By Edward PerezEast Palo Alto Today

There are homeownersthroughout East Palo Alto,who’ve converted their garageinto a living space that they’verented out to another individ-ual or to a family.

This year, many of thehomeowners received lettersthat contained warnings andfines because of their con-verted garage.

While the City of East PaloAlto allows for garage conver-sions, it requires that home-owners follow certain

procedures and requirementsbefore they can legally converta garage into a living space.

But many city residents feelthat these procedures andpolicies are outdated and un-necessarily restrictive.

East Palo Alto resident andactivist Mike Francois said theplanning and building depart-ments abuse the garage con-version limitations and targetresidents. Francois said thecity officials poke at little de-tails that supposedly violategarage conversion policies,give homeowners unreason-able deadlines to fix the living

space to meet policy stan-dards and in some cases, de-

mand that a homeowner de-

By Henrietta J. BurroughsEast Palo Alto Today

For more than a decade,an empty lot has sat at thecorner of University Avenueand Donohoe Street, next tothe Highway 101 overpassthat connects East Palo Altowith Palo Alto. The lot wasmeant to house a large officecomplex. But, over the years,the vision for the office com-plex underwent severaltransformations and differentownership.

But this week, the visionfor the office complex, nowknown as University Square,took a major step towardsfruition, with an actualgroundbreaking ceremonythat attracted East Palo Altoofficials, city staff, city resi-

Spring - Summer 2015 Vol. 9 No.48

Providing news that is relevant, informative and critical www.epatoday.org.

Inside

Editorial

News Briefs

Opinions

TV Listings

Youth News

Community emergency teams....     page 2 Silicon Valley mayors go to China page 3

East Palo Alto residents fed up with “unfair” garage conversion policies

continued on page 13

Airplane noise is annoying city residentsBy Julie AmatoEast Palo Alto Today

This spring, local advocacygroup Sky Posse ad-dressed the East Palo

Alto City Council, asking thecity to take a stand againstnoise pollution from airplanesflying through the city’s skies.

“We’re living under a perfect

storm of aircraft noise,” saidSky Posse member Jim Her-riot, who is also an executivein an aviation research company.“It’s impacting our health, our liv-ability, our sleep, our productivity,for us and our children. And it’sgetting worse. It can be fixed butwe need to address it now.”

Marie McKenzie, anotherSky Posse member, called on

the city to declare airplanenoise a “regional problem”,and asked the council to helpSky Posse work with federalrepresentatives and the fed-eral government to achievesolutions.

Sky Posse is a citizens’ groupworking to reduce airplane noiseover the mid-peninsula. Mem-bers live in East Palo Alto, Palo

Alto, Menlo Park, and PortolaValley.

According to Sky Posse,over half of all air traffic com-ing into San Francisco Airport fliesover East Palo Alto and neighbor-ing cities. This traffic converges,4,000 feet in the air, on the MenloInitial Approach Fix, an imaginarypoint on the mid-peninsula that air-

Construction of University Square has begunPhoto courtesy of

http://www.skypossepaloalto.org continued on page 20

Exploring Cooley Landing page 7

Photo by HJ BurroughsHuge cranes point to the skyas the construction of Univer-sity Square, at the corner ofUniversity Avenue and Dono-hoe Street, proceeds.

Photo by Edward PerezThis photo shows kitchen facilities inside of a converted garage.

East Palo Alto and Belle Haven

continued on page 14

East Palo Alto Today Page 2 Spring - Summer 2015

By Edward PerezEast Palo Alto Today

The recent shifts in the na-tional economy have had ahuge impact on the small Cityof East Palo Alto leaving manyresidents in sketchy scenarioswith regards to affordablehousing.

During the 1990’s dot-comboom, the new Internet econ-omy increased the cost of liv-ing in the Silicon Valley,making cities such as Ather-ton, Menlo Park, and Palo Altosome of the most expensive inthe nation to live in.

The area’s growing economyalso affected the cost of livingin East Palo Alto. The prices ofhouses in East Palo Alto rosedramatically, making it difficultfor many city residents to maketheir home payments.

Robert Jones, executive di-rector of EPA Can DO, an af-fordable housing developmentorganization, said residents ofEast Palo Alto took on riskyloans when the real estatemarket in the city began to failin 2007.

Foreclosures continue toloom in East Palo Alto. Since2008, about one-third of sin-gle-family houses have beenlost in foreclosure.

Several members of thecommunity believe that bankstake unfair action againsthomebuyers in East Palo Alto

and deny them the type of as-sistance they need to fighttheir foreclosure case. Somefind the act of banks declininghomeowners any assistanceto be neglectful and illegal.

The case of Eve Sutton ex-emplifies the type of strugglehomeowners can have whenthey try to save their homesfrom foreclosure. Sutton, alongtime city resident, held aprotest in downtown Palo Altoon June 27 against WellsFargo, which was planning aforeclosure auction of Sutton’shome on July 2.

Sutton believes the foreclo-sure of her home by the bankis illegal. She said that WellsFargo was unwilling to workwith her to renegotiate herloan to an affordable amount,even after she submitted 41applications for a loan modifi-cation.

In an email that she sent tosupporters, Sutton wrote, “Thisis illegal ‘dual tracking’ -- sell-ing after I submitted a com-plete loan mod application witha change of circumstance.”

She continued, “I verifiedthey received it, including up-dates yesterday.…Real banksmeet with real borrowers andget to know them personally.”

East Palo activist MichaelFrancois attended the protestin support of Sutton’s case.Francois said that the problemin Sutton’s case, and for mostforeclosure cases, is thatbanks, such as Wells Fargo,are selling the loans of home-buyers to second rate trusts,which in turn causes manyproblems for home buyers.

“The lenders that WellsFargo is giving [a loan] to orselling it to, are not letting thehomeowners read [their origi-

nal contract] or they’re givingthem the run-around,” Fran-cois said. “These lendersmake it hard for the homeown-ers…where you have to go tocourt basically to see what thenew agreement is.”

Francois added that WellsFargo sometimes sells thepolicies of homeowners with-out letting them know that theycan’t be refinanced.

Given the circumstances,Francois advised homebuyersto have a lawyer go throughtheir contract for them in orderto have the policies of the con-tract presented in a direct andclear manner. He added thatthe cost of the lawyer is out-weighed by the time and trou-ble a homeowner saves byunderstanding a contract andbeing familiar with its policies.

“A lot of people unfortunatelytrust Wells Fargo, you knowit’s been established and beenthere forever,” Francois said,“People are asking [banks] tojust give us a chance to refi-nance; these guys have nomoral value, no spiritualvalue… if they did have anymoral values or spiritual val-ues, they would sit down withpeople and say ‘let’s see howwe can make this work.’ Butwhat it is, is greed.”

Sutton said that her situationis a problem that could havebeen easily solved if WellsFargo had only repurchasedthe loan from the trust to whichthey sold it and give her a loanmodification that was reason-able and one she could afford.

Francois said that it’s only

Longtime resident fights “illegal” foreclosure

Photos by Edward PerezEve Sutton (middle) and supporters display their signs follow-ing their protest at the Wells Fargo bank in Palo Alto.

continued on page 15

Community emergency teams prepare for the next natural disaster

By Julie AmatoEast Palo Alto Today

What would you do if amajor earthquake or flood hitEast Palo Alto like the 4.8earthquake that just occurredin Piedmont on August 17?Are you ready to take care ofyour family and help yourneighbors?

Volunteers in CommunityEmergency Response Teams,or “CERT teams”, conductedan emergency preparednessexercise in East Palo Alto onApril 17 of this year to practiceresponding to earthquakeslike the one in Piedmont or

ones that cause more seriousdisasters. If a real emergencywere to occur in the city, CERTvolunteers — local residentswho are trained in basic disas-ter skills and organized intoneighborhood teams — aretrained to work closely withprofessional responders tohelp ensure the safety of thecommunity.

Fifty-three volunteers partic-ipated in the April exercise, in-cluding five CERT teams. Theteams canvassed neighbor-hoods west of University Av-enue, going door-to-door,talking to residents, and hand-ing out informational materials,

practicing what they would doduring an actual emergency.The program started andended at St. Francis of AssisiParish on Bay Road.

The exercise went very well,said CERT volunteer andMenlo Park resident CynthiaBosworth. The CERT teams,which included Spanish-speaking volunteers, wereable to connect with a largenumber of people in a shortperiod of time: during a three-hour period, they reached over2,100 households, and talkedto an additional 100 passers-by.

The response from resi-dents was positive, saidBosworth. “Folks were veryinterested in how to preparefor an emergency. There waslots of enthusiasm.”

The exercise was organizedand led by CERT volunteersas part of the countywide Sil-ver Dragon Emergency Exer-cise; similar events were heldthroughout San Mateo Countyon the same day. This annualexercise tests the ability of the

San Mateo County HealthSystem to work with otheremergency responders.

In East Palo Alto, the MenloPark Fire Protection Districtand the City of East Palo Altoalso took part in the exercise,coordinating their emergencyresponse procedures with theCERT volunteers and thecounty. The police depart-ment took the lead for the cityand had two representativesthat took part in the event.East Palo Alto City Coun-cilmember Ruben Abrica par-ticipated in the event as well,joining one of the field teams.Emily Pharr, the city’s commu-nity programs manager andemergency services coordina-tor, was also a participant.

“CERT volunteers managedthe exercise on their own,”said Manuel Navarro, divisionchief with the Menlo Park FireProtection District, which coor-dinates the local CERT pro-gram. “I’m quite proud thatthey’re able to function well in-dependently.”

This self-sufficiency is im-

portant, Navarro said, be-cause the fire district and otherprofessional responders maynot be able to respond quicklyduring a major disaster. CERTvolunteers located in theneighborhoods can send infor-mation to emergency opera-tions centers. “The eyes outthere will be very, very valu-able,” he said. “If we have anearthquake in the middle ofthe day, we want to knowwhat’s going on as quickly aspossible. It’s really vital.”

During the exercise, theCERT teams deployed anewly equipped commandand communications trailer forthe first time, and used hamradios to communicate witheach other. In addition totransmitting sound, the radiostake and send photographs,which is important for sharinginformation about buildingsand other infrastructure thatmight have been damaged ina disaster. The volunteers

continued on page 16

Photo courtesy of the Menlo Park Fire DistrictOne team in the exercise discuss its next steps..

Protesters prepare to enter the Wells Fargo branch in downtown Palo Alto, but are turnedback by a bank guard.

Silicon Valley mayors travelto China

On July 6 -17 Mayor LisaYarbrough Gauthier traveledto Beijing, Chongqing,Chendu, Guang-zhou, Jiang-men, Shenzhen and to HongKong. The trip was designedto facilitate business develop-ment among emerging com-panies in the U.S. and inAsia, establish relationshipsbetween local Asian govern-ments, as well as promotetrade exchange between theU.S. and Asia.

Mayor Yarbrough-Gau-thier traveled to China with arepresentative from GovernorBrown’s office, Brian Peck,who is the director of Interna-tional Affairs and Business De-

velopment, with Stephanie Xu,the founder of UA-Asia Inno-vation Gateway, and withnine other mayors including:Mayor Carol Dutra-Vernaci of

Union City; Mayor Jeff Gee,of Redwood City; MayorDavid Haubert of Dublin;Michael Kasperzak, Coun-cilmember of Mountain View,

Mayor Catherine Carlton ofMenlo Park; Vice Mayor ofFremont, Suzanne LeeChan; Mayor Ruth Atkin ofEmeryville and Mayor RobertGottschalk of Millbrae.

While in Asia, MayorYabrough-Gauthier met withvarious business leaders andgovernment officials, touredseveral technology, and inno-vation centers, visited the Im-perial Palace (Forbidden City),the Panda Breeding ResearchCenter in Chengdu, signed aFriendly City agreement as awitness, participated in sev-eral innovation summits, andwas one of three mayors in-vited to speak at an Innova-tion Summit sponsored byGalaxy World. She also vis-ited a few cities that were

being developed.Gauthier spoke with po-

tential investors, who were in-terested in investing in theEast Palo Alto’s aging infra-structure. The mayor wasable to establish a connec-tion with the other U.S. may-ors in anticipation of workingon regional issues such asjob creation, infrastructureneeds, the need for an inno-vation center and the needfor water for future develop-ment.

No taxpayer dollars wereused to send MayorYarbrough Gauthier on her-trip. The entire expense forthe trip was covered by theU.S.-Asia Innovation Gate-way and its sponsors.

East Palo Alto Today Page 3 Spring - Summer 2015

the median barrier and returntraffic flow to the way it wasprior to the construction.

Fallaha informed thecouncil that community mem-bers should expect delays,detours, pile driving noiseand dust throughout thelength of the project.

The San Francisquitobridge is the dividing line be-tween Santa Clara Countyand San Mateo County.

For information on theproject you can go to the SanFrancisquito Creek Jointpowers authroity website atsfcjpa.org

continued on page 12

By Michael UhilaEast Palo Alto Today

Have you noticed Cal-trans workers on the northth-bound side of 101, betweenEmbarcadero and UniversityAvenue, and wonderedwhat’s going on? Well, theworkers are building the SanFrancisquito Bridge Replace-ment Project, which is de-signed to improve floodcontrol in the San Francis-quito Creek.

The project is a collabo-rative effort involving Cal-trans and Joint PowersAuthority, which consistsof.....

The East Palo Alto CityCouncil heard a presentationabout the project at its meet-ing on June 16. During themeeting the interim PublicWorks Director, Kamal Fal-laha, made a presentation inwhich he explained to thecouncil that the project wasoriginally scheduled to startin June 2014, but it didn’t getstarted until June 2015

Fallaha told the councilthat the project constructionwill last for three years and itwill be completed in fivephases.

Several council membersexpressed their displeasurewith the fact that Caltrans didnot give the city informationabout the project in advanceand did not inform city offi-cials about the extent of thedisruption that the projectwould cause city residentsand commuters who use the

city's major thoroughfares.Councilmember Carlos

Romero said “This is com-pletely unacceptable fromCaltrans that they did nothave the decency to tell thiscommunity in advanced whattheir construction schedulewas and what ultimately thedelays were going to be forresidents in East Palo Alto”.

Council members werealso displeased with the factthat there was not a repre-sentative from CalTrans atthe meeting to discuss theproject and explain why cityofficials were informed at thelast minute about the projectand the extensive disruptionsit would bring.

Counci lM e m b e rR e u b e nAbrica re-quested thatC a l t r a n ssend outpostcards toresidents inthe im-p a c t e dareas of thec o n s t r u c -tion.

T h ebreakdownof the fivephases ofthe project,were explain-ed as follows: ●Phase

1 would makeroom in themedian of the

freeway to remove the con-crete barrier that separatesnorthbound traffic and south-bound traffic and reconfigureHighway 101's northboundand southbound lanes to-ward the east.●Phase 2 would close

West Bayshore and thenorthbound lanes on EastBayshore Road into a one-way temporary traffic sig-nal(?)●Phase 3 would install

cofferdams (explain alsocheck spelling of the word) inthe creek to keep construc-tion areas dry.●Phase 4 demo and con-

struction of new bridge ●Phase 5 would rebuild

San Francisquito Bridge replacement is underway

Would you like to addto your income?

Are you interested in sales and ad-vertising and you’d like to serve yourcommunity, too?

Then EPA Today would like to talkwith you.

Call us at (650) 289-9699 or send anemail to epatoday@epatoday.org

Left to right, standing on the steps of the San Francisco CityHall during the U.S. Conference of Mayors: , San LeandroMayor Pauline Russo-Cutter, Hayward Mayor Barbara Halli-day, East Palo Alto Mayor Lisa Yabrough-Gauthier, Union CityMayor Carol Dutra-Vernaci, Piedmont Mayor Margaret Fujioka,and Alameda Mayor Trish Herrera Spencer.

Community News Briefs

By Brent ButlerEast Palo Alto Today

The East Palo Alto CityCouncil will discuss the newFlood Insurance Rate Maps(FIRM), which expand theCity’s regulatory floodplain onthe September 1, 2015 c i ty c o u n c i l m e e t i n g.

On August 13, 2015, theFederal Emergency Manage-ment Agency (FEMA) mailednew Flood Insurance RateMaps and a Flood InsuranceStudy to the city for reviewand comment after evaluat-ing the coastal areas for im-pacts associated with fourclimatic events: 1) KingTides, commonly knownas the annual high tide in-undation risk, 2) El Niñowinter storms, 3) extremehigh tide inundation, and4) wind wave events.

The evaluation results inan expansion of the City ofEast Palo Alto’s regulatory

floodplain and an increasein the height of flood wateralong the San MateoCounty shoreline expectedduring the 100 year stormevent, which is also knownas the one percent chanceflood or the base flood.   

Properties located in areasinundated by floodwaters inthe 100 year storm event aredesignated as Special FloodHazard Areas, and Congressmandated federally regulatedor insured lenders to requireflood insur-ance on proper-ties that are located in areasat high risk of flooding.Homeowner’s property insur-ance does not insure dam-age from flooding.   

The expansion of thefloodplain means that newproper t ies which werenever in the flood zone maynow be required to purchaseinsurance, and premium dis-counts that are only avail-able if the purchase

occurs prior to the val-idation of the newmaps by FEMA.

Additionally, thenew maps invalidatesome Letters of MapAmendments (LOMA)that were approved inthe past, which re-moved propertiesonce designated aswithin the SpecialFlood Hazard Area.You can access these

maps by going to:http://www.floodmaps.fema.gov/fhm/scripts/bfe_main.asp#1

FEMA’s public reviewprocess includes the is-suance of a preliminary offi-cial map, and a Map ActionTable, which identifies newareas and properties at risk.Thirty days after the issuanceof the preliminary map, therewill be a formal communitymeeting to provide informa-tion and answer questions.   

This meeting will be no-ticed twice in a local news-paper, and will be followedby a 90 day appeal period.

After the appeal period,FEMA will begin an internalproduction process,which may take as longas s ix to n ine months,and which wi l l be fo l -lowed by a let ter of f inaldeterminat ion that wi l lbe mai led to the Mayor.

I t is cr i t ica l ly impor-tant that communi ty

members who own prop-erties that are newly des-ignated in the Specia lF lood Hazard Area pur-chase a prefer red r iskpolicy, which enablesthem to receive substan-tially lower insurance pre-miums because FEMA will

recognize a grandfather-ing of the prior insurancepremium.

Brent A. But ler i sthe p lanning and hous-ing manager for the Cityof East Palo Al to.

East Palo Alto Today Page 4 April - May 17, 2013

By Elizabeth RealEPA Today

Just because you were bornand raised in East Palo Altodoes not mean that you areautomatically set up for failure.In fact, some think that thestruggles are what makesthose who live in East PaloAlto possess even more driveand resilience—you can suc-ceed. The Live in Peace (LIP)Summer Showcase andStreetCode Accelerator DemoDay took place on Friday Au-gust 7, 2015. LIP’s StreetCodeAcademy worked with stu-dents, including students fromEast Palo Alto’s Students With

Amazing Goals (SWAG) pro-gram, to develop mobile appli-cations over the summer.

During his presentation, BobHoover, a longtime East PaloAlto activist and resident, intro-duced SWAG, a program thathelps young students in EastPalo Alto with their education.Hoover explained that SWAGcame to life after a conversa-tion with the city manager andthe superintendent of the Se-quoia Union High School Dis-trict in which they spoke aboutthe quality of education in EastPalo Alto and Bellehaven. Dur-ing the discussion, the super-intendent pointed out that 50%of the students from East PaloAlto do not graduate from highschool. “That just stunnedme,” said Hoover. The shock-ing statistic motivated thethree to do something aboutthe dropout rate. So, theyworked with the city, county,and school district to apply fora grant.

Hoover proudly said that outof the twenty communities thatwere awarded the grantmoney, his collaborative wasthe only one that focused oneducating kids and makingthem successful. The othercommunities, according toHoover, talked about breakingup gangs and putting people injail. “We have the opportunity

to show that you can do some-thing different and that kids un-derstand the importance of itwhen they have someone tohelp them sort through all thegarbage that goes around,”said Hoover.

The SWAG program didmore than just provide a sum-mer of coding for students—Itprovided support. The pro-gram focuses on students whoare behind and are lacking thecredits to graduate from highschool. Hoover explained thatthe program works on “inspir-ing young people and motivat-ing them to be high qualitystudents.”

Most SWAG staff membersgrew up in East Palo Alto andcan identify with the strugglesthat the students are going

through now. Erica Hayes, one

of the program’s case man-agers, said, “For me, [there’s]nothing more rewarding [than]to come back and serve mycommunity and help those likethey’ve helped me.” Letty Gar-cia, another case manager,said, “I’m very passionateabout community work andbasically helping everyone. I’mfrom here, so I understand theeducational turbulence that weall go through.” A third casemanager, Paul Teu, added,“We used to be part of theproblem and now we’re part ofthe solution.”

To provide some middleground, SWAG also hasyounger staff members knownas “Navigators.” One of them,Nico, explained that some-times it’s easier for the stu-dents to talk to someonecloser to their age who can re-late to them. Another Naviga-tor, Sia Kailahi, confessed thatshe used to be a “challengingstudent,” herself. She realizedthat she needed to make achange and so she helps stu-dents facing some of the samechallenges that she did.

Many of the students whowere present at the eventwere shy as they came up infront of the audience to saytheir names and to talk abouttheir goals. Their shyness,however, was met with a

sense of accomplishment asthe crowd cheered them on.One of the students, namedStacy, talked about the differ-ence that the program hasmade in her life. “My mind setthen and my mind set now, ithas improved,” she said, “Iwould just skip class and sur-round myself with negativity.”

After SWAG, Stacy can nowtalk about her goals for the fu-ture. She said that she planson graduating high school,completing the cosmetologyprogram at the College of SanMateo, and majoring in busi-ness and marketing so that

East Palo Alto students gain coding experience and more

continued on page 7

Photos by Henrietta BurroughsBob Hoover talking aboutSWAG

Erica Hayes spoke aboutsome of her experiences.

Letty Garcia shared some ofher exxperiences as a SWAGcase manager.

New FEMA maps expand regulatory floodplain and anticipated flood depths

Local realtor-area spe-cialist●Need to sell your home? ●Facing foreclosure?●Need to purchase a home?

I know the neighborhood and Iknow what it takes to sell ahome. Contact me today and Ican outline my marketing plan tosell your home for a great price!

We are now experiencing strong interest for properties inour area.

For a FREE no obligation evaluation, please call Jane Theresa Jones at 650.271.2845 or email: jane.jones@cbnorcal.com

janetheresajones.com CalBRE # 01847801

©2013 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. All Rights Re-served. Coldwell Banker® is a registered trademark li-censed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. An EqualOpportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. EachColdwell Banker Residential Brokerage Office Is Owned bya Subsidiary of NRT LLC. All rights reserved. This informa-tion was supplied by Seller and/or other sources. Broker be-lieves this information to be correct but has not verified thisinformation and assumes no legal responsibility for its accu-racy. Buyers should investigate these issues to their ownsatisfaction. DRE License #01908304

By Natalia TimakovaEast Palo Alto Today

Lea Martinez meets meafter work at her mother’shouse in East Palo Alto andintroduces me to her familymembers one by one, firsther mom and then her chil-dren, all sitting around a bigscreen TV set in a dimly litliving room. She has six kids

and two grandchildren, whichis not an unusual family sizein East Palo Alto.

Martinez is one of the firstadopters of the Net PositiveBay Area project launched inEast Palo Alto by Sustain-able Silicon Valley (SSV), anenvironmental non-profit organi-zation that has been promotingresource conservation in the BayArea for 15 years.

As part of the project,SSV will conduct a free en-ergy and water audit in herhouse; then, GRID Alterna-tives, an Oakland-basednonprofit solar contractorand SSV partner, will installsolar panels on her roof,also, for free.

GRID Alternatives is thestatewide program managerfor the California Solar Initia-tive’s Single-Family Afford-able Solar Homes (SASH)Program, a program that al-lows low-income families theunique opportunity to installphotovoltaic panels at little tono cost.

In the last 11 years, GRIDAlternatives has installed1,160 subsidized PV sys-tems in the Bay Area. Toqualify for this program, oneneeds to be a resident ofEast Palo Alto, a homeowner

East Palo Alto Today Page 5 Spring - Summer 2015

Homeowners get free solar

Photo courtesy of CALPIRG Energy Service Corps East Palo Alto homeowner, Lea Martinez, left, is shownwith Meagan Mujushi, the project manager for Sustainable Silicon Valley.

Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center is offering new sessions ofbusiness classes starting in September. Please join us for a free ori-entation at 1848 Bay Rd, East Palo Alto. Classes will begin on Mon-day, September 14th.

Start SmartIn four 3-hour sessions, participants plan the launch or expansionof their businesses at their own pace. Course objectives include cre-ating mission and vision statements, crafting goals as well as strate-gies to achieve them and business assessment that will create anaction plan to launch or expand businesses. The group follow-upsessions and individualized consulting for business owners are de-signed to support clients throughout the process of starting and/orgrowing. (12 hours) $25 - $120 (Class rate based on income, verifi-cation required)

Renaissance is also still accepting applications for our SmallBusiness Incubator

The Incubator is a supportive entrepreneurial community, servingsmall business owners with low cost professional office space anddevelopment services.

It’s the ideal place to Launch, Operate and Grow your Business. In-quire today,

Renaissance program Secure Future$

Is proud to offer qualifying participants with the Lending Circles op-portunity. With Lending Circles, you do good for yourself while alsodoing good for others. Being part of a Lending Circle means you helpyourself and your neighbors save for education, prepare for emer-gencies and pay off debt - all while building a brighter future together.

For more information Contact Crystal Rasmussen

renextissueofeastpaloaltotoday650-321-2193

By Elizabeth RealEPA Today

The results are in: EastPalo Alto has a serious prob-lem with underage alcohol useand abuse. This finding waspresented to the East Palo AltoCity Council at the special citycouncil meeting that took placeon July 28.

During the meeting mem-bers of One East Palo AltoSubstance Abuse PreventionCoalition (EPASAPC) sharedtheir ongoing research aboutthe underage use and abuseof alcohol in East Palo Alto.The group's research started in2007 and grew out of a collab-orative partnership that in-volved One East Palo Alto,Free at Last, and El Concilio ofSan Mateo County.

With the assistance of theEast Palo Alto Police Depart-ment, Gibson & Associates,and other community groups,EPASAPC began its survey tofind out the truth about under-age drinking in East Palo Alto.

"We knew we were tacklinga big ticket issue," said Dr.

Faye McNair-Knox of EPAS-APC.

According to ReverendMary Frazier, the senior pastorat the Bread of Life Evangelis-tic Outreach Church, informa-tion about alcohol use wasgathered from surveys as wellas from focus groups and infor-mational conversations withyouth.

The survey found thatmany residents believe there'sa direct connection betweenalcohol abuse and high schooldropout rates, violence, unem-ployment, and socio economicproblems.

"Our city cannot have apositive reputation because ofthis situation," said Reverend

Frazier before highlighting thatthis "negative reputation over-shadows all the beauty that wesee in our city and the positiveattributes that we see in ourcity."

Abraham Menor of HealthRIGHT 360 presented chartsthat further demonstrated theresults of the surveys con-ducted. The students wereasked to provide their city orzip code in order to pull re-sponses of only East Palo Altoresidents. The results helpedEPASAPC gain a better under-standing of the student's atti-tudes, beliefs, and behaviorsrelated to alcohol.

The first set of results re-flected the responses of onlyEast Palo Alto residents fromRavenswood City School Dis-trict (grade 7) and SequoiaUnion High School District(grades 9 and 11) during the2013-14 school year. Over25% of East Palo Alto studentsclaimed to have had their firstdrink in 9th grade--comparedto the state of California at20%. Even more shocking,over 5% of East Palo Alto resi-

dent students claimed to havehad their first drink in 7thgrade--again, a higher percent-age than the state of Califor-nia.

The second set of resultswere based on surveys con-

Tackling underage alcohol abuse in East Palo Alto

continued on page 15

Continued on page 12

Photo by publicdomainpictures.net

East Palo Alto Today Page 6 Spring - Summer 2015

New bill could change the way East Palo Alto residents voteBy Elizabeth RealEPA Today

In this age of online shop-ping and instant results, we re-ally don't have to leave ourhouses to get many thingsdone anymore. Following thistrend of convenience, EastPalo Alto residents might nolonger have to go very far tovote either. This is because anew bill, called AB 2028, be-came law in San MateoCounty on January 1, 2015.

AB 2028 authorizes SanMateo County to participate inan ongoing pilot project that al-lows certain elections--up tothree--to be conducted entirelyby mailed ballots. These threeelections include the Novem-ber 2015 and 2017 Local Con-solidated Elections and oneLocal Special Election.

The 2016 Presidential Elec-tion, however, will not be in-cluded. But, if this pilotprogram is a success, the res-idents of East Palo Alto mightbe able to vote for a future

president from their homes. AB 2028 will remain in effect

through December 31, 2017and will be repealed on Janu-ary 1, 2018 unless a statute isenacted before this expiration

date that deletes or extendsthe program.

So, what should residents doto participate in the pilot pro-gram? Nothing, actually.“Every voter will get a ballot inthe mail even if the voter hasnot signed up to vote by mail,”explained Chief Elections Offi-cer, Mark Church, during aJune 16, 2015 Special CityCouncil meeting in East PaloAlto.

Church said that the mailedballots will include a return en-velope and paid postage.

According to the CaliforniaLegislative Information web-site at http://leginfo.legisla-ture.ca.gov/, AB 2028 will alsorequire the county to provideat least one polling place anddrop off location in each city.The number of residents can-not exceed 100,000 per ballot

drop-off location on the 88thday prior to the day of election.

During Church's presenta-tion, council members ex-pressed their concerns aboutwhether voting by mail wouldbe practical for the city's sen-iors or for residents with dis-abilities who might needassistance.

Church told the council thatvoters would still be able tovote in person if they chooseto do so. Those with physicaldisabilities or those who facelanguage barriers and requireassistance while voting mightprefer to visit a polling location.So, for these reasons and forsimilar ones, as in the case ofsomeone who did not receivea ballot or simply lost theirs, apolling location would still beavailable.

Mayor decries the loss of young residents to street violenceBy Elizabeth RealEPA Today

Why are younglives still being lostdue to violence inEast Palo Alto? Thisis the question thatMayor Lisa Yarbrough-Gauthier address-ed atthe East Palo Alto CityCouncil meeting onTuesday, July 21.

It was not a ques-tion that anyone specif-

ically asked, but itwas a question thatwas implied in themayor's remarksand it is a questionthat always seemsto linger after ashooting takesplace in East PaloAlto.

During themeeting, Mayor

Yarbrough-Gauthierexpressed her deepconcern and disap-

pointment over the loss ofyoung, city residents to vio-lence. Her comments cameafter Chief Albert Pardini, EastPalo Alto's police chief, reportedthe homicide this past weekendof 27-year old Mark Jack, anEast Palo Alto resident.

Jack was shot multipletimes shortly after 10 p.m. onSaturday, July 18. He wasfound by East Palo Alto policeofficers, when they respondedto 911 calls about a shooting atthe Light Tree Apartments, lo-

cated on East Bayshore Road.Jack was treated at the sceneand rushed to a local hospitalwhere he later died.

In commenting on Jack'sdeath, Mayor Yarbrough-Gau-thier said, "Not only are we los-ing a resident, we don't knowwhat this young man's poten-tial was, but we'll never knownow.... A mother and a fatherwill forever have to deal with achild that left before they did."

The mayor continued, "Alllives matter and if I could say

anything to our young people,'Please stop the violence andstop killing each other.'"

The East Palo Alto PoliceDepartment is actively inves-tigating Jack's shooting andthe department requests thatanyone who witnessed theincident or has any informa-tion should call (650) 409-6792 or (650) 853-8477.Anonymous tips can betexted to (650) 409-6792 oremailed to epatipnow.org.

La alcalde ofrece un mensaje para los jóvenes después de un asesinatoEscrito por Elizabeth RealEPA Today

¿Por qué se siguen perdi-endo las vidas jóvenes debidoa la violencia en East PaloAlto? Esta es la pregunta quela alcalde Lisa Yarbrough-Gau-thier abordó en la reunión delConsejo de la Ciudad de EastPalo Alto el Martes 21 de Julio.

No era una pregunta quealguien le preguntaba específi-camente, pero era una pre-gunta que fue implicada en lasdeclaraciones del alcalde y esuna pregunta que siempreparece persistir después de un

tiroteo en East Palo Alto.Durante la reunión, la alcalde

Yarbrough-Gauthier expresó suprofunda preocu- pación por lapérdida de residentes jóvenes aresulta de la violencia. Sus co-mentarios se produjeron de-spués de que el jefe AlbertPardini, jefe de policía de EastPalo Alto, informó del homicidioque sucedió la semana anterior.La víctima fue Mark Jack, un res-idente de East Palo Alto de 27años de edad.

Jack fue encontrado poragentes de policía de EastPalo Alto poco después de las10 de la noche del sábado 18

de Julio. Lospolicías re-spondieron allamadas sobrevarios disparosen los LightTree Apart-ments, ubicadoen EastB a y s h o r eRoad. Jack fueatendido en eledificio deapartamentos antes de ser lle-vado a un hospital local, dondemurió.

Al comentar sobre lamuerte de Jack, dijo el alcalde

Ya r b r o u g h -Gauthier, "Nosólo estamosperdiendo unresidente, nosabemos cuálera la poten-cial de estejoven, peronunca vamosa saber ahora.... Una madrey un padre

siempre tendrán que batallarcon la idea de que su niño seles fue antes de ellos mismos."

La alcalde continuó: "Todaslas vidas son importantes y si

yo pudiera decirle algo a nue-stros jóvenes, 'Por favor dejenla violencia y dejen de matarseunos a otros.'"

El Departamento de Policíade East Palo Alto está investi-gando el asesinato de Jack y eldepartamento solicita quecualquier persona que presen-ció el incidente o tienecualquier información debe lla-mar al (650) 409-6792 o (650)853-8477.

Los que quieren per-manecer anónimos puedenmandar un mensaje de texto al(650) 409-6792 o por correoelectrónico a epatipnow.org.

Nueva ley podría cambiar como votan los residentes de East Palo AltoEscrito por Elizabeth RealEPA Today

En esta época de resulta-dos inmediatos y de tener elpoder de comprar casi todopor el internet, realmente notenemos que salir de nuestrascasas para conseguir muchasde las cosas que necesitamos.Siguiendo esta tendencia de laconveniencia, los residentesde East Palo Alto tampoco ten-drán que ir muy lejos paravotar. Esto se debe a un nuevoproyecto de ley, llamado AB2028, que se convirtió en leyen el condado de San Mateo el1 de enero de 2015.

AB 2028 autoriza el con-dado de San Mateo para par-ticipar en un proyecto piloto

que permite que ciertas elec-ciones - un máximo de tres -que se lleven a cabo exclusi-vamente por los votos envia-dos por correo. Estas treselecciones son las EleccionesLocales Consolidadas deNoviembre 2015 y 2017 y unaElección Especial Local.

La elección presidencial del2016, sin embargo, no se in-cluirá. Pero, si este programapiloto es un éxito, los resi-dentes de East Palo Alto talvez podrían tener la oportu-nidad de votar por un futuropresidente desde sus hogares.

AB 2028 se mantendrá enefecto hasta el 31 de Diciem-bre 2017 y terminara el 1 deEnero 2018 a no ser que unaley sea promulgada antes de

esta fecha de caducidad queelimina o extiende el pro-

grama.Entonces, ¿qué deben

hacer los residentes para par-ticipar en el programa piloto?Nada. "Cada elector recibiráuna boleta por correo, inclusosi el votante no ha inscrito paravotar por correo", explicó el Di-rector de Elecciones, MarkChurch, durante la reunión delConsejo Municipal Especialdel 16 de Junio en East PaloAlto.

Church dice que con lasboletas por correo se incluiráun sobre de retorno con fran-queo pre-pagado.

Según el sitio de InformaciónLegislativa de California enhttp://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/, AB 2028 también requeriráque el condado tenga al

menos un centro de votaciónen cada ciudad. El número deresidentes no puede excederde 100,000 por lugar devotación en el día 88 antes deldía de la elección.

Durante la presentación deChurch, los miembros del Con-sejo expresaron su preocu-pación acerca de si el voto porcorreo sería práctico para laspersonas mayores de la ciu-dad o para los residentes condiscapacidades que podríannecesitar ayuda.

Church dijo que losvotantes todavía podrán votaren persona si deciden hacerlo.Las personas con discapaci-

Continuado en pagina 19

Photo courtesy of the the Media CenterMark Church and a county associate speak during the EastPalo Alto City Council meeting on June 16, 2015.

Foto cortesía de Media CenterMark Church durante la juntadel Consejo el 16 de Juniodel 2015

Photo by public do-mainpictures.netr

Foto cortesia de el Media Center

continued on page 20

East Palo Alto Today Page 7 Spring - Summer 2015

Former East Palo Alto resident writes book

By Elizabeth RealEast Palo Alto Today

Artist Linda Gass hosted afree hands-on art and scienceevent at Cooley Landing thispast Saturday in the last dayof her "In the Field Residency."

During the event, adults andchildren were given the oppor-tunity to participate in variousactivities that included drawingsketches of the landscape,looking at live creaturesthrough microscopes and par-

ticipating in a land art project.In one station, participants--

both adults and children--triedto observe small crabs and in-sects under a microscope.There was lots of laughter assome struggled to see thesmall creatures in a Petri dish.The small crab ran around, ex-pertly dodging the lens.

"Oh, I see it!" exclaimedthose who were finally able tocatch a glimpse of its fascinat-ing translucent outer shell.

Gass first presented the idea

for her project to the East PaloCity Council at the council'smeeting earlier this year onJune 2.

Her interest in studying theimpact that human activity hashad on the land led her to ex-amine various locations, themost recent being East PaloAlto's Cooley Landing.

Why Cooley Landing? Gassresponded, "The rich history ofCooley Landing is all abouthuman marks."

The participants gatheredaround Gass. She held uppictures of maps to show tothe crowd as she gave a briefhistory lesson about CooleyLanding.

"The San Francisco Bay wassurrounded by lush green wet-lands," she said. "The historicmap shows all the beautifulwetlands that used to bearound the bay." Noting that itwas unfortunate, she told herlisteners, "A lot of the wetlandshave disappeared."

Gass, then, invited all, whowere present in the park, tojoin her in creating land art--a

creative project that consistsof making temporary physicalinstallations in the land to cre-ate art while conveying impor-tant messages about ecology.

Participants were given

hammers, nails, and "blue sur-vey whiskers" to install in theground. "This is a land art in-stallation about the changes tothe shoreline of the bay," sheexplained.

Adults and children, includ-

ing council member RubenAbrica, grabbed tools andwere more than happy to as-sist with the project.

The next phase of Gass' on-going project will be the "In-the-Gallery Residency" thatwill be held at the Palo Alto ArtCenter on five Fridays.

These include Friday, Sep-tember 11 and 25 from 1 p.m.to 5 p.m.; on Friday, October 9and 23, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.and on Friday, September 18from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Visitorscan also see Gass' project onfour Saturdays: Saturday,September 12 and 26 and onSaturday, October 10 and 24,from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

(This article was originally postedonto the EPA Today website atwww.epatoday.org with the title,“Art and science are mixed in EastPalo Alto’s Cooley Landing.”)

Elizabeth Real is an East PaloAlto Today summer intern. Shewas raised in East Palo Alto.

Read her article sharing some ofher childhood memories onpage 17 in this issue of EastPalo Alto Today.

Exploring Cooley Landing with Linda Gass

Photo courtesy of the Palo Alto Art CenterLinda Gass leading an activity at Cooley Landing.

Photo by Elizabeth RealBlue survey whiskers are in-stalled as part of Linda Gass’project.

she can ultimately open her ownshop. The program made her re-alize “I do actually give an ‘f’about stuff.”

The LIP event continued witha guest speaker, DemetricSanders, who delivered a moti-vating speech about his ownstruggles and accomplishments.An East Palo Alto native,Sanders revealed that he “wasborn into a family that wasplagued with drug abuse.” “Iknow what it’s like to come froma place where people tell youyou’re not going to make it,” hesaid.

Despite his troubling homeife, Sanders earned his Bache-or’s and Master’s Degree from

Stanford and is now part of thebooming tech industry.

In order to get this far,Sanders said that he had towork hard. When he was sixyears old, one of his privilegedfriends had learned how to builda website from his father. “I waspretty upset because I didn’thave a father that could teachme how to build a website,” hesaid, “Heck, I didn’t even have acomputer at home.” Of course,this didn’t stop Sanders fromlearning code. He checked out abook from the library to learnHTML on his own. Since he didn’thave a computer, he simply wrotedown code in his notebook.

Sanders’ anecdote illumi-nated his incredible drive tosucceed—incredible drive thatcan hopefully be passed on tothe students of East Palo Alto.“It’s important to turn our adver-sities into advantages,” hesaid, “You have to realize thatthe color of your skin, your ad-versities, your experiencesdon’t make you less of an em-ployee or less of a person ormake your skills less important,but instead, they make yourskills better.”

Stanford graduate OlatundeSobomehin asked students andstaff members to come forwardafter the moving speech where

they were met bycheers and applausefrom the audience.

To conclude theevent, Hoover said:“The most importantthing I see happeninghere is young peopleblossoming into incredi-ble human beings.There’s no better feelingand no better place tobe than an environmentwhere that is happen-ing.”

East Palo Alto students continued from page 4

By Jane Theresa JonesEast Palo Alto Today

Something to write home tomother about:

Former East Palo Alto resi-dent, George Swearington,Ravenswood high school classof 1975, has published a newbook entitled Side Sleeper Syn-drome. 

Side Sleeper Syndrome, is amust read.  Mr. Swearington of-

fers an informative read, as heprovides us with a commonsense approach to natural reme-dies to resolve medical issuesthat are caused by unsuspecting

bad habits, and lifestyle patternsthat may compromise physicalwellness.

After reading this book youwill become aware of your dailyroutines that has triggered an ill-ness or pain in the past. Thisbook is a life changer!

For more detailsvisit:  http://www.amazon.com/Side-Sleeper-Syndrome-George-Swearington/dp/1617392928

Ms. Swearington still livesin East Palo Alto. Dr. Swear-ington’s clinical trials arebeing researched on the EastCoast.

Jane Theresa Thompsonis an East Palo Alto resi-dent and a board memberof several East Palo Altononprofits.

Demetric Sanders

Photo by HJ BurroughsStanding with Detric Sanders, Gary Gatesshow how the impossible can become pos-sible

East Palo Alto Today Page 8 Spring - Summer 2015

impending construction willaffect city residents. You’llalso read about the city’snew flood maps that showthe areas of the city that willbe most affected by anyheavy flooding that resultsfrom the El Niño that someweather forecasters are pre-

dicting. Yes, this

issue is jampacked withimportant in-f o r m a t i o nand we hopeyou will readit closely. Welook forwardto providing

a regular schedule of issuesin the months to come.

We're also getting readyto celebrate East Palo AltoToday's tenth anniversary inthe coming year.

We will be holding"Media Day 2016" to recog-nize EPA Today’s survivaland the impact the paper andits contributors have made inbeing a local voice for thecommunity.

We would love to haveyou join us in planning our2016 birthday celebration.We've talked with several or-ganizations about collaborat-ing with the center in settingup media workshops and in-volving school children andother local writers, whowould receive awards fortheir artistic submissions toour media day event. We'dlike to partner with interestednonprofits and other local or-ganizations to make MediaDay 2016 a memorable cele-bration that will result instrengthening communitymedia in East Palo Alto.Please call the East Palo AltoToday office at (650) 289-9699if you're interested in partneringwith the center and assisting usplan the day.

East Palo Alto deservesto have strong media repre-sentation and the articles inthis issue show the type ofmedia contributions EastPalo Alto's own residents canmake as they report the criti-cal issues that affect thiscommunity.

As the legendary BillieHoliday so well recognizedas she famously sang, "Godbless the child that's got hisown."

Letters in East Palo Alto Today

East Palo Alto TodayPublisher:East Palo Alto Center for Community Media Editor- in-chief: Henrietta J. Burroughs

East Palo Alto Today is published bimonthly;Address all letters to: East Palo Alto Today2111 University Avenue #160, East Palo Alto, CA 94303 (650)289-9699 epatoday@epatoday.org; www.epamedia.org and www.epatoday.org

From the Editor’s DeskStrengthening local media in East Palo Alto

If you've missed seeingcopies of East Palo AltoToday over the past fewmonths, as some of you re-ported, then, do know thepaper is back after a shortpublication break. Duringthe time the paper was notpublished over the past fewmonths, the focuswas on raisingmoney to supportEPA Today's sum-mer internship pro-gram.

As many of youmight know, EPAToday is publishedby the East PaloAlto Center forCommunity Media, the non-profit that was started in2003 to create media outletsin East Palo Alto. The centerlaunched East Palo AltoToday in January 2006 toprovide the East Palo Altocommunity with the type ofcritical and relevant informa-tion that readers might notfind in other media.

When EPA Today wasstarted, it was East PaloAlto's first locally publishednewspaper in 20 years.

As a result of the cen-ter's fund raising efforts thisyear, we were able to pro-vide our internship programand we'd like to thank theCity of East Palo Alto and thePhilanthropic Ventures Foun-dation for the grants re-ceived, which supported thepaper's summer interns.

Several of the paper'sinterns have returned to col-lege. We are gratified thatyou will be able to read inthis issue the articles thatthey worked on during thesummer - articles on issuesthat East Palo Alto CityCouncil members discussedwhen they came back inSeptember from their sum-mer recess.

You'll get much informa-tion in this issue about thesteps being taken to combatairplane noise and thepreparations being made toget ready for natural disas-ters and other emergenciesthat might affect East PaloAlto.

If you've been delayedby the construction on High-way 101, then you definitelybe interested in CalTrans’construction plans that arecurrently underway and how

Henrietta J. Burroughs

National Night Out

Dear Editor:

Thanks for having someonecome by the event the other dayat Light Tree. Hope they got agood idea of what it was all about.

The event was attended bymore than 60 residents of the94-unit complex. The enjoyedfood, games and getting toknow one another better. Theci ty ’s mayor and pol iceoff icers a lso at tended. The Mission of nonprofit Proj-

ect Access is to be the leadingprovider of vital on-site health,education and employmentservices to low-income fami-lies, children and seniors.

Their goal is to help keep familymembers employed, children inschool, and seniors active. Serv-ices are provided free of chargeto Light Tree residents.http://www.project-access.org

"This event is for residents toget out and get to know eachother," said Project Access stafferRebecca Robles, the complex'sresident services coordinator, whoestimated about 50 children underthe age of 5 live at the complex

"This is a place for hard-working families and we wantthis to be a good place forkids."Dan PittmanFor Project Access

San Mateo County Awards$1,000,000 Grant to Mid-

peninsula Regional OpenSpace District

Dear Editor r Editor:On September 1, at its board

meeting in Redwood City, the SanMateo County Board of Supervi-sors awarded Midpeninsula Re-gional Open Space District(Midpen) a $1,000,000 Measure Agrant to design, engineer, obtainpermits and build a critical 0.6-milesection of the San FranciscoBayTrail in the next two years.

When completed, SanMateo County residents willhave access to 80 miles ofcontinuous multi- use trailwhere bicyclists and pedestri-ans will be able to enjoy theshoreline, commute to schooland work, and exercise out-doors with friends and family.

In addition, the trail will pro-vide residents of East PaloAlto and the Belle Haven sectionof Menlo Park access toRavenswood Open SpacePreserve and East PaloAlto’s Cooley Landing.

“We’re very pleased thatin a few short years, we’llbe able to offer residents ofthe southern part of theCounty direct access toone of the nation’s premiertrail systems and a wonder-ful nature destination r ightin their backyard,” said Steve Ab-bors, Midpen General Manager.

The project area is located be-tween Midpen’s Ravens- woodOpen Space Preserve and Uni-versity Avenue, along theboundary between the cities ofEast Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

The County, Midpen, and thecities of East Palo Alto andMenlo Park have been work-ing diligently to fill this gap forthe last ten years. Some of thechallenges have been anearby railroad line that could

be activated in the future, saltpond restoration projects,Hetch Hetchy water pipes,multiple jurisdictions and prop-erty owners, wetlands andhabitat protections, and the re-quired clean up of a formergun club. To complete the proj-ect, the Board of Supervisors au-thorized the use of up to $1 millionin the County’s Measure A funds.

While matching funds werenot a grant requirement, at itsJuly 22, 2015 meeting, theMidpeninsula Regional OpenSpace District’s board of direc-tors agreed to leverage Meas-ure AA funds toward thisproject and unanimously votedfor a resolution to enter intothis funding agreement. TheRavenswood Bay Trail waspart of its project list when thevoters approved Midpen’sMeasure AA in 2014. In addi-tion the Santa Clara CountyBoard of Supervisors had pre-viously allocated $400,000from the Santa Clara CountyStanford Mitigation Fund. Pre-liminary cost estimates for thisconnection project are be-tween $2.4 and $3.15 million.

The San Francisco Bay Trailis a regional trail whose com-pletion relies on the continuedcollaboration among shorelineproperty owners, cities, localgovernments, nonprofits, advo-cates and regional, state andfederal agencies with jurisdic-tion over the trail alignment.

Today, the trail is approxi-mately 338 miles long andpasses through 47 cities.When complete, it will be 500-miles long and will encirclethe San Francisco and SanPablo Bays.Amanda Kim Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District

Photo courtesy Dan PittmanResidents at the Light Tree Apts

HY is

East Palo Alto Today Page 9 Spring - Summer 2015

OpinionThe ideas expressed on this page are solely the views of the individual authors who do not represent East Palo Alto Today’s board or staff

A young leader takes another giant stepBy Isabel Annie LoyaDear Ally,

In 1996, a young boyelectrocuted with 10,000volts fell to his death afterclimbing a PG&E electricaltower located in East PaloAlto, my hometown. A weeklater, YUCA and communitymembers organized a pressconference demanding thatPG&E remove the towers al-together or install safetymechanisms to prevent suchtragedies. With this event, Iwrote my first speech. I wasin the sixth grade and JohnPenisoni was a peer in mycommunity. I thought; wherewas the accountability for thisyoung boy's death?

My older cousin intro-duced me to YUCA. She wasa founding member of YUCA'sHigher Higher Learning Pro-

gramand me, her curious, tag-a-long little cousin. HigherLearning transformed YUCA.Higher Learning created aspace that college and highschool students could be crit-ical, it was a place of healingthat looked to address the in-justices surrounding us: insti-tutions that didn't protectyoung, low-income, people ofcolor but preyed upon them.Higher Learning uncovered

my voice, uplifted my ideasand encouraged my critique.Seventeen years later I tran-sitioned from a youth partici-pant to its programcoordinator - in the mean-while, Shutting Romic Down!- and at 24, became Execu-tive Director. It has been awhirlwind!

In the last six years,YUCA has:

•Protected rent control inEast Palo Alto through thecreation of policies and prac-tices designed to empowertenants;

•Increased local controlover hazardous waste facili-ties through the passage ofan ordinance requiring formalcity council approval of anyhazardous waste use in theCity of East Palo Alto;

•Won the creation of the

Community Advisory Com-mittee made of communityresidents and YOUTH in allredevelopment projectswithin the Ravenswood Busi-ness District redevelopmentarea;

•Won the roll backs ofrents for tenants who havebeen unfairly increased byPage Mill Properties;

•Completed a communityplanning process that cre-ated a vision of theRavenswood Business Dis-trict, the area occupied by thenow defunct Romic facility.This community planningprocess resulted in an addi-tional 30 acres of openspace, 4.5 miles of trails; amixed-use area combininghousing and small businessdevelopment; jobs that wouldtriple the amount of jobs

available in East Palo Alto, aproposed 20,000 square footcommunity center, library ex-pansion, health clinic expan-sion, and a potential 10,000square foot recreation center.

•Won seats in local advi-sory commissions for youthin East Palo Alto and SanMateo County to actively par-ticipate in, including the RentStabilization Board, PublicWorks and TransportationCommission, Planning Com-mission and Youth Commis-sion of San Mateo County

Most importantly, sup-ported many low-income,youth of color in uncovering theirvoice, uplifting their thoughtsand encouraging their critiquefollowed by community action.

The last seventeen years,

Has organizational culture contributed to construction delays?

Isabel Annie Loyain 1996

continued on page 13

In praise of multicultural donor families: One loveBy Ayanna AndersonEast Palo Alto Today

Every August, those of uswho work in the field of organand tissue donation andtransplantation take time outduring the first week of themonth (August 1st – 7th) tohonor the thousands of multi-cultural heroes who havesaved and enhanced lives asorgan and tissue donors.

As I reflect upon thisyear’s National MinorityDonor Awareness Week ob-servance, what comes to

mind is the prolific song,“One Love,” penned byfamed reggae music icon, thelate Bob Marley. Consider hislyrics:

One love. One heart. Let’sget together and feel alright.

For the thousands whodesperately await a life-sav-ing and life-enhancing organand tissue transplant, thisvery idea that one love(donor) and one heart (theact of giving to others) canpotentially lead to their jour-ney back to health and well-ness (feel alright) is theessence of what the gift of lifeis all about.

On behalf of Donor Net-work West, we salute themany multicultural donors

and their families, who—through their love and self-lessness—have forevertransformed the lives ofcountless recipients.

During this observance,you too, can honor thesepowerful heroes, by makingyour own donation decision.

If you have registered asa donor at the DMV or onlineat donornetworkwest.org, besure to let your family mem-bers know about your wish tosave and heal lives.

For more information onhow you can be a part of our

mission to save and enhancelives, please contact:

Ayanna Anderson: aan-derson@dnwest.org.

Ayanna N.S. Anderson,M.P.S., M.S., is the West BayCommunity Development Li-aison for the Donor NetworkWest.

She is also the chair, ofthe Public Relations Commit-tee for the Association of Mul-ticultural Affairs in Trans-plantation (AMAT)and aboard member of the Associ-ation of Multicultural Affairs inTransplantation (AMAT)

By Steven KennedyEast Palo Alto Today

The good news aboutMPFD's new Fire Station onUniversity Avenue is that theyhave just received a singlebid to install solar photo-voltaic panels on the roof.This bid was submitted bySuncraft Inc., of Novato. The$119,299 bid proposes 96American made, 330 Watt,monocrystaline panels bySuniva. The system will sit onan S-5! racking system andwill hook up to one or moreFronius Symo inverters.

This system will produce31.7 kiloWatts at peak pro-duction or 43,737 kiloWattsper year and will retain atleast 80 per cent efficiencyafter 25 years. As a rule ofthumb, this system is 10times the size and power of anormal residential PV systemand about 10 times as expen-sive, after the homeowner's

Federal tax credits. Thepanel degradation % is esti-mated, typical and normal.These panels use the highestyielding class of solar tech-nology available. The envi-ronmental benefits of thissystem will be about tentimes the scale of a typicalresidential solar system,which is the CO2 equivalentof about 6 mature trees.

In 2009, Suncraft com-pleted a solar PV installationon a carport roof at the Wind-sor Fire Station in the winecountry.

The MPFD system will beat least twice the size (andprobably four times the com-plexity) of this prior installa-tion. The Fire District soughtsolar companies with thistype of client and installationexperience.

The other piece of goodnews is that the building proj-ect is not over its $7 millionbudget (despite recent ru-

mors to the contrary from re-liable sources). For now, I'msticking to the $15 million es-timate headlined in my 2010article (including contingencyfees, bells and whistles) andmy description of the buildingas a castle.

The bad news is that theproject is several months be-hind schedule and they've al-ready underestimated thetime required to design, per-mit and build such a largeand complex solar PV sys-

tem. The District's planchecker just took 9 days to in-spect plans for a residentialsolar system to ensure fire-fighters had enough room towalk around the system with-out stepping on the over-hang.

As the showpiece of aLEEDS Silver building, thesolar system and an operat-ing production monitoringkiosk will be sorely missed atthe Grand Opening Celebra-tion, apparently slated for thisOctober. Just getting PG&Eto approve a completed sys-tem and give it PTO (Permis-sion To Operate) usuallytakes frustrated homeowners3 to 8 weeks. I suspect eitherthe Project Manager believesin the Steve Jobs "RealityDistortion Field" theory of ac-celerated development or hehas some close personalfriends at PG&E and maybeboth.

With the racking for up to

96 panels clamped to stand-ing seams on the top of thebuilding, wind, noise and vi-bration are issues to con-sider. I'm not saying thebuilding will whistle Dixie in aswelling sea breeze but a lowfrequency moan could be an-noying to the neighbors andthe diagnosis and fix could beexpensive.

Other issues that seem tohave been overlooked in thequest for maximum solar yieldsare warranties, repairs andcleaning.

Many solar system ownershave found to their dismay thatthe warranty is as important asthe efficiency of the panels.Money is lost when time iswasted getting an inverter re-placed. With $119,000 in-vested in a solar system, theDistrict will find that buying100% of their power fromPG&E gets expensive again.

Inverters have a life ex-

Steve Kennedy

Ayanna Anderson

continued on page

East Palo Alto Today Page 10 Spring - Summer 2015

Lifecycles

By Michael UhilaEast Palo Alto Today

The East Palo AltoCity Council hon-ored Roderick G.

Norris and Tapu Soolefai thissummer for their service tothe city.

Officer Norris served inlaw enforcement for 30 yearsand the proclamation thatwas written in his honor wasread by CouncilmemberLarry Moody at the council’sJuly 7th council meeting.

During his commentsMoody kept referring to Nor-ris as the Chief

Moody said that Norrisbravely served the City ofEast Palo Alto for 26 years asa patrol officer, a field trainingofficer, a patrol sergeant, acommunity policing sergeant,

an internal affairs sergeant,an operations lieutenant, anadministrative lieutenant andas the acting chief.

During his career, Norrisreceived a California High-way Patrol award and twocommunity service awards.because of his leadership toensure that his fellow officerswere also involved in com-munity affairs to foster good re-lationships with the community.

Norris thanked hisbrother Paul for the inspira-tion he gave him to becomea police officer and he men-tioned Chief Dan Nelson whohad hired him.

Under the leadership ofEast Palo Alto’s former PoliceChief, Wesley Bowling, Norriscreated the annual ChristmasToy giveaway and contributed tothe development of the EastPalo Alto Police Department’s

community policing plan. Norrisworked to unite the communityand the police department,which established a citizen po-lice academy that provided an-other chance for education.

When Norris became thecity’s acting police chief whenBowling was out ill, he was ableto co-create the Explorer Post812 in the city and he served asa lead advisor.

Norris and other members ofthe post entered explorer chal-lenge competitions and nationalconferences and receivedawards for this efforts.

Norris credited Bowling withgiving him an opportunity tomove up in the police depart-ment and with training him “to dopolicing in the right way with agood conscience and a goodheart.”

Norris went on to explainhow the Christmas tree giv-ing program started. He saidthat Larry Triplett the ownerof the two local McDonaldsrestaurants and some of theEast Palo Alto police officerswould give free McDonaldsfood and a teddy bear to kidson Christmas morning. Theirefforts morphed into founda-tions donating gifts and toysand the activity grew into thepolice department’s annualChristmas toy drive and give-away.

A proclamtation for TapuSoolefai was read by Councilmember Rubin Abrica

Tapu Soolefai was hon-ored for her 15 years of serv-ice to the City of East PaloAlto. She started as a tempo-rary secretary in the housingand community departmenton September 4, 2000.

Six months later, Soolefaiwas permanently hired as anoffice manager in the samedepartment.

Throughout her career inevery role she served, shewas known for being outspo-ken and for doing her job withthe utmost integrity -- protect-ing what is right and correct-ing what wrong causing hercolleagues to confide in herand gaining the community’strust.

During her comments,Solefai advised the counciland the city to be nice to theCity Manager, Carlos Mar-tinez, and to the AssistantCity Manager, Sean Charp-entier and to be nice to my coworkers. She asked the cityto please give them the 5%raise that they are asking for.“That’s my last wish”

She continued, “I’m themother of a lot of officershere. I love all the officers.Check on them and the Ex-plorer Program. She alsothanked East Palo Alto citi-zens. “Thank you for beingnice, also for being reallyrude. That’s a joke,” she said.

The East Palo Alto Council honors Tapu Soolefai and Roderick Norris

Roderick Norris poses with city council members after beingrecognized for his service to the City of East Palo Alto.

Photos courtesy of the Media Center’s livestream webcast.Tapu Soofelai is shown with several members of the East Palo AltoCity Council after receiving a proclamation in her honor.

International Champions Cup GalleryPhotos by Roberto Perez

Soccer teams from acrossthe globe competed in thenternational Champions cup.The tournament was to beheld in different locationsaround the world but was fo-cused primarily in the UnitedStares. Teams such as ClubAmerica from Mexico City,MX, FC Barcelona of Spain,and Manchester United ofEngland competed in BayArea Stadiums such as theAvaya Stadium.

Club America fans cheer loudly in a bunchin theAvaya Staium in San Jose

The San Jose Earth-quakes faced Man-chester United in theAvaya Stadium

Manchester United de-feat FC Barcelona inthe Levi’s Stadium inSanta Clara

By Jason AuzeneEast Palo Alto Today

On Sunday July11th, 2015, An-thony Browder, an

African-American anthropol-ogist and archeologist was inEast Palo Alto to give a lec-ture on the state of BlackAmerica. He spoke about re-garding our current condition,catching our breath and find-ing our voice. Anthony Brow-der is the author of a fewbooks ex: 22 Essays, Egypton the Polemic, but one inparticular is Nile Valley Con-tribution to Civilization, (Abook every African-Americanfamily should have). It cor-rects many lies and untruthsabout our (African) history,which is the oldest history inthe world.

Anthony Browder is an

Ourstorian not ahistorian. He ex-plained to an au-dience of about30 people, agingfrom as young as9 years old to 70plus that insteadof using “I can’tbreathe” in theNew York acci-dent, we as con-scious adultsshould havetaken “we canbreathe despiteof the murderand all the mur-ders of unarmedAfrican-Ameri-can young menand boys.Air/breath is the

essence of life and to say “Ican’t breathe” is equated togiving up; without air/breaththere is no life.

Anthony Browder alsospoke on the Selma marchacross the P. EdmundBridge. Who is P. Edmundand what is he known for?There was a billboard await-ing them, the African-Ameri-can president and all thatmarched in honor of BloodySunday. It was a billboardhonoring Ku Klux Klanfounder Nathan Bedford For-rest with the confederate flag.It was Forrest sitting on ahorse, welcoming all to his-toric Selma on the billboard.Below Forrest it said, “Keepthe Skeer on ‘em.” Have weprogressed? Have things re-ally changed?

Anthony Browder also ex-pressed more than once inorder to express its impor-

tance to his audience, that nomatter what you experiencein this world there is no rea-son why you can’t excel inAmerica. America gives all anopportunity, be it fair or unfair.With hard work, determina-tion, and focus you will suc-ceed at your goals/dreams.No one can stop you butyourself.

This event was held at

Rev. Flody Purity ChurchFaith Missionary BaptistChurch at 835 Runnymede.This speaks volumes of Rev.Purity and his pro African rev-olutionary views. It wasbrought to us by Pan AfricanCity Alive and the UJIMA Col-lective Committee under thePower Talks Lectures West2015.

If you missed Browder thefirst time, then you’ll have an-other chance to see him.He’ll speak again in EastPalo Alto on August 29

You can read more aboutBrowder online athttp://aalbc.com/authors/an-thony_browder.html

East Palo Alto Today Page 11 Spring - Summer 2015

Anthony Browder impresses his audience in East Palo Alto

EEsstteellllaa MMaavviiss KKnnooxx SSuunnrriissee:: JJaannuuaarryy 1155,, 11993399 -- SSuunnsseett:: AAuugguusstt 1111,, 22001155“She had the earth. Now, she has the heavens” - Rev. Robert Fairley. St. John Baptist Church

Estella Mavis Knox - mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, aunt, great aunt, business porfessional, college administrator, civic leader, community or-ganizer - transitioned from this world on Tuesday, August 11 in East Palo Alto, CA.“We don’t know who will be next. But, the reservation has been made.” - Rev. Robert Fairley, during the Eulogy on Friday, August 28, 2015

Anthony Browder

During the September 1, 2015 City Council meeting, it was mentioned that the oldest East Palo Alto resident, Mrs. Juanita Meadows, died the weekof August 30, 2015 at the age of 102. More details will be given in the next issue of East Palo Alto Today.

Lifecycles

Support the East Palo Alto Today newspaperThe East Palo Alto Today newspaper is published by the East Palo Alto Center for Community Media, a nonprofit agency that was formed in January 2003 to create media

outlets in East Palo Alto and provide the type of positive, relevant information about the community that is not easily found elsewhere. If you like what you see in East Palo AltoToday, then we ask that you enable us to serve the community better. You can do this by completing the partnership card below and mailing it with your tax deductible donationwhich will go directly to the center’s media efforts. You can read more about the East Palo Alto Center for Community Media online at www.epamedia.org. You can also donate tothe center at the EPA Today and the EPA Media websites. Please contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you.

East Palo Alto Today Page 12 Spring - Summer 2015

(650) 289-9699 info@epamedia.org www.epamedia.org

Please check the appropriate box: if you would like to volunteer at the center, if you would like to advertise in East Palo Alto Today, if you are interested in writing anarticle, opinion piece or letter to the editor. Also let us know if your agency or business would like to be a distribution site for East Palo Alto Today. Call (650)289-9699.

P.O. Box 50274East Palo Alto, CA 94303

Mail to: East Palo Alto Center for Community Media

ducted on students attendingnon-traditional schools thatfocus on serving students whoare challenged academicallyand/or socially such as Red-wood High School, accordingto Menor. One chart demon-strated that almost 25% of 11thgraders had had 1-2 days withone or more drinks in the last30 days--significantly higherthan West Contra CostaCounty and San MateoCounty. In another chart, re-sults demonstrated that almost30% of East Palo Alto studentsin non-traditional schoolsclaimed to have had 1-2 daysof binge drinking in the last 30days. Menor defined bingedrinking as having had 5 ormore drinks in one session.For comparison, San MateoCounty's percentage is only alittle over 10%.

Commenting on these stag-

gering results, Vice MayorRutherford said, "I really hadan issue with the fact thatthose types of schools [non-traditional schools] are sup-posed to be schools that reallyhelp with a lot of the problems,but it seems like there's a lotgoing on and issues aren'tbeing addressed."

Rutherford expressed someconcern about the surveys andwondered how accurate the in-formation is. "I want to believethat everybody is honest and Iwant to believe that the ques-tions are answered honestly,"she said.

Question about the surveysMenor said that the results

of the surveys were conductedduring a single point in time. Inhis report, to the council,Menor said, "It is not a goodidea to make cast-in-stone de-cisions based upon these data.The true value of the data willbe over time, as we will be ableto compare results in two yearsand see how responses of co-horts of students within EPAchange and how that changemirrors or differs from other,similar communities."

Nevertheless, to aid in theelimination of underage drink-ing in East Palo Alto, EPAS-APC has begun working inseveral different ways, includ-ing creating a local youth pro-gram that allows students tolearn more about the dangersof alcohol abuse and educating

local merchants on the dan-gers of selling to minors.

Vei Finau, the Youth EastPalo Alto Program coordinator,introduced several summer in-terns to the council members.The program provides sub-stance abuse prevention infor-mation once a week atMenlo-Atherton High Schooland East Palo Alto Academy,teaching students how to makechanges using economicalstrategies.

The interns who attendedthe meeting put together avideo in which they interviewedseveral East Palo Alto resi-dents. In the video, the stu-dents posed questions suchas, "Do you think it's easy foryoung people to access alco-

hol? What can be done to re-duce the sale of alcohol tominors?" The answers given

conveyed that most residentsdo believe that it's fairly easyfor minors to purchase alcoholfrom local vendors and thatpenalties should be imposed tothose who sell to minors.

EPASAPC believes it hasfound one solution that couldhelp restrict alcohol access tominors. Flores-Garcia spoke tothe city council about EPAS-APC's recommendation to im-plement a Responsible BeverageService Training Ordinance(RBST) for local alcohol mer-chants. "RBST is a best practicein environmental preventioninitiatives that is strictly volun-tary in the state of California,"said Flores-Garcia.

Because it's currently vol-untary, EPASAPC has urgedCity Council Members to ap-prove a mandatory ordinance.Flores-Garcia added thatmandatory RBST has beenlinked to declines in access to al-cohol for youths and has beenfound to be more effective in re-ducing sales to minors.

Flores-Garcia explainedthat members of EPASAPCtook the training before theyapproached the merchants tobetter understand what pre-cautions should be taken whenselling alcohol. After contactingseveral merchants, membersof EPASAPC, along with EastPalo Alto officers conducted asite visit.

"You can imagine the sur-prise when the group of peopleshowed up to the vendors'

doors with the police officer.They were, of course, quite re-spectful...but not necessarilyalways happy when the policeofficers did come," Flores-Garciasaid. One common thing thatFlores-Garcia said she heardfrom vendors was that they havebeen in business for many years(over 20 years in several cases),so they "already know whatthey're doing."

The training, however,served as a reminder of thepolicies. Some of them evenmissed some questions duringthe pre-test. "They were em-barrassed and wanted to get itright," said Flores-Garcia. Sheadmits that it wasn't easy forthe vendors, but they will con-tinue to build their relation-ships.

McNair-Knox said thegroup "expect[s] to continuethe work because the problemthat we have tackled--sub-stance use and abuse in EastPalo Alto--is a long standingconcern and it's not a problemthat will be solved over night."

The mayor thanked EPAS-APC for its report, but said that"tonight we're just listening."before suggesting that theyalso "tap into this hip hop gen-eration that sensationalizes theuse of drugs and alcohol."

This fight to decrease un-derage drinking in East PaloAlto is far from over for EPAS-APC. This ongoing issue willmost likely have to be revisitedin again by the council this fall.

Photo courtesy of the Media CenterAbraham Menor is shownspeaking to the East Palo AltoCity Council on July 28, 2015

Photo courtesy of the Media CenterVei Finau is shown as shespeaks to East Palo Alto CityCouncil members in July2015.

Tackling underage drinking continued from page 5

Community News Briefs continued from page 5East Palo Alto: A city in transi-tion[Editor’s note: On July 20, EastPalo Alto’s City Manager CarlosMartinez spoke to the Palo AltoRotary Club. The following is theclub’s summary of his presenta-tion] “ Mr. Martinez was born inManagua, Nicaragua and is anaturalized American citizen. Heattended school in Mexico Cityand practiced as a licensed archi-tect. He completed his graduatedegrees at UC Berkeley wherehe obtained two Masters; one inarchitecture and another in cityplanning. For a time, he was a pri-vate entrepreneur running a suc-

cessful small business in the Mis-sion District. Later he worked forDames & Moore, a large multi-national providing consulting andeconomics services, and for theMission Economic DevelopmentAssociation, a small non-profit or-ganization. He worked in the pub-lic sector for the cities of Haywardand for the East Palo Alto Rede-velopment Agency for more thana decade. He was appointed asEast Palo Alto Interim City Man-ager in October 2014 and as EastPalo Alto City Manager in March2015.

Carlos provided an overviewof East Palo Alto. It is one of the

youngest cities in San MateoCounty with a population of30,000 people. Sixty percent areHispanic, 20% African Ameri-can, 10% Pacific Islander, and10% other. It is a low incomecommunity. It had to go theSupreme Court to obtain per-mission for incorporation. In thebeginning, the mobilizing issuewas rent increases from prop-erty owners from outside of thetown who often left their apart-ments in poor condition. Unde-sirable uses were commonlyplaced in East Palo Alto when itwas unincorporated, such as theCounty dump, which has now

been transformed into a naturepreserve and a recycling andtoxic recycling centers.

Early on, the City adoptedrent control and a general planto control uses. Many thought itwould not be viable. The largestrevenue generator was a Mc-Donald’s, which does not createenough revenue to run a city.The City created a redevelop-ment agency which oversaw theUniversity Circle development,including the Four SeasonsHotel in the former WhiskeyGulch. Whiskey Gulch providedvery little in revenue, but re-quired quite a bit of police serv-

ices and was a troubled area. Later, the City developed re-

tail across the freeway at theGateway/101 redevelopmentarea. This includes the HomeDepot and the Ikea which helpcreate additional revenue for theCity. At this point, there is nodoubt East Palo Alto will surviveas a City. The City still does lackservices compared to some ofits neighbors.

The City did lose a bit of itsidentity with the loss of theWhiskey Gulch area. The cur-rent plan is to develop a towncenter along Ravenswood andBay Road.

Name:__________________________________ Phone # ______________________________

Organization: ____________________________ Email Address __________________________

Street Address: ___________________________ City ________________________ State ____Yes, I am interested in becoming a partner with the East Palo Alto Center for Community Media. Please accept my tax-deductible do-

nation as a personal contribution_____ or as a contribution on behalf of my organization ____ .____$25 _____$50 _____$100 ____$250 _____$500 ______$1,000 _____$2,000

___$2001 to $5,000 ___$5,000 and above ___In-kind _______________________

___Please check back with me about becoming a donor.*The East Palo Alto Center for Community Media is a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation.

East Palo Alto Today Page 13 Spring - Summer 2015

dents and representatives fromthe company that is developingthe site.

For those who attended,the groundbreaking ceremonyon July 17, marked a memorialoccasion. The expressions ofaccomplishments and highhopes were as abundant asthe food which was provided atthe event.A time to shine

John Sobrato, the founderand chairman of The SobratoOrganization, the Silicon Valleydevelopment firm building thecomplex, opened the ground-breaking ceremony by tellingthose who had gathered thatthe $100 million office complexwould be "East Palo Alto's timeto shine. "It's time for East PaloAlto to capture its share ofwhat's happening in SiliconValley," he said.

The Mayor ofEast Palo Alto,Lisa YarbroughGauthier, addedto the celebra-tory occasion byadding to thelofty sentimentsSobrato had ex-pressed. Shesaid the buildingof the officecomplex was asign that "EastPalo Alto is onthe move." Shecalled it "a gate-way into EastPalo Alto."

"It's great tosee the growthhere in East PaloAlto," she said."In a year and ahalf we will see a

building here with a tenant,with some retail, a cafe. It'sgoing to change.... When youcome into East Palo Alto, youwill see a lovely building andwe will take pride in all thosethings that are happening.

Council member DonnaRutherford was also in atten-dance, but chose not to speakat the event. While Council mem-bers Ruben Abrica and LarryMoody expressed their thoughtsabout the new development.

As someone who was apart of the incorporation move-ment that resulted in East PaloAlto's struggle to become acity, Abrica saw the develop-ment within the context of the vi-sion that the city's founders hadfor the city.

In recognizing John So-brato's within this context,

Abrica said, "Mr. Sobrato is thekind of person we envisionedwhen we became a city that wecould partner with developerswho had a heart. I think Mr. So-brato is obviously involved ineconomic development, but Ialso see him as a partner inhuman development and in thedevelopment of communities.So, this moment is very, veryimportant. It has crystalized theefforts of so many people overthe years The community hasbeen wanting these type ofthings to happen. It's like adream come true....We lookforward to a new corner, a newentrance and a great future forEast Palo Alto."

Speaking after Abrica,Moody focused most of his re-marks on the young people inthe East Palo Alto community.He said, "I am just so proud oftoday. I remember back in2000 when the council ap-proved this corner lot for devel-opment and we have beensharing with our community apromissory note that we are acommunity on the move.

Many of the children whoare going through our publicschools who were in elemen-tary school at the time are nowhigh school and college gradu-ates. Now they have an oppor-tunity to come back to theirown community and to seekemployment opportunities thatare going to link them with theregion, link them with the ef-forts and activities of SiliconValley."

Moody also referred to thegroundbreaking as a dreamand stressed the opportunitiesthat the thought the complexwill bring. "We so look forwardto residents walking by andseeing the cranes that aregoing to be going up in the nextcouple of weeks and months ...realizing that the dream hascome true that, for today,there's going to be opportuni-ties for their sons and daughterright here in their own com-munty."

In spite of all of the enthu-siasm expressed by Sobratoand the city's public officialssome community members

A time to shine                           continued from page 1

A young leader                                         continued from page 9

YUCA has taught me to buildmy experience and expertiseof East Palo Alto, CommunityOrganizing and Youth Em-powerment. YUCA hastaught me that I had thepower to help lead othersand that I could foster an or-ganizational space that ex-emplifies the power ofcollective movement, chal-lenging traditional structuresof hierarchy and involveyouth! YUCA has shown me

that there are no quick fixes,if you want it done right, youtake your time and exhaustall of your tools….

There is still work to bedone in this great city and I'mhonored to have been a part ofits rich history. I'm honored tohave created great networksand lifelong friends.

I'm honored to stand alongBay Area, state and movementfighters, many of whom I ad-mire and helped me see the

best of me. I am grateful to the founda-

tions and donors that havesupported and believed in ourvision of young people being atthe helm; YUCA would be un-realized without your partner-ship. I can't say what's next butI am looking forward to thejourney.

Please direct all organiza-tional inquires to YUCA'sBoard Chair, Melvin Gainesat melvinearlgaines@gmail.com

saw the groundbreaking andthe planned complex with amixture of sadness.

A bitter sweet experienceJames Turner, the owner of

the Above All InsuranceAgency and a long time busi-ness owner in East Palo Alto,said, the groundbreaking wasa bittersweet experience.

'There are all indicationsthat things are moving ahead,but I still don't see any grandsupport for small businesses."

Turner said that theoriginal representationsfor the complex indicatedthat there would be retailspace in the ground floor ofthe complex. "Where didthat go?' he asked.

"I'm for progress,"Turner said, "but that parthit me. Where did it go?"

Another communitymember wistfully recalledsome of the former busi-nesses at the location, likeEl Galope and activitiesthat were conducted on

the lot, like the former EPA-Has Farmers Market and EastPalo Alto's first AIDS march.

Whether one feels the vi-sions for the future expressedat the event or the bittersweetmemories the past evokes, allwho expressed their opinionsseemed to agree that Univer-sity Square representschange in a changing EastPalo Alto.

Photo by HJ BurroughsTwo city council members standwith city manager Carlos Martinez.

Photo by HJ BurroughsFour East Palo Alto City Council membersstand with developer John Sobrato duringthe July 17 groundbreaking ceremony.

An artistic rendering of University Square. courtesy of the So-brato Development Corporation.

construct and bring down theconverted garage.

East Palo Alto’s planning andbuilding departments do fineresidents if they don’t meet thecity’s demands by the assigneddeadline.

According to several EastPalo Alto residents, a code en-forcer from the city police de-partment arrived on manyoccasions to their homes unan-nounced, with a police escort, toinspect and determine if the res-ident ’s garage conversionmeets city standards.

At a group meeting held onJuly 28, residents said that theyfelt intimated by the code en-forcer, and they shared similarstories in which they told howthe code enforcer arrived with-out a permit or warrant that al-lows them to inspect the propertyand pushed past individual prop-erty owners to not only examinetheir garage conversion, but alsotheir entire house.

Carlotta Calvillo, one of theEast Palo Alto homeowners whospoke up, expressed her dissat-isfaction with the city at the com-munity forum that was heldduring the city council meetingon July 7.

Calvillo said she felt that theaction taken against her modi-fied house was cruel. She saidthat when she bought her houseit didn’t meet the city’s living re-quirements long before she pur-chased the property and now sheis being fined for not having mod-ified the property to regulation.

“I went to the planning depart-

ment and told them that I wasn’tgoing to permit that theychecked my property ever againbecause they have alreadychecked it 5 or 6 times,” Calvillosaid at the July 7 city councilmeeting. “I told them I haven’tfixed anything because we don’thave money.

My husband just had his handoperated on again. He is dis-abled and I don’t have a job andI am currently looking for one.[The Planning Department]charges the community a reallyhigh price…. We don’t havemoney like the investors do.They should leave a reasonableprice for the community in orderto solve the problem.”

With the intent to draw moreattention and find a solution tothe city’s housing dilemma,community residents took theinitiative to hold meetings to dis-cuss the situation. In thesemeetings, the city’s Vice MayorDonna Rutherford along withthe Chair of the Board of RentStabilization, Sonja Spencer,and the Chair of the PublicWorks and TransportationBoard, Bernardo Huerta, tookpart in leading these meetings.

On Monday July 13. an un-official meeting was held at theFaith Missionary BaptistChurch. There, residents dis-cussed the causes of their situ-ation and they identifiedresources available in assistingthem. They concurred that theymust reach out to several citycouncil members and ask themto attend upcoming meetings.

The followingweek, on MondayJuly 20. residentsonce more re-united at the FaithMissionary BaptistChurch, this timewith the presenceof Vice Mayor andCity Council mem-ber Donna Ruther-ford plus the chairof the Board ofRent Stabilization,Sonja Spencer

V i c e M a y o rRutherford s ug-gested the meet-ing during herresponse to the

garage conversion controversy.“I heard the concerns on Tues-

day and I was quite appalled atthe manner in which that individ-ual came to the house,” Ruther-ford said, “I don’t understandhow someone can walk intosomeone’s house…I know theprocess was supposed to be, nota warning, but a letter sent out tothe individual’s home, and thenthe individual is supposed to replyback in a timely fashion.”

Rutherford went on to say thatif the individual does not respondto the initial letter,she believed, another lettershould go out;then eventuallyan official is sentout to the site.

“I don’t knowif that wasn’t fol-lowed, I don’tknow if this per-son didn’t iden-tify themselves,”Rutherford said,“Personally ifsomeone cometo my houseand I don’t knowwho they are,they won’t get inmy door; they’renot going topush through ei-ther.”

Vice Mayor Rutherford ad-dressed the actions taken bycode enforcers who arrive witha police escort by saying,“That’s their insecurities…

.They’re not confident in whothey are; so they’re kind of likebullies. They want to bully you.”

Rutherford added that no onein the community should befrightened by the actions takenby the city code enforcer, be-cause he is accountable to hisstaff, his boss, and the citycouncil. She said his job is toenforce the laws and codes butnot in a hostile manner.

Bernardo Huerta read the codeof ethics that is implemented forcode enforcers to follow.

“What they’re doing is thatthey are looking for more workfor themselves,” Huerta said re-garding the code enforcer’s ac-tions. “If they’re there to checkout a water heater, have themcheck out the water heater notsomething else. That’s the prob-lem…Those kinds of things arefrowned on, but people in thiscommunity don’t know how toprotect themselves from thosethings.”

In addressing this issue,Rutherford said paperwork mustbe completed before and afterevery inspection undertaken by acode enforcer. Many times, resi-dents continue to be fined for vio-lations they’ve already repaired.

Rutherford added that the pa-perwork must include the find-ings of the code enforcer andtheir signature as proof that theresidents can later use to proveto the planning and building de-

partment that they’ve addressedwhat needed to be fixed on theirproperty.

Huerta stressed that garageconversions are 100% legal inthe state of California. He saidhe brought that ordinance to theattention of the City of EastPalo Alto, but the city didn’t fol-low it and the pricing was madevery difficult for members of thecommunity.

Teo Hernandez, a member ofthe Peninsula Interfaith Actionorganization, said residents ofEast Palo Alto are being givenprices that are identical to thosegiven to owners of commercialbuildings.

Rutherford said these findingsleft her in shock and she re-fused to believe them.

“I need to see that in black andwhite, because I don’t believethat,” she said, “ I will ask thecity manager to show me that inblack and white. I don’t want tobelieve that because it’s so un-fair that if you’re saying that formy property, I have to pay thesame amount a commercialproperty pays, it’s not true; myproperty is not commercial.”

All of the residents, who werepresent at the meeting, re-sponded to Rutherford’s disbe-lief and stated that they were allfacing commercial prices fortheir garage conversions.

“I went to talk to the planningcommission and they saideverything is the same, and wemembers of the communitywant a fair price,” Calvillo said.

Near the end of the meeting,everyone came together to cre-ate an agenda for their nextmeeting in which they plannedto hear from the city’s chief ofpolice, Albert Pardini, to addressthe issues regarding the actionsof the code enforcer.

They also said that theyplanned to bring in one of thecity’s code enforcers, and theywanted members of the citystaff to help them reach a solu-tion regarding the high prices forgarage conversions.

They said it was important tohave city officials and staff helpthe community understand andupdate the process for garageconversions in East Palo Alto.

East Palo Alto Today Page 14 Spring - Summer 2015

Garage conversions continued from page 1

Residentes openen las leyes y reglas modernas sobre coheras convertidasPor Edward PerezEast Palo Alto Today

Hay residentes en la ciudadde East Palo Alto, que hantransformado sus cocheras encuartos adicionales para rentara personas individuales o a fa-milias enteras.

Pero este año, algunos de losdueños de las cocheras conver-tidas recibieron cartas de avisoque sus cochera convertida vancontra las reglas y leyes de laciudad. Las cartas en algunoscasos han incluyido multas quela ciudad ha dado a los resi-dentes si no arreglan sucochera convertida para quesiga las reglas de la ciudad.

Muchos de los residentes quereciben estas cartas sientenque las multas y reglas no sonjustas.

Residente de East Palo Alto yactivista, Mike Francois diceque oficiales del departamentode Planning y building abusande las reglas y atacan a los res-identes de la ciudad en quebuscan maneras en dar multasa los dueños de la propiedad.

Agrega Francois que la ciudadtambién da a los residentestiempos irrazonables parapagar las multas y hacer loscambios que piden.Los redientes de East Palo Altodicen que hay un oficial del de-partamento de policía de East

Palo Alto llega a sus casas sinaviso y revisan la propiedad sinpermiso, buscando detalles pe-queños en que pueden multar aldueño de la casa.

En una junta dirigido por losresidentes de East Palo Alto, al-gunos dieron testimonio endonde cuentan que tienenmiedo del oficial que llega suscasas.

Carlotta Calvillo, cree que las ac-ciones tomado contra por parte dela ciudad ella no son justas porquelas modificaciones echo a su casaeran hechas antes de que ella ysu esposó compraron lapropiedad. La ciudad le ha man-dado una multa significa por lasmodificaciones que la familiaCalvillo no hico.

“Fui allí al planning depart-ment y dije que no iba permitirque me chequean otra vez mi

casa porque me lo hanchequeado cinco o seis veces,”dijo Calvillo en unta junta de citycouncil el 7 de Julio. “Y yo lesdije que yo no he arregladonada porque yo no tengodinero, mi esposo le acaban deoperar otra vez la mano y elesta deshabilitado. No tengotrabajo, estoy buscando trab-jao…Nos dejaron un precio bienelevado a la comunidad.”

Con la intención para encon-trar una solución a este prob-lema de cocheras convertidas,los residentes han llamado a di-rectores y oficiales de la ciudaden que vayan a sus juntas paraescuchar su dilema y ver sipueden ayudar en cualquiermanera.

El lunes 20 de Julio, los residentesFotografia de Edward PerezAdentro de una cochera convertida en East Palo Alto

Photo by City of East Palo AltoCarlotta Calvillo explains her situation to theEast Palo City Council on July 7 during itscommunity forum.

Photo by HJ BurroughsA street in East Palo Alto that contains more housing units than can be seen fromthe street.

East Palo Alto Today Page 15 Spring - Summer 2015

fair that Wells Fargo workswith their borrowers.

“You say you want to helppeople, you want people tocome to you for services, makeit work for them,” Francois said.“You’re going to get your money,extend [the policy] 10 moreyears for some people, extend itfive years. They’re going to paymore, they get the house,they’re happy…give them thatonce.”

Sutton was backed by KeepYour Home California and, eventhen, Wells Fargo refused up to$100,000 of aid towards Sut-ton’s cause. Wells Fargo wenton to auction Sutton’s home.

Sutton held another protest atthe auction with the objective ofhalting it by talking to attendingbidders to have them under-stand the illegal circumstancesregarding Wells Fargo’s deci-

sion to auction her house.Despite all of her efforts, her

house was sold at the auctionfor the asking price and anadded cent for a total of$300,000.01.

“Far less than the amount ad-vertised for the auction, far lessthan the loan, but that's how thegame is played,” Sutton wrote.

Gentrification in the commu-nity

The individual who boughtSutton’s house at the auction,David Fitzsimmons, was a rep-resentative of Eagle Vistas Eq-uities, LLC. Sutton believes thelimited liability company is look-ing to flip her house, a processthat leads to gentrification,which involves buying and flip-ping houses in deterioratedurban areas to those who canpay more for them. This practiceimproves the value of pur-

chased properties. In the caseof East Palo Alto, gentrificationis displacing the city’s working-class residents and it is eliminat-ing diversity in the community’sminority-dominated population. An investor tactic

IMany see gentrification as atactic practiced by investors andpredatory real estate companieslooking to make a profit. EastPalo Alto is a lucrative area forthese investors and companies

since the city suffers from aforeclosure crisis, where manyresidents have lost their homesand others are close to losingtheir homes.

William Webster, a 40-yearcity resident and the longestserving public official in EastPalo Alto’s history, is a lead ad-vocate for affordable housing inthe area.

Webster views the practice ofgentrification as greed and ad-vises homebuyers to avoiddoing business with banks thatlie outside of East Palo Alto’scity limits.

“Don’t support criminal institu-tions that don’t give a damnabout the American people andabout good citizens who aremaking honest efforts to honortheir obligations,” Webster said.

“The only god they know is thegolden calf. If you want to un-

derstand these folks, you needto know these three words: fol-low the money.”

As of now, Sutton is still in herhome and she is working inde-pendently to find a way to pur-chase her house back from thecurrent owners. She wants toraise awareness of gentrifica-tion in the community and plansto hold neighborhood meetings.

Sutton wants to bring resi-dents of the community whowere targeted by predatory loanservices together and help themfight their evictions.

Sutton is also gathering infor-mation in preparation for a law-suit against Eagle Vistas Equities,LLC and against Wells Fargo forillegally selling her house.

Edward Perez was an internwith East Palo Alto Today thissummer. He is a sophomore atthe University of Dayton.

Longstanding resident continued from page 2

(even if the land is leased),have a monthly electric bill of$30 or more, and a householdincome less than 80% of thearea median. (For example, fora family of four that would beequal to or below $90,500 ayear). If your income is lessthan 50% of area median, youwould qualify for a fully subsi-dized solar system.

“I think the majority of EastPalo Alto residents fall into this‘low-income’ category, like Ido,” Martinez said. “And sincethis is free, or very close tofree, I don’t see any reasonwhy East Palo Altans wouldnot want to install solar panelswith GRID Alternatives.”

Being an EcumenicalHunger Program officer, Mar-tinez knows better than anyonethat environmental problemsdisproportionally affect low-in-come families. Most of the hightech innovations which help usmaintain sustainability andsupport the environment –such as electric cars, solarpanels, or LED bulbs – requiresignificant investments. Even ifthey eventually pay off, the up-front costs are prohibitive fordisadvantaged families. Pro-

grams like SASH and PG&Erebates for buyers of energyefficient appliances help fix thisimbalance.

GRID Alternatives BayArea's Outreach Manager Jus-tine Blanchet explains that"GRID leverages multiplesfunding sources, includingstate incentives, federal taxcredit and philanthropic efforts,to make solar energy afford-able for lower income home-owners living in thecommunities most affected byenvironmental pollution. Eachinstallation provides volunteersand job trainees an opportunityto get hands on experience inthe installation of solar photo-

voltaic systems and give thema leg up to find a job in thegrowing solar industry.”

There is no doubt that solarenergy will offer Martinez sub-stantial savings, since hermonthly PG&E bill is close to$375, a major portion of whichis electricity cost. Even a 50%reduction in this burden willfree up funds of a few thou-sand dollars a year. Plus, un-derstanding her energy use,along with purchasing energyefficient appliances, can save$50 to $150 per year. In addi-tion, PG&E offers rebates forenergy efficient appliances of$50 to $500 per unit.

But savings was not the pri-

mary motivation behind her de-cision to enroll in the SSV proj-ect. “Anything that helps mesave my money I appreciate,but it’s bigger to me to help theplanet,” Martinez said.

As a mother of six and agrandmother of two, Martinezis a true environmentalist: “I dolook towards the future, andI’m asking myself: what am Ileaving to my kids? What do Iwant to impart them with?” Asthe atmospheric CO2 emissionscontinue to grow, threatening thevery future of humanity, any ef-fort to cut the use of conventionalcarbon-intensive energy is ex-tremely valuable.

Interestingly enough, manyof the East Palo Alto dwellersgrew up in resource mindfulcommunities. Martinez’ fatherwas brought up poor inGuatemala and literally “grilled”resource appreciation into hischildren. “And today, when Iam teaching my children toconserve water and electricity,to recycle, I can clearly hearsome of the things that my dadtold me,” Martinez said. “I hearhis words coming out of mymouth, and I look over myshoulder and go: ‘Ah, you

taught me that!’”The Net Positive project in

East Palo Alto is aimed at com-pleting energy and water auditsfor ten single-family residencesin the city, and installing solarpanels where applicable by theend of this year. SSV is commit-ted to providing all East PaloAlto participants with renovated,efficient energy systems that willsave them money, by bringingthe cost of their electricity bills tozero dollars.

For more information, emailepa@sustainablesv.org. To in-quire about GRID's solar pro-gram for homeowners, call510-731-1333. For all otherquestions, visit www.gridalterna-tives.org.

Natalia Timakova is on theresearch team for SustainableSilicon Valley.[Editor’s note: On Friday, August14 there was a small block partyin East Palo Alto to dedicatethe first "solar home" within theNet Positive Project; East PaloAlto resident Betsy Yanez wasthe happy owner of her homessolar panels and she celebratedher new green energy system!].

Homeowners get free solar continued from page 5

Photo courtesy of Sustainable Silicon ValleyBetsy Yanez is shown standing in front of her house as she celebra-ted her house being the first East Palo Alto "solar home" within theNet Positive Project.

ge

nt

ri

fi

ca

ti

on

ge

nt

ri

f ic

at

io

n

By Elizabeth RealEast Palo Alto Today

Positivity, wonderful art, andthe smell of coffee dominatedthe atmosphere at Cafe Zoe.The small coffee shop wasfilled to the brim with support-ers of the event, Into the Eyesof East Palo Alto, which tookplace there on August 28,2015. The project premierefeatured the music, illustra-tions, photography, and moreof eleven of East Palo Alto'svery own Youth Action Team.

The MC for the evening wasIsaiah Phillips who charmedthe audience with his ownvocal talent. His positive out-look on life was captivating.

Before singing one of hissongs, dedicated to hismother who passed away ear-lier this year, he asked the au-dience not say "aww." Instead,he asked that everyone staypositive and happy.

Performances included the

works of Freddy Lopez, a localrapper, who had people in theaudience bobbing their headsto the rhythm of his music;Mele Teu, a talentedsinger/songwriter who harmo-nized elegantly with her sis-ters on stage; and poetry by

Kalamu Chache, who hadeveryone chanting her name.

The artists' work was dis-played along the walls of thecafé. Guests were invited tolisten to the artists' self-nar-rated stories that were avail-able via tablets at eachstation.

Later in the evening, IsaiahPhillips made an important an-nouncement: land has offi-cially been purchased to startbuilding a youth center. Theplan is to have it ready in thenext three years. The centerwill provide opportunities forEast Palo Alto's youth to ex-plore their own artistic talents.

The artists' audio portraitscan be viewed online at

http://bit.ly/1hP0kiN. Their artwork will continue to be dis-played for another month atCafé Zoe, which is located at1929 Menalto Avenue inMenlo Park.

Elizabeth Real is an EastPalo Alto Today summer in-tern. She was raised in EastPalo Alto.

See an article about herpersonal story on page 17 ofthis issue of East Palo AltoToday.

See the online version of theabove article on Into the Eyes ofEast Palo Alto at:www.epatoday.org/news/2015/september_2015/east_palo_alto_youth_action_team_features_local_artists.2185.html

Photo by Elizabeth RealIsaiah Phillips uses the microphone during the Into the Eyes of EastPalo Alto event.

Looking Into the Eyes of East Palo Alto

East Palo Alto Today Page 16 Spring - Summer 2015

community emergency teams continued from page 3also piloted the use of APRS,a ham radio technology thatbroadcasts the user’s location,allowing CERT volunteers atthe command and communi-cations trailer to track and lo-cate volunteers in the field.

East Palo Alto resident andCERT volunteer DennisParker was a participant in theSilver Dragon exercise.Parker is a ham radio operatorand used his skills to commu-nicate between the commandcenter and the teams in thefield, tracking the teams andogging the number of informa-tional packets that theyhanded out.

Parker encourages EastPalo Alto residents to preparethemselves to help their fami-ies and neighbors during amajor disaster. “We are verygood with a mutual aid sce-nario,” he said, but he thinks its important to understand thatn the case of a real emer-gency, professional respon-ders and volunteers from other

c o m m u n i t i e smay not be ableto get to the cityto help. “Thec o m m u n i t yneeds to beable to make iton their own,”he said. “It allcomes down toneighbors help-ing neighbors.”

Parker recom-mends that com-munity members take classesin first aid and CPR, and followRed Cross guidelines for build-ing an emergency kit, makinga plan, and staying informed.“If people were to do that,they’d be in pretty goodshape,” Parker said.

According to Emily Pharrfrom the City of East Palo Alto,the city government continuesto prepare itself to respond toreal emergencies in the future.“The city is committed to work-ing with unifying organizationsand businesses in cooperation

with part-n e r i n gg o v e r n -ment enti-ties tostrengthenour com-m u n i t y ’ sability top r e p a r efor, re-spond to,and re-cover from

any local disaster,” she said.The city continues to work withthe county and other partners todevelop and revise the city’s dis-aster preparedness plan. Thecity also has a training and edu-cation plan for staff and thecommunity, Pharr added.

Volunteer CERT teams are animportant part of our commu-nity’s emergency response sys-tem, and may very well be thefirst responders that you will seeduring a disaster. The purposeof the CERT program is to helpcommunities be self-sufficientfor at least 72 hours during amajor emergency.

The Menlo Park Fire Protec-tion District has trained 900CERT volunteers, includingmore than 130 from East PaloAlto, and can call on them forassistance when needed. Vol-unteers are residents of thecities and neighborhoods lo-cated in the fire district, includ-ing East Palo Alto, Menlo Park,Atherton, and some unincorpo-rated parts of San MateoCounty.

The fire district periodically

trains new CERT volunteers,and also offers basic emergencypreparedness classes to thepublic every month.

“What we’re trying to getacross to individuals is that theyhave to be self-prepared,” saidNavarro. The chief sees self-re-liance as an American tradition,and wants people to learn theskills they need to help them-selves during a major emer-gency when public services maynot be able to respond quickly.

“What happens if 911 can’t an-swer the phone?” Navarro said.“We would like to provide thattraining to folks. You need to vol-unteer to come forward. Let ushelp you be prepared.”

********************************Are you ready for an emer-

gency? Prepare yourself!SMC Alert is San Mateo

County’s community alert sys-tem. Sign up to receive localemergency alerts via text mes-sage or e-mail atwww.smcalert.info.

The American Red Cross hasemergency preparednessguidelines and checklists atwww.redcross.org/prepare.

The Menlo Park Fire ProtectionDistrict offers free classes andtrainings to help you prepare foremergencies like earthquakes,floods, power outages, and dis-ease outbreaks.

Get Ready is a two-hour classabout how to prepare yourself andyour household for a major disas-ter. Classes are offered everymonth. The next class will be heldon June 9, 2015, at the East PaloAlto City Hall, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Do you want to join a Commu-

nity Emergency Response Team?Trainings for future CERT volun-teers are held every four to sixmonths. The courses last two anda half days and are divided intothree sessions held over a two-week period. The last trainingcourse started on August 26, 2015.

Classes and trainings are opento all East Palo Alto and MenloPark residents, as well as all otherresidents of the fire district.

For more information aboutthese classes and trainings, andto sign up to attend one, contactCarole Parker, CERT coordina-tor for the Menlo Park FireProtection District, at (650)688-8415, or visit the CERTpage on the MPFD’s website:www.menlofire.org.

Children’s Day in East Palo Alto

Photo courtesy of the Menlo Park Fire DistrictCERT volunteers take time to eat during the emer-gency preparedness exercise.

Photo by Elizabeth RealChildren and adults seem to be having fun at the Children’s Day event onAugust 29, 2015 at Bell Street Park in East Palo Alto.

Photo courtesy of the Menlo Park Fire DistrictEast Palo Alto Police Officer Elizabeth Lam,along with Isaac Stevenson can be identified infront of a CERT vehicle during the mock emer-gency last spring.

East Palo Alto Today will celebrateits 10th anniversary in 2016!

JJooiinn uuss iinn ppllaannnniinngg tthhee cceelleebbrraattiioonn ooff EEaasstt PPaalloo AAllttoo TTooddaayy’’ssbbiirrtthhddaayy wwiitthh aa ““MMeeddiiaa DDaayy”” eevveenntt..

WWee’’llll hhaavvee ccoommmmuunniiccaattiioonnss wwoorrkksshhooppss aalloonngg wwiitthh aawwaarrddssaanndd pprriizzeess ffoorr wwrriittiinngg eennrriieess bbyy cchhiillddrreenn aanndd aadduullttss aalliikkee..TThhee EEaasstt PPaalloo AAllttoo CCeenntteerr ffoorr CCoommmmuunniittyy MMeeddiiaa,, wwhhiicchh

ssppoonnssoorrss tthhee EEaasstt PPaalloo AAllttoo TTooddaayy nneewwssppaappeerr,, iiss llooookkiinngg ffoorrppaarrttnneerrss.. SSoo,, iiff yyoouu’’rree iinntteerreesstteedd iinn hheellppiinngg ttoo ppllaann MMeeddiiaa

DDaayy aanndd iinn ppaarrttnneerriinngg wwiitthh tthhee cceenntteerr,, lleett uuss kknnooww..CCaallll ((665500)) 228899--99669999

By  Edward  PerezEast  Palo  Alto  Today

Aspiring to joinESPN’s reign onthe realm of sports

journalism, East Palo Altoresident and Oregon StateUniversity junior, Alamoni Afun-gia, took another leap in herjourney with her internship overthe summer with the East PaloAl to Today newspaper .

Having moved to EastPalo Alto at the age of fivefrom Salt Lake City, Utah,Afungia, now 20, says shehad an tolerable transit ionin the moving process.

Afungia believes that thefact she had family in both

Salt Lake City and East PaloAlto, eased her into this newbeginning in her life.

Afungia said her parents,who came to the UnitedStates from Tonga, helpedgive her direction in her lifeand helped her reach thepoint where she is today.

She didn’t really get to hangout with friends because herlife in East Palo Alto followedthe routine of going to school,attending homework club, thengoing straight home, or she tooksome time to play basketball.

Basketball is one of Afun-gia’s passions and it plays arole in her goals for her futurein aspiring to be as p o r t s b r o a d c a s t e r .

I played from third gradeuntil my junior year,” Afungiasaid. “I stopped playing junioryear because junior year iswhen you really start to lookinto college, and [my school]didn’t get many recruits so Ijust focused in school and tryto get into college.”

Afungia said she decidedto attend Oregon State Uni-versity when she witnessedthe Stanford men’s basket-ball team face off againstthe Oregon beavers.

Since then she went intocollege with a major in newmedia communicat ions.

She switched to anthropol-ogy with a minor to bolster herwriting skills because she was-n’t a fan of the productionclasses in the new mediacommunicat ions major.

Upon completing her un-dergraduate studies, Afungiaplans to go into graduate schoolat either Oklahoma State Univer-sity or Syracuse Universityfor sports media studies.

I’ve always wanted to be inthe field of media, but I didn’thave passion for sportsmedia until I realized I at-tended every game at Ore-gon State,” Afungia said.

“I love being in the centerof media and love sports,so I thought why notput the two together anddo that as a career.

Afungia has wanted to gointo broadcasting from anearly age. She says she wasinspired by Oprah’s characterto go into broadcasting.

She says she can relate toOprah’s ability to be outspokenwhich ties into her interests inpolitical science and advocatingfor the minorities of the nation.

East Palo Alto Today Page 17 Spring - Summer 2015

By Elizabeth RealEPA Today

You don’t hear about Bud-dhists starting fights at a bar.

Ikept the career, butdidn’t get the girl,”Michael laughs.

Sitting in front of me,Michael looks relaxed and atease with a touch of embar-rassment as he makes fun ofhis past attempts to romancegirls with love letters. One ofthem still has his letter be-cause she just likes to readit—a touching gesture, espe-cially for a writer.

Michael Uhila caught thewriting bug when his 5thgrade teacher, Ms. Johnson,picked his essay on Freder-ick Douglas as the best one

in the class. “Maybe I’m ontosomething,” he thought.

Since then, Michael hascontinued writing essays andpoetry. In fact, he self-pub-lished a book of poetry.

“It was surreal,” he saysabout the moment when hereceived his book in the mail.Like many other writers,Michael was under the im-pression that publishing abook was much more difficult.

To eliminate the pressure,he set a simple goal for him-self: write one page every-day. Before he knew it, hehad compiled about 300poems.

He also tried not to focustoo much on writing an entirebook (which can be over-whelming for a writer), butrather on the process—one

poem at a time.Where do his inspirations

come from? “Some of mybest stuff comes from just ob-serving,” he says. He de-scribed a typical scenario:“You’re out socializing, butyou’re not really socializing.You’re observing.” Any situa-

tion, person, or placecan become part of hisnext piece of writing.

“Writing is a lonelyjob,” he admits, “Youlike to spend a lot oftime by yourself.” This,of course, doesn’tmean that he’s not ca-pable of socializing. “Ican socialize,” hesmiles.

When he’s not busyfinding material for hisnext poem or essay,Michael likes to play the

drums and most recentlystarted playing the guitar. Heeven sings. “People buy youdrinks if you’re good atsinging,” he laughs. Fridaynights are karaoke nights inRedwood City.

To keep himself balanced,

Michael meditates everymorning. He is part of medi-tation groups in MountainView and Stanford.

“You don’t hear aboutBuddhists starting fights in abar,” Michael points out. Afterreading more about the reli-gion and attending severalretreats, Michael was con-vinced that this way of peace-ful living was the right path forhim. He became a Buddhistin 2012.

When asked what advicehe has to offer to readers, heresponded with these wisewords: “Check your motivation.Why are you doing it?”

He also added that “If youdon’t wanna do anything thenjust stop. Trust your gut.”

EPA Today summer interns tell personal stories

Walking down memory laneBy Elizabeth RealEast Palo Alto Today

My mom didn'tlearn to drivewhen she was 16

years old, like most people inthe United States. Shelearned to drive well after shehad had three children. Evenif she had known how todrive, however, in the 1990s,our budget was too tight to af-ford a second car.

So, for the most part, I re-member walking everywherewith her because my dadwas busy working during theday. A young woman walkingwith her three children and nohusband was not an idealscenario during that time.Everyone living in East PaloAlto knew that it was danger-ous. Of course, most of usdidn't have a choice. We stillhad to get to doctor's ap-pointments, the grocerystore, church, and school.So, we walked--cautiously.

I was constantly remindedthat I had to hold my mom's

hand while we walked. My ar-rogant-know-it-all-five-year-old mind, however,convinced me that I was oldenough to walk on my ownand that my mom's paranoiawas completely unnecessary.One time, I actually said noand rejected her extendedhand. I was immediately pun-ished by the universe: I felland scraped both elbows andboth knees. She said I toldyou so and I grabbed herhand and cried the wholeway home. Up until then, thisincident was enough to scareme into being by my mother'sside at all times.

Of course, it wasn't long

before I strayed again duringone of our walks. This time,though, I didn't get punished--my mom did.

I don't remember walkingon any sidewalks that day. Itwas just the side of the streetthat led to houses. As wewalked, I spotted a small va-cant lot (possibly someone'sdriveway). Most of it was bro-ken concrete with someplants around it, but what ap-pealed to me was the almostperfect square-shaped partthat was raised off theground. It had a stage-like el-ement to it and I wanted toget on it to pretend that I wasa famous singer or dancer.There was no one aroundand my mom allowed it. I wasskipping around pretendingto be someone else on this"stage" when I heard ascream. I twirled around andprepared to run back to mymom, but I stopped. Thescream had come from myown mother. A man was try-ing to steal the necklace off ofher neck. I didn't know what

to do. I had two choices: runup to my mom to try to getthis man to go away whilepossibly making things worseand risking my own safety orstay put and watch my momget robbed.

I panicked. I was scaredand even though I wanted tohelp my mom, I couldn't. Mybody froze and I just stoodthere. After the man had ac-complished his goal, he ranoff. At that point, I shamefully

walked back to my mom andheld her hand. We didn'thave cell phones, so wecouldn't call anyone for help.So, we continued walking.

My mom didn't say muchto me about what had justhappened and I didn't askany questions. I heard hersniffling, but I didn't dare lookup at her. So there we were:a mom and her kids, just try-ing to get to the next ap-

pointment without gettingrobbed along the way. Some-times, it worked. Sometimes,it didn't.

I later found out that mydad had just given her thatgolden necklace as a gift. Itwas her first time wearing it.

Writing about the realm of sports

Elizabeth Real grew up inEast Palo Alto. Her love ofwriting led her to pursue anEnglish degree and in May2014, she became the firstperson in her family to grad-uate from college. Sheearned a Bachelor of Arts inEnglish from San JoséState University.

Photo courtesy Elizabeth RealFrom left to right: Elizabeth as ayoung child, her mom, OlgaGutierrez, and her younger sister,Andrea Real at a laundromat.

Alamoni Afungia

Elizabeth Real

Photo by HJ BurroughsEPA Today’s summer interns included,going clockwise upper left: EdwardPerez, Michael Uhila, Alamoni Afungiaand Elizabeth Real.

East Palo Alto Today Page 18 Spring - Summer 2015

tuvieron otra junta en Faith Mission-ary Baptist Church, en donde estavez, llego la vice alcalde, DonnaRutherford, y directora del departa-mento de estabilización de renta,Sonja Spencer. Tambien estabapresente un director de Public Workand Transporation Board, BernardoHuerta.

Rutherford comenzó la juntadiciendo, “oí las preocupa-ciones el martes pasado y es-taba muy asombrada con lamanera en que el oficial llego asus casas. No entiendo comoalguien puede no mas entrar ensus casas sin permiso.”

Agrego Rutherford que el pro-ceso va en que si una personano responde a la las cartas, lesllega otra. Y si también no re-sponden a la siguiente, ahí escuando llega un oficial a sucasa. Pero tienen reglas paraellos mismos en lo que pueden

hacer cuando van a revisar lascasas.

“No se si obedeció sus reglas,no se si el oficial se identifico,”dijo Rutherford, “personal-mente, si alguien que noconocía llegara a mi casa enesa manera, no hay ningunamanera en que entren a micasa; y tampoco van a forzarsea dentro.”

Rutherford comenta sobre lasacciones tomado por el oficial ydice que son parte de su inse-guridad. Dice que no tienenconfianza en lo que son en-tonces actúan como peleones.También dice que nadie en lacomunidad le debería tenermiedo al oficial, el oficial trabajaes la responsabilidad de suscompañeros, su jefe, y tambiénde city council; su único trabajoes esforzando las leyes y reglaspero en manera respetosa.

Bernardo Huerta dice que loque hacen es buscar mas tra-bajo para ellos mismos; sivienen a revisar el calentadorde agua, que revisen eso ynada mas. Huerta dice que esoes el problema, lo que hacen noes bueno pero la gente de la co-munidad no se sabe protegerde esos abusos.

Rutherford dice que necesitaver copias de papeles que con-firma los encuentros de oficialdurante de una inspecciónporque muchas veces los resi-dentes son multados por cososque ya estaban arregladas.Huerta estresa que conver-siones de cocheras son cienporciento legal en el estado deCalifornia. Dice que el ha lla-mado es a la atención de la ciu-dad de East Palo Alto, pero laciudad no graspo el concepto ylos precios de fueron hechos

fuera del alcance de los redi-entes de East Palo Alto. TeoHernández, que es una miem-bra del Peninsula Interfaith Ac-tion Organización, dice que loscobros dados a los residentesde la ciudad por sus cocherasconvertidas son igualas sonigual a los cobros dado apropiedad comercial.

“Tengo que ver eso en blanco ynegro porque no lo creo,” dijoRutherford en asombro. “Le voy apreguntar al manager de la ciudadque me enseñe eso en blanco ynegro. No quiero creer eso porqueno es justo si dices que tengo quepagar lo mismo que una propiedadcomercial porque mi propiedad noes comercial.”

Los miembros presentes en lajunta le aseguraron a Ruther-ford que los precisos si soniguales a los precios de unapropiedad comercial.

“Fui hablar con la comisión deplanning y dijieron que todo es lomismo [entre los precios decocheras convertidas y propiedadcomercial],” dijo Calvillo. “Nosotrosde la comunidad queremos un pre-cio justo.”Al final de la junta, miembrospresentes arreglaron unaagenda para la próxima juntaque toma lugar el 27 de Julio.En esta Junta, los miembrosplanean en traer al oficial de de-partamento de policía, y tam-bién a oficiales de City Councilpara finalizar una soluciónsobre los precios altos decocheras convertidas y paraayudar la comunidad entenderlos peligros asociados concocheras convertidas.

Edward Perez es un asis-tente de East Palo Alto Todayy es un sophomore en la Uni-versidad de Dayton.

Residentes openen las leyes continua de pagina 14

Twenty East Palo Alto track and field stars competed at the Junior Olympics

By Todd ArmstrongEast Palo Alto Today

“People would listen toeach other, be nicer and getalong better,” said one stu-dent, “we’d connect better,”said another. Such were theanswers given by East PaloAlto Charter School (EPACS)6th graders in response to“What would the world looklike if more people knew theiremotions?” Today’s lessonwas about emotional literacy– noticing, naming and un-derstanding emotions – kick-ing off several weeks ofworkshops designed to teachthe sixth graders about emo-tional intelligence.

Beginning with a studyof Michelangelo’s high ren-aissance masterpiece, The

Creation of Adam, the stu-dents learned how the use ofline, color, shape and textureproduce the painting’s power-fully emotive qualities. Theywere tasked with identifyingthe emotions displayed bythe painting’s figures. Tosharpen their abilities, theyreferenced the PlutchikModel of Emotions which de-scribes the eight basic emo-

tions from sadness to joyusing color. Putting line,shape, balance and symme-try into action, the studentsdrew faces representingeach of these emotions.

Emotional intelligenceis effectively blending think-ing and feeling to make betterdecisions. The skills arelearnable and lead to greaterand greater self-awareness,

self-management and self-di-rection. Research shows im-provements in EQ can lead toincreased academic perform-ance, better relationships andreduction in risky behaviors.“As our sixth graders transi-tion to middle school, it is es-sential that they have a solidsense of self and are able toidentify their own emotionsand those of their peers,” ex-plained Jennifer Saul, Deanof EPACS. “This is the firststep in being able to navigatethemselves, relationships,and their life path. I am ex-tremely grateful for the ex-plicit and engaging lessonsthat the EQ Vehicle is deliver-ing to our students. In addi-tion, they are training our staffhow to teach the lessons ontheir own.”

EPACS has enlistedEQ Vehicle (EQV), a MenloPark based not-for-profit ed-ucational start-up missionedwith bringing EQ to as manyschools as possible. Basedon the Six Seconds model,EQVsteam is a constructivistcurriculum designed to teachEQ through the lens of sci-ence, technology, engineer-ing, art and math inadherence with commoncore standards. Cloud deliv-ered and social media en-abled, EQVsteam can bedelivered to any school, any-where.

For more informationabout the EQVsteam and theEQ Vehicle, please go towww.eqvehicle.org

Todd Armstrong is the co-founder of EQ Vehicle.

EPACS sixth graders learn about emotional intelligence

By Alistair ThompsonEast Palo Alto Today

The East Palo Alto Grey-hounds track and field club re-turned home from the USATrack and Field JuniorOlympics earlier this monthwith two top ten finishers anda great deal of optimism for

the program’s future. Smallcommunity aside, the localsquad had plans of makingwaves on the national sceneand it did just that.

Salvador Espinoza led theway, finishing fourth in the na-tion in the 11-12 boys 1500m.Espinoza has been named anall-american four years in a

row now, making him the mostdecorated athlete in the pro-gram.

While Espinoza took thespotlight, Lawan Pattersonwas not far behind, finishingsixth in the nation in the 9-10girls 1500m racewalk. Bran-don Bains also found his wayto the top 25, finishing 16th in

the 15-16 boys 100m and22nd in the boys 200m.Samvrat Gowda (boys 8 andunder 800m), Terrance Matt-hews Murphy (boys 15-16 dis-cus) and Vanessa Patterson(girls 8 and under javelin) allbroke the top 25 as well.

Eric Stuart, head coach andfounder of the club, knewthese kinds of results werewell within reach for the Grey-hounds. No longer just a smallcommunity team, the Grey-hounds are recognized on thenational track and field scene.

Based on the efforts of thesquad this month, it looks like

the Greyhounds name is onlygoing to grow more familiar.

Alistair Thompson interned atEast Palo Alto Today in 201l. Thisfall he will be working in Turkey foran international organization.[Editors’s note: See his first articleabout the Greyhounds, which ap-peared on the EPA Today websitein August with the title, TwentyEast Palo Alto track and field starswill compete at the JuniorOlympics online at www.epato-day.org/news/2015/july_2015_twenty_east_palo_alto_track_and_fiield_stars_will_compete_atthe_junior_olympics_2181_html.Photos by Alistair Thompson

In this photo, the Greyhounds team, led by Eric Stuart, is shown this summer prior to its partic-ipation in the Junior Olympics. In the photo

on the left,F r a n c i s c oSanchez isphotographedgetting out ofthe starting-blocks duringa pre-gamepractice ses-sion.

Photo courtesy of the East Palo Alto Charter SchoolEPAC students are shown participating in a class exercise.

East Palo Alto Today Page 19 Spring - Summer 2015

pectancy of about 14 years.The bottom line is that an in-staller's warranty for leasedequipment can be a lot betterthan a manufacturer's war-ranty. This limited life ex-pectancy of the inverterhighlights the need for mainte-nance contracts.

With thousands of carspassing by each day on theupwind side of the District'ssolar system, the 5 or 10 percent of solar yield that can belost to grime, becomes anissue. Has anyone thought toprovide the plumbing for a gar-den hose for washing down thepanels or will the crew of the$750,000 hook and laddertruck be expected to do thejob? I hope they don't plan touse a wet floor mop and buck-ets of warm soapy water toclean them.

So with the die cast, asmuch as I appreciate the effortin building an environmentallyfriendly fire station and lockingin the cost of electric power bybuying a solar system fromareputable company,, the po-tential is there to fumble away

the public relations opportunityto be had as an early adopterof solar technology and to missreaping all the financial bene-fits of solar PV.

As for the construction de-lays to date, a casual observerwould blame a complex designof a wall meant to accomplishtoo much. ie to be literally bul-let proof, to be as beautiful asa cinder block wall can be andto be as flexible as the built incontrol joints (wiggle connec-tions) can make it. Add a senseof complacency by the generalcontractor tasked with frequentlyinspecting the work and the po-tential is there for redoingHumpty Dumpty's wall severaltimes, before getting it right.

For an organization head-quartered in a brand new officebuilding, you might expectgreater efficiency in over see-ing a year long constructionproject with a lot of movingparts. The Fire District has 4 in-credibly detailed contracts inplace to manage:...A) the Spe-cial Inspector (a testing labora-tory) B) the Architect C) theProject Management Team and D)

thethe General Contractor and Super-intendants.

Despite this institutional ex-perience as a consumer ofconstruction services, basedon my observations from in-side and outside of the FireDistrict, I suspect that the realproblem sits with the organiza-tional culture of the whole or-ganization. I know that theMPFD has a reputation for hardnose, aggressive firefighting.

This is a belief system thatpermeates the entire organiza-tion. The Firefighters' Associa-tion is always at loggerheadswith the Board of Directorsover wages and benefits, therank and file is always buttingheads with the officer corps

andand lawsuits are never settledamicably out of court. It neverends. I'm sticking to my storyand I'm almost relieved that mypolitical career crashed andburned after a single term in of-fice (1999-2003).

An organization that runsaround putting out fires is notgoing to reward anyone forcatching small problems be-fore they become major confla-grations. It is just not in theirDNA. This peculiar near sight-edness only becomes a prob-lem when you are buildingvertically and you have to livewith the foundation you've laiddown, or tear it down to theproblem brick and start over onyour wall. Again. The good

news is that with any prevailingwage job, there are require-ments to hire apprentices. Andwhen rookie mistakes aremade, the job foreman can al-ways blame it on an appren-tice. And they do.

If rumor is correct, the con-struction teams are makingprogress on the project and thepermanent station should be inoperation soon. Just don't holdyour breath. I've installed myshare of telecom systems in firestations in San Jose and I knowthat during an earthquake, whenthe whole city of East Palo Altoshakes and shimmies on its bedof alluvial fill, that it's gonna be theweb of telephone, data and solarpower cable that holds Station IItogether...... not the I-beams, cin-der blocks and rebar which hasbeen supplied and installed bythe lowest bidder. The bottom lineis that the building will be com-pleted when the constructionworkers are done with it. Forgetabout the completion dates onthe MPFD's banners and website. Trust me. I'm a politician.April Fools Day 2016 or bust!

East Palo Alto's Junior Giants completes the summer season

Has organizational culture continued from page 9

dades físicas o aquellos quese enfrentan a las barreras delidioma y necesitan ayuda du-rante la votación podríanpreferir a visitar a un centro devotación. Así que, por estas ra-zones y por otras similares,como en el caso de alguienque no recibió una boleta osimplemente perdió el suyo,un lugar de votación aún es-taría disponible.

Church hizo dijo que todaslas jurisdicciones en el Con-dado de San Mateo deben par-ticipar para que el proyectopiloto pueda avanzar. Si unayuntamiento decide no partic-ipar a pesar de que todas lasjurisdicciones vecinas quierenparticipar, el condado no serácapaz de llevar a cabo unaelección de voto exclusiva-mente por correo.

A pesar de esta posibilidad,Church dijo que tomando encuenta todos los beneficios del

programa, el está confiado enque no sería difícil convencera todaslas juris-diccionesa quep a r -ticipen.

P e r ocon lat e c -no log íade estosdías, laidea de hacer algo a través de"correo de caracol" es casitabú, especialmente para losvotantes más jóvenes.

Por lo tanto, no es tan sor-prendente de saber que la may-oría de los residentes que votanpor correo en el condado de SanMateo, son mayores de 66 años,mientras que la minoría de losque votan por correo están entrelas edades de 18 y 25.

Los seguidores de AB 2028

tienen la esperanza de quecon la eliminación de un viaje

al lugar de votación ycon el envío de las bo-letas directamente aldomicilio del elector, elproyecto de ley haráque la votación vaya aser más convenientepara todos y, dehecho, va a animar amás gente a votar.

El proyecto piloto,actualmente autor-

izado por AB 2028, se enfo-cara en las personas que enestos momentos no votan porcorreo. De hecho, el condadoya tiene una campaña demedios que incluye radio, digi-tal, medios impresos y so-ciales.

"Los beneficios potencialesson significativos," Church dijo,citando el hecho de que AB2028 tiene el potencial de re-ducir los costos.

Agregó que si más gentevota por correo, la ciudadnecesitará menos personasque trabajen en los centros devotación, menos máquinas devotación, y menos lugares devotación.

Estos componentes combi-nados podrían resultar en ries-gos reducidos de erroreshechos por humanos, ya quemenos personas manejaranlas papeletas, y resultadosmás rápidos, ya que no habrápapeletas recinto para contar.

Carlos Romero, miembro delConsejo dio su apoyo. "Me encan-taría ver cómo, de hecho, adopta-mos esto", el dijo.

Dado que el proyecto ac-tual con AB 2028 es un pilotode un, el condado de SanMateo tiene la obligación depresentar un informe a la Sec-retaría de Estado ya la Asam-blea Legislativa del Estado deCalifornia. Los resultados del

informe del condado determi-narán la eficacia del pro-grama.

"Espero con interés la re-visión de los resultados," dijoRomero.

Lisa Yarbrough Gauthier,la alcalde de East Palo Alto,expresó un interés personalen el objetivo del proyecto deley de aumento de la partici-pación de voto: "Es muy im-portante para mí como unaAfroamericana de asegu-rarme que sigamos votando,"ella dijo "Quiero animar a lagente a votar."

Miembros del consejo dela ciudad no hicieron una de-cisión sobre el programa deBoleta hasta su reunión el 07de Julio 2015, cuando pasarony adoptaron una resolución queEast Palo Alto si participaría enel programa piloto.

Foto cortesia de pixabay.com

Nueva ley continuado de pagina 13

By Saundra WebsterEast Palo Alto Today

Coach Ray Askew completed East PaloAlto's Junior Giants Summer Baseballwith the support of volunteer coaches

and parents. June 1, 2015 to August 15, 2015with a celebration including cotton candy, pop-corn, ice cream and delicious food. Name ofthe 4 teams by "uniforms' color". Looking for-ward to summer of 2016. Below: Shirley Davis,Coach Ray Askew, Ella Mae Williams andOlivia Chavira.

Photo courtesy of the Menlo Park Fire District websiteThis photo shows the East Palo Alto firehouse that is under construction.

Photo courtesy of Talking with HenriettaFrom left, Michelle Mangum, Shaunn Cartwright, show hostHenrietta J. Burroughs, and Nicki Manske are shown on theset of the Talking with Henrietta television show after the tap-ing of their discussion on August 27, 2015.

Talking with HenriettaWomen’s Equality: Where Are We Now

Women have mademany forward strides in theirefforts to gain equal rights inthe United States. But, many-- including the guests onthis edition of Talking withHenrietta, think there is still along way that women inAmerica have to go to gainboth equal rights with menand equal opportunities.

For more informationabout the guests and the

show go online to www.epa-today.org/tv.html#womense-quality.

This new edition can beseen online at www.midpen-media.org. and on Channel30 on Comcast on the Mid-peninsula on Sundays at 5p.m., Tuesdays at 8 p.m.,Wednesdays at 3 a.m. and11 a.m., Thursdays at 8 p.m.,and Fridays at 3 a.m. and 11a.m.

East Palo Alto Today Page 20 Spring - Summer 2015

Community CalendarCity Council Meeting

Every first and thirdTuesday at 7:30 p.m.

City Council returns fromrecess. Meeting will takeplace at 2415 University Av-enue.

Police Department BeatThree Meeting - WednesdaySeptember 9, 2015 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Meeting will take place inthe Community Room atPeninsula Park Apartmentslocated at 1977 Tate Street.

Midpen Media Center Mo-saic Event - Sunday Sep-tember 13, 2015 - 2 p.m. to5 p.m.

Come celebrate 25 yearsof community storytelling atthe Midpen Media Center:This is a FREE family friendlyevent. Location: 900 San An-tonio Road.

Planning CommissionMeeting - Monday Septem-ber 14 and September 28,2015- 7:00 p.m.

Meeting will take place in

the City Council Chamberslocated at 2415 University Av-enue.

Regular Public Works andTransportation CommissionMeeting - Wednesday Sep-tember 16, 2015- 7:30p.m.

Meeting will take place inthe City Hall Council Cham-bers located at 2415 Univer-sity Avenue.

Police Department BeatOne and Four MeetingThursday September 17,

New bill could change continued from page 6Church emphasized that all

jurisdictions in San MateoCounty must participate in orderfor the pilot project to move for-ward. If one city council decidesnot to participate even thoughall neighboring jurisdictionswant to participate, the countywill not be able to conduct anAll-Mailed Ballot Election.

In spite of this possibility,Church said that he is confidentit would not be difficult to con-vince all jurisdictions to partici-pate, given the benefits of theprogram.

Still, with today's technology,the idea of doing anythingthrough “snail mail” is almosttaboo, especially for youngervoters. So, it is not surprisingthat the majority of residents,who vote by mail in San MateoCounty, are over the age of 66,while the minority of those whovote by mail are between theages of 18 and 25.

AB 2028’s supporters hopethat by eliminating a trip to thepolling place and sending bal-lots straight to the voter’s home,the bill will make voting moreconvenient for everyone and, ul-timately, will encourage morepeople to vote.

The pilot project, currently au-thorized by AB 2028, will targetthose who do not now vote bymail. In fact, the county alreadyhas a media campaign that in-cludes radio, digital, print andsocial media.

“The potential benefits are sig-nificant,” Church said, citing thefact that AB 2028 has the poten-tial to reduce costs.

He added that if more peoplevote by mail, the city will needfewer election officers, fewervoting machines, and fewerpolling locations. These compo-nents combined could lead toboth reduced risks of human er-rors, as fewer people will behandling the ballots, and faster

results, since there will be noprecinct ballots to count.

Council member CarlosRomero was supportive. “Iwould love to see how, indeed,we embrace this,” he said.

Since the current project withAB 2028 is a pilot one, SanMateo County is required toprovide a report to the Secre-tary of State and to the Califor-nia State Legislature. Theresults of the county’s report willdetermine the effectiveness ofthe program.

“I look forward to reviewing theresults,” Romero said.

Lisa Yarbrough Gauthier, themayor of East Palo Alto, ex-pressed a personal interest inthe bill’s goal of increasing vot-ing participation: “It’s really im-portant to me as an AfricanAmerican to make sure that wecontinue to vote,” she said ”Iwant to encourage people tovote.”

City council members did notmake a decision on the All-Mailed Ballot program until theirJuly 7, 2015 meeting, whenthey passed and adopted a res-olution that East Palo Alto wouldparticipate in the pilot program.

is running a work zone over us,” saidHerriot.

This “work zone” is noisyand disruptive, said the group– planes fly at low altitude, dayand night, and there are manyof them. One Sky Possemember counted six planes,flying at under 5,000 feet,passing over East Palo Altobetween midnight and 6:10 amone night in March. The noisefrom these planes disturbs oursleep and has health conse-quences, he noted.

East Palo Alto is also af-fected by noise from Palo AltoAirport, where small propellerplanes take off and land.

If trends continue, aircraftnoise will only get worse, Her-riot said. The Federal AviationAdministration is changing to anew air traffic control systemknown as NextGen, runningaircraft through narrow air cor-ridors that are like “grooves inthe sky”. Although traffic com-

ing into San Fran-cisco hasn’t in-creased muchrecently, flights overEast Palo Alto andPalo Alto have in-creased significantlybecause more air-craft are flying downthe same concen-trated pathways,rather than beingspread out.

Sky Posse has proposedseveral solutions to this noiseproblem. Planes could berouted over San FranciscoBay, where their noise will notdisturb people below. Aircraftcould be required to fly athigher than 6,000 feet over themid-peninsula, and there couldbe a night curfew on flightsover the area.

Citizen groups have beeneffective in getting airplanenoise reduced in the past, saidSky Posse member Jennifer

Landesmann. Fifteen yearsago, Congresswoman AnnaEshoo helped area residentsbroker an agreement with SanFrancisco Airport and the FAAto have planes fly at a higheraltitude over the mid-penin-sula. This wasn’t a writtenagreement, however, and it isno longer being honored.

Nevertheless, the group isoptimistic that future change ispossible. Congress “is sup-portive of our advocacy, butthey need us to speak with onevoice,” said Landesmann.

Sky Posse urgedthe city to get involvedin regional activities toreduce aircraft noiseover the mid-penin-sula. The City of PaloAlto, for example, mayfund a professionalstudy of airplane noiseso that it can approachthe FAA to seek alter-native flight paths, andEast Palo Alto can

support this work. The groupalso suggested that the citycould seek membership in theSFO Airport/CommunityRoundtable, which is made upof local officials and dedicatedto addressing the impact of air-port noise on nearby commu-nities.

Mayor Lisa Yarbrough-Gauthier asked for the PaloAlto Airport’s phone number forcomplaints, and expressedconcern about the air pollutioncaused by planes, in addition

to the noise pollution. She saidthat the city wanted to look fur-ther into the aircraft noiseissue, and that she would liketo discuss the topic again at afuture meeting.

Councilmember Larry Moodycommented on the link be-tween economic growth andincreased air traffic. McKenziesaid that the traffic at Palo AltoAirport has increased, and thatshe would like the airport topresent the community with a20-year plan and do noisestudies. Landesmann com-mented that neither the airportsnor the FAA have put limits ongrowth in the number of flights.

In the meantime, the mayorencouraged residents to call air-port complaint lines when theywere disturbed by airplanenoise. “Let’s make our voiceheard,” she said.

An online complaint formcan be found and submitted atwww.change.org

Airplane noise continued from page 1

Photo by pixabay.com

2015- 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.Meeting will be held in the

Community Room at CityHall located at 2415 Univer-sity Avenue.

Dave Newhouse at LittleHouse Tuesday September22, 2015- 2:00 p.m.

Contact Membership andGuest Services ManagerPaige (650) 326-2025 Ext.242or go to www.penvol.org/lit-tlehouse.

Benefit Luncheon to HonorLocal Women Leaders Sep-tember 26, 2015 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Thirteen Bay Area ex-traordinary women will behonored at a special lunch-

eon for their leadership andimportant contribution to so-ciety. The event will takeplace at the Hyatt in SantaClara. For information or topurchase tickets, pleasecontact: Carolyn Hoskins at 650-921-4191 orcarolyn_hoskins56@yahoo.com

Graphic courtesy of www.change.org

See more community calendar

events at

the website for the

East Palo Alto Today newspaper

www.epatoday.org