School Gone Are the Days of Pottery and Basket Weaving
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Palo Vol. XXVII, Number 83 • Wednesday, July 19, 2006 ■ 50¢ Alto www.PaloAltoOnline.com Summer 2.0School gone are the days of pottery and basket weaving. see what this year's students are cooking up. page 13 Nicholas Wright Nicholas Talk about the news at Town Square, www.PaloAltoOnline.com QUpfront City wants auto row, but where? Page 3 QSchool’s Out The lowdown on illegal downloading Section 2 QSports Fitting finale for Little League title Page 24 apr.com REDEFINING QUALITY SINCE 1990 Reading between the emotional line makes the difference between finding a house and a home. WILLOW GLEN Spacious, thoughtfully designed custom 4bd/2.5ba home with 1bd/1ba cottage nestled in one of the Bay Area's most historic and coveted locations. This custom home built six years ago by De Mattei Construction is on a 17000+/-sf lot. $2,150,800 LOS ALTOS Extensively remodeled and expanded 3bd/2.5ba home shows like a new home. 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Gourmet kitchen/FR, maple hardwood floors, high-tech wiring and landscaped lot. $1,295,000 apr.com | PALO ALTO OFFICE 578 University Avenue 650.323.1111 APR COUNTIES | Santa Clara | San Mateo | San Francisco | Alameda | Contra Costa | Monterey | Santa Cruz Page 2 • Wednesday, July 19, 2006 • Palo Alto Weekly UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis Council still searching for place to put auto row Study of Municipal Services Center land gets mixed reviews by Cyrus Hedayati sion suggested splitting the services Bayshore for Honda, Audi, Ford, zone regulations. or the Palo Alto City Council, coming up with 15 to 17 acres in the within the MSC — including Utili- Toyota and Volvo to move in. “We think it’s a very dubious city on which to put a new auto mall is like trying to find a needle ties, Animal Services, and the Su- Administrative Services Direc- proposition to move forward,” said F in a haystack. pervisor Control and Data Acquisi- tor Carl Yeats, who compiled the Frank Benest, city manager, who The council remained in limbo While dealership owners claimed tions System — into two different report, said the project would take helped compile the report. on the issue Monday night, after the location, which borders U.S. locations. An 8-acre city property 14 years to generate a positive cash But John Anderson, who owns a study session that examined the Highway 101, would double their near the airport on Embarcadero flow after all the expenses, includ- the Honda dealership in Palo Alto, possibility of relocating the city’s profits, council members such as Road and the 7-acre land currently ing the loss in efficiency from hav- said a spot along the highway would Municipal Services Center (MSC) John Barton felt the proposed rede- housing Honda and Audi dealer- ing the MSC services separate and double his sales. He also said that by on East Bayshore Road to make velopment did not “pencil out.” ships would host the MSC services, the cost of rebuilding all of the 2010, he needs a new location for his room for auto row. The memorandum under discus- freeing up its 16.1 acres along East buildings up to seismic and flood (continued on page 7) CRIME Police: Criminals go where the money is Upsurge in crime throughout the region by Sue Dremann alo Alto has become a victim of its own prosperity. The P community’s conspicuous wealth has made residents a prime target for an increasing number of burglaries and thefts, police said. “Why do people come to Palo Alto? They go where the stuff is,” Palo Alto Police spokesperson Sgt. Sandra Brown said. Palo Alto residential burglaries have risen to 130 in the last six and a half months, compared to 169 for all of last year, according to police. Thefts from unlocked vehicles rose to 91 so far this year, compared Norbert von der Groeben to 97 in all of 2005. There have been 250 forced-entry auto burglaries in six months, compared to 459 for all of last year. The city has also had 77 stolen- vehicle cases since January. Police haven’t concluded why the numbers are up, but a 58 percent upsurge in drug arrests may be con- Beat by the heat tributing to the crime wave, Brown Vincent He of Chicago takes a hydration break on the steps of Green Library during a walking tour of Stanford University campus Monday said. afternoon as temperatures rose into the low-to-mid 90s. Palo Alto experienced higher crime during the crack and heroin the newspaper picked up second in ton Weekly and the Pacific Sun in epidemic of the early 1990s, Brown COMMUNITY general excellence. The highly com- Marin County — picked up another recalled. A lull set in by mid-decade, petitive category includes several 10 awards among them. to the point where many young of- Weekly wins statewide dozen other large non-dailies. Among its other awards, the ficers couldn’t identify heroin. But The Weekly “covers its commu- Weekly won first place in spot news in the past one-and-a-half years, nity on multiple levels and doesn’t reporting — its seventh consecutive methamphetamine has taken hold, ‘general excellence’ award hesitate to tackle difficult stories” win in a row in that category — for she said. and is a “well-organized paper coverage of Kepler’s bookstore’s “You can take that back to the Paper receives a record of 10 awards; with strong community presence,” abrupt closure, “The End,” by Staff economy and joblessness. Silicon sister papers Almanac and Voice also win a panel of out-of-state judges com- Writer Bill D’Agostino and other re- Valley is up and down, and people mented. porters and photographers. despair. (The drug users) can’t hold he Palo Alto Weekly won the conference in Universal City. The award was among a record The closure and subsequent re- down jobs, and they gotta go shop- prestigious first-place award It is the Weekly’s fourth first- 10 first- or second-place awards opening of the local landmark be- ping so they get it (money) out of T for general excellence among place general-excellence award in picked up by the Weekly for 2005, came national news. people’s homes,” Brown said. all large non-daily papers in Califor- the past seven years through the while its sister papers — the Alma- The Weekly also placed first in Palo Alto’s reputation as a desti- nia Saturday at the annual California CNPA’s annual Better Newspapers nac in south San Mateo County, the environmental reporting for its cover nation spot may also draw a larger Newspaper Publishers Association Contest. In two of the other years, Mountain View Voice, the Pleasan- (continued on page 7) (continued on page 7) Palo Alto Weekly • Wednesday, July 19, 2006 • Page 3 Friends of Foothills Park Learn Restoration 703 HIGH STREET, PALO ALTO, CA 94302 (650) 326-8210 From The Ground Up PUBLISHER William S. Johnson Our 3300 Page Mill Road, Los Altos Hills EDITORIAL V.Kolence Volunteer info: www.FoFPark.org Jay Thorwaldson, Editor Marc Burkhardt, Managing Editor 650.321.7882 Jocelyn Dong, Associate Editor Allen Clapp, Carol Blitzer, Assistant Editors Keith Peters, Sports Editor Town Rick Eymer, Assistant Sports Editor by Don Kazak Rebecca Wallace, Arts & Entertainment Editor Don Kazak, Senior Staff Writer Alexandria Rocha, Staff Writer Norbert von der Groeben, Chief Photographer Nicholas Wright, Staff Photographer Dealing with grief Adam Heyman, Photo Intern Tyler Hanley, Assistant to the Editor & Online Editor Sue Dremann, Staff Writer, Special Sections t was heartbreaking to hear ing in their view of the world and Cammie Farmer, Calendar Editor Garth Li’s friends speak so lov- this can reshape that. They are in Jeanne Aufmuth, Dale Bentson, Lynn Comeskey, Tim Goode, Jill Slater, Iingly about him last Thursday the process of forming their own Susan Tavernetti, Robert Taylor, Contributors Anabel Lee, Andrew Thompson, Editorial Interns night. They were among the high beliefs about things.” Brooke Thomas, Arts & Entertainment Intern school students who jammed into With so many young people be- DESIGN a Palo Alto funeral parlor to pay ing touched so deeply by the death Carol Hubenthal, Design Director last respects and offer condolences of their classmate, Powell said that Diane Haas, Sue Peck, Senior Designers; Royd Hatta, Dana James, Paul Llewellyn, to his family. finding a way to remember Garth Charmaine Mirsky, Scott Peterson, Designers Li, 16, had died a week earlier in PRODUCTION a 2 a.m. single car-crash on I-280, Jennifer Lindberg, Production Manager a crash still being investigated and Dorothy Hassett, Brooke Fox, “We don’t ‘Get Sales & Production Coordinators for which there seem more ques- tions than answers. And for which over it’ or ‘Put it ADVERTISING Michael Howard, Advertising Manager there may never be any answers. Cathy Norfleet, Display Advertising Sales Assistant Many of Li’s classmates at Gunn behind us.’ We find Jasbir Gill, Janice Hoogner, Sandra Valdiosera, Display Advertising Sales High School were grief-stricken at Kathryn Brottem, Real Estate Advertising Sales the loss of their friend. a new way to move Joan Merritt, Real Estate Advertising Asst. About a dozen stood up to ad- Linda Franks, Classified Advertising Manager forward.” Brian Carson, Nerissa Gaerlan, Evie Marquez, dress the several hundred people Irene Schwartz, Classified Advertising Sales who had spilled out into adjacent – Liz Powell Blanca Yoc, Classified Administrative Assistant corridors and a nearby room, at ONLINE SERVICES Lisa Van Dusen, Director of Palo Alto Online one point choking the corridors so Li, even in some small way, could Shannon White, Assistant to Webmaster tightly that one couldn’t move.