As pandemic rages on, residents rise to the challenge A community guide published by the Palo Alto Weekly Info PA 2020.indd 1 9/25/20 6:34 PM RECYCLING Is More Important an Ever Recycled Materials Are Feedstocks for Essential Supplies e manufacturing industry needs raw materials to make the products and shipping supplies we need — including paper towels, sanitizing wipes, toilet paper, cardboard boxes and other packaging. Your recyclables help meet this need. TOP TIPS FOR RECYCLING & DISPOSAL Sort Properly Break Down Avoid Overflow Put Masks and Properly sort your Cardboard Boxes Have too much for Gloves in the waste into your recycle, Remove all packing your carts? Please Garbage compost, and landfill material, flatten and contact GreenWaste carts. Make sure your Customer Service at ese items are place boxes so that not recyclable or items are empty of they fit loosely in your (650) 493-4894 or food and liquids. pacustomerservice@ compostable. Place blue recycle cart. them in your black Learn what goes greenwaste.com to schedule an additional landfill cart. Please where at do not litter! www.cityofpaloalto.org/ pickup or increase your wgwtools service level. For more information, visit www.cityofpaloalto.org/wgwtools [email protected] (650) 496-5910 Info PA 2020.indd 2 9/25/20 6:34 PM DRE# 01174998 Walking the talk in Palo Alto real estate for over 25 years. If you walked a mile in this man's shoes, you'd likely find yourself in someplace like Green Gables, Crescent Park, Old Palo Alto, or Downtown. With Brian’s 25 years in real estate on the Peninsula and his role as an active, lifelong community volunteer, it's a path few can claim. In-depth local knowledge, proven expertise, trusted integrity, and a loyal community network. Brian Chancellor – yes, the shoe fits. Visit BrianChancellor.com or call 650.303.5511 Info PA 2020.indd 3 9/25/20 6:34 PM The Bygholm family cheers as a high school graduate drives by with family during a citywide car parade for outgoing seniors from various Palo Alto schools on June 3. Photo by Magali Gauthier. INFO PALO ALTO 2020 FEATURES 6 A pandemic unfolds: The year rom its earliest beginnings, the shop, pick up medications and run errands for that changed everything Midpeninsula has cemented itself as a those in need has inspired others to help their place with an entrepreneurial spirit that neighbors, residents have shown that we are in 14 Artistic directors re-imagine the F arts for the better thrives on innovation and pushing beyond the this together. established boundaries. The region has played Info Palo Alto 2020 aims to capture what it 21 Second Harvest rethinks food a pivotal role in the arts, education, politics, means to live in this community: It takes a look distribution technology and science. at where we are six months into the pandemic 24 Meet five people helping their But this spirit of creative collaboration has and pays tribute to the people who have risen neighbors during the pandemic to the occasion and created positive change. never been more evident than in 2020 as the 29 Seniors adjust to life in lockdown cities and towns that make up the region In addition to Info Palo Alto, you can visit — and a virtual future banded together to face a global pandemic PaloAltoOnline.com.com to stay up to date that has brought unprecedented and 35 With campuses shut down, on Palo Alto news. Subscribe to Express, an parents reinvent the classroom extraordinary challenges impacting every email sent every weekday, and have the news sector of our lives. delivered right to your inbox. Or check out In the midst of this uncertainty, individuals Weekend Express, emailed on Thursday, for the INFO RESOURCE DIRECTORY and neighborhood groups have stepped up scoop on arts and entertainment. Both are free A curated list of local services and activities to confront these obstacles head on, and in — sign up at Palo AltoOnline.com/express. available along the Midpeninsula the process, have redefined what it means to Do you have suggestions for next year's Info? 40 The Arts be a tight-knit community. From the artistic Send them by email to [email protected]. directors reshaping the local arts scene to We appreciate your feedback. 41 Social Services individuals like Palo Alto resident Howard Linda Taaffe 44 Neighborhoods Kushlan, whose ongoing effort to grocery Info Palo Alto editor 49 Seniors 51 Open Space On the cover: Clockwise from top left, University AME Zion Church livestreams Easter Sunday services; shoppers stand 6 feet apart at Piazza’s Fine Foods; two VTA workers clean a bus at the Mountain View train station; a shopper passes by empty 54 Education shelves at Target; Julia Curry sews masks at her Menlo Park home; Alyssa Weaver draws blood at a COVID-19 antibody testing site in Mountain View; an instructor teaches students at HeadsUp Child Development Center via video chat from home; 62 Government Stanford Theatre remains closed during the shutdown. Design by Kristin Brown. Photos by Magali Gauthier and Sammy Dallal. 4 • Info Palo Alto PaloAltoOnline.com Info PA 2020.indd 4 9/25/20 6:34 PM Providing Exceptional Service to Clients on the Mid-Peninsula: Buyers, Sellers, Developers, and Investors. Palo Alto Palo Woodside Menlo Park Portola Valley Portola Realtor® DRE#: 01349099 650.380.0085 [email protected] colleenforaker.com Compass is the brand name used for services provided by one or more of the Compass group of subsidiary companies. Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. License Number 01079009. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only and is compiled from pdtoKOpMOOaOMoO_WBJ_OJtsVBpbdsJOObyOoWOMà VBbUOpWbloWKOÛKdbMWsWdbÛpB_OdozWsVMoBzB_aB|JOaBMOzWsVdts notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footage are approximate. www.PaloAltoOnline.com Info Palo Alto • 5 Info PA 2020.indd 5 9/25/20 6:34 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 everyevery 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 UnifiedUnified 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.