Palo Vol. XXXVII, Number 43 Q July 29, 2016 PaloAltoOnline.com Alto Burglar caught on tape in Midtown Page 7 54 Olympians have local ties Athletes, coaches and team trainers head to Rio Page 49 Neighborhoods 9 Transitions 13 Eating Out 16 Shop Talk 17 Movies 18 Puzzles 47 Q Arts Grateful Dead spinoff ends up back where it all began Page 14 Q Title Pages Novelist Nick Taylor is one busy guy Page 20 Q Home Community gardens provide respite for residents Page 23 Page 2 • July 29, 2016 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com SOLD 1766 Fulton Street, Palo Alto Sold Above Asking Beds 4 | Baths 3 | Home ~ 2,624 sq. ft. | Lot ~ 7,500 sq. ft. | Built 1936 video tour | www.schoelerman.com Curious About Your Homes Equity Value? Call 650-855-9700 for the Answer Sold Over $275,000,000 of Homes Jackie Richard 650-855-9700 650-566-8033 [email protected] [email protected] BRE # 01092400 BRE # 01413607 www.schoelerman.com www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • July 29, 2016 • Page 3 OPEN TO THE PUBLIC 1 Hacker Way Menlo Park Parking lot 15 Fresh Produce Food trucks Free Parking Family Games KIDs ZONE Flowers Local Artisans Craft Beers &Wine Specialty cocktails Cooking demos This Saturday Featuring: Live music from brazilian band “SambaDá” Specialty food & Drink Page 4 • July 29, 2016 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis Plan to hike development fees meets with opposition Commissioners and housing advocates skeptical that For the first time, developers of posal, the commission unanimously The ordinance would also rental housing would have to pay agreed Wednesday not to endorse change how the city collects new proposal will create affordable housing an affordable-housing impact fee, the ordinance just yet. Instead, the fees from developers of housing by Gennady Sheyner a notion that met with stiff opposi- commission debated the merits and projects. Currently, the impact tion from the Planning and Trans- drawbacks of changing the fees, re- fee for a new housing develop- proposal in Palo Alto to ally hinder the city’s progress on portation Commission. No one quested more analysis and agreed to ment is between to 7.5 percent sharply raise the fees that the increasingly urgent issue. was more passionate than Com- continue its discussion on Aug. 31. to 10 percent of the sales price of A developers would have to The ordinance would make the missioner Kate Downing, who In addition to the hike for the the new homes (the city collects pay to support the creation of af- city’s impact fees much higher called the proposal “outrageous.” fee charged to developers of office the fee after the sale). The new fordable housing faced significant than those of any other munici- The proposed fee ordinance came projects, the rate for hotel develop- proposal would change it to $50 scrutiny and criticism Wednesday, pality in the region. Developers as a recommendation from the ers would go up from $20.37 to $30 per square foot, which Planning with several planning commission- of office space would be charged City’s Council Finance Committee, per square foot, while for retail and Director Hillary Gitelman said ers and housing advocates making triple the current fee, from $20.37 but given the large number of ques- restaurant developers it would re- the case that the change may actu- per square foot to $60. tions and concerns about the pro- main at its current level of $20.37. (continued on page 11) ARTS City hopes to preserve Palo Alto Square theater Land-use zoning, popular sentiments invoked in effort to save CineArts by Gennady Sheyner ith the closure of Properties, the management of CineArts looming over Palo Alto Square, to encourage W Palo Alto Square, more and retain CineArts as its tenant. than 1,600 residents have joined a We urge the City of Palo Alto to petition drive that they hope will work with Hudson Properties and preserve an amenity they view as CineArts management in order to Veronica Weber a community treasure. continue the tenancy and opera- At the same time, city officials tion of CineArts Theater at Palo are making a case that replacing Alto Square without interruption.” the theater with a different type of The decision to close the theater business would constitute a zoning in early August was made by Cin- On the move violation, unless the City Council emark, the theater’s Texas-based Caltrain commuters walk up stairs at the California Avenue station after exiting a northbound formally approves the change. parent company, according to train on July 27. The two efforts — one relying on both Hudson Pacific (which man- grassroots democracy and the other ages the property) and the theater rooted in the zoning code — have chain. James Meredith, spokesman EDUCATION the same aim: ensuring that the for Cinemark, told the Weekly last sprawling office complex at 3000 week that the lease on the theater El Camino Real retains its beloved was set to expire in late August and two-screen theater. CineArts at Palo making the needed upgrades to the School board seeks data on long-term Alto Square is one of only three theater was cost prohibitive. movie theaters left in Palo Alto (one Hudson confirmed the decision impact of tax shortfall of those three, Stanford Theatre, was made by Cinemark. only shows classic films). Proposals to close down the the- District plans to reopen contract negotiations with labor unions The petition, launched by a group ater have popped up twice in the that includes City Councilwoman past two decades. In 1997, Palo by Elena Kadvany Karen Holman, council candidate Alto council members and city ll five Palo Alto school board cast would not be provided until came in this month far lower than Lydia Kou, former planning com- staff held frantic, eleventh-hour members agreed during a the board’s next discussion of the the district had budgeted for and an missioner Arthur Keller and long- negotiations with the cinema’s for- Aspecial meeting Wednesday budget in August. opportunity for board members to time theater proponent Winter Del- mer landlord, Equity Properties, to afternoon that finding the most fis- “I’m looking forward to getting suggest how to address the resulting lenbach, declares the signatories’ avert the planned closure of what cally and educationally sound path closer to what we think the pro- budget deficit. The actual revenue support for continued operations of was then a Landmark Theatre. forward from a sudden $3.7 million jections are,” said board member shortfall was $5.2 million, but with CineArts, which they say “provides At the time, the city’s then-eco- budget shortfall, due to lower-than- Camille Townsend. “What are the the elimination of a planned $1.5 a critical part of our cultural and en- nomic resources director Carol anticipated property-tax revenue, real numbers? What is the struc- million one-time bonus to employ- tertainment life in Palo Alto.” Jansen attributed Equity’s ulti- must include careful consideration tural, ongoing debt? We really do ees, the result is the $3.7 budget gap. “As only one of two first-run mate decision not to convert the of the ongoing impact of the rev- have to see what the nature of the Wednesday’s discussion, how- theaters in town, the theater pro- building to a more lucrative use enue drop beyond just this year. ongoing problem is.” ever, centered more around pro- vides access to valuable opportu- to the huge outpouring of commu- Multiyear budget projections Echoed board member Melissa cess than ideas for where budget nities not otherwise possible in nity support for the theater. were absent, however, at Wednes- Baten Caswell, “We need to fig- cuts can be made. our community, including several Four years later, when the cin- day’s study sesssion, though several ure out if this is a structural prob- Given that a driving factor for the prestigious film festivals, such as ema’s fate was once again in jeop- board members said they had made lem or a one-time problem.” decrease in property-tax revenue the United Nations Association ardy, the city took a different tack. such calculations on their own Wednesday’s meeting was billed was $1.1 billion in exempt prop- Film Festival and the San Fran- Though city officials, including for- based on the district’s 2016-17 bud- by district leadership as a time to erty from ongoing construction of cisco Jewish Film Festival, and mer Mayor Gary Fazzino and Eco- get, which was adopted in late June. more fully understand how the the Stanford University Medical the popular New York Metropoli- nomic Resources Manager Susan Chief Budget Officer Cathy Santa Clara County Assessor’s tan Opera (The MET) simulcasts. Mak said that a multiyear fore- Office’s property-tax projection (continued on page 10) “We urge Hudson Pacific (continued on page 8) www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • July 29, 2016 • Page 5 Upfront 450 Cambridge Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94306 QUOTE OF THE WEEK (650) 326-8210 PUBLISHER William S. Johnson (223-6505) EDITORIAL Editor Jocelyn Dong (223-6514) ® Associate Editor Linda Taaffe (223-6511) Sports Editor Rick Eymer (223-6516) Arts & Entertainment Editor Karla Kane (223-6517) What are the real numbers? Home & Real Estate Editor Elizabeth Lorenz (223-6534) — Camille Townsend, Palo Alto school board Express & Digital Editor My Nguyen (223-6524) member, on how the district will adjust its budget Assistant Sports Editor Glenn Reeves (223-6521) Spectrum Editor Renee Batti (223-6528) following an unexpected tax shortfall.