Vol. XXXVI, Number 12 Q December 26, 2014
PaloAltoOnline.com
Community thanks
track guards
Page 13
PAGES 5 & 20
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Our Neighborhoods
Donate to the HOLIDAY FUND page 30
Transitions 18
Eating Out 26
Shop Talk 27
Movies 28
QArts Many ways to celebrate on New Year’s Eve
Page 23
QHome Common threads in priciest home sales
Page 32
QSports Stanford faces Maryland in Tuesday’s bowl
Page 41
Check-in with
Your Skin
Put your best self forward this winter and make your skin care a priority.
Stanford Dermatology offers the most advanced technologies for diagnosing
and treating all skin conditions and diseases—from the most common to the
more complex, including:
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Sun damaged skin
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Schedule a consultation today at one of our convenient locations in
Redwood City, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, or Los Altos. Make an appointment
directly online at: stanfordhealthcare.org/derm or call 650.723.6316
Page 2 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Happy Holidays
from all of us at
2014
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 3
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Page 4 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
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Upfront
Local news, information and analysis
2014
The year
the game changed
by Gennady Sheyner
W
hen 2014 kicked off in Palo
Alto, the city was wrestling with
a problem most communities
would envy: Too many people wanted to
be here.
The local economy was in full bloom,
with revenues from every tax category surging and downtown’s commercial vacancy
rates at a historic low. The city’s quality of
life was ranked as “good” or “excellent”
by more than 90 percent of residents who
took part in a survey, and its efforts to be
the nation’s greenest, most bike-friendly
and digitally savviest city in all the land
were proceeding apace, bringing with them
a host of prestigious trophies and laurels.
To an outsider, this may have seemed like a
funny time for the residents to rise up and
shout out, like Howard Beale in “Network,”
that they’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take this anymore.
Yet rise up they did. In the defining act
of 2013, residents rebuffed elected officials
by rejecting Measure D in the November
election, effectively shooting down a proposal to build a dense housing develop-
ment on Maybell Avenue.
The effects of that election didn’t just
spill over into 2014, they in many ways defined it. If 2013 was the year in which the
voters signaled their frustrations with the
old way of doing things, 2014 was when a
new way began to take shape — one that
emphasized capping commercial growth,
eliminating zoning exemptions and applying more scrutiny to new developments.
The biggest tension point, as in the past,
was on the topic of growth and development. Mayor Nancy Shepherd summed it
up in February during her “State of the
City” speech.
“We are successful, prosperous and constantly changing,” Shepherd said. “But,
there are those who may perceive this
change is fundamentally altering some of
the reasons why they chose to live in Palo
Alto. While the university or tech-sector
jobs may have brought many of us here for
a great adventure, it is our neighborhoods,
open space, and the quality of our schools
that have been at the heart of what defines
Palo Alto. And we want to protect and
maintain all of these things.”
Political ruptures and hard-won
compromises characterize
Palo Alto’s year
The drive to protect neighborhoods from
the problems of growth characterized Palo
Alto’s political life in 2014 and created a
rupture in its political establishment. By
the time the year ended, two members of
the Measure D opposition were elected to
the City Council. Incumbent Councilwoman Karen Holman, whose deep skepticism
toward new development has long made
her an outlier on the council, received
more votes than any other candidate in a
12-person field. Shepherd, who in early
2013 had beat out Holman for the vice
mayoral spot and whose re-election campaign included endorsements from a litany
of former mayors and civic leaders, was
voted out of office. Her main ally on the
council, Vice Mayor Liz Kniss, no longer
seems like a shoo-in to continue the local
tradition in which the vice mayor assumes
the mayor’s chair.
The year was also the swan song for
Larry Klein, who in December concluded
a council career that included nearly two
decades behind the dais (he served for
two terms in the 1980s before returning
in 2005), three stints as mayor and leading
roles in just about every major city effort,
from environmental initiatives and opposition to high-speed rail to infrastructure
fixes and library projects.
Also leaving is Councilwoman Gail
Price, the council leading proponent of urbanization. In November, when the council unanimously adopted its new Housing
Element, Price expressed some reluctance
when she cast her vote, saying that the city
is being “extraordinarily timid” by not
including zone changes or other policies
that would encourage more housing. Price
chose not to seek a second term.
More than anything else, 2014 was a year
of transition, with the old political establishment making way for a fresh wave of
civically engaged and energized residents.
The 2014 election tipped the City Council balance, ensuring that at least five council members in 2015 will share the slowgrowth leanings of the residents group that
stopped the Maybell development in 2013,
Palo Altans for Sensible Zoning (PASZ).
Joining Holman and council members Pat
(continued on page 11)
YEAR IN REVIEW
Five people who
inspired us in 2014
By overcoming their challenges, they
showed us the meaning of resilience
by Sue Dremann
ooking back on 2014, five people in Palo Alto
exhibited traits that made them models for
handling seemingly unimaginable adversity.
They include a mother who lost both arms and
her child; a veteran who survived after giving up
his spot in a lifeboat; students who took on Palo
Alto’s culture of perfectionism after a classmate’s
death; a Palo Alto fourth-grader with Down syndrome who is an advocate on behalf of people
with disabilities; and a Palestinian boy who faced
multiple surgeries in order to walk for the first
time. Here are their stories.
L
Veronica Weber
At Gunn High School students posted notes of encouragement and support in the
wake of two teens’ deaths this fall.
Gehane Guirguis:
Faith in the ‘Hand of God’
T
he bus trip from her home in Cairo, Egypt, to
the Red Sea was supposed to start a relaxing
vacation for Gehane Guirguis. But a drug-fueled bus driver lost control and flipped the vehicle
in July 2012, killing her 2 1/2-year-old daughter and
(continued on page 14)
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 5
Upfront
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your nominations
in four categories:
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The Tall Tree Award
recognizes outstanding
service to the Palo Alto
community, based on local impact,
breadth of contribution, diversity
of individuals impacted, timeliness
and originality of contribution.
To make a nomination, download the form
at paloaltochamber.com or contact the
Chamber of Commerce at (650) 324-3121
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It was dark, cold and raining, and there
this man stood under an umbrella.
— Julie Lythcott-Haims, a Palo Alto mother,
on why she started a campaign to thank the security
guards who watch over the train tracks.
See story on page 13.
Around Town
TAKE A BOW ... Palo Alto’s elected officials, watchdogs and onetime visitors to City Hall all rose
to their feet on Dec. 15 to give
standing ovations to three veteran
volunteers who have just concluded their tenures on some of
the city’s most influential boards.
Lee Lippert and Clare Malone
Prichard, two long-time members
and former chairs of the Architectural Review Board, each received
council resolutions honoring their
terms. Lippert ended his term after a decade of volunteering that
included a stint on the Planning
and Transportation Commission
between 2004 and 2012. Prichard
served on the architecture board
for more than nine years. The
council also unanimously passed
a resolution honoring planning
Commissioner Arthur Keller, who
spent eight years on the commission and whom the council decided not to reappoint for a fresh
term this fall. All three thanked
the council and said they had
been honored to serve. Keller, a
computer scientist known for his
skeptical and wonky approach to
projects, peppered his remarks
with suggestions for improving
the city’s zoning code. In Palo
Alto, “hardly anything can be
done without an extensive and
expensive study,” Keller told the
council. “A better strategy is that
described by President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt as ‘Do something. If it works, do more of it. If
it doesn’t, do something else.’”
One action he said the city can
do immediately is rethink what
“commercial” means in the zoning code so that retail and office
space are considered separately
(currently, “commercial” includes
retail, services, office and other
uses). He also argued that the
city needs places for “older Palo
Alto residents to go while staying
in the community that they know
and love.”
PRESERVING PALY JOURNALISM ... In their efforts to archive
Palo Alto High School’s journalism history, those involved in the
two-phased project are asking
alumni to donate missing copies
of The Campanile newspaper. The
school does not have any copies
of newspapers published prior to
1923, librarian and project director Rachel Kellerman said. The
school is also missing print editions from 1928 and 1967 to 1979,
Kellerman added. The first phase
of the project includes assembling
and preserving all of Paly’s print
media editions. The second phase
involves creating a digital resource
so that the history can be accessed online. The Media Arts
Boosters bought a $9,000 scanner to help scan every print publication, and community volunteers
are needed to work with student
staff on the scanning process in
the Journalism Library located in
the new Media Arts Center, Kellerman said.
DECK THE TREE ... The Palo Alto
Art Center was chosen to create one-of-a-kind ornaments that
were placed on the California tree
as part of the Pathway of Peace
National Christmas Tree display in
President’s Park in Washington,
according to a City of Palo Alto
press release. The Art Center is
one of many organizations from
across the U.S. participating
in Pathway of Peace, an event
presented by the National Park
Foundation and the National
Park Service that runs until Jan.
1, 2015. The event, which features 56 unique Christmas trees
to represent each state, territory
and the District of Columbia, gives
organizations, artists and youth a
chance to create ornaments that
“symbolize the history, heritage
and culture of their homelands,”
according to The National Tree
website. Staff from the art center’s
Cultural Kaleidoscope program
worked with Los Robles Academy seventh- and eighth-graders
to craft ornaments (made with
aluminum foil, modeling clay and
colorful markers) inspired by
California’s natural environment.
“We are honored to have been selected as the only organization in
California to create ornaments for
the Pathway of Peace in Washington, D.C.,” said Art Center Director
Karen Kienzle in the press release. “This provides a wonderful
opportunity for participating students, the Cultural Kaleidoscope
program, and the Art Center.” Q
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Mail to: Palo Alto Weekly,
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Page 6 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
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Upfront
YEAR IN REVIEW
Embattled school district gets
new leadership in 2014
While brand-new school facilities open, district faces entrenched issues
I
n late September, about six
weeks into his new position
as Palo Alto Unified School
District’s superintendent, Max
McGee departed from the district’s status quo.
With little fanfare, information
appeared in the Sept. 23 school
board agenda about an August
complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for
Civil Rights regarding problems
with the district’s accommodation of a Palo Alto student with
disabilities. Upon learning of the
complaint, McGee had worked
directly with the student’s family to find a resolution, without
the costly help of district lawyers.
He provided to the public and the
Office for Civil Rights a chronology of events leading up to the
complaint, including the errors
made by the district in handling
the student’s accommodations,
and outlined what the district
had already done to both fix the
problem for this particular student
and to change procedures so it
wouldn’t happen again. The case
was resolved within weeks.
Yet at the very same September
meeting, the Board of Education
and McGee dug in their heels on
their lobbying of local and federal
officials, pursuant to a resolution
the board passed in June challenging the Office for Civil Rights’ investigative practices.
The meeting was emblematic of
2014 in the Palo Alto school district: a year when new faces and
leadership jumped onto the boat,
trying to steer it in a more productive direction while also being
pushed by a strong tide of swirling
issues, some of the district’s own
creation.
T
he first few months of 2014
were dominated by ongoing
Office for Civil Rights in-
vestigations and questions about
the treatment of special-education students in Palo Alto.
In early January, the school
district was exonerated in two
cases by the federal agency, which
found it didn’t violate the rights of
two disabled students in its handling of bullying situations. However, the parents of both students
reported in the wake that their
children continued to be bullied
in school. At the time, two other
civil-rights complaints, out of
nine filed within the prior three
years, remained pending.
In February, then-Superintendent Kevin Skelly suddenly announced his plan to resign at the
end of the school year after seven
years leading the district. Though
his tenure had been marred by
his failure to promptly disclose a
December 2012 Office for Civil
Rights finding that the district
had mishandled an ongoing mid-
YEAR IN REVIEW
We’re the best — no, the worst
Palo Alto gets kudos for livability, dings for commute time
P
alo Altans tend to identify
strongly with the inhabitants of Garrison Keillor’s
fictitious Lake Wobegon, “where
all the women are strong, all the
men are good looking and all the
children are above average.”
And, certainly, evaluations of
the city from standpoints as divergent as education and weather
continue to reinforce that notion.
Livability, an online resource
used for researching communities, named Palo Alto to the No. 1
spot on its “Top 100 Best Places
to Live” list, citing “mild weather,
thriving economy, great cultural
and natural amenities, two downtowns and one of the highestranked universities in the world.”
It also placed Palo Alto among
the top 10 cities in the nation for
kids, noting the quality of schools,
percentage of
households with
school-age children, cost of living and restaurants with
kids’ menus.
But Livability was not alone in
lauding Palo Alto.
Gunn High School snagged
No. 5 in the nation for science,
technology, engineering and
math (aka STEM), according to
the U.S. News’ annual Best High
Schools list, as well as No. 17 in
the state as a school in general,
and No. 104 nationally. The latter ranking was based on state
proficiency tests, college readiness and disadvantaged students’
performance.
NerdWallet, a financial website,
called Palo Alto the best city for
job seekers — with its 3.6 percent
unemployment rate, high education
rate and high median income.
LinkedIn noted that the
three most in-demand
startups — Theranos,
Coursera and Wealthfront — are all located in Palo Alto.
The city also
continued to win
heavy praise, and
prestigious national awards,
for its efforts
with technology and
Veronica Weber
by Elena Kadvany
Marielena Gaona-Mendoza, left, addresses the Palo Alto school
board and points to friends and anti-bullying supporters Ignacio
and Griselda Morales, center, Michelle Mendoza, right, and Angela
B., far right, as the board prepares to vote on a policy regarding
harassment of disabled and minority students.
dle school bullying case, he also
oversaw notable changes in the
district: a massive building boom,
adoption of the K-5 math curriculum Everyday Mathematics, and
the move to a school calendar that
ends the first semester before the
December holidays.
At the start of the year, the district was still working to revise
its policy for handling bullying,
which was mandated by its December 2012 agreement with
the Office for Civil Rights. Debate raged over the reach of this
policy — should it simply bring
the district into legal compliance
by ensuring the safety of legally
protected classes (disabled and
minority students) or go beyond
that to address the complaints of
all students?
After more than a year of work,
the Board of Education gave the
green light in June to a policy that
would also cover harassment of
students in non-protected classes.
The very same month, the Office for Civil Rights opened another investigation in Palo Alto
environmental sustainability. The
Center for Digital Government
named Palo Alto a “leading digital
city” for the second year in a row
in its population category, an award
that recognizes the city’s panoply
of new online services and digital tools featuring real-time data.
Palo Alto also picked up a Beacon
Award this year from the Institute
for Local Government and the
Statewide Energy Efficiency Collaborative for its laundry list of
green accomplishments, including
a carbon-neutral electricity portfolio and a significant reduction in
greenhouse-gas emissions.
When it comes to cutting-edge
transportation, Palo Alto was
named the 2014 Most Electric
Vehicle Ready Community at Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s
Charged & Connected Symposium. The group noted the city’s
recent requirement for new singlefamily homes to have vehiclecharging infrastructure in place.
On the food front, California
Avenue’s Baumé earned two Michelin stars (“excellent cuisine,
worth a detour”) on its list of best
restaurants.
Nearby Stanford University
topped four of 11 categories in
U.S. News’ Best Graduate Schools
report, including tying (with Harvard University) for No. 1 business
school and making No. 2 in engineering and No. 3 in both law and
education. The university also got a
nod from Princeton Review as the
“most LGBT-friendly campus.”
But Palo Alto’s detractors had a
lot to say as well.
Drawing on census data, the
Silicon Valley Business Journal
found Palo Alto had the worst inbound commute in Silicon Valley,
with close to 25 percent of inbound
commutes lasting longer than 45
minutes. The average commuter
into the city spends 32.3 minutes
behind the wheel and 22 minutes
heading out. The Business Journal also found that Palo Alto has
a lousy carpooling record (5.5
percent), with 71.8 percent of residents commuting by car — and 90
percent of those riding solo.
San Francisquito Creek, which
flows along Palo Alto’s northern
border, was No. 5 on American
Rivers’ list of the nation’s most
endangered rivers — with fish,
wildlife habitat and public safety
all threatened — due to what it
called the dangers of Stanford’s
outdated Searsville Dam.
Palo Alto only made a B- on a
tobacco report card, which was issued by the Tobacco Free Coalition
of Santa Clara County, Community
Advocate Teens of Today and the
Santa Clara County Public Health
Department. The anti-tobacco
folks are mostly concerned about
teens’ access to tobacco, store ads,
community outreach and tobacco
policies. Perhaps the city will glean
a few more points next year, after
passing the ban on smoking in
shopping centers last week.
Finally, Palo Alto, at No. 24,
can honestly disclaim the title of
most expensive ZIP code (that
right belongs to Atherton, according to Forbes Magazine). The real
estate website Movoto did cite the
city’s high median home price,
high number of private schools
and wide selection of art galleries as sufficient for earning Palo
Alto recognition as the “snobbiest” small city in America. Q
— Carol Blitzer and
Gennady Sheyner
(continued on page 15)
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 7
Upfront
YEAR IN REVIEW
Odds and ends
Palo Alto saw stripping robbers
and mysterious mailings this year
by Palo Alto Weekly staff
T
here was the news, and then
there were other things that
happened in and around
Palo Alto this year. For a review
of the some of 2014’s mishaps and
misdemeanors, read on.
Veronica Weber
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS ...
Minutes after she reportedly robbed
a Wells Fargo Bank on California
Avenue on Sept. 3, Joyce Rodriguez
stumbled upon a novel way to thwart
Palo Alto police: shedding her clothes
and dumping them into a nearby
parking lot. Spoiler alert: It didn’t
work. The sight of the 20-year-old San
Francisco resident walking down a
quiet College Terrace street in her bra
and jeans aroused suspicions and led
officers to arrest her just minutes after
the robbery occurred. It also didn’t
take long for the police to find her pile
of clothes, along with a wig she allegedly wore during the robbery, and to
arrest her on charges of felony robbery, felony burglary, destruction of
evidence and an outstanding warrant
for prostitution. Discretion also wasn’t
a strong suit for Ryan Goodson, who
in February led police on a wild and
Actor, author and artist James Franco — and Paly grad — created murals just in time for the grand
opening of the Media Arts Center at Palo Alto High School in October.
violent chase through downtown Palo
Alto after a resident spotted Goodson
in his backyard. The 34-year-old Fresno resident began his Feb. 6 rampage
by climbing backyard fences in Downtown North. He then proceeded to
University Avenue, where he smashed
through the window of Da Hookah
Spot in a less-than-subtle burglary
attempt. When officers caught up
with him, he did not go down quietly.
During the chase and the fight that
ensued, Goodson reportedly bit an
officer on the shoulder, ripped off the
officer’s gun and tried to pull the trigger. Fortunately, the amped-up felon
couldn’t remove the Glock 22 from
its holster, and the weapon would not
fire. After two more officers joined
the struggle, Goodson was buzzed
with a Taser, restrained with a legimmobilization device, taken to a local
hospital and ultimately booked at the
Santa Clara County Main Jail and
charged with taking a peace officer’s
firearm, resisting arrest with violence,
brandishing a deadly weapon while
resisting and battery on a peace officer with injury.
Ciera Pasturel
NBA point guard and Paly grad Jeremy Lin stands next to his wax
figure at Madame Tussauds in San Francisco on Aug. 2.
We want things to
be solved at the
lowest level.
— Kevin Skelly, superintendent of the Palo Alto school
district, on his reluctance
to recommend district-wide
procedures for handling
bullying complaints.
January 10
Conflict is not
a bad thing in
a democracy.
— James Keene, Palo
Alto city manager, on
likely criticism of city
leadership as more
people get involved
in planning out the
city’s future.
January 24
OH NO YOU DIDN’T! ... Under the
heading of “Things you can no longer
do ...” come three new Palo Alto ordinances. Feeding ducks and squirrels
at the local duck pond in the Bay-
Every crime in this
city is a personal
affront to us.
— Zach Perron, Palo Alto
Police lieutenant, following the Jan. 23 homeinvasion robbery of an
elderly Palo Alto couple.
February 7
Page 8 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
lands used to be a popular pastime.
Now, it’s a crime. This June, the city
banned people from feeding wildlife
and feral animals in city parks and
open space, attaching a $250 fine to
the offense. The move was prompted
by hungry animals, accustomed to
the generosity of humans, who were
said to be getting aggressive, stealing
food from golf carts, biting people at
Mitchell Park and intimidating hikers
at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve.
Meanwhile, with the drought continuing, Palo Alto also banned use of
potable water to wash sidewalks
and to make fountains splash — although, the penalties that come with
it make the bans seem a tad more
like suggestions: The first violation
will result in a door hanger or an
educational email or phone call; the
second violation will bring the same
“punishment”; and the third will net
a letter from the Utilities Department
warning of a potential future fine of up
to $100, which would then actually
be issued upon the fourth violation.
Speaking of bad habits, smokers now
have even fewer places where they
can take a puff. This month, Palo Alto
continued its crusade against cigarette smoke by expanding its existing
ban to commercial districts, such as
Stanford Shopping Center, Town &
Country Village, downtown and Cali-
That’s when my jaw
dropped.
— Burton Richter, a plaintiff
in a lawsuit against Vi at Palo
Alto, on hearing that his
retirement home’s corporate
parent wasn’t obligated to
remit residents’ entrance fees.
The suit was dismissed Nov. 25.
February 21
fornia Avenue, and “neighborhood
commercial” sites such as Alma Village. Smoking is now prohibited at
all publicly owned sidewalks, alleys,
parking areas, public places, outdoor
dining areas and service areas in
these districts. The one exception: ecigarettes, which the City Council will
discuss at a later date.
MISHAPS ... Sometimes things just
don’t go as well as they should have.
Early on the morning of April 6, an
intoxicated East Palo Alto man literally
and figuratively shot himself in the
foot. The 20-year-old injured himself
with a handgun in the 2200 block
of Terra Villa Avenue shortly after 7
a.m., was taken to a local hospital to
be treated for the wound — and then
admitted to police what happened,
said Sgt. Jeff Liu. He was booked into
San Mateo County Jail for negligent
discharge of a firearm, a misdemeanor. Well, at least he was honest.
And also in April, someone lost some
weed, and not the dandelion kind. A
Palo Alto medical office received an
unexpected USPS delivery with four
pounds of marijuana hiding inside.
The receptionist at One Medical
Group at 590 Forest Ave. promptly
called police, who later said the box
had been mailed from a Palo Alto
post office to an address for a vacant
There really are
dogs your dog
wants to meet.
— Cynthia Typaldos, a
finalist in Palo Alto’s Apps
Challenge, on the benefits
of her team’s social-networking app, Dogs in the
Neighborhood!
March 21
It feels like something’s missing now.
— A student, Palo Alto High
School, on the lack of streaking
on campus this spring.
June 6
Upfront
YEAR IN REVIEW
The 10 most-viewed stories in 2014
Accidents, retail comings and goings, and positive psychology
top Palo Alto Online’s list
by My Nguyen
8. New push for music
program in East Palo Alto
schools
by Chris Kenrick, April 25
A desire to give kids a “sense
of belonging” in high school
is fueling a new push to restore music education in public
schools in East Palo Alto and
eastern Menlo Park.
OF WAX AND MEN ... Hometown
boys Jeremy Lin and James Franco
returned for visits this year. Actor
Franco, most recently of “The Interview” fame, used his alma mater,
Palo Alto High School, as a canvas
this fall by hand-painting two blackand-white murals on the outside
walls of Paly’s student center and
hanging his art in the library and
new Media Arts Center. Franco had
We’re basically
ignoring the
elephant in the
garage.
—Jim Barbera, an electric-vehicle advocate,
on the need to deal
with cars as emitters
of greenhouse gases.
July 4
plenty of company while he painted,
with adoring teen girls hanging on
his every brushstroke. And NBA
point guard Jeremy Lin got perhaps
one of his most memorable gifts ever
just two days before his 26th birthday: a life-size wax figure of himself,
which was unveiled in August at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum near
Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.
Lin, joined by his mother and other
relatives, admired the 6-foot 3-inchtall statue of himself frozen in mid-air,
dunking an invisible basketball into a
net and sporting a purple and yellow
jersey. “I think it’s awesome; it’s a
little too real,” Lin joked. Q
It’s not
growth; it’s
change.
— Mark Michael,
chair of the Planning and Transportation Commission,
on the inevitability
of new development in Palo Alto.
July 11
5. Ex-Paly principal
disciplined for harassment
by Palo Alto Weekly staff,
April 11
Former Palo Alto High
School principal Phil Winston, who resigned last June
13 citing health and “worklife balance” reasons, was under investigation at the time
by school district officials for
multiple allegations of sexual
harassment and inappropriate
behavior involving both staff
and students, according to documents obtained by the Weekly
from the district.
7. Two people require surgery
after car crashes into Palo
Alto restaurant
by Elena Kadvany, Sue Dremann and Gennady Sheyner,
July 31
Two people who were injured,
one critically, required surgery
after a silver Nissan crashed into
a downtown Palo Alto cafe on
Thursday. The accident, which
injured six people including the
driver, prompted police to shut
10. Palo Alto considers a ‘netzero’ growth vision
by Gennady Sheyner, July 9
As Palo Alto moves toward
adopting a new vision for
growth, officials are considering
one ambitious alternative that
would significantly transform
the city’s commercial hubs: a
transition into a “net-zero” community.
house in Chicago. It was then sent to
the return address — One Medical’s
— which the sender had presumably
chosen randomly. We’re guessing no
one stepped forward to claim it.
6. Shop Talk: More mall,
restaurants flock downtown
by Daryl Savage, Aug. 18
In this week’s Shop Talk column, read the latest on Stanford
Shopping Center’s big expansion, three new restaurants set to
open in downtown Palo Alto and
the sad closure of a 200-squarefoot business.
We have a long
way to go.
4. Happy Donuts to close
on Friday
by Sue Dremann, June 5
Residents and walkers/runners who love the Stanford Dish trail
have been at odds with Stanford University over its plan to add a
parking lot more than half a mile away.
One of the two sit-down
places in Palo Alto where one
can hang out or satisfy a 3 a.m.
craving, Happy Donuts at 3916
El Camino Real, is closing on
Friday, June 6.
3. In new classes, students
explore the brighter side
by Chris Kenrick, Feb. 21
In the academically intense
culture of Gunn High School,
a class where students gather
in “gratitude circles” and practice mindfulness exercises has
become a welcome respite for
stressed-out teens.
2. Residents return stacks
of catalogs to Palo Alto
Restoration Hardware
by Barbara Wood, June 18
Nancy Reyering and six other
volunteers from Woodside and
Portola Valley made a delivery
to the Restoration Hardware
store in Palo Alto on Wednesday that they hope might send a
message to the home furnishings
store’s corporate headquarters.
1. Palo Alto teen killed
on tracks Tuesday
by Elena Kadvany, Nov. 4
A 16-year-old Palo Alto male
died on the train tracks early
Tuesday morning, Caltrain
spokeswoman Christine Dunn
has confirmed.
Ducks and
geese may as
well scurry,
since the city
banned people
from feeding
wildlife and
feral animals
in city parks
and open
space —
including the
duck pond at
the Baylands.
There are human
beings here at
risk.
— Marty Grimes, Santa
Clara Valley Water District spokesman, on the
need for county residents
to cut water use by 20
percent over last year.
July 25
Carol Blitzer
in 2014?
Our top stories this year
included everything from a
thoughtful piece on teachers
easing the academically intense
culture at local high schools by
creating “positive psychology”
courses to the heated clash between visitors to the Stanford
Dish and residents over a proposed parking plan.
Also attracting attention were
the July car crash on a University
Avenue sidewalk that injured six
people and the Palo Alto High
School principal disciplined for
harassment.
Based on the number of page
views for each story, here are the
most-read stories of 2014 on the
Palo Alto Weekly’s website.
Weekly file photo
W
down a section of University
Avenue to traffic for most of the
afternoon.
9. Residents clash over Dish
parking plan
by Gennady Sheyner, Feb. 7
A plan to move dozens of
parking spaces from the street
next to the Stanford Dish trail
to a parking lot more than half
a mile away has created a rift
between visitors to the scenic
preserve and the residents who
live next to it.
hat local stories
gripped readers of
PaloAltoOnline.com
August 15
— Dennis Parker, East
Palo Alto resident,
pleading with the Regional Water Quality
Control Board to OK
a local flood-control
project. It was finally
certified in November.
In the whole,
we let down the
community.
— Pat Burt, Palo Alto
City Councilman, apologizing for the city’s
private negotiations
with developer John
Arrillaga in 2012.
September 12
We knew it was
going to get ugly
before it got
pretty.
— Robert Martinez,
owner of Palo Alto Eye
Works, on the ongoing
California Avenue renovation project.
October 31
Lives of others
are not always as
they seem.
— Julia Maggioncalda,
a Stanford University
sophomore and Gunn
High School graduate,
on the devastating
impact of her pursuit
of perfection.
December 5
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 9
Upfront
YEAR IN REVIEW
Four game changers of 2014
They worked behind the scenes to bring big changes to Palo Alto
by Gennady Sheyner
Jessica Sullivan
H
er task has been compared
to herding cats and rolling
a boulder up a mountain,
and by all accounts Jessica Sullivan has excelled.
Sullivan, who in 2013 became
Palo Alto’s first-ever parking
manager, spent her year working on more than a dozen parking initiatives, from new garage
technologies to establishment of a
nonprofit to manage downtown’s
commute programs.
Sullivan’s crowning achievement in 2014 was the creation of
a downtown Residential Parking
Permit Program, which aims to
provide frustrated downtown residents with relief
from commuters who park
their cars all
day on neighborhood streets.
Drafted after
nine months of
bickering, negotiations and
comprom ises
Jessica
by downtown
Sullivan
residents, employers and property owners who
participated in a stakeholders’
group, the program won unanimous approval from the City
Council on Dec. 2.
Her leadership did not go unnoticed. Toward the end of the year,
Sullivan was feted and applauded
by those who participated in the
process at just about every meeting where the parking program
was discussed.
“I have heard so many positive comments about your efforts,
work and diligence and your
commitment that we all should
applaud you, and I do,” Councilwoman Karen Holman said at the
Dec. 2 meeting.
One of the few people who did
not laud Sullivan at that meeting
was downtown resident Neilson
Buchanan, a member of the stakeholders group and a long-time
proponent of the parking program.
That was not, however, because
he disagreed with those who celebrated her accomplishment.
“The most important thing to
do is to quit complimenting Jessica because someone is going to
hire her away, and the whole thing
is going to collapse,” Buchanan
warned the council.
Andrew Swanson
D
espite its name and location, the Palo Alto Airport
wasn’t under the city’s control until August, when the City
Council and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors agreed to
transfer operations of the small but
busy Embarcadero Road airport
from the county to the city.
The agreement was the conclusion of a turbulent ride that began
seven years ago. The county, arguing that it was losing money on
the venture, sought to terminate
early its 50-year lease of the airport, which was set to expire in
2017. The city accused the county
of letting the airport fall into dis-
Inspirations
a guide
id tto th
the spiritual
i it l community
Inspirations is a resource for ongoing religious
services and special events. To inquire about
or to reserve space in Inspirations,
please contact Blanca Yoc at 223-6596
or email byoc@paweekly.com
Page 10 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
repair and agreed that local control would be best. The county’s
ongoing disagreement with the
Federal Aviation Administration, unrelated
to Palo Alto,
didn’t
help
matters. It ensured that there
wouldn’t be any
federal grants
for any countyrun facility, including the one
Andrew
in Palo Alto.
Swanson
Into this bureaucratic mess
stepped Andrew Swanson, whom
the city hired in April 2013 to fill
the new position of airport manager. It fell to him to complete the
negotiations with the county and
begin fixing up the airport.
This year, he hit milestones on
both fronts. In a quick conclusion to a long process, the council
unanimously approved the transfer agreement on Aug. 11. Two
months later, the city announced
that it had received a federal grant:
$500,000 to repair the airport’s dilapidated runway and taxiway.
The airport still faces plenty of
questions about its financial future.
It will need at least a few years of
loans from the city’s general fund,
though Swanson predicts that it
will be in the black in 2018.
In September, the council approved a construction contract to
begin improvements. The funding
and repairs wouldn’t have been
possible without the airport trans-
fer, and Swanson deserves credit
for getting the job done.
“It was multiple different things
that needed to happen to be able
to get to this point,” he told the
Weekly after the construction
contract was awarded. “Over the
last year, those things have all got
us to where we are today.”
Elaine Uang
T
here are two camps in Palo
Alto’s debate on city growth:
one that sees a split between
slow-growth “residentialists” and a
pro-growth political establishment
and another that rejects the very
notion that there are two camps.
If the citizens group Palo Altans
for Sensible Zoning espouses the
former view,
the fledgling
group Palo Alto
Forward epitomizes the latter.
Nobody personified the
spirit of collaboration better
than Palo Alto
Forward co- Elaine Uang
founder Elaine
Uang, a mother of two who lives
downtown and whose passions
include design, architecture and
transportation. This year, Uang
served on four different citizen
committees: ones devoted to exploring a limit on downtown development; getting residents involved
in the Comprehensive Plan update;
passing a new Housing Element,
which plans for future housing; and
establishing a downtown Residential Parking Permit Program. She
has become a familiar face at City
Council meetings, and Palo Alto
Forward now has an email list of
more than 1,000 people.
In discussing Palo Alto Forward, Uang highlights the diversity of views that its members
espouse. Though its stated goal is
to work for better transportation
and housing options, Palo Alto
Forward includes members with
different perspectives about what
exactly that means and how much
more growth the city can handle.
Uang said she’d like to see Palo
Alto get more people out of cars,
further reduce greenhouses gases
and make downtown more vibrant.
But rather than advocate for particular measures or candidates,
she is hoping to bring together for
a civil discussion residents who
have been pushed apart by Palo
Alto’s recent land-use debates.
“I think there is a really good opportunity and space to say, ‘Let’s
step up. Let’s talk about the things
that we value and the things that we
want,’” Uang told the Weekly. “A
lot of things happen in other towns
that we can really learn from. We
have a lot of diversity of perspectives and we welcome more.”
Roger Smith
“
I’m a big believer, spending my career in the private
sector, that time is money,”
Roger Smith told the City Council in May, when he made his case
for reducing the council’s size
from nine members to seven.
For the next few months, the
founding president of Silicon Valley Bank devoted plenty of time
and money to a crusade that faced
significant skepticism and opposition at just about every step.
Though Smith argued that many
Palo Altans share his view that
trimming the council will make
governance more efficient and
effective, most
council members weren’t so
sure. The measure only landed on the ballot
after a 5-4 vote,
with an ambivalent Marc
Berman casting
the swing vote. Roger Smith
Even Mayor
Nancy Shepherd, who in 2013
co-authored a memo with Liz
Kniss and Gail Price urging that
the item be placed on the ballot,
characterized her support as “51
to 49” — hardly a vote of confidence. The group Palo Altans for
Sensible Zoning came out against
the measure. Strikingly, not one of
the 12 council candidates seeking
a seat on the council spoke out in
favor of it (though many spoke out
against it, characterizing it as inimical to democracy).
Undeterred, Smith funded a
campaign in support of Measure D
and enticed dozens of dignitaries
to lend their signatures (if not their
cash) to the effort. His once-quixotic quest proved successful on Nov.
4, winning 54 percent of the votes.
The victory was pure vindication for Smith, who briefly ran
for council in 2005 but ultimately
withdrew from the race. Smith
told the Weekly the change will
“make staff more effective.
“I’ve never talked to someone
who prefers to have nine bosses to
seven bosses,” Smith said.
The change will take effect in
2018. Q
Upfront
YEAR IN REVIEW
New library? Check. Free Wi-Fi? Check.
The Weekly takes a look at the city’s to-do list for 2014
S
Way and Wilkie Way. The city’s
bicycling program is in high gear,
with new projects now planned
for Bryant Street, Churchill Avenue and Maybell Avenue. In addition, the city is moving ahead
with two major east-west bike
connections: a bike boulevard
along Matadero and Margerita
avenues and a bike bridge over
U.S. Highway 101 at Adobe
Creek. About 25 bike projects are
in progress as of December.
ometimes it’s hard to keep
track of what actually has
been completed, especially when a project drags on
for months, if not years. Here’s a
quick guide to what’s new in the
city this year and what will soon
be finished.
CONSIDER IT ‘DONE’
Mitchell Park Library and
Community Center: The reconstruction of Palo Alto’s flagship
library did not go by the book,
but the sad story finally reached
a happy ending on Dec. 6, when
thousands of residents flocked to
Mitchell Park to celebrate the facility’s grand opening. Nine days
after the community event came
the happy epilogue — a comprehensive settlement between
the city and its fired contractor,
Flintco Pacific. By averting years
of litigation, the city bought itself
some closure and ended the busy
year on a high note.
City Hall renovation: A $4
million renovation of City Hall
blazed forward so quickly this
year that almost no one outside
250 Hamilton Ave. saw it coming — the antithesis of the “Palo
Alto process” that usually entails
thorough, inclusive and painfully
methodical review of proposals. Whatever one’s opinion is of
this hastily approved project, the
new glass-walled meeting room,
renovated lobby, refurbished conference room and new carpets
and upholstering in the Council
Chambers are largely completed,
with a new digital billboard in the
lobby scheduled for installation
in spring 2015.
Bike projects: New bike lanes
and road markings popped up all
over the city this year, including
green bike lanes on West Meadow Drive between El Camino
Digital tools: Residents and
visitors can now bring their tablets, laptops and other tech gizmos
to City Hall’s King Plaza, where
the city installed free public WiFi this year. It’s part of a continuing city effort to enable over-theair Internet access in the city’s
parks and plazas. Though Palo
Alto’s fiber-optic dream of bringing high-speed Internet service to
every household remained elusive
in 2014, the city still managed to
move the digital needle, launching new apps and services online.
These include BuildingEye, which
allows residents to track planning
projects, and PulsePoint, which
shows real-time activities of
emergency responders.
NEARING THE
FINISH LINE
California Avenue: It took a
while to get to the starting line,
but Palo Alto’s push to transform
the eclectic and long-neglected
commercial hub along California
Avenue into a vibrant strip more
akin to University Avenue surged
ahead this year. The makeover,
which includes wider (and shinier)
sidewalks, two new public plazas,
Game changed
Burt and Greg Schmid, who hold
philosophical leanings similar
to Holman, will be Councilmenelect Tom DuBois and Eric Filseth, members of PASZ.
Yet by the time the year came to
a close, a backlash to the backlash
had also begun to emerge. A new
citizens group, Palo Alto Forward,
formed with the intent of fostering
discussion about adding housing
options in the city. Several affiliated with the group won seats to
local boards and commissions in
the waning months of the year,
and one, Cory Wolbach, snagged
a council seat after a nail-biter
conclusion to the election.
Besides the power shift witnessed in the election, 2014 was a
year of deep political frustrations.
Council members confronted an
embarrassing county Grand Jury
report and publicly apologized
for their secret (and ultimately
doomed) negotiations with developer John Arrillaga in 2012 and
also were forced to backtrack on
their 2013 ban on people living in
their vehicles.
Perhaps connected to that, the
city’s on-again-off-again debate
about shrinking the size of the
City Council from nine to seven
members finally landed on the
ballot this year after simmering
for decades. Even without much
in the way of a campaign for Measure D, voters readily approved
Veronica Weber
(continued from page 5)
City Council candidates Karen Holman, left, Eric Filseth and Tom
DuBois smile as election results start coming in showing the three
among the top vote-getters for five open slots on Election Day, Nov. 4.
the move to a smaller council, ture, which is estimated to need
hundreds of millions of dollars’
with 53.7 percent voting in favor.
The year was also a game- worth of work, the council in June
changer in arenas outside of poli- approved a plan for doing so. In
tics. From waste management and November, a hotel-tax hike to help
parking policies to the city’s take- fund the improvements gained sufover of its namesake airport and ficient voter support to pass.
The city’s takeover of Palo Alto
the completion of Mitchell Park
Library and Community Center, Airport, an effort launched seven
Palo Alto finally saw some results years ago, also came to a concluon efforts that have stymied city sion in 2014, when both the council and the Santa Clara County
officials for years.
The city’s infamous “planned Board of Supervisors signed in
community” zoning, which al- August the needed transfer agreelows developers to exceed zon- ment. And stalled negotiations
ing requirements in exchange for over the city’s lease of Cubberley
public benefits (and which for Community Center saw a breakdecades has been derided by lo- through in November after two
cal land-use critics as “zoning for years of bureaucratic bickering.
sale”), was suspended in February The city and the school district
finally agreed to a five-year lease
and is now being reformed.
After years of talking about fix- that will lead to a joint vision for
ing up the city’s sagging infrastruc- the sprawling, dilapidated south
Ciera Pasturel
by Gennady Sheyner
Magical Bridge founder Olenka Villareal, Palo Alto Mayor Nancy
Shepherd and other Magical Bridge Playground supporters broke
ground ceremonially June 23 on the inclusive playground project
in Mitchell Park.
a replaced waterline, new newsracks and benches, a freshly paved
road and a reduction of traffic
lanes from four to two, stretched
through much of the year. To the
relief of merchants who have
weathered the jack-hammering
and other construction distractions, the work is set to conclude
in the spring of 2015.
Magical Bridge: In one of
the feel-good stories of the year,
the group Friends of the Magical
Bridge broke ground on construction of a new “universal playground” in Palo Alto in June. For
group founder Olenka Villarreal,
who was looking for a playground
Palo Alto hub and a commitment
of public funds toward the needed
repairs.
The city’s long-simmering dilemma over the future of organic
waste also marked a milestone
in 2014. After years of acrimony
between environmentalists who
wanted to keep composting local and conservationists who
wanted to protect the Baylands, a
hard-won truce emerged on Dec.
8, when the city decided not to
pursue a composting facility near
Byxbee Park at this time because
of high costs. Earlier in the year,
both sides in the green-versusgreen debate supported the city’s
decision to move ahead with a
plan that would retire its toxic,
sludge-burning incinerators in
the Baylands and pursue a wasteto-energy facility for processing
food waste near the water-treatment plan.
Perhaps no action embodies
the game-changing spirit of 2014
more than the council’s Dec. 2
votes to establish a Residential
Parking Permit Program downtown and to create a framework
for similar programs in other areas of town. Designed to provide
downtown residents relief from
commuters who have long relied
on neighborhood streets for free
all-day parking, the new program
is also seen as the tip of the spear
for the myriad parking and traffic initiatives that the city will be
launching in the coming months.
The council approved the program after years of complaints
that could accommodate children
with disabilities, the project has
been a steep challenge and labor
of love. This year, the Friends secured close to $4 million in funding, earned the city’s enthusiastic blessing and began building
the Magical Bridge Playground,
which is now set to be completed
in late January or early February
2015.
Main ... I mean ... Rinconada Library: The old library
near the Palo Alto Art Center
will have a new wing and a new
name when it opens to the public
(continued on page 16)
from residents, nine months of
meetings by a stakeholder task
force and reluctant buy-in from
the business community.
Councilman Marc Berman
reflected the view of the entire
council when he called the result
“a good and necessary step in
setting up so many other transportation management issues
and programs that we’re going to
be implementing in this coming
year.” These include an expanded
shuttle program, implementation
of technology at local parking
garages and a new nonprofit that
will work with downtown’s employers to shift commuters from
cars to public transit or other
modes of transportation through
a range of incentives.
“I think this is a really, really
important night for starting to
address the concerns that residents have been expressing to the
council for years about decreasing quality of life in the neighborhoods,” Berman said.
Normally, there would be nothing newsworthy about a councilman talking about the need to
protect residential neighborhoods.
But the fact that Berman’s comment was backed up by a unanimous vote that was years in the
making and that will have a lasting effect on residents, employees
and visitors further underscores
the year was truly a game-changer
for Palo Alto. Q
Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner
can be emailed at gsheyner@
paweekly.com.
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 11
Upfront
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A late-night fight between two groups of men in downtown Palo
Alto last weekend ended with one man unconscious in the hospital
and two others arrested.
On Sunday, Dec. 21, at about 2:04 a.m. Palo Alto police officers
heard a commotion near The Aquarius Theatre between Emerson
and High streets, according to a police department press release. As
the officers ran to assist a man lying in the street, four men jumped
into a car. Officers had to sidestep it to avoid being hit, police said.
They were able to get the license plate number.
The unconscious man, a Palo Alto resident in his 20s, was transported by paramedics to a local hospital. He remains in critical condition with severe head injuries, police said Wednesday.
The two groups of men didn’t know each other, police said. They
earlier argued outside The Patio bar. When the argument escalated
down the street, one man punched the victim once in the face. He
fell backwards, hit his head and has not regained consciousness,
police said.
A patrol car dashboard camera captured the incident.
Neil Brian Rotroff, 28, of Cupertino, was later arrested and faces
a count of felony assault with a deadly weapon (his fist). The driver,
Akshay Vijay Mastakar, 21, of Sunnyvale, faces two counts of assault
with a deadly weapon — one count covering the victim, and one
count for swerving at the two officers.
The charges could change if the victim dies, police said. Q
— Elena Kadvany
Mountain View
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Page 12 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
The rate of unemployment in the Bay Area dropped in November,
compared to a year ago, according to data released Dec. 19 from the
state’s Employment Development Department.
Over the past 12 months the Peninsula and East Bay labor force has
added 84,000 workers, far more than came from population growth
alone. The year-over-year data showed that the number of jobless
people in Santa Clara County stood at 48,600, or 5.1 percent of the
labor force, down from 6.2 percent in 2013.
The unemployment rate in San Mateo County was 4.1 percent
in November, down from 5 percent a year ago. The unemployment
rate in Marin County was 3.9 percent in November, down from 4.6
percent a year ago, according to EDD officials.
Those two counties had the lowest unemployment rates of the ninecounty Bay Area, which includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, San
Francisco, Santa Clara, Sonoma and Solano counties.
EDD officials said comparing the unemployment rate on a yearover-year basis, rather than a month-to-month basis, is more appropriate because the unemployment data are not seasonally adjusted.
Data can vary monthly, for example, because more people are employed during the holiday season.
Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and Santa Clara counties saw reductions of 1.1 percentage points from a year ago, according to EDD
officials.
In the greater San Francisco metro area, which includes San Mateo, Marin and the city and county of San Francisco according to
the EDD, the unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in November, the
lowest since November 2007’s 4 percent, Villalobos said.
Two-thirds of the job growth in the San Francisco metro area was
in the professional, scientific and technical services sector. High
tech, which is part of that sector, accounted for 18 percent of the
net job growth in the San Francisco metro area, EDD labor market
consultant Jorge Villalobos said.
The state’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.2 percent in November, down from 8.4 percent a year ago.
In all Bay Area counties, the number of employed increased and
the labor force expanded from a year ago. Q
— Bay City News
Fire originated in oven, damages kitchen
Two people in Palo Alto were able to make it out of a house safely
after an oven caught fire Sunday, fire officials said.
Fire crews responded to a one-alarm fire at a single-family home
on the 2900 block of Cowper Street in Palo Alto at 3:53 p.m., said
Palo Alto Fire Department Battalion Chief Bobby Davis.
Davis said a man and woman escaped before fire crews arrived.
The fire was mostly contained to the oven and parts of the kitchen,
but smoke caused damage throughout the house, Davis said.
Fire crews doused the blaze around 4:03 p.m., and Davis said firefighters left the scene roughly 35 to 45 minutes later.
There were no injuries reported, he said. Q
— Bay City News Service
LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk
about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com
Upfront
YOUTH WELL-BEING
Donations pour in to thank Palo Alto track guards
Social-media post helps raise thousands of dollars in days
A
n effort to thank the security guards who stand
watch at several Palo Alto
train crossings started as a hopeful Facebook post and ended in
a group of community members
raising almost $4,000 in less than
a week.
Julie Lythcott-Haims, mother
of two Palo Alto students and former longtime Stanford University
dean of freshmen, felt the pull to
do something to express her gratitude while driving by a guard on
a rainy evening last week.
“It was dark, cold and raining
and there this man stood under
an umbrella,” she remembered.
“I just felt this emotion rise in
my chest. I cranked down my
window and shouted, ‘Thanks,’
but by the time I got to the end of
the word, my voice was already
cracking. In some ways, the raw
humanity of the entire situation
was on display somehow. I just
thought, ‘Here I am in my car,
warm and dry, making my way
across these train tracks,’ and I
just wanted to do something.”
So she took to Facebook, as she
often does to share her opinion
and connect with others on current events and important issues,
and put forth the idea of collecting money to purchase gift cards
for the 11 guards, who in shifts
stand seven days a week at several
Palo Alto train crossings.
The guards are employed by
a private security firm and contracted through the Palo Alto
Police Department as part of
Track Watch, which was created
after several suicides in 2009
and 2010. The guards’ presence
was increased this year after two
young men died in October and
November.
Lythcott-Haims posted her
query on Facebook shortly before dinner on Monday, Dec. 15,
asking people to spread the word
to other networks and communities — and it did so quickly.
Before she went to bed, she had
received $800. When she woke
up Tuesday morning, the total
had jumped to $1,200. People
started sending her money electronically on PayPal, VenMo
and Square as well as cards with
checks in the mail. She planned
to use the money to purchase
Visa gift cards for the guards,
leaving the use of the money up
to them, and wanted to be able
to give the gifts by this Monday,
Dec. 22, before the holidays.
Lythcott-Haims talked to the
police department and the security firm to let them know her plans
and make sure it was appropriate,
she said.
On Sunday evening, she had
raised $3,752 — just short of being able to give each guard a $350
gift card. Lythcott-Haims reached
out to a woman who, along with
her initial donation of $100, had
told Lythcott-Haims, “Let me
know if you need help topping it
off.” Lythcott-Haims did, and the
woman did.
Fast forward through a small
fiasco over buying that many
Visa gift cards in one sitting,
and Lythcott-Haims had a $350
gift card to Target, along with a
letter of thanks, for each guard.
Donations from 74 people ranged
from $5 to a $600 contribution
Lythcott-Haims received from a
woman she didn’t know before
the campaign. One person contributed packs of hand warmers.
Dan Lythcott-Haims
by Elena Kadvany
Palo Alto parent Julie Lythcott-Haims reads a letter of thanks to lead Track Watch guard Derrick on
Monday, Dec. 22.
“I think we all want to be out
there,” Lythcott-Haims said.
“We all want to be out there preventing any child, anyone from
deciding that that’s the only option. Practically speaking, we
can’t all be out there, and thankfully the police department has
hired a set of people to do this
work, but I think we feel a level
of indebtedness to them that can
never be repaid.”
Lythcott-Haims’ initial Facebook Dec. 15 post garnered more
than 250 likes and 65 comments
and has been shared more than 20
times.
“This was a small way in which
people could come together and
join forces and feel that we’re
doing something, we’re acknowledging a problem and expressing
gratitude for one element of the
solution, which is not to say this
is the only solution,” she said. “I
think many of us know how important it is to express gratitude
for the efforts made around us.”
Lythcott-Haims returned to
Facebook on Monday to announce that she would be presenting the gifts that afternoon to the
lead Track Watch guard, Derrick,
who asked that his last name not
be published. Ten people — including Lythcott-Haims’ 75-yearold mother and two former Stanford students — showed up.
“That was lovely,” Derrick told
the Weekly Tuesday. “I know ev-
erybody appreciated that. You can’t
beat that. Normally, you would see
somebody get a $20 or $50 gift, but
when you (give) that amount —
that will definitely make everybody
stand on their toes. We appreciate it
to the fullest, too.”
Derrick and other guards said
people will often bring them coffee or food, but this gift went
above and beyond.
Guard Stanley Cortez said he
thought Derrick was joking when
he said a $350 gift card would be
waiting for him at work this week.
“It’s a good feeling, you know
what I mean?” Cortez said. Q
Staff Writer Elena Kadvany
can be emailed at ekadvany@
paweekly.com.
HOLIDAY FUND
Family pledges huge match for Holiday Fund donations
Local family hopes $100,000 challenge will inspire support for community programs
by Palo Alto Weekly staff
F
or the fourth year in a row,
a Palo Alto family is urging residents to step up
and make gifts to the Palo Alto
Weekly Holiday Fund by pledging $100,000 of their own in
matching funds.
The family, who wishes to
remain anonymous, wants to inspire others to support the local
programs for kids and families
funded by the Holiday Fund.
Last year, a similar challenge
sparked enough donations to set
a record total of $400,000, which
was awarded last spring in grants
to local nonprofits serving children
and families.
The donation will be
used to match
the contributions of other donors with the hope
of encouraging additional giving
from readers of the Weekly.
“This generous Palo Alto family believes strongly in the mission of the Holiday Fund and the
efficiency with which we are able
to assist many local nonprofits,”
Palo Alto Weekly Publisher Bill
Johnson said.
Since the Weekly and Silicon
Valley Community Foundation
absorb all the costs of the program, every dollar that is donated is distributed without any
overhead or expenses deducted.
In a statement accompanying the donation, the donors
stressed their desire to support
local causes.
“We grew up in Palo Alto and
have always appreciated the extraordinary services provided
by the city, the schools and the
many community-based organizations. We want to support these
efforts and the Holiday Fund is a
superb way to do that,” they said.
Over the last 21 years, the
Holiday Fund has raised and
distributed more than $5 million
to local nonprofits.
The Holiday Fund program
has enjoyed ongoing support
from the Packard and Hewlett
foundations, the Peery and Arrillaga foundations and several
other family foundations. The
annual Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run, which has grown to
become one of Palo Alto’s largest community events, also benefits the Holiday Fund.
To make a contribution to
this year’s campaign, see page
30. The campaign runs through
January. Q
To read about the work of Holiday Fund agencies in the community, go to PaloAltoOnline.
com. There are articles about the
Downtown Streets Team, Youth
Community Service, Silicon Valley FACES, 10 Books A Home,
Palo Alto Historical Association
and Cultural Kaleidoscope.
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 13
Inspire
(continued from page 5)
severely maiming Guirguis.
Both arms were amputated
above the elbows. Unable to care
for herself, her husband closed his
business to tend to her and their 5
1/2-year-old child.
But Guirguis, 37, was not bitter.
“This looks as if this is an extremely difficult life experience.
Since the very, very beginning,
we have felt God’s presence. It
doesn’t feel as difficult because
this is the act of God, and we are
handling it with peace and resilience,” she said.
Bay Area entrepreneur Sameh
Michaiel heard of her plight and
helped her receive prosthetic
arms with the aid of dozens of
Palo Alto and Mountain View
medical professionals. They donated their time and facilities at
little or no cost.
“She had nothing but gratitude.
There was just a fire in her that you
could see was driving her,” said
Charlie Kelly of Norell Prosthetics
Orthotics in Mountain View, who
helped to fit the new arms.
(See March 14 story, “Medical community rallies around
injured Egyptian woman.”)
Ned Gallagher:
Selflessness and prayer
A
s a U.S. Marine and World
War II veteran, Palo Altan
Ned Gallagher survived
a triple-torpedo hit on the USS
Houston and 3 1/2 years in a Japanese prison camp.
As the warship sank off Java,
Gallagher, an experienced swimmer, decided to forgo the crowded
lifeboat, believing he had a better
chance of making it to land than
other shipmates. He swam for
nine hours, he said.
A Japanese platoon eventually
captured Gallagher and other survivors. They received barely more
than a half-cup of insect-infested
rice to eat each day, he said.
But the men often talked about
food to survive. Gallagher kept
hidden a tiny notebook in which
he wrote down the best places
and dishes his imprisoned mates
remembered. And he got on his
knees each day and prayed for
their release, which finally came.
He has continued to pray every
morning and night since.
“Because of his age, this year
his doctor gave him special dispensation to get off his knees,” his
daughter Mary Gallagher told the
Weekly.
(See July 4 story, “At 99 years
old, Palo Altan recalls a ship’s
sinking.”)
Palo Alto students:
Courage to speak
and reach out
When Gunn High School students received word of another
classmate’s death by suicide this
year, they started a movement to
urge the community to change its
Veronica Weber
Upfront
Ohlone fourth-grader Dashiell Meier excitedly holds his award in the air after a special presentation at
the Palo Alto school board meeting where he was awarded the 2014 California Council for Exceptional
Children’s “Yes I Can!” Award for Self-Advocacy in October.
culture of perfectionism. Gunn
student Hayley Krolik wrote that
Palo Alto needs to replace a culture that has led to excessive pressure to perform and sent the email
to the parents of Gunn students,
which was shared broadly. Ricky
Shin, a Gunn junior, posted a raw
essay about his own grieving to
inspire others to also open up.
And Gunn student Martha Cabot
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Page 14 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
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shared her thoughts and feelings
in a YouTube video that immediately went viral.
Palo Alto High School students
published an article in the school
news website the Paly Voice to
destigmatize counseling. An editorial focused on how the schools
and community can improve their
approach to mental health issues.
“I think spreading awareness
(about pressure and students’
well-being) is just really, really
important because at the end of
the day, that’s what’s going to actually make an impact. The more
and more people who realize and
care about it will come together
and do something about it,” Cabot
told the Weekly.
(See Nov. 14 cover story, “In the
wake: Teens respond with messages of hope, change.”)
Dashiell Meier:
Advocate for acceptance
O
hlone Elementary School
fourth-grader Dashiell
Meier has taken his message about living with Down syndrome to Sacramento, as well as
to Washington, D.C.
Whether meeting with members of Congress or speaking
to fellow Palo Alto elementary
school students, Dashiell has
worked to create a culture of acceptance and tolerance by educating people about why he’s different. This year he won the Council
for Exceptional Children’s “Yes I
Can!” Award for self-advocacy, a
national honor.
Dashiell has been talking to his
classmates about his disability
since the first grade.
“It helps them know about me
and what it’s like to have Down
syndrome,” he said.
Others have taken notice.
“He doesn’t let obstacles get in
his way. He has this ‘I can do everything everyone else can do’ attitude,” Ohlone language pathologist Cynthia Ehrhorn said.
Added Renee Alloy, a resource
specialist: “What I’ve noticed
has changed is social awareness
of other conditions and children
interacting where normally they
would have been isolated. When
he tells others how this has impacted him, I see them walking
around on the playground arm in
arm, arm over shoulder, playing
games ... just being more accepting of a variety of differences
that there are in our human culture.”
(See Oct. 24 story, “Palo
Alto fourth-grader with Down
syndrome wins self-advocacy
award.”)
Hadi Abukhadra:
Endurance and a smile
H
e is a champ. Despite the
pain, Hadi Abukhadra
handled the multiple surgeries like a pro, medical staff at
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital said of the 6-year-old.
The Palestinian boy was
brought to Stanford to undergo
corrective surgery for extreme orthopedic deformities earlier this
year, traveling 7,500 miles from
a refugee camp in the West Bank
of Palestine.
His knees were bent the wrong
way and his feet faced upside
down. Before treatment, he could
only crawl or be carried.
Casts gradually stretched his
skin, ligaments, nerves and other
soft tissue, and surgeries changed
the position of his feet, stretched
leg muscles and strengthen his
knees.
Hadi’s response was to sing and
dance throughout the ordeal, even
in his hospital bed right before
going into surgery, said Richard
Gee, a Lucile Packard physical
therapy clinical specialist. Then,
the boy who’d never taken a step
in his life learned to walk in just
two weeks.
(See June 6 story, “Palestinian boy walks for first time after
treatment at Lucile Packard.”) Q
Staff Writer Sue Dremann
can be emailed at sdremann@
paweekly.com.
Upfront
School
(continued from page 7)
— this time over alleged student
sexual harassment at Gunn High
School. This case remains open.
I
Veronica Weber
n 2014, the board bid farewell
to many other school heads:
Gunn High School Principal
Katya Villalobos, Ohlone Elementary School Principal Bill
Overton, Fairmeadow Elementary
School Principal Gary Prehn, Addison Elementary School Principal Jocelyn Garcia-Thome, Palo
Alto Adult School’s Kara Rosenberg and Jordan Middle School
Assistant Principal Ellie Slack
all announced in March that they
would be stepping down at the
end of the school year. (Villalobos stayed in the district, however,
heading the Adult School.) Two
months later, the news came that
Denise Herrmann would be coming from Wisconsin to lead Gunn.
And in April, the news broke
that former Palo Alto High School
Principal Phil Winston, who resigned in June 2013 citing health
and “work-life balance” reasons,
had been under investigation at
the time by school district officials for multiple allegations of
sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior involving both
staff and students. Winston was
reassigned to teach special education at Jordan.
The month of May saw the very
beginnings of a 2014 changing of
the guard on the school board,
with parents Ken Dauber, Catherine Crystal Foster and Terry
Godfrey expressing interest in the
two seats to be vacated by Barb
Mitchell and Dana Tom. At the
same time, just as seniors were
graduating from Paly and Gunn,
the board sealed the deal with
Max McGee as the district’s new
superintendent.
McGee, a seasoned and entrepreneurial educator, had a
decades-long career in Illinois as
a teacher, principal, school- and
state-level superintendent and
most recently, head of an elite
international math and science
academy. He hit the ground running on Aug. 1.
At the board’s annual retreat
in August, McGee brought in
six ambitious goals for the year
(later cut down to five), that push
consistency, collaboration, professional development, accountability and proactive rather than
reactive communication.
During a live TV interview
with two high school journalism
students in October, McGee announced that he would be convening a committee tasked with
analyzing and issuing a set of
specific, actionable recommendations on Palo Alto’s achievement
gap. December saw early work
of the committee dedicated to
aiding lower-performing minority students, with meetings set to
continue through April.
With McGee at the helm, the
district also achieved a breakthrough on negotiating the city’s
lease of Cubberley Community
Superintendant Max McGee greets the students at Duveneck
Elementary School during the school’s opening ceremony on the
first day of school on Aug. 19.
Center, the sprawling Middlefield
Road campus whose future remained in limbo for the past two
years.
Yet it has largely been business
as usual when it comes to Office
for Civil Rights issues, save the
complaint that McGee expeditiously resolved in September. The
district spent more than $200,000
in the first seven months of 2014
in legal fees related to its cases
and conflicts with the Office for
Civil Rights, including just under
$50,000 for attorneys to research,
develop and follow-up on the
board’s June resolution. McGee
has expressed an unwillingness to
withdraw two outstanding Freedom of Information Act appeals
that the district filed in 2013 over
two Office for Civil Rights cases,
one of which is closed, despite
the urging of newly elected board
member Dauber.
T
he same month McGee began his post in Palo Alto,
the roster of Board of Education candidates solidified, with
Gina Dalma, a parent and senior
education officer for the Silicon
Valley Community Foundation,
and Jay Cabrera, a Palo Alto
schools graduate and the only
non-parent in the race, joining
Dauber, Foster and Godfrey.
The election saw some divisiveness over civil-rights issues,
but the five candidates otherwise
found much common ground on
the main issues facing the district:
a need for evaluation and data to
make more concrete, evidencebased decisions; the cultivation
of innovation; the importance of
social-emotional health and reduction of student stress.
On Nov. 4, Dauber earned an
early win. In a September interview with the Weekly, he said
he hoped a win would indicate
backing for the actions he specifically, repeatedly promised
during the campaign: opening a
13th elementary school, improving the district’s relationship with
special-education families, curtailing Office for Civil Rights-related legal costs, bringing foreignlanguage instruction to middle
schools, more careful use of data,
and a focus on student mental
health and well-being.
Foster and Godfrey were locked
in a tight battle for the second
open seat for more than a week
after election night, as votes continued to be counted. Foster conceded on Nov. 13, and Godfrey
eventually secured the win by
about 200 votes.
The new board will oversee
even more school construction,
as a $378 million Strong Schools
bond that voters passed in 2008
continues to bear fruit throughout
the district. At Paly, the state-ofthe-art Media Arts Center and a
two-story classroom building finally opened as construction on
the school’s Performing Arts Center got started. A new classroom
building opened at Duveneck
Elementary School this school
year as talks over the need for a
13th elementary school continued,
with McGee urging the board to
gather a committee that would research and then issue an informed
CityView
A round-up
of Palo Alto government action this week
City Council
The council did not meet this week.
Public Agenda
A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week
decision to the board on the topic.
The new board will also oversee
Gunn’s Central Building Project,
which includes a “wellness center” that will consolidate all student health services in one space.
Student mental health returned
to the forefront of the community’s mind this fall after two young
men — one a current Gunn High
School student and the other a
recent Gunn graduate — died by
suicide at the train tracks. The
schools’ crisis response teams,
as well as community organizations, sprang into action, providing counseling and other forms
of support to students and staff
at Gunn. The high school held a
meeting with a panel of mental
health experts that was attended
by hundreds of parents yearning
for answers and help. A Gunn
mother helped organize a similar
meeting for the Mandarin-speaking community, which more than
100 parents attended.
Students spoke out in their own
circles but also publicly on YouTube, social media, blogs and a
Gunn parents’ email list, sharing
their experiences directly with
parents, teachers, school administrators and community members. Many said they did so in the
hopes of steering the emotional
conversation away from finger
pointing to a deeper understanding of the culture that makes
many students feel like they’re
emotionally drowning.
One of those students, Martha Cabot, also teamed up with
former Gunn English teacher
Marc Vincenti to launch Save the
2,008, a grassroots campaign to
create a happier, healthier life for
Gunn’s 2,008 students and teachers. Cabot and Vincenti have become a regular team presence at
board meetings, hoping to keep
issues about stress, mental health,
homework load and AP classes at
the forefront of everyone’s minds.
Also this fall, Palo Alto’s broadreaching youth health coalition
Project Safety Net found itself at
a crossroads after losing its second director in two years. The city
also called on its main partner, the
school district, to boost its commitment during this transition period. McGee said in October that
the district has two proposals for
supporting Project Safety Net: either taking the lead and hiring the
staff necessary along with procuring more financial support, or
working to develop the new wellness center at Gunn.
With the book not yet quite
closed on Office for Civil Rights
cases, a still-fresh superintendent
and two new board members who
have yet to make their mark, 2014
might well be remembered as the
year that, by its end, left the district poised on the brink of more
serious change in 2015. Q
Staff Writer Elena Kadvany
can be emailed at ekadvany@
paweekly.com.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
of the City of Palo Alto
Historic Resources Board [HRB]
8:30 A.M., Wednesday, January 7, 2015, Palo Alto Council
Chambers, 1st Floor, Civic Center, 250 Hamilton Avenue. Plans
may be reviewed at the Development Center at 285 Hamilton
Avenue or online at: http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/planning
projects; contact Diana Tamale for additional information during business hours at 650.329.2144.
251 Lincoln Avenue [14PLN-00301]: Request by Margaret
Wimmer, on behalf of Donna and Harry Schmidt, for Historic
Resources Board review and recommendation regarding
proposed alternations and additions to a residence, initially constructed in 1903, that is listed on the City’s Historic Inventory
in Category 4 and located in the Professorville Historic District.
The project would include relocation of the house on the site
seven feet farther from the property line at Ramona Street. The
project is subject to the regulations of the Single Family Individual review (IR) process. Environmental Assessment: Categorically Exempt from the provision of CEQA, Section 15331.
Zoning District R-1. This item was continued from the meeting of December 3, 2014.
$P\)UHQFK&KLHI3ODQQLQJ2IÀFLDO
The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals
with disabilities. To request an accommodation for this meeting
or an alternative format for any related printed materials, please
contact the City’s ADA Coordinator at 650.329.2550 (voice) or
by e-mailing ada@cityofpaloalto.org.
CITY COUNCIL ... The council has no meetings scheduled this week.
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 15
Upfront
(continued from page 11)
in early 2015. Formerly known
as the Main Library, the Newell
Road facility will be rechristened
as Rinconada Library once it’s
back in operation. It will feature
a new program room, entrance
lobby, four glass-walled study
rooms, upgraded ventilation
systems and fresh landscaping.
The $22 million project will also
mark the conclusion of the ambitious library-system overhaul that
voters approved when they passed
Measure N in 2008.
Business registry: It’s a critical question nobody seems to be
able to answer: How many workers come to Palo Alto every day?
The question has stumped council members, city planners and
even a consultant who was hired
to explore it but who ultimately
conceded that there’s not enough
information to draw any firm conclusions. Palo Alto’s new business
registry, which will debut in 2015
and require businesses to disclose
employment information, should
finally shed some light on the biggest mystery of the startup world,
with significant ramifications for
planning and parking initiatives.
CITY OF PALO ALTO
Notice of Funding Availability
Program Years 2015-16 & 2016-17
Community Development
Block Grant Program
Michelle Le
Accomplishments
Wise and Whimsy, an art installation by artist Brad Oldham, are featured at the entrance to the
Mitchell Park Library and Community Center.
El Camino Park: The petite
but bustling park on the edge
of downtown has been closed
since October 2011, when the
city began building an underground water reservoir at the
site. That project was completed
in January of this year, but the
various improvements that were
supposed to accompany the
reservoir project have been in
planning limbo for years, with
designs constantly changing. In
December, the council finally
approved a construction contract for the park improvements,
which will cost more than $5
million and include new athletic fields, synthetic turf, field
lighting, an expanded parking
lot, new pathways, landscaping
and benches. Construction is set
to commence in January and be
completed in October 2015.
Attendance at a Pre-Proposal Conference is MANDATORY
for all applicants.
Pre-Proposal Conference schedule:
PREVIOUSLY OCCURRED:
@10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 10, 2014
UPCOMING: @10:00 a.m. on Monday, January 5, 2015
APPLICATIONS DUE: by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 9, 2015
Applications are now available for the City of Palo Alto’s 201516 & 2016-17 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
program years. The applications are for funding under the City’s
two-year funding cycle that includes FY 2015-16 (July 1, 2015 to
June 30, 2016) and FY 2016-17 (July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017).
The City expects to distribute locally more than $500,000 in
M\UKZLHJOÄZJHS`LHYMYVT[OL<:+LWHY[TLU[VM/V\ZPUNHUK
<YIHU+L]LSVWTLU[/<+MVY[OL*+).7YVNYHT;OLWYPTHY`
objective of the Program is:
“The development of viable urban communities, including
decent housing and a suitable living environment, and
expanding economic opportunities, principally for persons of
low and very low income.”
Parking program: Downtown residents rejoiced, exhaled
and, in many cases, gritted their
teeth when the council finally
approved in December the Residential Parking Permit Program.
Set to start around April, the program aims to move commuters’
cars out of residential streets and
into public garages. That’s great
news for downtown residents who
have long complained about the
inability to find parking on their
own blocks. Less thrilled are
those who don’t want to purchase
The CDBG Program is directed toward expanding and maintaining
[OL HќVYKHISL OV\ZPUN Z\WWS`" WYVTV[PUN OV\ZPUN VWWVY[\UP[PLZ
HUK JOVPJLZ" THPU[HPUPUNa HUK PTWYV]PUN JVTT\UP[` MHJPSP[PLZ"
PUJYLHZPUN LJVUVTPJ VWWVY[\UP[PLZ HJJLZZPIPSP[` LULYN` LѝJPLUJ`
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persons of low and very low income. Targeted groups might include
persons who are homeless, seniors, persons with disabilities, and
other special needs groups.
A Pre-Proposal Conferences is scheduled for 10 a.m. on
Monday, January 5, 2015, in the City Council Chambers at
the Civic Center, First Floor, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto,
California. ALL Proposers intending to submit a proposal are
required to attend a Pre-Proposal Conference. Proposers
who previously attended the Pre-Proposal Conference on
December 10, 2014 have met the requirement.
permits to park in front of their
homes. Whether or not you’re
down with RPPP, it’s a game
changer, as well as one of the
city’s most promising tools in its
battle against parking congestion.
IMPORTANT, BUT NOT
QUITE URGENT
Downtown garage: Every
council member in Palo Alto
agrees that the city needs a new
downtown garage. In 2014, they
took a few actions to expedite the
construction of a new facility.
This includes approving an infrastructure plan that lists a garage as one of the priority items,
passing a hotel-tax increase that
would help pay for these costs
and identifying a downtown site
for the new facility: a public lot
on the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Waverley Street.
Anaerobic digester: Palo
Alto’s heated debate over the
future of organic waste reached
an impasse of sorts in May when
the city approved a four-stage
plan that begins with retiring the
sludge-burning incinerators and
proceeds to building a waste-toenergy plant that will turn local
sewage and food scraps into energy. The city also tried to find
a way to bring a composting operation to the Measure E site in
Byxbee Park, though by December everyone agreed that there
The application submittal package must be received by the
*+).7YVNYHT6ɉJLI`!WTVU-YPKH`1HU\HY` in order to be considered for funding during the period that
includes FY 2015-16 & 2016-17.
Applications are available at the City of Palo Alto Planning Division,
*P[`/HSS[O-SVVY/HTPS[VU(]LU\LK\YPUNYLN\SHYVѝJLOV\YZ
Applications are also available on the City’s website: http://www.
cityofpaloalto.org/gov/depts/pln/cdbg.asp. To request an application
or for more information please contact Matthew Weintraub, Planner
- CDBG at 650.329.2247 or via email at Matthew.Weintraub@
CityofPaloAlto.org.
ADA Coordinator, City of Palo Alto,
650-329-2550 (Voice)
ada@cityofpaloalto.org
Page 16 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Michelle Le
Persons with disabilities who require auxiliary aids or services
in using City facilities, services or programs, or who would like
information on the City’s compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact:
A trio walks through along a detour as construction workers pour
cement to fill the new sidewalk along California Avenue in late October.
are no cost-effective options for
doing so at this time.
Public-safety building: Every year, the city seems to get
closer to its goal of building a
new police headquarters, only
to see the latest plan fizzle for
some reason or other. When 2014
ended, the new public-safety
building remained atop the
city’s priority list, but there was
one big reason for optimism: The
city now has the funds. With the
infrastructure funding plan in
place, staff has been evaluating
potential sites for the new building and is expected to report its
findings in early 2015.
101 bike bridge: Of the two
dozen bike projects that Palo
Alto is now pursuing, none is
as ambitious or expensive as the
planned bridge over U.S. Highway 101 at Adobe Creek. In December, the city concluded a design competition for the “iconic”
structure that will connect south
Palo Alto to the Baylands. The
jury in the competition chose
the boldest of the three designs
on the table, one that features
a prominent arch. In February,
the council will make the final
decision on the bridge, and design work should begin shortly
thereafter.
Golf course: Palo Alto’s plan
to revamp its golf course in the
Baylands and to make a portion
of it available for a flood-control
project near the San Francisquito
Creek ran into a severe setback
this year, when the flood-control
effort stalled amid a dispute over
permits. With the two projects
closely connected, the delay in
the latter led to a corresponding
delay in the former. That dispute
appeared to be resolved by the end
of the year, when the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality
Control Board finally agreed to
sign off on the flood-control project. If the rest of the permitting
process goes as planned (admittedly, a huge “if”), construction on
one or both long-awaited projects
could begin in 2015. Q
Pulse
A weekly compendium
of vital statistics
Michael Repka
Before you select a real estate agent, meet with Michael Repka
to discuss how his real estate law and tax back-ground benefits
Ken DeLeon’s clients.
Dec. 17-22
Photoshop and Illustrator. Flash knowledge is a plus. Newspaper
or previous publication experience is preferred, but we will consider
qualified — including entry level — candidates. Most importantly,
designer must be a team player and demonstrate speed,
Managing Broker
DeLeon Realty
JD - Rutgers School of Law
L.L.M (Taxation)
NYU School of Law
Clark Way, 12/19, 6:31 p.m.; domestic
violence/misc.
Mosher Way, 12/19, 8:54 p.m.; domestic
violence/battery.
Menlo Park
200 block Ivy Drive, 12/17, 8:59 a.m.;
child abuse.
400 block Ivy Drive, 12/18, 1:22 p.m.;
assault.
500 Pierce Road, 12/20, 6:52 p.m.;
battery.
accuracy and thrive under deadline pressure. The position will be
approximately 32 - 40 hours per week.
To apply, please send a resume along with samples of your work
as a PDF (or URL) to Lili Cao, Design & Production Manager,
at lcao@paweekly.com
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Dec. 17-22
Palo Alto
com and several other community websites, is looking for a graphic
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Design opportunities include online and print ad design and
Palo Alto
Violence related
Assault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Child abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Theft related
Burglary undefined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Theft undefined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Vehicle related
Auto recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Bicycle theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Driving with suspended license . . . . . . 4
Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Reckless driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Vehicle accident/injury . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . 1
Vehicle accident/no injury. . . . . . . . . . . 1
Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Alcohol or drug related
Driving under influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Drug activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Possession of paraphernalia . . . . . . . . 1
Under influence of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Miscellaneous
CPS cross report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
CPS referral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Info case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Juvenile problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Possession of switchblade . . . . . . . . . . 1
Psychiatric evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . 2
Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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designer to join its award-winning design team.
POLICE CALLS
Violence related
Domestic violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Theft related
Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Counterfeit currency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Credit card fraud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Identity theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Vehicle related
Auto burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Auto recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Auto theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Bicycle theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Driving with suspended license . . . . . . 1
Driving without license . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . 5
Vehicle accident/property damage. . . . 8
Vehicle impound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Alcohol or drug related
Driving under influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Possession of paraphernalia . . . . . . . . 1
Under influence of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Miscellaneous
Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . 1
Unattended death. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Violation of court order . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
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www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 17
A
Speaking about both of the
Wymans, former Vice Mayor
Enid Pearson said, “They were
always there when there was a
big issue. You can count on them.
They were faithful and steady.”
Transitions
In memoriam
Ira Ruskin, a former state
Assemblyman who represented
Palo Alto for six years, died on
July 3. He was 70.
He served nine years as a city
councilman in Redwood City
starting in 1995 and was mayor
from 1999 through 2001. He was
elected to the State Assembly as
a Democrat in 2004, when he defeated Republican Steve Poizner
to succeed former Palo Alto
Mayor Joe Simitian. Ruskin was
re-elected twice before being
termed out in 2010.
As a Redwood City councilman, he worked with Palo Alto
officials to advocate for the creation of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency,
an organization of cities that use
Hetch Hetchy water, and he was
its founding chairman. Ruskin
was also a member of the Committee for Green Foothills.
In the California State Assembly, he championed an environmental bill to safeguard the
state through toxic-substances
reporting. He also introduced a
bill that funded the successful
Parolee Reentry Program in East
Palo Alto, which helped more
than 100 persons change their
lives for the better. He served on
the Budget, Business and Professions, Environmental Safety
and Toxic Materials and Higher
Education committees of the Assembly, among others.
Ruskin had planned to run for
Simitian’s seat in the state Senate in 2012, but in 2011 he announced that he had undergone
surgery for a malignant brain
tumor and was preparing to go
through further radiation and
chemotherapy treatment.
His Assembly successor Rich
Gordon praised Ruskin’s service
in the Assembly after the 2011
Visit
Kevin Hagen
Tom and Ellen Wyman, longtime Palo Alto residents and volunteers,
sit in their home in April 2005. They died this year, both at age 86.
Page 18 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Lasting Memories
An online directory of obituaries and remembrances.
Search obituaries, submit a memorial, share a photo.
Go to: www.PaloAltoOnline.com/obituaries
Ryland Kelley, a Palo Alto
native, developer and poet, died
on Aug. 30 of liver cancer. He
was 88.
A prominent real estate developer in a firm started by his
father (Hare, Brewer & Kelley),
he brought to life many landmark, and sometimes controversial, projects in the area with
his brother, William “Bill” Kelley. Throughout his life, he supported land-preservation efforts,
innovative solutions to ecological
problems and the arts. He and his
wife, Shirley, were also founding shareholders of the Palo Alto
Weekly.
“Rye was a fire hose of ideas,
some brilliant, some ahead of their
time and some completely crazy,”
Weekly Publisher Bill Johnson
said. “This creativity and joie de
vivre touched everything he did
professionally and, in retirement,
came out in beautiful poetry written for friends and family.”
Born in 1925 at the old Palo
Courtesy of Virginia Bacon
Tom Wyman, a longtime Palo
Alto volunteer, died on March
17. He was 86. Ellen Wyman,
Tom’s wife and a lifelong activist and volunteer, died on Sept.
14. She was 86.
Together the Wymans were
involved in many local civic issues, from supporting the “residentialist” mission of the 1960s
and ’70s to curb Palo Alto’s
urbanization to advocating and
fundraising for Palo Alto’s libraries. In 2005, they were both
honored with the Avenidas Lifetimes of Achievement award.
Tom Wyman moved to Palo
Alto in 1936 from a mining
camp in Tennessee. He grew
up in Palo Alto, attending local schools including Palo Alto
High School. He went on to
study at San Jose State University for two years before joining the U.S. Navy and touring
the Pacific. Upon his return, he
studied mining engineering and
geology at Stanford University.
Afterwards, he did stints in
Eastern mines as a “powder
monkey” in coal mines. He
Norbert von der Groeben / Palo Alto Weekly
Tom and Ellen Wyman
Ryland Kelley
Ira Ruskin
seum, among other posts.
Ellen Wyman grew up in
Danville, Illinois. She went on
to graduate from the University
of Illinois and worked for a time
as a marketing and opinion researcher.
After marrying Tom in 1955,
she moved multiple times for his
work, including to Bakersfield
where she taught at a local college. When the couple moved
to San Francisco, Ellen became
involved with the League of
Women Voters and successfully
recruited corporations to help
distribute nonpartisan voting
materials.
Her volunteering and activism continued in Palo Alto. She
helped to found the Association for a Balanced Community,
which identified pro- and slowgrowth City Council candidates
prior to the recall election of
1967. She helped fight growth
again in the 1980s by founding
Palo Alto Tomorrow, a group
that surveyed public opinion on
growth, with her friend Betty
Meltzer.
Her civic involvement went
beyond that single issue: She
helped to educate the public on
local issues through Palo Alto
Civic League and connected
community leaders through
Leadership Palo Alto (later Leadership Midpeninsula). She also
served with the PTA, the Palo
Alto Civic League and the Santa
Clara County Grand Jury. In addition, she worked with her husband to revamp the Friends of the
Palo Alto Library’s book sales.
also worked in Texas oil fields,
learning the business from the
bottom up, before becoming an
oil executive for Chevron, where
he worked for 42 years.
He met Ellen in Chicago, and
the couple married in 1955.
They moved for his work a few
times before returning to Palo
Alto in 1964 to raise a son and
daughter.
A lover of the city’s libraries, Tom devoted the last few
decades of his life to enhancing them. He was proud of his
work with the Friends of the
Palo Alto Library book sales,
which he and Ellen helped turn
into a robust fundraising operation bringing in $100,000 annually. Together they also grew
the ranks of the organization’s
volunteers.
In 1999, he wrote a book,
“Palo Alto and its Libraries, a
Long Time Love Affair.” He
also advocated politically for
local libraries, opposing the
closure of branch libraries and
acting as the first chair of the
Palo Alto Library Advisory
Commission.
He also served as president of
the Palo Alto Historical Association and as a board member
with the Palo Alto History Mu-
Business
Politics
nother year is gone, and its passing has seen the departure of many citizens,
friends and loved ones. Through their actions and personalities, each
community member who died in 2014 made an undeniable impact upon those
around them, leaving memories to contemplate and cherish.
The Weekly’s “In memoriam” section highlights a few figures whose achievements
and activities encapsulated the vitality of local life and culture. As always, selecting
those to include from the list of notables has been challenging.
That list included Chinese artist Anna Wu Weakland; biotechnology entrepreneur
Alejandro Zaffaroni; community member Setsuko Ishiyama; Downtown Streets
Team supervisor Michael Davis; two former Palo Alto mayors, Ed Arnold and Alan
Henderson; former planning commission chair Eduardo Martinez; and a number of
venerable Stanford University professors.
The following provides a sampling of the many rich and inspiring lives that ended
— and were celebrated — throughout 2014.
Community
announcement of his illness. He
said he has been “impressed by
the deep respect that so many in
Sacramento have for Ira.”
Alto Hospital, Kelley attended
Palo Alto High School. He graduated from Stanford in 1949, where
he met his wife, Shirley.
Kelley and his brother’s development projects included the beach
resort community Pajaro Dunes
on Monterey Bay; the 10-story
building at 525 University in Palo
Alto; five-star Palo Alto restaurant
La Tour; Mayfield Mall, an early
indoor mall; and the planned communities of Lindenwood in Atherton and Ladera in Portola Valley.
He also built the community of
Hidden Valley in Woodside and
was involved in the creation of the
Stanford Research Park.
Kelley’s company rescued the
500-home Ladera development
in the early 1950s, after he was
approached by the nonprofit cooperative Peninsula Housing Association, which was facing bankruptcy. He and his wife lived in
Ladera for 55 years. At the time
of his death, the couple lived in
Woodside, his family said.
He is also known for landpreservation efforts that include
donating the first land acquisition to the nonprofit Peninsula
Open Space Trust (POST) in
1979, which became the Windy
Hill Open Space Preserve. He
was also a co-founder and chairman of the board of trustees at the
Shirley Temple Black
After marrying in 1950 and
leaving Hollywood behind, she
lived in Woodside for much of
her life. She met Charles Alden
Black in 1950 when she was vacationing in Honolulu, and the
couple married later that year at
his parents’ Monterey ranch.
After retiring from her film
career at age 21, Shirley Temple
Black became active in politics and held several diplomatic
posts. She was U.S. ambassador
to Ghana and later to Czechoslovakia during the collapse of the
communist regime there in 1989.
In 1967, Pete McCloskey beat
her and nine other candidates to
win a seat in Congress.
George Roberts, the owner of
Roberts Market in Woodside,
After a stint in the U.S. Army
during World War II, he earned
a doctorate from University of
California, Berkeley, in zoology
and a master’s degree in science
education at San Jose State University. He went on to teach at
several schools during his academic career and published numerous books on learning.
Dubbed a “Renaissance man”
because of talents that spanned
multiple career fields, Wong
wrote about and produced jazz
shows for decades, and he spent
more than 25 years sharing his
musical passions with others.
He served as president of the International Association for Jazz
Education and was elected to the
Jazz Education Hall of Fame.
Seven original jazz compositions
have been written in his honor.
“Before they called it jazz education, this is what Herb was doing,” said Paul Fingerote, a colleague and friend.
In addition to his part in the
formation of the Palo Alto Jazz
Alliance, he taught 78 classes
through the Palo Alto Adult
School. All different, they focused on jazz instruments and
great musicians, including vocalist Carmen McRae, who was the
subject of his last course.
Kara Rosenberg, principal of
the Palo Alto Adult School, said
his classes developed a “tremendous following” and usually had
somewhere between 25 and 75
students.
“He knew everybody,” Rosenberg said, “and he knew whatever there was to know about jazz.
It was actually mind-blowing.”
Henry S. Breitrose, professor emeritus in film at Stanford
University, died on Oct. 2 at his
home on Stanford campus after
suffering from cancer. He was
78.
He founded the lauded master’s program in documentary
film and television at Stanford,
which today boasts around 500
graduates. His magnetic teaching style and belief in the power
of documentary film were admired by many students and fellow faculty members.
Born on July 22, 1936, in
Brooklyn, New York, he attended Stuyvesant High School. He
then studied history and English
at University of Wisconsin-Madison. While there he worked as a
lighting and camera technician,
or a grip, for the university —
where he became enamored with
film.
He went on to receive a master’s degree from Northwestern
University in 1959 and then took
a temporary position at Stanford as a “Film for Television”
instructor.
He was later convinced to
enter a Stanford Ph.D. program
and joined the Communication
Department faculty, where he
developed the documentary film
Courtesy of Prudence Breitrose
Shirley Temple Black, popular
child movie star, diplomat and
longtime Woodside resident,
died on Feb. 10 at her home
surrounded by her family. She
was 85.
She started her acting career at
age 3 and starred in such hits as
“Stand Up and Cheer” and “The
Little Colonel.” She ruled the
box office in the 1930s.
Courtesy of the Black family
Greg Brown, a Palo Alto muralist whose work continues to
shock and amuse local pedestrians, died on Aug. 29 after a brief
battle with cancer. He was 62.
A Barron Park resident, Brown
had been a fixture of Palo Alto’s
public-art scene since 1975,
when the city hired him as “artist in residence.” The following
year, he launched his “Pedestrian Series” — nine trompe
l’oeil vignettes on the walls of
downtown buildings — a project
he pitched to the city’s first Art
Commission. These include the
images of Spiro Agnew pushing
a cat (later changed to an alien)
in a baby stroller on the Restoration Hardware building and of a
boy casting a fishing line on the
historic U.S. Post Office building.
His wife, Julie Brown, said the
subjects in the murals were often
modeled after friends and family, as well as just regular people.
“He loved people,” she said.
“He just thought people, with all
their foibles and perfections and
imperfections, should be glorified.”
He drew his first mural in 1956
as part of a grade-school assignment. He went on to take a
few classes at the Palo Alto Art
League but later opted for a more
informal approach, an apprenticeship to artist and neighbor Roberto Lupetti. He grew as an artist,
selling paintings in San Francisco
as a teenager in order to buy his
first car. He also spent time in his
youth at Smith Andersen, then a
gallery in downtown Palo Alto,
where he met other artists and
showed off his work, owner Paula
W. Patrick Hinely
Greg Brown
Martin L. Perl, professor
emeritus of physics at Stanford
University and SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory, died on
Sept. 30 at Stanford Hospital. He
was 87.
A prolific and persistent researcher, he garnered the Nobel
Prize in physics in 1995 for the
discovery of a new group of elementary particles called the tau
lepton.
He was born in 1927 in New
York City to two immigrants
Linda A. Cicero / Stanford New Service
Norbert von der Groeben / Palo Alto Weekly
Arts &
Media
Herb Wong, a longtime Menlo
Park resident renowned as a jazz
expert and educator, died on
April 20. He was 88.
Wong had strong ties to Palo
Alto — teaching jazz at the Palo
Alto Adult School for 26 years
and co-founding the Palo Alto
Jazz Alliance, a nonprofit jazz
education organization where he
served as artistic director.
Kirkeby said. He graduated from
Palo Alto High School early and
worked with Lupetti until he was
about 21.
As Palo Alto’s artist in residence, Greg Brown started with
paintings but quickly changed to
murals, preferring the public nature of the art. For the rest of his
career, he never stopped working, toggling between public and
private realms. Other projects
included art for Palo Alto’s centennial celebration in 1994 and
a mural of a peacefully falling
violinist on a concert hall in
Linkoping, Sweden, one of Palo
Alto’s “sister cities.”
Martin Perl
Henry Breitrose
Herb Wong
Artist Greg Brown works on a mural on the wall behind the former
Travelsmith and Territory Ahead store on Middlefield Road in
August 2005. He died this year in August at the age of 62.
Palo Alto Medical Foundation, a
board he served on for more than
30 years.
In his retirement, Kelley became a prolific poet. He composed a 100-page book of poems
for Palo Alto’s 100th anniversary,
“Rings of Growth.” He also wrote
and staged a play, “Lyndon,” about
former President Lyndon Johnson
playing a fictitious role in the
death of President Kennedy.
Stanford
University
said, “She just was a very downto-earth person, not like a celebrity. It was just a joy to know
her. She was just like the gal next
door.”
She received many honors,
including a special juvenile
Academy Award in 1935, Kennedy Center Honors in 1998 and
the Screen Actors Guild Life
Achievement Award in 2006.
In the late 1970s, she was grand
marshal of the Woodside May
Day parade, and she also served
as a president of the Commonwealth Club of California.
and television program.
Throughout his time teaching at Stanford, he assisted at
other film schools in the U.S.
and around the globe as a lecturer, consultant and instructor.
Outside of academia, he served
on a number of boards locally,
among them ones for KQED and
the Page Mill YMCA.
who had fled persecution in a
Polish region of Russia. After
graduating high school at 16,
he began college studies but left
them to serve with the Merchant
Marine and military during
World War II. Upon returning,
he studied chemical engineering at Polytechnic Institute of
Brooklyn and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1948.
For a time he worked as an
engineer at General Electric, but
at his wife Teri’s urging, he returned to school to study physics.
He went on to earn a Ph.D. from
Columbia University. While first
on the faculty of University of
Michigan, he came to the Bay
Area in 1963 to do research at
the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center, then under construction.
Perl participated in the scientific
communities at SLAC and Stanford for 50 years, working as an
elementary particle physicist.
During his career he published
more than 200 scientific papers,
and in 1982 he received the Wolf
Prize in physics. His Nobel Prizewinning research on the tau lepton lasted multiple decades, with
major progress made during mid1970s experiments with a machine that could detect short-lived
particles. Even after he retired,
he worked on projects at SLAC,
including one funded by NASA
investigating dark energy. Q
SUBMITTING TRANSITIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Palo Alto Weekly’s Transitions page is devoted to births,
weddings, anniversaries and
deaths of local residents.
Obituaries for local residents
are a free editorial service. Send
information to Obituaries, Palo
Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610,
Palo Alto, CA 94302; fax to
650-326-3928; or email to editor@paweekly.com. Please include the name and telephone
number of a person who might
provide additional information about the deceased. Pho-
tos are accepted and printed
on a space-available basis. The
Weekly reserves the right to edit
obituaries for space and format
considerations.
Announcements of a local
resident’s recent wedding, anniversary or birth are also a free
editorial service. Photographs
are accepted for weddings and
anniversaries. These notices are
published as space is available.
Send announcements to the
mailing, fax or email addresses
listed above.
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 19
The Weekly looks back
at photographs that defined 2014
T
his year, 2014, was a time when people drew
together. In groups large and small, with the
young and the old, they gathered to celebrate,
commemorate and agitate. They came together
to be community.
In solidarity, teens at Gunn High School rose in
support of their peers, letting them know through
impromptu notes posted throughout their campus that
no one is truly alone and that it’s OK to not be OK.
There were also protests: against the possible closure
of Palo Alto’s only mobile-home park, Buena Vista, the
sexual assault of women at Stanford University and
police brutality throughout the nation.
Michelle Le
Veronica Weber
Ciera Pasturel
At top: Playing the role of one of the water spirits, Menlowe Ballet dancer Jenna McClintock strikes
a pose during a production rehearsal of “Legend.” Above: Visitors stop at muralist Greg Brown’s
memorial in downtown Palo Alto to acknowledge and remember his work. He died Aug. 29.
Page 20 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Students post positive messages at Gunn High School to support
their classmates in November.
Cover Story
Veronica Weber
Above: With the Palo Alto High School gym slated for demolition, students play a final basketball game
in March. Right: A young competitor in the Horse Stick Race waits for the race to begin during the Big
Hope Little Rodeo in East Palo Alto in June. Below: Asgharali Mandviwala, left, and Jun Salangsang
apply gold leaf to the mihrab in the first level of a prayer hall in south Palo Alto’s new mosque in late
August.
Veronica Weber
Veronica Weber
People came together to celebrate the
human spirit, from the Big Hope Little Rodeo
in East Palo Alto to the art of dance with
Menlowe Ballet.
The religious gathered to bring to life a new
mosque in south Palo Alto. And as part of the
cycle of life, the city’s firefighters and police
officers, together with community members,
paused to remember those who have lost
their lives.
But Palo Alto is not a city in isolation, and
its members not only reached in, they also
reached out. Time and again, people aided
those in need both at home and abroad. Once
strangers, they affirmed their shared humanity
through actions that brought hope and
(continued on next page)
Veronica Weber
Veronica Weber
Palo Alto Police Department Honor Guard, from left, Agent Eric Bulatao and Detective
Du Juan Green, stand beside the Palo Alto Police Officers Memorial Grove at Cogswell
Plaza during a ceremony honoring the force’s three fallen officers on May 15.
Battalion Chief John Owen of the Mountain View Fire Department walks past a
burning detached garage as fire crews work to douse a fire on Fernando Avenue
in Palo Alto on Jan. 15.
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 21
Cover Story
Veronica Weber
Veronica Weber
Veronica Weber
(continued from previous page)
inspiration to everyone involved.
Here, then, is a look back at 2014, as
seen through the lenses of Palo Alto Weekly
Clockwise from top left: Giselle Montano, 5, center, stands next
to mom Lordis Ruiz, right, and little sister Jackelyn Montano,
alongside Calixto Hernandez, far left, and other residents of
the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park during a May 1 protest
against the landowner’s proposal to sell the land. Students from
Stanford University lie in the middle of University Avenue at High
Street to symbolize the number of young people killed by law
enforcement during a protest against a grand jury’s decision to
not indict Officer Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown
in Ferguson, Missouri, on Nov. 25. Stanford student Leah Francis
leads a chant during a rally in support of victims of sexual assault
at White Plaza at Stanford on June 5.
photographer Veronica Weber, Almanac
photographer Michelle Le and photo intern
Ciera Pasturel. Q
— Jocelyn Dong
SEE MORE ONLINE
www.PaloAltoOnline.com
A slideshow of these and many more photos from 2014 has been
posted at PaloAltoOnline.com and YouTube.com/paweekly.
Page 22 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Veronica Weber
Veronica Weber
Ohlone Elementary School students Charlie Rock, left, Zoe Russell, center, and Avery
Hanna, right, and others greet visiting students from China with a dragon as the visitors
exit a bus at the Palo Alto school on Jan. 22.
Five-year-old Carole Guirguis holds onto the prosthetic limbs of mom Gehane
Guirguis, with dad Essam beside them, as the three tell the story of how
Gehane lost both arms in a bus accident in Egypt and was flown to the Palo
Alto area to receive new arms and for physical therapy.
Arts & Entertainment
A weekly guide to music, theater, art, culture, books and more, edited by Elizabeth Schwyzer
Courtesy Cheryl Burke Dance
Ten different
ways to celebrate
the New Year
by Elizabeth Schwyzer
Revelers shake their stuff at last year’s New Year’s Eve party at Cheryl Burke Dance.
1. Party like it’s 2015
Mountain View’s newest nightclub is
promising a New Year’s Eve to impress
even the most particular nightlife aficionados. With multiple bars, a state-of-the-art
sound-system, LED video wall and DJ spinning house and hip hop, Opal is the place for
those seeking a high-adrenaline New Year’s
experience. As the clock strikes midnight,
clubbers can join the DJ’s countdown and
enjoy a complimentary champagne toast.
Private rooms are open for booking, and
VIP bottle and table service is available.
Where: Opal, 251 Castro St., Mountain View
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31, at 9:30 p.m. to
Thursday, Jan. 1, at 2:30 a.m.
Cost: $25 general admission, $55 VIP
Info: Go to opalnights.com or call 650-318-6732.
2. Be grateful for the New Year
Looking for a nightclub experience without the thumping techno? Over at Redwood
City’s Club Fox, Grateful Dead cover band
the China Cats will be playing familiar favorites. The ensemble prides itself on a repertoire that spans the Dead’s entire career
and oeuvre, from the greatest bluegrassy
hits to the most obscure tunes. But it’s not
all nostalgia: Club Fox will be marking the
stroke of midnight with a balloon drop and
champagne. Sorry kids; this one’s for partygoers age 21 and up.
3. Feast your way into 2015
Many restaurants around the Midpeninsula will be offering special menus and live
music on New Year’s Eve, but for something
a little different, head to Morocco’s Restau-
F
Many businesses are closed on New
Year’s Day, but not Stanford’s Cantor Arts
Center, which opens its doors to the public
Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. Among the works on
view are a self-portrait by Andy Warhol,
contemporary Chinese landscape paintings
and photographs of 1950s America by Robert Frank. The first days of 2015 are also
the last chance to catch sculptor Richard
Serra’s “Sequence” — a 67-foot long work
of contoured steel that critics call one of the
artist’s greatest achievements — before it
moves to SFMOMA later in the month.
rant in Mountain View. There, you’ll find
tantalizing belly dancing, live jazz music and
a lavish eight-course menu featuring delicacies like 25-spice braised lamb or chicken
and vegetarian tagine. Early birds can enjoy
a slightly smaller discounted menu, and the
chef will keep the ovens hot until midnight
for those who want small plates and drinks.
Where: Cantor Arts Center, 328 Lomita Drive,
Stanford
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.;
Thursday, Jan. 1, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Cost: Free
Info: Go to museum.stanford.edu or call 650723-4177.
Where: Ananda Palo Alto, 2171 El Camino Real
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31, meditation 5-7 p.m.;
worship service 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
Info: Go to anandapaloalto.org or call 650-3233363.
6. Honor your elders
Where: Morocco’s Restaurant, 873 Castro St.,
Mountain View
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31, from 4:30-8:30 p.m.
Cost: $35-$65 depending on time and menu
Info: Go to moroccosrestaurant.com or call 650968-1502.
4. Meditate and contemplate
If New Year’s resolutions are your thing,
you might want to consider a ceremony designed to help you clarify your goals and let
go of limitations. The spiritual community
Ananda Palo Alto will hold a New Year’s Eve
service that includes meditation, chanting and
a symbolic fire ceremony during which participants will be encouraged to “burn up and
release the energy of the past.” Both the meditation and worship service are free and open
to all, regardless of denomination.
Courtesy Andy Warhol Foundation
Where: Club Fox, 2209 Broadway St., Redwood
City
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31; doors open at 8
p.m., show starts at 9 p.m.
Cost: $25 in advance, $35 day of show
Info: Go to clubfoxrwc.com or call 877-435-9849.
5. Start the year with art
or some, the shift from one year to the next is a time for reflection and contemplation. For others, it’s the best excuse of the
year for a bang-up party. No matter how you choose to mark
it, New Year’s Eve is a symbolic moment: an annual opportunity to
take stock, celebrate and begin again.
Below, you’ll find 10 different ways to ring in the New Year, from
DJs and dance parties to feasts and religious ceremonies. No matter
how you choose to spend Dec. 31, have fun, stay safe and Happy
New Year, one and all.
Among the works on display at the
Cantor Arts Center is this Andy Warhol
self-portrait from 1967.
For those who’ve seen more than a few
new years come and go, there’s a special
way to mark the start of 2015. On Jan. 31,
the City of Palo Alto hosts its 30th annual
senior New Year’s Eve champagne brunch:
an afternoon of feasting and celebration
featuring live music, dancing and raffle
prizes. It’s a chance for the elders of our
community to raise their glasses (at noon)
for a champagne toast to ring in the New
Year. (For those who don’t make the cut, a
ticket to the brunch makes a great stocking
stuffer for grandma.)
Where: Cubberley Community Center Pavilion,
4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Cost: $15 in advance; $18 at the door
Info: Go to tinyurl.com/k53wdch or call 650-3292350.
(continued on page 24)
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 23
Arts & Entertainment
8. Spend New Year’s on
the green
Ring in 2015
(continued from page 23)
Whether or not you know a
sand trap from a water hole, you’re
welcome at Emerald Hills Golf
Course on Dec. 31, when the club
hosts its New Year’s Eve bash. The
party tees off at 7 p.m. with cocktails, and a set menu (including
filet mignon and chocolate lava
cake) is served at 8 p.m. Leave
your clubs at home, trade your golf
balls for a ballgown and dance ’til
the ball drops.
7. Dance with pride
and joy
Looking for a truly funky dance
party to celebrate the start of 2015?
Boogie through the end of this
year and into the next with soul
Courtesy Pride & Joy
Pop/soul band Pride & Joy will
play the Fox Theatre on Dec. 31.
Where: Fox Theatre, Redwood City
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31; doors
open at 9 p.m., band starts at 10 p.m.
Cost: $50 general admission, $105 VIP
Info: Go to tinyurl.com/p5ldswa or call
650-369-7770.
For a different kind of dance
party, check out Mountain View’s
Cheryl Burke Dance studio, where
the evening starts with a social
dance class at 8 p.m., followed by
live music by Metro Big Band. The
ballroom studio, run by a former
“Dancing with the Stars” champ,
boasts a 14,000-square-foot floating floor. Appetizers will be
served, and 2015 will be ushered
in with a balloon drop and an apple cider toast.
Where: Cheryl Burke Dance, 1400 N.
Shoreline Blvd. #A-1, Mountain View
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31, 8 p.m.
Cost: $25-$35
Info: Go to cherylburkedance.com or
call 650-864-9150.
9. Live it up, Latin-style
Send 2014 out with a bang at
Monte Carlo, Mountain View’s
hottest Latin nightclub. The club
is planning a New Year’s Eve to
remember (or not, as the case may
be) complete with party favors,
live music from Banda Exclusiva,
DJs playing top 40 American and
Latin hits, a midnight ball drop and
a complimentary champagne toast.
Forget “Auld Lang Syne” and get
ready for a night of livin’ la vida
loca.
Where: Monte Carlo Night Club, 228
Castro St., Mountain View
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31, 9:30 p.m.Thursday, Jan. 1, 2 a.m.
Cost: $20-$30
Info: Go to montecarloniteclub.com or
call 650-988-1500.
Courtesy Cheryl Burke Dance
band Pride & Joy and DJ Dinero
at Redwood City’s Fox Theatre.
Known for their infectious pop/
soul covers and dynamic performances, Pride & Joy promises to
keep the danceable hits coming
into the wee hours. A VIP pass
gets you upstairs access, appetizers and drinks.
Where: Emerald Hills Golf Course, 938
Wilmington Way, Redwood City
When: Wednesday, Dec. 31, 7 p.m.
Cost: $55
Info: Call 650-369-4200.
10. Dance with the stars
Strike a pose on the dance floor
at Cheryl Burke Dance’s New
Year’s Eve party.
*Four course dinner
with Complementary glass of Proseco Champagne
$59 per person
Celebrate New Year’s Eve
With live Music a
and a special Menu
Dinner by the movies
Appetizers
Bruschetta – toasted slices of oven baked bread topped with Roma tomato cubes
marinated with olive oil, garlic and fresh basil.
Crispy Zucchini Cakes – served with marinated cucumber & mint yogurt.
Soup/Salad
Butternut Squash Soup – Garnished with pumpkin seeds and olive oil.
Venti Garden – Butter lettuce with organic mixed greens, shaved funnel, red onions,
cherry tomatoes and toasted pecans with champagne vinaigrette dressing.
Greens & Apples - Organic mix greens, topped with gorgonzola cheese crumbles,
walnuts, cranberries, granny Smith apples and poppy seed dressing.
Entrees
Happy Holidays from all of us!
Call today for a reservation
Filet Mignon – Filet mignon in a red wine reduction Served with broccolini and a
risotto cake filled with blue cheese.
Cioppino-Fresh salmon, snapper, clams, mussels, crab legs and prawns in spicy Venti
tomato sauce.
Braised Short Ribs in a light red wine sauce – served with polenta and seasonal fresh
cut vegetables.
Grilled Lamb Chops in a lemon vinaigrette sauce – Served with Swiss chard, and
roasted potatoes.
Linguine Pescatore – fresh salmon, snapper, clams, mussels and prawns in a spicy
tomato sauce.
Mushroom Ravioli – with Roma tomatoes and fresh spinach, in a light Marsala cream
sauce.
Grilled Salmon – served with sautéed spinach, wild rice and vegetables.
Dessert
Tiramisu – Italian dessert, consisting of alternating layers of coffee-soaked lady
fingers and sweet mixture of mascarpone cheese, eggs and sugar.
Executive Chef -Antonio Zomora
Limited Seating — Make reservations through opentable.com or cucinaventi.com
Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday - Thursday
9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday - Saturday • 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday
1390 Pear Ave., Mountain View | (650) 254-1120 | www.cucinaventi.com
Page 24 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Arts & Entertainment
Worth a Look
Installation
Concert
Maybe you’ve noticed them as you’ve driven down
Newell Road at night: a series of egg- and amoeba-shaped sculptures nestled in the grass, glowing
Every year, the International Menuhin Competition names one young virtuoso violinist as the best
in the world. In 2014, the winner of the world’s most
prominent violin competition for musicians under
age 22 was Palo Alto’s own 18-year-old Stephen
Waarts. On Jan. 1, Waarts will perform with the
San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in a free public concert in Palo Alto. On the program are Felix
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.
64; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s overture to “Cosí
fan tutte” and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1
in D major, Op. 25, otherwise known as his “Classical Symphony.” SFCO music director Benjamin
Simon will conduct. The concert will take place on
Thursday, Jan. 1, at Palo Alto’s First United Methodist Church, 625 Hamilton Ave. SFCO members are
invited to arrive up to one hour early; doors open to
non-members 45 minutes before the show. There is
no admission charge. To learn more about the San
Francisco Chamber Orchestra, go to thesfco.org or
call 415-692-3367. For more on Waarts, go to stephenwaarts.com.
‘Small Works’
and ‘Winter
Wonder’
The last days of 2014
are also the last chance
to catch an annual holiday tradition in the Palo
Alto arts community.
The “Small Works Holiday Exhibition” is on
display at the Pacific Art
League now through Jan.
1. The show consists of
more than 100 works in
a variety of media, none
of which measures more
than 10 inches. Also on Peter Carey’s “Ripples” is part of the
display will be “Winter Winter Wonder exhibit at Pacific Art
Wonder,” a group show League.
of seasonally themed
works of art juried by Pacific Art League curator Lisa Ellsworth, as well as a solo exhibition of
abstract acrylic paintings by Mexican-born artist Isaias Sandoval. All
three shows are free and open to the public. And if finding a creative
outlet is among your New Year’s resolutions, make sure to check out
PAL’s winter and spring catalogue of workshops and classes, featuring everything from wire mesh sculpting to encaustics, Japanese-style
woodblock printing, and much more. The Pacific Art League is located at 668 Ramona St., Palo Alto. For more information, go to pacificartleague.org or call 650-321-3891. Q
— Elizabeth Schwyzer
SF Chamber Orchestra
Courtesy Palo Alto Art Center
“Brilliance,” a public art display by Joe
O’Connell & Blessing Hancock, is on view at the
Palo Alto Art Center.
SEE MORE ONLINE
PaloAltoOnline.com
Watch a YouTube video of violin virtuoso Stephen Waarts in the 2014 Menuhin Competition in the online version of this story on PaloAltoOnline.com.
Matt Dine
brightly and casting their reflections into the trees.
Together, they make up “Brilliance,” a permanent,
site-specific public art installation on the grounds of
the Palo Alto Art Center. Creators Joe O’Connell and
Blessing Hancock crafted the six lantern-like metal
sculptures, which are lit from within by colored LED
lights and change colors at the press of a button. The
sculptures feature text from proverbs in many languages; the phrases were gathered from Palo Alto
community members and are meant to reflect the
linguistic and cultural diversity of the region. Check
out the installation at close range for a more interactive experience, or add “Brilliance” to your tour of
Christmas lights. The installation is located in the
Plaza between Palo Alto Art Center and the new
Rinconada Library, on Newell Road. To learn more
about the project, go to tinyurl.com/qahe9su.
Courtesy Pacific Art League
Brilliance
Art
Palo Alto’s Stephen Waarts, recent winner of
the International Menuhin Competition for
young violinists, will perform works by Mozart,
Prokofiev and Mendelssohn.
Robert Frank, Detroit, 1955. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Raymond B. Gary. © Robert Frank. Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery
ROBERT FRANK IN AMERICA
September 10–January 5
This groundbreaking exhibition of photographs by Robert Frank sheds new light on his
legendary work in 1950s America.
Tickets sold @ Avenidas only!
CANTOR ARTS CENTER AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY
328 LOMITA DRIVE ‡STANFORD, CA ‡94305 ‡ ‡ 0 8 6 ( 8 0 6 7 $ 1 ) 2 5 ' ( ' 8
;IKVEXIJYPP]EGORS[PIHKIWYTTSVXSJXLII\LMFMXMSRERHMXWEGGSQTER]MRKGEXEPSKYIJVSQßXLI'PYQIGO*YRHXLIß)PM^EFIXL7[MRHIPPW,YPWI]7TIGMEP)\LMFMXMSRW
*YRHXLI,SLFEGL*EQMP]*YRHERHßXLIß1EVOERH&IXW]+EXIW*YRHJSV4LSXSKVETL]
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 25
Natalia Nazarova
Eating Out
Thierry Fassiotti, the manager of Alkymists, stands in the restaurant. The enterprise, which planned to merge food and philanthropy, only lasted two months.
trendy transplants
From
to the greatest
comeback
For Palo Alto’s restaurant scene, 2014 was a year of dynamic change
I
Avenue — home to LYFE Kitchen, Project Juice and Bare Bowls,
with Fraiche Yogurt nearby —
becoming a foodie health haven?)
Longtime dining institutions,
from upscale Zibibbo, housed in
that iconic, massive yellow Victorian house on Kipling Street for
17 years, to low-brow Cho’s Mandarin Dim Sum, which called
California Avenue home for 35
years, shut their doors. (Cho’s is
also the biggest comeback story
of the year, though. See below.)
Meanwhile, traditional Chinese
restaurant Hunan Garden on El
Camino Real changed hands from
father to son and was reborn as
Mandarin Roots, with a revamped
California-Chinese concept. And
the last day of Ming’s Restaurant
as we know it, Palo Alto’s oldest
and largest Chinese restaurant
at 1700 Bayshore Road, is this
Sunday, Dec. 28. After months
of delays, the 10,000-square-foot
restaurant is finally scheduled to
be demolished to make way for a
Page 26 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
hotel, which will house a smaller
version of Ming’s.
With many open spaces downtown, construction booming on
California Avenue and Town &
Country Village somehow continuing to find space for new foodie spots, 2015 promises to be just
as intriguing for Palo Alto diners.
GREATEST COMEBACK ...
Uproar swept through Palo Alto
after the announced closure of
Cho’s Mandarin Dim Sum in
January. A Change.org petition
gathered thousands of signatures;
a Palo Alto Online story on the
closure got a record number of
views; and a “Save Cho’s Restaurant” post on Town Square, the
online discussion forum, circulated with ideas like donating money for a Cho’s food truck. The
owners of the hole-in-the-wall
restaurant at 213 California Ave.,
husband and wife Cho and Daisy
Yu, received a 60-day notice from
their property manager, Sue Ross,
Veronica Weber
by Elena Kadvany
n any given year in Palo Alto,
restaurants come and restaurants go. But depending on
who you ask, this year’s turnover
was either a disruptive revolution
or simply a natural evolution.
The bottom floor of dilapidated
Casa Olga at 180 Hamilton Ave.
downtown was transformed into
uber-trendy Lure + Till restaurant, armed with a San Francisco
chef and bartender. Plans were
announced that third-wave Blue
Bottle Coffee will operate in the
historic Varsity Theatre as part of a
remodel planned by tech giant SAP.
San Francisco pizza darling
Pizzeria Delfina opened its doors
after remodeling the landmark
Empire Tap Room, which closed
in June of 2013 after more than
20 years at 651 Emerson St.
Palo Alto’s first acai bowl shop
opened, as well as its second-ever
juice shop. (Is the square block
bordered by Hamilton, Emerson
Street, High Street and University
Carlos Yturria, beverage director at the newly opened Lure+Till
restaurant and bar, shakes up a cocktail in his bar in April.
on Jan. 16, and said they were not
given a chance to renew the lease
or stay. Some months later, Ross,
who also owns the two spaces
on either side of Cho’s — the
Michelin-rated restaurant Baume
at California and Park Boulevard
and a Farmers Insurance outpost
at 217 California Ave. — commenced on a remodel of building.
At the time, Daisy said relocating elsewhere would be too much
Eating Out
TRENDY TRANSPLANTS ...
San Francisco restaurateurs continued in 2014 to hungrily eye Palo
Alto. Pizzeria Delfina opened to
much fanfare on Emerson (almost
directly across from Tacolicious,
also a San Francisco-born restaurant group). Lure + Till, the Epiphany Hotel’s restaurant, snagged
Patrick Kelly, previously executive
chef at Gitane in San Francisco
and Michelin-starred Angèle in
Napa, to lead the kitchen, and Carlos Yturria, whose cocktail career
started at age 17 in San Francisco.
(“I’ve been screaming ‘Palo Alto’
since, like, 2003,” Yturria told the
Weekly in April. “I think a lot of
people are on their way here, for
sure.”)
Belcampo Meat Co., a hypersustainable meat company that
prides itself on controlling every step of the meat-production
process, from raising to slaughtering to serving customers at
the deli counter, snagged a tiny
900-square-foot space at Town
& Country. Belcampo opened its
first butcher shop and restaurant
in Larkspur, then San Francisco,
Santa Barbara, downtown Los
Angeles, Palo Alto and Santa
Monica. (Fun fact: CEO and
owner Anya Fernald is a Palo
Alto native who once delivered
papers for the Weekly and always
hoped to open in her hometown.)
There will be plenty more external transplants in 2015, including San Francisco’s Sushirrito, a
casual hybrid sushi-burrito spot
replacing Sabrosa Taqueria at 448
University Ave. downtown; and
ShopTalk
by Daryl Savage
NEW TOY/BRAIN STORE IN TOWN
... A toy store for the brain? Toys
that are called fidget tools and patience blocks? All the salespeople
are trained psychologists? Oh yes.
Gray Matters, 330 S. California
Ave., opened in late October, and
is clearly not a run-of-the-mill toy
store. It specializes in toys that engage the brain. “The theme here is
building cognitive skills,” explained
toy store owner and clinical neuropsychologist Dr. Richard Abbey.
“We’re trying to get people thinking
and unplugged from their computers.” He added that he opened the
toy store as a way to spread the
word about expanding one’s own
brain capacity by playing simple
and complex games. Abbey, a Palo
Alto resident and former Stanford
faculty member, also runs a clinic
just down the street from the store.
It’s called Abbey Neuropsychology
Clinic (366 S. California Ave.), and
his team of psychologists shuffle
back and forth when it’s their turn
to staff the toy store. “They love
coming here. It’s a lot of fun for
them,” Abbey said of the salespeople/psychologists. Abbey handpicked nearly all the toys in the
shop, labeling them as smart toys.
The site of the two-story building
has an illustrious past. The previous tenant was an herbalist and
acupuncturist. Before him was the
legendary Draper’s Music Center,
which had survived on Cal Ave. for
38 years. In addition to selling and
renting instruments, the center was
a gathering place for local musicians. It’s been said that Grateful
Dead musician Jerry Garcia used
to practice there. “There’s a lot
of folklore in this building,” Abbey
said.
ACAI CAFE TO OPEN ON CAL AVE
... One of the latest fads in superfoods is the edible acai berry, a nutritionally rich, inch-long, reddishpurple fruit from Central and South
America. And no surprise that
Palo Alto, remaining at the top of
the trend curve, is about to get its
second cafe whose main feature is
acai berries. The first, Bare Bowls,
opened last month downtown. The
second cafe that touts acai berries
is scheduled to open in late March
2015 at 213 S. California. Called Vitality Bowls, it has taken over the
former location of Cho’s, the tiny
dim sum eatery that closed with
little warning earlier this year and is
now preparing to reopen in downtown Los Altos. Vitality Bowls has
had quite a run in the short time it
has been in business. “We opened
our first Vitality Bowl four years ago
in San Ramon,” said owner Tara
Gilad. “My daughter had severe
allergies and we needed a safe
place for her to eat. That’s why we
started it.” Since then, Gilad and
her husband, Roy, opened a few
more Vitality Bowls in the East Bay,
and after seeing its popularity, decided to create a franchise for the
Tout Sweet Patisserie, also San
Francisco-born, slated to open
next door to Belcampo.
OUTGROWING PALO ALTO
... Two Palo Alto-born restaurants
have found so much success that
they were able to open second locations this year. Oren’s Hummus
Shop, which has enjoyed nearconstant lines of people waiting
for its authentic hummus, pita and
falafel since opening on University Avenue in 2012, laid claim to
another busy downtown strip in
2014. The second Oren’s Hummus
opened on Castro Street in downtown Mountain View this summer,
with double the seating and a more
streamlined ordering process to
cut down on those notorious lines.
Downtown Burmese spot Rangoon Ruby, which also launched
in 2012, expanded first to San
Carlos and then again in Palo Alto
this year. Rangoon Ruby No. 2,
dubbed Burma Ruby, opened just
blocks away from the first location, down University in the space
vacated by Italian restaurant Figo.
BIGGEST MYSTERY ... The
biggest restaurant mystery of
2014 has got to be the still-dark
Apple Store at the corner of Unicafes. “We started franchising eight
months ago and thought, maybe if
we’re lucky, we’ll sell five franchises. But we’ve sold 29 franchises
since April. We still can’t believe it,”
she said, adding that the couple
has done no advertising. “We just
have our website. That’s it,” Gilad
said. The Palo Alto Vitality Bowl,
which will serve smoothies, soups,
salads and panini, in addition to the
acai bowls, has been franchised
to three friends who graduated
from UC Berkeley’s Haas School
of Business. “Once we ate the
food, we were blown away,” said
one of the grads who asked not to
be identified. “One thing led to another, and here we are in Palo Alto
setting up shop.”
MING’S TO CLOSE DEC. 28 ...
The absolute last serving of Ming’s
famous Chinese chicken salad will
be Dec. 28. That’s the day that
Ming’s Restaurant, Palo Alto’s
oldest and largest Chinese restaurant, will close its doors. Located
at 1700 Embarcadero Road, the
10,000-square-foot restaurant is
finally and firmly scheduled to be
demolished to make way for an
extended-stay hotel and a newer,
smaller Chinese restaurant. Ming’s
owner Vicky Ching had expected
her restaurant to shutter earlier this
year — first in March, then in June
— but because of a combination
of factors including financing and
weather, the closing was delayed
until now. Once the current site is
leveled, new construction is expected to take about two years.
Heard a rumor about your
favorite store or business moving out or in, down the block or
across town? Daryl Savage will
check it out. Email shoptalk@
paweekly.com.
Elena Kadvan
for her and her husband. But lo
and behold, a Dec. 12 Facebook
post announced their reopening
in downtown Los Altos. “Something new is coming to Los Altos,” the post reads, with a photograph of the shiny new Cho’s at
209 First St.
The reincarnated Cho’s is slated
to open the first week of January,
the restaurant’s general contractor said last week. It has a shiny
new kitchen and “Cho’s” in vivid
red signage both inside and out.
However, the kitchen takes up
the majority of the 650-squarefoot space, so there’s no indoor
seating. The general contractor
said there will be seating outside
along First Street, where people
can nosh on the same dim sum
staples that made Cho’s so beloved for so many years: dumplings, pork buns, potstickers, egg
rolls and the like.
Cho Yu, who owned and operated Cho’s Mandarin Dim Sum on
California Avenue for 35 years, plans to reopen in downtown Los
Altos in January.
versity and Kipling Street. Applications for architectural review
for façade renovations and a conditional-use permit for alcohol
sales were submitted to the city
in 2013 on behalf of Bibigo, a Korean restaurant chain. Renderings
showed a rooftop dining area;
plan drawings were posted in the
window of the old Apple Store.
Maureen Hardy, a representative
from BCV Architects, the San
Francisco-based firm who submitted the applications, said at the
time that the owner was not ready
to talk about the project. (BCV
Architects is also behind multiple
notable food marketplaces — the
Ferry Building in San Francisco,
Oxbow Market in Napa, Jack
London Market in Oakland — as
well as local restaurants such as
M.Y. China, Gott’s Roadside and
Hog Island Oyster Co.) At some
point, new drawings were taped
over the old in the Apple Store
windows with a new restaurant
name: Maum. It turned out that
Patrick Tsui, former general manager at Frances in San Francisco,
was behind Maum. Reached via
email a few times this year, he
first said things had been delayed
and then ceased responding, and
451 University remains dark.
SHORTEST TENURE ... Restaurant turnover is high in Palo
Alto, but one opening (and closing) this year took the cake. al-
kymists, an unusual downtown
Palo Alto restaurant that hoped
to merge food and philanthropy
in one space, with meals and
cooking classes for homeless and
abused women as well as regular lunch and dinner service for
patrons, closed after two months
of operations at the corner of University and High. Before alkymists, there was Palo Alto Grill,
which lasted for 15 months. alkymists general manager Thierry
Fassiotti alluded to bad blood
with owner Luka Dvornik, who
brought him in to flip the space
after Palo Alto Grill closed in July
and in November “pulled the rug
out from our entire team.” Fassiotti alluded to financial trouble,
saying that the restaurant struggled to pay investors back. The
kitchen crew walked out after
Dvornik announced the closure.
Dvornik did not return requests
for comment on the situation. The
3,926-square-foot space (and its
Type 47 liquor license) immediately went on the market, listed
for rent for $14,000 Triple Net
plus $6,000 Triple Nets or for sale
for $300,000. (In the comments
section on the listing: “Seller invested over $1.0 million in the
past two years. Please do not talk
to employees.”) Q
Staff Writer Elena Kadvany,
aka the Peninsula Foodist,
blogs on the food scene at PaloAltoOnline.com/blogs.
TIM FLANNERY
CIRQUE ZIVA
from the SF Giants
Golden Dragon Acrobats
Jan. 25, 2 & 4 PM
Jan. 23, 8 PM
LES MISERABLES
MY FAIR LADY
March 6–15
June 5–14
WEST SIDE STORY
KISS ME KATE
August 14–23
November 6–15
Get Your Tickets Online At:
www.FoxRwc.com
2215 Broadway St., Redwood City
650.FOX.7770
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 27
OPENINGS
Giants can be good
Hollywood goes ‘Into the Woods’
for Sondheim musical
000 1/2 (Century 16, Century 20)
“Careful the tale you tell ...
Children will listen.” The 1987
Broadway musical “Into the
Woods” — with music and lyrics
by Stephen Sondheim (“Sweeney
Todd”) and book by James Lapine
— appears, on the surface, to be a
postmodern consideration of fairy
tales and what kids derive from
them. But “Into the Woods” is a
far more multilayered work than
that, and I’m happy to report that
Walt Disney Pictures and director
Rob Marshall (“Chicago”) haven’t
broken it with their cinematic adaptation.
“So into the woods you go
again,/You have to every now
and then./Into the woods, no telling when,/Be ready for the jour-
ney.” If the greatest works of art
are those that tackle the journey
of life itself, “Into the Woods” is
among them. Its characters venture into the woods in pursuit of
their wishes, revealing it to be a
place of Jungian shadows. Many
of the characters are drawn from
various Grimm fairy tales —
bean-buying Jack (Daniel Huttlestone of “Les Miserables”) and
his mother (Tracey Ullmann),
Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla
Crawford), Cinderella (Anna
Kendrick) and Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy) — but the play adds
a Baker (James Corden), his wife
(Emily Blunt) and a Witch (Meryl Streep) who promises them a
child in exchange for their help.
The Weinstein Company
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Fairytale mashup “Into the Woods” stars Meryl Streep as the witch;
and James Corden plays the baker.
“Careful the wish you make/
Wishes are children/Careful the
path they take/Wishes come true,
not free.” Conflicting desires, the
fallout therein, and the terrifying
responsibilities and fears of parenting all come into play as secrets
and crises emerge. The story’s
“happily ever after” first act, childish and innocent, yields to a disturbing second act of tough adult
truths, among them disappointment, death, war and infidelity.
The play has been trimmed,
ostensibly by screenwriter Lapine, mostly judiciously and rarely
recklessly (though the foolish
hack job done to the play’s “Finale” is close to criminal). The
production’s most valuable player
is music supervisor and conductor Paul Gemignani, the (highly
skilled) Sondheim vet who performed the same honors for Tim
Burton’s film of “Sweeney Todd,”
but the film is also exceptionally
well cast, with top honors going to
Streep, Blunt (who sticks the landing of “Moments in the Woods”),
Corden, and juvenile performers
Crawford and Huttlestone.
Though any film adaptation
of a classic musical is bound to
be a mixed bag, Sondheim fans
have pulled off an impressive
transplant, one that retains the
play’s complicated moral character along with most of its music.
“Wrong things, right things ... /
Who can say what’s true? ... /Do
things, fight things ... /You decide, but ... /You are not alone ... /
Witches can be right. Giants can
be good./You decide what’s right.
You decide what’s good.”
Rated PG for thematic elements, fantasy action and peril,
and some suggestive material.
Two hours, 4 minutes.
— Peter Canavese
Painter Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) finds her artistic talents
usurped by her ambitious husband (Christoph Waltz) in “Big Eyes.”
My, what a Tim Burton
movie you have
‘Big Eyes’ recalls the sturm, drang and kitsch
of painter Margaret Keane
000
(Aquarius, Century 20)
Tim Burton has always loved
his kitsch, from Pee-wee Herman to Ed Wood to “Mars Attacks!” trading cards. Turns out
Burton’s loves also include Margaret Keane, painter of doe-eyed
waifs, whose work the director
has collected for years. Now, in
an ultimate act of fandom, Burton has turned Keane’s career
and relationship travails into the
cockeyed dramedy, “Big Eyes.”
Like Burton’s “Ed Wood” and
Miloš Forman’s “The People vs.
Larry Flynt” and “Man on the
Moon,” “Big Eyes” comes with
a screenplay by Scott Alexander
and Larry Karaszewski, masters
Knows when to walk
away, when to run
Remake of 1974’s ‘The Gambler’ plays its cards right
Mark Wahlberg as a verbose
literature professor isn’t exactly
likely casting, but the star walks
away a winner with “The Gambler,” Rupert Wyatt’s remake of
Karel Reisz’s 1974 drama “The
Gambler.”
Taking inspiration from an
1867 Dostoyevsky novella, James
Toback (“Bugsy”) wrote the original picture, and also produces
the remake, but Oscar-winning
screenwriter William Monahan
(“The Departed”) does the honors this time around. Wahlberg’s
prof Jim Bennett is one antiheroic sonuvagun: a tortured, selfloathing individual who doesn’t
see much point in living (“Life’s
a losing proposition — might
as well get it over with”) and
therefore sees little reason not to
gamble at the probable expense of
everything. Bennett teaches “all
or nothing at all ... to be or not
to be” and “The only thing worth
doing is the impossible,” to name
a few of the many koans in this
deliriously script-y script.
An early sequence follows
Bennett on a gambling jag that
puts him, within minutes, into a
$240,000 hole that frames the rest
of the narrative: With one week to
pay off the massive debt, Bennett
weighs and pursues options that
are their own kinds of gambles.
Wyatt kicks the narrative along
with stylish use of source music
Page 28 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Claire Folger/Paramount Pictures
000 (Century 16, Century 20)
A slimmed down Mark Wahlberg plays English lit professor and
gambling addict Jim Bennett in “The Gambler.”
(including the Dinah Washington
vocal “This Bitter Earth”) and
sleek cinematography and production design.
Bennett’s tenuous balance of
disdain for life on the one hand
and prideful individualism on
the other makes him both unlikeable and a uniquely American
archetype. An erstwhile novelist,
Bennett lectures his students, “If
you’re not a genius, then don’t
bother,” an embittered spin on
“Go big or go home.” Mortality
and the ineffectuality of legacy
also frame Bennett’s midlife
considerations, with George Kennedy putting in a one-scene ap-
of fact-based kookiness. Opening in 1958 Northern California
(a boost in fun factor for local
viewers), Bruno Delbonnel’s
cinematography and Rick Heinrichs’ production design wistfully evokes the VistaVision and
Technicolor of the era. Newly
arrived San Franciscan Margaret Ulbrich, a runaway single
mother, quickly runs afoul of
Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz),
a man whose unctuous repertoire
of false emotion spans a wolfish
grin and crocodile tears (“All I
ever wanted was to support myself as an artist ... I’m just a Sun(continued on next page)
pearance as a deathbed dad.
Monahan’s hyper-witty screenplay contributes to a highly entertaining heightened reality
while offering vivid supporting
roles. John Goodman and Michael Kenneth Williams sling
wisecracks as competing loan
sharks. The winningly unsentimental Brie Larson (“Short Term
12”) plays Amy, a student of Bennett’s who becomes drawn to his
challenging nature and reckless
abandon, while Jessica Lange
charges back onto the big screen
as Bennett’s wealthy, at-wit’s-end
mother.
The extent to which “The Gambler” may intentionally (or unintentionally) glamorize gambling
does raise concerns, but thoughtful viewers can put the practice,
the addiction and this story into
contexts. For the most part, any
given bet can go either way for
the gambler, and though Ben(continued on next page)
Movies
‘Big Eyes’
day painter”).
Walter moves quickly to woo
and wed Margaret, but their marriage sours rapidly, in no small
part due to a husband’s jealousy
over his wife’s talent and incipient success. Walter gets his
paintings — every one a Parisian
street scene — on the walls of the
famed Hungry i nightclub, but it’s
Margaret’s work that draws attention, prompting Walter to swoop
in and claim credit for work he
initially dismissed as unsellable
“lady art.” The conflict therein
defines the downward course of
the Keanes’ marriage, culminating in a trial straight out of a
Marx Brothers movie.
With deadpan deftness, Adams
walks a line in portraying Margaret as a pop artist and flowering
feminist hero, but possessed of a
double-edged naivete: Without it,
she would never have achieved
such success, yet with it, she became prone to Walter and, later,
the Jehovah’s Witnesses (Adams
also wears Colleen Atwood’s
perky period costumes well).
Waltz throws caution to the wind
to make Walter an enjoyable if
cartoony riff on the banality of
evil, while Danny Huston brings
in a touch of “Sweet Smell of
Success” as ink-stained wretch
Dick Nolan (“I make things up
for a living. I’m a reporter.”).
Burton pokes fun at Keane’s
art, but he kids because he loves,
and “Big Eyes” productively asks
the question of whether the paintings are art or kitsch (or both).
The specter of Andy Warhol
hovers over the story: A Warhol
epigram opens the film, and Walter snipes, “That fruit fly stole
my act,” referring to the idea of
producing art for maximum consumer consumption. And though
Burton has always followed the
(off)beat of a different drummer,
there’s a twinkle in “Big Eyes”’
line, “What’s wrong with the
lowest common denominator?
That’s what this country was
built on!”
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and brief strong language.
One hour, 45 minutes.
— Peter Canavese
‘The Gambler’
(continued from previous page)
nett refuses to be cowed as he
stares repeatedly into the evermore-yawning abyss, Wahlberg’s
MOVIE TIMES
All showtimes are for Friday – Sunday only unless otherwise noted.
For other times, reviews and trailers, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/movies.
Movie times are subject to change. Call theaters for the latest.
Annie (PG) Century 16: 9:45 a.m., 12:50, 3:55, 7:10 & 10 p.m.
Century 20: 11:50 a.m., 1:05, 3:05, 4:25, 6, 7:20 & 9:15 p.m.
Big Eyes (PG-13) +++ Aquarius Theatre: 1:30, 4:15, 7:20 & 9:45 p.m.
Century 20: 10:50 a.m., 1:35, 4:20, 7:05 & 9:45 p.m.
Big Hero 6 (PG) Century 16: 9 & 11:40 a.m., 2:20, 5, 7:45 & 10:25 p.m.
Century 20: 10:40 a.m., 1:25, 4:05, 6:50 & 9:30 p.m.
Palo Alto Square: 1:15, 4:15, 7:15 & 10:05 p.m.
Birdman (R) +++
Citizenfour (R) +++1/2
Aquarius Theatre: 1 & 9:55 p.m.
Exodus: Gods and Kings (PG-13) ++1/2 Century 16: 9 a.m., 12:25, 3:50,
7:15 & 10:40 p.m. Century 20: 12:15 p.m., 3:40, 7 & 10:25 p.m.
Foxcatcher (R) +++1/2 Aquarius Theatre: 3:45 & 7:05 p.m.
Century 20: 10:15 a.m., 4:15 & 10:15 p.m.
The Gambler (R) +++ Century 16: 9 & 11:45 a.m., 2:30, 5:15, 8 & 10:45 p.m.
Century 20: 11:35 a.m., 2:25, 5:10, 8 & 10:45 pm.
GOLDEN GLOBE
®
N O M I N E E
BEST ACTRESS • REESE WITHERSPOON
DRAMA
(continued from previous page)
SCREEN ACTORS GUILD
AWARD NOMINEE
®
BEST ACTRESS • REESE WITHERSPOON
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (PG-13) ++1/2 Century 16: 9:15
a.m., 12:30, 1:40, 3:45, 7:15, 8:30 & 10:40 p.m. In 3-D at 10:20 & 11:20 a.m.,
2:40, 5:05, 6:10 & 9:30 p.m. Century 20: 10:20 a.m., 1:45, 3:50, 7:10 & 9:35
p.m. In 3-D at 11:25 a.m., 12:30, 2:45, 6:10, 8:25 & 10:30 p.m.
Century 20: 5:05 p.m.
Horrible Bosses 2 (R)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (PG-13) ++1/2
Century 16: 10:25 a.m., 1:20, 4:20, 7:30 & 10:30 p.m.
Century 20: 11 a.m., 1:55, 4:45, 7:40 & 10:35 p.m.
The Imitation Game (PG-13) +++
Century 16: 9:55 & 11:25 a.m., 12:45, 2:15, 3:40, 5, 6:30, 7:50, 9:15 & 10:35
p.m. Century 20: 11 a.m., 1:55, 4:50, 7:45 & 10:40 p.m.
Interstellar (PG-13) ++1/2
Century 16: 3:15 p.m. Century 20: 11:10 a.m., 2:50, 6:30 & 10:05 p.m.
Into the Woods (PG) +++1/2 Century 16: 10 a.m., 1, 4, 7:05 & 10:05 p.m.
Century 20: 10:20 a.m., 1:20, 4:25, 7:30 & 10:35 p.m.
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (PG)
Century 16: 9:25, 10:40 & 11:55 a.m., 1:10, 2:25, 3:40, 4:55, 6:15, 7:40, 9 &
10:10 p.m. Century 20: 10:30 & 11:30 a.m., 2, 4:35, 7:05, 9:40 & 10:40 p.m.
P.K. (Not Rated)
Century 16: 11:30 a.m., 7 & 10:35 p.m.
The Penguins of Madagascar (PG) ++ Century 16: 9:10 & 11:35 a.m., 2 &
4:30 p.m. Century 20: 11:05 a.m., 1:40, 4:10, 6:40 & 9:10 p.m.
St. Vincent (PG-13)
Century 16: 7:20 & 9:55 p.m.
The Ten Commandments (1956) (Not Rated)
Stanford Theatre: 7:30 p.m., Sat & Sun 2 p.m.
The Theory of Everything (PG-13) ++
Century 20: 1:15 & 7:25 p.m. Palo Alto Square: 1, 4, 7 & 10 p.m.
Top Five (R) ++1/2
Century 20: 11:45 a.m., 2:20, 5, 7:50 & 10:45 p.m.
Unbroken (PG-13) ++1/2
Century 16: 9:50 a.m., 1:10, 4:20, 7:35 & 10:45 p.m. Century 20: 11:15 a.m.,
2:30, 5:45 & 8:55 p.m. In X-D at 12:45, 4, 7:15 & 10:25 p.m.
Wild (R) +++ Century 20: 10:55 a.m., 1:50, 4:40, 7:35 & 10:20 p.m.
Guild Theatre: 1:30, 4:15, 7:05 & 9:40 p.m.
+ Skip it ++ Some redeeming qualities +++ A good bet ++++ Outstanding
NOW PLAYING IN THEATRES EVERYWHERE
CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATRES AND SHOWTIMES
Aquarius: 430 Emerson St., Palo Alto (266-9260)
Century Cinema 16: 1500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View
(800-326-3264)
Century 20 Downtown: 825 Middlefield Road, Redwood City
(800-326-3264)
CinéArts at Palo Alto Square:
3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto (493-0128)
Guild: 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park (266-9260)
Stanford: 221 University Ave., Palo Alto (324-3700)
Internet address: For show times, plot synopses, trailers and more
information about films playing, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/movies
ON THE WEB: Up-to-date movie listings at PaloAltoOnline.com
newly lean physique suggests a
shrunken man whose redemption,
if any, may well have more to do
with luck than design. Despite the
ambiguous philosophy “If I get
to nothing, then I can start over,”
“The Gambler” remains a study
in the self-destructive personality.
Rated R for language throughout, and for some sexuality/nudity.
One hour, 51 minutes.
— Peter Canavese
3BEST PICTURE
®
GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD NOMINATIONS
Support
our Kids
with a gift to the
Palo Alto Weekly
Holiday Fund Drive.
Century Theatres at Palo Alto Square
DRAMA
INCLUDING
©HFPA
STEVE CARELL CHANNING TATUM MARK RUFFALO
Wednesday 12/24
Birdman – 1:15, 4:15, 7:15
The Theory of Everything – 1:00, 4:00,
7:00
Thurs-Thurs 12/25/14-1/1/2015
Birdman – 1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 10:05
The Theory of Everything – 1:00, 4:00,
7:00, 10:00
FOXCATCHER
Tickets and Showtimes available at cinemark.com
VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.FOXCATCHERMOVIE.COM
WRITTEN BY E. MAX FRYE AND DAN FUTTERMAN
DIRECTED BY BENNETT MILLER
WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM
CENTURY 20 DOWNTOWN REDWOOD CITY LANDMARK AQUARIUS
NOW
430 Emerson Street
Middlefield Road
STEVE CARELL 825
CHANNING
TATUM MARK
RUFFALO
Palo Alto
(650) 327-3241
Redwood
City (800) FANDANGO
PLAYING
Donate online at
siliconvalleycf.org/paw-holiday-fund
CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES OR CALL FOR SHOWTIMES
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 29
Support our Kids
with a gift to the Holiday Fund.
Last Year’s Grant Recipients
10 Books A Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
Ada’s Café . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$20,000
Adolescent Counseling Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000
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
Bayshore Christian Ministries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation cover all the
Breast Cancer Connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
administrative costs, every dollar raised goes directly to
Building Futures Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
CASSY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000
support community programs through grants to non-profit
Children’s Center of the Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,200
organizations ranging up to $25,000.
Collective Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
And with the generous support of matching grants
Computers for Youth Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
from local foundations, including the Packard, Hewlett,
Deborah’s Palm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000
Downtown Streets Team. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
DreamCatchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$15,000
East Palo Alto Kids Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
East Palo Alto Youth Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Environmental Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
EPA Tennis & Tutoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Family Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
Foothill-De Anza Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
Foundation for a College Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000
Friends of Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Hidden Villa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Arrillaga & Peery foundations, your tax-deductible gift will
be doubled in size. A donation of $100 turns into $200
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.
with the foundation matching gifts.
Whether as an individual, a business or in honor of
someone else, help us reach our goal of $350,000 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.
CLICK
AND
GIVE
Donate online at
si
siliconvalleycf.org/
paw-holiday-fund
InnVision Shelter Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000
JLS Middle School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,500
Jordan Middle School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,500
Kara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$15,000
Enclosed is a donation of $_______________
Mayview Community Health Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000
Music in the Schools Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$15,000
Name _________________________________________________________
New Creation Home Ministries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
New Voices for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$2,500
Nuestra Casa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
Palo Alto Art Center Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Palo Alto Community Child Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000
Business Name _________________________________________________
Address _______________________________________________________
City/State/Zip __________________________________________________
Palo Alto Historical Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Palo Alto Housing Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Palo Alto Humane Society. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$2,500
Parents Nursery School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Peninsula HealthCare Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
E-Mail __________________________________________________
Credit Card (MC, VISA, or AMEX)
All donors and their gift amounts will be
published in the Palo Alto Weekly unless the
boxes below are checked.
________________________________________ Expires _______/_______
T I wish to contribute anonymously.
Phone _________________________________________________________
Project WeHOPE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$15,000
Quest Learning Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Racing Hearts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$2,500
T Please withhold the amount of my
Rebuilding Together Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10,000
Silicon Valley FACES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
contribution.
Signature ______________________________________________________
St. Elizabeth Seton School. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
St. Francis of Assisi Youth Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
I wish to designate my contribution as follows: (select one)
St. Vincent de Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$6,000
Teen Talk Sexuality Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
Terman Middle School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,500
T In my name as shown above
T In the name of business above
TheatreWorks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7,500
Youth Community Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$20,000
Youth Speaks Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,000
OR:
T In honor of:
T In memory of:
T As a gift for:
_____________________________________________________________
(Name of person)
Non-profits: Grant application
and guidelines at
www.PaloAltoOnline.com/holiday_fund
Application deadline: January 9, 2015
Page 30 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Please make checks payable to:
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Send coupon and check, if applicable, to:
Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund
c/o Silicon Valley Community Foundation
2440 West El Camino Real, Suite 300
Mountain View, CA 94040
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.
Movies
Thank you for donating
to the Holiday Fund
If it’s
‘Unbroken,’
don’t ‘flicks’ it
Bestseller becomes a film
of prestige and suffering
00 1/2 (Century 16, Century 20)
Through December 21, 298 donors have contributed $ 116,146.
With match, $232,292 has been raised for the Holiday Fund.
New Donors
Anne Talbott ................................ 300
Diane & Brandy Sikic........................ *
Irene Schwartz................................. *
Helen Feinberg ......................... 2,000
Jack & Susan Thomas ...................... *
Veronica Tincher .......................... 100
Bryan Wilson ............................... 100
William Macrae ................................ *
Elisabeth Seaman ........................ 100
Living in Balance .............................. *
Sandra Slater .................................. *
Daniel Cox ................................... 200
Weil Family .................................. 250
Lorrin Koran M.D. .......................... 50
Mary Lorey ...................................... *
David Wells ................................... 50
Robert & Betsy Gamburd.................. *
Anne & Don Vermeil ......................... *
Sandra & Scott Pearson ............... 500
Bjorn & Michele Liencres........... 1,000
In Memory Of
Bob Markevitch ................................ *
Dominic Greening .......................... 50
Sallie & Jay Whaley ...................... 100
Eric Richert.................................. 100
Jerry and Linda Elkind .................. 250
Leif & Sharon Erickson ................. 250
Russell Evarts ................................. *
Solon Finkelstein ......................... 150
Annette Isaacson ......................... 100
Hoda Epstein ................................... *
Chittra Chaivorapol....................... 400
Arden King..................................... 20
Marie Earl & Peter Skinner............ 100
John & Florine Galen ........................ *
Greg & Penny Gallo ...................... 500
Betty Gerard ................................ 100
Dena Goldberg............................. 250
Margot Goodman ............................ *
Lynda & Richard Greene ............... 300
Eric and Elaine Hahn ........................ *
Phil Hanawalt & Graciela Spivak.... 500
The Havern Family..................... 5,000
Walt and Kay Hays ........................... *
Joe and Nancy Huber ....................... *
Jon & Julie Jerome ........................... *
Michael & Marcia Katz ................. 200
Foundations, Businesses
& Organizations
The Nancy Fund ........................ 5,000
Previously Published Donors
29 Anonymous ......................... 7,590
Lorraine Macchello........................... *
Ken & Michele Dauber ................. 500
Amy Harris & Joss Geiduschek ..... 100
Jack & Martha McLaughlin ............... *
Barbara & Charles Stevens............... *
Patrick & Emily Radtke .............. 2,000
Margaret & Les Fisher .................. 100
Marjorie Giles .............................. 300
David & Karen Backer .................. 250
Laura Simeone .............................. 50
Noble & Lorraine Hancock ................ *
Martha Shirk ............................... 500
Ellmann Family............................. 100
Dorsey and Katherine Bass .......... 300
Faith Braff ................................... 500
Wendy Sinton .............................. 100
Victor & Norma Hesterman ............... *
William & Sally Hewlett.............. 1,000
Edward Kanazawa ............................ *
Donald & Adele Langendorf .......... 200
Ellen Lillington ............................... 75
Jean M. Colby .................................. *
Chris & Beth Martin ......................... *
Lawrence Naiman ........................ 100
Tom & Patricia Sanders .................... *
Dorothy Saxe ................................... *
Roger Smith ................................ 300
Marian Adams ............................. 100
Brigid Barton ............................... 400
Lucy Berman ............................ 1,000
Harriet & Gerald Berner .................... *
Roy & Carol Blitzer ........................... *
John & Olive Borgsteadt ................... *
Linda & Steve Boxer......................... *
Larry Breed ................................. 100
Bruce F. Campbell ..................... 2,000
Mr. George Cator ....................... 300
Ted and Ginny Chu ........................... *
Keith Clarke..................................... *
Constance Crawford ......................... *
Theodore and Cathy Dolton .......... 350
Eugene & Mabel Dong ................. 200
Tom & Ellen Ehrlich ..................... 300
David & Diane Feldman ................ 750
Bonnie Packer ............................. 100
Hans & Judith Steiner .................. 100
Harry & Susan Hartzell .................... *
Carolyn & Tony Tucher ...................... *
Marc & Ragni Pasturel ................. 200
Tony & Priscilla Marzoni.................... *
Tom & Patricia Sanders .................... *
Robert & Connie Loarie .................... *
Sue Kemp ................................... 250
Christina Kenrick....................... 1,000
Michael & Frannie Kieschnick ........... *
Hal & Iris Korol ................................ *
Tony & Judy Kramer.......................... *
The Kroymann Family ................... 250
Patricia M. Levin .......................... 100
Steve and Nancy Levy .................. 500
Mandy Lowell............................... 100
Gwen Luce ...................................... *
Lori & Hal Luft ............................. 100
Kevin Mayer & Barbara Zimmer......... *
Richard L. Mazze ......................... 100
Drew McCalley & Marilyn Green .... 100
Eve & John Melton ....................... 500
Merrill & Lee Newman ................. 250
Craig & Sally Nordlund.................. 500
Jim & Alma Phillips....................... 250
Helene Pier...................................... *
David & Virginia Pollard ................ 300
Teresa Roberts ......................... 2,000
Dick and Ruth Rosenbaum ........... 100
Peter and Beth Rosenthal ............. 300
Steve & Karen Ross ..................... 100
Nancy & Norm Rossen ..................... *
Don & Ann Rothblatt ........................ *
Dan and Lynne Russell................. 250
John and Mary Schaefer ............... 100
Jerry & Donna Silverberg .............. 100
Bob and Diane Simoni.................. 200
Art and Peggy Stauffer ................. 500
Peter S Stern ................................... *
Jeanne and Leonard Ware ................ *
Roger Warnke .............................. 200
Susan & Doug Woodman.................. *
Gil and Gail Woolley ..................... 300
Lawrence Yang & Jennifer Kuan . 1,000
Art & Helen Kraemer ........................ *
Barbara Klein & Stan Schrier ............ *
Patti Yanklowitz & Mark Krasnow... 200
Andrea Smith............................... 100
Larry Baer & Stephanie Klein............ *
Ms. Amy Renalds ........................... *
Jody Maxmin................................... *
Van Whitis ................................... 200
Diane Doolittle ................................. *
John & Nancy Cassidy .................. 300
Charles P. Bonini.............................. *
Lee & Judy Shulman ........................ *
Robert & Barbara Simpson ............... *
Janis Ulevich ............................... 100
Judith & James Kleinberg ................. *
Leo & Marlys Keoshian .................... *
James & Renee Masterson............... *
Ralph Britton ............................... 300
Nancy Steege .............................. 100
Joanne Koltnow ........................... 200
Diane & Steve Ciesinski ............... 500
Charlotte Epstein ............................. *
Caroline Hicks & Bert Fingerhut .... 100
Jessie Ngai.................................. 100
Xiaofan Lin .................................... 50
Hal and Carol Louchheim ................. *
Rathmann Family Foundation ............ *
Judy Ousterhout ............................... *
Debby Roth.................................. 100
Sandy & Rajiv Jain........................ 101
Dennis & Cindy Dillon ....................... *
Ho John Lee ................................ 100
Stan & Yulia Shore ........................... *
Mehdi Alhassani .......................... 150
Dmitri Seals .................................... *
Mike & Dana Nelson ...................... 75
Brigid Barton & Rob Robinson ...... 400
Adria & Beau Brown ......................... *
Meri Gruber & James Taylor .............. *
Janice Bohman ............................ 250
Jan Swan......................................... *
Dexter & Jean Dawes ....................... *
Nina Kulgein ................................ 200
Rick & Eileen Brooks ........................ *
Michael & Jean Couch .................. 250
Martha Cohn ............................... 100
Maureen Martin ............................... *
Diane Moore.................................... *
Micki & Bob Cardelli ......................... *
Matt Glickman & Susie Hwang ...... 500
Ralph Wheeler ............................. 225
Robyn Crumly .................................. *
Bill Johnson & Terri Lobdell........ 1,000
Jan Thomson & Roy Levin ............. 250
Shirley Ely.................................... 500
Tatyana Berezin ............................... *
Bonnie & Bryan Street ..................... *
Bob & Joan Jack .......................... 300
Annette Glanckopf & Tom Ashton ...... *
George & Betsy Young ...................... *
Mahlon & Carol Hubethal ................. *
John & Ruth Devries......................... *
Linnea Wickstrom ........................ 100
David & Lynn Mitchell ................... 300
Virginia Fehrenbacher ................... 100
Lani Freeman
& Stephen Monismith.................... *
Mike & Cathie Foster.................... 500
Don & Bonnie Miller ......................... *
Page & Ferrell Sanders................. 100
Joyce Barker ................................ 100
Lijun & Jia-Ning Xiang ................... 200
Hugh McDevitt ............................. 200
Robert French.............................. 100
Patricia Thomas ........................... 100
Scott Wong .................................. 200
Pam Mayerfield ............................ 100
Thomas Rindfleisch .......................... *
David Labaree ............................. 200
Mike & Lennie Roberts................. 100
Boyce & Peggy Nute ......................... *
Zelda Jury ................................... 100
Karen Sundback & James Moore .. 500
Steve & Mary Chapel ....................... *
John & Lee Pierce ........................ 250
Mary Jo & Leonard Levy ............... 250
In Memory Of
Nickolas Rudd ............................. 100
Ludwig Tannenwald .......................... *
Jack Sutorius ............................... 300
Nick ........................................... 500
Emmett Lorey .................................. *
Becky Schaefer ................................ *
Ted Linden................................... 200
Al and Kay Nelson ............................ *
Dr. Elliot Eisner ................................ *
Ruth & Chet Johnson ....................... *
Robert Lobdell ................................. *
Baxter Armstrong ......................... 100
Phillip Gottheiner ............................. *
Boyd Paulson, Jr .............................. *
Dan Dykwel ..................................... *
Dr. David Zlotnick ............................. *
Dr. John Plummer Steward............ 100
Richard Brennan .............................. *
Bob Donald ..................................... *
Leonard W. Ely ............................. 200
Don and Marie Snow .................... 100
Kathy Morris .................................... *
Pam Grady................................... 250
Carol Berkowitz ................................ *
Yen-Chen and Er-Ying Yen ............. 250
Francine Mendlin ............................. *
Richard Brennan .......................... 100
Helene F. Klein ................................ *
Jean M. Law ................................ 100
Ernest J. Moore ............................... *
Mary Floyd..................................... 25
Thomas W. and Louise L. Phinney ..... *
Leo Breidenbach .............................. *
Bob Schauer................................ 150
Bertha Kalson ................................. *
Steve Fasani................................ 100
Jimmie Dickinson ......................... 100
John F. Smith............................... 250
Robert Spinrad ............................ 500
My sweet Dad Al Pellizzari ................ *
My sweet dog “Tufi” ......................... *
Ed Arnold......................................... *
Sam Stewart & Alan Stewart ............ *
August Lee King ............................. 25
Nate Rosenberg ............................. 75
Betty Meltzer ................................... *
Aarol O’Neill .................................... *
John Black................................... 500
Jim Byrnes................................... 100
In Honor Of
Marilyn Sutorius ........................... 300
The Barnea-Smith Family .................. *
Hamilton Avenue friends................... *
Sallie Tasto.................................. 100
Gary Fazzino .................................... *
Uncle Bill’s 50th birthday ................. *
The Settle Family ......................... 500
Palo Alto Weekly staff ...................... *
Sandy Sloan ................................ 100
Larry Klein’s service
on City Council .............................. *
As a Gift For
Mark Zuanich............................... 150
Foundations, Businesses
& Organizations
United Methodist Women
of the First United Methodist
Church of Palo Alto .................... 500
Arrillaga Foundation ............... 10,000
Peery Foundation .................... 10,000
Communication & Power Industries500
Attorney Susan Dondershine ........ 250
Harrell Remodeling, Inc. ................... *
Bleibler Properties LLC ................. 500
Alta Mesa Improvement
Company ............................... 1,500
As a 13-year-old, I thrilled to
the adventures of Jim Graham
in Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of
the Sun,” and I imagine today’s
13-year-old boys will prove similarly enthralled by Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken.”
That’s the best news about Universal Pictures’ adaptation of the
non-fiction bestseller by Laura
Hillenbrand (“Seabiscuit”), which
also boasts supple photography
by Roger Deakins (“No Country for Old Men”) and a creditable lead performance by newcomer Jack O”Connell (“Starred
Up”). But demographics outside
of male pubescence are likely
to be tougher audiences for this
flatfooted recounting of the life
of Louis Zamperini, the ItalianAmerican Olympic runner whose
Army Air Forces service found
him adrift in the Pacific Ocean
and, later, trapped in a Japanese
P.O.W. camp.
Jolie’s respectful, tasteful version
of events — her second narrative
feature as director — realizes a respectful, tasteful screenplay from
Joel and Ethan Coen (“No Country
for Old Men”), Richard LaGravenese (“The Fisher King”) and William Nicholson (“Shadowlands”).
That’s a heck of a lot of screenwriting talent attached to what turns out
to be a perfectly obvious, generic
and even corny script.
Suffering is decidedly the point,
to the tune of this advice from
Louis’ brother, Pete (John D’Leo):
“If you can take it, you can make
it.” While that might make a fine
bumper sticker or fortune cookie,
it’s not a lot on which to hang a
picture like this one. Tom Stoppard’s script for “Empire of the
Sun” — likewise about traumatic WWII isolation and prison
camp survivalism — carried his
signature intelligence and lyricism. Following blistering early
sequences of military aviation,
Jolie’s film works its way predictably through Zamperini’s story
with little in the way of surprise
or creative spark to justify a cinematic treatment. The film’s only
subtlety is in momentarily feigning toward plot developments that
never come.
“Unbroken” does arrive at lessons in forgiveness — for the war
crimes perpetrated by Mutsuhiro
Watanabe, a.k.a. “The Bird”
(Miyavi) — though the drama of
these lessons remains effectively
off screen. Ultimately, the lesson
of “Unbroken” seems to be this:
Louis Zamperini suffered horribly
for America, so the least you can
do is watch this movie about it.
Rated PG-13 for war violence
including intense sequences of
brutality, and for brief language.
Two hours, 17 minutes.
— Peter Canavese
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 31
Home&Real Estate
Home Front
LOOKING AHEAD ... Homerelated classes through Palo
Alto Adult School, beginning in
mid-January, include “Upholstery:
Basic Techniques” (Kathleen Koenig and Ann Laveroni, 9 a.m.-2:30
p.m., Tuesdays or Thursdays, Jan.
13-March 17 or Jan. 15-March
19, $215); “Floral Design With
Ikebana” (Thanh Kosen Nguyen,
12:30-4 p.m., Tuesdays, Jan.
13-March 17, $95); and “Gardening in Winter” (Sherri Bohan, 10
a.m.-noon, Wednesdays, Jan.
14-March 18, $70). Info: 650329-3752 or paadultschool.org (to
learn about locations and registration details).
LEARN TO COOK? ... Hands-on
cooking classes at Sur La Table,
#57 Town & Country Village, Palo
Alto, include “Holiday Tapas Party”
(Reiji Ohmine, Dec. 27, 2:30 p.m.,
$69); “Classic Croissants from
Scratch” (Elizabeth Prado, Dec.
28, 9 a.m., $69); “Learn to Cut
Like a Pro” (Reiji Ohmine, Dec. 28,
1 p.m., $59); “Date Night: Chef’s
Table Favorites” (Scott Tomelleso,
Dec. 28, 4 p.m., $79); and “Date
Night: New Year’s Celebration”
(Dec. 31, 5 p.m., $79). Info: 650289-0438 or cooking073@surlatable.com
TIDYING UP? ... If you’ve come
across expired medication, paints
or solvents, fuels, cleaners, pesticides, etc., you can dispose of
them safely at a Household Hazardous Waste Drop Off Day from 3
to 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 2, or from
9 to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 3.
The drop-off spot is the Regional
Water Quality Control Plant, 2501
Embarcadero Way, Palo Alto.
Bring proof of Palo Alto residency.
Info: cityofpaloalto.org
Real Estate Matters
2014’s priciest local home sales
share common threads
by David Barca
O
ur local real estate markets have seen
a significant uptick in sales activity at
the highest end of the spectrum thus
far in 2014. According to MLS data, there
were 17 $10 million-plus single-family home
sales in the communities of Atherton, Palo
Alto and Woodside between Jan. 1 and Nov.
30, a 70 percent increase from that same period in 2013.
This year’s 10 most expensive home sales
in the aforementioned communities that were
listed on the MLS through Nov. 30 ranged from
$27.4 million to $13.5 million — six in Atherton
and two each in Palo
Alto and Woodside.
The
properties
run the gamut in
terms of size, from
a 13,558-squarefoot mansion in
West Atherton to
a relatively modest
5,240-square-foot
home in the coveted
Old Palo Alto neighborhood.
And although
these 10 top-dollar homes are unique on their
own, a few common threads weave through the
transactions:
Springtime sales: Seven of these homes
sold in the second quarter, underscoring that
real estate activity heats up in the spring and
early summer when sellers are likely to encounter many buyers hoping to land a home before
schools close for the summer. At that time of
year, even the priciest properties can attract
motivated, fast-acting buyers. For example, two
Atherton homes that sold in late June — one for
$14 million and one for $13.5 million — were
gone in just four days.
The appeal of new: Newer homes are increasingly popular in the Bay Area, particularly
given the influx of buyers from Asia who tend
to prefer more recently built properties. Six of
this year’s 10 most expensive homes were constructed since the turn of the most recent cen-
This Spanish Colonial Revival home, designed by Frederick Confer and Morgan Stedman
and extensively remodeled in 2011, is located in Palo Alto’s Crescent Park neighborhood.
The asking price has been lowered to less than $10 million.
Proper pricing key: Our local real estate
markets have recently involved frenzied competition, in which multiple bidders drive the final
sales price far beyond the original. In one July
instance, a brand-new home in Downtown Palo
Alto sold for more than double its original price.
Six of the 10 most expensive homes appear
to have been accurately priced, with half of
them selling for their exact asking prices and
one fetching a modest premium. The other four
homes may not have been priced correctly, allowing buyers a bit of wiggle room to write
lower offers.
One such home in West Atherton, initially
priced at $16.9 million, sat on the market for
almost a year before selling for $15 million,
88.5 percent of its original price. This highlights
the fact a property must be priced accurately
in order to sell quickly, even in markets where
willing buyers far outnumber the inventory of
available homes. Q
David Barca is vice president of Pacific
Union’s Silicon Valley Region.
tury, including No. 1 and No. 2: $27.4 million
in Atherton and $25 million in Woodside, respectively.
That’s not to say that a home with a little more
history won’t appeal to buyers, especially in superheated markets like Palo Alto. The aforementioned Old Palo Alto home, built in 1925,
sold for about 2 percent more than original price,
the only one of the 10 priciest properties to command a premium.
Hefty prices per square foot: Paying top
dollar per square foot holds especially true at
the highest end of our real estate market. The
average price per square foot paid for these 10
homes was $1,935, compared with $1,100 for all
properties sold in the three communities from
January through November.
A three-bedroom home in Woodside that sold
in September offers a drastic example of what
some affluent, motivated buyers are willing
to pay: At just less than 6,000 square feet, the
home sold for its $25 million list price, which
translates to a staggering $4,170 per square foot.
TOP TEN HOME SALES
RESTORE HABITAT ... On the
second and fourth Saturdays,
from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., volunteers
work with Acterra to restore habitat at the Pearson-Arastradero
Preserve (1530 Arastradero
Road, Palo Alto) and local creeks.
Gloves, tools, snacks and training are provided. Tasks include
removing invasive plants, collecting seeds, spreading mulch and
planting native grasses. Wear long
sleeves and long pants, and bring
a hat and reusable water bottle.
Info: acterra.org/stewardship Q
BluSkyeMedia
Send notices of news and events related
to real estate, interior design, home
improvement and gardening to Home
Front, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610,
Palo Alto, CA 94302, or email cblitzer@
paweekly.com. Deadline is one week
before publication.
Also online at PaloAltoOnline.com
Veronica Weber
HOLIDAY TREE COLLECTION ...
GreenWaste of Palo Alto will pick
up Christmas trees post-holiday,
as long as they are cut into 4-foot
lengths and all ornamentation,
including tinsel, nails and tree
stands, are removed. Info: 650493-4894
OPEN HOME GUIDE 40
This historic home at 12775 Viscaino Road in Los Altos Hills not only features a sixbedroom Italianate-style main house, but a guesthouse, pool house and tennis courts. It’s
offered for $15 million.
Page 32 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
1. 250 Atherton Ave., Atherton - $27.4
million
2. 156 Hidden Valley Lane, Woodside $25 million
3. 215 Lowell Ave., Palo Alto - $19.88
million
4. 244 Polhemus Ave., Atherton - $18.9
million
5. 279 Park Lane, Atherton - $15.3 million
6. 139 Albion Ave., Woodside - $15
million
7. 435 Coleridge Drive, Palo Alto - $15
million
8. 60 Monte Vista Ave., Atherton - $15
million
9. 1 Ridge View Drive, Atherton $13.99 million
10. 333 Atherton Ave., Atherton - $13.5
million
Warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season
From your friends at DeLeon Realty
®
650.488.7325 | www.deleonrealty.com | DeLeon Realty CalBRE #01903224
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 33
Home & Real Estate
Exotic proteas
come to
local markets
Jennah Feeley
Mike Astone has been cultivating proteas (pictured at left), which are native
to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, since 1981. Today he grows
200 varieties at his Aptos farm and sells them at the Menlo Park Farmers
Market on Sundays.
Soon thereafter, Astone and his wife,
Bettina, bought a 25-acre parcel in the
Aptos hills where they nested in an airstream trailer with their two sons. In 1981,
Astone planted his first batch of South
African protea seeds.
“The property was an old apple orchard
that was totally decrepit with hardly anything even on it. So we put in a well and
got water going first, of course,” Astone
said. “My plant thing started out very
small. I had this 8 by 10 greenhouse,
which was plenty for me.”
One greenhouse soon turned into two,
however, and that eventually expanded to
the several thousand proteas the Astones
cultivate today. Astone had worked at
nurseries in his younger years but didn’t
feel it was his calling. At nurseries, you
tend to grow the same plants all the time
and always sell them as soon as they are
Jennah Feeley
R
eading under a gas lamp
on a Santa Barbara winery,
Mike Astone had no idea
that one book from the shelf would soon
redirect the course of his life. When a
growing manual for exotic protea flowers
piqued his interest, his boss at the winery
let him in on a secret: He could harvest
them in the Santa Cruz mountains.
pretty, he said, adding that proteas are
much more diverse, and the work feels
more encompassing and enjoyable.
The flowers are native to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and according to Astone, the Santa Cruz hills
have almost the same climate and conditions. Much like their original breeding
grounds, Aptos offers open hillsides with
good drainage, decent sun exposure and
cool, coastal air.
Some of the flowers are quite large,
while others have smaller buds, and each
variety of protea has a unique shape, color and texture. Many have pointed, flat
bracts that have a mix of red, green and
gold hues, which Astone said can determine their aesthetic appeal.
Maintenance, Astone assures, is pretty
easy. He waters every three to four weeks
during the two first summers and then
leaves it up to the environment to take
care of the rest. Weeding and pruning are
part of the job, but they are managed by
Astone and his wife alone. Between working in the field and making deliveries, Astone often works from dawn until dusk.
“The plants in general don’t take a lot
of effort to take care of. If they did I could
never keep up,” Astone said. “What I pick
is what I need to prune, and that keeps the
plants in good shape.”
The Astones’ farm produces more than
200 varieties of protea, which allows their
season to run for 10 months of the year.
Astone said he has everything from small
flowers to big bushes and tall trees, and
they all flourish at different times of the
year.
Page 34 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Santa Cruz hills recreates
South African climate
by Jennah Feeley
“Most protea growers grow 10 or 15,
maybe 20 varieties. I grow a couple hundred,” Astone said. “A lot of them I only
have a couple plants of, but I have so much
different variety that my season goes very
long.”
The extended season allows the Astones to sell to florists and at farmers
markets almost year-round. At their peak
with two sons helping out they were at
five markets each week. These days they
stick to a few markets in the outer and
southern Bay Area.
Depending on which plants are ready
for harvest, each week Astone brings a
different collection of cuts to sell, which
keeps his product new and interesting.
He said he sees many of the same faces,
because so many of his customers return
again and again.
“I’ve been to these same three markets so long people kind of are waiting
for me,” Astone said. “I come back, and
sometimes I get inundated right when I
get back.”
The Astones’ booth can be found at the
Menlo Park market every Sunday, where
the couple brings buckets and buckets of
fresh-cut flowers. Bouquets are made on
sight so customers can pick and choose
what they want to include. The cuts usually last two or three weeks, but many
people keep them past the expiration date
because they’re still so beautiful, Astone
said.
“I have people come back and tell me
they’ve had them in a vase for a year,” he
said. “You know they’re dead at that point,
but that’s how much people like them.”
In addition to the bouquets, the Astones
bring protea wreaths to the markets for
the holiday season. If kept on a covered
porch, they can last for a full month because the moist air rehydrates the plants
at night. They also sell potted plants for
$15 for customers to plant in their own
backyards.
Astone said anyone with a sunny spot
in the garden that never gets watered can
successfully grow proteas. At the very
least they need half a day of sun and soil
that drains well. Planting the flowers on
slopes or in sandy soil is best, which can
be compensated for by manually mounding the grow site.
“They’re such a killer plant, and there
is such a variety to grow,” Astone said.
“I just think they should be grown more,
not less.” Q
Editorial intern Jennah Feeley can be
emailed at jfeeley@paweekly.com.
What: Menlo Park Farmers Market
When: Sundays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., yearround
Where: in parking lot on Chestnut
Street, between Santa Cruz and Menlo
Avenues, Menlo Park
Info: localharvest.org/menlo-parkfarmers-market-M3662
READ MORE ONLINE
PaloAltoOnline.com
For more Home and Real Estate news, visit
www.paloaltoonline.com/real_estate.
Home & Real Estate
HOME SALES
Atherton
Los Altos
Los Altos Hills
26267 Purissima Road Eggers Trust to V. & D. Valmiki for
$2,475,000 on 11/26/14; previous
sale 7/13, $1,755,000
Menlo Park
2323 Eastridge Ave. #513
M. Lindemann to S. Corey for
Total sales reported: 8
Lowest sales price: $785,000
Highest sales price: $2,680,000
Menlo Park
Redwood City
Total sales reported: 5
Lowest sales price: $247,000
Highest sales price: $3,050,000
Los Altos
Total sales reported: 13
Lowest sales price: $675,000
Highest sales price: $2,175,000
Mountain View
Total sales reported: 6
Lowest sales price: $1,200,000
Highest sales price: $4,300,000
East Palo Alto
Palo Alto
Total sales reported: 1
Lowest sales price: $2,475,000
Highest sales price: $2,475,000
East Palo Alto
Total sales reported: 3
Lowest sales price: $489,000
Highest sales price: $735,000
2 Deodora Drive Kridl Trust to D.
Yeh for $4,450,000 on 11/10/14
93 Watkins Ave. Vasant Trust
to A. Kallel for $2,120,000 on
11/10/14; previous sale 5/04,
$1,390,000
635 Greenview Place Klein Trust
to Akhavan Trust for $2,300,000
on 11/26/14
591 Hollingsworth Drive
Keeth Trust to Mclaren Trust for
$4,300,000 on 12/3/14
24 Los Altos Square Gavande Trust to Z. Milousheff for
$1,200,000 on 11/26/14; previous
sale 4/05, $776,000
123 W. Portola Ave. ThompsonGrant Trust to N. Ramachandran
for $1,749,000 on 12/1/14; previous sale 4/94, $360,000
254 Sunkist Lane Lee Family
Properties to V. & C. Lingham for
$3,700,000 on 11/26/14
181 Yerba Santa Ave. J. Ferrell to
H. Vo for $2,735,000 on 11/26/14;
previous sale 8/11, $1,575,000
Los Altos Hills
Total sales reported: 2
Lowest sales price: $2,120,000
Highest sales price: $4,450,000
Atherton
2526 Annapolis St. J. Azar
to S. & S. Nock for $500,000
on 11/6/14; previous sale 9/11,
$185,000
765 Runnymede St. BJC Development to D. Joseff for $735,000
on 11/10/14; previous sale 9/03,
$1,200,000
2227 Terra Villa St. G. Boswell to
H. Ao for $489,000 on 11/6/14
on 11/6/14; previous sale 4/94,
$351,000
527 Shoal Circle S. Marston to
Ng Trust for $680,000 on 11/6/14;
previous sale 8/93, $250,000
536 Shorebird Circle #5203
Gruber Trust to Y. Jiang for
$788,000 on 11/13/14; previous
sale 10/95, $249,000
473 Starboard Drive J. Saxon
to G. Caragea for $1,159,000
on 11/6/14; previous sale 8/03,
$700,000
317 Treedust St. B. & C. Anderson to W. Zhang for $1,250,000
on 11/12/14; previous sale 12/12,
$942,000
SALES AT A GLANCE
Home sales are provided by California REsource, a real estate information company that obtains
the information from the County
Recorder’s Office. Information
is recorded from deeds after the
close of escrow and published
within four to eight weeks.
Woodside
Total sales reported: 9
Lowest sales price: $475,000
Highest sales price: $1,750,000
Total sales reported: 2
Lowest sales price: $840,000
Highest sales price: $1,580,000
Woodside
905 Espinosa Road M. & R. Repka to K. & L. Gibbs for $1,580,000
on 11/10/14; previous sale 8/05,
$1,515,000
23 Skyline Drive E. & E. McKay
to M. Lindemann for $840,000
on 11/12/14; previous sale 3/07,
$755,000
Source: California REsource
$605,000 on 11/10/14; previous
sale 1/12, $350,000
1155 Merrill St. #206 N. Timbers to M. Vo for $247,000 on
11/13/14
15 Oak Hollow Way W. & J. Eaglstein to T. Hayes for $3,050,000
on 11/7/14; previous sale 3/08,
$2,799,000
7 Sneckner Court T. & B.
Kvingedal to C. Zhong for
$2,165,000 on 11/6/14; previous
sale 1/12, $980,000
223 Terminal Ave. A. Barker to J.
Dunlap for $630,000 on 11/7/14;
previous sale 8/03, $400,000
Mountain View
1902 Adams Court Matheson
Trust to Jack Myers Construction
for $1,750,000 on 12/3/14; previous sale 8/85, $260,000
757 Calderon Ave. Wrobel Trust
to C. Hohne for $1,249,000 on
12/3/14; previous sale 6/00,
$470,000
1550 Canna Court Howard Trust
to B. & S. Mehta for $1,050,000
on 11/26/14
1033 Crestview Drive #108
M. & M. Tellez to B. Zhang for
$475,000 on 12/1/14; previous
sale 8/07, $347,000
119 Flynn Ave. #D J. Burks to D.
Gupta for $590,000 on 12/1/14
831 Independence Ave. Secura Trust to H. Toussimehr for
$840,000 on 11/26/14
418 Mountain Laurel Court
A. Linares to K. Kamdar for
$976,000 on 12/2/14; previous
sale 5/11, $665,000
778 Sonia Way K. Iqbal to Ahuja
Family Limited for $1,350,000 on
12/2/14
2488 Whitney Drive #B Seemann Trust to Tachner Trust for
$1,525,000 on 11/26/14
Palo Alto
3757 Cass Way Binkley Trust
to D. Siroker for $2,200,000 on
12/2/14; previous sale 4/00,
$835,000
2468 Chabot Terrace Y. Ma to
Zhang Trust for $2,509,000 on
11/26/14; previous sale 10/11,
$1,860,000
1079 Embarcadero Road Goldsilverisland Capital to Lai-Zhu
Trust for $2,146,500 on 11/26/14
108 Ferne Ave. R. Leni to J. Li for
$785,000 on 11/26/14; previous
sale 9/06, $600,000
1751 Newell Road Stura Trust to
D. Xiao for $2,200,000 on 12/3/14
809 Richardson Court D. &
I. Leshchiner to Z. Guan for
$2,110,000 on 11/26/14; previous
sale 8/05, $1,222,000
932 Sandpiper Lane E. Ho to Y.
Zhang for $1,102,000 on 12/2/14;
previous sale 3/09, $740,000
4138 Willmar Drive Zajac Trust
to D. Zhang for $2,680,000 on
12/1/14
Redwood City
201 3rd Ave. S. Deatley to
Cong-Huyen Trust for $960,000
on 11/5/14; previous sale 7/88,
$320,000
5 Alverno Court J. & B. Hilliard
to J. & A. Jonn for $2,175,000
on 11/7/14; previous sale 2/07,
$1,250,000
307 Beacon Shores Drive B.
Hartwell to B. Kim for $920,000
on 11/6/14; previous sale 2/02,
$530,000
1582 Gordon St. L. Bahribek
to Tsai Trust for $1,355,000 on
11/5/14; previous sale 7/03,
$855,000
1510 Lenolt St. Baker Trust to C.
Scagliola for $850,000 on 11/7/14
819 Mediterranean Lane Szilagyi
Trust to P. Roth for $1,045,000
on 11/5/14; previous sale 5/01,
$790,000
715 Myrtle St. W. Offermann to
A. Offermann for $875,000 on
11/12/14
459 Oak Ave. Leblanc Trust to M.
Peidius for $675,000 on 11/7/14;
previous sale 9/93, $190,000
3714 Red Oak Way Clark Trust
to S. & J. Naidu for $1,323,000
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Residential
real estate
expertise for the
mid-peninsula.
NICKGRANOSKI
Broker Associate
Alain Pinel President’s Club
DRE #00994196
www.NickGranoski.com
ngranoski@apr.com
650/269–8556
Michael Repka
Before you select a real estate agent,
meet with Michael Repka to discuss
how his real estate law and tax background benefits Ken DeLeon’s clients.
Managing Broker
DeLeon Realty
JD - Rutgers School of Law
L.L.M (Taxation)
NYU School of Law
(650) 488.7325
HAVE A HAPPY &
SAFE NEW YEAR
REAL RESULTS, REAL ESTATE
DRE# 01854880 | CA BAR# 255996
michaelr@deleonrealty.com
2775 Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto • Phone: (650)321-1596 Fax: (650)328-1809
See our local listings online at — www. midtownpaloalto.com CalBRE# 1900986
www.deleonrealty.com
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 35
WARMEST THOUGHTS
AND BEST WISHES FOR
A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON
AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.
ZANE MACGREGOR & CO.
REAL ESTATE
ADVISORS
& BROKERS
621 High Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
CalBRE # 00871571
info@zanemac.com
ZANEMAC.COM
Page 36 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Wishing you a Happy Holiday from Pacific Union,
the Bay Area’s leading luxury real estate firm.
650.314.7200 | 1706 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025 | A Member of Real Living
pacificunion.com
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 37
Marketplace
PLACE
AN AD
ONLINE
fogster.com
E-MAIL
ads@fogster.com
P
HONE
650.326.8216
Now you can log on to
fogster.com, day or night
and get your ad started
immediately online.
Most listings are free and
include a one-line free
print ad in our Peninsula
newspapers with the
option of photos and
additional lines. Exempt
are employment ads,
which include a web
listing charge. Home
Services and Mind & Body
Services require contact
with a Customer Sales
Representative.
So, the next time you
have an item to sell,
barter, give away or
buy, get the perfect
combination: print ads in
your local newspapers,
reaching more than
150,000 readers, and
unlimited free web
postings reaching
hundreds of thousands
additional people!!
INDEX
QBULLETIN
BOARD
100-155
QFOR SALE
200-270
QKIDS STUFF
330-390
QMIND & BODY
400-499
QJ
OBS
500-560
QB
USINESS
SERVICES
600-699
QH
OME
SERVICES
700-799
QFOR RENT/
FOR SALE
REAL ESTATE
801-899
QP
UBLIC/LEGAL
NOTICES
995-997
The publisher waives any and all claims or consequential damages due to errors Embarcadero
Publishing Co. cannot assume responsibility
for the claims or performance of its advertisers.
Embarcadero Publishing Co. right to refuse,
edit or reclassify any ad solely at its discretion
without prior notice.
fogster.com
TM
THE PENINSULA’S
FREE CLASSIFIEDS WEB SITE
Combining the reach of the Web with
print ads reaching over 150,000 readers!
fogster.com is a unique web site offering FREE postings from communities throughout the Bay Area and
an opportunity for your ad to appear in the Palo Alto Weekly, The Almanac and the Mountain View Voice.
Africa, Brazil Work/Study!
Change the lives of others and create
a sustainable future. 1, 6, 9, 18 month
programs available. Apply now!
www.OneWorldCenter.org 269.591.0518
info@OneWorldCenter.org (AAN CAN)
355 Items for Sale
Bulletin
Board
For Sale
115 Announcements
202 Vehicles Wanted
Pregnant?
Considering adoption? Call us first.
Living expenses, housing, medical, and
continued support afterwards. Choose
adoptive family of your choice. Call 24/7.
1-877-879-4709 (CalSCAN)
Cash for Cars
Any Car/Truck. Running or Not!
Top Dollar Paid. We Come To You!
Call For Instant Offer: 1-888-420-3808
www.cash4car.com (AAN CAN)
Pregnant?
Thinking of adoption? Talk with caring agency specializing in matching
Birthmothers with Families Nationwide.
LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby’s
One True Gift Adoptions.
866-413-6293. Void in Illinois/ New
Mexico/Indiana (AAN CAN)
Donate Your Car, Truck, Boat
to HERITAGE FOR THE BLIND. FREE 3 Day
Vacation, Tax Deductible, Free Towing,
All Paperwork Taken Care of.
800-731-5042 (Cal-SCAN)
210 Garage/Estate
Sales
Did You Know
Newspaper-generated content is so
valuable it’s taken and repeated,
condensed, broadcast, tweeted,
discussed, posted, copied, edited, and
emailed countless times throughout
the day by others? Discover the Power
of Newspaper Advertising. For a free
brochure call 916-288-6011 or email
cecelia@cnpa.com (Cal-SCAN)
Mind
& Body
403 Acupuncture
Mountain View, 1005 High School Way,
Saturday Nov 15 8-3
2015 Dance Classes George Burns in Menlo Park!
I need 2 tix It’s Wonderful LIfe
215 Collectibles &
Antiques
Montclair Women’s Big Band Live!
Sq.Green Glass Dish Set - $75.00
SPACE WANTED
Need to rent storage space for my violin
business. 650-325-7087.
235 Wanted to Buy
Hogmanay Dance Palo Alto
Stanford music tutoring
130 Classes &
Instruction
Airbrush Makeup Artist
Course For: Ads . TV . Film . Fashion 35%
OFF TUITION - SPECIAL $1990 - Train
& Build Portfolio . One Week Course
Details at: AwardMakeupSchool.com
818-980-2119 (AAN CAN)
German Language Classes
Instruction for Hebrew
Bar and Bat Mitzvah.
For Affiliated and Unaffiliated. George
Rubin, M.A. in Hebrew/Jewish Education
650/424-1940
133 Music Lessons
Christina Conti Private Piano
Instruction
(650) 493-6950
Cash for Diabetic Test Strips
Don’t throw boxes away - Help others.
Unopened / Unexpired boxes only.
All Brands Considered. Call Anytime!
24hrs/7days (888) 491-1168 (Cal-SCAN)
240 Furnishings/
Household items
Christmas Dishes 48Pc. - $75.00
Pottery Barn Dining Room - $500/$600
Screen Door - $60
245 Miscellaneous
DISH TV
Starting at $19.99/month
(for 12 mos.) SAVE! Regular Price $32.99
Call Today and Ask About FREE SAME
DAY Installation! CALL Now!
888-992-1957 (AAN CAN)
DISH TV Retailer
Starting at $19.99/month (for 12 mos.)
& High Speed Internet starting at
$14.95/month (where available.) SAVE!
Ask About SAME
DAY Installation! CALL Now!
1-800-357-0810. (Cal-SCAN)
Hope Street Music Studios
In downtown Mtn.View.
Most Instruments voice.
All ages & levels 650-961-2192
www.HopeStreetMusicStudios.com 135 Group Activities
Thanks St, Jude
140 Lost & Found
Lost Cat - KIRBY PLACE, PALO ALTO
HE’S STRICTLY AN INDOOR CAT AND
RAN OUTSIDE LAST NIGHT (DEC 18)
BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND 6AM THIS
MORNING (DEC 19)
LONG HAIRED, DARK COLORED. HAS A
MAIN COON LOOK TO HIM, VERY BUSHY
TAIL, VERY LION LOOKING
NO COLLAR
PLEASE HELP US FIND HIM
REWARD!!! 70 KIRBY PLACE , PALO ALTO
650.888.8357
Get The Big Deal!
from DirecTV! Act Now- $19.99/ mo.
Free 3-Months of HBO, starz, SHOWTIME
& CINEMAX. FREE GENIE HD/DVR
Upgrade! 2014 NFL Sunday Ticket.
Included with Select Packages. New
Customers Only.
IV Support Holdings LLC- An authorized DirecTV Dealer. Some exclusions
apply - Call for details 1-800-385-9017
(Cal-SCAN)
425 Health Services
Safe Step Walk-in Tub
Alert for Seniors. Bathroom falls can be
fatal. Approved by Arthritis Foundation.
Therapeutic Jets. Less Than 4 Inch
Step-In. Wide Door. Anti- Slip Floors.
American Made. Installation Included.
Call 800-799-4811 for $750 Off.
(Cal-SCAN)
460 Pilates
Did You Know
that not only does newspaper media
reach a HUGE Audience, they also reach
an ENGAGED AUDIENCE. Discover the
Power of Newspaper Advertising.
For a free brochure call 916-288-6011
or email cecelia@cnpa.com (Cal-SCAN)
488 Spa Services
Did You Know
7 IN 10 Americans or 158 million U.S.
Adults read content from newspaper
media each week? Discover the Power
of Newspaper Advertising.
For a free brochure call 916-288-6011
or email cecelia@cnpa.com (Cal-SCAN)
A bold new
WISH LIST FRIENDS PA LIBRARY
Kid’s
Stuff
150 Volunteers
Become a Nature Volunteer!
FRIENDS OF THE PALO ALTO LIBRARY
JOIN OUR ONLINE STOREFRONT TEAM
Classified Deadlines:
330 Child Care
Offered
NOON,
WEDNESDAY
Brand New Preschool Open House
345 Tutoring/
Lessons
Drivers: Attn: Drivers
$2K Sign-On Bonus - SAME DAY
APPROVALS! Stay Warm w/ APU New
KW Trucks! Earn $55K p/yr! CDL-A Req.
(877) 258-8782 www.ad-drivers.com
(Cal-SCAN)
500 Help Wanted
Computer
Symphony Teleca Services, Inc.,
specializing in state-of-the-art wireless technol., has a degreed/exp.
position available for a Principal
Architect in Mountain View, CA
and other unanticipated worksites.
Candidate must have industry exp.
in the following: 3 yrs of exp. in req.
analysis, efforts est. and resource
planning w/Doors and MS Project
SW tools; 3 yrs of des. cross-platform
arch. solutions: iOS, Android, HTML5
desktop; 3 yrs of exp. in C/C++ ANSI
Coding standards validation, des.
patterns and eng. practices checking for prod. clean and maintainable
code w/KlocWork; Applications dev.
for Android or iOS or HTML5 embedded or mobile devices confirmed by
pub. apps; Protocols usage: HTTP,
NFC, Bluetooth, ActiveSync & DLNA;
Multithreaded programming,
asynchronous and event driven apps
des.; Agile and iterative dev. and
team mgmt. processes. Mail resume
w/job code (T-ST07) to Human
Resources Manager - T.E., 5360
Legacy Drive, Suite 120, Plano, TX
75024. EEO employer: including race,
gender, disability and veterans status.
Computers
Chief Architect, Mobile Gaming.
Menlo Park, CA. BS in CS, CIS or rltd
+ 7 yrs exp in job offered or rltd.
Oversee mobile game dev.
Apply: Punchbox USA Inc.,
jobs@us.chukong-inc.com
Inventory Takers
Now hiring! Start: $10.75/hr.
Flex P/T work! Reg wage reviews.
Advancement oppts. Must have
reliable trans. EEO/Vet/Disabled.
Apply at www.rgisinv.com
Select San Francisco Bay Area.
Business
Services
624 Financial
Big Trouble with IRS?
Are you in BIG trouble with the IRS?
Stop wage and bank levies,
liens & audits, unfiled tax returns,
payroll issues, and resolve tax debt FAST.
Call 844-753-1317 (AAN CAN)
Big Trouble with IRS?
Are you in BIG trouble with the IRS?
Stop wage and bank levies, liens &
audits, unfiled tax returns, payroll issues,
and resolve tax debt FAST. Seen on CNN.
A BBB. Call 1-800-761-5395. (Cal-SCAN)
Do You Owe $10,000
to the IRS or State in back taxes? Get tax
relief now! Call BlueTax, the nation’s full
service tax solution firm. 800-393-6403. Reduce Your Past Tax Bill
by as much as 75 Percent. Stop Levies,
Liens and Wage Garnishments.
Call The Tax DR Now to see if you Qualify
1-800-498-1067. (Cal-SCAN)
Social Secuity Disability
benefits. Unable to work?
Denied benefits? We Can Help!
WIN or Pay Nothing! Contact Bill Gordon
& Associates at 1-800-966-1904 to start
your application today! (Cal-SCAN)
628 Graphics/
Webdesign
Did You Know
144 million U.S. Adults read
a Newspaper print copy each week?
Discover the Power of Newspaper
Advertising.
For a free brochure call 916-288-6011
or email cecelia@cnpa.com (Cal-SCAN)
MS History/GeographyTeacher
Palo Alto, CA. Teach Middle School
History and Geography in French
according to the French Ministry of
Education curriculum guidelines.
BA history or rel. field + 2yrs.
exper. Resumes to Head of School,
International School of the Peninsula,
151 Laura Lane, Palo Alto, CA 94303.
636 Insurance
Auto Insurance
starting at $25/month.
Call 855-977-9537 (AAN CAN)
Lowest Prices
on Health & Dental Insurance. We have
the best rates from top companies!
Call Now! 888-989-4807. (CalSCAN)
Software Engineer
Menlo Park, CA. Master’s in CS
or rltd + 2 yrs exp in job offered
or rltd. Build and optimize mobile
games. Apply: Punchbox USA Inc.,
jobs@us.chukong-inc.com
Sawmills
from only $4397.00- Make and save
money with your own bandmill- Cut
lumber any dimension. In stock ready
to ship. FREE Info/DVD:
www.NorwoodSawmills.com
1-800-578-1363 Ext.300N (Cal-SCAN)
Prime Cemetery Plot at Alta Mesa
Double plot, Great location! Magnolia
Sec. 8, Lot 2015. Priced to sell at $6,999.
408-568-5863
145 Non-Profits
Needs
Treatments for Alzheimers
Acupuncturist Jay Wang PhD,
specialized in chronical illness for
seniors. Call 650-485-3293 for a free
consultation. 747 Altos Oaks Dr.,
Los Altos
Jobs
approach
to classifieds for
the Midpeninsula
fogster.comTM
Instantly online. Free.
Home
Services
550 Business
Opportunities
AVON
Earn extra income with a new career!
Sell from home, work, online.
$15 startup. For information,
call: 877-830-2916. (CalSCAN)
560 Employment
Information
$1,000 Weekly!!
Mailing brochures from home.
Helping home workers since 2001.
Genuine Opportunity. No Experience
required. Start Immediately
www.mailingmembers.com (AAN CAN)
fogster.com
TM
748 Gardening/
Landscaping
J. Garcia Garden Maintenance
Service
Free est. 21 years exp. 650/366-4301
or 650/346-6781
LANDA’S GARDENING &
LANDSCAPING
*Yard Maint. *New Lawns. *Rototil
*Clean Ups *Tree Trim *Power Wash
*Irrigation timer programming.
18 yrs exp. Ramon, 650/576-6242
landaramon@yahoo.com
R.G. Landscape
Yard Clean-ups, debris removal,
maintenance, installations. Free est.
650/468-8859
Online Writing Tutor
go to fogster.com to respond to ads without phone numbers
Page 38 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
“Extended Family”--all its members have something in common. by Matt Jones
MARKETPLACE the printed version of
fogster.com
TM
Tired of Mow, Blow and Go?
Owner operated, 40 years exp. All
phases of gardening/landscaping. Ref.
Call Eric, 408/356-1350
751 General
Contracting
A NOTICE TO READERS:
It is illegal for an unlicensed person
to perform contracting work on any
project valued at $500.00 or more in
labor and materials. State law also
requires that contractors include
their license numbers on all advertising. Check your contractor’s status
at www.cslb.ca.gov or 800-321-CSLB
(2752). Unlicensed persons taking
jobs that total less than $500.00
must state in their advertisements
that they are not licensed by the
Contractors State License Board.
Answers on page 40
©2014 Jonesin’ Crosswords
Across
1 Overwhelm
6 Mark a ballot
10 “I Am ___ of Constant Sorrow”
14 FDR had it
15 Sent notes to online
16 Go as fast as you can
17 Mix up the letters in a former
“SNL” player’s last name?
20 Even score
21 “I’m Like ___” (Nelly Furtado hit)
22 Pretentious name for the Jan
Brady fan club?
28 Jong and others
29 Rejoice
30 Swiss potato dish
31 Recipe command
32 Animal with antlers
35 Bizarre way an African dictator
used to close his letters?
39 Ping-pong table divider
40 Concoct
41 Top group
42 Bathroom floor item
44 Person who holds property in
trust
45 NBA player who grew up in
Istanbul?
48 “There Will Be ___”
49 ___ Arbor
50 Howl the surname of a theater
great?
58 Spot on the Web
59 “Fine, have it your way!”
60 Student helper
61 Thomas Hardy title heroine
62 Prefix with physics
63 “It’s always something with you!”
Down
1 Business that offers foot massages
2 Came out on top
3 In the style of
4 Russian plane
5 Painting of a person
6 YouTube rival
7 “r u kidding?!”
8 It can be iced or spiced
9 Mag workers
10 “I know you ___ what am I?”
11 Bialik of “The Big Bang Theory”
12 Sharp, poetically
13 “___ alert!”
18 Intentions
19 Starbucks size
22 Gradually diminish
23 Drop in on
24 Prefix with plasm
25 Captured back
26 Boot out of the country
27 Do some knitting
28 Ms. Brockovich
31 La ___ (famed opera house)
32 Hirsch of “Into the Wild”
33 Petrol amount
34 Proposer’s joint
36 Mosque head
37 Doesn’t just think about
38 Dismounted
42 Fur shawls
43 Last part of a classical piece
44 Irishman in sunglasses
45 Skateboard move
46 Aggressive sellers
47 Hooded coat
48 Bankrupt
51 He meows
52 Manage (a living)
53 Obtained
54 Believe, as a dubious story
55 Golf cart’s cousin, for short
56 Fish eggs
57 Like some humor
759 Hauling
J & G HAULING SERVICE
Misc. junk, office, gar., furn.,
mattresses, green waste, more.
Lic./ins. Free est. 650/743-8852
(see my Yelp reviews)
767 Movers
Sunny Express Moving Co.
Afforable, Reliable, References. Lic. CalT
#191198. 650/722-6586 or 408/904-9688
771 Painting/
Wallpaper
DAVID AND MARTIN
PAINTING
Quality work
Good references
Low price
Lic. #52643
(650) 575-2022
Glen Hodges Painting
Call me first! Senior discount. 45 yrs.
#351738. 650/322-8325
STYLE PAINTING
Full service painting. Insured.
Lic. 903303. 650/388-8577
775 Asphalt/
Concrete
Roe General Engineering
Asphalt, concrete, pavers, tiles, sealing,
artificial turf. 36 yrs exp. No job too
small. Lic #663703. 650/814-5572
779 Organizing
Services
End the Clutter & Get Organized
Residential Organizing
by Debra Robinson
(650)390-0125
Real
Estate
805 Homes for Rent
Menlo Park Las Lomitas, 3 BR/2 BA $4300/mo
This week’s SUDOKU
Palo Alto Home, 4 BR/2 BA - $4600.mont
8 2
9
6
5
4
7
2
9
3
4
1
4
8
1
7
6
2
5
Answers on page 40
All Areas: Roommates.com
Lonely? Bored? Broke? Find the perfect
roommate to complement your
personality and lifestyle at
Roommates.com! (AAN CAN)
811 Office Space
THERAPIST OFFICE SUBLET
825 Homes/Condos
for Sale
3
8
5
2
809 Shared Housing/
Rooms
Menlo Park, 3 BR/2 BA - $899000
Palo Alto, 3 BR/2 BA - $1099000
Sunnyvale, 3 BR/2 BA - $899000
No phone number
in the ad?
3
6 1
GO TO
fogster.com
www.sudoku.name
for contact information
Public
Notices
995 Fictitious Name
Statement
LIVING CULTURES SUPERFOODS
LIVING CULTURES PROBIOTICS
LIVING CULTURES ELIXIR
LIVING CULTURES CAFE
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT
File No.: 599035
The following person (persons) is (are)
doing business as:
1.) Living Cultures Superfoods, 2.) Living
Cultures Probiotics, 3.) Living Cultures
Elixir, 4.) Living Cultures Cafe, located at
3101 Magliocco Dr., Apt. #308, San Jose,
CA 95128, Santa Clara County.
This business is owned by: A Limited
Liability Company.
The name and residence address of the
owner(s)/registrant(s) is(are):
HEISSEL LIFESCIENCES LLC,
3101 Magliocco Dr., Apt. #308
San Jose, CA 95128
Registrant/Owner began transacting
business under the fictitious business
name(s) listed above on N/A.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara
County on December 5, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 12, 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 2015)
PACIFIC WORKPLACES
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT
File No.: 598751
The following person (persons) is (are)
doing business as:
Pacific Workplaces, located at 2225 E.
Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303,
Santa Clara County.
This business is owned by: A Limited
Liability Company.
The name and residence address of the
owner(s)/registrant(s) is(are):
PBC PALO ALTO, LLC.
2225 E. Bayshore Road, Suite 200
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Registrant/Owner began transacting
business under the fictitious business
name(s) listed above on 09/01/2014.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara
County on November 25, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 12, 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 2015)
RebexArt Studio
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT
File No.: 598935
The following person (persons) is (are)
doing business as:
RebexArt Studio, located at 233 Homer
Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, Santa Clara
County.
This business is owned by: An
Individual.
The name and residence address of the
owner(s)/registrant(s) is(are):
REBECCA NIE
233 Homer Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Registrant/Owner began transacting
business under the fictitious business
name(s) listed above on 11/12/2014.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara
County on December 3, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 12, 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 2015)
THE PENINSULA’S FREE
CLASSIFIEDS WEBSITE
TO RESPOND TO ADS
WITHOUT PHONE NUMBERS
GO TO WWW.FOGSTER.COM
487 Broderick Drive
San Jose, CA 95111
PHONG THANH NGUYEN
1869 Yosemite Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
Registrant/Owner began transacting
business under the fictitious business
name(s) listed above on N/A.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara
County on December 1, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 12, 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 2015)
EASY STREET CONSULTING
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT
File No.: 599124
The following person (persons) is (are)
doing business as:
Easy Street Consulting, located at 19736
Oakmont Dr., Los Gatos, CA 95033,
Santa Clara County.
This business is owned by: An
Individual.
The name and residence address of the
owner(s)/registrant(s) is(are):
TONY MARTELLO
19736 Oakmont Dr.
Los Gatos, CA 95033
Registrant/Owner began transacting
business under the fictitious business
name(s) listed above on N/A.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara
County on December 9, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 9, 2015)
SARATOGA HARDWARE LLC
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT
File No.: 599313
The following person (persons) is (are)
doing business as:
Saratoga Hardware LLC, located at
12850 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road,
Saratoga, CA 95070, Santa Clara County.
This business is owned by: A Limited
Liability Company.
The name and residence address of the
owner(s)/registrant(s) is(are):
SARATOGA HARDWARE LLC
12850 Saratoga-Sunnyvale
Saratoga, CA 95070
Registrant/Owner began transacting
business under the fictitious business
name(s) listed above on N/A.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara
County on December 15, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 9, 2015)
ENABLE YOUR VISION
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT
File No.: 599312
The following person (persons) is (are)
doing business as:
Enable Your Vision, located at 3597
South Court, Palo Alto, CA 94306, Santa
Clara County.
This business is owned by: An
Individual.
The name and residence address of the
owner(s)/registrant(s) is(are):
DENISE COLEY
3597 South Court
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Registrant/Owner began transacting
business under the fictitious business
name(s) listed above on 12/02/14.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara
County on December 15, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 9, 2015)
ACME FINE ARTS
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT
File No.: 599053
The following person (persons) is (are)
doing business as:
Acme Fine Arts, located at 1938
Channing Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94303,
Santa Clara County.
This business is owned by: An
Individual.
The name and residence address of the
owner(s)/registrant(s) is(are):
ALAN SONNEMAN
1938 Channing Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Registrant/Owner began transacting
business under the fictitious business
name(s) listed above on N/A.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara
County on December 8, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 12, 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 2015)
STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE
OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME
File No. 598743
The following person(s)/ entity (ies) has/
have abandoned the use of the fictitious
business name(s).
The information given below is as it
appeared on the fictitious business
statement that was filed at the County
Clerk-Recorder’s Office.
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME(S):
SMITH WINES
288 Ferne Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
FILED IN SANTA CLARA COUNTY ON:
11/17/2014
UNDER FILE NO.: 577902
REGISTRANT’S NAME(S)/ENTITY(IES):
PETER MARTIN SMITH
288 Ferne Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
DANIELLE RAE SMITH
288 Ferne Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
THIS BUSINESS WAS CONDUCTED BY:
Married couple.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk Recorder of Santa Clara
County on November 25, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 9, 2015)
PHO #1
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT
File No.: 598843
The following person (persons) is (are)
doing business as:
Pho #1, located at 568B East El Camino
Real, Sunnyvale, CA 94087, Santa Clara
County.
This business is owned by: A General
Partnership.
The name and residence address of the
owner(s)/registrant(s) is(are):
DUNG TRAN VIET LE
Mixbook.com
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT
File No.: 599340
The following person (persons) is (are)
doing business as:
Mixbook.com, located at 409 Sherman
Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94306, Santa Clara
County.
This business is owned by: A
Corporation.
The name and residence address of the
owner(s)/registrant(s) is(are):
INTERACTIVE MEMORIES, INC.
409 Sherman Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Registrant/Owner began transacting
business under the fictitious business
name(s) listed above on 11/21/2006.
This statement was filed with the
County Clerk-Recorder of Santa Clara
County on December 16, 2014.
(PAW Dec. 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 9, 16, 2015)
997 All Other Legals
SUMMONS
(CITACION JUDICIAL)
CASE NUMBER: 113CV253557
(Numero del Caso):
NOTICE TO DEFENDANT:
(AVISO AL DEMANDADO):
MARYANNE A. WONG aka MARY WONG
aka MARY M AU-YEUNG dba UNIVERSITY
GIFTS COLLECTIABLES ETC.
YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF:
(LO ESTA DEMANDANDO EL
DEMANDANTE):
Blue Whale International, Inc.
NOTICE! You have been sued. The Court
may decide against you without your
being heard unless you respond within
30 days. Read the information below.
You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this
summons and legal papers are served
on you to file a written response at this
court and have a copy served on the
plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not
protect you. Your written response must
be in proper legal form if you want the
court to hear your case. There may be
a court form that you can use for your
response. You can find these court forms
and more information at the California
Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.
courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county
law library, or the courthouse nearest
you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask
the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If
you do not file your response on time,
you may lose the case by default, and
your wages, money, and property may
be taken without further warning from
the court.
There are other legal requirements. Your
may want to call an attorney right away.
if you do not know an attorney, you
may want to call and attorney referral
service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal
services from a nonprofit legal services
program. You can locate these nonprofit
groups at the California Legal Services
Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org),
the California Courts Online Self-Help
Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp),
or by contacting your local court or
county bar association. NOTE: The Court
has a statutory lien for waived fees and
costs on any settlement or arbitration
award of $10,000 or more in a civil case.
The court’s lien must be paid before the
court will dismiss the case.
AVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no
responde dentro de 30 dias, la corte
puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar
su version. Lee la informacion a continuacion.
Tiene 30 DIAS DE CALENDARIO despues
de que le entreguen esta citacion y
papeles legales para presentar una
respuesta por escrito en esta corte y
hacer que se entregue una copia al
demandante. Una carta o una llamada
telefonica no lo protegen. Su respuesta
por escrito tiene que estar en formato
legal correcto si desea que procesen su
caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un
formulario que usted pueda usar para
su respuesta.
Puede encontrar estos formularios de la
corte y mas informacion en el Centro de
Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.
sucorte.ca.gov), en la biblioteca de
leyes de su condado o en la corte que le
quede mas cerca. Si no puede pagar la
cuota de presentacion, pida al secretario
de la corte que le de un formulario
de exencion de pago de cuotas. Si no
presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede
perder el caso por incumplimiento y la
corte le podra quitar su sueldo, dinero y
bienes sin mas advertencia.
Hay otros requisitos legales. Es recomendable que llame a un abogado
inmediatamene. Si no conoce a un
abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de
remision a abogados. Si no puede pagar
a un abogado, es posible que cumpla
con los requisitos para obtener servicios
legales gratuitos de un programa de servicios legales sin fines de lucro. Puede
encontrar estos grupos sin fines de
lucro en el sitio web de California Legal
Services, (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org),
en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes
de California, (www.sucorte.ca.gov) o
poniendose en contacto con la corte o
el colegio de abogados locales.
AVISO! Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a
reclamar las cuotas y los costos exentos
por imponer un gravamen sobre cualquier recuperacion de $10,000 o mas
de valor recibida mediane un acuerdo
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 39
MARKETPLACE the printed version of
fogster.com
TM
o una concesion de arbitraje en un caso
de derecho civil. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corte antes de que la corte
pueda desechar el caso.
The name and address of the court is:
(El nombre y direccion de la corte es):
Santa Clara Superior Court
191 N. First Street
San Jose, CA 95113
The name, address, and telephone
number of plaintiff’sattorney, or plaintiff
without an attorney, is:
(El nombre, la direccion y el numero de
telefono del abogado del demandante,
o del demandante que no tiene abogado, es):
Martin D. Goodman, Esq.
Shanshan Zou, Esq.
Law Offices of Martin D. Goodman,
456 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 677-4497
Date: Sep. 24, 2013
(Fecha)
David H.Yamasaki Clerk, by M. Rawson
, Deputy
(Secretario) (Adjunto)
(PAW Dec. 12, 19, 26, 2014 Jan. 2, 2015)
NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER
ESTATE OF:
WALTER J. HARRINGTON
Case No.: 1-14-PR-175287
To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors,
contingent creditors, and persons who
may otherwise be interested in the
will or estate, or both, of WALTER J.
HARRINGTON.
A Petition for Probate has been filed
by: JOHN HARRINGTON in the Superior
Court of California, County of SANTA
CLARA.
The Petition for Probate requests that:
RICHARD H. LAMBIE be appointed as
personal representative to administer
the estate of the decedent.
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 16, 2015 at 9:30 a.m.
in Dept.: 12 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:
/s/ Steven P. Braccini, Esq.
(SBN) 230708
Hopkins & Carley, ALC,
200 Page Mill Road, Suite 200,
Palo Alto, CA 94306-2062
(650)804-7600
(PAW Dec. 19, 26, 2014, Jan. 2, 2015)
T.S. No. 14-26901
APN: 127-48-023
NOTICE OF TRUSTEE’S SALE
YOU ARE IN DEFAULT UNDER A DEED
OF TRUST DATED 4/3/2007. UNLESS
YOU TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT YOUR
PROPERTY, IT MAY BE SOLD AT A PUBLIC
SALE. IF YOU NEED AN EXPLANATION
OF THE NATURE OF THE PROCEEDING
AGAINST YOU, YOU SHOULD CONTACT
A LAWYER.
A public auction sale to the highest bidder for cash, cashier’s check drawn on
a state or national bank, check drawn
by a state or federal credit union, or a
check drawn by a state or federal savings and loan association, or savings
association, or savings bank specified
in Section 5102 of the Financial Code
and authorized to do business in this
state will be held by the duly appointed
trustee as shown below, of all right,
title, and interest conveyed to and now
held by the trustee in the hereinafter
described property under and pursuant to a Deed of Trust described below.
The sale will be made, but without
covenant or warranty, expressed or
implied, regarding title, possession, or
encumbrances, to pay the remaining
principal sum of the note(s) secured
by the Deed of Trust, with interest and
late charges thereon, as provided in the
note(s), advances, under the terms of
the Deed of Trust, interest thereon, fees,
charges and expenses of the Trustee
for the total amount (at the time of the
initial publication of the Notice of Sale)
reasonably estimated to be set forth
below. The amount may be greater on
the day of sale.
Trustor: JOHN H WHARTON, AN
UNMARRIED MAN
Duly Appointed Trustee: LAW OFFICES
OF LES ZIEVE Deed of Trust recorded
4/11/2007 as Instrument No. 19378233
in book , page of Official Records in the
office of the Recorder of Santa Clara
County, California,
Date of Sale:1/16/2015 at 10:00 AM
Place of Sale: At the entrance to the
Superior Courthouse 190 N Market
Street San Jose, CA
Estimated amount of unpaid balance
and other charges: $655,002.71
Note: Because the Beneficiary reserves
the right to bid less than the total debt
owed, it is possible that at the time of
the sale the opening bid may be less
than the total debt owed.
Street Address or other common designation of real property:
3419 CORK OAK WAY
PALO ALTO, CA 94303
Described as follows:
AS FULLY DESCRIBED IN SAID DEED
OF TRUST
A.P.N #.: 127-48-023
The undersigned Trustee disclaims any
liability for any incorrectness of the
street address or other common designation, if any, shown above. If no street
address or other common designation is
shown, directions to the location of the
property may be obtained by sending a
written request to the beneficiary within
10 days of the date of first publication of
this Notice of Sale.
NOTICE TO POTENTIAL BIDDERS: If you
are considering bidding on this property lien, you should understand that
there are risks involved in bidding at a
trustee auction. You will be bidding on
a lien, not on the property itself. Placing
the highest bid at a trustee auction does
not automatically entitle you to free
and clear ownership of the property.
You should also be aware that the lien
being auctioned off may be a junior
lien. If you are the highest bidder at the
auction, you are or may be responsible
for paying off all liens senior to the lien
being auctioned off, before you can
receive clear title to the property. You
are encouraged to investigate the existence, priority, and size of outstanding
liens that may exist on this property by
contacting the county recorder’s office
or a title insurance company, either of
which may charge you a fee for this
information. If you consult either of
these resources, you should be aware
that the same lender may hold more
than one mortgage or deed of trust on
the property.
NOTICE TO PROPERTY OWNER: The sale
date shown on this notice of sale may
be postponed one or more times by
the mortgagee, beneficiary, trustee,
or a court, pursuant to Section 2924g
of the California Civil Code. The law
requires that information about trustee
sale postponements be made available
to you and to the public, as a courtesy
to those not present at the sale. If you
wish to learn whether your sale date has
been postponed, and, if applicable, the
rescheduled time and date for the sale
of this property, you may call (714) 848-
THE PENINSULA’S FREE CLASSIFIEDS WEBSITE
TO RESPOND TO ADS WITHOUT PHONE NUMBERS
GO TO WWW.FOGSTER.COM
9272 or visit this Internet Web site www.
elitepostandpub.com, using the file
number assigned to this case 14-26901.
Information about postponements
that are very short in duration or that
occur close in time to the scheduled
sale may not immediately be reflected
in the telephone information or on the
Internet Web site. The best way to verify
postponement information is to attend
the scheduled sale.
Dated: 12/18/2014
Law Offices of Les Zieve, as Trustee
30 Corporate Park, Suite 450
Irvine, CA 92606
For Non-Automated Sale Information,
call: (714) 848-7920
For Sale Information: (714) 848-9272
www.elitepostandpub.com
______________________________
Natalie Franklin, Trustee Sale Officer
THIS FIRM IS ATTEMPTING TO COLLECT
A DEBT AND ANY INFORMATION WE
OBTAINED WILL BE USED FOR THAT
PURPOSE. EPP 10879 12/26, 1/2,
1/9/2015.
PAW T.S. No.: 9448-7004 TSG Order No.:
140181615-CA-MAI A.P.N.: 148-32-194
NOTICE OF TRUSTEE’S SALE YOU ARE
IN DEFAULT UNDER A DEED OF TRUST
DATED 04/06/2005. UNLESS YOU TAKE
ACTION TO PROTECT YOUR PROPERTY,
IT MAY BE SOLD AT A PUBLIC SALE. IF
YOU NEED AN EXPLANATION OF THE
NATURE OF THE PROCEEDING AGAINST
YOU, YOU SHOULD CONTACT A LAWYER.
NBS Default Services, LLC, as the duly
appointed Trustee, under and pursuant to the power of sale contained in
that certain Deed of Trust Recorded
04/14/2005 as Document No.: 18322207,
of Official Records in the office of
the Recorder of Santa Clara County,
California, executed by: DOROTHY FELT,
AS TRUSTEE, OR HER SUCCESSORS,
OF THE DOROTHY FELT REVOCABLE
TRUST DATED FEBRUARY 14, 1997, as
Trustor, WILL SELL AT PUBLIC AUCTION
TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER FOR CASH
(payable in full at time of sale by cash,
a cashier’s check drawn by a state or
national bank, a check drawn by a
state or federal credit union, or a check
drawn by a state or federal savings and
loan association, savings association, or
savings bank specified in section 5102
of the Financial Code and authorized
to do business in this state). All right,
title and interest conveyed to and now
held by it under said Deed of Trust in
the property situated in said County
and state, and as more fully described
in the above referenced Deed of Trust.
Sale Date & Time: 01/20/2015 at 10:00
AM Sale Location: At the gated North
Market Street entrance to the Superior
Courthouse at 190 N. Market Street, San
Jose, CA. The street address and other
common designation, if any, of the
real property described above is purported to be: 49 SHOWERS DRIVE #F433,
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94040 The undersigned Trustee disclaims any liability for
any incorrectness of the street address
and other common designation, if any,
THIS WEEKEND
OPEN HOME
UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED,
ALL TIMES ARE 1:30-4:30 PM
ATHERTON
7 Bedrooms
303 Atherton Ave
Sun 1-4
Did you know?
The Palo Alto Weekly
publishes every Friday.
Deadline: Noon Tuesday
Intero Real Estate Services
$6,950,000
543-7740
FIND YOUR NEW HOME
PaloAltoOnline.com/real_estate
EXPLORE OUR WEB SITE
Interactive maps • Homes for sale
Open house dates and times • Virtual tours and photos
Prior sales info • Neighborhood guides
Area real estate links • and so much more.
Call Alicia Santillan (650) 223-6578
Page 40 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Answers to this week’s puzzles, which can be found on page 39.
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Free. Fun. Only about Palo Alto.
to assist you with your legal advertising needs.
E-mail asantillan@paweekly.com
to Section 2924g of the California Civil
Code. The law requires that information
about trustee sale postponements be
made available to you and to the public,
as a courtesy to those not present at the
sale. If you wish to learn whether your
sale date has been postponed, and, if
applicable, the rescheduled time and
date for the sale of this property, you
may call, 916-939-0772 for information
regarding the trustee’s sale or visit this
Internet Web site, www.nationwideposting.com, for information regarding
the sale of this property, using the file
number assigned to this case, T.S.#
9448-7004. Information about postponements that are very short in duration or that occur close in time to the
scheduled sale may not immediately be
reflected in the telephone information
or on the internet Web site. The best
way to verify postponement information is to attend the scheduled sale. If
the Trustee is unable to convey title for
any reason, the successful bidder’s sole
and exclusive remedy shall be the return
of monies paid to the Trustee and the
successful bidder shall have no further
recourse. NBS Default Services, LLC 301
E. Ocean Blvd. Suite 1720 Long Beach,
CA 90802 800-766-7751 For Trustee
Sale Information Log On To: www.
nationwideposting.com or Call: 916-9390772. NBS Default Services, LLC, Nicole
Rodriguez, Foreclosure Associate This
communication is an attempt to collect
a debt and any information obtained
will be used for that purpose. However,
if you have received a discharge of the
debt referenced herein in a bankruptcy
proceeding, this is not an attempt to
impose personal liability upon you for
payment of that debt. In the event you
have received a bankruptcy discharge,
any action to enforce the debt will
be taken against the property only.
NPP0239824 To: PALO ALTO WEEKLY
12/26/2014, 01/02/2015, 01/09/2015
shown herein. Said sale will be made
in an ASIS condition, but without covenant or warranty, expressed or implied,
regarding title, possession, or encumbrances, to pay the remaining principal
sum of the note(s) secured by said Deed
of Trust, with interest thereon, as provided in said note(s), advances, if any,
under the terms of the Deed of Trust,
estimated fees, charges and expenses of
the Trustee and of the trusts created by
said Deed of Trust, to-wit: $293,989.71
(Estimated). Accrued interest and additional advances, if any, will increase this
figure prior to sale. It is possible that at
the time of sale the opening bid may
be less than the total indebtedness due.
NOTICE TO POTENTIAL BIDDERS: If you
are considering bidding on this property lien, you should understand that
there are risks involved in bidding at a
trustee auction. You will be bidding on
a lien, not on the property itself. Placing
the highest bid at a trustee auction does
not automatically entitle you to free
and clear ownership of the property.
You should also be aware that the lien
being auctioned off may be a junior
lien. If you are the highest bidder at the
auction, you are or may be responsible
for paying off all liens senior to the lien
being auctioned off, before you can
receive clear title to the property. You
are encouraged to investigate the existence, priority, and size of outstanding
liens that may exist on this property by
contacting the county recorder’s office
or a title insurance company, either of
which may charge you a fee for this
information. If you consult either of
these resources, you should be aware
that the same lender may hold more
than one mortgage or deed of trust
on the property. NOTICE TO PROPERTY
OWNER: The sale date shown on this
notice of sale may be postponed one
or more times by the mortgagee, beneficiary, trustee, or a court, pursuant
PaloAltoOnline.com
C R O S S W O R D S
1
7
2
9
4
8
5
6
3
Sports
Shorts
NFL PLAYOFFS . . . With one week
of the NFL season remaining the
playoffs are nearly set and a host of
former Cardinal players are in line for
postseason play. At least one former
Stanford player is on the active roster of six of the nine teams that have
clinched spots in the 12-team bracket. New England (Cameron Fleming),
Denver (Jeremy Stewart), Pittsburgh
(David DeCastro) and Indianapolis
(Andrew Luck, Coby Fleener, Griff
Whalen) have earned AFC berths,
while Seattle (Doug Baldwin, Richard Sherman) and Arizona (Josh
Mauro, Stepfan Taylor) are set for
matchups on the NFC side. Seattle,
New England and Denver are in
place for byes as top two seeds in
their respective divisions. Philadelphia’s Zach Ertz did everything he
could to keep the Eagles in the hunt,
before dropping a 27-24 decision to
Trent Murphy’s Washington Redskins last Thursday night. Ertz had
15 receptions, the most by an NFL
player since Jason Witten caught 18
passes in 2012.
ON THE AIR
Sunday
Women’s basketball: UC Santa
Barbara at Stanford, 2 p.m.; KZSU
(90.1 FM)
Monday
Men’s basketball: Arkansas-Pine
Bluff at Stanford, 8 p.m.; Pac-12 Bay
Area; KNBR (1050 AM)
READ MORE ONLINE
www.PASportsOnline.com
For expanded daily coverage of
college and prep sports, visit
www.PASportsOnline.com
The Stanford football team will look to close out yet another winning season, this time on a winning note, when it takes on Maryland on
Tuesday in the Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara.
So close to campus and yet so far away
Playing a bowl game in the same county does not necessarily translate into a home game
By Rick Eymer
tanford football coach
David Shaw keeps telling
anyone who will listen that
Tuesday’s Foster Farms Bowl
game against Maryland will be
anything but a home game.
Levi’s Stadium, situated less
than 15 miles from Stanford Stadium, represents a short drive but
a great distance in terms of ame-
S
nities and atmosphere.
“It’s going to feel new,” Shaw
said. “It’s not going to feel like
we’re close to home. We’re staying
at a different hotel, we’re practicing at a different place and we’re
playing in a new stadium where
we don’t know what the field is
going to be like. It’s going to feel
like we’re miles away. It’s going to
feel like a different world.”
The Cardinal (7-5) will actually be busing to the game from
a San Francisco hotel, an extra 30
miles of travel. Stanford coaches
and players will be spending their
time, beginning Friday, in the city,
away from campus, and will be involved in different activities from
visiting Alcatraz Island to volunteering at Glide Memorial.
Stanford will be practicing at
San Francisco City College, while
Maryland (7-5) will be practicing
at Laney College in Oakland.
Tuesday’s kickoff is scheduled
for 7 p.m., and will be carried on
national television by ESPN.
The Cardinal is playing in its
sixth consecutive postseason,
which included four BCS ap(continued on next page)
PREP ROUNDUP
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Holiday hoop
tournaments
heating up
Stanford
still learning
new system
by Keith Peters
hile most teams are
off for the holidays, a
handful of boys and
girls basketball squads will be
busy this weekend before more
teams join the holiday hoop fray
next week.
Three boys teams and five girls
squad get tournaments under way
Friday and Saturday.
One of the more interesting hoop festivals and certainly
the closest is the Eastside Prep
Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. The
tourney will feature a four-team
Elite Division with Mitty, St.
Francis, Fairfax (Los Angeles)
and the Eastside Prep girls, in ad-
By Rick Eymer
ike the rest of her Stanford
teammates, Bonnie Samuelson is headed home for
some quality family time during
the Christmas break.
In the Samuelson family, that
means plenty of time shooting
baskets in the driveway of their
Huntington Beach home.
She helped start the holidays
with her best college performance
yet on Monday, scoring 30 points
to help the Cardinal women’s
basketball team stop a rare twogame losing streak with a 71-59
win over visiting UC Davis before
heading home.
By the time No. 16 Stanford
W
(continued on page 43)
L
Bob Drebin/stanfordphoto.com
Tuesday
College football: Stanford vs. Maryland in Foster Farms Bowl, 7 p.m.;
ESPN; KNBR (1050 AM)
Casey Valentine/stanfordphoto.com
SHE’S THE BEST . . . Olympic gold
medalist and Stanford swim recruit
Katie Ledecky of Bethesda, Md.,
has been honored by the French
newspaper L’Equipe as the women’s
international “Champion of Champions” for 2014 for her record-setting
season. Ledecky, who recently
signed a National Letter of Intent to
attend Stanford next fall, is the first
swimmer to earn the prestigious
award, which has been presented
annually since 1980. Past winners
included tennis star Serena Williams,
basketball’s Michael Jordan, track
star Usain Bolt, tennis great Roger
Federer and soccer icon Lionel Messi. The 17-year-old Ledecky swam
to five world records last summer.
She set global standards in the 400and 1500-meter freestyle events
on back-to-back nights at the 2014
Pan Pacific Championships, and in
Australia became the first woman
to win four individual gold medals at
a single Pan Pacs as she took the
200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m free
and added gold in the 800m free
relay. At the 2014 Phillips 66 National
Championships, Ledecky won titles
in the 200m, 400m and 800m free.
Earlier this month at the AT&T Winter
National Championships, Ledecky
won three events and set an American record in the 1650-yard free.
Stanford senior Bonnie Samuelson (41) scored a career-high 30
points to help defeat visiting UC Davis on Monday.
(continued on next page)
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 41
Sports
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Stanford delivers a win in prime time
Cardinal earns first win over Top 10 opponent in six years
The Stanford women had something to cheer about Monday after
beating UC Davis to end a two-game losing streak.
Rick Eymer
nthony Brown, Chasson
Randle and the rest of
their Stanford men’s basketball teammates upped expectations Tuesday night just in time
for the holiday break.
The Cardinal will have plenty
of cheer to share after beating host
No. 9 Texas, 74-71, in overtime.
“Our guys played with a lot of
passion,” Stanford coach Johnny
Dawkins said.
The Cardinal, which beat the
Longhorns for the first time since
1962, returns to Maples Pavilion
to host Arkansas-Pine Bluff on
Monday at 8 p.m.
Brown hit a layup with 1:08 left
in overtime to put Stanford ahead
and Randle hit a jumper a minute
later to secure the nonconference
contest.
Women’s hoops
Football
A
Bob Drebin/stanfordphoto.com
(continued from previous page)
Page 42 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
ment in 2008, returned their
top four scorers from last year’s
NCAA tournament team.
“I thought those guys were
tougher,” Texas coach Rick
Barnes said. “From start to finish.”
Stanford improves to 10-16
against teams ranked in the top 25
under Dawkins. The Cardinal lost
to No. 2 Duke earlier in the year.
Stanford’s three losses are to
teams with a combined 26-9 record and DePaul was 6-1 at one
point before losing its last five
straight.
Randle has scored more than 20
points the past three games and
in five overall. Nastic, who scored
20 in last week’s loss at BYU, and
Brown are the only others who
have each reached the 20-point
plateau. Q
(continued from previous page)
pearances. The Terrapins will be
Stanford’s third straight Big Ten
opponent.
Maryland and Stanford are each
appearing in their 26th bowl game
and each team has won 11 times.
The Terrapins are appearing in
the game for the second time, after losing to Oregon State, 21-14,
in 2007, when it was known as
the Emerald Bowl and played at
AT&T Park.
Stanford is making its first appearance in the 13-year-old bowl
and the seventh Pac-12 school to
appear. Utah also played in the
game before joining the conference. Including the Utes, Pac-12
teams are 8-2 overall (UCLA lost
in both of its appearances).
Stanford’s biggest question
mark is whether star receiver and
kick returner Ty Montgomery will
be available for the game. Montgomery suffered a shoulder injury
that forced him to miss most of
the last two games of the regular
season.
Coincidentally, Stanford’s offense had its two best games of
the year over the last two weeks
of the season.
Shaw hopes Montgomery
can return to practice following Christmas and he remains a
game-time decision.
With freshman Christian McCaffrey taking on additional duties, Stanford showed its offense
found its rhythm.
“We want to continue what
started to do late in the year,”
Shaw said. “I thought our two best
games were Cal and UCLA at the
end of the year. We need to play
with high efficiency. We need to
run the football with high efficiency and throw the ball with high
efficiency and have the ability to
make big plays down the field.”
Of course, the Cardinal defense
never wavered during the year,
despite a lop-sided loss to Oregon.
Bob Drebin/stanfordphoto.com
gathers to play UC Santa Barbara
this Sunday at 2 p.m. in Maples
Pavilion, Cardinal coach Tara
VanDerveer hopes to have some
other things figured out.
Stanford (7-4) needs to find a
consistent scorer, more than one
rebounder and more time to learn
its new offensive system.
The Cardinal averaged 43
points on its two-game, two-loss
trip through Tennessee last week,
shooting a combined 26.7 percent
from the field while falling to
Chattanooga and Tennessee.
“We’re playing a lot of young
kids in a new system and we’re
struggling,” VanDerveer said.
“We have to figure it out. We have
a lot to learn and we’re counting
on improving. We need the seniors to let everybody know how
tough it’s going to be.”
Those ‘kids’ have also endured
one of the toughest schedules in
the nation to open the season.
“Hopefully we’ve learned things
from playing that schedule,”
VanDerveer said. “It’s going to
be a battle for us every night. We
don’t have someone who has 25
points on 60 percent shooting every game and we don’t have someone to throw the ball inside to.”
However, the Cardinal does
has promise. Nine players have
reached double figures in scoring
at least once this season but none
has shown any consistency.
Sophomore Lili Thompson
reached double figures in her
first six games, four times scoring more than 20 points. She’s
reached double digits once in her
past four games.
Thompson was shooting 51 percent after her first four games and
has shot 27 percent since.
“Lili is totally pressing,”
VanDerveer said. “She came
out of the gates with big games
against top teams and she thought
she had to do that all the time.”
Senior Amber Orrange has
shown that scoring is not the only
way to contribute to success. Orrange scored eight points against
the Aggies, but also had had four
assists against one turnover and
four steals and continues to be a
steadying influence on the court.
Thompson shows signs of understanding the new system and
of being patient with herself. She
did not force much against UC
Davis.
Freshman Kaylee Johnson leads
the team in rebounding, averaging
11.8 per contest after recording
her second double-double with
an 11-point, 11-rebound effort
against the Aggies.
Johnson is the only player to
reach double figures in rebounds,
though sophomore Erica McCall
has grabbed nine on two occasions and Orrange had nine in
Stanford’s season-opening victory
over Boston College.
McCall averages 5.0 boards
and Orange is next at 4.3. McCall,
who did not start for the first time
all season on Monday, could be
the key in helping Stanford maintain its inside presence.
“Our posts are young,” Samuelson said. “That’s been a big focus
for us and everybody is working
hard every day.”
The Cardinal fell out of the top
10 for the first time since being
ranked 11th on Jan. 29, 2009, a
season that ended in the NCAA
championship game. The last
Stanford has been ranked as low
as 16th was in January of 2006.
The last time Stanford has been
ranked lower than 16th was a No.
24 rating in January 8, 2001 before falling out of the top 25 for
the last nine weeks of the season.
According to collegepollarchive.com, Stanford has spent 378
of its 465 weeks in the ranking
among the top 10. Only Tennessee and Connecticut have spent
more time in the upper echelon
and only Tennessee, Texas and
Georgia have spent more time in
the top 25. Q
Brown scored a season-high
25 points, including a 4 of 4 effort from long range, and Randle
added 22 as the Cardinal (7-3)
handed the Longhorns just their
second loss of the season.
“I wanted to be aggressive,”
Brown said. “I wanted to have no
regrets.”
Freshman Reid Travis grabbed
a season-high 14 rebounds, helping Stanford to an 11-5 scoring
advantage on second-chance
points. The Cardinal also had a
14-6 edge in points off turnovers.
Stanford’s last road win over a
top 10 team was at Washington
State in February of 2008, a game
that was also decided in overtime.
Texas’ only other loss came to
top-ranked Kentucky. The Longhorns, who beat Stanford in the
Sweet 16 of the NCAA tourna-
Christian McCaffrey hopes to finish a successful freshman season
with a bowl victory.
Palo Alto grad Kevin Anderson, who played remarkably well
in last year’s Rose Bowl, is part of
the defense that gave Stanford a
chance to beat USC, Notre Dame,
Arizona State and Utah.
The Cardinal lost by a combined 29 points in those four losses, which included three 3-point
setbacks. The Ducks beat Stanford by 29 points.
“He’s been one of our more productive players on the team as far
as getting the job done, making
the plays he can make,” Shaw said
of Anderson. “He’s gotten more
pressures on the quarterback than
he ever has, more tackles for a
loss. Kevin is a worker. He comes
in and works extremely hard. He
does what he is supposed to do.
He doesn’t think about anything
except the next play. He just goes
hard.”
Anderson ranks fifth on the
team with 50 tackles, which includes five sacks among 11 tackles for a loss. He also has five
quarterback hurries and a fumble
recovery.
“He’s just a high-energy, higheffort guy that, you point to the
younger guys and say, ëthat’s how
you’re supposed to play.’” Shaw
said.
If Montgomery doesn’t play,
tight end Austin Hooper enters
the Foster Farms Bowl as Stanford’s leading receiver. He was
named a Scout.com freshman
All-American.
“Austin’s been great,” Shaw
said. “He’s learned and progressed, and there’s a ton more
that he can do better.”
McCaffrey, who has shown the
same type of versatility Montgomery has, could take over the
majority of kick returns.
“We’ve been able to be versatile
with him as a running back, a receiver, he’s helped us in the return
game,” Shaw said. “The sky is the
limit for what he can do. His future is everywhere.”
McCaffrey rushed for 243
yards, accumulated 251 receiving
yards and had 164 return yards.
He scored twice, both on touchdown passes. Q
Sports
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
CROSS COUNTRY
ALL-PENINSULA ATHLETIC LEAGUE
(Based on placing at league meet)
Owen Lee (Carlmont) Sr.; Anwar
Alghaithy (Westmoor) Sr.; Johain Ounadjela (Carlmont) Sr.; Michael Bereket
(Carlmont) Sr.; Ryan McAuliffe (Aragon)
Jr.; Graham Faust (Half Moon Bay) Jr.;
Adam Scandlyn (Menlo-Atherton) Sr.;
Mark Vingralek (Carlmont) Sr.; Cory
O’Driscoll (Half Moon Bay) So.; Khalil
Droubi (Half Moon Bay) Jr.; Nicolas
Plume (Menlo-Atherton) Sr.’ David Villafuerte (Half Moon Bay) Sr.; Wyatt
Gilman (Sequoia) Jr.; Kevin Conrad
(Menlo-Atheton) Jr.; Ryan McGannon
(Terra Nova) Sr.
Daniel Hill
ALL-WEST BAY ATHLETIC LEAGUE
Most Valuable: Daniel Hill (Sacred
Heart Prep) Sr.
First Team
Corey Gonzales (Harker) Sr.; Robert
Miranda (Menlo School) Fr.; Ross Corey (Priory) Sr.; Garrett Mack (Sacred
Heart Prep) Sr.; August Howell (Sacred
Heart Prep) Sr.; Nick Holterman (Crystal Springs) Sr.; Sasha Novitsky (Sacred
Heart Prep) Jr.; Robert Screven (Priory)
Jr.
Second Team
Dennis Mandudzo (Menlo School)
Jr.; Brett Anstrom (Sacred Heart Prep)
So.; Isaiah Scott (King’s Academy) Jr.;
Daniel O’Neill (King’s Academy) Sr.; Mrinal Verghese (Crystal Springs) Jr.’ Abin
Thomas (King’s Academy) Sr.
Honorable Mention
Jack Rothschild (Harker) Jr.; Sparsh
Chauhan (Harker) Fr.; Rahul Balakrishnan (Harker) Sr.; Kylee Santos (Menlo
School) Jr.; Raphael Serrano (Menlo
School) Jr.; Peter Rosston (Menlo
School) Sr.; Tyler Schoenduve (King’s
Academy) Sr.; Brian Field (King’s Academy) Sr.; Conner Schoenduve (King’s
Academy) Sr.; Seth Chatterton (King’s
Academy) Sr.; Evan Escher (Pinewood)
Sr.; Michael Modine (Pinewood) So.;
Anthony Sanchez (Eastside Prep) Fr.;
Max Velazquez (Eastside Prep) Fr.; Javier Rojas (Crystal Springs) Sr.; Jeremy
Huang (Crystal Springs) So.; Nicholas
Medearis (Crystal Springs) Fr.
Doughty (Los Gatos) Jr.
Outstanding Outside Linebacker:
Cole Poffenbarger (Milpias) Sr.
Outstanding Defensive Back: Victor
Rodriguez (Milpitas) Sr.
Outstanding Utility: Max McCann
(Monta Vista) Sr.
Quarterback: John Keller (Milpitas)
Sr.
Running Back: Cros Chavez (Milpitas) Jr.; Royce Kim (Milpitas) Jr.; Jon
Martinez (Palo Alto) Sr.; Jayshawn
Puckett (Palo Alto) Sr.; Matt Alqueta
(Wilcox) Sr.
Wide Receiver: Vinny Faylor (Saratoga) Jr.; Carlos Aceves (Santa Clara)
Sr.; Oliver Svirsky (Palo Alto) Jr.; Nick
Occhipinti (Los Gatos) Sr.; James Santos (Milpitas) Sr.; Dion Leonard (Milpitas)
So.
Offensive Line: Uate Mataele (Milpitas) Sr.; Sii Mataele (Milpitas) Jr.; Mikey
Grandy (Palo Alto) Jr.; Nolan Hurtado
(Monta Vista) Sr.; Jesse Chung (Saratoga) So.; Chris Nava-Lopez (Santa
Clara) Sr.; Jonathan Herrera (Wilcox)
Sr.; Gabriel Fuentes (Wilcox) Jr.; Henry
Tuckfield (Los Gatos) Sr.; Griffin Jordan
(Los Gatos) Sr.
Tight End: Dylan Plane (Los Gatos)
Sr.
Defensive Line: Brendan Ross (Los
Gatos) Sr.; Miles Beach (Los Gatos) Jr.;
Toa Iafeta (Milpitas) Jr.; Adam Camp
(Saratoga) Jr; Noah Wright (Wilcox) So.;
Gerardo Aguilar (Wilcox) Sr.; Nick Stojanovich (Los Gatos) Sr.; Nick Kryvicky
(Los Gatos) Jr.
Inside Linebacker: Brian Tatman
(Saratoga) So.; Tak Nishi (Palo Alto) Jr.;
Jake Holton (Los Gatos) Jr.; Jonathan
Pohahau (Wilcox) Sr.; Mikey Pyle (Milpitas) Jr.; Christian Rodriguez (Milpitas)
Sr.; Tommy Orvick (Monta Vista) Sr.
Outside Linebacker: James Migdal
(Monta Vista) Jr.; Jarred Green (Milpitas)
Jr.; Hadkeem Watts (Santa Clara) Jr.;
Julian Jones (Wilcox) Jr.; Jasraj Ghuman (Monta Vista) Sr.
Defensive Back: Ken Wu (Saratoga)
Sr.; Duane Jones (Milpitas) Sr.; Mitchell
Schwager (Los Gatos) Sr.; Hunter Impey (Los Gatos) Sr.; Quinn Spiteri (Los
Gatos) Sr.; Marquise Shields (Santa
Clara) Jr.
Kicker: Walker Sedgwick (Los Gatos)
Sr.; Ryan Bunyard (Milpitas) Jr.
Punter: Andrew Williams (Milpitas)
Sr.
FOOTBALL
ALL-SCVAL DE ANZA DIVISION
Most Valuable Player: Christian Rita
(Milpitas) Sr.
Senior of the Year: Dru Brown (Los
Gatos)
Junior of the Year: Mani Turituri (Wilcox)
Sophomore of the Year: Will Liddle
(Saratoga) and Hesekaia Tali Finefeuiakai (Wilcox)
Offensive Player of the Year: Matt
Wilcox (Los Gatos) Sr.
Defensive Player of the Year: Solomon Foketi (Milpitas) Sr.
Outstanding Quarterback: Justin
Hull (Palo Alto) Jr.
Outstanding Running Back: Joey
Wood (Los Gatos) Sr.
Outstanding Wide Receiver: Joey
Medeiros (Saratoga) Sr. and Eli Givens
(Palo Alto) Jr.
Outstanding Lineman: Tevita Musika (Milpitas) Sr.
Outstanding Offensive Lineman:
Jack Jarnigan (Los Gatos) Sr. and
Christian Haangana (Milpitas) Jr.
Outstanding Defensive Lineman:
Jason Scrempos (Milpitas) Sr.
Outstanding Inside Linebacker: Colt
Ben Burr-Kirven
ALL-PAL BAY DIVISION
Offensive Player of the Year: Anthony Gordon (Terra Nova) Sr.
Defensive Player of the Year: Ben
Burr-Kirven (Sacred Heart Prep) Sr.
Utility Player of the Year: Griffin Intreari (Burlingame) Sr.
Special Teams Player of the Year:
Ryan Tinsley (Sacred Heart Prep) Sr.
Coach of the Year: Pete Lavorato
(Sacred Heart Prep)
Quarterback: Anthony Gordon (Terra
Nova) Sr.
Running Back: Reggie Auelua (Terra
Nova); Griffin Intraeri (Burlingame) Sr.;
Charlie Roth (Menlo School) Jr.
Offensive Line: Chris Couch (Menlo
School) Sr.; Justin Harmon (Sacred
Heart Prep) Jr.; Grant James (Burlingame) Sr.; Api Mane (Menlo-Atherton)
Sr.; Thomas Rogers (Sacred Heart
Prep) Sr.
Tight End: Andrew Daschbach (Sacred Heart Prep) Jr.
Wide Receiver: Jordan Genato (Terra Nova) Sr.; Cooper Gindraux (Burlingame) Jr.; Jack Marren (Menlo School
Sr.; Eric Viana (Terra Nova) Sr.
Defensive Line: Laki Fonua (MenloAtherton) Sr.; Bryce Rogers (MenloAtherton) Jr.; Vainikolo Veimau (Burlingame) Sr.; Chi Li Tang (Burlingame) Sr.
Linebacker: Ben Burr-Kirven (Sacred
Heart Prep) Sr.; Dante Campagna (Terra
Nova) Sr.; Tommy Dryden (Burlingame)
Sr.; Andrew Robinson (Sacred Heart
Prep) Sr.
Defensive Back: JR Hardy (Sacred
Heart Prep) Sr.; Andrew Kennedy (Burlingame) Sr.; Mitch Martella (Sacred
Heart Prep) Sr.; Tom Lopiparo (Sequoia)
Sr.
Punter: Leo Jaimez (Menlo School)
Sr.
Kicker: Carlos Grande (Terra Nova)
Sr.
ALL-MISSION TRAIL
ATHLETIC LEAGUE
Eight Man
Player of the Year: Aidan Lucero
(Pinewood) and Jackson Hill (Trinity
Christian)
Coach of the Year: Frank Leonard
(Trinity Christian)
First Team
Jackson Hill (Trinity Christian); Aidan
Lucero (Pinewood); Bailey Marsheck
(Priory); Malik Hale (Stuart Hall); Mena
Otovo (North Valley Baptist); Dylan Beechum (Trinity Christian); Jorim Powell
(Stuart Hall); Omid Ravanfar (Stuart
Hall); Izaiah Ornelas (Anzar)
Second Team
Michael Eade (Trinity Christian); Alex
McDonald (Stuart Hall); Jack Sweat
(Pinewood); Scott Harris (Priory); Triston Thompson (Trinity Christian); Tristan
Hankard (Trinity Christian); Izaac Ornelas (Anzar); Matt Ross (Alma Heights);
Oscar Fick (Pinewood)
WATER POLO
ALL-PAL BAY DIVISION
Most Valuable Player: Nick Bisconti
(Menlo School) Sr.
Most Valuable Goalie: Spencer
Witte (Menlo School) Sr.
First Team
John Knox (Menlo-Atherton) Sr.;
Matheus Santos (Menlo-Atherton) Sr.;
Andreas Katsis (Menlo School) Sr.;
Chris Xi (Menlo School) Jr.; Ryan Koel
(Mills) Sr.; Jack Beasley (Menlo-Atherton) Jr.; Malcolm Feix (Half Moon Bay)
Jr.
Second Team
Mostyn Fero (Menlo-Atherton) Jr.;
Weston Avery (Menlo School) Sr.; Zane
Girouard (Mills) So.; Samuel Rosen
(Burlingame) Sr.; Daniel Yu (Mills) Sr.;
Will Lowdon (Burlingame) Jr.; Jason
Blazensky (Menlo-Atherton) Sr.
Honorable Mention
Garrett Kern (Half Moon Bay) Sr.;
Robert Vogel (Sequoia) Sr.; Jacob Ng
(Mills) Jr.; Jack Larratt (Burlingame) Sr.;
Matt Baszucki (Menlo-Atherton) Sr.;
Nikhil Bhatia (Menlo School) Fr.; Daniel
Zorb (Carlmont) So.
ALL-WEST CATHOLIC
ATHLETIC LEAGUE
First Team
Nelson Perla-Ward (Sacred Heart
Prep) Sr.; Michael Swart (Sacred Heart
Prep) Sr.; Finn Banks (Sacred Heart
Prep) Jr.; Jackson Enright (Sacred
Heart Prep) So.; Logan MacDonell (Bellarmine) Jr.; Benoit Viollier (St. Francis)
Sr.; Andrew Goodenough (St. Francis)
Sr.; Eric Reitmeir (St. Francis) Sr.; Tyler
Breen (Serra) Sr.; Jasper Evans (Valley
Christian) Sr.; Sheldon Boboff (St. Ignatius) Jr.; Charles May (St. Ignatius) Jr.
Second Team
Michael Spence (St. Ignatius) Jr.;
Robert Singer (St. Ignatius) Sr.; Conner Barnett (Valley Christian) Sr.; Asher
Kleinsmith (Valley Christian) Sr.; Sean
Kim (Serra) Sr.; Arvin Bahia (Serra) So.;
Zach Viano (Mity) Sr.; Max Elfrink (Mitty)
Sr.; Sean Elmurib (St. Francis) Sr.; Trevor Raisch (St. Francis) Sr.; Patrick Kirk
(Bellarmine) Jr.; Derek Petroni (Bellarmine) Sr.; Grant Harvey (Sacred Heart
Prep) Sr.; JC Marco (Sacred Heart Prep)
So.
(No teams were submitted for
SCVAL El Camino Division football or
SCVAL De Anza Division water polo.
All teams selected by the coaches)
Alexa Austin
Alex Gil-Fernandez
PALO ALTO HIGH
GUNN HIGH
The senior went 3-0 and captured the 121-pound division
at the prestigious Castro
Valley High Girls Wrestling
Classic by registering a pin,
a tough 9-5 decision and an
18-5 major decision in the
championship match.
The junior forward had
games of 28, 20 and 14
points to finish with 62 during three wins to earn Most
Valuable Player honors while
helping the Titans capture
the hoop tournament title at
the Panther Invitational.
Honorable mention
Josephine Cotto
Menlo-Atherton soccer
Akayla Hackson
Eastside Prep basketball
Riley Hemm
Sacred Heart Prep basketball
Lauren Koyama
Palo Alto basketball
Mia Shenk
Sacred Heart Prep soccer
Paige Vermeer
Castilleja basketball
Ed Chen
Palo Alto soccer
Will Chisholm
Menlo soccer
Ian Cramer
Gunn wrestling
David Lee-Heidenreich
Gunn basketball
Chris Russell
Gunn basketball
Dylan Williams
Menlo soccer
* previous winner
Watch video interviews of the Athletes of the Week, go to PASportsOnline.com
Prep roundup
(continued from page 41)
dition to a Competitive Bracket
that has eight teams from Marin
Academy to Mission Prep.
Eastside Prep (8-1) brings a
No. 70 state ranking, according
to MaxPreps.com. The Panthers
feature seniors Brije Byers and
Destiny Graham, who are averaging 18.3 and 18.0 points a game,
respectively. Fairfax, the defending L.A. city champion, features
6-foot-3, Margurite Effa, who has
signed with USC. She opened the
season averaging 31.5 ppg after
two outings.
Eastside Prep hosts Fairfax on
Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with Mitty
and St. Francis squaring off at
4:30 p.m. The round-robin elite
field continues Monday and Tuesday with Eastside Prep facing the
Lancers and then the Monarchs,
both at 7:30 p.m.
In other tournament action,
Menlo School (5-1) will be at the
Chaminade Classic in Los Angeles and Castilleja (5-2) will be at
the Monterey Bay Sweet 16 Invitational, both Friday.
On Saturday, the Sacred Heart
Prep boys (4-1) will be at the
Surf N Slam in San Diego and
the Pinewood boys (4-1) will be
playing in the St. Francis Holiday
Tournament.
In girls’ action, Menlo School
(5-1) will face Washington (San
Francisco) in the Notre DameBelmont tourney on Saturday
at 12:30 p.m., Menlo-Atherton
(5-2) opens play in the Newark Memorial Tournament, and
Palo Alto (7-1) is at the Notre
Dame-Belmont event at 2 p.m.
In boys’ hoop action Tuesday
night at the D.J. Frandsen Memorial Tournament at Bellarmine
Prep:
Senior Alex Dees tied the game
in the final six seconds of regulation and Palo Alto went on to
down previously unbeaten Leland, 76-71, in overtime to claim
the White Division championship.
Kevin Mullin, named the MVP
of the division, scored 18 points to
lead the Vikings (6-2), who scored
the final.
Sacred Heart Prep won the Blue
Division title, beating Fremont
(Oakland), 83-65, as junior Mason
Randall earned MVP honors after
scoring a season-high 25 points,
including five 3-pointers. Q
www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • December 26, 2014 • Page 43
2014 RECENT SALES
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Offered at $14,750,000
221 Kinglsey Avenue, Palo Alto
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35 Golden Oak Drive, Portola Valley
Offered at $3,700,000
539 Madison Way, Palo Alto
Offered at $3,998,000
316 McKendry Drive, Menlo Park
Offered at $1,395,000
1015 San Mateo Drive, Menlo Park
Represented Buyer
552 Sequoia Drive, Los Altos
Offered at $1,995,000
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Offered at $3,750,000
Michael Dreyfus, Broker
650.485.3476
michael.dreyfus@dreyfussir.com
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Summer Brill, Sales Associate
650.468.2989
summer.brill@dreyfussir.com
License No. 01891857
Downtown Palo Alto
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Local Knowledge • National Exposure • Global Reach
Page 44 • December 26, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com
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650.427.9211
noelle.queen@dreyfussir.com
License No. 01917593
dreyfussir.com
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