E-mail Diana Diamond About this blog: So much is right — and wrong — about what is happening in Palo Alto. In this blog I want to discuss all that with you. I know many residents care about this town, and I want to explore our collective interests to help ...  (More) About this blog: So much is right — and wrong — about what is happening in Palo Alto. In this blog I want to discuss all that with you. I know many residents care about this town, and I want to explore our collective interests to help do the right thing. My goal with this blog is to help the public better understand what really is happening, and more important, how residents living here may be affected by these local decisions. I've been a journalist most of my life, first as a reporter and then managing editor of a Chicago newspaper, followed by a wonderful year at Stanford as a recipient of Knight Journalism Fellowship. I then went to the San Jose Mercury as an editorial writer and columnist. I also worked for the State Bar of California as the first editor in chief of "California Lawyer" magazine, and then spent a decade at Stanford involved in public issues affecting the university. In the late 1990s, I sequentially wrote columns for all three local newspapers here in Palo Alto. Born in a small community on Long Island, I attended Middlebury College, graduated from the University of Michigan, got married, had four boys in four years, and then started working. I moved to Palo Alto in 1979, and have been involved in the community on several nonprofit boards.  (Hide)

View all posts from Diana Diamond

A great org working on re-treeing in Palo Alto is Canopy.org . A few years ago, they organized one of their neighborhood plantings in our area so we got a which is doing well 3 years later. The City even provides some late-night summer waterings in the initial years after planting to make sure it develops well. From the Canopy website: "Canopy raises funds and coordinates volunteers to supplement plantings by the City of Palo Alto's Tree Department, locating them along our city streets, in parks and in community spaces. Each year, Canopy coordinates volunteer street tree plantings in areas where multiple street trees are needed in one neighborhood. For neighborhood plantings, we recruit Neighborhood Tree Ambassadors, get buy-in from homeowners and engage them in the planting and continued care of their new street trees. Canopy also works closely with the Parks Department and Tree Division to identify tree needs in parks. We bring critical shade to play areas and community buildings and provide opportunities for local community groups to get involved."

I am well of Canopy's great work and their dedicated volunteers. But I want the city to do it -- and pay for it. The council is cautiously considering spending $100million on a fiber optics system in town (FTTP)-- I think we need city workers to plant the trees -- and they will not cost $100M.

Ah but if the city can't spend big bucks to enrich its consultants and contractors, they obviously don't care. They were willing to convert Town & Country to "medical/retail" without bothering to define what that means weeks before the pandemic ended and -- as anyone sensible would expect -- the shoppers returned. The more I think about the ridiculous fiber network, I more irritated I get. I'm still -- MONTHS later -- waiting for their reply to a question about how they'll treat neighborhoods with underground wiring. When I noted this disconnect and PA"s obvious lack of expertise in running a cost-effective network requiring prompt customer service, one of our City Council members assured me we'd simply outsource the service to one of the big companies already providing this service!!! Tell me how this makes any sense when the city's always pleading poverty.

Midtown. There used to be a community garden. The it was removed and it was weeds. Now Baskin Robbins have tried to make it community space with pumpkin patch, but it was vandalized! It could be kept as community space, made attractive, perhaps have a children's play area or seating for eating lunch or drinking coffee. Charleston Plaza. They have started putting in EV charging stations. For months there has been a green net fence. Somewhere pleasant to sit in shade as often the tables and chairs are in full sun.

Canopy DOES get funding from the City, and the City provides support services such as the summer tree watering that I mentioned. I agree that big bucks are planned to be wasted on things like the fiber debacle-to-be. What we really need is a list of projects that Palo Alto's citizens can vote on with something like ranked-choice voting.

Seriously? With CA and the rest of the world (including the USA) experiencing severe droughts, the last thing we need are pretty flowers to enhance the 'Palo Alto Experience'. If anything, toss some colorful rocks in the decrepit city flower beds and islands or plant succulents and cacti...the idea of planting flowers is very wasteful of water, regardless of whether they are annuals or perennials. And besides who is going to water them or will this endeavor require the installation of more automated sprinkler systems? Besides, Palo Alto is never going to win a municipal beauty contest.

I raise Diana's appraisal of Cal Ave and raise her a "they has redefined 'ugly' and all it would take to improve it would be ROCKS blocking the street instead of those hideous orange barricades". I'm already not a fan of the outdoor bizarre (do I mean BAZAAR? NOOOOO!!!) that has become California Avenue. But every time I drive past that intersection on the ECR I am nearly struck blind by the visage it provides. Everybody except a tourist would know that you can't drive there (do we HAVE tourists?) so if they replaced the barricades with dashboard-height boulders, at least it might have some kind of natural effect. It would serve two purposes. Wouldn't have to be watered, and would be high enough so drivers won't accidentally "go there" -- the barricades are too low. It's like a mall food court, except it looks like a construction zone. The thought of eating food at a construction zone is hard to stomach. If PA *insists* on allowing these restaurants to have free extra square footage that's not taxable, the least it could do is make the restaurants BEAUTIFY THE AREA OF THE SQUARE FOOTAGE THEY ARE GETTING FOR FREE. Currently, nothing will improve the vision you get when you look PAST the barricades. Multi-colored cheap plastic chairs, that look like something out of a nightmare, and people sitting amid bubble gum debris in those chairs, and the only thing I can smell all the way to the ECR is hot asphalt. Don't bother with plants. Nothing rented or with ongoing costs. Just rocks. Big rocks.

As a matter of fact...there is the Embarcadero Road Pollinator Corridor project to enhance this gateway into our city. The project entails planting California native plants on both sides of Embarcadero in the parkway strips between the sidewalk and street from the Primrose Way to the Guinda Street pollinator gardens. I'm spearheading the project. It's all funded by grants and donations (you can donate at the Friends of the Palo Alto Parks website). The planting and maintenance is done by volunteers. We already completed the section between Newell and Mark Twain. We're now working on the section in front of the First Congregational church at the corner of Louis and Embarcadero. Most of the expense is IVY removal. We work with residents adjacent to these spaces. But, once these sections are planted, about 17,000 square feet of pollinator habitat will be added to our city. In 2016 we started with the Primrose Way pollinator garden. Now we have 5 pollinator gardens, planted in parkway islands that were filled with ivy. Follow our progress on Instagram and Facebook: Primrose Way Pollinator Garden We're always looking for volunteers!

The outdoor dining on California Avenue leaves much to be desired as there is literally no privacy unless one wants to be seen eating out there. Since the restaurants are getting free dining space from the city, they should be the ones required to maintain any suggested horticultural enhancements. And it would simply be passed along to the diners when the tab arrives.

Personally, I am not too concerned about having flowers in beds around town. What I do think we need is to preserve the trees we already have. They need water. We are told that if we have a city tree in our front yard, it is our responsibility to water it sufficiently. What does bother me is that we don't have places to sit in the shade in our shopping areas. I don't mean outside seating for restaurants, but just places to sit and people watch, eat lunch or drink coffee, catch up on the news or chat with a friend. We have very few areas where we can sit on a bench in the shade and even fewer public litter receptacles. A few outdoor shaded seating areas which are not attached to restaurants or cafes would be a very pleasant addition and enable us to rest or socialize.

The Palo Alto ECR corridor: orange cones, rippled sidewarlks, bent pedestrian signs, crumbling buildings, structures, weeded empty lots between Page Mill and Charleston is hideous. Falling to the ground, abandoned, boarded up, old and NEWLY deserted construction sites, for lease signs. It looks like the outskirts of Fresno or God Forbid, Detroit MI!!! About the only thing I enjoy along this desolate strip is the ad-hoc RV homes (at least they are keeping it real and are showing the rest of us they are trying to survive at forefront of the Bay Area housing instability). The Drift Wood Deli also is a highlight, which serves great sandwiches and coffee drinks to all the construction workers and others who happen on it.

Sidewalk sitting areas require setbacks...and developers (who rent to the restaurants and shops you love) want freedom to develop every square inch of space the way they want it-- multi-story privately-controlled space. Stop whining on PA Online and tell your City Council (the people who have the power to DO something about it) what you want. There is a public comment opportunity at the top of every City Council agenda. You can find their agendas with information on on how to participate here Web Link The general absence of informed, engaged citizens at City Hall these days is worrisome. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Read agendas and the occasional staff report.

Why does new or remodeled residential construction have ugly inverted rectangular u-shaped pipes plopped in a too prominent place in the front of the property? Not to mention parks and fields where the pipes are huge, unattractive and usually front and center. Can't the ARB weigh in on better placement for these blights, at least in homes?

Wonder how the town of Burlingame does it. It is such a beautiful town.

"...we need is to preserve the trees we already have. They need water. We are told that if we have a city tree in our front yard, it is our responsibility to water it sufficiently." Trees don't need to be watered. They have taproots.

“The first five years are critical for the long-term health of a tree. Proper watering, pruning, and other tree care will ensure a healthy, mature tree and drastically reduce future maintenance costs." “Note: While Canopy recommends proper young tree pruning, please do not prune Palo Alto street trees, as the City ordinance does not permit residents to prune street trees." For detailed instructions on watering young trees follow the following link: Web Link

Thank you for bringing this up. And, what about the untidy yards all over town? The drought has made yard maintenance difficult, but removal of knee high dried weeds would help appearances as well as reduce the amount of fuel for fires.

Follow this blogger. Sign up to be notified of new posts by this blogger.

In order to encourage respectful and thoughtful discussion, commenting on stories is available to those who are registered users. If you are already a registered user and the commenting form is not below, you need to log in. If you are not registered, you can do so here.

Please make sure your comments are truthful, on-topic and do not disrespect another poster. Don't be snarky or belittling. All postings are subject to our TERMS OF USE, and may be deleted if deemed inappropriate by our staff.

See our announcement about requiring registration for commenting.

Get the day's top headlines from Almanac Online sent to your inbox in the Express newsletter.

Will the power go out during this heat wave? By Sherry Listgarten | 30 comments | 5,547 views

Perk up Palo Alto --- this city can be a lot more attractive! By Diana Diamond | 17 comments | 3,987 views

‘We have a diet that is literally killing us.’ Why Frances Moore Lappé’s groundbreaking ‘Diet for a Small Planet’ is more relevant than ever By The Peninsula Foodist | 0 comments | 2,404 views

Three Amazing Outdoor Art Installations Brighten Downtown Menlo Park! By Dana Hendrickson | 0 comments | 2,267 views

Lost Your Mojo? By Chandrama Anderson | 2 comments | 2,124 views

Home News TownSquare Blogs A&E Community Calendar Home & Real Estate Obituaries

Send News Tips Subscribe Print Edition/Archives Express / Weekend Express Special Pubs Circulation & Delivery

About Us Contact Us Advertising Info Terms of Use Privacy Policy   Palo Alto Online Mountain View Voice TheSixFifty.com Redwood City Pulse

© 2022 The Almanac All rights reserved.   Embarcadero Media   PR MediaRelease Sponsored content Mobile site