INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Winter Home & Garden Design

Spectrum 16 Movies 20 Eating Out 22 Shop Talk 23 Puzzles 43

Vol. XXXIV, Number 15 January 11, 2013

Arts Bing Concert Hall opens with Beethoven Page 18

Sports Paly boys’ soccer having fun again Page 24

Home Brrr: not too late to save plants Page 29

Greg Scharff,

Nancy Shepherd

to lead City

Council in 2013

PAGE 3

A new day at City Hall

AN ALMANAC, MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE AND PALO ALTO WEEKLY PUBLICATION

HOME+GARDEN

WINTER 2013

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Page 2

T he Palo Alto City Council ushered in the new year Mon-day night by choosing Greg

Scharff and Nancy Shepherd as its mayor and vice mayor for 2013.

At a meeting that began with a swearing-in ceremony for four council members and ended with

an emotional send-off for two oth-ers, the council voted unanimously to select Scharff as its mayor for the next 12 months. The decision was largely a foregone conclusion, given Scharff’s position as vice mayor in 2012 and the city’s tradition of ele-vating its vice mayor to the council’s

top position the following year.Shepherd’s election to vice mayor

was more suspenseful after she withstood a challenge from Council-woman Karen Holman. The former school-district activist was elected by a vote of 6-3, with Councilman Pat Burt, Councilman Greg Schmid and Holman herself voting for Holman.

The election to mayor completes Scharff’s meteoric rise to the top of the city’s political scene. He was elected in 2009 on the strength of a

grassroots campaign based in large part on his opposition to a proposed business-license tax. Unlike most of his colleagues, he had not served on any local boards or commissions before joining the council.

Since then, he has emerged as one of the council’s most confident and assertive voices, taking a lead-ing role in the city’s effort to curtail the rising costs of employee benefits and to promote bike-friendly initia-tives. He and Holman both played a

central part in the city’s successful campaign in 2011 to repeal binding arbitration for public-safety workers. He was also an outspoken opponent of last year’s proposal to legalize medical-marijuana dispensaries in the city — a proposal that fizzled in the ballot box in November.

Scharff also hasn’t shied away from the lighter components of his position, taking part in various

UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis

Veronica Weber

After Scharff wins unanimous support for mayor, Shepherd beats out Holman for vice mayor job

by Gennady Sheyner

H igh school students over-whelmingly endorsed recent reforms to the Palo Alto’s ac-

ademic calendar in informal inter-views conducted at Gunn and Palo Alto high schools this week.

Among 17 students interviewed one-to-one, all but three were en-thusiastic about the new calendar, which launched the school year ear-lier in August in order to squeeze in the first semester before the December break. Previously, the school year began in late August and first-semester exams were held in late January.

Nearly all the students said the clean semester break over the holi-days had allowed them to relax in a way that had not been possible when

they faced post-holiday finals.The value of that, they said, out-

weighed any inconveniences with the new calendar.

“In high school, especially at schools like Paly and Gunn where the curriculum is so rigorous, it’s rare to have a period of time where there’s no work,” said Paly senior Emma Ketchum.

“Having that break with no home-work was really, really nice.”

Ketchum, who said she originally had been “worried” about the new schedule, found the experience bet-ter than she expected.

“I thought it would be hard (to take finals in December), but it really wasn’t,” she said. “And af-ter everything was done, having

that break without any homework and minimal college applications you have left was really nice. You could relax and just have that time to breathe.”

Like most others, Gunn senior Katherine Zu echoed those senti-ments.

“Having a stress-free winter break is really great, and I think that’s what makes this calendar change awesome,” Zu said.

“My winter break was relatively stress-free although I did have col-lege applications. For the first week I could just focus on college apps in-stead of having to balance out both finals and college apps,” she said.

Teens enthusiastic about new school calendarIn one-to-one interviews, students say ‘work-free break’ is worth tradeoffs

by Chris Kenrick

P alo Alto’s landfill in Byxbee Park officially closed in the summer of 2011, but the de-

funct facility continues to puzzle en-vironmentalists and local officials, who will consider this week what to do with the former landfill’s site at the end of Embarcadero Road.

The property has been a source of heated controversy in the green community in recent years, with many conservationists urging the city to honor its promise of capping the landfill and allowing the acreage to revert to public parkland. State regulations also mandate that the city cap the facility to prevent con-tamination of the surrounding area from methane and leachate.

But another contingent of envi-ronmentalists believes that a 10-acre section should house a new com-posting plant. The landfill previ-ously housed the city’s composting operation, and its closure has forced the city to ship its yard waste to the Z-Best facility in Gilroy.

This coming week, the City Coun-cil will wade into the messy green debate when members consider how much of the landfill site, if any, the city should cap. The council will also review at its Monday night meeting the staff’s request for proposals for vendors who could potentially build a new anaerobic digester, a plant that converts compost, food waste and yard scraps into energy. The request will also allow companies to propose options for exporting these categories of waste for processing elsewhere.

With the city still studying the po-tential costs and impacts of an anaer-obic digester, staff is reluctant to cap the entire site, particularly if the city would later have to disturb the area and remove the cap to make way for the waste-to-energy facility.

In a new report from the Public

Works Department, staff is rec-ommending capping 34 acres of the 51-acre site and leave 17 acres uncapped. The uncapped area, ac-cording to the report, would be big enough to accommodate the new plant and ancillary operations. Other options on the table include postponing all capping as well as capping the entire acreage.

Former Councilwoman Emily Renzel, a staunch conservationist who opposes the construction of a facility in Byxbee Park, is lobbying for the latter option. In a letter to the council, Renzel urged officials to cover the landfill as soon as pos-sible with the aim of having the en-tire 126-acre Byxbee Park reopened to the public by 2014. The city had already capped 75 acres.

“It is time for us to complete the capping of Byxbee Park and make this a park like Bedwell Baylands Park in Menlo Park and Shoreline Park in Mountain View,” Renzel wrote. “For all of Palo Alto’s talk of environmental leadership, this is one area where we have failed abysmally.”

But this option would come at a price, particularly if the city elects to proceed with the new compost plant. Staff estimates that removing and reconstructing the cap to make way for the plant could cost up to $3 million. The staff report notes that the “selection of any of these land-fill capping options will not limit the potential size or functionality of an energy/compost facility because some cap can be removed if a larger facility is selected.

“However, options that result in the removal and subsequent recon-struction of cap acreage would in-crease the overall development costs

Early birds for FreebirdsPeople came from near and far to vie for free burritos for a year at the grand opening of Freebirds World Burrito on El Camino Real in Palo Alto on Thursday, Jan. 10. Among the first folks lined up Wednesday night were Gilbert Sadler of Modesto, left, Shawn Underwood of Antelope, Katie Williams of Palo Alto and Stanford University students Alex Kwiatkowski and Andrew Mather. Temperature dropped to a chilly 34 degrees overnight, but most — especially those who make standing in line for openings a habit — came well-prepared with tents and cold-weather gear.

EDUCATION

Palo Alto set to debate future of old landfill site

City to consider how much of the Byxbee Park site should be left open for proposed compost plant

by Gennady Sheyner

ENVIRONMENT

Scharff, Shepherd to lead City Council in 2013

(continued on page 6)

(continued on page 10)(continued on page 5)

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Page 3

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Around Town

‘‘‘‘

FIRST CHAPTER ... Palo Alto’s

two newest City Council members

made their dais debuts Monday

night, and the differences were

striking. Liz Kniss, a political vet-

eran who has twice been a Palo

Alto mayor and just concluded

her last term on the Santa Clara

County Board of Supervisors,

opened the newest chapter in

her council career by reverting to

campaign mode and thanking sup-

porters who helped bring her back

to the council — her husband, her

family and her campaign manager.

Attorney Marc Berman, the only

truly “new” member of the council,

kept a lower profile but managed

to inject a little levity to the august

proceedings. His first comments

after being sworn in came after

Councilman Larry Klein nomi-

nated Greg Scharff to serve as the

city’s mayor in 2013. At that point,

Berman — who was temporarily

sitting in outgoing Mayor Yiaway Yeh’s chair in the middle of the

dais — asked staff for some clari-

fication. “If Greg gets elected, do I

lose this seat?” he asked. “It might

change my decision.” He did lose

the seat, but it didn’t change his

decision. Berman praised Scharff,

calling the new mayor “generous

with his sage advice but also open

to different viewpoints.” Scharff

was elected unanimously.

LAST CHAPTER ... The first coun-

cil meeting of 2013 was the last

meeting for two Palo Alto council

members. Yiaway Yeh and Sid Es-pinosa, who both joined the coun-

cil in 2008 and who had served as

mayor, respectively, in 2012 and

2011, earned official commenda-

tions and an outpouring of praise

from their colleagues. Council-

woman Karen Holman, in com-

menting on Yeh’s tenure, pointed

out that on Jan. 7, 1992, exactly

21 years before the Monday meet-

ing, Tom Seaver and Rolly Fingers

were elected to the Baseball Hall

of Fame. “I thought it was appro-

priate to mention it this evening

because you, as mayor, hit it out of

the park,” a somewhat verklempt

Holman told Yeh. To Espinosa,

she offered another date — Jan.

7, 1936. That was the day of the

famous tennis match between

Helen Moody and Howard Kins-ley, in which the two combined

for 2,001 volleys. She likened it to

Espinosa’s famous ability to go

without sleep and to be seemingly

everywhere at once. She referred

to Espinosa’s “boundless” energy

and called him “omnipresent and

indefatigable — which is what the

tennis record is.” Both former may-

ors returned the favor and heaped

praise on their colleagues. Yeh, in

a tearful speech, thanked his fam-

ily, his fellow council members and

the voters of Palo Alto who elected

him in November 2007 despite

his young age. “Let me close with

what I know is very much in the

room tonight — a deep apprecia-

tion and love for Palo Alto and all

of our community.” Espinosa also

had kind words to say about Palo

Alto’s civic-minded populace. “We

have a city full of ridiculously smart

people who get involved, get the

facts, rally the troops and want

to be deeply involved,” he said.

“I have learned how rare this is in

other cities, and we are all better

off for it.”

BLACK AND BLUE ... One Palo

Alto neighborhood could soon

see a major overhaul in trash collection as soon as April. The

neighborhood, which city staff is

in the final stages of identifying,

will be asked to say farewell to

their black garbage cans. Instead,

residents would now be asked to

load all their waste into one of the

two remaining carts — blue or

green. The green one would con-

tain yard trimmings, food waste

and all other compostable materi-

als. The blue one would contain

recyclable goods and “landfill”

items such as pet waste, diapers,

bathroom waste and, interestingly

enough, granola-bar wrappers.

The pilot program was scheduled

for City Council consideration in

December, but staff chose to kick

the item forward to early 2013.

On Monday night, the council will

get its chance to approve the pro-

gram and give the residents in the

selected neighborhood the city’s

first residential compostables-collection program. According to

a new report, the goals of the one-

year pilot program are to divert

more recyclable and compostable

items from landfills, determine

whether the new system is cost-

effective, simplify waste-sorting for

residents and reduce the number

of garbage-truck trips.

It’s the first time the break is actually a break.

— Daniel Gleeson, a Palo Alto High School sophomore, on the new academic calendar that ended the first semester in December instead of January. See story on page 3.

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Page 4

Upfront

SAN FRANCISQUITO CREEK

C ommunity members from Palo Alto and East Palo Alto jammed into the theater at

the Lucie Stern Community Center in Palo Alto to voice their opinions on the proposed replacement New-ell Road bridge on Tuesday night, Jan. 8.

Residents at the public meeting, some of whom were forced to stand in the theater’s aisles for lack of room, brought the issues of traffic, pedestrian safety and flood con-trol to the forefront of the discus-sion of replacing or removing the bridge, which has spanned the San Francisquito Creek for more than a century.

The San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority and the cities of Palo Alto and East Palo Alto plan to replace the bridge as part of a larger effort to reduce the risk of flood-ing in adjacent neighborhoods. The bridge’s abutments currently con-strict water flow and will not ac-commodate a major flood like the one that occurred in 1998, accord-ing to Joe Teresi, senior engineer for the City of Palo Alto.

The group’s recommendation was to assess the environmental impact of a series of alternatives to the bridge. Detractors and supporters from nearly every side spoke about the options during the meeting.

The 40-foot-long bridge lies at the East Palo Alto-Palo Alto border, where Newell crosses the creek. At 18 feet wide, it barely allows two ve-hicles to pass at the same time and

slows traffic significantly.Many meeting attendees opposed

building a new, 75-foot-long, 32-foot-wide bridge that would allow cars to pass more easily and whose design would ease the risk of flooding at the site. The detractors said a larger bridge would increase traffic in the neighborhood and make the area less safe for pedestrians, especially for school children during the hur-ried morning commute.

Several residents supported the idea of removing the bridge alto-gether, their suggestion receiving boisterous applause and cheers. One suggested it would reduce the flood risk and be far cheaper than rebuilding the bridge, which City Manager James Keene said would cost around $3 million.

The proposal to rebuild the bridge on a much smaller scale to allow only pedestrians and bicyclists to cross was also popular among at-tendees. They said such a bridge would allow for children who bike or walk to school to use it without increasing traffic in the area.

“I’d like to know why (the city) is searching for a gold-plated solution to a flood problem when it seems rel-atively clear that a pedestrian bridge or no bridge at all would solve it,” one Palo Alto resident said.

Jaime Rodriguez, chief transpor-tation official for the City of Palo Alto, said these options were pos-sible, but the project would lose significant state funds designated for the bridge’s replacement. Some

residents at the meeting worried that removing the bridge would make it more difficult for emergen-cy vehicles such as ambulances to reach the area between the bridge and U.S. Highway 101.

One person urged neighbors not to be “selfish” in lobbying for the removal of the bridge, saying the 3,000 cars that cross it each day would be displaced to nearby roads, some which are already traffic bot-tlenecks.

Helen Fitzgerald, who lives on the Palo Alto side of the creek, said mixing the problems of traffic and flood control was an example of what she called “scope creep.”

“Are we addressing flooding? Traf-fic? Traffic and flooding? We need to focus on the primary concern: flood-ing and flood insurance.”

Len Materman, the San Francis-quito Creek Joint Powers Author-ity’s executive director, said 5,400 homes in the creek’s floodplain currently pay about $6 million per year in federally mandated flood in-surance. He said the comprehensive plan to reduce flood risk in the area might allow residents to avoid pay-ing flood insurance.

Fitzgerald said she appreciated officials for “taking a step back” to look at the issue more closely with the environmental-impact report, but another Palo Alto resident, who identified himself as Mike, voiced concern that the study might mean flood-prevention improvements might not happen soon enough. He

said he lost two cars in the 1998 flood and was unable to live in his house for two months.

“My main concern is not to have ‘analysis paralysis,’” he said. “I want that bridge gone so that we can have the Chaucer Street bridge gone so I don’t have to worry about my house flooding.”

The environmental-impact study of the possible bridge alternatives could take a year to complete, city staff said.

Margaret Trujillo, a resident of East Palo Alto, spoke against re-moval of the bridge, saying that it would further isolate commuters and school children from East Palo Alto, where there are already few options for reaching Palo Alto.

“I don’t think it’s right to categori-cally disenfranchise an entire com-munity by saying, ‘We don’t want a bridge,’” she said.

Anna Turner, also a resident of East Palo Alto, said removing the bridge would not be a good option for her community.

“The Bay Area is growing; it’s not

separate from Palo Alto and East Palo Alto,” she said. “Tearing down a bridge and separating a community is not going to solve anything. East Palo Alto has accepted a lot of burdens; maybe it’s time to spread it out.”

Keene closed the meeting after former 49ers quarterback Steve Young, a resident of Palo Alto, spoke to the crowd, encouraging them not to support a bridge design that would significantly change how traffic moves through the area now.

“Maybe on both sides of the bridge we could gather enough con-sensus ... to not change the scope of the bridge that we’ve gotten so used to,” he said.

Editorial Assistant Eric Van Susteren can be emailed at evan-susteren@paweekly.com.

Residents split over Newell Road bridgeConcerns about traffic, flooding and safety take center stage at Palo Alto meeting

by Eric Van Susteren

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W Bayshore Rd

Hamilton Ave

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Newell Roadbridge

The Newell Road bridge, which was built in 1911, is 40 feet long and 18 feet wide, barely wide enough to allow two vehicles to pass at the same time.

Map

by

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Cor

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What solution do you envision for the problems involving the Newell Road bridge? Share your opinion on Town Square, the community discussion fo-rum on Palo Alto Online.

TALK ABOUT ITwww.PaloAltoOnline.com

“With the old calendar, finals were three weeks after winter break, and sometimes — even if I reviewed dur-ing winter break — I’d still forget some stuff and have to review again, so it was relatively ineffective.”

Two of the 17 students interviewed said they’d prefer to go back to the old calendar and a third student, Paly senior Bria Vicenti, was criti-cal of the new calendar but believes it should be retained and tweaked.

“I’m not a fan of the new calen-dar,” said Paly senior Charlie Du-lik. “Maybe I had a little less stress over winter break, but I had a much greater amount right before the end of the semester,” he said, noting that some teachers had scheduled big unit tests the week before finals, just as many seniors were dealing with college applications.

Gunn sophomore Erica Watkins said the new calendar made it nearly impossible to get feedback, or have discussions with teachers, about final exams because grades were not due until after break. Worrying about those grades created stress for her over the break, she said.

Vicenti — who received early ac-ceptance from a college the night before her final exams in December

— said the new calendar was par-ticularly rough for some students hit with negative early-decision news from colleges just as they were tak-ing finals.

“I do think in the long run (the new calendar) is a good idea, but it was rough to have it switch in my senior year,” Vicenti said.

“I think it will take them a few years to work out the kinks.”

Vicenti said the mid-August school start forced her to leave ear-ly from her camp-counseling job on the East Coast.

“I wish they could find an alter-native to starting school so early,” she said.

But most students interviewed said the early start had not been a problem for them or their families.

Paly senior Elisabeth Yan said she’d had to come back early from a summer internship in London, but the earlier end to first semester was worth the tradeoff.

“We used to study during winter break, and it was nice just to have that closure so there was nothing you had to worry about,” Yan said.

Yan, who spent part of her break finishing college applications, said it was nice not to have to think about upcoming finals at the same time.

“And since (college applications) were due Jan. 1, we had a week left of break where there was nothing to be done.

“It was relaxing and really nice.”Paly sophomore Daniel Gleeson

got his wisdom teeth extracted over winter break but said he still pre-ferred it to last year’s winter break.

“It’s the first time the break is actually a break and that teach-ers don’t expect you to remember everything after you come back,” Gleeson said.

“They don’t have to keep re-teaching the same thing. They just move on, which is good.”

As for the mid-August school start, Gleeson said, “I wasn’t too happy about it, but I’m going to be really happy to get out in May and I’m looking forward to that.”

After heated debate, the new cal-endar was adopted by the Board of Education in an emotional 3-2 vote in 2011. It applies to the current school year as well as to 2013-14.

Board action on future school cal-endars, starting with 2014-15, is ex-pected late this fall, and the school district has appointed an advisory committee to evaluate the recent reforms.

The committee will help survey stu-dents, parents and teachers about the pros and cons of the new schedule.

Committee members are elemen-tary parents Amy Kacher, Stuart Friedman, Lance Martin and Kathy Jordan; middle school and high school parents Susan Usman, How-ard Lee, Mukund Sreenivasan and

Tekla Nee; Gunn teacher Laurie Pennington; Walter Hays Elemen-tary School teachers Abby Bradski and Michelle Ketcham; Paly teacher Debbie Whitson; Gunn Assistant Principal Trinity Klein; Jordan Mid-dle School Principal Greg Barnes; Gunn students Justice Tention and

Sarah Dukes-Schlossberg and Paly student Jessica Feinberg. Gunn stu-dent Neel Guha was chosen as an alternate and one more Paly student representative is to be named.

Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly.com.

Calendar(continued from page 3)

City Council (Jan. 7)Mayor: The council elected Greg Scharff to serve as the city’s mayor for 2013. Yes: Unanimous Vice Mayor: The council elected Nancy Shepherd to serve as the city’s vice mayor for 2013. Voted for Shepherd: Berman, Klein, Kniss, Price, Scharff, Shepherd Voted for Holman: Burt, Holman, Schmid

Planning and Transportation Commission (Jan. 8)Density-bonus ordinance: The commission discussed proposed changes to the city’s density-bonus ordinance, which gives developers incentives for building af-fordable housing. The commission voted to continue the item to a later date to give staff a chance to make minor revisions to the proposal. Action: None

Utilities Advisory Commission (Jan. 8)Carbon neutrality: The commission voted to authorize City of Palo Alto Utilities to spend up to $0.0015 per kilowatt hour to achieve carbon neutrality for the city’s elec-tric portfolio in 2013. The council had authorized staff to recommend a $0.0025/kWh threshold. Yes: Chang, Cook, Eglash, Hall No: Foster, Melton Absent: WaldfogelDemand response: The commission voted to extend by three years the Demand Response Pilot Program for large commercial electric customers. Yes: Chang, Cook, Eglash, Foster, Hall, Melton Absent: Waldfogel

CityViewA round-up of Palo Alto government action this week

Page 5

groundbreaking ceremonies and city functions throughout the year.

Councilman Larry Klein, who nominated Scharff, praised his abil-ity to “keep us moving along and reach sometimes compromise solu-tions and sometimes better-worded resolutions.” Scharff has already chaired numerous meetings, particu-larly those involving Stanford Uni-versity, from which outgoing Mayor Yiaway Yeh had to recuse himself.

“We’ve seen he can do the job,” Klein said of Scharff.

Klein also rejected the notion that a mayor is strictly a ceremonial position in Palo Alto. The position involves not only chairing meet-ings but also representing the city in other communities, in the United States and abroad.

“I think Greg has shown that he is a leader for our community,” Klein said.

In his first speech as mayor, Scharff said he has much to look forward to in 2013, including the opening of the new Mitchell Park Library and Community Center, the implementation of the city’s new Bike and Pedestrian Transportation Plan, and the city’s electric utility reaching a carbon-neutral portfolio. He also said the council still has plenty of work to do, particularly when it comes to curtailing costs.

“As those of you who follow city issues know, we still have much hard work ahead and many choices that will define our community for decades,” Scharff said. “That future is now. At the end of 2013, I want all of us to look back and say, ‘Wow. We accomplished a lot.’”

Both Scharff and Shepherd joined the council in 2009, the last council election to occur in an odd-number year. Councilwoman Gail Price and Holman also joined the council that year, while Klein was re-elected for another term.

Price, who nominated Shepherd, lauded her respect for the colleagues, preparation for meetings and sense of humor. Shepherd has been heavily involved in the city’s ongoing effort to promote youth well-being and in its decision-making process over the future of the Cubberley Community Center. A Southgate resident, she took a central role in her neighborhood’s opposition to the state’s high-speed-rail proposal in 2009 and has served on the council’s Rail Committee.

Over the past year, the former PTA Council president has also chaired the council’s Finance Committee.

“Nancy is well-versed on a wide variety of issues and prepares care-fully and thoughtfully for all meet-ings and discussions,” Price said.

In accepting the nomination, Shepherd called it “an honor” to serve on the council.

“I think we do take rigor with all of our debate,” Shepherd said. “This is something we really want to get right for the community.”

The council began its meeting by swearing in the four members elect-ed last November — incumbents Burt and Schmid, former Mayor Liz Kniss and Marc Berman.

The meeting ended on a bit-tersweet note, as the council said its farewell to two of its youngest members, Yiaway Yeh and Sid Es-pinosa. The council unanimously passed resolutions in honor of Yeh and Espinosa, with each receiving a standing ovation for his five years of service on the council.

Upfront

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CITY COUNCIL

T o most Palo Alto residents, Greg Scharff was a political wild card in 2009, the year he

decided to run for City Council.Competing in a 14-candidate

field full of former commissioners, school-board members and long-time community volunteers, Scharff was a true newcomer to the political scene. But it didn’t take long for the South Africa-born attorney to make an impression and narrow the name-recognition gap. In a few months, he quickly brought himself up to speed on all pressing local issues, from pension obligations to high-speed rail; took a commanding lead in cash raised; and won the blessing of major political doyens and busi-ness leaders.

The effort paid off, and in January 2010, the political neophyte found himself as one of five council mem-bers (four new ones and re-elected incumbent Larry Klein) taking part in a swear-in ceremony.

Since then, Scharff has estab-lished himself as one of the City Council’s most assertive and en-thusiastic members, frequently co-authoring colleagues’ memos that

propose new initiatives; actively campaigning for or against ballot measures; challenging staff during technical discussions of refuse rates and utility strategies; and willingly taking the central role in the city’s bitter battle against labor unions.

Scharff was at the forefront of the city’s successful 2011 ballot measure to repeal binding arbitration for po-lice and firefighters, an issue that had split the council and frustrated the public-safety workers who have long viewed the provision as a bedrock protection of their labor agreement. He was also a leading opponent of last year’s proposal to allow up to three medical-marijuana dispensa-ries to open in the city and an en-thusiastic advocate of the proposed renovation of California Avenue, a proposal that has enraged a group of merchants. In each case, his side won, and it wasn’t even close.

Scharff managed to fight his battles with a smile on his face and without the wonky jargon that of-ten characterizes Palo Alto’s coun-cil discussions. For example, when council members in 2010 were discussing the refuse operation’s

struggle to reconcile its ambitious environmental goals with its finan-cial health, Scharff summarized the dilemma in a catchy slogan, “Zero Waste is equaling zero dollars.” (The council later decided to add fees to bolster the refuse fund.)

Over his three years on the coun-cil, he has managed to be assertive without apparently alienating any of his colleagues, who on Monday night unanimously elected him mayor for 2013.

Scharff in many ways presents a sharp contrast to Yiaway Yeh, the 2012 mayor who took part in his fi-nal City Council meeting this week. Yeh, a former auditor, had been one of the council’s leading policy wonks, utilities experts and voices of mod-eration and inclusiveness. As mayor, he generally strived for compromise, whether between colleagues arguing on opposing sides of an issue or in the disputes between the council and the labor unions (Yeh was among the council members most sympathetic to the labor unions). His signature program, “The Mayor’s Challenge,”

Greg Scharff’s surge to the topPalo Alto’s new mayor brings strong views, fighting spirit to the dais

by Gennady Sheyner

Newly elected council memeber Marc Berman laughs out loud while joking with Greg Scharff about keeping the Mayor’s seat during a council meeting on January 7, 2013.

Vero

nica

Web

er

Mayor(continued from page 3)

(continued on page 8)

On the cover: Newly elected Mayor Greg Scharff and Vice Mayor Nancy Shepherd smile while listening to a public comment at City Hall on Jan. 7, 2013. Photo by Veronica Weber.

Page 6

Upfront

*YOUR ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE (APR) MAY BE HIGHER BASED ON CREDIT QUALIFICATIONS. THE RATES SHOWN INCLUDE A 0.25% DISCOUNT WITH AUTOMATIC TRANSFER, AND A 0.50% DISCOUNT WITH DIRECT DEPOSIT. ADDITIONAL 0.20% RATE DISCOUNT FOR AUTO LOAN AMOUNTS $30,000 OR OVER THROUGH JANUARY 31, 2013 (DOES NOT APPLY TO EXISTING STAR ONE AUTO LOANS). THE RANGE OF APRS IS 1.95% TO 8.45% WITH DISCOUNTS FOR LOANS $30,000 AND UNDER; AND 1.75% TO 8.25% WITH DISCOUNTS FOR LOANS OVER $30,000. A SAMPLE PAYMENT ON AN 84-MONTH LOAN AT 1.95% APR IS $12.75 PER $1,000. A SAMPLE PAYMENT ON AN 84-MONTH LOAN AT 1.75% APR IS $12.66 PER $1,000. RATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. †A $75 FEE WILL BE ASSESSED TO REFINANCE OR MODIFY A STAR ONE AUTO LOAN.

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REAL ESTATE TRENDSby Samia Cullen

The local housing market showed exceptional strength throughout 2012. A broad mix of buyers, including cash investors, move-up buyers and first-time buyers encouraged by historic low interest rates and reports of rising prices, produced a huge demand. Inven-tory remained low throughout the year. As a result, most homes saw multiple offers, with cash buyers dominating the winning bids.

Multiple listing service (MLS) statis-tics indicate that in 2012 there were 472 single-family home sales in Palo Alto and 344 sales in Menlo Park. The me-dian price increased 21% to $1,726,000 in Palo Alto and 11% in Menlo Park to $1,325,000. Atherton had 84 sales in 2012 with a median price of $3,200,000, a decrease of 3% from 2011. However, due to strong off-market sales activity, especially in Atherton, the MLS statis-tics cited above do not fully reflect ac-tual market data.

The townhouse/condominium mar-

ket was as strong as the market for single family houses in 2012. 147 units sold in Palo Alto, with the median sale price in-creasing 17% to $890,000. Menlo Park had 74 units sold with a median price of $892,000, an increase of 27%.

Looking forward:Our local housing market will con-

tinue to be strong in 2013, reflecting the continuing economic recovery, the pace of IPOs and the increase in hiring that should continue through the year.

For sellers, there is no better time to sell your home.

For buyers, if you have a stable in-come, it is good time to buy before fur-ther increases in house prices occur.

For investors, real estate investments historically have been a more secure investment than stocks and a hedge against inflation. Investing in Califor-nia real estate is a good diversification strategy.

Statistic sources are provided by MLS deemed reliable but not guaranteed and exclude private sales.

I offer complimentary staging when I list your home. Contact me at (650) 384-5392, Alain Pinel Realtors. To learn more, log-on to samiacullen.com

2012 Local Real Estate Market Activity

HEALTH

T he influenza virus, which is hammering states in other parts of the country, is slowly

moving into Northern California, officials said this week.

One potent strain, Influenza A (H3N2), is causing more people to become severely ill and more people to be hospitalized this season, local health officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.

As of Dec. 29, the strain had not yet made it into Santa Clara County, county public health officials said, but hospitals and health agencies are watching, since the strain has been as-sociated with at least 18 child deaths.

More severe illness is typical with H3N2 viruses, and officials are pre-dicting a “moderately severe” flu sea-son, according to the CDC. But one concern is that the season has started earlier than usual. The flu season typi-cally begins in February, but it started in early January in many states this year, according to the CDC.

The percentage of people nation-wide seeing a doctor for flu-like ill-ness is more than double last season’s peak of 2.2 percent. In the past four weeks, the percentage has jumped sharply from 2.8 to 5.6 percent, ac-cording to the CDC, which tracks the flu’s progression nationwide.

Although 29 states have reported high levels of influenza-like illness, with another nine states reporting moderate levels, California has not yet seen many cases, according to Santa Clara County officials.

Dr. Cornelia Dekker, medical di-rector of the Stanford-Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Vaccine Program, said so far only 15 confirmed cases of influenza have been reported by the Stanford lab, which tests suspected cases coming into Stanford’s main hospital, clinics, emergency room and children’s hospital.

“We’re nowhere near what the other states are experiencing, but I’m sure our time is coming,” she said.

Dr. Joe Bresee of the CDC’s In-fluenza Division said in a statement that the number of hospitalizations is also high for this time of year.

“While we can’t say for certain how severe this season will be, we can say that a lot of people are get-ting sick with influenza. ... Anyone who has not already been vaccinat-ed should do so now,” he said.

Dekker said that flu sets its own pace, and although it does tend to go from east to west, no one can really predict which states will be hardest hit.

“Strains also mutate over time, so we’re always dealing with a new set

of characters,” she said.This year’s flu started with Influ-

enza B infections, but now the pre-dominant strain is the Influenza A (H3N2), she said. The old pandemic H1N1 strain from 2009 is going around this year, but is occurring relatively infrequently, she said.

Dekker said there is still time to get a flu shot. It takes about two weeks to build up antibodies for protection. Three strains of influenza are in the vaccine, which uses only dead viruses.

Only about 50 percent of children and adults were immunized last year, she said. The more people who are vaccinated, the smaller the poten-tial pool of infected people who can spread the germ, she said.

People who are concerned about vaccines containing preservative can obtain preservative-free flu shots, and now new micro-needles are available for people ages 18 to 64 who fear in-jections, she said.

Another new influenza vaccine that has four times as much antigen is available for seniors to give them added protection. The alternatives are available through many pharma-cies and doctors, she said.

Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@paweek-ly.com.

‘Moderately severe’ flu season expectedNew, more potent vaccine available for the elderly

by Sue Dremann

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Page 7

Upfront

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Your style, your neighborhood.

focused on bringing neighbors to-gether through recreational events staged citywide.

Scharff, on the other hand, doesn’t mind disagreeing. He has been the council’s happy warrior, always ea-ger to take a strong stance, offer a counterargument and spar with op-position — whether labor leaders or medical-marijuana proponents — through press releases, ballot ar-guments and televised debates. His style — genial but blunt, eloquent but light on the jargon — proved a popular one with his colleagues, who elected him vice mayor in January 2012 despite his lack of seniority.

Councilman Pat Burt, who nomi-nated Scharff for vice mayor a year ago, said the city needs a “strong communicator” and a leader “with a strong understanding of the issues and challenges facing the commu-nity.” Scharff, he said, demonstrated that he has those skills.

“We look for a leader who can communicate spontaneously be-cause things don’t always go accord-ing to script,” Burt said.

Scharff’s election as vice mayor last year essentially ensured that he would be named mayor this year, in accordance with a city tradition. Councilman Larry Klein, who for-mally nominated Scharff for mayor Monday night, said he embodies all the qualities important in the posi-tion — the ability to efficiently chair meetings; to eloquently represent the council’s positions to the public; and to serve as the face of Palo Alto when dealing with other cities and with people “from other walks of life.”

“In recent years, we’ve had more and more contact with cities around the world,” Klein said. “Again, our mayor is a spokesperson, our rep-resentative. I think it’s important to have the best possible person, and this year I think it’s Greg.”

It doesn’t hurt that Scharff already has ample experience chairing meet-ings. With Yeh consistently recusing himself from discussions involving Stanford University (where his wife was employed), it was up to Scharff to lead those meetings.

Klein also observed in his nomi-nating speech that Scharff would be the first mayor since 2008 not to have been raised in Palo Alto (Klein, a Florida native, was mayor in 2008). In that sense, Klein said, Scharff represents “an interesting demographic that speaks to many of us here in Palo Alto” — the people who were not born here but who “came here, recognizing that it’s a great place to live and work.”

The influx of talent from the outside, Klein said, has “added so much to our culture and economy over time.”

Scharff, 49, was born in South Af-rica and raised in Woodstock, N.Y. He attended Bowdoin College in Maine and the Columbia University School of Law. He moved to Palo Alto more than 20 years ago and now lives in Midtown and runs a law firm on California Avenue.

In his first speech as mayor, Scharff called 2013 the “lucky 13” and “the year we get things done.” He said he looks forward to the open-ing of the Mitchell Park Library, the

Scharff(continued from page 6)

Page 8

UpfrontCity of Palo Alto

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Draft Negative Declaration has been prepared by the Palo Alto Department of Planning and Community Environment for the project listed below. In accordance with A.B. 886, this document will be available for review and comment during a minimum 20-day inspection period beginning January 11 through 31, 2013 during the hours of 9:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. at the Development Center, 285 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California.

This item will be considered at a public hearing by the Archi-tectural Review Board, Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 8:30 AM. in the Palo Alto City Council Chambers on the first floor of the Civic Center, located at 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. Written comments on the Negative Declaration will be accepted until 5:00 PM on January 31, 2013 in the Planning and Community Environment Department Civic Center offices on the fifth floor of City Hall.

780 Welch Road [12PLN-00429]: Request by WRNS Studio on behalf of Stanford University Lands and Buildings for Archi-tectural Review of the replacement of a 3 story building with a new 3 story 31,353 sq. ft. building, including one level of below grade parking and associated site improvements. The project also includes a landscape reserve in lieu of 24 parking spaces for both 780 and 800 Welch Rd. Zone District MOR.

***Curtis Williams,

Director of Planning and Community Environment

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, listening assistive devices are available in the Council Chambers and Council Conference Room. Sign language interpreters will be provided upon request with 72 hours advance notice.

Announcing the Embarcadero Media

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Working as an assistant to the publisher, you will learn about all aspects of print and digital publishing and be assigned a wide variety of tasks and projects, ranging from routine administrative support to helping with events and promotions, creating web content, assisting with research on reporting projects and learning about sales & marketing.

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Deadline: February 1, 2013

NOTICE OF A PUBLIC MEETINGOf the City of Palo AltoTransportation DivisionPublic Meeting Notice

Fabian way Enhanced Bikeway Improvement Project

DATE: Thursday, January 17th, 2013 at 7:00pm

TIME: 7:00pm-8:30pm

LOCATION: Cubberley Community Center 4000 Middlefield Road Room A-6 Palo Alto, CA 94303

The City is soliciting community input on design alternatives to improve bicycle accessibility along Fabian Way between East Meadow Drive and Charleston Road. This segment of the city’s bicycle network is crucial link to help connect to future bicycle-pedestrian bridge crossing alternatives planned at Adobe Creek & Highway 101 and builds upon recent improvements along San Antonio Road. The City is soliciting input on alternatives to reduce this segment of Fabian Way from 4-lanes to 3-lanes to provide a dedicated two-way left turn lane for enhanced safety for vehicles turning into and out of driveway along the roadway while supporting wider bicycle lane facilities. Improved pedestrian crossings are also being considered. Please join the discussion and provide your input.

This community meeting has been schedule to present the conceptual plans. For further information contact: transportation@cityofpaloalto.org. or call (650) 329-2441.

renovation of the Main Library, the implementation of the city’s new bicycle master plan, the creation of trails around the perimeter of Stan-ford University, the reopening of El Camino Park (which has been closed while the city builds an emergency reservoir), the reconfiguration of the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course, progress on the flood-control proj-ect around San Francisquito Creek, and streetscape improvements on California Avenue, a controversial project that includes reducing the number of lanes from four to two.

Scharff said the lattermost change “will be nothing short of transfor-mative and may be the change that most improves Palo Alto residents’ enjoyment of the city.”

He also said the council will have plenty of work to do in the coming year, including curbing the rising costs of employee benefits, determin-ing the future of Cubberley Commu-nity Center, figuring out whether the city should proceed with a waste-to-energy plant in the Baylands, solving downtown’s parking woes and tack-ling the “lingering issues of ‘fiber to the premises’ and the underground-ing of our utilities.”

“We need to do all of this and more utilizing the best of the Palo Alto process, which to me is trans-parency, openness and an inclusive process coupled with strong com-munity engagement and input,” Scharff said.

Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@paweekly.com.

Page 9

UpfrontNOTICE OF A SPECIAL PUBLIC MEETING

of the City of Palo Alto Architectural Review Board (ARB)

8:30 A.M., Thursday, January 24, 2013 Palo Alto Council Chambers, 1st Floor, Civic Center, 250 Hamilton Avenue. Go to the Development Center at 285 Hamilton Avenue to review filed documents; contact Diana Tamale for information regarding business hours at 650.329.2144.

50 El Camino Real [11PLN-00388]: Request by Huiwen Hsiao on behalf of The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University for Site and Design Review of the construction of a 70-room, three story, 51,948 square foot building on a 1.57-acre site, to house an expanded Ronald McDonald House program. The project includes a rezoning to Public Facility with a Site and Design Combining District (PF(D)) zone, and Comprehensive Plan re-designation (from Streamside Open Space to Major Institution/Special Facili-ties), and a Conditional Use Permit amendment. Zone Dis-trict: Community Commercial with a Landscape Combining District (CC(L)). Environmental Assessment: A Mitigated Negative Declaration has been prepared for the project in accordance with CEQA.

398 Arboretum [12PLN-00508]: Request by The Container Store Inc., on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, for Architectural Review of new ex-terior storefronts and signage for The Container Store at the Stanford Shopping Center. Zone District: CC (Community Commercial).

780 Welch Road [12PLN-00429]: Request by WRNS Studio on behalf of Stanford University Lands and Buildings for Archi-tectural Review of the replacement of a 3 story building with a new 3 story 31,353 sq. ft. building, including one level of below grade parking and associated site improvements. The project also includes a landscape reserve in lieu of 24 parking spaces for both 780 and 800 Welch Rd. Zone District MOR. Environ-mental Assessment: An initial study/Negative Declaration has been prepared. 2209-2215 El Camino Real [12PLN- 00404]: Request by Karen Kim on behalf Tai Ning Trading & Innovations Co. for preliminary Architectural Review of construction of a new three story mixed use development on a 5,392 square foot lot. Zone District: CC(2).

Amy FrenchChief Planning Official

Grief Support for Children, Teens, Families & Adults

If you are mourning the death of a family member or friend, Kara is here to help.

Adult Services

Drop in Groups:

■ 2nd, 4th, 5th Tuesdays from 1:00-2:30pm

■ 1st, 3rd, 5th Wednesdays from 7:00-8:30pm

No appointment or pre-interview required

Upcoming groups for specific losses:

■ Men grieving the death of a family member or friend

■ Parents grieving the death of an adult child

■ Adults grieving the death of a sibling

A personal interview is required before joining one of these groups.

Youth and Family Services

Groups for Adults:

■ Grieving the death of a partner, spouse

■ Grieving the death of a child

Groups for Children and Teens:

■ Grieving the death of a parent

■ Grieving the death of a friend or family member

“For a list on ongoing grief support groups, please see our website.*

To learn more, call Kara at: 650-321-5272457 Kingsley Avenue, Palo Altowww.kara-grief.org/services

District explores buying Bowman campusIn search of more space to accommodate growing middle-school en-

rollment, the Palo Alto school district is exploring the idea of purchasing the campus of Bowman International School, an independent K-8 school adjacent to Terman Middle School on Arastradero Road.

The possibility of talks with Bowman is on the agenda for the Tuesday, Jan. 15, meeting of the Palo Alto Board of Education.

Superintendent Kevin Skelly has been scouting the community for new space to accommodate a growing population of middle school students. Officials have said a new middle school could be needed in five years.

A Bowman acquisition would mean expansion of Terman rather than the opening of a fourth middle school. Current enrollment at Terman is 682, considerably less than that at Jordan (1,023) or Jane Lathrop Stan-ford (1,004) middle schools.

— Chris Kenrick

Palo Alto police search for bank robberA man who robbed the Provident Credit Union in Palo Alto on Wednes-

day afternoon, Jan. 9, remains at large. The man, who police described as a tall white man in his 30s with a scar near his right eye and wearing flip-flops, entered the bank at around 3:30 p.m. and pointed a handgun at the tell-ers. He escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash, Palo Alto police said. No one was injured.

The credit union is located on El Camino Real between California and Cambridge avenues.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Palo Alto police at 650-329-2413.

— Palo Alto Weekly staff

Two arrested in Palo Alto carjacking SaturdayPalo Alto police have arrested two suspects in a Saturday night carjack-

ing near the intersection of California Avenue and Park Boulevard.A Palo Alto resident sitting in her parked Honda Accord at about 9:40

p.m., Jan.5, heard a tap on her window and faced a man pointing a gun and demanding her car. She complied, stepping out of the car. The suspect drive off as she called 911 from her cell phone. She was not injured.

The suspect drove toward El Camino Real, stopping briefly to pick up another person before turning right on Birch Street.

Police spotted the vehicle, now occupied by three people, turning from College Avenue onto northbound El Camino and stopped the car in the 400 block of Oxford Avenue. A BB gun was found in the glove compartment.

Police arrested the driver, 18-year-old Amador Valentin Rivera of East Palo Alto, and a 16-year-old juvenile from Menlo Park, for felony car-jacking. The third occupant was released without charges after police determined he had no role in the crime, police said.

— Chris Kenrick

News Digestfor the energy/compost facility,” the report states.

The proposal for the compost plant gained momentum in November 2011, when voters overwhelmingly approved Measure E, which allowed the city to “undedicate” 10 acres of Byxbee Park to make way for the new compost plant. Leading propo-nents, including former Mayor Peter Drekmeier and attorney Walt Hays, have argued that keeping compost-ing local would be better for both the environment and for the city’s bot-tom line than exporting the waste.

If the city agrees with the staff and opts to cap 34 of the 51 acres, Palo Alto would still need to get permis-sion from various regulatory agen-cies to proceed with the facility. In August, the city received permission from the Santa Clara County De-partment of Environmental Health to postpone capping the 51 acres until the 2013 construction season, according to the Public Works De-partment. The California Regional Quality Control Board and the Cali-fornia Department of Resources Re-cycling and Recovery also signed off on that postponement.

Palo Alto would need another extension if it chooses to leave 17 acres uncapped. If this extension were not granted, the city would be required to proceed with capping the entire 51 acres.

The staff report argues 17 acres would accommodate a 5-acre facility and its ancillary operations. Such a facility, the report states, “is the most feasible from an engineering perspec-tive.” The option also “eliminates the need for any ‘recapping’ costs for a 5-acre site without drastically chang-ing the character of the landfill’s grading plan, and it opens up an ad-ditional 34 acres of parkland.”

Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@paweekly.com.

Compost(continued from page 3)

CITY COUNCIL ... The council plans to hear a presentation from Lisa Hen-

drickson of Avenidas, discuss options for an waste-to-energy facility and

landfill capping considerations; and consider a pilot residential compost-

ing program with reduced frequency of refuse collection. The meeting is

scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 14, in the Council Chambers at City

Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

BOARD OF EDUCATION ... The board will vote on a proposed bonus for

teachers and staff members equivalent to 1 percent of 2011-12 salary. The

board also will discuss the possibility of talks with the independent Bow-

man International School about potential acquisition of Bowman property

adjacent to Terman Middle School on Arastradero Road. Following a 5:30

p.m. closed session to discuss a legal matter, the board meeting will begin

at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 15, in the boardroom of school district head-

quarters (25 Churchill Ave.).

HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD ... The board plans to discuss 1305

Middlefield Road, a proposal by the city’s Community Services Division for

a review of a new sign program for Rinconada Park. The meeting will begin

at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, in the Council Chambers at City Hall

(250 Hamilton Ave.).

ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD ... The board plans to discuss 135

Hamilton Ave., a proposal for a four-story mixed-use building on an existing

vacant lot; and 1305 Middlefield Road, a proposal for a new sign program

for Rinconada Park. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Jan.

17, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

PUBLIC ART COMMISSION ... The commission plans to meet at 7 p.m. on

Thursday, Jan. 17, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

Public AgendaA preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week

Page 10

Upfront

For a complete list of classes and class fees, lectures and health education resources, visit pamf.org/healtheducation. Jan. 2013

Scan this code with your smartphone for more health education information. Get the free mobile scanner app at http://gettag.mobi.

facebook.com/paloaltomedicalfoundation

twitter.com/paloaltomedical

pamfblog.org

Autism: The Path To Understanding

Join us for a look at how our understanding of autism has

progressed over time. Dr. Cheyette will discuss the changes

that have occurred over time in the care and treatment of

those with autism spectrum disorders.

Monday, Jan. 28, 7 to 8:30 p.m.

San Carlos Library

610 Elm Street, San Carlos

Presented by Sarah Cheyette, M.D.

PAMF Neurology, Pediatric Specialist

Please contact Rhea Bradley at

650-591-0341, extension 237.

Bay Area Association of Kidney Patients Presentation

Home Peritoneal Dialysis: Exploding the MythsAnjali Saxena, M.D., a nephrologist at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, will discuss how

to take control of your life by using peritoneal dialysis overnight at home or at work.

Diets for all Stages of Kidney DiseaseFaith Tootell, M.S., R.D., CSR, FADA, a renal dietitian and nutrition services manager at

Satellite Dialysis, will talk about the best diet for all stages of kidney disease.

Sunday, Jan. 27, 1 to 4 p.m.

Palo Alto Center

795 El Camino Real, Palo Alto

Call 650-323-2225 or email at

info@baakp.org to reserve your space.

Advancements in Cataract Surgery

Join us for this educational presentation where you’ll learn

what a cataract is and find out about new advancements in

cataract surgery and how surgery can improve your sight.

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 1 to 2 p.m.

Sunnyvale City Senior Center

550 E. Remington Drive, Sunnyvale

Presented by Yichieh Shiuey, M.D.

PAMF Ophthalmology

Please call the Sunnyvale City Senior

Center at 408-730-7360 to register.

We believe education can be engaging and joyous.

Celebrating arts and academics

SCHOOL TOUR Parents only please–registration not required.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: JANUARY 18, 2013

WWW.PENINSULASCHOOL.ORG

Indecent exposure reported near Cal Ave Palo Alto police are looking for a man who exposed himself to a

woman while she was sitting in a parked car near California Avenue Tuesday night, Jan. 8. (Posted Jan. 10 at 8:10 a.m.)

Eshoo celebrates passage of new cancer lawFlanked by the wife of the late actor and cancer victim Patrick

Swayze, Rep. Anna G. Eshoo Wednesday, Jan. 9, celebrated the pas-sage of a law that requires the federal government to fight harder against the most deadly cancers. (Posted Jan. 9 at 12:19 p.m.)

Truck swerves off Highway 101 near MoffettNo one was injured Tuesday morning, Jan. 8, after the driver of a

truck heading southbound on U.S. Highway 101 lost control of his vehicle, which ultimately came to rest halfway down an embankment with its rear wheels up in the air. (Posted Jan. 9 at 8:25 a.m.)

JCC to hold Mitzvah Day for community serviceThe Oshman Family Jewish Community Center will hold its sixth

annual Mitzvah Day on Monday, Jan. 21, to commemorate both the Jewish spirit of doing a “mitzvah” (good deed) and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Posted Jan. 9 at 9:05 a.m.)

Menlo Park BBC deal falls throughKill the social media buzz: A former Facebook executive’s plan to

reopen the landmark British Bankers Club in Menlo Park has fallen through. (Posted Jan. 8 at 9:13 a.m.)

Arrest in decades-old Mountain View murder caseAfter 28 years, justice may finally be served in the death of Saba

Girmai, a Santa Clara County woman who was found strangled to death in a Mountain View Dumpster in 1985, according to the Moun-tain View Police Department and the county district attorney. (Posted

Jan. 8 at 9:09 a.m.)

Palo Alto police nab suspected package thiefA Union City man who police said stole packages from homes in

Palo Alto and San Jose in recent weeks was arrested Tuesday after-noon, Jan. 1, after a Midtown resident saw the man steal items off a neighbor’s porch. (Posted Jan. 6 at 12:24 p.m.)

Online This WeekThese and other news stories were posted on Palo Alto Online throughout the week. For longer versions, go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news or click on “News” in the left, green column.

Want to get news briefs emailed to you every weekday? Sign up for Express, our new daily e-edition. Go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com to sign up.

Page 11

P A I D O B I T U A R Y

Dr. Manuel Sanculi Gaspay, 61, was born in Cebu, Philippines on May 10, 1951. After a seven and a half year long hard battle with stage IV metastatic colon cancer, he peacefully passed away on December 30, 2012 surrounded by loving family and friends.

Manuel graduated with a BS in Geodetic Engineering in 1972 and MS in Industrial Engineering in 1977 from the University of the Philippines. He migrated with his family in 1984 to the United States to pursue his graduate studies. He earned his Masters in Food Research in 1986, Masters in Economics in 1988, and his Doctoral degree in Food Research in 1993 at Stanford University.

He served as an Area Manager for the Farm Systems Development Corporation, collaborating with farmers to establish irrigation system cooperatives in the Philippines during the 70’s and 80’s. He later was a Professor of Economics at the Asian Institute of Management prior to his term as the Director of the Environmental Management Bureau of the Philippines.

He recently served as the Dean of the School of Business at Northwestern Polytechnic University. He was also a professor at Dominican University of California, Northwestern Polytechnic University, International Technological University and National Hispanic University, finishing out his lectures despite his illness.

He was an active member of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association, his beloved UP Beta Sigma Fraternity and the Free Masons.

Manuel was a good and loving husband, father and friend. He was also affectionately known as “Pogs”, “Poga”, “Manny”, “Butch” and most importantly “Papa”. His sense of humor and love for life was infectious. He always lived and practiced the principles of fairness and justice. He is survived by his wife May, his children Mik, Karla and husband Joseph Jr., Charina, and Nerissa, his sisters Sol, Monina and Luchie, his brothers Enrico and Francis. He doted on his two grandchildren Madison and Joseph III, so much so that he took them to Disneyland even though he was weak and gravely ill. He will be sorely missed but leaves a legacy of good work ethic and love for life.

Arrangements entrusted to Alta Mesa Funeral Home in Palo Alto, CA.

Dr. Manuel Sanculi GaspayMay 10, 1951 – December 30, 2012

Peter Voll passed away surrounded by his fam-ily on Dec. 14 at the age of 69. Born July 3, 1943 in Imperial, CA, Peter, a proud fourth generation Californian, grew up in the town of Coalinga in the San Joaquin Valley. In high school, he was a gifted athlete and student leader. In1962, Peter moved to Palo Alto, CA to attend Stanford University. Graduating in 1965 he was involved as a campaign consultant in both congressional and senate races. Peter joined the Stanford Alumni Association in 1972 where he eventually became director of the As-sociation’s fledgling Travel/Study Pro-gram. He spent the next 18 years devel-oping it into one of the premier alumni travel programs in the United States.

Peter’s professional vision was to open roads to understanding different societies and cultures through tourism. In 1992 he left Stanford and de-voted his attention to Peter Voll Associates (PVA), running educational tours. During his career, Pe-ter designed and implemented more than 200 tours worldwide. He launched a number of travel industry firsts including destinations to the People’s Repub-lic of China, Burma, and Saudi Arabia. Peter was

dedicated to his field and his community and had deep sentiment for his family and roots. He served as a member of the Advisory Council of the Edu-cational Travel Conference, the Travel Committee

of the Commonwealth Club, and was a devoted member of the Palo Alto Uni-versity Rotary Club.

He is survived by his wife of 34 years, Suzanne Hardt Voll, mother Alva Stan-iford, stepmother Nona Voll, daughters Vicki Voll of Capitola and Sara Voll of Hawaii, stepson Jay Backstrand of Palo Alto, stepdaughter Kendall Nash of Mill Valley, grandchildren Ian, Kaylor, Jay, Alden, William, Dylan, and O’rian; and by brothers, John Voll, Bob Stani-

ford, Tom Staniford, and David Staniford, and step-sister Lynne Chase.

A memorial service will be held to celebrate his life on Jan. 22 at 3:00 p.m. at Stanford Memorial Church.

Contributions may be made in Peter’s memory to the Foundation for a College Education, East Palo Alto; The Rotary Foundation, Rotary Centers for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Palo Alto University Rotary; or The Stanford Historical Society.

Peter Voll1943-2012

P A I D O B I T U A R YP A I D O B I T U A R Y

Mrs. Shirley Christian Ledgerwood of Palo Alto passed away peacefully on January 3, 2013. She was 97 years old. She was the wife of Dr. John S. Ledgerwood (1912-2005), a dentist for many years in Palo Alto.

Mrs. Ledgerwood moved with her family to 2050 Waverley Street in Palo Alto in 1952. She was a native of Monterey, Tennessee. She was active for many years in the Bay Area working for world peace and was at one time active with the Girl Scouts, the PTA, and the United World Federalists.

A graduate of Agnes Scott College, she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Mortar Board. At the age of 21 in 1936, while living in Chattanooga, Tennessee and favoring integration, she joined the NAACP. She received Masters Degrees in English and Librarianship, attending the University of Tennessee, the University of Colorado, the University of California Berkeley, and Harvard University. She taught English at San Jose State University for five years and at Foothill College for 25 years. She will be fondly remembered by many of her students as a vibrant and engaging teacher. She was also a librarian at Woodside and Portola Valley Libraries, and was a research librarian for the Santa Clara County Libraries at Cupertino and Saratoga. She had articles and stories for children published by the Pilgrim Press. She also had several poems published. She was the author of a published novel entitled “Thy Brothers Blood”. In 1995 she compiled a collection of poems by and a biographical sketch of author Catherine Marshall, her longtime friend and roommate at Agnes Scott College, published under the title “Unlocked Dreams”. Shirley also organized a book club in Palo Alto that was active for over 54 years.

She is survived by her three children, Pamela Ledgerwood, Chris Ledgerwood, and April Robinson, as well as by her six grandchildren, Lynette, Todd, Nicholas, Amy, Ana, and Reid, and by her four great grandchildren, Kaitlyn, Tyler, Liam, and Cai.

A memorial service will be announced at a later date.Memorial contributions may be made to the American Friends

Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St. Philadelphia, PA 19102.

Shirley Christian LedgerwoodApril 9, 1915 - January 3, 2013

Lasting Memories

Go to: PaloAltoOnline.com/

obituaries

Visit

Sandra Brown EakinsSandra Brown Eakins, a former

Palo Alto mayor and civic activist, died Jan. 2 at her home in Oakland after a long illness. She was 75.

Eakins was a longtime member and past president of the Palo Alto League of Women Voters and helped or-ganize Smart Voter, an ini-tiative that pro-vides unbiased election information for California voters.

She co-founded New Voices for Youth, a program designed to en-courage civic engagement in high school students through the media arts.

Eakins was born Nov. 10, 1937, in Oklahoma City, Okla., to Ray and Rebecca Brown and was raised in the Pacific Northwest.

She graduated from Wellesley College in 1959 with a degree in art history and remained an active and devoted alumna. She earned mas-ter’s degrees from Boston Univer-sity and Santa Clara University.

She married Gilbert Eakins in 1959 and co-founded EOS (Eakins Open Systems), a computer integra-

tion business in 1972. She was active in civic affairs for

decades, beginning with founding the Palo Verde Neighborhood As-sociation and volunteering with the PTA for her children’s schools. She served on the Palo Alto City Coun-cil from 1997-2002, including a term as mayor.

She also served on the Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, Planning Commission and the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority. She shared her love of the arts through her service on the Palo Alto Public Art Commission and the board of the Palo Alto Art Center.

She is survived by her husband, Gilbert, of Mountain View; their children, Robert (Julie) of Wheaton, Ill., Daniel, of Oakland and Rebec-ca (James) Austin of Oakland; four grandchildren, Ryan, Sophia, Meta and Thomas; and her brother Mark (Renae) Brown, of Dayville, Ore.

A memorial gathering is planned for Saturday, Jan. 26, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Palo Alto Art Cen-ter, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto.

The family asks that donations in Sandra Brown Eakins’ memory be made to Smart Voter (www.smartvoter.org) or the New Voices for Youth Program (www.newvoicesforyouth.org).

TransitionsBirths, marriages and deaths

Margaret Belle Howard Marshall

Margaret Belle Howard Marshall died Dec. 22, less than one month short of her 98th birthday. She was born in Miraj, India, on Jan. 17, 1915. She moved to Southern Cali-fornia as a child.

She had two brothers, who pre-deceased her. Dr. Harry P. Howard, of Atherton, was an anesthetist for many years at the Stanford Hospi-tal in Palo Alto. Ernest R. Howard, B.S. and M.S. from CalTech, was a mechanical engineer at a Texas Instruments subsidiary in Massa-chusetts. She is survived by several nieces, grand and great nieces, and nephews, grand and great neph-ews.

She obtained her B.A. from Wil-son College in Pennsylvania in 1936. She was an executive secre-tary for IBM in New York City for many years. She was the widow of Dr. Roy K. Marshall (1907-1972), Professor of astronomy and author of several scientific books.

She lived in Palo Alto from 1971 until July of 2004, when she moved to Los Altos. At the age of 89, she was still driving her ‘72 Cougar.

Special thanks go to Lyn Carr, who befriended her over the years and aided and accompanied her through good times and bad.

Page 12

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Page 13

Each year the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund raises money to support

programs serving families and children in the Palo Alto area. Since

the Weekly and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation cover

all the administrative costs, every dollar raised goes directly to support

community programs through grants to non-profit organizations ranging

from $1,000 to $25,000.

And with the generous support of matching grants from local foundations,

including the Packard and Hewlett foundations, your tax-deductible gift will

be doubled in size. A donation of $100 turns into $200 with the foundation

matching gifts.

Whether as an individual, a business or in honor of someone else, help

us reach our goal of $350,000 by making a generous contribution to the

Holiday Fund.

With your generosity, we can give a major boost to the programs in our

community helping kids and families.

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

Non-profits: Grant application and guidelines at

www.PaloAltoOnline.com/holidayfund

Support our Kidswith a gift to the Holiday Fund.

Last Year’s Grant Recipients

10 Books A Home .......................................$5,000Able Works ..................................................$5,000 Adolescent Counseling Services ..........$10,000 Art in Action ................................................$5,000 Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula........7,500 Break Through the Static..........................$2,500 Breast Cancer Connections .....................$5,000 Canopy .........................................................$3,000 CASSY ........................................................$15,000 Children’s Center of the Stanford Community ..................................$4,000 Cleo Eulau Center.......................................$5,000 Collective Roots .........................................$7,500Downtown Streets Team ........................$15,000 DreamCatchers ........................................$15,000 East Palo Alto Center for Community Media ................................$3,000 East Palo Alto Charter School .................$7,500 East Palo Alto Children’s Day ..................$5,000 East Palo Alto Kids Foundation ................$5,000 East Palo Alto Youth Court ........................$3,000 Environmental Volunteers ........................$3,000 Family Connections....................................$7,500 Foothill College Book Program ................$5,000 Foundation for a College Education ........$7,500 Hidden Villa .................................................$5,000 InnVision ......................................................$7,500 JLS Middle School ....................................$5,000 Jordan Middle School ..............................$5,000 Kara ............................................................$15,000 Mayview Community Health Center .....$10,000 Midpeninsula Community Media Center .........$5,000 Music in the Schools Foundation ............$5,000 My New Red Shoes ...................................$3,000 New Creation Home Ministries ...............$5,000 Nuestra Casa ..............................................$5,000 Pacifi c Art League .....................................$2,500 Palo Alto Art Center Foundation ..............$5,000 Palo Alto Community Child Care ..............$6,500 Palo Alto Council of PTAs .........................$2,128 Palo Alto High School Get Involved!.......$1,500 Palo Alto Housing Corporation ................$5,000 Palo Alto Library Foundation ..................$17,500 Palo Alto Youth Collaborative .................$10,000 Peninsula Bridge Program .......................$5,000Peninsula Youth Theatre ...........................$3,000 Project Safety Net....................................$20,000 Project WeH.O.P.E. .....................................$7,500 Quest Learning Center ..............................$5,000 Ravenswood Education Foundation .......$5,000 Silicon Valley FACES ..................................$7,500 South Palo Alto Food Closet .....................$1,000 St. Francis of Assisi Youth Club ...............$5,000 St. Vincent de Paul .....................................$6,000 TEDxGunnHighSchool ...............................$2,000 TheatreWorks .............................................$5,000 Youth Community Service .......................$10,000

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

Enclosed is a donation of $_______________

Name __________________________________________________

Business Name _________________________________________

Address ________________________________________________

City/State/Zip ___________________________________________

E-Mail __________________________________________________ Phone ______________

Credit Card (MC, VISA, or AMEX) ___________________________________________ Expires _______/_______

Signature _______________________________________________________

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

In my name as shown above

– OR – In name of business above: In honor of: In memory of: As a gift for:

________________________________________________ (Name of person)

For information on making contributions of appreciated stock, contact Bill Johnson at (650) 326-8210.

The Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund is a donor advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organiza-tion. A contribution to this fund allows your donation to be tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

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

I wish to contribute anonymously. Please withhold the amount of my contribution.

Please Make checks payable to: Silicon Valley Community Foundation

and send to: Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund

c/o Silicon Valley Community Foundation 2440 W. El Camino Real,

Suite 300 Mountain View, CA 94040

CLICK AND GIVE

479 donors through Dec. 31 totalling $181,943;

with match $363,886 has been raised for the

Holiday Fund44 Anonymous .....................21,989

Newly Received DonationsJohn and Ruth DeVries ...............**

Bjorn and Michele Liencres ...1,000

Sue Bartalo & David Fischer ....100

Al and JoAnne Russell ..............250

Larry Klein ................................500

David and Karen Backer ...........150

Tony and Jan DiJulio ...................**

Don and Dee Price ......................**

Ellen and Mark Turbow ............200

Anna Wu Weakland ..................100

Peter and Anne Koletzke ...........500

John and Martha McLaughlin ...200

Lynda and Richard Greene ..........**

Ruth and Dick Rosenbaum .........**

Martignetti Family ......................**

Melanie Austin ..........................150

Tobye and Ron Kaye ...................**

Ken Bencala & Sally O’Neil .....100

Jonathan J. MacQuitty ...........1,000

Craig and Susie Thom ...............100

Kenyon Scott .............................200

Carolyn Razzano .........................**

Joan Norton .................................**

Marion Lewenstein ................2,000

Gwen Barry ...............................100

Amy Renalds ...............................**

Richard Ellson ...........................100

Wynn Hausser ...........................150

Jim Lobdell and Colleen Anderson ......................250

John Wilkes ...............................300

Charles Katz ..............................400

Katherine Jarvis ..........................50

Alan Wachtel .............................250

Charlotte S. Epstein ..................100

Eileen E. Brennan .....................250

Elgin Lee ...................................250

Elisabeth Seaman ........................50

Gargi Mitra ................................100

Jill Bicknell ...............................100

Kathleen Levitt ..........................100

Kim Orumchian ........................250

Linda Selden .............................125

Lynn and Dave Torin ...................**

Guido and Madeleine Smeets ...500

Madeline Wong ...........................75

Victor and Norma Hesterman .....**

Stephen Westfold ......................500

Timothy P. Collins ..................2,500

Marc Igler and Jennifer Cray ......50

Bryan Wilson and Geri Martin Wilson .......................................100

Kenneth Schroeder and Frances Codispoti ...............500

Ralph R. Wheeler ......................200

Susan E. Hyder ............................10

Nan Prince .................................100

Gavin and Tricia Christensen ......**

Reed and Judith Content ...........100

Leannah Hunt ............................250

Roland Hsu and Julia Noblitt ....250

Mr. and Mrs. Donald Stites .........**

Seth and Rosalind Haber ...........200

CNC Foundation .......................350

Michael and Carolyn Keeler .....200

Laura and Robert Cory ..............150

Claire and Ed Lauing ................250

Donald Kennedy .......................100

Rosalie Shepherd ........................**

Rita Vrhel ..................................200

Nancy Moss.................................**

Ellen M. King ..............................**

Bob Barrett and Linda Atkinson .**

Rita and John Ousterhout ..........500

Erin Redfern ................................50

Nancy Lobdell ...........................150

John Muller ...............................300

In Memory OfEmmett Lorey .............................**

Becky Schaefer ...........................**

Philip Gottheiner .........................**

Paul Hamilton ........................1,000

Carl W. Anderson ......................100

Bob Markevitch ...........................**

Helen Rubin ..............................150

Dr. Irving & Ivy Rubin..............150

Anna & Max Blanker ................150

Nancy Payne Peter Milward........**

Robert Makjavich ......................100

Our Son Nick ............................500

Gary Fazzino ...............................25

Julia Maser ..................................**

C. Howard Hatcher, M.D. ...........**

Fraser MacKenzie .......................**

John Johnson ...............................**

Winyss Acton Shepard ................**

Sara Doniach-Sandra Goodwin ...**

Mrs. Melena Kirhin .....................**

Tad Cody .....................................**

John Tuomy .................................**

Tinney Family ...........................500

In Honor OfNancy Cassidy...........................150

The Breakie Girls, The Janes, The Teatime Bouquet .........................**

Richard Van Dusen and Kaye H. Kelley ........................................250

Paul Resnick, from Eric Richert 100

Roy Blitzer ..................................**

Sallie Tasto, from Sandy Sloan .100

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Mullen .....100

Palo Alto High School Guidance Department ..................................**

Hamilton Avenue Friends ...........**

Businesses & Organizations

Palo Alto Business Park ..............**

Lasecke Weil Wealth Advisory Group, LLC .................................50

Previously Published Donors

Marcie and Chet Brown ..............**

Mark and Betsy Friebel ...............**

Annette Glanckopf and Tom Ashton ........................100

Carol and Mahlon Hubenthal ......**

Merrill and Lee Newman ..........250

Barbara and Charles Stevens .......**

Ralph Britton ...............................**

Helen and Hershel Smith ..........100

Martha Cohn .............................300

Stewart Family Trust .................100

Catherine Crystal Foster and Jon Foster .............................**

Roxy Rapp ..............................2000

Peter and Lynn Kidder ..............100

Irene Beardsley and Dan Bloomberg .................................200

George and Ruth Chippendale ....**

David & Betsy Fryberger ............**

Lawrence Yang and Jennifer Kuan .........................1,000

Brian and Susan Ashworth ........100

Diane Sikic ..................................**

Werner Graf............................1,200

Sandy and Rajiv Jain .................101

Heidi Arnold .............................500

Joanne Koltnow .........................100

Steve and Missy Reller .............250

Tversky Family ...........................**

Veronica S. Tincher .....................50

Jane Holland ................................**

Nancy S Steege .........................100

Shari Ornstein ...........................200

Patrick and Emily Radtke ......1,000

Jean Doble ...................................75

Deirdre C. Dolan .......................500

Susan Graham .............................50

Thomas Rindfl eisch ....................**

Paul Heft ...................................100

Daniel Cox ................................200

Lori Nelson and Dave Thom .....300

Kathleen & Tony Hughes ..........100

Steve and Diane Ciesinski ...........**

Ellie and Earl Caustin .................**

Ellie and Elliot Eisner .................**

Gary Ellmann ..............................50

Jean M. Colby .............................**

Mr. & Mrs. K. A. Kvenvolden ....50

Robert Balint .............................100

Bob and Kay Schauer ................100

Judy and Warren Goodnow .......100

Ray and Carol Bacchetti .............**

Karen L. Sipprell .......................250

Ruchita Parat .............................200

Laurence L. Spitters ...............1,000

Ellie and Dick Mansfi eld ............**

Hugh O. McDevitt.....................200

Joan and John Barksdale ...........200

Lawrence Naiman .......................50

Bonnie Packer .............................50

Bonnie and Bryan Street .............**

Win and Barbara Foster ............150

A. Carlisle Scott ..........................**

Jean and Chuck Thompson .........**

Hoda Epstein ...............................**

Lynnie and Joe Melena ...............75

Miriam Jacob ............................100

Stuart and Carol Hansen .............**

Van Whitis and Laurie Miller ...200

Ted and Jane Wassam .................**

Allan and Marilyn Brown ...........**

Robert and Connie Loarie ...........**

J. and Gayle Brugler ..............1,000

Gil and Gail Woolley ................400

Michael Kieschnick ...............1,000

Betty Gerard ..............................100

Jay Crosson & Sharon Levine ...200

Anne and Greg Avis ....................**

Rae Cole ....................................100

Frances and Ted Jenkins .............50

Tom and Pat Sanders ...................**

Zelda Jury ....................................**

David F. Labaree .......................150

Claude Madden ...........................**

Daniel and Lynne Russell .........250

Carol Kersten and Markus Aschwanden .................250

John and Lynn Wiese ................100

Lori and Hal Luft ......................100

Steve and Mary Chapel .............200

Ludwig and Carol Tannenwald ...**

The Edward Lund Family .........100

John and Olive Borgsteadt ..........**

Gerry Gilchrist ............................30

Dexter and Jean Dawes ...............**

Don and Bonnie Miller ...............**

George Cator .............................250

John Tang and Jean Hsia .............**

Tish Hoehl .................................100

Micki and Bob Cardelli ...............**

Art and Peggy Stauffer ..............500

Lani Freeman and Stephen Monismith .....................50

Steve and Nancy Levy.................**

Jim and Nancy Baer ....................**

Janice Bohman and Eric Keller .250

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In honor ofOur Grandchildren ......................**

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Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run .....................28,518

Page 14 Page 15

Posted Jan. 5 at 9:58 a.m. by parent, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood:

What do your kids think about finishing the semester before break? Here’s what I hear from high school-ers:

Teacher’s didn’t have time for re-view before finals. Some were still teaching new material right before the test.

It was nice to have time after Christmas before going back to school.

Didn’t have time to study for fi-nals.

No energy to study for finals. Ex-hausted by the rush.

It’s good to start the new term when we get back.

Good and bad — more thoughts?

Posted Jan. 5 at 8:05 p.m. by wishful thinking?, a resident of An-other Palo Alto neighborhood:

It seemed like the semester was on a stride until Thanksgiving, then it was like the lights went out. Grades posted on Infinite Campus became fewer and farther between, and in some case the last grades posted, previous to finals, were back in No-vember and even October.

This may have caused a crunch between new material after Thanks-giving and finals review. It was a gray area.

I know this is too much to ask, but it would help if teachers would say there are X number of tests, quiz-zes and major assignments before Thanksgiving, X number between Thanksgiving and the week before final review dates.

Posted Jan. 5 at 10:12 p.m. by THANKS BoE, a member of the Palo Alto High School community:

My son enjoyed having the stress-free break and so did we. In past winter breaks, he would not study during the break, but he would feel guilty for not studying so he could not relax. This winter break has been fabulous because he could actually relax and hang out and not worry about studying. He will re-turn to Paly fresh and ready for a new semester instead of returning with the burden of having to flip through old material and study for final exams.

I don’t quite understand why “wishful thinking?” suggested stu-dents know how many tests/quiz-zes/assignments are upcoming. How would this help the students?

Posted Jan. 6 at 5:05 p.m. by palo alto mom, a resident of the Du-veneck/St. Francis neighborhood:

Great stress-free winter break (OK, at least free of school related

stress...). The only downside was ending so close to Christmas, my daughter had to study for finals with a house full of company.

Posted Jan. 7 at 9:10 a.m. by Colleje Graduite, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood:

This is how college works. Kids should get accustomed to it.

Posted Jan. 7 at 2:08 p.m. by Hated it, a member of the Palo Alto High School community:

One word review of the new cal-endar from a parent of a senior: dreadful.

While it sounds from the posts that some who don’t have seniors appre-ciated the “no thoughts of school” over break relief, I assure you that when their child becomes a senior they will not think that that “relief” outweighed the extraordinary weeks and weeks of additional stress the new calendar caused seniors apply-

ing to private colleges.What was the district thinking?

That public high schools need only support PAUSD seniors who apply to public colleges and recruited ath-letes?

Posted Jan. 7 at 2:39 p.m. by Palo Verde Parent, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood:

Loved the lack of stress hanging over my student’s head. He was not worried about finals and was able to truly relax. Our older son (in college now) and his friends spent their en-tire winter break (a few years back) doing college applications.

The college application crunch will happen over winter break re-gardless of when finals are held. Ei-ther way they don’t have time to do them in December before the break. If there are not finals, then there are chapter tests, projects and essays. So

SpectrumEditorials, letters and opinions

Bridging the flood control debate

As other flood control measures move forward east of 101, Newell Road bridge replacement controversy

deserves calm exploration of options

I t has taken more than a decade, but finally work is set to begin that ultimately will protect Palo Alto, Menlo Park and East Palo Alto from floods similar to the one that inundated hundreds of homes

in 1998.With work scheduled to begin later this year, the San Francisquito

Creek Joint Powers Authority, an agency made up of the local cities and counties through which the creek flows, will move forward on the first in a series of projects to alleviate the current flood dangers that force residents to pay millions of dollars annually in expensive flood insurance.

Last month’s intense rain storm, in which Palo Alto was largely spared from damage but which led to a breach in a levee in East Palo Alto that resulted in localized flooding and the evacuation of some residents for several days, was a timely reminder of the importance of moving forward with these planned projects.

The December storm pushed water under the Chaucer Street bridge at the third highest rate since records have been kept, dating back to 1930. Water rose to flood stage at both the Chaucer and Newell street bridges, which both create dangerous blockages of creek waters and can cause flooding even though the creek itself can handle the flow.

The San Francisquito Creek authority has adopted a plan to begin improvements at the tidelands and work its way upstream, ultimately replacing both the Chaucer and Newell street crossings. The first phase will include constructing more than 2,000 feet of floodwall east of Highway 101, including adjacent to the Palo Alto golf course.

But the city of Palo Alto’s plan to replace the 101-year old substan-dard Newell Road bridge with a modern, two-lane bridge has run into a buzz saw of concern among nearby residents in both Palo Alto and East Palo Alto.

A public outreach meeting at the Children’s Theatre Tuesday night attracted an overflow audience and a wide range of opinion, includ-ing a vocal group advocating that the bridge be taken down and not replaced.

City officials have wisely decided to step back and take time to con-duct environmental and traffic studies and to explore several options, including a full replacement, no replacement, and replacement with only a pedestrian/bike bridge.

The issue is sensitive for many reasons. The current narrow bridge, barely wide enough to permit two cars to pass at once, was not designed as an arterial, but has increasingly been used as a way to avoid traffic back-ups on University Avenue. This traffic, and the potential of more traffic if the bridge were widened, justifiably concerns the residents living on both sides. Neighborhood streets on the East Palo Alto side especially are not capable of handling additional traffic.

Because the bridge connects Palo Alto and East Palo Alto, neither community can justifiably act unilaterally, regardless of the fact that Palo Alto constructed the original bridge in 1911. Both cities have plen-ty of incentive to solve the flood hazard created by the bridge, and both have reason to limit, not expand or encourage, increases in the number of cars (currently about 3,000 trips a day) utilizing the bridge.

But the small East Palo Alto neighborhood located between San Francisquito Creek and 101 is already extremely constricted and the Newell bridge is an important access route for those residents to reach their jobs, schools and shopping destinations.

Prior to the organizing efforts of Palo Alto residents living in the area, the city of Palo Alto’s plan was to use grant funds to replace the current bridge with a much wider and longer structure that would not require supporting abutments in the creek’s waterway, and which would provide for safer passage for cars, bikes and pedestrians.

Pretty much everyone agrees on the need to remove the current bridge as an essential flood control measure. Similarly, we think it is also pretty obvious that at least a pedestrian and bike bridge must replace it, so that the neighborhood east of the creek is not further isolated.

So the real question is whether a new bridge should accommodate cars, and if so, what design and/or traffic measures can be utilized to prevent an increase in traffic from what exists today.

We are concerned that a bridge closed to traffic will result in debili-tating shifted traffic impacts to University Avenue, but that can only be determined through traffic studies that will soon be conducted.

As the planned studies proceed, however, it is important that the public debate not lose sight of the urgent flood control needs, nor be polluted by the few who want to discuss closing off an access point to Palo Alto in order to keep criminals out.

There is a great opportunity for residents on both sides of this bridge to work together to explore solutions acceptable to each. If they can do that, we are confident that both city councils will be happy to endorse their consensus.

Editorial

(continued on next page)

The Palo Alto Weekly encourages comments on our coverage or on issues of local interest.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Submit letters to the editor of up to 250 words to letters@paweekly.com. Submit guest opinions of 1,000 words to editor@paweekly.com. Include your name, address and daytime phone number so we can reach you. We reserve the right to edit contributions for length, objectionable content, libel and factual errors known to us. Anonymous letters will generally not be accepted. Submitting a letter to the editor or guest opinion constitutes a granting of permission to the Palo Alto Weekly and Embarcadero Media to also publish it online, including in our online archives and as a post on Town Square. For more information contact Editor Jocelyn Dong or Editorial Assistant Eric Van Susteren at editor@paweekly.com or 650-326-8210.

? Should the city replace or remove the Newell Road bridge?

This week on Town SquareTown Square is an online discussion forum at www.PaloAltoOnline.com

Page 16

What’s your New Year’s resolution for 2013? Asked on California Avenue, Palo Alto. Interviews and photographs by Ranjini Raghunath.

Robert Goodwin Builder California Avenue, Palo Alto “Volunteer more often at CityTeam Min-istries, San Francisco.”

Julia Langkamp Stay-at-home momCollege Terrace, Palo Alto“Participate in the San Francisco Half Marathon.”

John Minard Salesperson Mountain View “I don’t have any resolutions.”

J. B. Bell Business consultant James Road, Palo Alto “Be a better person.”

Ben Bigelow Student Palmer Lane, Menlo Park “Start moving my body more often than typing.”

by Samantha Suyon Woo

I grew up in Newtown, Conn. It was so painful to watch the aftermath of

the tragedy there last month. Yet seeing the graciousness of the town even through the pain reminded me of the aspects I loved about Newtown grow-ing up — a small town where everyone was known for who they were as a whole, in context.

I love that the parents courageously and beautifully honored their children as whole persons, not just victims, not just as students. They told us of their children’s laughter, their willingness to help their siblings. I love that caring Newtown residents offered hot co-coa to the media people — after all, aren’t they people too? People with feelings, who could get cold being outside all day, maybe with families of their own waiting for them at home? I love that even through grief, the people of Newtown saw a bigger picture, be-yond the slice of the awful, painful event, and showed an understanding of the concept of “the whole.”

Growing up, I remember how integrated the whole community was in Newtown. “Mr. G” was not just my fifth-grade teacher, but also a husband to Mrs. G, and a loving father to Trina, another schoolmate. He was also a helpful handyman/neighbor to my elementary school music teacher and her husband who happened to be my piano teacher. Everyone knew everyone, their families, what they were going through, and seeing a person was not

through a slice of their functional title, but as a whole. It was a package deal. People saw one another as whole persons with all that fol-lowed. Newtown’s grace and strength came from residents’ ability to see the whole of a person, and a situation.

I wonder what would happen if more of us could learn from Newtown, and see individu-als in context?

Unfortunately, these days we tend to see people through the specialized functional titles we attach to them. We live in a highly com-partmentalized 21st-century society where even the kids have to answer to the unspoken scrutiny: “What is your specialized identity? Are you an athlete? A computer-genius? An entrepreneur? A musician?” The workplace poses many forms of the question, “What spe-cialized function do you serve?” In trying to answer these questions, young athletes suf-fer repetitive use injuries, many professionals at work feel desperate to remain functionally significant, maybe ironically resulting in the workplace becoming a feeding ground for the insecure ego, rather than a place of true prog-ress and productivity.

What if we learned of Newtown’s grace in seeing the “whole” context of a person, be-yond the functional specializations? Where the co-worker is seen as a husband, father, son as well as an expert in their field? Where the child is a daughter, neighbor, friend, more than just number in the sea of students in the school system? Where that annoying person in the community can be seen as someone who is going through a rough time in their personal life?

Two of the recent mass shooters this year were given the “genius” label by some. In their knowledge and areas of expertise they certain-

ly were highly specialized (especially the PhD candidate in the Colorado theater), yet both were completely maladjusted as whole persons to their community and society at large. I won-der the consequences if the shooters had been thoroughly taught the absolute whole value of every person including themselves?

The grieving people of Newtown seemed to understand the dignity and value of a person beyond a person’s actions and what they did — they included the shooter and his mom among the remembered in their grief. What unfathomable grace. That is the gra-ciousness of my hometown that tugs at my heartstrings. I have never been prouder to see the old Town Hall on Main Street.

What if everyone treated themselves and others as if they had absolute value as a whole? Beyond the slices of compartmental-ized accomplishments, pedigree and exper-tise. We once dreamed with Martin Luther King Jr. that we wanted to be judged by the contents of our character, not the color of our skin, which is basically to treat a person as a whole, right? I wonder if we still judge ourselves on the skin of specific accom-plishments. Could it be that we are still at the epidermal layers, still not at the essence of a person? Do we still struggle to see the whole person?

What if we can learn from Newtown’s in-tegrated attitude of seeing “the whole” indi-vidual in our daily lives in Silicon Valley? One professional at a time? One parent at a time? One student at a time? One company at a time? One community at a time?

Thank you Newtown for showing so much grace, and for raising me. ■

Samantha S. Woo lives in Palo Alto with her husband and three children.

It is the whole person who matters in Newtown Guest Opinion

Check out Town Square!Hundreds of local topics are being discussed by local residents on

Town Square, a reader forum sponsored by the Weekly on our com-munity website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Post your own comments, ask questions, read the Editor’s blog or just stay up on what people are talking about around town!

Streetwise

for our family it was a welcome change! Hope we keep it!

Posted Jan. 7 at 10:58 p.m. by Paly senior parent, a member of the Palo Alto High School community:

My senior daughter (and us) thought this is great — it was so nice to be done with school before the break so that she could finish col-lege applications (including private colleges) while done with school work for the term. The last few weeks of term were extremely full, but being done with it for the break was worth it. I agree that the anxiety of not doing work dur-ing the break that you know should be done is a huge stressor for our kids.

The only thing that would have been prefer-able is to have the teachers manage the course better so that they weren’t teaching new mate-rial right up to the end -- but I assume they’ll get better at that as they get familiar with this schedule. Don’t change it back — this is MUCH better.

Posted Jan. 7 at 2:30 p.m. by Misha, a mem-ber of the Gunn High School community:

Better to ask towards end of school year. But for now, first semester notably shorter

and my student not happy about the mismatch with second semester. Wondering what seniors thought with everything crashing at once ~ fi-nals, college apps, year end performances, etc. My student ended the semester okay academi-cally but forlorn that not much time to spend to celebrate the holidays which nipped on the heels. Christmas was rushed and then there was a long lull afterwards which was calm but bordered on the boring.

Posted Jan 7. at 4:47 p.m. by not great, a resident of the Green Acres neighborhood:

My 6 & 8 year olds didn’t understand why they couldn’t visit her cousins this year over the summer break.

Town Square(continued from previous page)

Page 17

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

by Rebecca Wallace

hen Jindong Cai was in middle school,

a friend told him a dangerous secret:

He had found some Beethoven records in his

house, and he was going to play them. This

was China during the Cultural Revolution, and

Western classical music was forbidden, but the

friends were too excited to heed.

Page 18

Arts & Entertainment

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“We just dashed to listen,” Cai said. “We had to lower the curtains and put the machine in the corner so no one would know what we were doing.” They had Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and a movement from the Fifth, and they wound up the phonograph to play one of the thick 78s.

Their delight was inexpressible. “The Beethoven, it’s almost beyond Western music and the Western countries. It’s humanity in its high-est state,” Cai said.

Cai’s face glows at the memory. Today, as an associate professor of music in performance at Stanford University, he has all the music he wants. Sitting in his office at the university’s Braun Music Center, he’s surrounded by bookshelves and enormous tomes of symphonic music. A blown-up photo of him conducting, his mouth open in a huge smile, is crowned by a poster of the Sydney Opera House, where he raised the baton for Verdi’s Requiem in 2005.

In 2008 he took his Stanford Symphony Orchestra back to China, where they performed Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”

Starting this month, Cai leads his greatest Beethoven celebration yet at the new Bing Concert Hall on cam-pus. The university’s season-long Beethoven Project will feature him conducting the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and the Stanford Philhar-monia Orchestra in performances of all nine Beethoven symphonies and all five Beethoven piano concerti. Pianist Jon Nakamatsu, a Stan-ford graduate, will be the featured soloist. The series will run Jan. 18 through June 1. (The Jan. 18 and 20 concerts are already sold out, but some student seats may still be available.)

Each concert will have a pub-lic pre-performance lecture, led by a Ph.D. student in musicology or by Cai and Nakamatsu. Topics will include “The Pugilist at Rest: Ludwig’s Lighter Side” (given by Nate Sloan on April 26 and 27) and “Beethoven and the Early Viennese Symphonic State (given by Erick Arenas on May 10 and 12).

A Stanford Continuing Studies class, called “Beethoven: An In-troduction through Performance,” begins Jan. 16 and will feature Cai and other lecturers. Seminars and classes for Stanford students are also planned on the composer.

The project concludes this sum-mer with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra jetting off to Europe to perform in places where Beethoven worked or visited, including Bonn, Berlin, Leipzig, Prague and Vien-na.

Cai is clearly thrilled: over both the project and the prospect of hav-ing his orchestras begin performing at the Bing Concert Hall. “It’s going to change the landscape of music-making at Stanford,” he said of the $112 million, oval-shaped concert hall. The orchestras have been re-hearsing there since November, and he’s delighted with the acoustics. The 842-seat venue may be small in capacity compared to some concert halls, but its design is voluminous, he said. “There’s room for the sound

to develop.”A new hall means some adjusting.

Cai has had to ask some orchestra sections to play more quietly and some more loudly than they did in the older Dinkelspiel Auditorium. Reverberation times are different, which can affect tempi. But that’s just part of being a conductor, es-pecially one who is used to touring and conducting in concert halls all over the globe. “Live performance is unique. As a conductor, we try to find something new each time in Beethoven’s symphonies,” Cai said.

Cai admits that it can sometimes be daunting to interpret the works of the great master. But he knows that as an academic he brings “end-less study, endless learning” to Beethoven’s works, from studying them from a historic and cultural

perspective to examining every piece of musical notation.

For example, Beethoven was very fond of the metronome and was careful to write metronomic mark-ings on his symphonies, Cai noted. Yet some of the markings seem almost impossible to follow — too fast or too slow — perhaps because Beethoven was already in the midst of composing his sixth symphony when the metronome was invented. A conductor cannot blindly follow the page, but needs to make his own careful choices, Cai said. Exploring every aspect of the compositions, together with a trusted orchestra, is one of the great joys of his work.

Cai, who joined Stanford’s faculty in 2004, is also the artistic director of the annual Stanford Pan-Asian Music Festival. In addition, he’s the principal guest conductor of the Mongolian State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet.

He knows that the chance to play all of Beethoven’s symphonies and piano concerti is rare for any stu-dent musician. This year, he got a huge number of auditioners for his orchestras.

The students have wide-ranging backgrounds — engineering, French literature and neuroscience, to name a few — but they’re all steeped in Western music. The orchestras re-hearse five hours a week, which is longer than most classes meet, Cai said. “Music is a very, very impor-tant part of their lives.”

With the Bing Concert Hall draw-ing intense interest even before its opening weekend on Jan. 11-13, au-diences would do well to buy tickets early. Nearly all the opening events are sold out, including free events, which require mandatory tickets to ensure that there’s room for every-one. Even many later events, such

as cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Jan. 27 and violinist Midori on Feb. 6, are al-ready sold out.

At this writing, tickets were still available for the Feb. 2 and 4 con-certs of the Beethoven Project. Held at 8 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively, they will feature Beethoven’s sec-ond and eighth symphonies, and his second piano concerto. Tickets are $20 general, $10-$13.50 for non-Stanford students, $7.50 for chil-dren under 18, and free for Stanford students.

Planned for Feb. 22 is a free sym-posium called “Heroism in the Age of Beethoven,” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Bing Concert Hall studio. It will be moderated by Stanford pro-fessors Stephen Hinton, Blair Hoxby and Adrian Daub.

Info: For details on the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Philharmonia Orchestra season, go to sso.stanford.edu. A complete Bing Concert Hall season listing is on the Stanford Live website at live.stanford.edu and indicates whether performances are sold out.

Opposite: Jindong Cai conducts the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. Photo courtesy of Stanford Live.

‘The Beethoven, it’s almost beyond Western music and the Western countries. It’s humanity in its highest state.’

—Jindong Cai

Page 19

MoviesAmour

(Guild) Michael Haneke makes films that no one really wants to see. Whether he’s crafting “Funny Games,” “Time of the Wolf” or “The White Ribbon,” the Austrian writer-director deals with provoca-tive subject matter in a very cool-toned way, asking the viewer to think critically rather than being entertained in a conventionally pas-sive manner. “Amour,” the recipi-ent of the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, may be his most masterful — and most difficult yet rewarding — film to watch.

“Amour” is a love story. But the drama opens in silence with firemen battering open the door to a locked Parisian apartment. They cover their noses. A neighbor utters, “They had a nurse.” And the men open a taped-shut door to discover a woman’s corpse, lying amidst flower petals, on the bed. On a black background, as though the film is already in mourning, the title “Amour” ap-pears on screen.

We know this love story will not end well. With an economy of ex-pression, Haneke has introduced the subject in a handful of carefully selected shots that makes us wonder what happened.

The film flashes back to an el-derly, cultured Parisian couple at-tending a piano concert (Alexandre Tharaud as himself). Seeing French icons Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant in their 80s is shocking in itself. The chiseled fa-cial beauty of Riva in “Hiroshima, mon amour” (1959) and Trintignant in “A Man and a Woman” (1966) or “Z” (1969) is frozen in cinematic time. To watch their delicate per-formances as Anne and Georges — studying their aged faces and deliberate movements — is like running unexpectedly into someone you knew years and years ago and searching for the younger person in the mature one before you.

Almost the entire movie takes place in the well-appointed apart-ment of the long-married pair. De-tails of their life together slowly unspool. A tender touch on the shoulder reveals just as much about their relationship as when Anne lin-gers over a photograph in an album,

quietly whispering, “It’s beautiful, life.”

Unfortunately, life can change in a heartbeat. Anne has a stroke. And then a second one. Her declin-ing health and Georges’ gallant ef-forts to care for her make for heart-breaking drama. Cinematographer Darius Khondji’s camera captures the painfully slow rhythms of the actors in long master shots. Dur-ing one of the rare visits of their only child, Eva (the superb Isabelle Huppert), Khondji photographs the awkwardness of the exchange. Eva’s self-centered blathering and critical comments contrast with Georges’ measured calm and awareness that their daughter and her family are like strangers to them. Such is the modern condition. Eventually the camera lingers over the increasingly difficult daily tasks of caretaking, like a vulture awaiting death. The film becomes a profound medita-tion about dying and living, about respect and love tested to the limit.

On one level, “Amour” offers a completely accessible story. On other levels, Haneke’s signature style lies in wait. He plants subtle hints of impending violence, wheth-er someone is teasingly called “a monster” or when the couple talks about a friend’s funeral. Haneke also revisits his concerns of encour-aging the spectator to question the act of consuming entertainment. When Anne and Georges attend the piano concert, the camera watches the audience and its reaction, never showing the pianist perform. The director alludes to his film “The Pi-ano Teacher” multiple times, as well as providing a verbal reference to “Funny Games.” Most importantly, a key plot point turns on the power of narrative as Georges calms Anne with a story about his childhood. Conventional narratives appeal to the emotions and can function as an opiate. “Amour” is not one of those.

Refuting Jean-Luc Godard’s quote that “Film is truth at 24 frames per second,” Haneke once retorted, “A

feature film is 24 lies per second.” With “Amour,” the auteur seems to achieve the impossible. Haneke unblinkingly and compassionately presents universal truths, while re-vealing the illusion of filmmaking and our role as spectators.

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including a disturbing act, and brief language. In French with English subtitles. 2 hours, 7 min-utes.

— Susan Tavernetti

Gangster Squad 1/2(Century 16, Century 20) I’d say

“Gangster Squad” was so hard-boiled it’s overcooked, but that wouldn’t quite capture the prob-lem with this 1940s-set would-be gangster-flick throwback. Out of his depth, director Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”) hasn’t so much cooked something up as micro-waved it.

There’s a distinctly synthetic feel to this period picture, which recre-ates such Hollywood iconography as the then-”Hollywoodland” sign and nightclub Slapsy Maxie’s, com-plete with Carmen Miranda. For all of Fleischer’s flashy flourishes (and the production design is, indeed, colorful), “Gangster Squad” plays like nothing so much as a cut-rate “Untouchables.”

In 1949, the Los Angeles Police Department has been greased by mob payoffs, necessitating an off-the-books response. Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) recruits “honest cop” Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) to head up a special unit of stout-hearted men to take down the likes of gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn).

Every character can be summed up pithily. Cohen? Psychopath. O’Mara? Grimly determined. Ryan Gosling’s Sgt. Jerry Wooters? Play-boy with a heart of gold. Robert Pat-rick’s Officer Kennard? Deadeye. Giovanni Ribisi’s Officer Keeler? Tech support. Michael Pe˜a’s Offi-cer Ramirez? Um, token Mexican-American?

The crime of wasting Peña (so good in last year’s LAPD drama “End of Watch”) demonstrates the film’s chronic inability to elevate its stock characters through dia-logue or performance. The stellar cast — and more familiar faces seem to parade in every three min-utes — drifts through the picture, and the sheer bulk of talent involved (top-tier technicians and designers included) turns out to be a case of water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.

The clunky script by former cop Will Beall relies heavily on formu-la and thus has a tendency to tele-graph; you’ll know which characters will bite it within minutes of meet-ing them. While “inspired by a true story” (and based on the book by Paul Lieberman) about transplanted

OPENINGS

WRITTENBY MARK BOAL DIRECTED

BY KATHRYN BIGELOWPRODUCEDBY MARK BOAL KATHRYN BIGELOW MEGAN ELLISON

JOEL EDGERTON EXECUTIVEPRODUCERS COLIN WILSON TED SCHIPPER GREG SHAPIROMUSIC

BY ALEXANDRE DESPLATA KATHRYN BIGELOW FILM “ZERO DARK THIRTY” JESSICA CHASTAIN JASON CLARKECOLUMBIA PICTURES PRESENTS

4GOLDEN GLOBE® NOM INATIONS

BEST PictureBest directorkathRyn bigelow D

RA

MABest actress

jessica chastainBest screenplaymark boal

DR

AM

A

“

YOU’RE IN FOR A HELL OF A RIDE.JESSICA CHASTAIN IS A MARVEL.”

-PETER TRAVERS,

“THE BEST PICTUREOF THE YEAR.”

NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE

LISA SCHWARZBAUMANN HORNADAY NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES

Now taking applications for the 2013-2014 school year!!

Friends is a non-profi t, play-based, modifi ed parent

cooperative with a warm and nurturing environment which

promotes social skills and fosters a child’s self-esteem and

emergent developmental skills

Please visit our website for application details:www.pafns.org.

Or call our office: 650.856.6152

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Palo Alto City Council

will hold a public hearing at a special Council meeting on

Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. or as near thereafter

as possible, in the Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Avenue,

Palo Alto, to Consider the Adoption of a Resolution Amending

the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan To

Incorporate Certain Findings of the Palo Alto Rail Corridor

Study and Approval of a Negative Declaration.

DONNA J. GRIDER, MMC

City Clerk

CITY OF PALO ALTONOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

Tickets and Showtimes available at cinemark.com

Century Theatres at Palo Alto Square

Fri & Sat Life of Pi 3D - 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 1/11-1/12 Life of Pi 2D - 1:00 Hyde Park on Hudson - 1:30, 4:30, 7:25, 9:45Sun & Mon Life of Pi 3D - 4:00, 7:001/13 - 1/14 Life of 2D - 1:00 Hyde Park on Hudson - 1:30, 4:30, 7:25Tues 1/15 Life of Pi 3D - 4:00 Life of Pi 2D - 1:00 Hyde Park on Hudson - 1:30, 7:25Weds 1/16 Life of Pi 3D - 1:00 Hyde Park on Hudson - 1:30, 4:30, 7:25Thurs 1/17 Life of Pi 3D - 4:00, 7:00 Life of Pi 2D - 1:00 Hyde Park on Hudson - 1:30, 4:30, 7:25

Josh Brolin, right, as the stereotypical good cop.

Page 20

Movies

A Haunted House (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 11:50 a.m.; 2:10, 5, 7:50 & 10:30 p.m. Century 20: 11:10 a.m.; 1:20, 3:30, 5:45, 8:15 & 10:40 p.m.

Amour (PG-13) Guild Theatre: 1, 4, 7 & 9:55 p.m.

Anna Karenina (R) Aquarius Theatre: 3 & 8:30 p.m.

Argo (R) 1/2 Century 16: 11:15 a.m. & 5:20 p.m. Century 20: 2:15 p.m.

Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: In 3D at 11:05 a.m.

Django Unchained (R) Century 16: 11 a.m.; 2:35, 6:15 & 10:15 p.m. Century 20: 11:10 a.m.; 2:45, 6:25 & 10 p.m.

Gangster Squad (R) 1/2 Century 16: 11 a.m.; noon, 1:40, 2:40, 4:30, 5:30, 7:30, 8:40 & 10:35 p.m. Century 20: 11:30 a.m.; 12:55, 3:40, 6:20, 7:50, 9:15 & 10:40 p.m.

The Guilt Trip (PG-13) Century 20: 1:30, 4:35, 7 & 9:30 p.m.

Hitchcock (PG-13) Aquarius Theatre: 12:45 & 6 p.m.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13) Century 16: 11:10 a.m.; In 3D at 2:45, 6:20 & 10:10 p.m. Century 20: 10:55 a.m.; 2:35, 6:15 & 9:55 p.m.

Hyde Park on Hudson (R) Palo Alto Square: 1:30, 4:30 & 7:25 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. also at 9:45 p.m.

The Impossible (PG-13) Aquarius Theatre: 1:30, 4:15, 7 & 9:45 p.m. Century 20: Noon, 2:40, 5:20, 8:05 & 10:45 p.m.

Jack Reacher (PG-13) 1/2 Century 16: 12:20, 3:30, 7 & 10:20 p.m. Century 20: 1:10, 4:20, 7:25 & 10:25 p.m.

Les Miserables (2012) (PG-13) Century 16: 11 a.m.; 2:25, 6:05 & 9:35 p.m. Century 20: 11:25 a.m.; 3, 6:40 & 10:05 p.m.

Life of Pi (PG) 1/2 Century 20: 10:50 a.m.; In 3D at 1:45, 4:40, 7:40 & 10:35 p.m. Palo Alto Square: 1 p.m.; In 3D at 4, 7 & 10 p.m.

Lincoln (PG-13) 1/2 Century 16: 11:20 a.m.; 2:40, 6:10 & 9:35 p.m. Century 20: 12:20, 3:35, 6:55 & 10:20 p.m.

The Metropolitan Opera: Aida (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: Wed. at 6:30 p.m. Palo Alto Square: Wed. at 6:30 p.m.

Monsters, Inc. (G) 1/2 Century 20: In 3D at 1:30 & 6:30 p.m.

My Man Godfrey (1936) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Fri.-Mon. at 5:45 & 9:35 p.m.

Next Time We Love (1936) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Tue.-Thu. at 5:50 & 9:20 p.m.

Nicholas Sparks’ Safe Haven: Filmmakers, Author and Stars Live (PG) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: Thu. at 8 p.m. Century 20: Thu. at 8 p.m.

Not Fade Away (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 12:10 p.m.

Parental Guidance (PG) 1/2 Century 16: 11:15 a.m.; 1:45, 4:15, 7:10 & 10:10 p.m. Century 20: 11:55 a.m.; 2:30, 5:05, 7:45 & 10:25 p.m.

Promised Land (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 11:25 a.m.; 2:15, 4:50, 7:40 & 10:25 p.m. Century 20: 11:15 a.m.; 2, 4:40, 7:15 & 9:50 p.m.

Rise of the Guardians (PG) 1/2 Century 20: 11 a.m. & 8:55 p.m.; In 3D at 3:55 p.m.

Show Boat (1936) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Fri.-Mon. at 7:30 p.m.; Sat. & Sun. also 3:40 p.m.

Silver Linings Playbook (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 12:10, 3:20, 6:30 & 9:45 p.m. Century 20: 11:35 a.m.; 2:15, 5, 7:50 & 10:35 p.m.

Skyfall (PG-13) 1/2 Century 16: 2 & 8:30 p.m. Century 20: 12:45, 3:55, 7:20 & 10:30 p.m.

The Sound of Music (1965) (G) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: Wed. at 2 & 7 p.m. Century 20: Wed. at 2 & 7 p.m.

Texas Chainsaw (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 16: 11:30 a.m.; In 3D at 1:50, 4:10, 6:50 & 9:20 p.m. Century 20: 1 p.m.; In 3D at 3:20, 5:40, 8 & 10:30 p.m.

This Is 40 (R) 1/2 Century 16: 3:10, 6:40 & 9:55 p.m. Century 20: 12:30, 4, 7:05 & 10:10 p.m.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (Not Rated) Century 20: 5 p.m.

You’re a Sweetheart (1937) (Not Rated) (Not Reviewed) Stanford Theatre: Tue.-Thu. at 7:30 p.m.

Zero Dark Thirty (R) 1/2 Century 16: 11 a.m.; 12:30, 2:30, 4:20, 6:20, 8:20 & 10:15 p.m. Century 20: 11 a.m.; 12:50, 2:30, 4:45, 6:50, 8:20 & 10:15 p.m.

MOVIE TIMES

Skip it Some redeeming qualities A good bet Outstanding

Resources and program for positive aging

Avenidas presents its 2nd Annual Financial Conference

Michael Finney

Early bird pricing available until 1/17.WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM

BEST PICTURE OF THE YEARTIME MAGAZINE LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

THE NEW YORK TIMES A.O. Scott

BEST PICTURE OF THE YEARTIME MAGAZINE LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

THE NEW YORK TIMES A.O. Scott

VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.AMOURTHEMOVIE.COM

AMOUREMMANUELLE RIVA

JEAN-LOUIS TRINTIGNANT

A Film by MICHAEL HANEKE

“ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST.A MASTERPIECE ABOUT LIFE, DEATH

AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.”-Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES

BEST PICTURECANNES

WINNER

STARTS FRIDAY, JANUARY 11

All showtimes are for Friday through Sunday only unless otherwise noted. For other times, as well as reviews and trailers, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/movies.

Chicago hood Cohen and the secret detail after him, the filmmakers’ take is colossally ridiculous in its plot development, repeatedly raising the crazy bar. (Points, though, for briefly squeezing in Darryl Gates — played by Josh Pence — and more Burbank jokes than a Johnny Carson monologue.)

Much of the criticism of “Gang-ster Squad,” and there will be much criticism, will note the movie’s glib ultraviolence. Kinetic fisticuffs and gunplay quickly lose their impact as Fleischer glamorizes the brutality — and has the bad luck to do so at the worst possible cultural moment. (Indeed, the film’s release was de-layed to excise a gun massacre in a movie theater, replaced by a gun

massacre on a Chinatown street: Thanks for nothin’, Hollywood.) The macho swag(ger) of “Gangster Squad” includes an unironic use of the “slo-mo striding away from an explosion shot,” emblematizing Fleischer’s clueless tastelessness.

To the extent that “Gangster Squad” is palatable at all, it’s in the category of trashy fun, as in seeing Penn homage the ghosts of movie gangsters past. “Here comes Santy Claus!” he hollers, before spray-ing bullets. There’s a gift horse one might look in the mouth.

Rated R for strong violence and language. One hour, 53 minutes.

— Peter Canavese

Internet address: For show times, plot synopses, trailers, theater addresses and more information

about films playing, go to PaloAltoOnline.com/movies

Page 21

L ike many local residents, the Zankich family never forgot the Parisian burger served at

Mountain View’s Linda’s Drive-In decades ago, with its special sauce and sourdough bun. When it came time to open their own eatery, what to serve was a no-brainer.

“For years and years and years, my mom would make the sauce up when we would make burgers,” Kris Zankich recalled. “We’d have barbe-cues and people would be like, ‘You guys got to open a restaurant.’”

In August that idea became real-ity when the Gold Rush Eatery food truck was born with Linda’s Pari-sian burger as its signature dish. “With the up-front costs of doing a restaurant, basically we came to the conclusion that the way to do this is with a truck,” Zankich said.

Long since demolished, Linda’s Drive-In was a Mountain View institution from the 1960s to the 1980s. Located on El Camino Real and Escuela Avenue, it was a favor-ite hangout for students of Mountain View High School when the campus was still located downtown on Cas-tro Street.

For fans of the Linda’s burger, Twitter and Facebook announce the truck’s location. On most days dur-ing lunchtime it is parked at a cor-porate office somewhere in Silicon Valley, often in Mountain View or Palo Alto.

Zankich was 12 years old when Linda’s was around but he says he remembers the burger’s taste well. It had two beef patties, American cheese, a French roll bun (from a Parisian bakery) and “special sauce”

made from ketchup, mustard, dried onions, celery seed and pepper. Tater Tots were served on the side.

“It all kind of melts together if you have the right roll,” Zankich said. “We played around with it for a while” and ended up using a bakery in San Francisco.

The sauce was a mystery to many fans for years, though purported recipes can now be found online. Zankich says the family learned it from a former employee of Linda’s.

“Linda’s used to do two small lit-tle patties,” Zankich said. “I think a juicier burger is better. We use a half-pound of fresh Angus beef” for one big patty. That also means half the room is needed on the stove, an important consideration in a food truck where space is limited.

With a theme inspired by the

49ers, the Parisian burger has been renamed the “Gold Rush burger” on the truck’s menu, which also in-cludes pulled-pork and teriyaki tri-tip sandwiches, Tater Tots, onion rings and root beer floats. For those trying to avoid beef, a veggie patty can be substituted in the Gold Rush burger.

The truck can serve 250 people in one lunch, Zankich said, as much as a restaurant can. Upside-down buckets with the 49ers logo are used as tables and chairs.

With Gold Rush Eatery around there are now at least three ways to enjoy this classic Mountain View

Eating Out

Customers wait to order from the Gold Rush Eatery truck, where the menu includes a revival of the Parisian burger from the late Mountain View institution Linda’s Drive-In.

Jam

es T

ensu

an

1390 Pear Ave., Mountain View(650) 254-1120www.cucinaventi.com

Hours:9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Saturday9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday

DINNER BY THE MOVIES AT SHORELINE’S

Cucina VentiNow accepting reservations

for your holiday party!

catering available!

Preparation:In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the cheese and black pepper and set aside.In a medium skillet over low heat, cook the pancetta slowly, turning the pieces occasionally, for until they are cooked through and beginning to crisp.Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti. Cook, until the pasta is al dente. Save 1 cup hot pasta water. Drain the pasta, add back the hot pasta water and return it immediately to the skillet. Stir to combine pasta and pancetta. Stir in the egg and cheese mixture and toss well to coat the pasta thoroughly to distribute it evenly. Serve with a sprinkle of pecorino cheese.

Spaghetti alla Carabonara 4 eggs, at room temperature 1 cup pecorino Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, or a combination 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 ounces pancetta, cut about 1/4-inch thick, slices cut into 1/2-inch long strips 1 tablespoon salt 1 pound imported spaghetti

The origins of Spaghetti alla Carbonara are obscure but few dishes conjure up a more loyal following. The name is derived from the Italian word for charcoal where the dish was made popular as a meal for the charcoal makers. Still others going so far as to say it was named for a secret society the “Carbonari” as tribute during Italy’s unifi cation. Since the dish is unrecorded prior to 1927 it will forever be intertwined with the closing days of World War II. And while some historians attribute its creation to hungry American soldiers in Rome, it rarely reaches the heights in this country that it does in Rome. Beyond assumptions, it is most likely an old recipe passed down for generation to generation in the shepherding regions surrounding Rome. Carbonara is the pinnacle of perfection in pasta, surpassing even the more foundational Aglio e Olio (garlic and oil). In a good Carbonara, the creaminess comes not from cream, but from the perfect use of eggs against the residual heat of the spaghetti. Correctly done, spaghetti alla Carbonara is a textural and sensual study in classic cooking. Never made ahead of time, only to order, your culinary journey to Rome during the war years begins here at Pizzeria Venti.

From our kitchen to yours. Buon appetito! Chef Marco Salvi, Executive Chef

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Re-inventing a classicFood truck offers its version of the Parisian burger from Linda’s Drive-In

by Daniel DeBolt

(continued on next page)

Page 22

burger. The Zankich family joins two other local restaurants in at-tempting to recreate the Parisian burger: Armadillo Willy’s in Los Altos and Pezzella’s Villa Napoli in Sunnyvale. Both began serving their own versions of the Parisian burger a few years ago.

Gold Rush Eatery posts its food truck locations on Twitter as @Goldrusheatery and may be found on Facebook at facebook.com/goldrush.eatery.

Mountain View Voice staff writ-er Daniel DeBolt can be emailed at ddebolt@mv-voice.com.

Eating Out

MENLO PARKMONGOLIAN

BBQ

Monday - Saturday

700 El Camino Real, Suite 170 (next to BevMo)

(650) 853-1118facebook.com/mp.mongolian

MP Mongolian BBQ serves up an all-you-can-eat buffet style meal.

(Includes noodles, meats, shrimp, vegetables, and sauces.)Also Available:

Wonton chips, veggie spring rolls, chicken katsu, sweet and sour pork, fried rice, and sesame biscuits.

Sister of Su’s Mongolian BBQ

New Year!

&

&&

Discover the best places to eat this week!

A M E R I C A N

Armadillo Willy’s 941-2922

1031 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altoswww.armadillowillys.com

The Old Pro326-1446

541 Ramona Street, Palo Altowww.oldpropa.com

S T E A K H O U S E

Sundance the Steakhouse 321-6798

1921 El Camino Real, Palo Altowww.sundancethesteakhouse.com

C H I N E S E

Chef Chu’s 948-2696

1067 N. San Antonio Roadwww.chefchu.com

Ming’s856-7700

1700 Embarcadero East, Palo Altowww.mings.com

New Tung Kee Noodle House947-8888

520 Showers Drive, Mountain Viewwww.shopmountainview.com/luunoodlemv

I N D I A N

Janta Indian Restaurant 462-5903

369 Lytton Ave. www.jantaindianrestaurant.com

Thaiphoon323-7700

543 Emerson Ave, Palo Alto www.ThaiphoonRestaurant.com

Read and post reviews, explore restaurant menus, get hours and directions

and more at ShopPaloAlto, ShopMenloPark and ShopMountainView

powered by

P E N I N S U L A

SURVEY MONKEY SWINGING INTO NEW HABITAT ... The online survey

company Survey Monkey has signed

on to be the anchor tenant for one of

Palo Alto’s newest and most ambi-

tious developments. At the former

Shell gas-station site on the corner

of Alma Street and Lytton Avenue,

the company will lease the top three

floors and a rooftop deck of what

city officials have referred to as the

city’s four-story “gateway building.”

The headquarters for Survey Monkey

is now at 285 Hamilton Ave., but the

growing company needs more room,

spokeswoman Becky Cantieri said.

“We are committed to Palo Alto but

we’ve been looking for a larger space,”

she said, adding that the company is

considering leasing out the second

floor. Cantieri described the space

as the “perfect opportunity for us. It’s

right across from the train station, and

a significant number of our employees

take the train.” Survey Monkey has

about 200 employees; 140 of them

work in Palo Alto. Councilmember Pat

Burt said he is delighted with the new

tenant. “It’s a growing, cutting-edge

company and we’re thrilled they’ve

chosen to stay in Palo Alto,” he said.

The plans needed major revisions be-

fore being approved by the City Coun-

cil. The controversy stemmed from

some residents expressing concern

about future traffic and parking prob-

lems in an already congested area.

One of the concessions was eliminat-

ing 14 housing units and scaling back

the height of the building. Another

was an agreement to put a retail store

and a nonprofit, downtown-oriented

organization on the ground floor of the

building. Survey Monkey’s move-in

date is scheduled for early 2014.

CREPES CAFE AND LISA’S TEA CLOSING ... Two longtime restaurants

are closing in Menlo Park. Both Crepes

Cafe and Lisa’s Tea Treasures in Menlo

Park will be leaving to make room for

a celebrity chef who will take over the

large, plantation-style building at the

corner of Oak Grove Avenue and Mer-

rill Street across from the Menlo Park

train station. Bradley Ogden, a chef

and restaurateur who has a home in

San Jose, is poised to open B.F.D.

(Bradley’s Fine Diner) in late summer.

He plans to develop one and possibly

two restaurants at 1195 Merrill St., with

food served in a casual atmosphere,

said a spokesman for Ogden. The

space also features a 2,800-square-

foot, wraparound deck that will be

used for patio dining. Ogden’s busi-

ness partner, former Facebook exec

Chris Kelly, said a formal announce-

ment about the new restaurant will be

coming in the next few months.

Heard a rumor about your fa-vorite store or business? Daryl Savage will check it out.

Email shoptalk@paweekly.com.

ShopTalkby Daryl Savage

(continued from previous page)

Nico Osorio cooks burgers at the Gold Rush Eatery truck.

Page 23

SportsShorts

READ MORE ONLINEwww.PASportsOnline.com

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

SaturdayMen’s basketball: Washington at

Stanford, 8 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks; KNBR (1050 AM)

SundayWomen’s basketball: Cal at Stanford,

1 p.m.; ESPN2; KZSU (90.1 FM)

ON THE AIR

STAYING AND GOING . . . Stanford

evidently won’t be losing as many

players early to the NFL as previously

thought. Linebackers Trent Murphy and Shayne Skov plus defensive

end Ben Gardner all announced last

weekend via Twitter that they will be

returning to Stanford for another year.

That trimmed the possible exodus in

half because junior tight ends Zach Ertz and Levine Toilolo plus redshirt

junior cornerback Terrence Brown have announced their intentions to

forego their final year at Stanford to

make themselves available to the

NFL draft. Brown, fifth on the team

with 65 tackles, including three for a

loss, announced his decision Tuesday

with a statement through the Sports

Information Department. Ertz, an All-

American, led the Cardinal in receiv-

ing this season with 69 receptions for

898 yards and six touchdowns. Toilolo

caught 24 passes for 393 yards and

four touchdowns.

NEW JOB . . . Menlo College is losing

a women’s volleyball coach because

the Stanford men’s volleyball team is

gaining a full-time assistant. Daniel Rasay, who has been a volunteer as-

sistant at Stanford and the women’s

coach at Menlo the past three years,

will assume new duties at Stanford

effective immediately. Rasay departs

Menlo after a remarkable 2012 sea-

son, in which the Oaks finished unde-

feated in Cal Pac Conference play and

culminated in a trip to the NAIA Na-

tional Championship. Rasay, a Hawaii

grad, was named the Cal Pac Coach

of the Year.

SPECIAL HONOR . . . Menlo School

senior Drew Edelman will be honored

during the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

of Northern California induction cer-

emony on Jan. 27 in San Francisco.

Edelman and four other student-ath-

letes will receive an award during the

induction ceremony, featuring basket-

ball legend Rick Barry, NBA coach

Herb Brown, San Francisco State

football and basketball coach Vic Ro-wen, sports agent Matt Sosnick and

sportswriter Art Spander. Edelman

and her fellow award-winners will be

honored in a ceremony at the Four

Seasons in San Francisco at 5 p.m.

Edelman is only the fourth recipient

from the Peninsula. Previous athletes

and sports figures inducted into the

Hall of Fame include Harris Barton

and Keena Turner of the San Fran-

cisco 49ers, former San Francisco

Giants owner Bob Lurie, former Stan-

ford athletes Sam Warburg (tennis)

and Ben Wildman-Tobriner (swim-

ming) and Stanford tennis benefactor

Tad Taube.

Palo Alto has been taking down opponents with regularity this season, both figuratively and physically — like Paly senior Chris Meredith (dark uniform) did earlier this week during the Vikings 3-1 win over Monta Vista.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

A goal by Paly senior Paul Stefanski (13) earned a hug from freshman Dami Bolarinwa.

PREP SOCCER

Ogwumikemakes a

differenceShe rallies Stanford

past Cal in showdown of Top 10 teams

by Rick Eymer

C hiney Ogwumike continues to do amazing things for the fifth-ranked Stanford wom-

en’s basketball team. Even setting aside her 26 points in the Cardi-nal 62-53 victory over host No. 7 California on Tuesday night, the ju-nior made all the right plays down the stretch on defense and on the boards.

California took a page out of Stanford’s game plan to dominate on the offensive boards, turning a poor shooting night into a produc-tive offensive attack.

The Golden Bears turned re-bounding into a team concept and controlled the boards against Stan-ford (3-0 in the Pac-12, 14-1 overall) like no other team has been able to accomplish in a long time.

Fortunately, there’s the Chiney factor.

Each time Cal appeared ready to start pulling away, there was Ogwu-mike with a short jumper, a clutch rebound, a blocked shot or a steal.

Will the Golden Bears be able to adjust when they travel to Stanford for a 1 p.m. matinee Sunday? They seemed to do everything they could to nullify Ogwumike’s presence and she still made it her own.

“The way I look at it was this was just the first half because we play them again Sunday,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “Let’s see if we can knock down some 3’s and play better on Sunday. I think it probably will be a better game for both teams. We’ll be rested.”

VanDerveer was concerned about Cal’s rebounding prowess way be-fore the Golden Bears (2-1, 12-2) gave her a close-up look.

“We’ve played teams who rebound well,” VanDerveer said before the game. “It’s something our team will be disciplined and do, though I can’t say that for a fact.”

The Cardinal will be looking to improve upon for the rematch.

“They have a very athletic team at every position and they are experi-enced,” VanDerveer said. “We have to limit their second shots and get to the free-throw line.”

Sara James gave Stanford a boost off the bench with 18 points in a win over Utah, replacing an ill Toni Kokenis, but you have to go back to the Pacific game for bench contribu-tions from multiple people.

What has been missing from the Stanford arsenal is the reliable bench player. Taylor Greenfield, who scored 18 against Gonzaga earlier in the season, was 1-of-3 from the foul line against the Golden Bears. That was the only offensive production from the bench Tuesday night.

Bonnie Samuelson has reached double figures too, netting 11 in the

(continued on page 27)

Keith PetersKeith Peters

Palo Alto boyshaving fun againafter worst year

by Keith Peters

T he fun has returned to the Palo Alto boys’ soccer team. Goals can be enjoyed, victories can be cel-ebrated and expectations can be achieved.

There is talk of winning titles again, albeit in the lower SCVAL El Camino Division, and reaching the Central Coast Section playoffs is more reality than dream. Moreover, there is hope just one year after there was none.

Last season was a train wreck of massive proportions for Palo Alto, which failed to win a match for the first time ever. And this, from a program that had been in existence for more than 40 years and won or shared four CCS titles during that time.

The Vikings went 0-9-3 in the SCVAL De Anza Di-vision and 0-15-5 overall, earning a demotion to the El Camino Division. There were few, if any, positives during the season.

Only three years earlier, it couldn’t have been much better for the Vikings, who finished with a 21-1-3 re-cord for the most victories in program history, allowed only one goal during the league season and wound up sharing the Central Coast Section Division I title with Bellarmine, while earning a No. 13 national ranking at one point.

(continued on page 26)

Page 24

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

Gabi BadePinewood basketball

Leanna BadePinewood basketball

Meghan HollandSacred Heart Prep basketball

Melissa HollandSacred Heart Prep basketball

Lindsay KarleMenlo soccer

Sunny LyuPalo Alto soccer

Eric CramerGunn wrestling

Keller ChrystPalo Alto basketball

Aubrey Dawkins*Palo Alto basketball

Aldis Petriceks*Palo Alto basketball

Johnny SunGunn soccer

Cina VazirPalo Alto soccer

Honorable mention

Cadence LeeGunn High

The junior wrestler became the first girl to win her weight division as she went 3-0 to capture the 106-pound division and help the Titans beat 29 teams and win the team title at the 27th annual Bianchini Memorial.

Ian CramerGunn High

The sophomore wrestler captured the 138-pound ti-tle at the 27th annual Bian-chini Memorial as he went 4-0 with four pins, all in the first or second periods, while helping the Titans win the team championship.

* previous winner

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

PREP FOOTBALL

SHP’s Lavorato is nameda state coach of year

I t was a big year for head coach Pete Lavorato and his Sacred Heart Prep football team. The

Gators set a school record for most single-season wins during a 12-1 year that included the program’s second Central Coast Section Divi-sion IV title.

Lavorato was named the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division Coach of the Year. He topped that recently as he was named the Cal-Hi Sports Small Schools State Coach of the Year.

This marks the first time that a coach from the CCS has been award-ed this honor.

Once called the “guru of the fly offense” by current San Francisco 49ers’ head coach Jim Harbaugh, Lavorato led the Gators to their sec-ond section title in the past three years in addition to their fourth league crown.

Lavorato grew up in Canada and played college football at Utah State before playing professionally for the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League. On a team that featured future NFL Hall of Famer

Warren Moon as the quarterback, Lavorato was a part of five Grey Cup championships and in 1977 was se-lected to the CFL All-Star team.

After many coaching jobs in California and Canada in the 1990s, he was hired at Sacred Heart Prep in 2003. While the school was not known for football at the time and clearly took a back seat in the sport to arch-rival Menlo School, Lavorato nonetheless has built the program into a small school perennial power in Northern California.

In his 10 seasons at Sacred Heart Prep, Lavorato has a record of 83-30-1. He has never had a losing sea-son at SHP, coming close only once in 2006 with a 5-5 mark.

In other football news, Palo Alto junior quarterback Keller Chryst was named to the MaxPreps 2012 Junior All-American Team.

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Chryst was named to the second-team of-fense after throwing for 2,489 yards.

Chryst also was ranked No. 63 in the nation by Tom Lemmings in his Class of 2014 Top 100 list on Max-Preps.

Page 25

Sports

(TENTATIVE) AGENDA – REGULAR MEETING – COUNCIL CHAMBERS JANUARY 14, 2013 - 7:00 PM

SPECIAL ORDERS OF THE DAY1. Presentation from Lisa Hendrickson, Avenidas2. Selection of Candidates to be Interviewed for the Public Art Commission for one

Unexpired Term Ending on April 30, 20153. Selection of Candidates to be Interviewed for the Parks and Recreation

Commission for two terms Ending on December 31, 20154. Selection of Candidates to be Interviewed for the Planning and Transportation

Commission for one Unexpired Term Ending on July 31, 2014CONSENT CALENDAR5. Review and Acceptance of Annual Status Report on Developers' Fees for Fiscal

Year 2012 and Adoption of Resolution Making Findings Regarding Continuing Need for Unexpended Parkland Development Fees in the Amount of $38,729; Community Center Development Fees in the Amount of $562,329; Library Development Fees in the Amount of $213,729

6. Adoption of Budget Amendment Ordinance in the Amount of $400,000 and Approval of Enterprise Refuse Fund Contract with (contractor) in the Total Amount of $900,000 for the New Landfill Gas Flare Project at Regional Water Quality Control Plant - Capital Improvement Program Project RF – 10002

7. Adoption of a Budget Amendment Ordinance in the Amount of $230,211 to Capital Improvement Program Project RF-070001 and Approval of Contract with Wickman Development and Construction in the Amount Not to Exceed $353,000 for Improvements to the Existing Household H a z a rd o u s Waste Station Located at the Entrance to the Regional Water Quality Control Plant

8. SECOND READING: Adoption of an Ordinance Establishing Underground Utility District No. 47 (Middlefield Road/Addison Avenue/Cowper Street/ Homer Avenue) by Amending Section 12.16.02 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code (First Reading: 12/10/2012, PASSED: 8-0 Holman not participating)

9. SECOND READING: Adoption of an Ordinance rezoning a 0.6-acre site at 423-451 Page Mill Road from Single Family Residential (R-1) to Service Commercial (CS), to add a Site and Design “D” overlay (First Reading: 12/10/2012, PASSED: 9-0)

10. Approval of Amendment No. 1 to Mutual Cooperation and Support Agreement Between the City of Palo Alto and Friends of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo to Extend Term for Another Three Years

11. Approval of a Three Year Contract with West Coast Arborists, Inc. in a Total Amount Not to Exceed $1,050,000 for Tree Pruning and Removal Services

12. Adoption of a Budget Amendment Ordinance in the amount of $172,989 to Provide an Additional Appropriation for the Biosolids Facility Plan Project at the Regional Water Quality Control Plant (WQ-10001); and Approval of a Wastewater Treatment Enterprise Fund Contract with CH2M HILL Engineers, Inc. in a Total Amount Not to Exceed $421,436 for the Bio-solids Facility Plan at the Regional Water Quality Control Plant-Capital Improvement Program WQ-10001

13. Approval of the Acceptance and Expenditure of Citizens Options for Public Safety (COPS) Funds on Various Law Enforcement Equipment

14. Adoption of a Budget Amendment Ordinance in the Amount of $182,902 to Fund the Purchase of Two Ford F-250 Pickup Trucks, One Chevrolet Express 350 Cargo Van, Two Regenerative Air Sweepers and $16,000 for Vehicle Outfitting Work and Approval of Purchase Orders with 1) Towne Ford in an Amount Not to Exceed $52,146 for Purchase of Two Ford F-250 Pickup Trucks; 2) Courtesy Chevrolet in an Amount Not to Exceed $39,756 for Purchase of One Chevrolet Express 3500 Cargo Van; and 3) Municipal Maintenance Equipment in an Amount Not to Exceed $539,646 for Purchase of Two Regenerative Air Sweepers; (Capital Improvement Program project VR-13000)

15. Policy and Services Committee Recommendation to Approve a Policy for the Office of Economic Development

ACTION ITEMS16. Public Hearing: Objections to Weed Abatement and Adoption of Resolution

Ordering Weed Nuisance Abated17. Public Hearing: TEFRA Hearing and Approval of Conduit Refunding Obligations

for the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center Through the California Development Authority Relating to Facilities Located at 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, California 94303

18. Energy/compost consideration issues (landfill capping options and draft Energy/Compost Facility RFP)

19. Approval of Pilot Residential Compostables Collection Program and 67 Adjustments to Refuse Collection Frequency

http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/knowzone/agendas/council.asp

THIS IS A SUMMARY OF COUNCIL AGENDA ITEMS. THE AGENDA WITH COMPLETE TITLES INCLUDING LEGAL DOCUMENTATION

CAN BE VIEWED AT THE BELOW WEBPAGE:

PALO ALTO CITY COUNCILCIVIC CENTER, 250 HAMILTON AVENUE BROADCAST

LIVE ON KZSU, FM 90.1 CABLECAST LIVE ON GOVERNMENT ACCESS CHANNEL 26

********************************************

Thus, Palo Alto went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

“Last season was tough as we have a history of successful expec-tations,” said Paly head coach Don Briggs. “We had no returning start-ers and only one returning player. We were younger, smaller, and less experienced and in a very tough di-vision of the De Anza D1 league. At times, we had eight freshmen and sophomores on the field against teams fielding 11 upperclassmen. Teams would often simply wear us down as the game progressed.”

Briggs was without players for various reasons, which included conflicts with club teams, inju-ries and friction with the coaching staff.

“Instead of focusing on the score, we concentrated on being better ev-ery time we played,” Briggs said. “As the season went on, we gave up fewer goals but still had trouble scoring (Paly had two goals in 12 league games). The team had a good attitude and (the players) supported each other and continued to work hard to improve.

“As a team, we stressed the posi-tive and worked to improve both individually and as a team. All I demanded is that they work hard in practice and on the field. As long as a player could walk off the field and say ‘I did my best, I left noth-ing behind’ . . . what more could we ask for? I never saw us give up in a game.”

Current senior defender Kirby Gee was among those who suffered through last season.

“For as bad as it sounds, it wasn’t as bad as you would think,” he said. “Yes, it felt awful to be a part of a losing team, but just like any other season, we had fun. Our goal was to get better every day and, although our record doesn’t show it, we did. It was a great learning experience.”

It was so positive that Gee and 14 teammates from last season re-

turned to the team.“It never crossed my mind,” Gee

said of the thought of not returning. “If anything, I was looking forward to this season.

“We knew that most of us would be playing together again, so we are familiar with each other’s type of play. It plays a really big role in soccer — communication, anticipa-tion and confidence. Also, our team chemistry is real strong.”

All 15 returning players had an-other reason to come back.

“We are ready for a shot at re-demption,” Gee said.

Thus far, the Vikings are doing just that. They are 2-0 in the SCVAL El Camino Division following Mon-day’s 3-1 victory over host Monta Vista and are 6-2-1 overall, which includes a championship title in the Oak Grove Gold Cup in December.

Palo Alto’s season, which started with a loss to Carlmont, took off af-ter that.

“We lost our first game and then won our first game in the Oak Grove Gold Cup tournament,” Briggs said. “We did not celebrate, but it was more of a group/collective sigh of relief — a feeling like a big weight had come off their back.”

Palo Alto put together a four-match win streak before falling to long-time De Anza Division rival Mountain View, but has gone 2-0-1 since then and appears ready to re-gain its role as a postseason regular.

“Winning has restored our con-fidence,” said Gee. “Instead of go-ing into games wondering how bad it will be, we prepare for the game with a winning mentality. However, the biggest reason that makes us think about being successful again is that we are finally scoring. I have confidence that our back line can hold opponents to a clean sheet, so it’s all up to our goal scores. Chris Meredith is the jolt we needed to turn the season around.”

Meredith, one of eight seniors listed on the roster, did not play last season. He played on the frosh-soph team for two years before deciding to spend his junior year concen-trating on his studies while getting

ready for college. He kept his soccer skills intact by playing with a Palo Alto club team.

Meredith decided to return be-cause it was his senior year. He also thought playing in the lower El Camino Division would be fun. He brings plenty of speed and ex-perience to the team, showing both against Monta Vista as he took a bouncing ball from fellow senior Cina Vazir and headed it past the Matadors’ keeper for a 2-0 lead in the first half on Monday. Senior Paul Stefanski scored Paly’s first goal in the opening eight minutes while Gee converted a penalty kick in the second half.

“We are better this year due to the maturity of the younger players,” Briggs said. “We are still young and have room to improve. However, we are a little faster and a little stronger with a year of experience. We have a good group and our frosh-soph team is the strongest I have seen in four or five years.”

Thus, Palo Alto has closed the door on last season and opened a new one.

“I try to focus on our team, not our opponents,” Briggs said. “I scheduled ‘A’ league preseason op-ponents because that’s where we want to play, and I think that will challenge us to be a better team for league play. I am trying to help our team get better.

“The Mountain View loss showed that we needed to regroup and try to stress the things that we are doing right and work on those things to make us better. There will be some good teams in the El Camino and we need to play our best every game to improve.”

Mountain View, for example, has won the De Anza Division title the past two seasons after moving up from the El Camino Division. That’s something Briggs would like to du-plicate.

“We need to continue to grow and improve and focus on playing our best game, no matter our oppo-nent,” he said. “If we play well, we can compete with most teams in the SCVAL.”

Paly soccer(continued from page 24)

Gunn wrestlers pin down history by winning a titleby Keith Peters

C hris Horpel continues to be amazed by his Gunn High wrestling team. The Titans

won the SCVAL De Anza Division meet championship a year ago and haven’t lost a step this season.

A second-place finish at the Lynn Dyche Classic in December was fol-lowed by by a championship team title at the Bianchini Memorial last weekend.

“As usual, I don’t have a good explanation for why we won this thing,” said Horpel. “Maybe the

other teams that were supposed to be good, just aren’t. Maybe we are over-performing! Whatever is is, I want to keep up our momentum and see what we can do in CCS.”

The 30-team Bianchini Memorial celebrated its 27th year of existence on Saturday at Cupertino High School and Gunn provided plenty of highlights for the celebration.

The Titans won their first-ever Bianchini title with 189 points, up-setting second-ranked Palma (161) and several other schools outside the Central Coast Section. Mitty was

third with 142.50 points.Gunn produced three champions

and nine medalists overall. “My team keeps surprising me in

a good way,” said Horpel, now in his 10th season as Gunn’s head wres-tling coach. “I have another good bunch that is very coachable, and they are making progress quickly. I also have a good group of assistants that make my job a lot easier.”

Horpel, however, lost one of those assistants — Jonas Haro — this week. Haro accepted a job offer in New York and will be leaving the area on Friday. The Palo Alto High grad has been a valuable fixture on the football and wrestling staffs for years.

Haro was on hand for the Bian-chini, where the highlight for Gunn was a big sweep by Ian Cramer at 138 pounds. He pinned all four op-ponents in the first or second period on his way to winning the title.

Despite moving up a weight class, Cramer won his division with a pin

of Andrew Corral of Summit Ta-homa at 1:34, a pin of Jeremiah Bautista of Fremont at 2:23, a pin of Max Dygert of Monta Vista in 2:57 and a pin of Will Amos of Redwood in 1:29.

Cramer’s older brother, Eric, cap-tured the 132-pound title with a a major decision and three pins — the last one coming in the finals against Brandon Watson of Monterey in 1:35.

Gunn’s third champion was Ca-dence Lee at 106 pounds. She had three matches, pinning her first opponent in just 44 seconds before winning her next two by decision — including a 5-2 win over Nick New-man of Healdsburg in the finals to become the first girl ever to win her weight class at this tournament.

Gunn’s Stephen Martin was sec-ond at 170 pounds after winning a pair of matches before dropping a 3-0 decision in the finals.

Teammate Sean Lydster was third at 195 pounds with a 3-1 record,

Daniel Papp was fourth at 126 with a 3-2 mark, Blaze Lee (145) and Harsha Mokkarala (220) both were fifth with 3-2 marks, and Eric Cal-deron was seventh at 285.

Gunn actually won this tourna-ment in 1974, when it was held at Monta Vista High School and it was not yet called the Bianchini Memo-rial.

Gunn, which wrestled at Los Al-tos on Thurday night, next will com-pete at the San Ramon Invitational on Saturday at San Ramon Valley High.

At the Apple Cider Classic at Wat-sonville High on Saturday, Austin Wilson of Menlo-Atherton finished second at 120 pounds after being pinning by Albert Lujan-Arias of St. Francis at 4:00.

Wilson, a junior, wound up earn-ing 26 team points for his effort. He opened with a pair of pins to reach the semifinals, where he decisioned Eric Tolbertson of Newark Memo-rial, 9-6.

Page 26

Sports

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road victory over Tennessee. Those efforts, though, are few and far be-tween.

In four of the past six games, the Stanford bench combined has been limited to single digits.

“We’ve been searching the whole season,” VanDerveer said. “We’ve been trying to figure out our offen-sive identity. What we’ve empha-sized is pace; going hard. That’s Sara’s game and that’s what is most needed.”

Against Cal, Stanford won its 81st straight win against a conference opponent, a streak that figures to get challenged several times.

Ogwumike provided most of the scoring and helped hold the Bears to 30 percent shooting as Stanford won for the 10th straight time in this rivalry. Stanford’s last loss to Cal, or to any conference team for that mat-ter, came nearly four years ago.

At least the pressure of an 82-game home winning streak will be off Stanford’s shoulders for the re-match. Connecticut took care of that to finish off 2012.

“The Connecticut game was a big low,” Ogwumike said. “I’m just really proud of how we bounced back. We’re discovering ourselves. I think we’ve had a tough preseason and a tough start to conference. Our toughness is something we’ll dis-cover along the way.”

For a while on Tuesday it looked as though the Cardinal would be

willing to let Ogwumike carry the load. Sophomore point guard Am-ber Orrange and senior forward Joslyn Tinkle stepped up to lend a helping hand in the second half.

Cal controlled the first half and went into the locker room up 31-29 at the intermission. The Golden Bears were quicker to the ball and hungrier. They established their dominance on the boards.

The Bears overcame their poor shooting with relentless rebound-ing, using 21 offensive boards to score 22 second-chance points. But that turned out to be a frustrating highlight due to Ogwumike’s spec-tacular performance.

Stanford started to pull away with six straight points just past the mid-way point of the second half with Tinkle getting out in transition for an easy layup that gave the Cardinal a 52-46 lead with six minutes left.

Ogwumike then came up with the biggest play of the night after a held ball gave the Cardinal the ball at halfcourt with two seconds on the shot clock. Tinkle threw up the inbound pass off the backboard and Ogwumike converted the layup as the shot-clock expired. She drew a foul on the play but missed the free throw, keeping the lead at eight points.

“There was a short shot clock,” Ogwumike said. “I told Joslyn just throw it up there and I’ll try to get it. I tried to get it. We had two sec-onds to put it up. Luck of the Irish, I guess.”

Or, perhaps, the mindset of an All-American.

Women’s hoops(continued from page 24)

Stanford backcourt finallyshowing signs of life

MEN’S BASKETBALL

by Rick Eymer

G uards Aaron Bright and Chas-son Randle were virtually in-terchangeable last year, giv-

ing Stanford a solid foundation of success en route to the NIT cham-pionship and high expectations for this season.

The Cardinal men’s basketball team was picked to finish fourth in the Pac-12 by a vote of coaches and media. Bright and Randle were two big reasons why folks thought so highly of Johnny Dawkins’ squad coming into the year.

When Stanford takes on visit-ing Washington at 8 p.m. Saturday, those expectations suddenly seem within reach again.

That’s because Randle, who hit his low point of the season in a loss at USC last week, and Bright, whose season has resembled a rollercoaster to date, played well together in Stan-ford’s 78-67 victory over visiting Washington State on Wednesday night in Maples Pavilion.

“We’re back in school and it’s time to get into the mode of the Pac-12 season,” Randle said. “We have a chance to redeem ourselves. You always want to protect home court but just playing at home won’t save you. You still have to play.”

Randle has been one of Stan-

ford’s leading scorers, with Dwight Powell, for most of the season. Af-ter missing all six shots he took in a two-point loss to the Trojans last week, Randle had to take a good look at himself.

“I always look for something posi-tive and something negative in every game,” Randle said. “That definitely had a carryover affect but then all of us found something within ourselves to use as a springboard.”

Coming into Wednesday’s game, Randle and Bright had a combined shooting percentage of .350, part of the reason Stanford is ranked last in the Pac-12 in shooting.

Against the Cougars, the two guards combined to shoot 67 percent (10 for 15) from the field, includ-ing 5-of-7 from three-point land. It was the type of effort that produced headaches for the Cougars.

Dawkins said he never lost confi-dence in his guards.

“You could see signs of them com-ing around,” he said. “You could see it in practice. They are both right there. They had a terrific season last year and they keep battling. They both still want to get better.”

Washington State entered the game with the Pac-12’s best de-fense. The 78 points Stanford scored matched the most allowed by the

Cougars this season. That’s certain-ly a good sign for the Cardinal while moving forward.

Powell, meanwhile, continued his productive year with 16 points and 11 rebounds against the Cougars. In four career games against Washing-ton State, Powell has 46 points and 31 rebounds.

Washington, the defending Pac-12 champion, will be a different story. The Huskies average over 70 points a game, giving the Cardinal defense something to ponder. The Huskies have won eight of the past 10 meet-ings with Stanford.

It’s another pivotal game for Stan-ford, since an unbalanced schedule has the Cardinal meeting the Wash-ington schools just once this season. This is when protecting home court comes to play.

On the other hand, Stanford only plays Arizona and Arizona State once, both on the road. The Car-dinal does get a chance to avenge those losses to USC and UCLA.

Bright lost his starting job this season, but that may all change after his breakout performance.

Part of the reason for Bright’s ear-ly season struggles was a sprained ankle that forced him out of action a total of four games. He says his an-kle is about 90-95 percent healthy.

“It’s starting to come around,” Bright said. “My ankle is getting better and we just focused on run-ning a lot of motion and pushing the ball.”

Dawkins was just happy to see his team finally enjoy a good shooting evening.

Page 27

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