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Vol. XXVII, Number 14 • Friday, November 18, 2005 ■ 50¢ Check out the Weekly’s new online classifieds at fogster.com WeWeekend eEdition k l y Hollywood’s holidays www.PaloAltoOnline.com Page 14 Stanford hosts Cal on Saturday with bowl games at stake Page 32 Page 8 Norbert von der Groeben Worth A Look 15 Movie Times 18 Eating Out 25 Goings On 29 Crossword Puzzle 40 ■ Upfront Is there room to grow at Palo Alto schools? Page 3 ■ Arts Putting watery wonders into words Page 10 ■ Home & Real Estate ‘Our house’ is a very nice house Section 2 We Think William Deserves a Medal Before the Race Begins. A brain tumor hasn’t slowed down 10-year-old William. Because of the world class care he received at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, William is now up on his feet every morning, training with his mom for a half marathon and setting an aggressive pace to help others in need. Ranked as one of the top ten pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S.News & World Report, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford is a world class hospital devoted entirely to the care of children and expectant mothers – right in your backyard. Read more about William and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at www.lpch.org. L U C I L E PA C K A R D C H I L D R E N’S H O S P I T A L Page 2 • Friday, November 18, 2005 • Palo Alto Weekly UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis Is there room to grow at PA schools? School board split on whether to allow board because of severely unbal- “I still believe our elementary ing real difficulty with this modified anced school populations. schools (populations) are on the range of elementary school (capac- more students per school According to the report, each dis- small side,” board member Cathy ities). My definition of small is dif- by Alexandria Rocha trict elementary and middle school Kroymann said. ferent than that.” can hold 50 more students, and each Others, however, do not see it Palo Alto Unified exceeds the controversial proposal to raise the population caps at Palo Alto’s pub- high school 150 additional teens. similarly and fear overcrowding. state’s standards for building space, lic schools divided the school board earlier this week. Some mem- Current population caps were set in “Originally, there were 22 ele- with nearly double the amount of A bers said the campuses can easily hold more students; others said 1999 and limit the number of stu- mentary schools and these sites room, in most cases. The state De- packing them in is a risky move. dents in elementary schools to 450, were designed for much smaller partment of Education recommends Officials reviewed the schools’ capacities as the first component of a middle schools to 900 and high populations of students,” board school sites have 59 square feet per year-long study of attendance boundaries — a project adopted by the schools to 1,800. member Gail Price said. “I’m hav- (continued on page 5) POLICE PAPD blue Blue-ribbon committee proposed for police building project by Bill D’Agostino he county fair is not in town, but Palo Alto city officials say T it’s time to award another blue ribbon. To garner community support to pay for the construction of an ex- pensive new police headquarters, city administrators are recommend- ing the City Council form a new “blue-ribbon” committee on Mon- day night. The group would primarily ex- plore options to reduce the size and cost of the building, which is cur- rently proposed to be approximately 60,000 square feet. Although Police Chief Lynne Norbert von der Groeben Johnson doesn’t believe there is much opportunity to shrink the proj- ect and its cost due to the depart- ment’s pressing space crunch, she said, “I think there’s some wiggle room, absolutely.” City administrators are also rec- ommending the council choose local Anna Mancini, an archivist with HP, stands inside the fabled HP garage. real-estate developer Chop Keenan to construct the new headquarters, on parcels owned by both Keenan and the city across from City Hall on COMMUNITY furbish the historic, if plain, garage en planks were taken apart, indi- Bryant Street. As expected, was begun in January and is now vidually catalogued, sanded and Keenan’s proposal was judged to be nearly complete. Contractors were — if they were in decent condi- the best from the four groups that Famed HP garage gets paving an outdoor walkway this tion — returned. The company fol- submitted ideas about where to re- week. lowed U.S. Department of the In- build the aging headquarters. Keenan face-‘lift’ Unfortunately for the visitors terior standards for the refurbish- is offering to build the headquarters who make pilgrimages to the site, ment, according to Mancini. for $47.8 million. Newly restored garage, raised 6 inches, provides sometimes by the busload, the 12- Steel beams were also sunk in Amoroso Construction, another insight into how ‘Bill’ and ‘Dave’ lived, worked foot-by-18-foot detached garage the new foundation to secure the applicant, offered to build the police will not be open for public tours. structure. “Now it’ll make it headquarters at the site of Heritage by Bill D’Agostino ly raised six inches, which will “We want to be respectful of the through the next earthquake,” Park. “That’s not going to happen,” echnology buffs place the keep termites from continuing to neighbors,” said Emily Horn, HP’s Mancini said. Johnson said. Hewlett-Packard garage on a gnaw the Douglas-fir walls. manager of corporate media rela- The work on the garage is only The other proposals would replace Tpedestal, revering it as the “It helps to protect it for the fu- tions. It can, however, be mostly one part of a larger project. The part of El Camino Park, tear down iconic locale where two young tin- ture,” said Anna Mancini, Hewlett- seen from the sidewalk through a single-family house — where downtown retail shops and restau- kering engineers created an audio Packard Company’s archivist, as new iron gate. newlyweds David and Lucile rants, be across Highway 101 on oscillator, built a company and she stood outside the green doors A private ribbon cutting is Packard lived in 1938-1939, East Bayshore Road or require the launched Silicon Valley. of the newly restored garage locat- planned for Dec. 6. when the company was founded use of county-owned property near Therefore, it’s fitting that re- ed at 367 Addison Ave. in Palo Restoring the garage — Califor- — was also restored to how it California Avenue. cently the foundation of the sim- Alto. nia Registered Landmark No. 976 looked in the late 1930s and “Chop’s was the only real viable ple, box-like structure was literal- The well-regarded project to re- — was exacting work. The wood- one,” Johnson said. (continued on page 7) (continued on page 7) Palo Alto Weekly • Friday, November 18, 2005 • Page 3 www. Homes2Buy.com 703 HIGH STREET, PALO ALTO, CA 94302 The site with ALL homes for sale in the Multiple (650) 326-8210 Listing data system covering San Francisco, the PUBLISHER William S. Johnson ReaderWireReader comments via e-mail, voice mail and U.S. mail Peninsula and surrounding Coastal regions. EDITORIAL Jay Thorwaldson, Editor tion at [email protected]. Marc Burkhardt, Managing Editor Library sparks 650.321.1141 Jocelyn Dong, Associate Editor Regarding “Sparks fly over down- Julie A. Renalds Allen Clapp, Carol Blitzer, Assistant Editors Keith Peters, Sports Editor town library” by Bill D’Agostino (Week- Ascot Drive, Oakland Rick Eymer, Assistant Sports Editor Rebecca Wallace, Arts & Entertainment Editor ly, Nov. 11): We Palo Altans need to Don Kazak, Senior Staff Writer think creatively about our run-down li- Bill D’Agostino, Alexandria Rocha, Staff Writers Police and deaf ears Norbert von der Groeben, Chief Photographer braries. I hope the City Council will reconsid- Nicholas Wright, Staff Photographer Brian Connelly, Photo Intern After a national search in 2004, our er its decision to have the Human Rela- Tyler Hanley, Assistant to the Editor & Online Editor city hired a new library director, Paula tions Commission (HRC) receive com- Sue Dremann, Staff Writer, Special Sections Simpson, to do just that. Simpson has plaints about police misconduct. Cammie Farmer, Calendar Editor Jeanne Aufmuth, Dale Benson, Lynn worked selflessly and energetically to As was established by the city attor- Comeskey, Tim Goode, Jill Slater, Susan Tavernetti, Robert Taylor, Contributors spark an open, imaginative discussion ney and repeated at the last council Suman Mudamula, Saqib Rahim, Ken Selis, about the future, and many of us meeting, the HRC is not legally author- Editorial Interns strongly support her efforts. ized to act on those complaints. The DESIGN We don’t want to see that discussion Carol Hubenthal, Design Director legitimate reviewing board should re- Judith Alderman, Assistant Design Director thwarted by a small, vocal group wed- ceive those complaints so that it can Diane Haas, Lynda Lumish, Sue Peck, Senior ded to the status quo (or pouring more immediately investigate them. Designers; Dana James, Sarah McAleer, Scott Peterson, money into the status quo) who contin- Also, the chief of police has said and Designers ually attack Simpson and stifle a full ex- repeated that she trusts her officers PRODUCTION ploration of future possibilities for our completely and never admitted that Jennifer Lindberg, Production Manager library system. they sometimes make mistakes, even Dorothy Hassett, Brooke Fox, Sales & Production Coordinators Chris Kenrick when confronted with glaring evidence ADVERTISING Tennyson Avenue, Palo Alto to the contrary.