deli.

“For lack of a better word, we’re licking our wounds and focusing on trying to find a new operator to come in and operate the Cheese House because we feel that it’s a very important institution, if you will, for Palo Alto, especially among Paly and Stanford students,” he said. “We want to find someone who can take this business for the next decade.”

Anyone interested in ownership can contact Town & Country at tandcvillage.com/contact-us. Q Staff Writer Elena Kadvany can be emailed at ekadvany@ paweekly.com. For more foodrelated news, subscribe to Kadvany’s “Peninsula Foodist” e-newsletter at paloaltoonline. com/express

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(continued from page 5)

Village Cheese House in San Jose in February, telling the San Jose Mercury News that they planned to franchise the deli. That location appears to have closed as well.

Village Cheese House has long drawn a loyal following — particularly Palo Alto High School and Stanford University students — for its housemade spread,

SEE MORE ONLINE

Elena Kadvany

Village Cheese House in Town & Country Village has been a favorite place for Palo Alto residents, including Palo Alto High School students, to get sandwiches for 60 years. But it closed in late December, and the shopping center owner says it’s looking for someone new to buy and operate the eatery.

PaloAltoOnline.com

View the city’s most notable openings and closings of 2019 on an interactive map at bit.ly/2tfbIPD.

News Digest The era of Fry’s Electronics comes to an end

After close to 30 years of operation, Fry’s Electronics officially shut down its Palo Alto store on Friday, Dec. 27, leaving a gaping vacancy in one of the city’s most hotly debated neighborhoods.

The closure of the electronics store at 340 Portage Ave., has been widely expected since late August, when Fry’s declared its plan to cease operations before its lease for the former cannery building expired on Jan. 31. The complex — which is often referred to as the “Fry’s site” — is part of a 60-acre area that the city is eyeing for redevelopment.

On Friday, the Fry’s store had a notice on its doors advising patrons of the closure.

Fry’s also has locations in Campbell, Concord, Fremont, Sunnyvale and San Jose.

The property has been the subject of much debate even before Fry’s had announced its plans to shut down. For years, Palo Alto officials have viewed the site as one of the most promising areas for new housing.

In recent months, however, the city has lowered its expectations.

The property owner, The Sobrato Organization, indicated that it has no plans to redevelop the old cannery building. Q —Gennady Sheyner

Vandal sprays graffiti at Palo Alto church

The peace and goodwill of the Christmas season at University AME Zion Church in Palo Alto was disturbed early morning on Saturday, Dec. 28, when a man spray-painted angry messages at the area’s oldest African American church.

The Palo Alto Police Department received a call around 8:20 a.m. from the Middlefield Road parish, according to a department spokesperson. Both the men’s and women’s restroom doors inside the main church breezeway had been defaced, as had a wall facing the restrooms. The outdoor breezeway is just inside the front doors to the church campus.

“F--- God,” “Why Jesus why” and a not-quite legible scrawling that could be “God causes pain” were sprayed in blue paint.

The Rev. Kaloma Smith said the incident has “shattered our sense of security and comfort.”

University AME Zion is one of six churches located along a twoblock stretch of Middlefield, between East Meadow Drive and Ames Avenue. Smith called the pastors of the other churches, but none of their facilities had been marked with graffiti, he said. The police confirmed that no other churches were hit that night, nor in several days prior.

Police said the suspect was described by a witness as a white man, 35-45 years old, 5 feet 11 inches and with blondish short hair. Without additional information, however, police are not continuing an investigation, the department spokesman said. Q —Jocelyn Dong and Lloyd Lee

Rinconada sees more swimmers, fewer lessons Despite an increase in usage under new leadership, Palo Alto’s Rinconada Pool has seen a dip in the number of people taking swim lessons.

The trends were highlighted at a Dec. 10 meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission, where members discussed the city’s agreement with Team Sheeper, which operates as Palo Alto Swim and Sport, to expand access for swimmers at Rinconada Pool. According to the latest data, the pool has shown growth in terms of the number of pool visits, lap and open swim programs and swim camps between 2018 and 2019.

The agreement, which the City Council approved in 2017, shifted the responsibility of running classes from the city to Team Sheeper.

It called for increasing the number of classes and expanding pool access to the greater community.

In the Palo Alto Swim and Sport annual report, data shows an increase in year-over-year lap swim hours from 50.5 weekly hours to 72.75 weekly hours during the non-summer season and from 71 to 75 hours during the summer season, without any decrease in hours for other programming.

About 28% more people have used the lap swim program than last year. For the open swim program, there was a 35% increase year-over-year.

Swim school lessons, however, have dropped by about 10% and the program served fewer students in 2019 than 2018. Tim Sheeper, CEO of Team Sheeper, said during the commission meeting that many former swim lesson students have opted to enroll in swim camps instead of stand-alone swim lessons in the past year.

But data shows that swim camps increased by 349 and the swim school program lost more than 1,000 swimmers.

“Another possible reason is our satisfaction ratings were a lot lower than we would have liked to see,” Sheeper said. Q —Jonathan Guillen

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 7

Upfront

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In the Ventura alternative, the semi-developed “flex space” of the former cannery building could be converted to host

Page 8 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Above: Perkins & Will, a consultant hired by the city of Palo Alto to assist in developing the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan, released in December three alternatives based on the input of the neighborhood’s Working Group. The “Leading with Legacy” option preserves the former cannery building to convey a sense of place. The “Adaptive Core” plan preserves part of the cannery building while turning the rest of it into dynamic and flexible social spaces. The “Designed Diversity” alternative emphasizes mixed-use and diverse community spaces.

Below: The North Ventura Working Group expressed a desire to eliminate cut-through car traffic from El Camino Real to Park Boulevard as well as for roads to be more conducive to walking and bike riding. The consultant Perkins & Will has offered this as one streetscape concept.

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Under the first of the three alternatives, the 1918 building would be retained in its entirety and complemented with new developments for retail and housing. Known as the “Leading with Legacy” alternative, it calls for concentrating most of the new housing south and west of the preserved Fry’s building, near the corner of El Camino Real and Lambert Avenue. The developments would effectively create a new neighborhood that would be bisected by Portage Avenue.

The street grid in this scenario would be modified to prevent cut-through traffic on Portage Avenue between El Camino and Park Boulevard and to keep car traffic at the edge of the neighborhood. New retail would front both sides of Portage from El Camino almost to Ash Street.

The second alternative, called “Adaptive Core,” aims to strike a middle path by preserving a portion of the former cannery and disassembling other parts of it. As an example, consultants pointed to Drake’s Dealership in Oakland, where a roof was removed from an old auto dealership to create a beer garden, and The Barlow in Sebastopol, an outdoor marketplace at a former

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‘I was hoping to have more definitive data at this point and more realistic data on some of the city laws and state laws that we are contemplating violating when we talk about this.’

—Doria Summa, Planning and Transportation Commission member

ALTERNATIVE 2

Leading with Legacy

Maps and rendering courtesy Perkins & Will

what’s known as the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan, a vision document that a Working Group of city leaders and neighborhood stakeholders has been working on since fall 2018. That effort hit a milestone last month, when Perkins & Will released three alternatives for the 60-acre planning area, which is roughly bounded by Page Mill Road, Lambert Avenue, El Camino Real and the Caltrain tracks.

The alternatives, which were presented to the Working Group on Dec. 5, recognize the various wild cards surrounding the Ventura planning process, including an utter lack of consensus about what should be done with the Fry’s building. The plans each address the five major issues that the consulting group said concerned community members: district character, traffic circulation, housing types, open space and ground-floor uses and programming.

ALTERNATIVE 1

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outdoor movies, a play space or a farmers market, consultants said.

Much like in the first alternative, the site would limit automobile access, with limited car

Planting Sidewalk and furniture zone

Setback

entry from the Park Boulevard side and no cut-through car route on Portage to Park Boulevard. Cars coming in from El Camino would be limited to a

horseshoe-shaped route on Portage and Acacia avenues and an exit onto Ash. The third and most ambitious of the options would do away with the Fry’s building entirely and create what the consultants call a “robust mixed-use and diverse community.” The plan would maximize housing and propose housing sites beyond those identified in the city’s Comprehensive Plan, its guiding land-use document. Known as “Designed Diversity,” the third alternative calls the most streetlevel uses, including “neighborhood-serving retail, community use, small office, creative lab and maker space.”

The third alternative also calls for adding office space as well as additional residential projects on (continued on page 12)

Wishing You and Your Family a Happy and Healthy 2020 Expressing my gratitude for my 2019 transactions* 2053 PRINCETON STREET

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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 9

Support our Kids with a gift to the Holiday Fund Last Year’s Grant Recipients 49ers Academy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Able Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Ada’s Café . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Adolescent Counseling Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 Aim High for High School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 All Students Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15,000 Art in Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Art of Yoga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Bayshore Christian Ministries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Big Brothers Big Sisters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Buena Vista Homework Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000 CASSY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000 Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. . . . . . . . $10,000 Downtown Streets Team. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 DreamCatchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20,000 East Palo Alto Academy Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 East Palo Alto Charter School (EPACS). . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 East Palo Alto Kids Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000 East Palo Alto Tennis & Tutoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000 Environmental Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Family Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Fit Kids Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Foundation for a College Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 Friends of Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Get Involved Palo Alto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Hidden Villa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Jasper Ridge Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Kara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 KIPP Valiant Community Prep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,000 La Comida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 Live in Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 Marine Science Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Music in the Schools Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 New Creation Home Ministries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 New Voices for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,000 Palo Alto Art Center Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Palo Alto Housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Palo Alto Music Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Peninsula HealthCare Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 Peninsula Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Project WeHOPE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15,000 Ravenswood Education Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 Rebuilding Together Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Silicon Valley Urban Debate League . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 St. Elizabeth Seton School. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000 St. Francis of Assisi Youth Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 TheatreWorks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 YMCA East Palo Alto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000 YMCA Ross Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Youth Community Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20,000 Youth Speaks Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12,000

Child Care Facility Improvement Grants Friends of Preschool Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Grace Lutheran Preschool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 The Learning Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Palo Alto Community Child Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000 Palo Alto Friends Nursery School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Parents Nursery School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000

E

ach year the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund raises money to support programs serving families and children in the Palo Alto area.

Since the Weekly and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation cover all the administrative costs, every dollar raised goes directly to support community programs through grants to non-profit organizations.

And with the generous support of matching grants from local foundations, including the Packard, Hewlett, Peery and Arrillaga foundations, your taxdeductible gift will be doubled in size.

A donation of $100 turns into $200 with the foundation matching gifts.

Whether as an individual, a business or in honor of someone else, help us reach our goal of $400,000 by making a generous contribution to the Holiday Fund.

With your generosity, we can give a major boost to the programs in our community helping kids and families.

Give to the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund and your donation is doubled. You give to non-profit groups that work right here in our community. It’s a great way to ensure that your charitable donations are working at home.

As of December 31, 336 donors have contributed $311,889 to the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund.

21 Anonymous.................................$124,920

New Donors Lodato Family .................................................... 500 Dennis & Cindy Dillon.............................................* Helene Pier..............................................................* Good Bear Charitable Fund............................. 5000 Bjorn & Michele Liencres ................................. 1000 Kathryn & A.C. Johnston................................... 100 Florence Barr ...................................................... 250 John Wilkes ....................................................... 600 Chris Saccheri .........................................................* Daniel Chapiro................................................... 400 Laurie Hunter & Jonathan MacQuitty.............. 2500 Jean & Dexter Dawes......................................... 250 Susan Osofsky ................................................... 200 Fruchterman Family ........................................... 250 Bob Aulgur ...................................................... 1000 Joyce & Gerry Barker ......................................... 200 Jacqueline Rush ................................................. 100 Jack & Martha McLaughlin................................ 200

Monica Engel Williams ...................................... 200 Fran Codispoti ................................................... 250 Delle Maxwell .................................................. 2500 Margaret & Curt Weil ........................................ 100 Paul Duffie & Elizabeth Schwerer ...................... 100 John & Lynn Wiese ............................................ 200 Diane & Bob Simoni .......................................... 200 Gavin & Tricia Christensen ......................................* Marvin & Kate Feinstein..................................... 200 Irvin & Marilyn Yalom......................................... 100 Steve & Gayle Brugler ...................................... 1000 John Tang .......................................................... 200 Joan Norton ............................................................* David & Betsy Fryberger..................................... 100 Lawrence Yang & Jennifer Kuan...................... 1000 Barry Goldblatt .................................................. 200 Larry Klein ........................................................ 1000 Mike & Jean Couch ........................................... 250 Veronica Tincher .....................................................* David Fischer & Susan Bartalo ........................... 200 Kenneth Bencala & Sally O’Neil ......................... 200 Shapiro Family ........................................................*

Enclosed is a donation of $_______________ Name__________________________________________________________ Business Name __________________________________________________ Address ________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip ___________________________________________________ Email__________________________________________________

Credit Card (MC, VISA, or AMEX)

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

__________________________________________Expires _______/_______

T I wish to contribute anonymously.

Phone _________________________________________________________

T Please withhold the amount of my contribution.

Signature ______________________________________________________ I wish to designate my contribution as follows: (select one)

Send coupon and check, if applicable, to:

T In my name as shown above T In the name of business above OR:

T In honor of:

T In memory of:

T As a gift for:

_____________________________________________________________ (Name of person)

Non-profits: Grant application & guidelines at www.PaloAltoOnline.com/holiday_fund Application deadline: January 10, 2020

Page 10 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Please make checks payable to: Silicon Valley Community Foundation

01 – Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund c/o Silicon Valley Community Foundation P.O. Box 45389 San Francisco, CA 94145 The Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund is a donor advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization.

A contribution to this fund allows your donation to be tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

David & Karen Backer ............................500 David Labaree ........................................200 Leannah Hunt ........................................250 Pat & Penny Barrett................................150 Jean Doble .................................................* Annette Isaacson ...................................100 Linda Selden ..........................................480 Sandy Napel...........................................103 Deborah Williams & Jean Luc Laminette .........................................1000 Merele McClure .....................................200 Carolyn Williams ....................................200 Barbara Kinsey .......................................500 Alice Evarts.............................................500 Neilson Buchanan..................................250 Sherry Brown .............................................*

In Memory Of Maria Januario .........................................40 Al & Mae Kenrick ..................................200 Maureen & Jim Missett..............................* Kathie Underdal.........................................* Loving parents Albert & Bevery Pellizzari ...* Our beloved son Samuel Benjamin Kurland...................................................* Jane Holland ..............................................* Harvey Schloss .......................................100 Mary Floyd .................................................* Tinney Family .........................................250 Carol Berkowitz .........................................* Bob Markevitch .........................................*

In Honor Of Franklin & Edith Cooper ........................100 Lucy Berman’s Clients .........................2,500 Betty Gerard ..........................................100

Businesses & Organizations Silicon Valley Wealth Advisors ...............300 deLemos Properties ...............................500

Previously Published

Donate online at siliconvalleycf.org/ paw-holiday-fund

Peter Beller.............................................250 Yang Chu...............................................250 Dennis Clark ............................................ 75 David Thom ...........................................200 Shirley Reiter ..........................................300 Scott & Jan Kliner ..................................500 Leo & Marlys Keoshian ..........................100 Peter Kidder & Lynn Johnson.................200 Chris Logan ...........................................100 Joanne Koltnow ....................................200 Tom & Patricia Sanders .............................. * John Tang & Jean Hsia ............................... * Eugene & Mabel Dong ..........................200 John & Mary Schaefer ...........................100 Sheryl & Tony Klein .................................... * Karen & Steve Ross .................................... * Kaaren & John Antoun .......................1,500 Dr. & Mrs. Frederic J. Kahn ....................250 Andy & Eva Dobrov ................................. 50 Linda & Steve Boxer ................................... * Jerry & Bobbie Wagger .............................. * Brigid Barton & Rob Robinson ...............200 Ralph R. Wheeler ...................................300 Stephen Levy .........................................500 Bonnie Berg ............................................... * Marion Lewenstein ................................500 Carol Jorgenson.....................................300 Christina Kenrick ................................1,000 Mary Lemmon ..................................15,000 Weil Family .........................................1,000 Hal & Carol Louchheim.............................. * Charles S. & Anne Williams ...................150 Ted & Ginny Chu ....................................... * Ann & Don Rothblatt.............................500 Martha Shirk .......................................1,000 Jody Maxmin ............................................. * Adele & Donald Langendorf..................200 Gwen Barry................................................ * Diane Moore.............................................. * Richard Johnsson ................................5,000 Phil Fernandez & Daniel Sternbergh .......... * Albert Russell .........................................250 Catherine Crystal Foster ........................500 Andrea Smith.........................................100 John Pavkovich ......................................400 Thomas Rindfleisch.................................... * Ellmann Family.......................................100 Jan Thomson & Roy Levin......................250 Mike & Cathie Foster ..........................1,000 Chuck & Jean Thompson ......................100 Amado Padilla .......................................250 Donald & Diethild Price..........................100 Luca & Mary Cafiero.................................. * Don & Bonnie Miller ..............................100 Patti Yanklowitz & Mark Krasnow ............. * Robert & Barbara Simpson ........................ * Barbara & Charles Stevens......................... * Nancy & David Kalkbrenner....................... * Marcia & Michael Katz ..........................200 Stewart & Carol-Anne Hansen ..............100 Merrill & Lee Newman...........................250 Rich & Pat Douglas ................................100 Aryela Zulman .......................................100 Nancy Wong & Robert Lipshutz ............200 Kate Godfrey & Rob Colley........................ * Guy & Janet DiJulio.................................... * Ellen Lillington........................................400 Mahlon & Carol Hubenthal ...................250 Nina & Norman Kulgein ........................250 Harry & Susan Hartzell ............................. 50 Marc Igler & Jennifer Cray .....................100 James W. & Nancy E. Baer .....................200 Ron & Melanie Wilensky .......................300 Tom & Darlene McCalmont...................500 Cynthia Costell ......................................100 Elizabeth Bechtel ...................................100 Bonnie Packer & Robert Raymakers ......100 Michael Patrick ......................................200 Sandy Liu ...............................................100 Dena Goldberg ......................................500 Romola Georgia ........................................ * Roger Warnke .......................................300 Rick & Eileen Brooks ..............................500 James Taylor & Meri Gruber ..................100 Wendy Max ............................................. 50 David & Virginia Pollard .........................150 Beth & Peter Rosenthal..........................300 Constance Crawford .............................125 Linda & Jerry Elkind................................250 Diane Finklestein....................................200 Eric Keller & Janice Bohman ..................500 Tom & Nancy Fiene ................................100 Kay & Don Remsen.................................... * Werner Graf .............................................. * Sallie & Jay Whaley .................................... *

Scott Pearson .........................................500 Marilyn, Dale, Rick & Mei Simbeck ............ * Mandy Lowell ............................................ * Robyn H Crumly ........................................ * John & Kristine Erving ................................ * Barbara Klein ............................................. * Elizabeth Lillard-Bernal............................... * Virginia Laibl ..........................................100 Hoda Epstein ............................................. * Victor Befera ..........................................100 Elizabeth Kok ............................................. * Rosalie Shepherd ...................................100 John Keller .............................................200 Anne & Don Vermeil.................................. * Steve & Diane Ciesinski .........................500 Bruce & Jane Gee ..................................250 Kenyon Family .......................................500 Jocelyn Dong ............................................. * Deborah Mytels .....................................100 Eilenn Brennan........................................... * Marian Scheuer .....................................100 Ruchita Parat..........................................100 Susan Light ............................................100 Ellen Krasnow ............................................ * Dennis & Cindy Dillon............................300 Graceann Johnson.................................100 Diane & Branimir Sikic ............................... * James Lobdell ........................................250 Eric Filseth ..............................................350 Deborah Wexler.....................................500 Erika Buck ..............................................100 Ted & Becky Baer ...................................200 Arthur Keller ..........................................100 Omar & Michelle Baldonado ..................... *

In Memory Of Kathy Morris.......................................... * Ray Bacchetti .....................................250 Phillip Zschokke ...................................50 Robert Spinrad ...................................... * Alissa Riper Picker ..............................250 Duncan Matteson ..............................500 Nate Rosenberg .................................200 Don & Marie Snow ............................100 Bob Kirkwood ....................................... * Leonard Ely ........................................500 Ruth & Chet Johnson ............................ * Nancy & Bob Lobdell ............................. * Pam Grady ........................................350 Barbara E. Schwartz............................... * Ryan Kamita .......................................... * Boyd Paulson ......................................... * Thomas W. & Louise L. Phinney ............. * Leo & Sylvia Breidenbach ....................... * Bob Donald ........................................... * Fr. John Fitzpatrick C.S.Sp. ..................... * David W. Mitchell ..............................400 Ted Linden .........................................200 Lee Domenik ......................................... * Alan & Tracy .......................................... * Er-Ying & Yen-Chen Yen ....................250 Betty Meltzer .......................................25 Mary Alyce Pearson ............................... * Kathy Riskin Graham ............................. * Jack Sutorius......................................500 Dr. Elliot W. Eisner .............................200 August L. King....................................... * Brett Remmel & Mark Remmel ..........100 Emmett Lorey ........................................ * Phebe Bush ........................................... * Bertha Kalson ........................................ * Aaron O’Neill ......................................... * Ludwig Tannenwald .............................. * Bill Land................................................. * Jim & Dottie Mellberg ........................200 William Preston ..............................1,000

Upfront

FIt Kids (continued from page 5)

it’s Fit Kids day because she gets to exercise,” her mother said in Spanish in the April 2019 video.

Brianna said she had to adjust to the program.

“It was hard when I first started because I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

Her coach helped her to understand how to do the exercises; she likes the frog jumps, push-ups and jumping jacks the best.

“It feels like I’m sweating everywhere,” she said.

Hunter, Fit Kids’ executive director, said the foundation initially wanted to launch sports programs at underserved schools, but the leaders soon noticed the children lacked the hand-eye coordination, foot-eye coordination, speed, strength and agility that are necessary for participating in sports.

The fitness scores of children in East Palo Alto were dismal, Hunter said. Only 19% of children in the East Palo Alto Fit Kids program were at the 50% percentile for the Presidential Physical Fitness test standard. At Costano and Willow Oaks (Menlo Park) elementary schools, 4.6% of participants met the Presidential standard for curl-ups; 17.7% met the standard for push-ups and 43.4% met the standard for the shuttle run, while 33.1% reached the standard for the V-sit, a flexibility exercise, Hunter said.

Without physical fitness skills, children won’t be able to participate in team sports when they reach middle school and high school, she said.

“We’re providing opportunities for structured physical activity through games, relay races and obstacle courses to make it fun,” she said.

Fitness tests are showing the results of the program. During three sessions in 2018-19, 80% of participants could do more curl-ups; 64% did more push-ups, 55% gained more flexibility doing V-sits and 54% ran faster in the shuttle runs, according to Fit Kids data.

Being active is also building the kids’ confidence, Hunter said.

To ensure the students have a positive experience, the program incorporates training for its coaches from the Positive

Coaching Alliance and the Child Mind Institute on how to encourage students in a constructive and healthful way as well as how to recognize kids’ mental health issues.

Fit Kids also has a program at Los Robles Elementary School, but there’s no coach to run the program right now. Hunter said it’s hard to find coaches in this area.

To reach more children, Fit Kids branched out to teach the curriculum to schools and nonprofits, such as the Boys and Girls Club, where staff members there teach the Fit Kids method. About 600 children are in Fit Kids curricula in the Ravenswood City School District during the school day through these programs, Hunter said.

Willow Oaks and Costano, where there are 142 children in the after-school program, serve as two innovation centers where Fit Kids analyzes development and program components. As happens with new programs, the children have sometimes challenged the program designers’ assumptions.

“We took out jump ropes. The kids couldn’t use the jump ropes, so they started to swing them around and could hurt each other,” Hunter said.

Though locally rooted with 13 sites in East Palo Alto, the program has grown to serve 15,000 children in East Palo Alto, Redwood City, Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston and Las Vegas, according to the Fit Kids website.

Hunter, who formerly worked in investment banking, said of the expanding program, “We’re excited. We have big goals.”

The foundation’s goal is to start up to 80 programs beginning in January, particularly in Los Angeles. They hope to establish a regional board, and if successful, the foundation will grow and start other chapters around the country, she said. Q More information about the impact of the Holiday Fund, including stories about funded nonprofit agencies and instructions for donating online, can be found on page 10 of this newspaper and at PaloAltoOnline.com/ holidayfund.

Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@ paweekly.com.

In Honor Of Principal Iris Wong ................................. * Normal L. Frazee, 100 years young ....400 Lucas Milam ......................................100 Logan Marsh & Gabby Perez .............250 Marilyn Sutorius ................................500 Joe Simitian ........................................... *

Businesses & Organizations Peery Foundation .........................10,000 Arrillaga Foundation ....................10,000 Alta Mesa Cemetery & Funeral Home..............................2,000 Killiney Kopitiam................................250 Palo Alto Business Park .......................... * Communications & Power Industries.....................................1,000 Bleibler Properties ...........................1,000 * Donor did not want to publish the amount of the gift.

Fit Kids Foundation Executive Director Ashley Hunter says her favorite part of the program is exercising with the students. www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 11

Gino De Grandis/courtesy Fit Kids Foundation

Roger V. Smith .......................................300 Art & Peggy Stauffer..............................500 Steven Feinberg ..................................5,000 William Reller ......................................1,000 Jan & Freddy Gabus...............................250 Marc & Margaret Cohen .......................100 Micki & Bob Cardelli .................................. * Pat Burt & Sally Bemus ..........................250 Judy & Tony Kramer................................... * Larry Baer & Stephanie Klein ..................... * Jerry & Donna Silverberg .......................100 Betty Gerard .............................................. * Boyce & Peggy Nute .................................. * J. Platt & S. Murphy ...............................600 Ellen & Mike Turbow .............................200 Kroyman Family .....................................250 Don Barr & Debra Satz ..........................100 Debby Roth............................................200 John & Florine Galen ................................. * Barbara Allen .........................................100 Sue Kemp ..............................................250 Ellen & Tom Ehrlich ................................500 Leif & Sharon Erickson ...........................250 Sally & Craig Nordlund ..........................500 George & Betsy Young .............................. * Peter S. Stern .........................................250 Nancy & Joe Huber ................................100 Susan & Doug Woodman ......................... * Wendy Sinton ............................................ * Penny & Greg Gallo ...............................500 Elaine & Eric Hahn ..............................1,000 Judith Appleby.......................................200 Judy Ousterhout ........................................ * Philip Hanawalt & Graciela Spivak ......1,000 Dorothy Saxe .........................................100 Gwen Luce & Family..............................100 Bruce Campbell ......................................... * Bill Johnson & Terri Lobdell .................1,000 Janice Ulevich.........................................100 M. D. Savoie ..........................................250 Julie Jerome ............................................... * Michael Kieschnick .............................1,000 Joan Jack................................................100 Ron Wolf ...............................................200 Gordon Chamberlain.............................300 Daniel Cox .............................................200 Michael & Gwen Havern ....................5,000 Susie Richardson & Hal Luft ....................... * Felicia Levy .............................................100 Page & Ferrell Sanders ...........................100 Diana Diamond .....................................100 Carolyn Brennan ........................................ * Charles A. Smith ........................................ * Richard A. Baumgartner & Elizabeth M. Salzer ................................450 Rita Vrhel ...............................................200 Hans & Judith Steiner ............................100 Roy & Carol Blitzer ..................................... * Braff Family ............................................500 Xiaofan Lin............................................... 50 Teresa Roberts.....................................1,000 Richard Alexander...............................1,000

CLICK AND GIVE

Upfront

Transitions Births, marriages and deaths

Matthias Müller Henneberg

Jocelyn Dong

Park Boulevard lies at one edge of the 60-acre area of the Ventura neighborhood that is the subject of a coordinated planning effort that kicked off in 2017.

Ventura (continued from page 8)

the northernmost portion of the property, a currently vacant area near the intersection of Page Mill and Park.

The plans remain highly conceptual, with no specifics about how much residential or commercial development any of the alternatives would accommodate. Given that limitation, some members of the Working Group have criticized the plan for being either too good to be true or simply not good enough.

Terry Holzemer, who lives close to the Ventura area, has persistently argued that the Fry’s building should be preserved because of its historic value. It is probably “the most intact cannery site structure that still exists in the Bay Area,” he said.

“If you don’t have any concept of what this valley was long before any silicon chip was ever made, they should go back and read their history,” Holzemer said. “I have. I know the significance of this building.”

Doria Summa, a member of the Planning and Transportation Commission, called some of the ideas “pie-in-the-sky” and argued that it’s tough to choose between the alternatives without having any data or any information about the zoning laws that would need to be changed to accommodate the proposed amenities.

“I was hoping to have more definitive data at this point and more realistic data on some of the city laws and state laws that we are contemplating violating when we talk about this,” Summa said.

Assistant Planning Director Rachael Tanner said many of the answers group members are hoping to see, including the impacts of adding the new developments, would be analyzed through the environmental review process and considered at later meetings.

While existing zoning laws may limit options for development,

the City Council has the power to change them if it agrees to adopt a new vision for the Ventura properties.

Tanner also noted that state laws prohibit the city from planning for fewer than 354 units in the Ventura area — the amount that currently exists.

‘If you don’t have any concept of what this valley was long before any silicon chip was ever made, they should go back and read their history.’

—Terry Holzemer, Palo Alto resident

“We don’t want the unit count to get below 354, otherwise we have to find another place in the city where those housing units can be placed,” Tanner said.

Lund Smith — a member of the Working Group whose family’s company, WSJ Properties, owns nine buildings along Olive

Avenue — noted that the city can make an even bigger impact on housing by considering the parcels along Olive, which are currently dominated by singlefamily homes. While none of the three alternatives propose redeveloping Olive Avenue, Smith said this should not be excluded from consideration.

“You can accumulate some of the parcels on Olive to do something more significant, if we want to make a bigger dent on housing,” Smith said.

The stakeholder group plans to continue its discussion of the three alternatives at its next meeting, which is scheduled for Jan. 21. Gail Price, a former city councilwoman who now serves on the Working Group, called the alternatives “a good start.”

“We are aware that there will be a more robust conversation about density, development standards and the issues of housing types and locations. ... That is an extremely critical conversation,” Price said at the Dec. 5 meeting. Q Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@paweekly.com.

Public Agenda A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to swear in a new mayor and vice mayor. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 6, in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave. HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION ... The commission plans to discuss its fiscal year 2019-2020 workplan and liaison assignments; discuss the Human Services Resource Allocation Process; and elect a chair and a vice chair. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 9, in the Community Meeting Room at City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave.

CityView A round-up of Palo Alto government action this week

City Council

The council did not meet this week.

Page 12 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Educator and IBM engineer Matthias Müller Henneberg died in Napa on Dec. 15 due to complications from strokes.

He was 83.

Born to Renata and Ha ns-Ma rtin MüllerHen neberg in Berlin, Germany on Dec. 13, 1936, he graduated from Clausthal University of Technology in 1961 before attending Stanford University as a Fulbright grantee the following year. He earned a doctorate in materials science and worked as an engineer at IBM in San Jose. He also taught engineering at De Anza College and San Jose State University.

In 1976, he purchased a home in Palo Alto on Addison Avenue, where he would live for 42 years. In 1980, he married Jeanne Moulton and, throughout the next several years, had two daughters.

According to his daughter Sabina Henneberg, he was also an accomplished builder and woodworker. He built many elegant pieces of furniture and, later on, added a second story to his home. He and Jeanne also purchased a small vineyard in Mendocino County to grow pinot noir grapes. If not tending to the vineyard or woodworking, he spent time coaching his daughters’ soccer teams and regularly volunteered at the Stanford Blood Bank.

In 2018, he and his wife moved to Napa.

He is survived by Jeanne; daughters Sabina Henneberg of Washington D.C. and Christine Henneberg of Napa; sisters Regina Müller-Henneberg and Christine Bornhak of Stuttgart, Germany, Sabine Risch of Munich, Germany, Henriette Müller-Henneberg of Tübingen, Germany, and Annette Byford of Southampton, England; cousin Renee Gautron of Innsbruck, Austria; and two grandchildren.

His family will be holding a memorial service at his Napa home in the spring.

Iris Elaine Hughes Bacolini

Iris Elaine Hughes Bacolini, a Palo Alto resident of 62 years, died of natural causes on Dec. 22. She was 92.

Born on Feb. 24, 1927, in Billings, Montana, she moved to San Francisco in 1943 to help with the World War II effort. There, she met Frank Bacolini and married in June 1946.

She loved following Bay Area sports, with the San Francisco Giants as her favorite team, and playing cards. She also cherished spending time with her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Predeceased by her husband in May 1987, she is survived by her three children, Bart Bacolini of San Jose, Vince Bacolini of Orlando, and Laura Munks of Menlo Park; seven grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.

SUBMITTING TRANSITIONS ANNOUNCEMENTS The Palo Alto Weekly’s Transitions page is devoted to births, weddings, anniversaries and deaths of local residents.

Obituaries for local residents are a free editorial service. The best way to submit an obituary is through our Lasting Memories website, at PaloAltoOnline.com/obituaries. The form is easy to fill out, but if you need instruction, you may watch the Lasting Memories tutorial video at tinyurl.com/LastingMemoriesPaloAlto.

The Weekly reserves the right to edit editorial obituaries for space and format considerations. If you have any questions, you may email editor@paweekly.com.

Paid obituaries are also available and can be arranged through our advertising department by emailing ads@ paweekly.com.

Announcements of a local resident’s recent wedding, anniversary or birth are also a free editorial service.

Photographs are accepted for weddings and anniversaries.

These notices are published as space is available. Send announcements to editor@paweekly.com or P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto 94302, or fax to 650-223-7526.

Pulse

Safe, Clean Water and Natural Flood Protection Program

A weekly compendium of vital statistics

The Safe, Clean Water and Natural Flood Protection Program is a voter-approved, 15-year program to ensure uninterrupted water resources services in Santa Clara County.

POLICE CALLS Palo Alto

Dec. 26-Dec. 31

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improvements along Llagas Creek from Buena Vista Avenue

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Miscellaneous Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Other/misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Outside assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Psychiatric subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . 1 Suspicious person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

funded Key Performance Indicator of the

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available on January 3, 2020 at www.valleywater.org.

VIOLENT CRIMES

the most out of the available local dollars,

For more information on the public hearing, contact

Palo Alto

this approach keeps the project moving

Meenakshi Ganjoo at mganjoo@valleywater.org or

forward, shortens the construction window

(408) 630-2295.

El Camino Real, 5/21, 5 p.m.; child abuse/physical.

Maureen Avenue, 5/21, 5 p.m.; child abuse/physical.

San Antonio Road, 8/30, 8:41 p.m.; sexual assault.

Pasteur Drive, 12/18, 2:35 p.m.; sexual assault.

Channing Avenue, 12/20, 5:26 p.m.; child abuse/physical.

Bryant Street, 12/23, 6:14 p.m.; sexual battery.

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Theft related Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

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Notice of Public Hearing

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Theft related Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Shoplifting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Project E6: Upper Llagas Map D IEL RF BU T TE

Violence related Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Child abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Sexual assault. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

approximately W. Dunne Avenue to W. Main Avenue (portion of Reach 8), and onsite compensatory mitigation at Lake Silveira.

For more information The board agenda memo regarding this hearing will be

without inducing flooding downstream and maximizes the potential for external

valleywater.org |

12/2019 JA

www.PaloAltoOnline.com â&#x20AC;˘ Palo Alto Weekly â&#x20AC;˘ January 3, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Page 13

The Year in Film 2019

Courtesy of Marvel Studios

Courtesy of TriBeCa Productions

“The Irishman.”

“Avengers: Endgame.”

The year in film The best, worst and most memorable movies of 2019

by Peter Canavese

T

his year, the line between the big and small screen, between cinema and television, blurred more than ever. Big-spending Netflix — emboldened by last year’s Oscaracknowledged “Roma” — led the charge again with “The Irishman,” “Marriage Story,” “The Two Popes,” “I Lost My Body,” “The King,” and “Atlantics,” among others while Hulu continued to program new feature films and Disney+ and Apple+ entered the streaming-service fray. This year, one could watch Willem Dafoe tangle with Robert Pattinson in “The Lighthouse” at the local multiplex or stay home and watch Dafoe fall in love with his sled dog in Disney+’s “Togo,” a big-screen-quality, family adventure film instantly watchable on anything from a phone to a giant TV.

The top 10 films of 2019 10. ‘The Mountain’

As downbeat as they come, Rick Alverson’s rigorous “The Mountain” functions as an eccentric commentary on the horror of historical ignorance and the pain of existence in a world that’s gone insane. With just a dollop of deadpan black comedy, Alverson plays out a corrupted mentormentee relationship between

What does it mean for cinema when movies as dumb and/or chintzy as “Stuber” and “The Curse of La Llorona” compete for butts in seats with TV series as smart and/ or cinematic as HBO’s “Watchmen” and Disney+’s “The Mandalorian?” Choice, of course. Perhaps too much of it.

Truly, there is something for everyone in today’s screen landscape. Want blockbuster movies? “Avengers: Endgame” set the new standard by skillfully wrapping up the initial phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (before “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” not so satisfactorily concluded the initial “Star Wars” saga). Want intimate human-scale drama? I’ve got the Mr. Rogers flick “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and indie film “The Souvenir” right here. Animated family movies? Have a “Toy

romantic culture (and its sometime collateral damage) and how sex and love play out on individual but intersecting timelines. In 84 minutes, Castro dramatizes the lovers’ two meetings (at either end of a 20-year gap), a flashback and a daydream to clarify the tension between the power of desire and the indifference of reality. Naturalistic performances (by Juan Barberini and Ramon Pujol) and direction make this zen koan on time linger in the mind and heart.

the emotionally prone, newly orphaned Andy (Tye Sheridan) and a semi-charming lobotomist (Jeff Goldblum) as they travel the backroads spreading traumatic brain injury to the mentally ill and the socially ostracized. It’s the year’s most unsettling American self-portrait.

9. ‘End of the Century’

Writer-director Lucio Castro’s deceptively simple story of chance encounters, possibility and regret provides comment on gay

Page 14 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

8. ‘The Souvenir’

Courtesy of Plan B Entertainment

“The Last Black Man in San Francisco.”

Story 4” or a “Missing Link.” Foreign film lover? We’ve got you covered with everything from “Parasite” to “Pain and Glory.”

“Rocketman” came along to shame those who thought “Bohemian Rhapsody” was the best of musical biopics, and “Cats” crawled into theaters to face the music with Broadway lovers. Even a good oldfashioned ensemble murder mystery came along in “Knives Out,” to tied us over until Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot returns.

In other words, not much has really changed (although TV’s “Breaking Bad” suddenly became a movie — both streamed and in select theaters). But as the sheer volume of films and television increases, audiences must work harder to dig up the hidden gems (not to be confused with “Uncut Gems,” the wild new Adam Sandler

Joanna Hogg’s agonizingly honest and mature semi-autobiographical drama explores the agonizing self-delusions and inexperience of youth. As Hogg’s stand-in, Honor Swinton Byrne comes to hard-won realizations in her vocational and personal lives, each informing the other as the film student succumbs to the overtures of an older lover (Tom Burke) who’s harboring a dark secret (Byrne’s mother Tilda Swinton plays along as Byrne’s uneasy screen mother). Hogg’s understated approach and self-examined privilege accumulate for a distinctive take on the young-adult coming-of-age narrative.

dramedy). That’s where your Friendly Neighborhood Film Critic comes in, highlighting the most intriguing and, in some cases, the least widely discussed of cinematic options. Pin this list up on your bulletin board or grant it a magnet on your fridge, and you have a roadmap to 2019’s boldest statements, its most adventurous narratives and arresting aesthetics.

In a year of cinematic stunts, like the longtake constructions of “1917” and “Long Day’s Journey into Night” (which added 3D into the bargain) and the de-aging of everyone from Robert De Niro (“The Irishman”) to Samuel L. Jackson (“Captain Marvel”), the fundamental things apply as time goes by: a dimly lit room, an illuminated screen and a story that appeals to our emotions.

And away we go ...

7. ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ Joe Talbot’s impressive debut serves up a highly personal and locally resonant story that begins as a screed on gentrification but turns out to be a lively and complex salon on family history, friendship, community and the folly of belief in ownership. Playing characters that exhibit differing shades of naïve sentimentality, Jimmie Fails and Jonathan Majors deliver breakout performances, while Talbot fearlessly creates a heightened reality that’s also grounded in some uncomfortable truths about American life — particularly its insistence on buying and selling stolen property to establish and maintain the land of the free, home of the brave.

6. ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’

In a year of strong Chinese imports (see also “An Elephant Sitting Still” and “Ash Is Purest White”), Bi Gan gave us the greatest stunner with his visionary and transportive neo-noir (natively titled “Last Evenings on Earth”). A classic “cherchez

la femme” narrative gradually reveals itself to be a meditation on untrustworthy memory as well as unconscious and celluloid dreams. As such, an amateur detective’s plodding path to find his lost love leads to an astonishing “one-take” 3D dream sequence forming the film’s final 50 minutes. A lyrical, gorgeous but devastating reminder of precious time in the vein of director Wong Kar-wai.

5. ‘The Irishman’

Flawed, but still essential, Martin Scorsese’s culminative statement on American life through a mobster lens appears at first to be a neat capper to a thematic trilogy formed with “Goodfellas” and “Casino,” stories that likewise run on the insider knowledge of mob protagonists, sourced from nonfiction books. But the pivotal truths in question in “The Irishman” may not be true at all, which little concerns Scorsese, star-producer Robert De Niro and ultimately audiences. For here is a Shakespearean history laced with the tragic limits of loyalty. Gifted with great performances (count (Top 10 continued on next page)

The Year in Film 2019 The bottom 5 films of 2019 5. ‘El Chicano’

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

Courtesy of TriStar Pictures

Courtesy of VICE Studios

“The Mountain.”

This brownsploitation actioner billed as the “first Latino superhero movie” teases itself as a Mexican-American “Batman” but has the moral sense of “The Punisher.” “El Chicano” wastes a fine actor (leading man Raul Castillo) as it mechanically goes through its painfully dull, occasionally gruesome paces.

4. ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’

One of three — count ‘em, three — 2019 films in the increasingly popular genre of soggy dog movies where we hear the pooch’s thoughts in voice-over. Dog lovers, start your engines and turn off your brains for this Nicholas Sparks dog tale that will grab at your heartstrings.

becomes an unintentionally funny and uncannily unsettling big-screen monstrosity by digitally infecting stars like Dame Judi Dench and Idris Elba with cat-scratch fever. There aren’t enough CGI artists in the world to make this work.

And the worst film of 2019 goes to:

Best heroes

5. Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) in “Knives Out” 4. Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl) in “A Hidden Life” 3. Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) in “Little Women”

1. ‘Playmobil: The Movie’

2. Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) in “Avengers: Endgame”

What do you get when you bring together dull animation, charmless characters, unthrilling adventure, flat attempts at humor and generic-brand songs? This tedious, talent-deficient “Lego Movie” ripoff.

Of course, there’s plenty more to remember beyond 2019’s highest highs and lowest lows.

Read on for our take on the best good guys, the worst baddies, the top documentaries and the most magical animated movies.

1. Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks) in “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

(Honorable mention [tie]: Woody (Tom Hanks) and Forky (Tony Hale) in “Toy Story 4”)

Worst villains

5. Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) in “Doctor Sleep”

3. ‘Rambo: Last Blood’

also Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino as a funhouse-mirror Jimmy Hoffa), elegantly crafted, innovative and pure, uncut Scorsese.

4. ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’

Celine Sciamma’s doomed but rapturous romance patiently observes the spark, the fire and the sad extinguishment of love. As William Butler Yeats noted, “love comes in at the eye,” dramatized here as a painter (Noémie Merlant) falls in love with her subject (Adèle Haenel). Beautifully realized, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”

works as a feminist historical drama (foregrounding customarily forgotten late-18th century female painters) but soars as a love story of swoony beauty.

3. ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’

Marielle Heller’s finely sensitive Mr. Rogers dramedy gets the magical appeal of Fred Rogers — children’s show host, ordained minister, husband, father and friend to all. As played by Tom Hanks, Rogers could have made the convincing center of a hagiography. Micah FitzermanBlue and Noah Harpster’s ingenious adaptation of Tom Junod’s Esquire profile “Can You Say ...

Courtesy of Lucasfilm

(Top 10 continued from previous page)

3. Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) in “It: Chapter Two”

2. ‘Cats’

A special kind of bad, this adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous/infamous spandexand-whiskers stage musical Hero?” sees Rogers as the most extraordinary kind of human: capable, like all of us, of succumbing to anger and selfishness but choosing again and again to look beyond himself and truly see and hear each person he encounters.

In doing so, Mr. Rogers helps to heal the temporarily broken (embodied by Matthew Rhys’ worldweary journalist).

“Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker.”

4. “Adolf Hitler” (Taika Waititi) in “ Jojo Rabbit”

2. ‘Parasite’

The year’s sharpest comedy, Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” examined the economic chutes and ladders that drive and plague a capitalist society. Bong mines both the comic and poignant possibilities of his carefully unfolded fable on economic inequality, as family exploits family exploits family. Keen production design, insinuating camerawork and well-calibrated performances (including that of Bong regular Song Kang-ho) helped this South Korean stunner to cross over a multiplex fare likely to score not only a Foreign Film Oscar but a Best Picture nomination.

And the best film of 2019 goes to:

1. ‘The Lighthouse’

Robert Eggers’ blinding vision, set in a psychosexual landscape of a mind on the brink, has everything we go to the movies for: meticulously effective sight and sound, confident storytelling,

“Cats.” humor and horror, dream and nightmare. One of the all-time two-handers, “The Lighthouse” pits Willem Dafoe’s eccentric lighthouse keeper against his new No. 2 (Robert Pattinson) in what’s either an external battle of wills between two men of dubious sanity or an internal battle of Jungian archetypes trapped in a Freudian phallus trapped in a disturbed brain. Eggers’ film can be read in a number of equally satisfying ways, each a comment on fraught humanity and its fragile rationality.

Runners-up “Little Women,” “Transit,” “Peterloo,” “The Farewell,” “Luce,” “One Cut of the Dead,” “An Elephant Sitting Still,” “A Hidden Life,” “Knives Out,” “Rocketman,” “Avengers: Endgame,” “Atlantics.” Q Peter Canavese is a freelance movie critic for the Palo Alto Weekly and author of the website GrouchoReviews.com. You can reach him at pcanavese@bcp.org.

About the cover: Clockwise from top left: “Avengers: Endgame,” courtesy of Marvel Studios; “The Lighthouse,” courtesy of A24; “Parasite,” courtesy of Barunsan E&A Corp.; “Marriage Story,” courtesy of Heyday Films.

Design by Doug Young.

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Television

“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.”

Co-writer/star Sylvester Stallone goes back to the bloody well with this sadistic sequel in his popular vigilante-killer franchise. Mechanical and morally wrong, and long removed from the day when John Rambo was more of a character than an icon, this one’s strictly for those who enjoy watching self-righteous murders in bulk.

2. Charles Manson (Damon Herriman in “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood”; Matt Smith in “Charlie Says”)

1. Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) in “Joker” Honorable mention: Red (Lupita Nyong’o) in “Us”

Top documentaries

5. “Love, Antosha” 4. “Honeyland” 3. “American Factory” 2. “5B” 1. “For Sama”

The animated winners

5. “Frozen II” 4. “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” 3. “I Lost My Body” 2. “Missing Link” 1. “Toy Story 4”

See times for movies now showing in theaters on page 18.

THERE’S MORE ONLINE PaloAltoOnline.com See more movie critiques online on the Palo Alto Weekly’s “Behind the Headlines” show on Friday, Jan. 3 when Palo Alto Weekly film critic Peter Canavese and Tim Sika, host/ producer of the radio show Celluloid Dreams, review their picks for the top 10 movies of 2019 with Weekly Associate Editor Linda Taaffe. To watch the webcast, go to youtube. com/paweekly/videos.

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 15

Page 16 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Eating Out Cocoa

POWERED Local tech entrepreneur’s sleek device brings craft chocolate-making to your kitchen counter Magali Gauthier

Nate Saal adds cocoa nibs to CocoTerra, the device he created to make chocolate from scratch at home.

O

by Elena Kadvany

nly in Silicon Valley does a longtime tech startup founder find a second career in a chocolate-making robot.

Nate Saal studied molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University after graduating from Palo Alto High School in 1990.

After returning to Palo Alto, he quickly shifted from science to the internet, founding what he says was the first web-based software updating service and going on to start more technology companies.

But these days, he’s immersed in chocolate — specifically, chocolate made by a countertop device that he created called CocoTerra. The sleek white device, which looks like a large, futuristic coffee maker, uses algorithms, hardware and a smartphone app to transform cocoa nibs, milk powder, cocoa powder and sugar into chocolate in about two hours.

Saal has high hopes for the machine, which has yet to be released.

In the age of automation, where robots are making pizza and ramen and delivering our food, he sees CocoTerra as doing something different: using technology to deepen rather than disrupt people’s connection to how their food is made.

“We’re not trying to slap technology for technology’s sake on top of that to abstract it away, to take creativity away,” he said. “We’re trying to actually create a whole new category of people who can now make chocolate.”

While Saal’s professional career has focused on technology, he has always filled his weekends with homegrown food experiments, like keeping bees and growing grapes and olives to make wine and olive oil from scratch.

Making chocolate, however, was not in his repertoire. It wasn’t until he took his brother-in-law, who works in the coffee business, to a chocolate tasting several years ago, and a conversation about the similarities between the two industries

got him thinking. His brother hypothesized that home coffee machines have allowed more people to understand and appreciate coffee in a way that chocolate hasn’t experienced. People did make chocolate at home, but it was a lengthy process that required having several expensive appliances, he found.

“There’s a bread machine, an ice cream maker and a juicer and a pasta maker and a tea brewer and a coffee maker — every major food category has a home appliance. What I discovered very quickly was there is no such thing (for chocolate),” Saal said.

He educated himself by going to chocolate-making classes, including a boot camp at Madre Chocolate in Hawaii. Back in Palo Alto, he and a team got to work designing a device that could combine all steps in the chocolate-making process — grinding, refining, conching, tempering and molding — in one machine. CocoTerra grinds the single-origin cocoa nibs for about half an hour, using stainless steel balls, then refines the cocoa butter, sugar and milk powder. Conching is the “slow manipulation or agitation of chocolate at elevated temperatures to help drive off some undesired flavors,” said Chief Operating Officer Karen Alter.

The next step, tempering, involves cooling the ingredients to a specific temperature that will create a specific structure of seed crystal in the cocoa butter molecules, Saal enthusiastically explained. The crystals solidify, creating shiny, hard chocolate. A patented centrifuge inside the machine cools and spins the chocolate to remove bubbles.

The final result is a ring-shaped, half-pound mold of chocolate, rather than the traditional rectangular bar.

On the back end, technology allows a level of customization that CocoTerra’s creators hope will make the device as appealing for experts as for novices. A

cloud-based recipe system, accessible online or via an app, guides you from start to finish in a recipe.

People can either default to CocoTerra’s recipes, such as 62% dark chocolate or milk chocolate with almonds, or customize them, from level of sweetness and creaminess, to added flavors and ingredients, to the tempering temperature. People can easily control for allergies or dietary restrictions.

CocoTerra will sell the base ingredients directly to customers, focusing on fair trade, ethically grown nibs, or people can use their own. Those who are advanced enough to roast and shell their own cacao beans could still do that, put them into the machine and then create their own recipes.

Producing quality chocolate in two hours is “jaw-dropping” to many in the chocolate industry, Saal said.

“I thought they were totally crazy when I first talked to them on the phone,” John Scharffenberger told CNBC. Scharffenberger, who co-founded Scharffen Berger in San Francisco in 1997 before small batch, artisan chocolate was a thing, is now an investor and calls CocoTerra “a natural extension of the craft chocolate movement.”

The company won’t disclose a price for the machine, which they claim is the world’s first tabletop chocolate maker. CocoTerra has raised more than $2 million in investments and is now focused on a larger round to fund the release of the device.

“This is about the evolution of technology to make chocolate.

But it’s also making it accessible,” Saal said. “We’re bringing that to people by using smart mechanical engineering and software to make it accessible so that you can actually now focus on things like the flavor and recipe and the look and the design and the craft of it.” Q Staff writer Elena Kadvany can be emailed at ekadvany@ paweekly.com.

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For more information: (650) 305-0701 or eventbrite.com www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 17

Answers to this weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s puzzles, which can be found on page 27.

Movies

MOVIES NOW SHOWING

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (PG) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. Aquarius Theatre: Fri. - Sun.

A Hidden Life (PG-13)

Bombshell (R) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. Cats (2019) (PG) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. Century 16: Fri. - Sun.

Ford V Ferrari (PG-13) Century 20: Fri. - Sun.

Frozen II (PG) +++ Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. Gone With the Wind (1939) (Not Rated) Stanford Theatre: Fri. - Sun. Century 16: Fri. - Sun.

Good Newwz (Not Rated) The Grudge (2020) (R) Century 20: Fri. - Sun.

Century 16: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun.

Jumanji: The Next Level (PG-13) +++ Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri Knives Out (Not Rated) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. Little Women (2019) (PG) +++1/2 Century 20: Fri. - Sun. Palo Alto Square: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun. Aquarius Theatre: Fri. - Sun.

Parasite (R) +++1/2

Richard Jewell (R) Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. Spies in Disguise (PG) Century 20: Fri. - Sun.

Century 16: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (PG-13) ++1/2 Century 16: Fri. - Sun. Century 20: Fri. - Sun. Uncut Gems (R) Century 20: Fri. - Sun. Palo Alto Square: Fri. - Sun. ShowPlace Icon: Fri. - Sun.

+ Skip it ++ Some redeeming qualities +++ A good bet ++++ Outstanding

Aquarius: 430 Emerson St., Palo Alto (For recorded listings: 327-3241) tinyurl.com/Aquariuspa Century Cinema 16: 1500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View tinyurl.com/Century16 Century 20 Downtown: 825 Middlefield Road, Redwood City tinyurl.com/Century20 CineArts at Palo Alto Square: 3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto (For information: 493-0128) tinyurl.com/Pasquare ShowPlace Icon: 2575 California St. #601, Mountain View tinyurl.com/iconMountainView Stanford Theatre: 221 University Ave., Palo Alto (For recorded listings: 324-3700) Stanfordtheatre.org

Find trailers, star ratings and reviews on the web at PaloAltoOnline.com/movies

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Schedule an appointment: call 888-723-7831 or visit bloodcenter.stanford.edu Page 18 â&#x20AC;˘ January 3, 2020 â&#x20AC;˘ Palo Alto Weekly â&#x20AC;˘ www.PaloAltoOnline.com

JANUARY 2020

LivingWell A monthly special section of news

& information for seniors

Baby-care refresher 101 Stanford class offers modern techniques for expectant grandparents Story by Chris Kenrick Photos by Magali Gauthier n a recent Monday evening, 20 soon-to-be grandparents gathered in a Stanford Health Care classroom to get their grandparenting skills up to speed before the arrival of the newest members of their families. Most of them hadn’t swaddled, fed or cared for a baby in decades, and with advanced technology, new research and different family dynamics, some of the accepted practices of baby care from those days have changed.

The group, which included 14 women and six men, shared information about their grandchildren’s impending births.

Some — including a couple from

Bangladesh and another from Florida — said they’d moved to the Bay Area specifically to help with child care. Several said they were taking the class at the request of their children or that their kids had paid the $65 tuition as a gift for them to attend.

The “Grandparents Seminar” at Stanford is part of a growing trend to help new grandparents become better informed about the basics of infant care and make the most of their unique role in the family.

“The story of what’s happening in this community is that grandparents — many grandparents — are doing child care, either full time or part time,” said grandmother Marilyn Swarts, who worked for decades as a labor-and-delivery nurse and nurse

manager and has been teaching the monthly grandparents class offered through Stanford Children’s Health for the past 15 years.

Swarts’ 2.5-hour session, which covers some of the latest pediatric thinking on newborn care, attracts grandparents from throughout the region and consistently sells out.

Swarts tells her students: “You’ve all brought up great kids, but today there are some pretty significant differences from the way we did things.”

At the top of that list, Swarts said, is the way infants should be put to sleep. To reduce risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), babies always should be placed on their backs on a firm mattress “with absolutely

Top: Marilyn Swarts, a former a labor-and-delivery nurse and nurse manager, uses a doll to demonstrate how to swaddle an infant during a seminar for new grandparents looking to refresh their baby-care skills.

Above: During a recent class sponsored by Stanford Health Care, soon-to-be grandparents take a lesson on how make the most of their new roles.

nothing in the crib — no bumpers, no blankets,” she said.

Such advice comes as a surprise to many prospective grandparents who, prior to the mid1990s, typically were advised to position infants on their stomachs for sleep. One soon-to-be grandmother said she’d retrieved old family photos in which her babies were “sleeping on lamb’s wool, on their stomachs, with bumpers and little toys — the whole nine yards.”

It’s now understood that stomach sleeping, blankets and crib bumpers increase the risk of SIDS, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The Sudden Infant Death rate in the United States has dropped by about 50% since the agency’s “Back to Sleep” campaign was launched in 1994, saving thousands of lives.

Also new to many grandparents are the “skin to skin” and “rooming in” practices in today’s maternity wards, which have brought an end to nurseries in many hospitals over the past

decade, Swarts said. Instead of nurses whisking a newborn away for a checkup and a bath, the baby is placed belly down directly on the mother’s chest right for the first hour or more after birth. Newborn assessments are done in that position, and babies not requiring special medical attention remain in the rooms of their parents — yes, dads stay overnight in the hospital, too — throughout their hospital stay.

Swarts covers a host of other topics in her monthly evening sessions: the resurgence of swaddling, breastfeeding, cord clamps, cloth versus disposable diapers, introduction of solid food and peanuts, baby food pouches, colic, soothing methods — including baby-soothing apps — warnings against honey and baby powder and more.

She reminds grandparents to update their flu vaccinations and to wash their hands often.

She notes that today’s car seats are so complicated that parents and grandparents are advised to (continued on page 20)

Those who complete Stanford’s 2.5-hour grandparents seminar receive certificates of completion. www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 19

Public Notices 995 Fictitious Name Statement 624-626-628 MASONIC AVENUE HOMEOWNERS’ ASSOCIATION FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No.: FBN661592 The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as: 624-626-628 Masonic Avenue Homeowners’ Association, located at 526 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, Santa Clara County.

This business is owned by: A Trust.

The name and residence address of the registrant(s) is(are): MARY ALICE OJAKIAN, TRUSTEE 526 Addison Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94301 VICTOR OJAKIAN, TRUSTEE 526 Addison Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94301 Registrant began transacting business under the fictitious business name(s) listed above on 12/20/2012.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara County on December 13, 2019.

(PAW Dec. 20, 27, 2019; Jan. 3, 10, 2020) DROOLIE LANE FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No.: FBN661639 The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as: Droolie Lane, located at 6437 Du Sault Dr., San Jose, CA 95119, Santa Clara County.

This business is owned by: An Individual.

The name and residence address of the registrant(s) is(are): BRIGID OROZCO 6437 Du Sault Dr. San Jose, CA 95119 Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name(s) listed above.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara County on December 16, 2019.

(PAW Dec. 20, 27, 2019; Jan. 3, 10, 2020)

The Palo Alto Weekly is adjudicated to publish in Santa Clara County.

Public Hearing Notices Resolutions • Bid Notices • Lien Sale Trustee’s Sale • Notices of Petition to Administer Estate Deadline is Tuesday at noon.

Call Alicia Santillan at 650-223-6578 or email asantillan@paweekly.com for assistance with your legal advertising needs.

Support our Kids with a gift to the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund Donate online at PaloAltoOnline.com/holiday_fund

Living Well

Senior Focus AGING WITH ATTITUDE ... The Palo Alto branch of Senior Planet, a tech-oriented group dedicated to “aging with attitude,” will hold a Winter Course Open House on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2-3 p.m. Course topics include iPad basics, fitness, social media and photography. On Friday, Jan. 10, local nature photographer Judy Kramer will present a free, illustrated talk on how to take photos that engage the viewer. For more information, go to seniorplanet. org/locations/paloalto. Both events will be at Senior Planet’s location inside Avenidas, 450 Bryant St., Palo Alto.

SEEKING FEMALE VOICES ... The non-audition Community Women’s Chorus is looking for new members. The group practices in Palo Alto and sings to senior audiences in Los Altos, Mountain View and Palo Alto. Rehearsals are Mondays from noon to 2:30 p.m. and the new season begins Jan. 13. The chorus is a fiscally sponsored project of the Los Altos Community Foundation.

For more information, contact Diane Walter at communitywomenschorus@gmail.com or 510-3339630.

LGBTQ CAFE ... The Avenidas LGBTQ Community Cafe, a monthly, intergenerational meetup, will present the Ivan Cash short film, “Bridging the LGBTQ Generation Gap,” followed by light snacks and a discussion on how the community has evolved since the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. Saturday, Jan. 18, 2:30-4 p.m., 450 Bryant St., Palo Alto.

STRING PLAYERS WANTED ... The Avenidas String Orchestra meets Thursdays to play Baroque and

classical music as well as popular and folk songs from around the world. Players of violin, viola, cello or bass, with at least one year of lessons and some ensemble experience, are needed. For more information, contact teacher Be’eri Moalem at beerimoalem@gmail.com or cello player Francine Toder at francine@doctoder.com.

PLANNING WORKSHOP ... Mission Hospice & Home Care will present a two-part Advance Care Planning Workshop on Friday, Jan. 31 and on Friday, Feb. 7, 9:30-11:30 a.m. at Bay Area Cancer Connections, 2335 El Camino Real, Palo Alto.

Sessions are focused on planning for care ahead of serious illness. Participation is free but registration is required. Call Susan Barber at 650- 532-2396.

WAR ELEPHANTS ... Archaeologist, writer and lecturer Patrick Hunt will give a presentation on “Hannibal and his war elephants” on Tuesday, Jan. 21. From 1996 to 2014 Hunt annually led Stanford teams across some 25 Alpine passes in search of topographic clues matching texts of Polybius and Livy, who wrote about Hannibal nearly 2,000 years ago. Hunt’s book, “Hannibal,” was published in 2017. The event is part of the JCC’s Community Tuesdays series. It will be held 1-2 p.m. in the JCC’s Schultz Cultural Arts Hall of the JCC. $15. For more information, contact Michelle Rosengaus at 650-223-8616 or mrosengaus@paloaltojcc.org. Q

Items for Senior Focus may be emailed to Palo Alto Weekly Contributing Writer Chris Kenrick at ckenrick@paweekly.com.

Refresher (continued from page 19)

have their installation double checked at the police or fire station.

But Swarts stresses that her single-most important message for grandparents — repeated throughout the session — is to resist the urge to offer unsolicited advice to their child and their child’s partner.

“Zip your lip. Bite your tongue,” she said. “They are the parents of this baby.

Your job is to support and empower them to be good parents.”

Swarts often repeats that she has “scars on my tongue” from choking back advice to her daughter when the daughter’s first baby was born 18 years ago. At that time, Swarts’s son-in-law was serving in Afghanistan and her daughter was living with her.

“I really had to let her learn to be

the mother rather than be the expert — and that’s a hard one when that’s your expertise.”

With a newborn, she advises grandparents to offer assistance that allows parents to focus on learning to care for their baby. Often most helpful are chores such as meal preparation, laundry, pet care, cleaning and shopping, she said.

“Refrain as much as you can from saying, ‘This is the way we did it for you,’” Swarts said. “They don’t want to hear that. This is their experience. If they ask you, OK, you can say, ‘We tried this.’

“And as you see how they’re evolving as parents, just take joy in that.”

For more information, go to bit.ly/ StanfordGrandparentsSeminar. Q Contributing Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.

Is it time for a memory screen?

Dealing with memory issues can be frightening. We provide screening for Alzheimer’s and dementia, lifestyle therapies, and support groups.

650-206-9122 www.CognitasHealth.com

2134-A Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View, CA 94043 Page 20 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Need a ride?

Living Well

JANUARY 2020

Jan1

Happy New Year!

Avenidas closed.

Jan 2

Avenidas Hikers 9:30am – every Thursday. Email Susan at Susanj1942@gmail.com for trailhead info or to schedule, 0/$5.

Jan 3 The Avenidas Door to Door transportation program uses dedicated drivers to provide rides to seniors in the community within a 12 mile radius, including: • • • • • • •

Medical facilities Grocery stores and pharmacies Salons Shopping centers Avenidas & other activity centers Restaurants Visits with friends & family

We now also provide extended, monitored Lyft rides to the airport and other locations outside our normal boundaries. So the next time you want to go somewhere, remember that Avenidas Door to Door will get you there!

Visit www.avenidas.org, (650) 289-5411 or email rides@avenidas.org for a reservation.

Avenidas@450 Bryant For complete schedule or info about Avenidas events, call 650-289-5400

Avenidas Rose Kleiner Center Open House 10-11am, tours; 11am-12pm, caregiver support group. 270 Escuela, Mountain View.

Call 650-289-5499 for more info. Free.

Jan 6

Blood Pressure Screening 10am-12pm, Avenidas@450 Bryant.

Drop-in, free.

Jan 13

Nutrition lecture with Dr. Christopher Gardener 2-3pm, Avenidas@450 Bryant.

Call 650-289-5400 to register. Free.

Current Events 1:30-3pm – every Wednesday, ƂÛi `>ÃJ{xä ÀÞ> Ì° /ÀÞ Þ ÕÀ wÀÃÌ iiÌ } free! Call 650-289-5400 for more info.

Jan 16

Tinnitus Support Group 6:30-8:30pm, Avenidas@450 Bryant. For more info, contact Ken: karmtac@aol.com. Free.

Jan 18

Avenidas Village Coffee Chat 2pm, Avenidas@450 Bryant. Space is limited.

RSVP required. Call 650-289-5405. Free.

Jan 10

Try it Free! Sit Down and 5JCRG 7R ƂVPGUU ENCUU 10-11am, Avneidas@450 Bryant. Stop by the front desk to sign a waiver. Drop-in.

Jan 24

Jan 15

Jan 8

Jan 9

Avenidas Village Coffee Chat 10am, Avenidas@450 Bryant.

Space is limited. RSVP required.

Call 650-289-5405. Free.

Jan 14

Jan 17

CHP Age Well, Drive Smart 9am-1pm, Avenidas@450 Bryant. Space is limited. Pre-registration required.

Call 650-289-5400. Free.

Jan 23

Sound Bath 3-4pm, Avenidas@450 Bryant.

Call 650-289-5400 to register, $25/$30.

Jan 7

Senior Planet Winter Courses Open House 2-3, Senior Planet @Avenidas, 450 Bryant.

Drop-in, free.

Calendar of Events

Social Bridge every Friday, 1-4pm, Avenidas@450 Bryant.

Call 650-289-5400 for more info. Drop-in, free.

“Bridging the LBBTQ Generation Gap” –

by Ivan Cash w ÃVÀii } > ` ` ÃVÕÃÃ ] Ó\Îä {\Îä« ] Avenidas@450 Bryant. RSVP requested to tkingery@avenidas.org. Free.

Ping-Pong for members Avenidas@Cubberley.

Call to schedule your time 650-289-5409.

Jan 27

Who Dunnit? Mystery Reader’s Discussion Group 1:30-3pm. Call 650-289-5400 to register. Free.

Jan 28

Avenidas Walkers 10am – every Tuesday. Call 650-387-5256 for trailhead info or to schedule. Free

Jan 29

Mindfulness Meditation every Wednesday, 2-3pm, Avenidas@450 Bryant. Drop-in, free.

Jan 30

Jan 20

Lunar New Year Celebration 2:30-4:30pm, Avenidas @Cubberley.

Drop-in, free.

Jan 21

Jan 31

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Avenidas closed Avenidas closed

Jan 22

Reiki appts available 9:30am-12pm, Avenidas@450 Bryant.

Call for appt 650-289-5400, $30/$35.

Club Aveneedles (Needlework Club) every Friday, 2-4 pm, Avenidas@Cubberley.

Bring your own project. Light instruction only.

Drop-in, free.

Trusted Home Care Sherry’s dedication to clients is just one of the many reasons Sherry Courtney Lawrence Home Care Supervisor

why we’re the Bay Area’s leading expert in senior care. In fact, over 16,000 Bay Area families trust us to take care of family and loved ones in the comfort of their own home.

Free consultation 650.931.1860 SeniorsAtHome.org

A Division of Jewish Family and Children’s Services San Francisco • Peninsula • Marin • Sonoma County HHA License 220000378

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 21

Home&Real Estate

OPEN HOME GUIDE 25 Also online at PaloAltoOnline.com

A weekly guide to home, garden and real estate news

Home Front Real Estate Matters CURBSIDE TREE COLLECTION ... GreenWaste of Palo Alto will be collecting holiday trees curbside for the four weeks following Christmas Day (Dec. 25). Cut trees in 4-foot lengths and remove tree stands, all decorations, including tinsel, and any nails. Place trees next to the green compost cart.

Flocked trees are not accepted.

For more information, contact GreenWaste of Palo Alto at 650-493-4894; apartment and condominium managers are encouraged to call for information regarding tree collection locations for their complexes.

SPRING GARDEN PLANNING ... Though it’s true that the winter solstice was just a couple weeks ago, it’s not too early to start thinking ahead for springtime in your garden. Start planning for your spring garden at a workshop led by gardening experts on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 7-8:30 p.m. at the Menlo Park Library. This workshop will cover preparing the soil, the best times for planting seeds and seedlings and site selection (choosing the right spots for plants based on factors such as soil drainage and exposure to sunlight). The library is located at 800 Alma St., Menlo Park. For more information, call 650-3302501 or visit menlopark.org/ Calendar. Q Send notices of news and events related to real estate, interior design, home improvement and gardening to Home Front, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302, or email editor@paweekly. com. Deadline is one week before publication.

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peak The last decade’s booming market sends us into 2020 with prices having peaked, but still nowhere near flat

by Xin Jiang

Weekly file photo

SEWING WITH FABMO ... Start out the new year with a new craft. Volunteers from FabMo, a local nonprofit that rescues and repurposes discontinued designer fabrics, will lead this workshop on Monday, Jan. 6, 6:30-8 p.m. at the Mountain View Public Library. Learn to stitch a project using FabMo’s repurposed fabric. All supplies are provided and the workshop is open to beginners. For ages 18 and up. The library is located at 585 Franklin St., Mountain View. For more information, call 650-903-6337 or visit mountainview.gov/ depts/library/.

Past its

In 2019, homes in the desirable Central Menlo Park neighborhood saw close to a 30% increase in supply, a 13% increase in closed transactions, and a 22% jump in median home price to $4.5 million.

This year, both Menlo Park and Los Altos had a double-digit increase in the number of new listings and transaction volume, while those numbers dipped in Palo Alto.

ust as the U.S. economy experienced the rarity of no recession for an entire decade, the residential real estate market in Palo Alto had an unprecedented strong run in the past 10 years.

The median home price of all sold homes increased 2.4 times from Xin Jiang $1.25 million in 2010 to $2.94 million in 2019, which translates to an average compound annual growth rate of more than 10%. However, there have been signs of the end of the upcycle, and, most recently, a market that has been slowing since the spring of 2018.

The median price of all sold homes in Palo Alto of 2019 was $2.94 million, a 3.8% decline from 2018. The weakness is particularly reflected in the total transaction amount, which fell by 10% compared to a year ago. Homes also stayed on market 10 days longer than a year ago. It now takes an average of 29.2 days for a listed home to find its buyer. As sellers are still adjusting expectations, 2019 saw a 26% increase in price reduction. In fact, more than 23% of new listings had to lower their asking prices after being listed on the Multiple Listing Service. Overall inventory remained at a historic low level. In Palo Alto, 537 homes hit the Multiple Listing Service in 2019, a 5.6% decline from 2018, less than half of what we experienced in 2006 and a 30% decline from the beginning of the decade.

Instead of general weakness, the key characteristic of the Midpeninsula real estate market of 2019 was polarization. The growing divergence happened among different homes in the same neighborhood, as well as among different neighborhoods.

When the market shows signs of slowing down, buyers tend to become more selective.

Consequently, the market started to split. Homes in desirable locations with a decent-sized lot and

J

Page 22 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

reasonable floor plan (usually around four bedrooms and three baths for a family of four) still attracted multiple offers. Homes in less desirable locations (e.g., close to major roads or commercial areas) became hard sales. Within Palo Alto, more than half of the 404 homes sold year-todate in 2019 still settled above their initial asking prices, which shows the average 3.8% decline in median home price can be misleading.

In 2019, various Midpeninsula neighborhoods showed completely different movements. Unlike Palo Alto, both Menlo Park and Los Altos had a double-digit increase in the number of new listings and transaction volume. In fact, the de-

The key characteristic of the Midpeninsula real estate market of 2019 was polarization. sirable Central Menlo neighborhood, the little area across Valparaiso Avenue from the town of Atherton, saw close to a 30% increase in supply, a 13% increase in closed transactions, and a remarkable 22% jump in median home price to $4.5 million. The average turnover of the Central Menlo neighborhood was also faster than the average of Palo Alto, despite a much higher median home price.

If Palo Alto is the ultimate destination for many affluent Chinese buyers, Central Menlo has been preferred by local executives for its tree-lined streets, lots that average +10,000 square feet and easy access to Stanford University, top-rated private schools and Highway 280.

How will the market behave in a new decade with the same uncertainties of global economy and the upcoming presidential election? We’re very likely to see an increase in activities beyond

the normal seasonality in spring 2020 as both potential sellers and buyers finally get off the fence.

There’ll be a healthy supply starting from the beginning of the year. There were 35 active listings in Palo Alto on Dec. 24, 2019. A large number — 61 listings — went off-market in the last quarter of 2019 and will most likely come back in early spring. There will also be fresh new listings, evident in the “coming-soon” signs that began to pop up during the holidays from those anxious sellers.

Demand has never really died for the “right package,” even when the market started to shake. Right before the holidays, I put a bid on an off-market home in Old Palo Alto for a client. Although the property had rather limited exposure, it received two all-cash offers within 24 hours and was promptly sold above the asking price.

Without a rebound in foreign investments on the horizon, the ultra-low mortgage interest rate and new initial public offerings (IPOs) for local companies remain the two biggest drivers for demand going into the new year. Considering a relatively low probability of home prices taking a big dive any time soon, potential buyers who were hesitating may want to lock in the low interest rate for meaningful savings over the long term.

The recent IPO of Bill.com, a Palo Alto payment-processing software provider, whose stock price soared 69% on its first day of trading on Dec. 12, 2019, along with other new IPO tech ventures, may give buyers another push.

The key variables of our residential real estate market remain the tech economy and the associated local supply and demand, which operate on stable policies. However, as parts of the nation have started to eliminate single-family zoning, whether and how the Bay Area will follow may be a game-changing uncertainty in the mid- to long-term. Q Xin Jiang is a real estate agent with Compass in Palo Alto. She can be emailed at xin.jiang@compass.com

SILICO N VALLE Y H O M ES

Cowper St, Palo Alto Offered at $27,800,000 Michael Dreyfus · 650.485.3476 Lic. #01121795 Noelle Queen · 650.427.9211 Lic. #01917593

2951 Bryant St, Palo Alto Offered at $4,950,000 Susan Tanner · 650.255.7372 Lic. #01736865

685 Lowell Ave, Palo Alto Price reduced to $4,098,000 Chris Iverson · 650.450.0450 Lic. #01708130

555 Byron St #303, Palo Alto Price reduced to $2,200,000 Lucy Berman · 650.208.8824 Lic. #01413627

271 Addison Ave, Palo Alto Offered at $1,700,000 Chris Iverson · 650.450.0450 Lic. #01708130

623 Woodland Ave, Menlo Park Offered at $2,995,000 Annette Smith · 650.766.9429 Lic. #01180954

1280 Sharon Park Dr #27, Menlo Park Offered at $1,468,000 Omar Kinaan · 650.776.2828 Lic. #01723115

177 Ramoso Rd, Portola Valley Price reduced to $6,175,000 Alex Bouja · 408.489.0025 Lic. # 01744054

Portola Valley Offered at $12,000,000 Lisa Keith · 650.703.8644 Lic. #00882247 Michael Dreyfus · 650.485.3476 Lic. #01121795

3400 Long Ridge Road, La Honda Offered at $2,500,000 Lisa Keith · 650.703.8644 Lic. #00882247 Marian Bennett · 650.678.1108 Lic. #01463986

Woodside Farmhouse 445 Mountain Home Rd, Woodside Offered at $19,995,000 Offered at $9,500,000 Michael Dreyfus · 650.485.3476 Shena Hurley · 650.575.0991 Lic. #01121795 Lic. #01152002 Noelle Queen · 650.427.9211 Susie Dews · 650.302.2639 Lic. #01917593 Lic. #00781220

Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland Property ID: 8MVWD4 sir.com

People have looked to Sotheby’s to discover the best in life for more than 250 years.

Ask your Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty agent about opportunities around the world or around the corner.

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Menlo Park Office 640 Oak Grove Ave 650.847.1141

Los Altos Office 195 S. San Antonio Rd 650.941.4300

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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 23

Palo Alto readers, what is local journalism worth to you?

As we celebrate 40 years of being Palo Alto’s most trusted news source, we also look ahead to sustaining our award-winning journalism in the decades to come.

With local retail advertising steadily declining around the nation, the future of local journalism is in the hands of our readers. Only with your direct support as a subscribing member can we retain our professional journalists and continue to provide insightful and engaging coverage of the community.

Please join your neighbors and friends in keeping strong journalism alive in your community.

For just $10 a month, or 33 cents a day, you can do your part to ensure that a free and responsible press continues to hold institutions accountable.

Learn more and sign up for membership at PaloAltoOnline.com/join

Page 24 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

THIS WEEKEND OPEN HOMES Your Realtor & You

LEGEND: CONDO (C), TOWNHOME (T).

ATHERTON

40 Selby Ln Sat/Sun 1:30-4:30 Coldwell Banker

$5,800,000 5 BD/4 BA 855-9700

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$39,998,000 5 BD/7+5 Half BA 900-7000

11768 Maria Ln $9,980,000 Sat/Sun 2-4 8 BD/8 | 2 BA Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty 917-2433

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The DeLeon Difference® 650.543.8500 www.deleonrealty.com 650.543.8500 | www.deleonrealty.com | DeLeon Realty CalBRE #01903224

Silicon Valley REALTORS® Donations Over 40,000 in 2019 The Silicon Valley REALTORS® Charitable Foundation donated $41,618 in 2019 to nonprofit organizations in Silicon Valley. Funds this year also went to scholarships for graduating seniors from 18 public high schools in SILVAR's service area.

The Charitable Foundation makes grants available to organizations from donations by REALTORS® and affiliate members of the Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS® (SILVAR).

2019 grants were also funded by SILVAR district fundraisers: $5,005 from the Los Altos-Mountain View District Annual Pumpkin Auction and $1,786 from the Los Gatos-Saratoga District Annual Bocce Ball Tournament.

“Rising home prices and rents have taken a toll on many residents," said Foundation president Eileen Giorgi. “We thank our members for their continued support and contributions to the communities where they work and live.”

The 2019 grant recipients include Adolescent Counseling Services, which provides a network of skilled family therapists and support groups for teens and young adults in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties; East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, which promotes educational opportunities for students in East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park; Westwind 4-H Riding for the Handicapped, which provides children with disabilities the opportunity to have fun while improving their coordination and strengthening their muscles; Youth Community Service, which provides service learning and leadership activities to underserved students in East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Palo Alto; and Jasper Ridge Farm,

which helps children and adults facing physical and emotional challenges through therapeutic interaction with gentle farm animals.

SILVAR districts, through the Foundation, likewise made the following donations to local organizations: $5,335 from the Los GatosSaratoga district's annual pumpkin auction to the Family Giving Tree for holiday gifts, clothing and food certificates to needy families and seniors in the community; $750 from the CupertinoSunnyvale district to West Valley Community Services and to Sunnyvale Community Services for their Back to School programs for lowincome students; and $1,783 from the Los Altos-Mountain View district legal updates for Community Services Agency, which provides emergency financial support, clothing, food and more for needy residents of Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.

For the 20th year, the Foundation's Scholars Program presented a $1,000 grant to each of 18 graduating seniors from public high schools in Silicon Valley. In 2020, the scholarship grant will increase to $1,500.

The John Tripp Silicon Valley REALTORS® Scholarship grants $500 awards to veterans enrolled at Foothill and De Anza colleges. The late John Tripp was a veteran of the Korean War and past president of SILVAR and the Foundation. **** Information provided in this column is presented by the Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS®. Send questions to Rose Meily at rmeily@silvar.org.

An evening with

Dr. COrnel WesT Please join Dr. Cornel West to discuss democracy, race, and justice. The evening will also include a question and answer session with Foothill College students.

Friday, January 17 6:30 PM Smithwick Theatre Purchase tickets at

foothill.edu/speakers Proceeds will benefit Foothill College service leadership and equity scholarships.

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 25

Sports Shorts

ON THE AIR Friday College women’s basketball: Washington State at Stanford, 7 p.m., Pac-12 Network

Sunday College women’s basketball: Washington at Stanford, 2 p.m., Pac-12 Network

Thursday College men’s basketball: Washington at Stanford, 6 p.m., FS1

Karen Ambrose Hickey/Stanford Athletics

HOLIDAY SPIRIT ... After blitzing a pair of opponents with first-quarter fireworks in the first two games of the Joe Schram Classic, Pinewood came out relatively cold in the championship game against host St. Francis. And the Lancers, who have been victims of Pinewood onslaughts in the past, were eager to capitalize and stay competitive as long as possible. It was just a six-point game at halftime, but Pinewood tossed a 13-0 shutout over the first six minutes of the third quarter and pulled away for a 7347 victory. Pinewood (8-0), which returns to action Saturday with a 5 p.m. home game against Carondelet, plays at a very high energy level both on offense and defense. The team compensated for the cold shooting first half by hustling after loose balls and offensive rebounds, and as a result got up an incredible 41 shots (making 13) over the first two quarters.

That’s a lot of shots in 16 minutes.

Point guard Annika Decker, named the tournament MVP, took the scoring responsibilities into her own hands.

She had 14 points at halftime and finished with 23 on nine field goals, five from 3-point range. “It’s certainly different,’’ Decker said when asked how she liked being a scoring point guard. “I was taking shots when they were sagging off me.’’ Una Jovanovic, also an all-tournament pick, scored 27 in Pinewood’s semifinal win over San Ramon Valley. Her shot wasn’t falling early on against St. Francis, but she attacked the boards, especially after center Maia Garcia had to sit down with three first-half fouls. Jovanovic scored 11 points in the second half to finish with 16 and made a huge contribution with 17 rebounds. “The coaches told me to attack the boards which is something I don’t usually pursue,’’ she said. “It was definitely a goal.’’ Courtni Thompson, a strong defensive player whose value doesn’t always show up in the box score, scored 12 points, and Garcia finished with eight points and 12 rebounds. Thompson was named the tournament’s Ms. Hustle ... Marin Catholic beat Eastside Prep 48-40 in the consolation championship.

The Panthers (4-7) participate in the Pittsburg Showcase on Friday at 2:30 p.m. with a game against Encinal ...

Caroline Barclay scored 23 points, Jacqueline Chin added 13 on four 3-pointers and Sacred Heart Prep went to overtime to beat San Luis Obispo in the seventh-place contest, 57-51. It was tied at 46 at the end of regulation. Playing without three starters in the tournament, SHP (7-4) still managed to win a game. Barclay scored 43 points in her last two games. Kennedy Anderson added 11 points. Q

Local Local sports sports news news and and schedules, schedules, edited edited by

by Rick Rick Eymer Eymer Sophomore Lexie Hull leads Stanford in scoring with a 14.4 average entering Pac-12 Conference play Friday.

STANFORD WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Cardinal set to open Pac-12 play this weekend There are no weak links in conference play this season

by Rick Eymer here’s no rest for the weary when it comes to Pac-12 women’s basketball and fifth-ranked Stanford will have had nearly a week to regroup after beating UC Davis on Saturday in a tougher than expected nonconference victory.

The Cardinal (11-1) opens Pac12 play with a home game against Washington State (7-6, 0-1) at 7 p.m. Friday and the Cougars have the ‘worst’ overall record in the conference entering the weekend.

The conference is so good this season there are no weak links.

Washington State’s Borislava Hristova comes in ranked third in the Pac-12 with an 18.5 scoring average. Teammate Chanelle Molina is 10th at 14.6, just ahead of Lexie Hull’s 14.4 average, Stanford’s leading scorer.

The conference is packed so full of talent that reigning national Player of the Year Sabrina Ionescu, a senior at Oregon, is the third-best scorer on her team and Ionescu ranks eighth in the conference.

Stanford is one of four Pac-12 teams in the top 10 and one of three in the top five. There are four undefeated teams and none of them are Stanford or No. 2 Oregon, each with one loss. Arizona, Colorado, UCLA and Oregon State are all 12-0.

Seven teams are already in double-digit victories and the Pac-12 has won 83.3% of its games when not playing each other. Welcome to

T

Page 26 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

the gauntlet. Washington (9-3, 1-0) visits Sunday for a 2 p.m. contest.

“I’m excited for Pac-12 play,” Cardinal freshman Haley Jones said following the win over UC Davis. “Every game will be intense. I just want to make a positive impact any way I can.”

Jones, widely considered the top recruit in her class, recorded her first career double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds against the Aggies and she’s just getting started.

“Her next step is a triple-double,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer

said. “She’s very capable of that because she’s unselfish. She’s well beyond her years in terms of understanding the game.”

Jones averages 10.8 points and is one of three Cardinal players averaging double figures. Junior Kiana Williams averages 11.8.

Freshman Fran Belibi returned to the starting lineup for the first time since early November and was a force on defense as Stanford outscored the Aggies 32-18 in the paint. She also blocked three shots.

Hull hit two key 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and finished

with 14 points for Stanford, which was coming off its first loss of the season to then unranked Texas.

Nadia Fingall added 11 points and blocked a pair of shots.

“This will get everyone’s attention on playing better defense,” VanDerveer said. “We stepped up in the second half and Haley made some nice plays. She came to play.

Defense was the difference.”

Stanford ended the third quarter on a 10-1 run to take a 46-41 edge into the fourth. Jones scored five points, including a driving layup with 26 seconds left in the third.

Anna Wilson hit a layup that gave Stanford a 17-7 advantage midway through the first quarter but the Aggies outscored the Cardinal 21-5 over the next 8:41 to open a 28-22 lead and carry a 32-30 edge into halftime.Q

SCVAL BASKETBALL

Palo Alto, Gunn open league seasons Vikings host Cupertino; Titans play at Monta Vista

by Glenn Reeves alo Alto caught fire halfway though last season and rode a 10-game winning streak to a Central Coast Section Division I boys basketball championship and through the first two rounds of the Northern California Division III playoffs.

That run, as well as the season, came to an end in the NorCal Division III semifinals with a 5552 loss at Monterey. It wasn’t a pleasant memory to carry into the off-season.

So motivation was not in short supply Monday when Paly played Monterey in the consolation

P

championship game of the Joe Schram Classic at St. Francis High. And the Vikings turned in what was probably their best performance of the season in a 66-53 victory.

Palo Alto (6-3) hopes the win can fire up another long winning streak. The Vikings open Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division play at home Friday against Cupertino, with a scheduled starting time of 7:45 p.m.

Matthew Marzano was a starter on the team that lost to Monterey last season.

“We have a lot of new guys but it was still Palo Alto versus

Monterey,’’ Marzano said. “We were definitely out to get payback for the past.’’

He went off for an easy 27 points and 13 rebounds and also had a number of steals and assists. He could have scored more but was looking to pass rather than shoot late in the game.

Marzano was named to the alltournament team.

“Honestly I didn’t think I scored that much,’’ he said. “So many guys played well.’’

In particular, Ryan Purpur scored 16 points and Conner Lusk had 13.

Purpur, a 6-foot-6 post, slammed home a lob pass from Lusk in the first quarter, and that seemed to set the tone. Paly, playing loose and confident, steadily pulled away

Sports

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK The Matadors ended their season-opening nine-game losing streak with a 69-56 victory over Westmont in their last game.

and led by as many as 22 at 66-44 before Monterey scored the final nine points of the game.

“That gave us a real big boost on offense and defense,’’ Marzano said. “We hadn’t had a dunker like Ryan at Palo Alto in a long time.’’

Palo Alto has won three of its past four games and five of seven.

The Vikings lost 53-50 at Cupertino last season and struggled to win 40-39 in Palo Alto, the game that started the winning streak.

The Viking have won six of the past seven meetings with the Pioneers dating to a loss in the quarterfinals of the Central Coast Section Division I tournament in 2016.

Gunn (4-6) at Monta Vista (1-9) The Titans will be looking to end a two-game losing streak in their SCVAL El Camino Division opener in Cupertino at 7:45 p.m.

They’ve lost five of their past six games overall.

Across 1 Coat of arms inscription 6 Dir. from NYC to Seattle 9 Sibilant sound 13 In the vicinity of 14 “The Beatles at ___ Stadium” (music documentary) 15 Minimal amount 16 ?keep a kaenS 19 Collapsible shelter 20 Paleozoic and Cenozoic, e.g.

21 What baby shampoo avoids 22 Hybrid citrus from Jamaica 24 Propped open 26 ?loot s’tsirucinaM 30 “___ a Rainbow” (Rolling Stones tune) 34 ___ apso (dog breed) 35 Prescriptions, briefly 37 “Mixed-ish” network 38 “You’ve Got Mail” ISP 39 With 49-Across, ?retsis s’anereS 42 Blazers’ org.

43 Unhealthy 44 High or low cards 45 “Li’l” guy in the comics 47 Take five 49 See 39-Across 52 “___ be surprised” 54 “... ___ it seems” 55 Birch of “Ghost World” 58 “Flashdance” director Adrian 60 Paintball mark 64 ?rekrowoc s’rotcudnoC 67 Precious metal sources 68 “Eat, ___, Love” 69 ___-Whirl (amusement park ride) 70 Second to ___ 71 Wood used to make baseball bats 72 Fabled tale-teller

Jenna Hickey

Matt Marzano (13), Ryan Purpur (22) and Connor Lusk (2) lead Palo Alto into SCVAL De Anza Division play.

Girls basketball Cupertino (2-10) at Paly (4-4) The Vikings head into their 6:15 p.m. home SCVAL De Anza Division opener on a two-game slide after splitting four games at the Seaside Sweet Sixteen tournament.

Paly relies on a balanced scoring attack since losing junior guard Annika Shah for the season. Carly Martin has picked up much of the load, though Illayda Turgut, Kaella Peters, Elif Turgut, Itzel Torres Jessica Fiske and Delaney Ball have also made significant contributions.

Paly, which does not have a senior on the roster, owns a fivegame winning streak over Cupertino, all since 2015.

Gunn (0-8) at Monta Vista (2-7) The Titans are looking for their first win of the season in their SCVAL El Camino Division opener. They lost twice to the Matadors last season in their first games against each other since 2011.

Gunn’s last winning season came in 2016-17. Q

Avery Lee

Cole Kastner

MENLO BASKETBALL The junior guard scored 45 points in the first two games of the Hawaii Baptist Tournament over the weekend. She scored 27 points in a win over Kalani on Friday and 18 in a win over the host team.

MENLO BASKETBALL The senior averaged 21.5 points and 11.5 rebounds over four games at the Las Vegas Prep Championships.

He led the Knights into the championship game and was named to the all-tournament team.

Honorable mention Caroline Barclay

Sacred Heart Prep basketball

Maia Garcia

Garret Keyhani

Pinewood basketball

Menlo basketball

Una Jovanovic*

Pinewood basketball

Maeia Makoni

www.PASportsOnline.com For expanded daily coverage of college and prep sports, visit www.PASportsOnline.com

Palo Alto basketball

Justin Sellers

Palo Alto basketball

Menlo basketball

Ilayda Turgut

Nate Tripaldi

Palo Alto basketball

Menlo-Atherton basektball *Previous winner

Watch video interviews of the Athletes of the Week, go to PASportsOnline.com

“You Turned Up” — I’m just following directions. By Matt Jones

This week’s SUDOKU

Answers on page 18.

Answers on page 18.

Down 1 Beer ingredient 2 Symphony orchestra woodwind 3 “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” character 4 Onomatopoetic name for motorized rickshaws 5 First N.L. player to hit 500 home runs 6 “Hold up!”

7 Company’s bottom line 8 When doubled, a guitar effect 9 Job opening fillers 10 Only state name starting with two vowels 11 Head the cast 12 Reports 14 Feature of a font

Connor Lusk

Palo Alto basketball

Matt Marzano*

Menlo basketball

Carly Martin

READ MORE ONLINE

Reilly Duncan

Woodside wrestling

17 Assist 18 Sched. guess 23 Tropical fruit with pink flesh 25 Baby Yoda, eventually (one presumes) 26 Prime minister between Major and Brown 27 “Head Like ___” (Nine Inch Nails song) 28 They may be recorded for quality and training purposes 29 “Hello, ___ Be Going!” (Phil Collins album) 31 Barbera’s animation partner 32 Diminished 33 Do a haunted house job 36 Catches 40 Raw silk shade 41 Annoying ones

www.sudoku.name

46 “Two-bite” bakery item, maybe 48 Actor Gibson of “2 Fast 2 Furious” 50 “The Daily Show” correspondent Chieng 51 Neighbor of Nev. 53 Rafter’s need 55 Disney movie about computers 56 Lifesaver, maybe 57 Subway fixture 59 “I know” 61 Wriggly tankful 62 “Dallas Buyers Club” Oscar winner Jared 63 Sandy golf hazard 65 Hotel offering 66 “Give ___ go!” ©2020 Jonesin’ Crosswords (jonesincrosswords@gmail.com)

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • January 3, 2020 • Page 27

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from

JLEE REALTY & TEAM

JULIANA LEE FOUNDATION

JLEE REALTY

JulianaLee.com | 650.857.1000 4260 El Camino Real, Palo Alto Page 28 • January 3, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com