MOUNTAIN VIEW 2020 As pandemic rages on, residents rise to the challenge A community guide published by Mountain View Online INFO MVV 2020.indd 1 9/25/20 6:16 PM Designed to adapt. Ready for your emergency. We continue serving our community’s adults and children. As one of the most advanced trauma centers in the world, we are uniquely equipped to handle all cases at all times, even in unprecedented circumstances. No one anticipated COVID-19, but our systems have allowed us to adapt while maintaining the highest standards for safety. Our new infection control procedures include digital technology for U.S. News & World Report recognizes Stanford Health Care among the top triaging your condition, allowing for separate spaces for COVID-19 patients. hospitals in the nation. Ranking based Emergency teams use fresh personal protective equipment (PPE) as well on quality and patient safety. as extra air filtering and cleaning methods to sterilize your exam room before and after your visit. We are ready for your emergency. stanfordhealthcare.org/emergencyready Marc and Laura Andreessen Emergency Department Pediatric Emergency Department 1199 Welch Road • Stanford, CA 94304 900 Quarry Road Extension • Palo Alto, CA 94304 2 • Info Mountain View www.MountainViewOnline.com INFO MVV 2020.indd 2 9/25/20 6:16 PM www.MountainViewOnline.com Info Mountain View • 3 INFO MVV 2020.indd 3 9/25/20 6:16 PM Medical staff walk around the main entrance loop of El Camino Hospital as local law enforcement officers clap, cheer and thank them for their work during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Magali Gauthier. INFO MOUNTAIN VIEW 2020 FEATURES 6 A pandemic unfolds: The year rom its earliest beginnings, the Midpeninsula families pay rent has inspired others to help their that changed everything has cemented itself as a place with an neighbors, the community has shown that we are Second Harvest rethinks food Fentrepreneurial spirit that thrives on in this together. 12 innovation and pushing beyond the established distribution Info Mountain View 2020 aims to capture what it boundaries. The region has played a pivotal role means to live in this community: It takes a look at 17 Meet five people helping their in the arts, education, politics, technology and neighbors during the pandemic where we are six months into the pandemic and science. pays tribute to the people who have risen to the 21 Seniors adjust to life in lockdown But this spirit of creative collaboration has never occasion and created positive change. — and a virtual future been more evident than in 2020 as the cities and In addition to Info Mountain View, you can visit Artistic directors re-imagine the towns that make up the region banded together 26 MountainViewOnline.com.com to stay up to date arts for the better to face a global pandemic that has brought unprecedented and extraordinary challenges on Mountain View news. Subscribe to Express, 31 With campuses shut down, impacting every sector of our lives. an email sent every weekday, and have the parents reinvent the classroom news delivered right to your inbox. Or check out In the midst of this uncertainty, individuals Weekend Express, emailed on Thursday, for the and neighborhood groups have stepped up INFO RESOURCE DIRECTORY scoop on arts and entertainment. Both are free to confront these obstacles head on, and in — sign up at MountainViewOnline.com/express. A curated list of local services and activities the process, have redefined what it means to available along the Midpeninsula be a tight-knit community. From the artistic Do you have suggestions for next year's Info? 34 Social Services directors like Pear Theatre’s Sinjin Jones, who is Send them by email to [email protected]. We 35 Seniors reshaping the local arts scene, to individuals like appreciate your feedback. 36 Open Space Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca, whose grassroots Linda Taaffe campaign to help Mountain View’s working-class Info Mountain View editor 38 The Arts 39 Education On the cover: Clockwise from top left, University AME Zion Church livestreams Easter Sunday services; shoppers stand 6 feet 43 Government apart at Piazza’s Fine Foods; two VTA workers clean a bus at the Mountain View train station; a shopper passes by empty shelves at Target; Julia Curry sews masks at her Menlo Park home; Alyssa Weaver draws blood at a COVID-19 antibody testing 45 Neighborhoods site in Mountain View; an instructor teaches students at HeadsUp Child Development Center via video chat from home; Stanford Theatre remains closed during the shutdown. Design by Kristin Brown. Photos by Magali Gauthier and Sammy Dallal. 4 • Info Mountain View www.MountainViewOnline.com INFO MVV 2020.indd 4 9/25/20 6:16 PM Now, more than ever, we need the healing power of nature. Hongyan Liu Connecting with nature, even for a few minutes each day, has been shown to reduce stress and boost well-being. TRAIL USE TIPS • Know before you go. Check openspace.org for Randy Weber up-to-date trail and preserve information. • Avoid crowds. Go early, on weekdays or to less popular preserves. Search for a preserve on Google Maps and scroll down to the popular time graph to see how busy it’s likely to be. • Play it safe. Social distance and wear a face covering Luciane Coletti when the trail is too narrow. Also, choose low-impact activities, go slow and stay within your limits. • Leave no trace. TM Pack out what you pack in, including toilet paper. Thank you for keeping preserves litter-free and crumb-clean. Frances Freyberg When you can’t venture out, explore nature from the comfort of your own home at openspace.org/virtual-nature. openspace.org Karl Gohl PRESERVE PROTECT RESTORE EDUCATEwww.MountainViewOnline.com ENJOY Info Mountain View • 5 INFO MVV 2020.indd 5 9/25/20 6:16 PM JANUARY Parents petition for students to stay home Coronavirus arrives in the Bay Area The Palo Alto Unified School District sends The first known case of the novel coronavirus home two students on Feb. 28, after learning finds its way into the Bay Area in January that their parent has been exposed to the when a traveler infected with the viral coronavirus, prompting more than 1,700 disease arrives in Santa Clara County from people to sign a petition by March 5 urging Wuhan, China. the school district to start spring break early and provide online learning options so FEBRUARY students can stay home. State goes on high alert Gov. Gavin Newsom puts California on high ““WeWe cannotcannot controlcontrol eeveryvery Photo by Magali Gauthier alert on Feb. 26 after the state identifies 31 aaspectspect ooff sstudenttudent oorr people quarantined with the coronavirus in various states of health. ccommunityommunity llife,ife, wwhichhich isis THE YEAR THAT tthehe oonlynly wwayay a qquarantineuarantine MARCH wworks.orks. PPaloalo AAltolto UUnifiednified hashas First coronavirus death prompts nnoo pplanslans ttoo ccloselose schoolsschools state of emergency On March 4, the governor declares a state of aatt tthishis ppoint.”oint.” changed emergency in response to the first California — SUPERINTENDENT DON AUSTIN death of a patient with COVID-19. In the writes to families in a message in early March. Bay Area, San Mateo County reports its first two cases on March 2, and Santa Clara County sees a steady increase in reported cases from two on Feb. 28 to 20 by March 6 everything that indicate the virus is being transferred through community spread. In an instant, a pandemic “It is important to recognize reshapes life on the ahp]b_Û\nemma^mbf^lZa^Z] fZr[^Zg]ahprhnfnlmghp Midpeninsula take assertive action to Photo by Sammy Dallal prepare for them.” Mass exodus: Students leave Stanford y the time the novel coronavirus out- — DR. SCOTT MORROW, Stanford University becomes the second San Mateo County’s chief health officer, major U.S. university to cancel in-person break was on our local radar, normal B says in a statement on March 5. classes to prevent the spread of the novel life along the Midpeninsula was already coronavirus after moving all classes online over. The halt of everyday life was sudden As cases climb, panic ensues for the remainder of winter quarter on March 6. Several other California colleges and unprecedented. We had no idea how A quiet anxiety grips the Midpeninsula soon follow suit. Five days later, the as residents face the possibility that the long or how extreme its impacts might be. university asks its approximately 7,000 coronavirus will knock on their doors. As undergraduates, including senior Jeffrey The March shelter-in-place orders were the number of cases climbs, residents scour Chang, shown above, to vacate the campus grocery stores, such as Costco in Mountain only to last three weeks. Six months later, by the end of the week and cancels all View, shown top left, as they prepare in-person classes for the upcoming spring the Midpeninsula is a much different place: to hunker down in their homes in case quarter. Telecommuting is the norm; most students there’s an outbreak or they find themselves infected. have adjusted to distance learning at home; Local tech firms find best defense: ‘WFH’ and it’s still uncertain when most retail Local tech giants give their employees the “Seriously people - STOP same message: Work from home. By the shops, restaurants and theaters may par- BUYING MASKS! They are end of the first week of March, Google, Facebook, Amazon, SAP and Palantir tially or fully reopen (San Mateo and Santa NOT effective in preventing Technologies implement work-from-home Clara counties were both waiting to see if general public from catching protocols that will last indefinitely.