Palo Alto Weekly December 25, 2020

Palo Alto

Vol. XLII, Number 11

Q

December 25, 2020

Nursing homes prepare for COVID vaccines Page 5

w w w. P a l o A l t o O n l i n e.c o m

Surreal times Photos capture historic events that shaped 2020

Donate to the HOLIDAY FUND pages 5,8

| Page 12

Read up-to-the-minute news on PaloAltoOnline.com Q Upfront City to roll out ambulance insurance Q Upfront Ada’s Cafe ďŹ ghts for survival Q Eating Out Best meals in the worst year

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dependable health care in uncertain times It is as important as ever to get the care you need.

Stanford Health Care is taking every precaution to keep you safe.

To protect your health, we are: • Sanitizing exam rooms after every patient U.S. News & World Report recognizes Stanford Health Care among the top hospitals in the nation. Ranking based on quality and patient safety.

• Testing patients for COVID-19 before most procedures • Screening everyone for COVID-19 risk before entry • Providing and requiring masks for patients and staff • Monitoring employee health, including regular COVID-19 testing Don’t delay your care. Appointments are available at our locations across the Bay Area and remotely by video visit.

To learn more, visit: stanfordhealthcare.org/resumingcare

Page 2 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

2VodtUVdts sVWp MWT Kt_s |OBoÛ our community has been resilient and supportive. oBsOTt_ Tdo a| K_WObspÛ ToWObMp BbM TBaW_|Û BbM O{loOppWbU a sincere thank you to the healthcare and essential workers.

Wishing you happy holidays and a safe start to the new year.

Sean Foley 650.207.6005 sean.foley@compass.com DRE 00870112 Compass is the brand name used for services provided by one or more of the Compass group of subsidiary companies. Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. License !taJOo à __ aBsOoWB_ loOpObsOM VOoOWb Wp WbsObMOM Tdo WbTdoaBsWdbB_ ltoldpOp db_| BbM Wp KdalW_OM Toda pdtoKOp MOOaOM oO_WBJ_O Jts VBp bds JOOb yOoW OMà VBbUOp Wb loWKOÛ KdbMWsWdbÛ pB_O do zWsVMoBzB_ aB| JO aBMO zWsVdts bdsWKOà www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 2020 • Page No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footage are approximate.

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Page 4 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Upfront

Local news, information and analysis

Long-term care facilities prepare for COVID-19 vaccines The county’s most vulnerable population will begin being vaccinated next week

by Sue Dremann

O

perators of local skilled nursing and long-term care facilities are breathing a sigh of relief after learning that they will receive doses of COVID-19 vaccines for their patients and staff as early as next week.

Walgreens and CVS Health started administering vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Inc. on Dec. 18 and 21, respectively, in other states as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Pharmacy Partnership for Longterm Care Program. CVS will roll out its program in California starting Dec. 28, Monica Prinzing, CVS spokeswoman for the western region, wrote in an email on Tuesday.

Walgreens is scheduled to provide vaccinations at approximately 800 long-term care facilities across 12 states this week, but not in California. The company

will begin clinics in 39 additional states the week of Dec. 28, or once the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approves more jurisdictions, Walgreens spokeswoman Emily Delnicki said on Tuesday.

Rhonda Bekkedahl, CEO and executive director at Channing House in Palo Alto, said.

On-site inoculations for residents and staff will begin on Dec.

28 with the second-dose vaccination approximately 21 days later.

“We are very excited to be receiving the first dose of the vaccine this month,” Bekkedahl wrote in an email on Tuesday.

“The availability of the vaccine has given our residents, staff and their families hope. Hope that this pandemic will one day be in the (continued on page 22)

EMERGENCY SERVICES

City proposes ambulance insurance Program expected to bring in more than $1M annually

by Gennady Sheyner

P

Courtesy Hidden Villa

Alisa Moore, programs administrator at Hidden Villa, helps assemble boxes for the nonprofit group’s “Seeds of Summer” program, which aimed to bring the farm experience to participants sheltering at home during the pandemic.

HOLIDAY FUND

With camps shut down, Hidden Villa sends seeds, leaves and lessons to area youth Seeds of Summer program offers campers a taste of the outdoors

F

or more than half a century, Hidden Villa has provided its young campers with a unique blend of pastoral beauty and social justice activism.

They come for the baby goats; they stay for the LGBTQ+ curriculum.

And some, like Kate Prince, return year after year after year.

In a recent interview over Zoom, the 13-year-old recalled the highlight of the traditional Hidden

by Gennady Sheyner Villa experience: the animals.

She recalled the sheep (“really, really fluffy”) and the goats that occasionally nibbled on campers’ fingers (“But they’re so sweet!”) and the cows that were milked by Hidden Villa staff.

“It was really nice to unplug and refreshing to be in the natural environment,” Prince said.

The lessons, she said, were equally valuable. They revolve around Hidden Villa’s five pillars: race and class; the legacy

of founder Josephine Duveneck; farm and food; environmental stewardship; and LGBTQ+ rights and activism, according to Brenda Jones, camp director. In a normal year, a key part of the camp experience is “reflections,” a daily period in which staff and campers discuss one of these pillars and participate in an activity that relates to it.

Hidden Villa tried to stay true to its core mission during this highly abnormal year.

Handcuffed by COVID-19, which made gatherings at camp both unsafe and illegal, and cognizant of the screen fatigue that comes with distance learning, the nonprofit launched a program called “Seeds of Summer.”

Instead of campers coming to Hidden Villa in 2020, Hidden Villa came to them.

Students participating in “Seeds of Summer” received

alo Alto residents and businesses may soon have the option of subscribing to a new service that most will hope they’ll never have to use: unlimited rides in Fire Department ambulances.

The Palo Alto Fire Department is preparing to get into the insurance business by offering all households and businesses the option of paying a flat monthly fee. Those who participate would not have to pay any out-of-pocket costs if they require an ambulance transport — a service that can cost some residents as much $2,460 per trip.

The program has two main goals: giving local residents and employees one less worry when they’re facing a medical emergency, and giving the Fire Department an important new revenue source at a time of budget shortfalls. The City Council’s Finance Committee received its first look at the proposed program last week and the full council is expected to take it up in early 2021.

“The biggest compliment we get as an emergency medical provider is our service,” Fire Chief Geo Blackshire told the committee at the Dec. 15 meeting. “The most regular complaint we get is billing. What we feel is that we’re providing some cushion to one of our biggest complaints that we get, and that’s our billing. We can provide that to the customer and give them a means of saving

(continued on page 20) (continued on page 20)

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 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 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) 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) Visual Journalist Intern Olivia Treynor Editorial Assistant/Intern Coordinator Lloyd Lee (223-6526) 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

The presence of this hope, alone, has improved the general morale of everyone on campus.

—Rhonda Bekkedahl, Channing House CEO, on the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines. See story on page 5.

Around Town

ADVERTISING Vice President Sales & Marketing Tom Zahiralis (223-6570) Courtesy Evelyne Keomian

Multimedia Advertising Sales Elaine Clark (223-6572), Connie Jo Cotton (223-6571) 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) Sales & Production Coordinator Diane Martin (223-6584) DESIGN

995 Fictitious Name Statement TRADEMARKIA PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION TRADEMARKIA PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION TRADEMARKIA FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT File No.: FBN670931 The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as: 1.) Trademarkia Professional Corporation, 2.) Trademarkia Professional Law Corporation, 3.) Trademarkia, located at 1580 West El Camino Real, Suite 10, Mountain View, CA 94040, Santa Clara County.

This business is owned by: A Corporation.

The name and residence address of the registrant(s) is(are): LegalForce RAPC Worldwide, Professional Corporation 1580 West El Camino Real, Suite 10 Mountain View, CA 94040 Registrant began transacting business under the fictitious business name(s) listed above on 1/10/2020.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara County on December 15, 2020.

(PAW Dec. 25, 2020; Jan. 1, 8, 15, 2021)

997 All Other Legals NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: PATRICIA K. KLEIN Case No.: 20PR188709 To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of PATRICIA K. KLEIN. A Petition for Probate has been filed by: CRAIG O. KLEIN in the Superior Court of California, County of SANTA CLARA. The Petition for Probate requests that: CRAIG O. KLEIN be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.

The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the

Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on January 14, 2021 at 9:01 a.m. in Dept.: 13 of the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, located at 191 N. First St., San Jose, CA, 95113.

If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

If you are a creditor or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58 (b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner: Katherine Efting 438 South Murphy Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086-6114 (408) 732-3114 (PAW Dec. 11, 18, 25, 2020)

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

Page 6 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Design & Production Manager Kristin Brown (223-6562) Senior Designers Linda Atilano, Paul Llewellyn Designers Kevin Legnon, Amy Levine, Douglas Young BUSINESS Assistant Business Manager Gwen Fischer (223-6575) Business Associates Nico Navarrete (223-6582), Suzanne Ogawa (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. ©2021 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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FULFILLING CHRISTMAS WISHES ... Every other Saturday since late March, the Karat School Project has dropped off educational materials and gift cards for food to local families living in recreational vehicles. RV dwellers have said each visit feels like Christmas, according to Founder Evelyne Keomian. This month, the organization planned ahead to bring holiday cheer for the families they serve. Within two weeks, the nonprofit worked with parents to get their children’s wish lists by text message (many wanted bicycles) and gathered the items through donor support. The gifts were delivered Dec. 19 to about 35 families, each with an average of five children, who live in RVs along El Camino Real in Palo Alto.

“The joy in the children’s eyes — it was just amazing,” Keomian said.

The families also received gift cards to purchase holiday meals.

The assistance was particularly meaningful to a single mother of a 3-year-old boy. She was unable to text the nonprofit her son’s wish list because she has been out of work due to the pandemic, preventing her from paying her phone bill. The nonprofit gave her a Target gift card that she spent on her son’s first Christmas gift: a toy from the film “Cars.” “To be able to hand a gift to a child that may not have had a gift otherwise ... it’s a good feeling,” Keomian said.

A STRONG FOUNDATION ...

When the Rev. Greg Schaefer of University Lutheran Church heard from a local teacher that students attended classes on Zoom from the floor or couch, he decided to tap into his carpentry background to launch the “Desks for Distance Learning’’ project.

Since mid-September, 45 of the 57 requested desks have been built. Community contributions and church funds paid for the

materials, which cost about $45 per desk. Schaefer found help from locals to meet the demand. He and a fellow woodworker prepared detailed directions ahead of time.

Volunteers came to the church to pick up the materials, assemble the desks outdoors and bring them inside the sanctuary when completed. “Even though we’re not using our sanctuary for worship right now, to walk in there and see lumber and tools and screws ... we’re doing God’s work in there, in a different way,” Schaefer said.

To align with health protocols, each appointment was limited to members of the same household and no two appointments conflicted. The desks are left unpainted so the students have a chance to personalize them. “A child moving those 3 feet from the floor to a desktop, to be able to do their schoolwork — that 3 feet represents a pretty big change.”

Anyone interested in a desk can email Schaefer at Pastor@UniLu. Church.

A PLEDGE FOR DIVERSITY ... Some Palo Alto Utilities customers were a bit put off when they received an insert in their utility bill this month advertising ProjectPledge, a program that assists residents who have trouble paying their utility bills. It wasn’t the program itself that was the issue but the two photos used in the ad: one featuring a Black family and another featuring a Black couple. “Why must we assume that African Americans are the ones who need this kind of assistance, when no other racial groups were represented?” resident Michael Cass asked in a letter. Utilities officials say that there was no intention to link the program with any race or to suggest that Black individuals are more likely to need assistance with their billsl. Catherine Elvert, communications manager for Palo Alto Utilities, said the marketing approach is to “focus on all aspects of the community” and to depict images of customers of “all ages and races.” The fact that this flyer only depicted Black individuals was coincidental, she said. “We strive to show diversity across our communication and outreach channels to reflect the diversity of the community we serve.” Q

Upfront CITY BUDGET

Plans for Palo Alto History Museum remain in limbo

F

or nearly two decades, Palo Alto’s elected officials and civic leaders have viewed the historic Roth Building next to Heritage Park as the perfect place to launch a museum celebrating the city’s legacy of leadership in technology, education and health care.

But with the city’s finances on the wane and frustrations mounting about the slow pace of progress on museum fundraising, some members of the City Council indicated on Dec. 14 that it may be time to abandon the project and consider other options, including the possible sale of the 1932 building that was designed by renowned architect Birge Clark and that once housed the Palo Alto Medical Clinic.

For city leaders, the historic building at [300 Homer St. is both a headache and treasure. It is a historic asset in a prime downtown location, adorned with murals that celebrate medical achievements. It is also vacant, derelict and seismically unsafe.

Everyone agrees the building should be fixed up as soon as possible. But the only plan to do so thus far has come from Palo Alto Museum, the nonprofit that has been spearheading the museum project since 2004. The organization presented the council with two options. One would help structurally and seismically rehabilitate the building to create what’s known as a “cold shell” for the museum. Another would involve making further renovations to make the building occupiable by the museum. The former option would cost an estimated $6 million; the latter would run at about $10.5 million.

Most of the funding for the cold shell option would not come from the city’s general fund, according to the museum’s proposal. The nonprofit has about $500,000 in cash on hand for the construction and another $4.9 million in revenues from the city’s “transfer of development rights” program, which supports the rehabilitation of historical buildings. The museum also has received $300,000 in county grants, and city staff has identified another $300,000 that can be allocated for the project from library impact fees (the new museum would hold Palo Alto’s historical archives, which are currently housed at Cubberley Community Center).

For the more ambitious $10.5 million plan, the museum had recommended utilizing other impact fees, including ones designated for park improvements.

With the city’s finances in a rut, council members showed little appetite last week for significantly investing more public funds in the project. Instead, the council reverted to its familiar pattern and requested that staff consider other options for the Roth Building.

As in the past, council members talked about the urgent need to rehabilitate the building as soon as possible. They recommended leasing some — or all — of the building to a private entity. And for the first time, they floated the idea of outright selling the historic building, though several members also noted that they don’t particularly favor going this route.

They stopped well short, however, of taking the type of actions that proponents of the museum had been hoping for.

Council member Alison Cormack was among those who urged action on fixing up the Roth Building. Cormack said she recently toured the building and saw medical equipment that has been in the building since the city purchased it in 2000.

“I’m appalled that our city and prior councils and this council and staff have let that building just sit there for 20 years. ...

I’m actually really stunned. I’m stunned this has not been on our infrastructure list,” Cormack said.

While Vice Mayor Tom DuBois noted at the Dec. 14 meeting that the Roth Building is a Palo Altoowned asset and suggested that the city needs to at least fund the cold shell, most of his colleagues were reluctant to spend more public money on the project. Cormack brought up the idea of selling the Roth Building, saying it would be irresponsible for the council to not consider that option.

The council voted 5-2, with DuBois and Council member Lydia Kou dissenting, to direct staff to explore a menu of options for the Roth Building, including considering a possible sale, with Palo Alto Museum getting a first right of purchase. Other options are pursuing a lease that would generate revenue, rezoning the site to make it economically viable and partnering with the museum to build a “warm shell” without the use of public funding.

Public Agenda

All of these options fall well short of the nonprofit’s request.

The museum has already spent $1.8 million on rehabilitation plans for the Roth Building. It has also received pledges of $2.1 million for museum programs and exhibits, according to Rich Green, president of Palo Alto Museum board of directors. That funding, however, cannot be used for the retrofitting work.

“I think we’ve charted a very clear, expedient path to getting that building rehabilitated in a very short period of time with a huge contribution of funds from museum donors and museum efforts,” Green said. “So it seems to me like the smartest way forward is to stay the path — use our plans, use the funds that we raised and work with us ... by possibly reallocating some of the available impact fees to completing the warm shell, getting the building occupancy permit so that we can come in and install our museum.”

Council members showed little appetite, however, for tapping into the city’s pool of impact fees.

Photo by Gennady Sheyner

Council proposes selling or leasing the Roth Building, a long-considered site of future museum

The Palo Alto City Council struggled this month to find ways to rehabilitate the historic but dilapidated Roth Building at 300 Homer Ave. Mayor Adrian Fine called the museum project “laudable” but suggested that allocating the impact fees to the museum would represent “an end run around the financial process.” Impact fees, he said, are intended for a whole range of priorities relating to parks, libraries and community centers.

“If I knew we could’ve done it on council, I would’ve done it years ago,” Fine said. “I would have said, ‘I love bike lanes and dog parks, and let’s use the impact fees to fund those.’ I find this entirely inappropriate.”

Council member Eric Filseth also rejected the notion that the city has millions of dollars available for the museum project. He joined the council majority in directing staff to return in six

months with an update on other uses for the building. While the vote was very similar to the council’s prior direction to explore other options for the Roth Building (with the notable addition on a potential sale), council member Liz Kniss said she believes the options represent a reasonable road for the city at a time when its finances are strained.

“We are in terrible times,” Kniss said.”We’ve still got a raging pandemic. We’ve got an economic situation that looks about as bleak as one has looked in a long time. We don’t have a really clear avenue for really dealing with this as of yet.” Q Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.

H A P P Y H O L I D AY S F R O M

Scandia Home Palo Alto

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

Town & Country Village • 650.326.8583 • paloalto@scandiahome.com www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 2020 • Page 7

Support our Kids with a gift to the Holiday Fund Last Year’s Grant Recipients 49ers Academy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$20,000 Able Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Acknowledge Alliance (Cleo Eulau) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Ada’s Café . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Adolescent Counseling Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500 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 (Caritas). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000 CASA of San Mateo County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 CASSY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000 DreamCatchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$20,000 East Palo Alto Academy Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500 East Palo Alto Kids Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000 East Palo Alto Library (formerly Quest) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 East Palo Alto Tennis & Tutoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000 Ecumenical Hunger Progam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000 Environmental Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Family Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Fit Kids Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Foundation for a College Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500 Friends of Junior Musuem & Zoo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Health Connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Heart and Home Collaborative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$15,000 Hidden Villa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Jasper Ridge Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Kara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500 Live in Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Marine Science Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Music in the Schools Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Musikiwest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 New Voices for Youth (Social Good Fund) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$3,000 Nuestra Casa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500 Palo Alto Art Center Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Palo Alto Housing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Palo Alto Music Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Peninsula Bridge Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Peninsula College Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Peninsula Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Ravenswood Education Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500 Rich May Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Rise Together Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000 Robotics for All. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$3,600 Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Silicon Valley Urban Debate League . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 St. Francis of Assisi Youth Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 TheatreWorks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Vista Center for Blind & Visually Impaired . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 WeHOPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$15,000 YMCA - EPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000 YMCA - PA Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Youth Community Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$20,000 Youth Speaks Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000

Child Care Facility Improvement Grants Gatepath (Abilities United) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 All Five. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000 Grace Lutheran Preschool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 The Learning Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000 Palo Alto Community Child Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000 Palo Alto Friends Nursery School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$6,000 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 22, 335 donors have contributed $210,970 to the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund.

29 Anonymous ..........................................$9,595

New Donors Roy Levin & Jan Thomson ............................... 250 Patti Yanklowitz & Mark Krasnow................... 100 Deborah Mytels .............................................. 100 Katherine Bryant................................................. * Sallie Tasto ...................................................... 144 Steve & Gayle Brugler .................................. 1,000 Nancy Tuck .................................................. 1,000 John & Mary Schaefer .................................... 100 James & Kathryn Lodato ................................. 500 Daniel & Janis Tuerk ............................................ * Rosalie Shepherd ............................................ 100 David & Betsy Fryberger.................................. 100 Tom Hanks ..................................................... 200 Margo Sensenbrenner ........................................ * J. Gonzales ..................................................... 100 Don & Bonnie Miller ....................................... 100 Constance Crawford .......................................... * Vic & Norma Hesterman ................................. 250 Joanne Koltnow ............................................. 300 Susan Osofsky ................................................ 200 Neilson Buchanan ........................................ 1,250

Please consider donating online, which enables your gift to be processed immediately. The secure website is: siliconvalleycf.org/paw-holiday-fund Enclosed is a check for $_______________ Name__________________________________________________________ Business Name __________________________________________________ Address ________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip ___________________________________________________

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

Email __________________________________________________________

T I wish to contribute anonymously.

Phone _________________________________________________________

T Please withhold the amount of my contribution.

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

Please make checks payable to: Silicon Valley Community Foundation

T In my name as shown above

Send coupon and check to:

T In the name of business above OR:

T In honor of:

T In memory of:

T As a gift for:

High school scholarships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$8,000

Non-profits: Grant application & guidelines at PaloAltoOnline.com/holiday_fund

Judy Koch .................................................... 1,000 Mary G Dimit.................................................. 250 Eileen Brennan................................................ 200 Diane Ciesinski ............................................... 250 Thomas Shannon ........................................... 100 Jim Sharp........................................................ 100 Susan Elgee .................................................... 500 Susan Ashworth ............................................. 100 Robert Bell ...................................................... 100 Chisoon Lee ................................................... 200 Leo & Marlys Keoshian ................................... 250 Nancy Stern & David Ross ............................... 100 Bjorn Liencres .............................................. 1,000 Preston Gardner ............................................... 50 James Lobdell ................................................. 250 Don Amsbaugh .............................................. 200 Eric Kastner ................................................. 1,000 Verner Hansen ................................................ 100 Jane Millman .................................................. 100 Roxy & Michelle Rapp & Family .................... 2,000 Deborah Newhouse.......................................... 50 Phyllis Munsey ................................................ 300 Terry Hunter........................................................ * Nina Blackwell ................................................ 500 John E Vorce ................................................... 250

_______________________________________________________________ (Name of person)

Application deadline: January 11, 2021

Page 8 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

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.

CLICK AND GIVE

Steve Beitler........................................ 125 Kim Harvey ......................................2,000

In Memory Of Don Kenyon ......................................... 50 Carol Berkowitz ...................................... * Mason & Ryan ........................................ * Robert O. Jack .................................... 150 Bob Markevitch ...................................... * Dr. David Zlotnick ................................... * Wen Liu .............................................. 500

In Honor Of Lewis J Silvers, Jr ..................................... * Julie & Iris Harper ................................... * Denise Schectman, from ORM Staff ... 190 Anne Steinberg ...................................... *

Previously Published Janis Ulevich ....................................... 125 Tess & Eric Byler .................................... 75 Robyn H. Crumly .................................... * Stephanie Klein & Larry Baer................... * Sue Kemp........................................... 250 Judy Kramer ....................................... 150 Barbara Klein .......................................... * Tobye Kaye ............................................. * Michael Kieschnick ............................. 500 Bruce Campbell .................................. 250 Cathy Kroymann ................................ 250 Werner Graf ........................................... * Dorothy Deringer................................ 250 Amy Crowe ........................................ 500 Gary & Karen Fry ................................ 250 Bill Reller................................................. * Jody Maxmin .......................................... * Martha Shirk ...................................1,000 Jim & Karen Lewis .................................. * Judith Appleby ................................... 250 Vic Befera ........................................... 100 Ted & Ginny Chu .................................... * Penny & Greg Gallo ............................ 500 Brigid Barton ...................................5,000 Brigid & Rob Robinson........................ 200 Kaaren & John Antoun ....................2,000 Harry Hartzell...................................... 250 Susan & Doug Woodman ....................... * Peggy & Boyce Nute ............................... * Roy & Carol Blitzer.................................. * Gerald & Donna Silverberg ................. 100 Jan & Freddy Gabus ............................ 250 Hal & Iris Korol........................................ * Sally Hewlett....................................3,000 Arthur Keller ....................................... 500 Bruce & Jane Gee ............................... 250 Denise Savoie and Darrell Duffie ............. * Loreto Ponce de Leon ......................... 100 Thomas Ehrlich ................................... 500 Ron Wolf ............................................ 250 Andrea Smith ..................................... 100 Bonnie Packer..................................... 100 Michael & Gwen Havern..................5,000 Jan and Scott Kilner ............................ 500 Daniel Cox .......................................... 200 Patrick Burt ......................................... 500 Jocelyn Dong ...................................... 100 Carolyn Brennan ..................................... * Tom & Patricia Sanders ........................... * Page & Ferrell Sanders ........................ 100 Debby Roth ........................................ 200 Diana Diamond .................................. 300 Dorothy Saxe ...................................... 100 Jeanne & Leonard Ware...................... 500 Richard A. Baumgartner & Elizabeth M. Salzer .............................. * Jerry & Bobbie Wagger ........................... * Linda & Steve Boxer ................................ * Nancy & Joe Huber ................................. * Steven Feinberg ...............................5,000 Jean Wu ..........................................1,000 Marc Igler & Jennifer Cray .................. 200 Ann & Don Rothblatt.......................... 500 Marcia & Michael Katz........................ 200 Diane Moore .......................................... * Amado & Deborah Padilla .................. 250 Pat & Penny Barrett ............................ 100 Robert & Barbara Simpson...................... * John Galen ............................................. * Julie & Jon Jerome .................................. * Leif & Sharon Erickson ........................ 500 Edward Kanazawa .............................. 200 Scott Carlson & Katharine Miller ....10,000 Stephen & Nancy Levy ........................ 500 Mike & Jean Couch ............................ 250 Karen & Steve Ross ................................. *

Upfront

Donate online at siliconvalleycf.org/ paw-holiday-fund Katherine & Dorsey Bass ..................... 500 Lani Freeman & Stephen Monismith ....... * Harriet & Gerry Berner ........................ 350 Judy Palmer ......................................... 25 Teresa Roberts .................................... 500 Carol Uyeno ......................................... 50 Mark Cairns & Amanda Martin........... 100 Sally & Craig Nordlund ....................... 500 Christine Min Wotipka & Anthony Lising Antonio................... 100 Kathleen Foley-Hughes & Tony Hughes ................................1,000 Thayer Gershon .................................... 50 Xiaofan Lin ........................................... 50 John Pavkovich ................................... 400 Cynthia Costell ................................... 100 Richard Zuanich .................................. 150 Neha Choksi ......................................... 40 Braff Family ........................................ 500 Jennie Savage ..................................1,000 Bill Johnson & Terri Lobdell ..............1,000 Dawes Family ..................................... 250 Mary Lemmon ...............................20,000 Shirley Ely ........................................1,000 Jennifer DiBrienza & Jesse Doroguske ...........................1,000 Mike & Cathie Foster .......................1,000 Lawrence Yang & Jennifer Kuan ....10,000 Richard Johnsson .............................5,000 Chris & Anna Saccheri ............................ * Judith & Hans Steiner ......................... 100 Carolyn Caddes .................................. 200 Merrill & Lee Newman ........................ 250 Anne Williams .................................... 200 Jim & Valerie Stinger ........................... 100 Art & Peggy Stauffer........................... 500 Stuart & Carol Hansen ............................ * Nancy & Jim Baer.................................... * Marilyn, Dale, Rick & Mei Simbeck ......... * Betty W. Gerard .................................... 50 Tom & Nancy Fiene ............................. 150 Diane Finkelstein ................................ 200 Beth & Peter Rosenthal ....................... 500 Susan Benton ......................................... * Carol & Hal Louchheim ........................... * Christina Kenrick .............................3,500 Fruchterman Family ............................ 250 Harriet Roeder .................................1,000 Carol Hubenthal ................................. 300 Dr. Fatima Malik, MBA............................ * Roger Warnke .................................... 300 Dena Hill............................................. 500 Keith Clarke............................................ * Jeanette Kennedy ............................1,000 Susie Richardson & Hal Luft .................... * Peter Danner ...................................... 200 Chantal Akerib ................................... 500 Alice Fischgrund ................................. 100 Carli Scott........................................... 100 Thomas Rindfleisch ................................. * Jeff Dean ............................................ 345 Sallie & Jay Whaley ................................. * Hoda Epstein ...................................... 250 Gerald & Joyce Barker......................... 200 Cherie & Robert Donald ..................... 250 Linda & Jerry Elkind ............................ 250 Gwen Luce & Family ............................... * Liz Lillard-Bernal.................................... 50 Kay & Don Remsen................................. * Barbara Allen...................................... 100 Eugene & Mabel Dong ....................... 200 Micki & Bob Cardelli ............................... * Wendy Sinton......................................... * Diane Doolittle ....................................... * Charles & Barbara Stevens ...................... * Philip Hanawalt & Graciela Spivak....2,000 Virginia Laibl ....................................... 200 Glenn & Lorna Affleck ............................ * Phil Fernandez & Daniel Sternbergh........ * Cindy Dillon ............................................ * Helene Pier ............................................. * Fran Codispoti .................................... 250 Deborah Williams & Jean Luc Laminette .......................1,000 Nina & Norman Kulgein...................... 250 Chris Logan .......................................... 50 Roy Levin & Jan Thomson ................... 250 Donald Barr ........................................ 100 Ellen Lillington .................................... 400 Peter S. Stern.......................................... * Jean & Chuck Thompson .................... 100 Liz Kok ................................................... * Roger V. Smith .................................... 300 Scott Pearson ..................................... 500 Ellmann Family ................................... 100 Dr. Labaree and Ms. Churchill ............. 100 Rick & Eileen Brooks ........................... 500

News Digest

Gwendolyn Barry ................................ 100 Elizabeth Bechtel ................................ 100 Alan Bennett ...................................... 200 Tom McCalmont ..............................1,000 Diane Posnak...................................... 200 Mary Ann Sing ................................... 100 Annette Isaacson ................................ 200 Carol O’Neill ......................................... 50 Gail Woolley ....................................... 200 Charlene Kon ..................................... 250 Peter Rudd............................................ 50 Amy Crowe ........................................ 200 Diane Sikic .......................................... 400 Graceann Johnson .............................. 100

In Memory Of Ray Bacchetti ...................................... 200 Norman L. Frazee ................................... * Sandy Sloan........................................ 100 Lee Domenik .......................................... * Millie Fuchs............................................. * David W. Mitchell ................................... * Rudy Schubert ...................................... 50 Marie & Don Snow ............................. 200 The Zschokke Family ........................... 100 Alissa Riper Picker ............................... 250 Bertha Kalson ......................................... * Er-Ying and Yen-Chen Yen ................. 250 Mrs. Elsie Yang ................................... 200 Ernest J. Moore ...................................... * Tracy & Alan ........................................... * Pam Grady ......................................... 500 Lily & Philip Gottheiner ........................... * Bob Kirkwood .................................2,500 Our Loving Parents Albert & Beverly Pellizzari .................................. * Boyd Paulson Jr ...............................3,000 Edward & Elizabeth Buurma ................... * Leslie Smith ............................................ * August L. King........................................ * Duncan L. Matteson ........................1,000 Thomas W. & Louise L. Phinney .............. * Leo & Sylvia Breidenbach ........................ * Emmett Lorey ......................................... * Chet Brown ............................................ * Beverly Aarts....................................... 250 Zoe & Ken Allen ................................. 100 Nate Rosenberg .................................. 250 E Yanosh Alt ......................................... 20 Robert Spinrad ....................................... * Jennie Winsor Payne............................... * Leonard Ely ......................................... 500 Ian Halliday ............................................. * Kathleen Morris ...................................... * Samuel Benjamin Kurland................... 300 Manuel & Maria Januario ..................... 50 Kaye Kelley & Richard Van Dusen ....... 250 Florence Kan Ho ..................................... * Jim & Dottie Mellberg ............................. * Jerry Smallwood ..............................1,000 Mark Georgia ......................................... *

In Honor Of Fairmeadow Principal Iris Wong .............. * Joe Simitian ........................................ 220 Deborah Sutorius Hilleary ................... 100 Marie Wolbach ..................................... 25 Connor & Grace Missett ......................... * Dr. David Lipson and Ray ........................ * Charlie Hughes & the Ada’s Team ........... * Rich Hlava’s 87th Birthday ...................... * Myles, Amara, Leo & Vivi ........................ *

As a Gift For Logan Marsh & Gabby Perez .............. 500

Businesses & Organizations Alta Mesa Cemetery & Funeral Home...............................2,000 Delores Eberhart, DDS ............................ * Hayes Group Architects ...................5,000 Palo Alto Business Park ........................... * deLemos Properties ............................ 200 Ann Sonnenberg Interior Design ........ 200 Sponsors of Moonlight Run: Stanford Health Care ..................10,000 Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation ......................5,000 Sutter Health/Palo Alto Medical Foundation.................................5,000 Palantir .........................................5,000 Facebook ......................................5,000 Wealth Architects .........................5,000 Chan Zuckerberg Initiative ............5,000 Bank of the West ..........................1,500 A Runner’s Mind ...........................1,000 * Donor did not want to publish the amount of the gift.

Changes or corrections to listings may be made by contacting Kali Shiloh at kshiloh@paweekly.com.

Stanford doctors protest exclusion from vaccinations When Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children’s Health administered the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 18, most of its resident physicians, many of whom are on the front lines of caring for patients with the deadly virus, weren’t among those being inoculated, according to a letter to hospital leadership.

In response, a large group of resident physicians staged a protest in front of Stanford Hospital on Friday, Dec. 18, to raise concerns over the allocations.

Of the 5,000 doses of the vaccine in the hospital’s planned rollout to hospital employees, only seven residents and fellows were included, the Chief Resident Council said in a letter sent to the medical center’s leadership.

“There is still no articulated plan to vaccinate the remaining 1,300+ residents and fellows, including those on the front line directly treating COVID-19 patients,” the letter stated.

Dr. Niraj L. Sehgal, chief medical officer for Stanford Health Care, apologized for the way the vaccine allocations rolled out in a letter to the graduate medical education community on Dec. 17.

“Despite our best intentions to thoughtfully map out a principled vaccine plan to include our residents, fellows, and faculty, it’s clear there were several unintended missteps. ... I personally couldn’t feel worse about it.”

The hospital anticipates receiving additional doses of vaccine from Moderna Inc. Sehgal said the hospital is “increasingly confident” it would have enough vaccine doses “for everyone,” including the residents and fellows, he said. Q — Sue Dremann

Police investigate homicide, shooting spree A 58-year-old man was found dead in East Palo Alto on Monday, Dec. 21, in what police are investigating as a homicide, police said Tuesday.

Police were called to an address in the 1800 block of East Bayshore Road near Pulgas Avenue regarding a body found in the backyard of a residence in a mobile home park, according to police dispatch reports. Arriving officers found the man, who is identified as East Palo Alto resident Christopher Hamilton, deceased, according to a press release Tuesday.

“Based on the circumstances, we are treating this investigation as a homicide,” police said in the release. Details are not being released at this time in the investigation, they added.

Police had received calls about gunfire in the vicinity the previous night, according to dispatch reports.

Police also are currently investigating a shooting that left a 40-year-old man with stomach and shoulder wounds on Sunday afternoon near U.S. Highway 101.

The man was shot after gunfire erupted between his vehicle and another car near the on-ramp that connects U.S. Highway 101 and East Bayshore. Police believe there were four suspects in a black Honda Civic. Q —Sue Dremann

Three boys allegedly beat, rob woman Three boys were arrested in connection with the strong-arm robbery of a woman at Stanford Shopping Center on Dec. 21, resulting in injuries that left her hospitalized, Palo Alto police said.

Officers responding to a call on Dec. 21 at about 8:20 p.m. found a woman in her 60s in a parking garage at 180 El Camino Real with moderate injuries to her head and one knee, according to a press release.

The boys allegedly attempted to yank the woman’s purse off her shoulder. When she attempted to hold onto her purse, one of the boys allegedly punched her repeatedly in the back of the head. She fell to the ground, at which point the same boy stomped on one of her knees. The woman then let go of her purse and the boys fled, police said.

Shortly thereafter, an officer spotted a Mazda6 with three people matching the description that the woman gave police.

Police pursued the car until it eventually stopped on O’Brien Drive near Kavanaugh Drive in Menlo Park.

Police found credit cards in the woman’s name, which had been inside the stolen purse, and also found that the car the boys occupied was reported stolen in Oakland on Saturday, Dec. 19.

The boys were transported by police to Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. The driver of the stolen car and one of the passengers are both 12-year-old Oakland residents. The other passenger was a 14-year-old Oakland resident. Q —Sue Dremann LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com/square

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 2020 • Page 9

Upfront

Courtesy Tomoki Chien

Midpeninsula Post editors and staff writers, all high school students, hold a Zoom staff meeting.

YOUTH

A newspaper by students, for students High schoolers passionate about local journalism team up to start regional, independent publication

by Elena Kadvany

I

n eighth grade, Cedric Chan went through an unusual adolescent phase: immersing himself in city municipal code.

That eventually turned him on to watching city council meetings, and when he arrived at Los Altos High School, joining the student newspaper.

Chan, now a high school junior, is the managing editor of a new, student-run publication. Called the Midpeninsula Post, it’s made up of teenagers like him who stay up late to “geek out” over

city council meetings and believe wholeheartedly in the mission of local journalism.

Tomoki Chien, editor in chief of the Midpeninsula Post and a junior at Los Altos High School, came up with the idea of a regional, independent news outlet that would cover stories that matter to high schoolers throughout the Peninsula. He felt frustrated by the limitations of school publications, which are “educational programs first, newspapers second.”

“Until I joined The Talon and started reporting on local politics, I didn’t realize there are interesting things here that are happening and very much relevant to my life — maybe even more so than things happening at a national or state scale,” Chien said.

He poached reporters from The Talon, Los Altos High’s student publication, and is working to recruit more student journalists from high schools in Mountain View and Palo Alto. They were assigned beats, such as city hall

and education, for each city.

Midpeninsula Post reporters have covered school reopening plans, public health restrictions, the resignation of Los Altos’ city manager and the Palo Alto City Council’s vote to open Foothills Park to the public — all while managing Zoom classes and a typical high school workload.

(Chien tries not to text reporters during class time but often can’t help it when he has a budding story idea.)

Gil Rubinstein, a Los Altos High sophomore who covers Los Altos City Hall and education for the Midpeninsula Post, said he was immediately drawn into the idea of a student-run media “conglomerate” that could have a larger impact than siloed student newspapers.

“I think there was such an incredible opportunity here to do something different and bring together people in a way that hasn’t really been done before that we can find and that would allow us to be free to pursue what we wanted without being tied to some sort of central organization or academic obligations,” Rubinstein said. This summer, he covered local angles on the racial justice movement, including an interview with Los Altos Council member Neysa Fligor about police reform and the City Council’s late-night decision to eliminate school resource officers from the Los Altos High School campus.

“That, for a particular group of students, is going to have a huge impact,” he said of the council’s decision to eliminate school resource officers. “We think that it’s a shame really that that information isn’t being brought to students in a way that’s effective.”

Stories are also packaged specifically for their audience (fellow teenagers) with a focus on graphics, videos and social media

explainers of opaque government action.

“No hunting for web links, navigating outdated websites or even being left in the dark when important stories come up,” a recent Instagram post reads. “If it’s news, we’ll cover it, and it’ll show up right here in your feed.

“A lot of people will read local news because it shows up on their doorstep. What we’re trying to do is in a metaphorical sense bring local news to high schoolers’ doorsteps — and their doorstep right now is on their Instagram feeds or Twitter,” Rubinstein said.

Allison Huang, a Mountain View High School junior and Midpeninsula Post’s chief visual journalist, came to the publication without any prior journalism experience. To join student newspaper The Oracle, her school requires students to finish a yearlong introduction to journalism class, which is mostly focused on writing, she said, so she never enrolled.

“Being on Midpen has allowed me to do things I wouldn’t be able to do at the Mountain View Oracle,” she said.

The Midpeninsula Post is still young but eager to grow. Chien hopes to recruit more students, including graphic artists and middle schoolers; expand to more coverage areas and topics, such as food and recreation; and create a video department. They recently started an artist-of-the-month column that features high school musicians, illustrators, sculptors and other kinds of artists.

Students with a passion for journalism (no prior experience required, however) who are interested in applying can do so at bit.ly/34F98Cd. Q Staff Writer Elena Kadvany can be emailed at ekadvany@ paweekly.com.

COMMUNITY

Facing mounting COVID-19 hurdles, Ada’s Café temporarily shutters Resident starts auction to raise funds for the nonprofit, which hires people with disabilites

by Elena Kadvany “The goal of Ada’s is to create meaningful connections between the community and our employees. Right now that is a real struggle with sales down as much as they have been and real concerns about COVID-19 and the impact that would have on any of our employees, especially our mission-based employees,” she wrote in an email. “We can’t afford to keep losing significant money, wasting resources and potentially getting someone sick.”

Firoozeh Dumas, a Palo Alto resident, has launched an online auction to support Ada’s with a fundraising goal of $250,000.

Dumas, whose children went to

Page 10 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

elementary school with FoleyHughes’, said she was motivated in part as a native of Iran who always admired the U.S. for being more accepting of people with disabilities.

“I’m really saddened a place like Silicon Valley cannot sustain a business like Ada’s. What does that say about us if we let a business like this not survive?” Dumas said. “I know every business is suffering but if you look at the employees at this place, they are the most marginalized.”

Foley-Hughes, whose son Charlie has a developmental disability, opened Ada’s in 2014.

The majority of Ada’s 50 employees have diagnoses including

Veronica Weber

A

da’s Cafe in Palo Alto, like many local food businesses, is barely treading water amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales are down 80% at the Mitchell Park Community Center cafe. The staff of 50 has been cut to just six people.

But Ada’s is not a typical cafe.

It’s a nonprofit that trains and employs people with developmental disabilities], giving them space to both work and belong. The pandemic has turned that mission and the business itself upside down: Founder Kathleen Foley-Hughes announced on Friday that the cafe will close temporarily until the new stay-at-home order is lifted in January.

Kathleen Foley- Hughes, founder of Ada’s Café, left center, Charlie Hughes and Todd Cerf, right, serve a customer at the Palo Alto cafe on Nov. 21, 2017.

Down syndrome, traumatic brain injuries, autism spectrum disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder from war and incarceration and mental illness. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 10 times the average of a local area. Hughes has also hired refugees from Syria

and El Salvador.

The nonprofit also conducts research on how to improve workplaces for people with disabilities and on hiring, training and empowering people with disabilities in the commercial (continued on page 23)

New Homes for the Holidays.

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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 2020 • Page 11

A customer walks by empty shelves that normally hold bath tissues at a Target in Mountain View on March 14, days before the first stay-at-home orders are set to go into effect. Photo by Magali Gauthier.

by Magali Gauthier asks. Isolation. Inequality. Climate change. Resiliency. Hope.

The past 12 months have been unlike any other. As Palo Alto Weekly visual journalists captured this historic, life-changing year that included weeks of civil protests, unprecedented fires and a pandemic that transformed everyday life, their images reflect a range of unfamiliar and sometimes surreal -- moments that shaped 2020.

When viewed together, these images reveal just how much life has changed over the past year. Photos predating Santa Clara County’s first stay-at-home health order in mid-March feel like they were taken during another era. Those moments captured before the mask mandate are otherworldly, especially considering everything we know about the spread of the coronavirus now. And the images of orange skies covered in wildfire smoke above Palo Alto are apocalyptic.

But there’s also images that show hundreds of people peacefully protesting in the streets against social injustice and listening to Black community members share how they’ve experienced racism.

There’s images of residents who rose above these challenging times, like Alice’s Restaurant co-owner Andy Kerr, who delivered meals to first responders combating the CZU Lightning Complex fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

And there are images of hope and the possible return to normalcy as some of the first recipients receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Here are those moments that illustrate how our community persevered through this trying year. Q Chief Visual Journalist Magali Gauthier can be emailed at mgauthier@paweekly.com.

M

Page 12 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Maddie Ta, 17, receives a nasal swab test from one of the traveling nurses staffing the COVID-19 testing site in the lobby of Palo Alto City Hall on June 16. Photo by Lloyd Lee.

Year in Photos

Parker Bates cleans a booth after a voter has used it at the Palo Alto Art Center in Palo Alto on Nov. 3. Photo by Magali Gauthier.

Nurse Laura Zimmerman receives her first injection of the newly developed coronavirus vaccine at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System Hospital on Dec. 16. Photo by Federica Armstrong.

Signs behind Los Robles-Ronald McNair Academy kindergartener Clara remind students and staff to stay socially distant and to wear a mask at all times at the Boys and Girls Club in East Palo Alto on Sept. 16.

Photo by Magali Gauthier.

About the cover: Demonstrators walk past a couple dining at Rooh in downtown Palo Alto on June 19. Photo by Magali Gauthier.

Sitting at a socially distanced desk, instructional aid Timothy Yung works with a student enrolled in the Palo Alto Unified School District’s Futures program on Sept.

11 after a small number of students are allowed back to campus for the first time since March. Photo by Magali Gauthier. www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 2020 • Page 13

Year in Photos

Smoke from nearby wildfires burning out of control in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties since Aug. 16 envelope Palo Alto in an eerie orange sky that triggers tree lights to come on in the daytime on Sept. 9. Photo by Magali Gauthier.

An orange glow from wildfires can be seen on the horizon from the Palo Alto Baylands on Aug. 20.

Photo by Brian Krippendorf.

From top down: Second Harvest of Silicon Valley volunteers load cars with boxes of food at the Avenidas Rose Kleiner Center in Mountain View on June 16. Taverna executive sous chef Kevin Nordloff places roasted chicken in to go containers in the Palo Alto restaurant’s kitchen on March 17. A VTA worker cleans the driver’s space on a bus at the Mountain View train station on March 18. Photos by Magali Gauthier.

Page 14 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Above: About 500 demonstrators leave King Plaza and make their way down Hamilton Avenue in downtown Palo Alto on June 19 during a peaceful protest against police brutality and racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man suffocated in the street while in custody of Minneapolis police on May 25. His death prompted monthlong protests nationwide.

Left: Protesters kneel in front of City Hall in Palo Alto during a protest on June 1. Photos by Magali Gauthier.

Left to right: Palo Alto resident Howard Kushlan wears gloves while grocery shopping for vulnerable neighbors unable to leave their houses during the shelter-in-place order. Quan Sims, a Palo Alto Unified School District Extended School Year program high school teacher, wears a clear mask over her face while explaining a class assignment during the summer program held at Greene Middle School on July 9. The clear mask helps students who rely on facial expressions understand what a staff member is communicating. Photos by Magali Gauthier.

Left: Demonstrators march in protest of police brutality against Black people in East Palo Alto on June 12. Photo by Magali Gauthier.

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 2020 • Page 15

Paul Lung Tuan Resident of Palo Alto Paul Lung Tuan has led a full life and passed away a few days shy of 92. Born in Shanghai in 1928 to Render and Mai Ling Tuan, he was the first of five children.

After enduring the Chinese civil war and the Japanese occupation during WWII, he graduated from the University of Shanghai in 1948 with a B.A. in accounting, which he put to good use at China Airlines and then at United Airlines, while attending the University of Denver.

Armed with an MBA degree and drafted into the U.S. Army in 1954, Paul became an army auditor in Washington D.C. and Germany, and also obtained U.S. citizenship with the help of the D.A.R. and his activities with the 2nd Army marching band.

In 1956, out of the army and back in Denver, Paul married his fiance of 2 years, Jessie Chow, and they set off on a life together where he pursued interesting work in new fields, primarily computer systems. They soon became a family of four.

From 1959 to 1961 Paul worked for Burroughs Corporation, first as a sales tech rep in Hawaii, then as a district manager of tech services in Detroit. He was then lured to Salt Lake City to set up the computer center at University of Utah, and became its director. In 1963 he obtained an NSF grant to purchase an IBM mainframe, giving University of Utah the distinction of having the largest computer west of the Rockies.

Advanced education was important to Paul and the now family of five moved to Palo Alto in 1965, where he obtained an MS, an Engr, and PhD degrees from Stanford while working full time at SRI. In 1971, after spending a year as an assistant professor of industrial engineering at University of Utah, Paul accepted a job as a U.S. government advisor on Systems Analysis to Taiwan. After living there until 1975 the family returned to Palo Alto, where Paul worked at SRI on challenging projects in transportation, including BART and the Boston subway. One of his favorite projects involved the Seoul subway. He also pioneered the use of metered on-ramps and synchronized traffic lights, among myriad other innovations we now take for granted.

At the age of 60 Paul almost retired but went to work as a vice president at Fair Isaac instead, helping to develop the FICO score.

After Paul retired at the age of 72, he and Jessie traveled to Canada on some epic road trips, visited China and France and cruised South America. In his free time he learned Tai Chi and enjoyed fraternizing with fellow veterans at his local chapter of the American Legion.

Paul is survived by his wife of 64 years, Jessie Tuan; children Linda (Gerold Firl), Steven (Tanya), Brian (Debby); grandchildren Alana and Alrik Firl, Vera and Bruce Tuan, Joyce Tuan (deceased); sister Pansy Tuan (Shei Ye Bien); brothers Douglas Tuan (Gwynne), Ben Tuan (Caroline), Bau Shing (deceased) (Sue), and many nieces and nephews.

Services were held December 14.

PAID

Pulse

A weekly compendium of vital statistics

POLICE CALLS Palo Alto

Dec.16 - Dec. 22 Violence related Suzanne Court, 10/28, 2:33 p.m.; child abuse/physical.

Colorado Avenue, 12/6, 10:35 p.m.; robbery.

El Camino Real, 12/14, 1:02 p.m.; robbery.

Greer Road, 12/14, 1:14 p.m.; suicide adult attempt.

High Street, 12/02, 10:18 p.m.; arson.

Pasteur Drive, 12/15, 5:19 p.m.; elder abuse/financial.

Encina Avenue, 12/16, 9:08 a.m.; battery.

Encina Avenue, 12/17, 9:10 p.m.; sex crime.

Colorado Avenue, 12/18, 1:59 a.m.; assault w/ deadly weapon.

Theft related Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Shoplifting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Vehicle related Abandoned bicycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0

Answers to this week’s puzzles, which can be found on page 23.

Menlo Park

Dec. 16 - Dec. 21 Violence related Hollyburne Avenue, 12/17, 12:43 a.m.; rape.

Mills Street, 12/21, 1:32 p.m.; assault.

Theft related Burglary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Vehicle related Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Bicycle theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Driving w/ suspended license. . . . . . . . 0 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Parking/driving violation . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Stolen catalytic converter . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . 0 Vehicle accident/no injury. . . . . . . . . . . 2 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Alcohol or drug related Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Drug activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Miscellaneous Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Located missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Mental evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Possession of stolen property . . . . . . . 0 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . 2 Trespassing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

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Page 16 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Auto recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Bicycle theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Driving w/ suspended license. . . . . . . . 3 Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Lost/stolen plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Parking/driving violation . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Stolen catalytic converter . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . 7 Vehicle accident/prop damage. . . . . . . 4 Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Alcohol or drug related Drinking in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Miscellaneous Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Located missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Psychiatric subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . 4 Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

The Palo Alto Weekly offers advertising for Employment, as well as Home and Business Services.

If you wish to learn more about these advertising options, please call 650.223.6582 or email digitalads@paweekly.com.

A list of local residents who died recently: Cristobal (Chris) Sanchez, a Palo Alto resident for 64 years, died at his home on Dec. 10. He was one month shy of his 95th birthday. Jean Drummond, 94, was a longtime Palo Alto native. After raising her family, she returned to school and became a social worker. She died on Dec. 14.

To read full obituaries, leave remembrances and post photos, go to Lasting Memories at PaloAltoOnline.com/ obituaries. Q

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PaloAltoOnline.com/ express

Ann Marie Hmelar

Kirstin L. Koyama

May 30, 1932 – November 18, 2020

November 15, 1961 – December 13, 2020

Ann Marie (Sheridan) Hmelar, aged 88, passed peacefully on November 18, 2020, at her home in Palo Alto, California, where she had lived for the last 42 years. She was born on May 30, 1932, in Cleveland, Ohio, the eldest daughter of Frank and Gertrude Sheridan.

In 1954, she received a bachelor of science degree in nursing from St. John’s College (now part of the Breen School of Nursing at Ursuline College) in Cleveland.

She is survived by her seven children: Steve Hmelar (Hui “Debra” Cen) of Palo Alto, California; Frank Hmelar (Christine) of Palo Alto, California; Tim Hmelar (Monica) of Palo Alto, California; Anni Hmelar (Muralidhran Nadarajah) of Durham, North Carolina; Lisa Hmelar of Palo Alto, California; Michael Hmelar (Marion) of Palo Alto, California; and Sue Hmelar Queisser (Andrew Queisser) of Corvallis, Oregon. She is also survived by fourteen grandchildren: Christopher, Ashley, Marissa, Justin, Emma, Fe, Amanda, Isabel, Seattle, Thomas, Gracia, Olivia, Cody, and Natalie. She was predeceased by her husband of 54 years, Stephen Louis Hmelar, Sr., and her granddaughter Katelyn.

Ann Marie took great pride in raising her family.

She listened attentively to learn about each child and grandchild. She offered up loving advice, far too many human biology and anatomy lessons, and the best hugs ever. An avid world traveller, she also passed on a keen interest in other people and cultures.

Ann Marie was a joyous, kind, and loving woman who brought deep curiosity and a healing touch to almost every encounter. Her circle of loved ones extended well beyond her immediate family and included “the adopteds”—the young men and women, mostly from the East Coast, who were friends of her children. An adopted would come for a short visit to California and end up living—sometimes for years—in her Palo Alto home. The space Ann Marie (and her beloved, Steve) created for these young people further exemplified a generosity and acceptance that could be transformative.

In addition to her devotion to family, she had tremendous passion and energy for her role as an RN, as a nurse educator, and in service to public health. In clinical settings, her work took her to hospital wards in Cleveland; an in-service department in Wellesley, Massachusetts; classrooms and clinics in Framingham and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she taught LVN students; and finally to the Neurosurgery Department at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California.

There, with great clarity of purpose and compassion, she advocated frequently for patients and their families after a challenging diagnosis or catastrophic injury. In the 1960s, in Williamsville, New York, Ann Marie ran the Red Cross blood mobile and taught marriage prep and sex education to young women from the Catholic church. She was also greatly instrumental in getting land donated and funds raised for the construction of Millard Fillmore Hospital in Buffalo, New York.

At her 50th school reunion, Ann Marie was recognized for all she had done to advance the profession of nursing.

That distinction surprised, delighted, and moved her.

Ann Marie’s ashes will be scattered in a private ceremony. A public memorial will be held at a later date, post widespread vaccinations for Covid-19.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that in memoriam donations (Ann Marie Sheridan Hmelar, ‘54) be made to the Breen School of Nursing at Ursuline College, Development Department, 2550 Landers Road, Pepper Pike, Ohio, 44124.

PAID

OBITUARY

On December 13, 2020 the world lost a super hero. Her super powers included the ability to navigate San Francisco streets without GPS; an unparalleled talent to impeccably name the designer of every piece of fashion on the screen or street; being the best listener and always able to say or not say just the right thing; and most powerfully, the unique ability to make every person she touched the best version of themselves by unwaveringly believing in them more than they believed in themselves.

Kirstin loved fashion and hated clichés, as such we’ll avoid saying that her electric smile, her sense of humor, her fortitude and especially her kindness are what will be most missed. We’ll also ignore that she made everyone’s birthday an event to behold and never without an unbelievable made-fromscratch cake; that at a whim she could instantly whip up an elaborate breakfast or fancy dessert; or how she spontaneously invented lasting new traditions. She loved the winter holidays more than anything. So the irony of the timing of her passing leaves those that knew her hearing her saying sarcastically “Of course THIS **** would happen NOW!” Her magical ability to tell you directly what you needed to hear, somehow nestled in a warm embrace that brought you the courage to accomplish anything, was the same strength that propelled her to run the Honolulu Marathon, because she knew she could, and was the foundation that led her to always unapologetically be herself. She loved Santorini, Paris, Hawaii, Tokyo and NYC, but she loved being anywhere with her girls most of all.

She was born Kirstin Lynn Eliason, in Palo Alto, and then spent her school age years in Fremont.

She graduated from Mission San Jose, then San Francisco State, then chased her professional calling in high fashion. First at Shiseido, then to Fendi and finally to Lancome; where as the regional account manager her garage was filled wall to wall with more full sized samples and promotional items than any makeup loving girl in their wildest dreams could ever imagine.

Along the way she married Ryo Koyama, which explains why an obviously white woman had a Japanese name, and she took extreme pleasure in the shocked looks she got when first meeting people who expected someone of Asian descent.

The couple settled in Palo Alto (thanks to a stray cat, but that’s a story for another day) where her fairy tale was to raise a family in the city where she was born.

Sixteen months after tragically losing their infant son Broderick, she gave birth to their second child, daughter Olivia, at which time she opted to leave the working life to dedicate herself to raising her family. A third child, daughter Lauren arrived three years later, and her life transformed from designer goods to Girl Scouts, field trips, and kids sports. Her charm and good looks also led the secretaries at the girls’ elementary school to informally vote her and Ryo as the cutest couple, a title that she never tired of reminding her girls about.

As the children grew older and demanded less time, she scratched her itch to get back to fashion. Not wanting to compromise her family life she jumped back into the workforce close to home as a personal shopper at Neiman-Marcus, where she also doubled as the Gucci, then Akris rep. She seamlessly multitasked between new season fashion lineups, helping the girls through their teenage years, and being a basketball mom to hundreds of Palo Alto Midnight players. Next came lovingly moving the girls into their college dorms, sending too many care packages, and all the while keeping her husband grounded as he juggled the stresses of start-up life. She embraced the “best wife ever” mug that Ryo gave her like a legal doctrine, brandishing it proudly to settle any disputes.

With her daughters successfully navigating their student-athlete lives at UCSD/Keio (Japan) and NYU, she was ready for her next adventure. Passionate about animal rescue, she launched Poochi-foods, a handmade dog food business, whose proceeds would benefit animals in need.

Sadly, shortly after the successful launch of Poochi-foods, came a dreaded stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer diagnosis, a disease afflicting way too many non-smoking females today due to insufficient screening. Bravely battling for almost two years, her desire to not want to leave her family gave her the strength to fight through too many treatments, knowing her work wasn’t done.

Ultimately the toll that this all placed on her, weakened her body to the point where suddenly her heart just gave out.

She will forever be missed and is survived by: her husband Ryo; her daughters Olivia and Lauren; her parents Donald and Lucille Eliason; her brother Brent; her sisters in-law Dee, Hana and Kei; her brothers in-law Bart and David; her nieces Leah and Paige; her nephews Clark, Austin, Noah and Caleb; the greatest friend anyone could ever have Linda; and countless other friends and family. She was preceded in death by her son Brodie and her loving pets: Heidi, Sunny, Percy, Cooper, Chopin, Doraemon, Kiki, and Kuma.

An informal virtual remembrance was held on Sunday December 20, 2020. Please email kirstin@ koyama.net to receive a link to the recording.

Kirstin was put to rest, along with her son Brodie at Alta Mesa Memorial Park on Tuesday December 22, 2020 in a small private gathering of friends and family.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to our GoFundMe for the Palo Alto Creamery - a local restaurant that is a staple to both our hometown and our family. As Kirstin always made an effort to personally help others directly, we wanted to make sure to choose a local cause that we knew needed help now. We apologize in advance that any contributions will not be tax deductible - but hope that this will bring more visibility to the challenges these businesses are facing and the barriers in place that make it even harder for the local community to support them. gf.me/u/zdbkzy PAID

OBITUARY

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 2020 • Page 17

Eating Out The nine most memorable meals of 2020

Looking back on a fraught, but hopeful, year in dining on the Peninsula Story and photos by Elena Kadvany

I

t’s hard to feel anything except deeply despondent about this year in the local food industry. Beloved restaurants closed after decades of business, and the pandemic put many waiters, cooks and dishwashers out of work. Other owners decided to go into hibernation to hopefully preserve their businesses, though they have yet to reemerge.

Looking back at the meals I ate (one too many in my car) and the stories I wrote reminded me that it was also a year of resiliency, hope and truly outstanding food made in the face of enormous obstacles. Restaurants pivoted to meal kits and became retail operations to stay alive. New restaurants defied the odds to open, and pop-ups that could share kitchen space with struggling restaurants thrived. Numerous Bay Area regions, including San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, helped bring attention to the prohibitively costly delivery fees thirdparty apps charge restaurants by imposing caps on those fees.

The nine meals on this list were memorable in more than one way. They were all delicious but also represented something meaningful about this year in local food, whether it was mapo tofu at the Sichuan restaurant that almost closed due to early coronavirus fears or the outof-work chef slinging standout fried chicken sandwiches from his backyard.

All but one of the food businesses mentioned here are still open; order takeout from them —directly, not on an app! — and tip generously.

Mapo tofu at Taste

Top to bottom: The menu at Palo Alto’s Taste includes a peppery mapo tofu lunch set; Sushi Sam’s Edomata in San Mateo serves seared toro; The now-closed Maum in Palo Alto was known for its Korean fried chicken; The fried chicken sandwich from the Cocina Canares pop-up in South San Francisco is a menu favorite; Page 18 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

On March 11, I unwittingly ate what would be my last sitdown meal inside a restaurant for the rest of the year. The day before, I had published a story on Taste, a Sichuan restaurant in Palo Alto. Taste was on the verge of closure after weeks of declining business due early

fears about the coronavirus -— and unfounded ones in particular hurting local Chinese restaurants. I ordered the mapo tofu lunch set and watched as the dining room filled up over the lunch hour, a sole waitress rushing to take orders and fill water glasses.

Owner Sandy Liu told me later that diners had come in because they heard Taste could close and wanted to support the restaurant. I felt genuinely uplifted and hopeful.

Despite the fact that things got a lot more grim than I could have ever imagined over the next nine months, Taste survived a lot longer than Liu thought it would. And that mapo tofu was truly excellent; I’ve craved its peppery, comforting notes more times than I’d care to admit.

Taste, 423 University Ave., Palo Alto; tastepaloalto.com

Tonkatsu curry at Curry Hyuga Burlingame’s Curry Hyuga made headlines in late March as one of the first new restaurants to actually open during the shutdown. The owners reportedly got their business license 30 minutes before City Hall closed down.

The restaurant specializes in Japanese curry, served over rice with cabbage, fukujinzuke (pickled vegetables) and your choice of protein, including pork and chicken katsu, chicken karaage and korokke (a fried potato croquette). I thoroughly enjoyed the tonkatsu, packaged separately from the velvety, rich curry sauce to avoid a soggy fate, from the front seat of my car. (I definitely ate more food in my car in 2020 than in any year prior, and really hope I won’t need to stash as many napkins and stain remover wipes in the glove compartment in 2021.)

Curry Hyuga, 1204 Broadway St., Burlingame; curryhyuga. com

Korean fried chicken at Maum When Maum in Palo Alto reopened for takeout this spring, one of the menus paid homage to Korean fried chicken and KFC combo meals. I still think about the perfectly crispy-on-the-outside, juicy-on-the-inside half chicken with beef and anchovy rice, a seaweed biscuit with honey butter, pickled Korean radish and kimchi. Sadly, it’s a reminder of the restaurant experiences we lost to the pandemic. The owner of Maum later parted with the Korean restaurant’s much-lauded chefs and tried to pivot before closing for good (at least for now).

All the pizza at Pazzo I can’t believe it took me until this year to get to Pazzo, which churns out standout wood-fired New Haven-style pizza in San Carlos. Andy Gambardella of the now-closed Gambardella’s in Menlo Park opened Pazzo in San Carlos in 2014 in homage to the pizza of his youth growing up in New Haven.

The San Marzano and baby clam pies will, guaranteed, embed themselves into your taste memory — the blistered bottoms, the hint of dried oregano and fullflavored toppings. Also, you do not want to miss the cannoli here.

Pazzo, 1179 Laurel St., San Carlos; pazzosancarlos.com/ home.html

Double softee with rainbow sprinkles at Mister Softee This might have been my most joyful meal of 2020: a double softee swirled with vanilla and chocolate soft serve, dripped in rainbow sprinkles. I ate it after chasing down a Mister Softee truck, which made for an incredibly fun story about the beloved East Coast soft serve company, that iconic tinkling music that triggers an almost Pavlovian response and the delightful pursuit of

Eating Out sugary nostalgia. I loved the impassioned responses I got from people who grew up on Mister Softee and were so excited to discover that it’s available in the Bay Area. “Of course with the Covid there were no trips to Brooklyn this year,� one reader wrote. “I miss my family, but I had a little taste of Brooklyn thanks to your article.�

For information, go to facebook.com/softeenorcal

Fried chicken sandwich at Cocina Canares We were inundated this year with fried chicken, and sandwiches in particular. My favorite of them all is the one Mel Canares makes in his backyard in South San Francisco.

A corporate chef who got laid off during the shutdown, he, like many out-of-work cooks, turned to what had previously been a side hustle — selling food out of his home — into a full-time gig.

His fried chicken sandwiches

are his bestseller, and for good reason. Canares double-dredges chicken thighs in a buttermilk and hot sauce marinade for supercrispy chicken, tops it with slaw and a smoky mesquite sauce and serves it on a toasted brioche bun.

He’s part of the under-the-table economy of home-based food businesses across the Bay Area, which surged during the pandemic and brought us some of the most interesting eats of the year. Some of these home cooks became successful enough that they won’t go back to their prepandemic jobs, including Pepe of Chef Peps Kitchen in East Palo Alto, who sold enough quesabirria and tacos to purchase a food truck this fall.

Weekly pop-up on Sunday in South San Francisco; check instagram.com/fuckinmel for details.

/̇[ :Ϫ` WVW \W , ILUVW WULHG +ͥW 6Ї\ LQ WKH ´%Hfore Times,� about a month before the pandemic hit. I stumbled

onto the San Jose pop-up’s Instagram and was immediately drawn in by what turned out to be some of the most inventive and delicious takes on Vietnamese food ,¡YH KDG OLNH SkWp YLW ͭS OD D breakfast dish with homemade duck liver pâtÊ, spiced sausage, pickles, a fried egg and salmon roe that you scoop bites of using toasted levain bread from Midwife and the Baker.

Owners Duy An and Hieu Le’s plans to move into a new space this spring were obviously upended but they persevered during the lockdown, hosting pop-ups as they could and offering weekly pickup and delivery. Their Instagram feed still hooks me as much as it did that first time, the food photos as much as the detailed captions explaining each dish’s ingredients and significance — just look at this pandan waffle stuffed with caramelized banana RU WKLV Jj ODJX SDWr Y͊W FKLFNHQ ragu with duck liver pate). +ͥW 6Ї\ /XFUHWLD $YH San Jose, hetsay.square.site

Bakers Against 9HJPZT WHZ[YPLZ Some of the best pastries I ate this year were also for a good cause. This summer, Backhaus in San Mateo and Love for Butter in Palo Alto participated in Bakers Against Racism, an international campaign to sell baked goods to support nonprofits that fight racial inequity. A grassroots response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Mineappolis police, thousands of professional and home bakers participated in the effort.

John Shelsta of Love for Butter raised $3,000 for the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto and Backhaus donated $1,540 to the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.

Shelsta, who’s Korean, made a flaky croissant tart filled with a tangle of homemade kimchi and silky braised short rib. Each of Backhaus’ bakers contributed an item that reflected their heritage,

all of which I wish would become regular menu items: scallion-topped Japanese milk bread, a soft concha filled with Mexican chocolate, a black sesame Chinese egg tart and a garlic twist studded with lap cheong.

:LHYLK [VYV H[ :\ZOP :HTZ ,KVTH[H Eating in the bustling dining room at Sushi Sam’s in downtown San Mateo in January feels like a distant memory, but I can still taste the luxurious seared toro. The hefty piece of fatty tuna is lightly seared and brushed with yuzu and sea salt, draped over perfectly cooked rice. Not to be cliche, but it really does melt in your mouth. It’s not cheap at $18 for two pieces but after this year, we all deserve a little indulgence.

Sushi Sam’s Edomata, 218 E. UG $YH 6DQ 0DWHR VXVKLVDPV com Q Email Elena Kadvany at ekadvany@paweekly.com.

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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 2020 • Page 19

Upfront

Hidden Villa (continued from page 5)

Ambulance (continued from page 5)

Gordon Ramsay, grazes on grass at Hidden Villa in Los Altos. and the St. Francis Center, which is based in Redwood City and works with youths and families in the Midpeninsula region.

The program was supported by a $5,000 grant from the Palo Alto Weekly’s Holiday Fund. In prior years, the grant has helped Hidden Villa provide financial assistance to young campers, a key part of the nonprofit’s mission of inclusiveness. This year, the Holiday Fund grant helped the organization supply Seeds of Summer boxes to its partners.

The program offered participants something a little different from the typical online offering, said Jessica DuVal, Hidden Villa’s director of communication.

Some organizations and campers were wary of participating in yet another virtual activity that requires screen time.

“They were really excited to have a different kind of activity because, all of a sudden, they are doing so much more than they’re used to, with school being out,” DuVal said. “So they were really excited also to have something that wasn’t behind the screen and was a hands-on experience and a fun, different activity for participants to experience.”

Prince, who has participated in Hidden Villa’s summer camp programs for the past four years, concurred. The summer program did not in any way replace the actual experience of attending inperson Hidden Villa camps, with their cherished traditions, forged friendships, fun games like “rainbow tag” (to win, you have to find and chase various people at the camp and have each of them swipe you with their colored

Huntington Beach) for the ambulance insurance.

Palo Alto’s fees are likely to be higher. The Finance Committee saw three options for residential customers, ranging from $80 to $120 per household per year. Participants would be able to opt-in or opt-out at any time.

For residents, the program would cover not only the entire household but also any guest who may be staying at the household.

For participating businesses, the insurance program would cover all employees both when they are at the business address and when they are moving around the city in the course of coming to work.

Rates for businesses would range by employee count. Small businesses with up to 10 employees would likely see a rate of between $200 and $300 annually, while large businesses (those with up to 1,000 employees), would see a rate of between $10,000 and $15,000.

If plans move forward, the program would net the Fire Department between $1.1 million and $1.65 million in new revenues annually, depending on the rates.

This presumes that about 27.5% of the city’s households and businesses participate, a similar proportion to other communities that currently have such programs in place.

Blackshire said the department was motivated to start this program by the success they’ve seen elsewhere with ambulance insurance. The Fire Department hopes to mimic that success and, in the process, create a new revenue

source at a time when revenues from sales and hotel taxes are plummeting.

The city is banking on the insurance program to provide $1.48 million in the current fiscal year, which began on July 1. Fire Department officials first proposed the program last spring, as the city was considering ways to fill a budget hole that was projected at $40 million. To address the lost revenues, the council eliminated about 70 full-time equivalent positions from the city’s workforce, including 32 in the Police and Fire departments. It also approved an attrition program that offers bonuses to department veterans to retire, thus obviating the need to lay off newly recruited employees. The ambulance program was pitched as a way to prevent further layoffs.

In their Dec. 15 review, Finance Committee members generally supported the program, even as they noted that it’s hard to predict how many people will participate.

Vice Mayor Tom DuBois called the proposal “really creative” and encouraged staff to include in its marketing materials a comparison between the fees customers would be paying to participate and the costs they would incur under their existing insurance policies. Council member Liz Kniss also lauded it, though she noted that the city will probably need practical experience with the new program before finalizing some of the details.

Council member Greg Tanaka, who chairs the Finance Committee, was more skeptical and said he

Page 20 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

pandemic combined with shifting health orders forced all businesses and nonprofit groups to scramble, Hidden Villa now has the luxury of having a bit more time to make an informed decision. Even in person, Crummett said, things will look very different in 2021 from a normal year, with limited programming, smaller groups, ample personal protective equipment and new safety protocols.

Amadeo Domikos, 10, hopes Hidden Villa can safely bring back in-person camping. Domikos, a student at Encinal Elementary School in Atherton who participated in the August focus group session, said Hidden Villa has taught her important lessons about taking responsibility and always being kind to others. She has made friends at the camp with whom she has continued to keep in touch during the era of social isolation.

But her favorite part of the experience — and one she hopes to return to next year — is petting and feeding the chickens, goats and sheep on the Hidden Villa farm.

“If it does get better, I do think we should meet in person and try to be as safe as possible,” Domikos said. “A big part of Hidden Villa for me is being able to go and see the animals and pet them.”Q Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com. For information on the Holiday Fund, see page 8 of this edition.

Embarcadero Media file photo

money, even if it’s over a long time.”

Fire Department leaders acknowledged that many people will choose not to opt into the program because their ambulance costs are already largely covered by their existing insurance policies. Individuals who are covered

by Medi-Cal or Medicaid have no co-pay at all, while those on Medicare face a co-pay of between 10% and 20%, according to Amber Cameron, a business management analyst for the city.

The cost is higher for those with commercial insurance, for whom the co-pay is about 27%, which typically amounts to between $385 and $650 per trip.

The full $2,460 fee typically only applies to people with no insurance, who make up about 11% of the department’s ambulance transports. In many cases, the department does not recover the cost of the ambulance transfer. The Fire Department collects about 41% of the fees, Cameron said, and the ambulance service operates at a loss.

The idea of ambulance insurance is far from new, according to city officials. Other California cities that run their own ambulance services, including Huntington Beach, Orange and Corona, have had similar programs since the 1990s. Most charge an annual fee between $43 (as in Anaheim) and $60 (as in Newport Beach and

Jenny Rodriguez

boxes filled with 14 envelopes, one for each day for two weeks.

The boxes also included journals, a variety of craft supplies and bits of nature collected from the farm.

Much like the traditional camps, Seeds of Summer tried to blend recreation and education.

The lesson on LGBTQ+ taught students about pronouns and required them to create Shrinky Dinks incorporating images that they identify with. An exercise on giving and appreciating others included a mix of herbs pulled from the Hidden Villa garden, Jones said. Recipients were encouraged to mix these herbs, put them in a sachet, decorate it and give it as a gift to someone.

“We were really trying to focus on making sure the stuff we’re sending was stuff that can really connect them to the farm,” Jones said. “Sending little twigs from Hidden Villa felt really special.”

Hidden Villa sent out boxes to 40 participants in its Summer Seeds program, said Nicky Crummett, senior director of programs.

It sent out an additional 95 boxes to its three long-time nonprofit partners that work with families in need: West Valley Community Services, which is based in Cupertino; Seven Tepees Youth Program, based in San Francisco;

marker) and, of course, fluffy animals. They did, however, provide a welcome and valuable respite this summer.

Prince opened her daily envelopes, planted the seeds that Hidden Villa had sent to her, wrote in the journal and participated in the exercises. For the LGBTQ+ lesson, which focused on pronouns, she used her Shrink a Dink kit to create a heart, a star and a circle and turned them into a necklace.

“It was really nice for it to not be online. But I was kind of feeling like I need some person there to motivate myself,” Prince said, noting that it took her about three weeks to complete all the exercises.

Hidden Villa did provide some online opportunities for campers to check-in with counselors and with one another. Now, the organization is looking ahead to the summer of 2021, when it hopes to welcome campers back to its 1,600-acre classroom in Los Altos Hills. In August, it hosted a focus group with past participants to get their feedback on the future Hidden Villa experience. Crummett said the organization is also now in the process of putting together a group of experts, including leaders in the camp industry and pediatricians, to come up with plans for safe in-person operations.

Unlike in March, when the sudden onset of the COVID-19

Palo Alto residents and businesses may soon have the option of paying a monthly fee to insure them from paying fees if they need transportation by ambulance. would not support the program unless staff provided a “distribution analysis” with information about individuals who currently use the ambulance service and who would likely enroll. The information is critical, he said, to avoid a situation in which only those who frequently use the ambulance service sign up for the program.

“Insurance really works well when it’s a random distribution,” Tanaka said. “It doesn’t work well when you have highly concentrated usage.”

Fire Department staff aren’t particularly concerned about facing that scenario. Cameron noted that most of the people who are heavy users tend to be elderly residents who are covered by Medicare. As such, they are unlikely to enroll in the insurance program.

A more likely participant would

be someone who is on commercial insurance such as Kaiser Permanente or Blue Shield of California, which cover some of the ambulance cost but still leave an individual with a bill totaling hundreds of dollars.

“The more random events, where someone breaks their leg or gets in a car accident — those folks are more likely to be the ones to have commercial insurance, who are currently working and receiving insurance through their employer,” Cameron said. “We have a great deal of hope for the success of this program because we do think this is who it’s going to appeal to. They do happen to be the contingent of our population who doesn’t use the service very often.” Q Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@ paweekly.com.

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Upfront

Vaccine (continued from page 5)

in the second round.

“We believe the vaccine will begin to resolve all of the quarantine issues, but not for several months. We hope that staff, once vaccinated, will gain confidence in the safety of their work,” McMullin said. Covia doesn’t plan to modify or change its quarantine and visiting procedures for several weeks until all staff and residents have received both doses, she added.

So far, they’ve come across one glitch while preparing for the vaccine program, McMullin said.

“The vaccine consent form is provided in English only, so we have to read the form in other languages to staff and residents.

This creates a trust issue in that the recipient of the information questions whether we are providing accurate information and questions if the vaccine is safe.

We are spending a great deal of time educating residents, family and staff about the safety of the vaccine,” she said.

At Meadow Gardens, a memory care center in Menlo Park, staff is enthusiastically awaiting the vaccines, Dreanna Reyes, memory care director, said.

They have applied for the doses for their 19 residents and 20 staff members, but she doesn’t yet know when the doses will arrive.

“The staff and residents are excited about it. The vaccine will help with the worry of family and residents and staff. We are very eager to relieve them of their concerns,” she said.

Walgreens said in a statement that the company plans to administer the vaccine to about three million residents and staff in 35,000 long-term care facilities nationwide. Teams have been specially trained to properly handle the vials, which must be kept at sub-zero temperatures

Don’t Go It Alone for The Holidays You are not alone. This time of year can normally be very stressful, let alone during a pandemic when we are asked to shelter in place and minimize contact with family and friends.

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Call (650) 289-5438 to request a crisis intervention, an elder care consult, family mediation and emotional support during these challenging times.

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Page 22 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Federica Armstrong

past. The presence of this hope, alone, has improved the general morale of everyone on campus.”

The first on-site clinic at Channing House is scheduled with Omnicare CVS. Vaccines will be offered to all residents and staff, about 500 in total, she said. The Omnicare CVS team will administer the shots.

“We anticipate a very high level of interest from our residents and staff. The vaccine, however, is optional to both groups. We are in the process of getting residents and staff registered,” Bekkedahl said.

Channing House is coordinating the collection of consent forms and will assist residents who need help filling them out, she said.

“We are communicating updates on the process to residents and staff as we receive information from Omnicare CVS. We will have extra staff onsite on the date of the clinic to ensure efficient flow of traffic and to ensure that proper physical distancing is observed. We will have an observation area where residents and staff will wait the recommended 15 minutes or 30 minutes after receiving the vaccine. Our onsite licensed nurses will be available to respond, if needed,” she said.

Bekkedahl doesn’t anticipate any glitches, but she said Channing House would be ready if something comes up.

“We have done a number of onsite influenza clinics in the past.

And, we coordinate weekly and sometimes bi-weekly COVID testing for about 250 people per testing day. So, we have reliable processes in place.”

Changes to their protocols won’t happen all at once or even

anytime soon. The most recent information Channing House has received from the California Department of Public Health indicates that infection-control protocols will be in place for an additional three to four months as researchers compile and analyze data on the vaccine’s effectiveness “in the real world,” she said.

“Until we are advised differently by the CDC or CDPH, there will be no changes to the standard precautions: wear a mask at all times in the presence of others from outside your household, do not attend gatherings, maintain physical distancing and practice good hand hygiene,” Bekkedahl said.

Mary McMullin, chief strategy and advancement officer for Covia Communities, which owns Webster House Health Center and Lytton Gardens in Palo Alto, said both facilities have signed up to receive vaccines from Walgreens.

“We expect to receive 190 firstdose vaccines for Webster House Health Center in the middle of January, but Walgreens has not set a specific date yet,” McMullin said.

Linda Hibbs, executive director of Webster House, has been in touch with the Walgreens liaison and has sent out the vaccine consent forms to Health Center residents, family members, personal representatives and staff. Walgreens personnel will administer the shots, McMullin said.

When the doses arrive, McMullin expects 100% of Webster House Health Center residents and 50% of staff, including certified nursing assistants, nurses and housekeepers, to be vaccinated during the first round. The other half of the facility’s staff members — dining, maintenance workers and directors — will be vaccinated

Dr. Craig Zone, physician at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, receives his first injection of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. Local nursing homes are next in line for the vaccines. and transported in specific ways.

Moderna’s vaccine, for example, can only be transported frozen to avoid shaking the vials.

The company has set up 100 strategically placed hubs around the country to store the vaccines.

Pharmacy team members pick up the vaccines at the hub stores, taking only what they’ll need for particular long-term care facilities. The vaccines can be stored for a short time in regular pharmacy refrigerators.

CVS expects to vaccinate up to four million residents and staff at more than 40,000 long-term care facilities through the program, the company said in a statement on Dec. 21.

The company’s pharmacy teams will make three visits to each long-term care facility to ensure residents and staff receive their initial shot and the critical booster.

“The majority of residents and staff will be fully vaccinated three to four weeks after the first visit, depending on which vaccine they receive. CVS Health expects to complete its long-term care facility vaccination effort

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in approximately 12 weeks,” the company said.

The long-term care facility vaccination program is the first step toward the eventual availability of COVID-19 vaccines at all CVS Pharmacy locations throughout the country — subject to availability and prioritization of groups — which is based on states’ decisions. CVS expects to have the capacity to administer 20 to 25 million shots per month once the doses become available to everyone, the company said.

The roll out of the vaccination programs come as the deadly coronavirus has has killed more than 22,923 people in California as of Dec. 21 and 615 people in Santa Clara County as of Tuesday, and has taken its largest toll on vulnerable seniors in congregate-living communities, according to state and county health leaders.

In Santa Clara County, this vulnerable population makes up about 5% of positive cases but bears 45% of the deaths, county Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said.

Since Thanksgiving, those numbers are again spiking. Palo Alto’s Webster House Health Center has had 20 residents and six staff members test positive for the coronavirus since the holiday, according to McMullin. Q

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

Upfront

Ada’s Café (continued from page 10)

food service industry.

During the lockdown, Ada’s pivoted to offering to-go meals out of a Mountain View commercial kitchen. Employees who felt comfortable coming into work made jam to sell, plus cookies and corporate baskets. Foley-Hughes organized Zoom meetups and virtual cooking classes to keep her staff as connected as possible under the circumstances.

“They really benefit from being at work for the social aspects of it (and) the constant repetition and teaching that goes on all day long when they’re at work. Many of them are just really lonely” during the lockdown, she said.

“The employees that have been working are absolutely extraordinary,” she added. “If you can imagine what it might be like to have a processing disability and add to that the need for a plexiglass wall, a screen, masks on the customer and then masks on the employee — it makes communication and engagement really tough.”

The Palo Alto cafe reopened in October for takeout and outdoor dining, but foot traffic has been slow. On a normal weekday pre-pandemic, the cafe would see about $1,200 in sales, FoleyHughes said, and even then the business wasn’t breaking even due

to high labor costs and training.

That’s plummeted to about $200 in daily sales.

“We are losing less money by being closed given the food cost, daily food waste and, again, labor costs,” Foley-Hughes said.

Rent at the commercial kitchen is also costly. Once that lease is up at the end of May, Ada’s will start using the kitchen at the Mitchell Park Community Center in the mornings through an agreement with the city of Palo Alto. This means Ada’s will no longer offer catering and the cafe menu will be smaller, but downsizing will help the business survive, FoleyHughes said.

Ada’s is still offering takeout meals out of the Mountain View kitchen and holiday gifts, revenue from which is helping to keep the six remaining staff members employed.

“We’re in it to maintain it and to get to the other side of this,” Foley-Hughes said. “We plan to be here in 2021 and beyond.”

The online auction includes items such as lunch prepared and hosted by Ada’s employees, antique art, signed books, a weekend at the Squaw Valley Lodge and opportunities to meet (in person or virtually) movie director Jessica Yu and well-known authors.

People can also donate directly to Ada’s or purchase gift cards.

Dumas is auctioning her grandmother’s antique Persian silver set “in honor of all the people who are forced to live in the shadows.”

In the item description, she recounts a childhood memory: She was with her family at the home of a fortune teller in Iran when a young boy burst into the room.

The fortune teller, “apologetic and ashamed,” quickly took him out of the room.

“I hope that someday, there will be Ada’s Cafes all over the world, where everyone has a chance to a part of something, to give back to their community, and to feel like they belong in the living room with the rest of us,” she wrote. Q

CityView A round-up

of Palo Alto government action this week

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Grant: The council was scheduled to approve allocations of Community Development Block Grant funds totaling $354,550 for the Ravenswood Family Health Network and $54,332 for LifeMoves. The vote took place after the Weekly’s press time.

Across 1 Underscores?

6 Belt holders near belts?

15 Establish by law 16 Subject of a constitutional clause 17 Culminated in 18 Porcelain, when around electricity 19 “Must have been ___ news day” 20 Fall apart 21 Expand 22 Semiconductor classification whose first letter stands for “negative” 23 “Remove plastic,” e.g.

25 Wagering venue, for short 26 ___ Webster (Twain’s “celebrated jumping frog”) 27 BBC’s Italian counterpart 29 Like some hours 30 Salty snack from an air fryer, maybe 36 Popeye, as the theme song goes 37 Passive-aggressive message header implying you should’ve read 42 Projectile at some bars 43 Formula One racer Vettel, to fans 44 Aberdeen resident 46 Spinning stat 47 Spoil, with “on” 50 Search engine input 51 Slacker’s sin 54 Edge 55 Store-hours word 56 Restoration site of 2019 58 Stops on ___ 59 Kind of phenomenon that explains why Ouija board planchettes move 60 1996 presidential candidate Alexander 61 Edge

“I’m Gonna Have Some Words” — themeless time again! by Matt Jones

Answers on page 16.

62 Powers portrayer Down 1 College founder Stanford 2 It’s the least you can rate 3 Phrase said with a downcast look 4 “Ghostbusters” stuff 5 Author Harriet Beecher ___ 6 Beneficiaries of some trust funds 7 “___ telling anyone” 8 Medium that was often psychedelic in the 1960s 9 Reason for a winter shot 10 Former Brazilian president ___ da Silva 11 “Diary of ___ Black Woman” (2005 film)

This week’s SUDOKU

Answers on page 16.

12 Put in writing 13 Tangled 14 Rave flashers 24 ___ d’Or (prize at Cannes) 28 Mosque leader 31 “The cow ___ [mooooo]” (pull-string toy output) 32 Like some bathrooms 33 Full of detail 34 “øPor quÈ no los ___?”

35 When Easter falls 37 It’s “like a carrot doused in perfume,” according to cookscountry.com 38 Go boom

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39 More out-of-the-way 40 Hockey player’s concern 41 Producers of “Dallas,”“Falcon Crest,” and “Knots Landing” 45 1840s First Family 48 East ___ (nation since 2002) 49 Nail file material 50 Feeling of uneasiness 52 Enterprise counselor Deanna 53 Natural rope fiber 57 Exclamation often prompted by Bart Simpson © 2020 Matt Jones

www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 25, 2020 • Page 23

DeLeon Realty

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$5,988,000

2797 Ross Road, Palo Alto 4 Bd | 3.5 Bth www.2797Ross.com $11,988,000

3787 Woodside Rd, Woodside 6 Bd | 5.5 Bth www.3787Woodside.com

Please visit our website (DeLeonRealty.com) to see the Virtual Tour of the homes, or call 650.900.7000 to schedule a showing.

Michael Repka | 650.900.7000 | DRE #01854880 m i c h a e l @ d e l e o n r e a l t y. c o m | w w w. d e l e o n r e a l t y. c o m | D R E # 0 1 9 0 3 2 2 4 Page 24 • December 25, 2020 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com