Scott-Heron was one of five black students among a class of a hundred, and in his second year he got in trouble for playing the piano. “They had a beautiful Steinway they used for the choir and the chorus, but I got caught using it to play the Temptations,” he said. “A guy came in and screamed at me to stop, and they put a sign up saying ‘Do Not Play.’ A few days later, he came in, and I’m sitting under the sign playing the piano. So they told me they were going to call my mother, and I laughed—not because I was being disrespectful, although he took it that way—but because I thought, You really don’t want to get my mother into this. But they called her and told her to come to a disciplinary meeting, and the evening before she asked me what had happened, and I told her. And she said, ‘Well, did you hit the man?,’ and I said, ‘No, I was playing the piano.’ I tried to explain that there had been no rule against it until I did it. A lot of kids had been going up there to play ‘Chopsticks,’ I said, and she asked me again, did I hit him. She had reached the conclusion that I had done something so awful that I didn’t want to describe it, because she couldn’t imagine that they had called her up there to tell her I had been playing the piano.”
City-Sponsored Legislation SB 236 to Address Communications Hill Grand Staircase – State Senator Jim Beall has introduced SB 236 that would amend the Vehicle Code in order to exempt from the definition of “sidewalk” a stairway used or designed primarily for pedestrian travel. The public staircase located on Communications Hill was dedicated as a pedestrian right-of-way and currently is subject to the Vehicle Code. SB 236 will give cities the authority to regulate pedestrian staircases. SB 236 is expected to be referred by the Senate Rules Committee to the Senate Governance and Finance Committee for hearing. The last day for policy committees to hear and report out non-fiscal bills to the Senate Floor is May 15. For more information contact: Roxanne Miller, the City’s Legislative Advocate in Sacramento at 916-443-3946.
There’s a little blurb in the Metro about Senator Jim Beall (D-San Jose) writing a bill SB-236 that seeks to change the way a pedestrian right of way is regulated, distinguishing it from a sidewalk. The effort is about the fact that a right-of-way part of a giant condo development in San Jose has become a popular gathering spot for non-residents. Reminds me of Lytton Plaza in Palo Alto, a small downtown park that was renovated 50 percent by taxpayers and 50 percent by a group of landlords who in turn wanted to over-regulate the park and drive away “undesirables” (their word) and “sketchy people” (likewise). My involvement there was to speak a half dozen times on behalf of street musicians at the park, who got over-regulated in the form of a new ordinance here in Palo Alto that bans amplifiers during business hours.
I would say, with due respect, enforce your existing ordinances, for noise, for drug dealing for indecent exposure but Beals law looks to me like a way for pro-development leadership to privatize a public asset, not in my Democracy the first 200 years playbook.
Tempted to drive down there– maybe on my way to Oak Grove Gunn CCS game tomorrow, and cheek it out. Reminds of Coit Tower and Sansome Steps and to a lesser extent the Philadelphia museum Rocky steps.
Edit to add: swapped this out for “The 39 Steps” playing closer to home, and my Scattante for my Cruze.
Gunn all-league 6’4″ senior Chris Russell swats his Evergreen Valley Cougar adversary down low to help preserve a CCS first round win, Tuesday at the new gym
Gunn Titans (19-3) play Oak Grove Eagles (15-9) in 2nd round CCS action Thursday at 7. Take 280 and 85 South to Blossom Hill road exit, right, then another mile and a half. Give it about 45 minutes. Oak Grove is a 7-time CCS winner in football (Marty Morninweg, Mike Holmgren, but also Dave Stieb in baseball) but this Titan squad can prevail with a little focus.
The Titans went 10 men deep Tuesday. They were a little iffy against the press — 18 turnovers — but if they leave those jitters in the 650, they could become only the fourth group of cagers in 50 seasons to reach 20 wins. (The 1980-1981 Titans, with Kent Lockhart, a 2-time CCS player of the year and eventual Knicks draftee, went 25-3 including 21 straight). I liked the Heidenreich-Lees passing and driving, and use of the glass, although I still, after seeing 10 games, cannot tell 24 from 32 when they are moving. I was psyched to see senior reserve Lukas Dorward sink a shot, despite a few rough moments. If Russell, Alex “Al Palo Alto” Gil, Jon Davis and the LH’s all get hot on the same night, these lads can bring a bell home, from Foothill Saturday night as well. Stuff of hoop dreams, I admit. (And full disclosure, although I suited for four CCS games, my action was limited to pre game layups; I was close enough on a free throw in a route of Los Altos at Foothill in the SCVAL Shaughnessy finals to get my name in the box score there however). If Gunn loses but Paly prevails in its bracket, I would likely check that out Saturday. Overall, I am rooting for Seqouia and not Sacred Heart as sleepers in the Open Bracket –which means that Div. 1 is really a battle for #9 in CCS. Daily News has it thusly: 1. St. Francis 20-4 (saw them twice, including win over San Ramon Valley); Serra (19-5), have not seen accept on Cal-Hi sports; 3. SHP (22-2), have not seen but have 5 guys including the QB Mason Randall from their CCS football miracle team; 4. Sequoia (22-5) have not seen, accept for on Cal-Hi and heard a half on radio KCEA, and their star Chris Bene is nephew of my old nemesis Tony Fenwick of Menlo; 5. Paly at 17-7, have seen five times, and sat with the Mullins last week in los to Fremont; Mr. Mullin was aghast that Kevin was benched for important second half minutes by Coach Sax, and I am at least mystified; 6. Gunn, I’ve seen 10 times this year, matching the 10 I caught in football; 7. Menlo 16-7, have not seen but I saw a JV game featuring Beau Brown’s son; 8. M-A, 14-10, neither.
As John Reid, the former Awalt assistant coach, points out in his excellent account today, Chris Russell also hit a trey to put Gunn up 43-37, in effect, the dagger. Gil converted two in a row, proving his worth as El Camino MVP.
and1: The shot above, of Russell’s block, was at 49-44: the visitors never got another bucket after that tough lesson, although they did not quit either. That’s sportswriter Reid, our version of Ring Lardner, seen above, the man in the green shirt, in the red section.
edit to add: Crikey, that’s actually Gil #10 not Russell #25 with the block; good on Alex. Russell is helping weak side, you can see his face. Motorola Moto G 4.4.3 Android phone is not a Nikon SLR camera. And although Gunn went 10 deep of the 16 they carry and seven scored, Noah Steinbrenner and Stefan Johnson, both well-built former soccer players both got in, I still say, having watched 10 football games this fall, and I told his father as much, Noah Riley off the bench has something to contribute. Brandyn Williams told me he is the toughest kid on the team (having been sacked 20 times and knocked down 100 times for the 1-9 gridders, who I called the best #956 ranked team in the nation; Noah’s brother David Riley was money from outside for the 2006 Titans).
Reunion of two former editors of The Dartmouth, Paul Gigot ’77 of WSJ and Mark Weiss ’86( actually Literary Director to Paul’s E-in-C earlier) of Plastic Alto blog, Lytton Plaza, February, 2015; Gigot was part of a Stanford D-School new media workshop
Council cited property rights and current perhaps flawed rule of law to rationalize the denial of a long-time resident’s appeal of a 4,000 square foot two-story house on Corina, dwarfing the Brown Kaufman modest homes already there. Council voted 5-2 to approve the plan, with Dubois and Scharff absent. [Actually, it was 6-1 with Schmid dissenting]
Somewhere between beacon and bat-signal for the big houses.
Some call these “Monster homes”.
Reminds me of Allen Ginsberg “Howl” and his reaction to “Moloch”.
See Eric Drooker’s illustrated version of the classic wail.
I think there is also an element of staff believing they work for the building industry and not the residents. Here is staff report.
Speaking eloquently for the appeal included former commish Art Keller, Rita Virshaw, Cheryl Lilienstein, Ken Ingle (calling out 808 Richardson, same problem) and Shani Kleinhau, who pointd out a blue heron.
On staff tonight: Cara Silver, Molly Stump, Jim Keane, Hilary Gitelman, Amy French. Christy Fong, a relative newby, popped into the house for about a half hour of this then left around 9.
I also think of Robert Frost “good fences make good neighbors” which I am misquoting. From “Mending Wall” 1914, but doubtful that it applies here. Also, that we took more than 90 minutes of council and staff time here is a bad sign.
Leading the charge for property rights are: Burt, Berman, Filseth, Wolbach and Kniss.
People referenced a comp plan guideline on neighborhood integrity.
This fits a corner lot
Ginsberg mentions Moloch 39 times but here is a briefer section, of 9:
Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovahs! Moloch whose factories dream and croak in the fog! Moloch whose smoke-stacks and antennae crown the cities!
Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius! Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen! Moloch whose name is the Mind!
I actually thought it queer that the Weekly in their Feb. 3 coverage of this issue fixated on the Brown Act and too many council members discussing the need to review this publicly rather than the aspects of the case or its significance.
Actually I am also reminded of talking to Otto Slater on Byrd Lane about some of the monster homes going in there — LAH — and his anecdote about moving there in 1950s when he and Stegner and Collins were the only ones out there and when the fourth house went in it was “there goes the neighborhood”. (Now there is about 12).
The other question is: will the applicant end up being a good neighbor? Cynics seem to be saying that this is an investment only, and the house will be flipped. Not all the cards have been dealt, as they say.
at 9:45 Cory Wolbach moved to approve the project and reject the appeal. Kniss seconded. He in effect said “I’m satisfied, aren’t you? Let’s move on, and get pizza”. (I’m paraphrasing). He also, at the retreat, wanted a chess-clock in deliberations.
Strictly metaphorically I am tempted by either Six Mix-alot 1992 or Queen 1978. (Plastic Alto is first and foremost a music column; and as I type this, Amy French, at 9:57 just said, if you excuse the Mike Judgeism, “abuts”).
edit to add: I’m going with Six Mix A Lot because of his lot size:
next day: to Eric Filseth’s logic, I would just say we are lucky that he is not on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: we’ve fried innocent men before, Rodney Reed, so take your punishment like a man! According to Jason Green, it actually went down more like this: Filseth noted that there are other large two-story homes in the neighborhood, including one built in the Mediterranean style across the street.
“In my mind,” Filseth said, “the presence of that house … it considerably weakens the argument that the applicant’s house conflicts with the prevailing style in the neighborhood.”
further: These issue reminds me of something attributed to commercial developer Jim Baer, in a comments board, about dissent:
the Planning Department is mistakenly diagnosed as encouraging of and supporting inappropriate development. This is an uniformed and angry point of view that may become over the top during periods of internet and social networking methods of organizing. [Portion removed.] Thee are some self-promoting community leaders, none of whom would win support by making personal presentations because their anger and misinformation would be apparent to observers These same statements and positions distributed by 1000s of emails do not well filter the wild ones who presume their animus towards the development community is a highest form of leadership.
I am not denying that I am oversubscribed here in expressionistic cultural references, but this also has me sussing around Disney’s “Monster House” and “Up”. The point is that our little problems, not amounting to a hill of beans, are not occurring in a vacuum either. And I always push the point that the arts can guide us in policy, the type of flexible “outside the box” thinking. There’s a mono-culture of thought, a group-think, in our discourse; the industry breeds for it.
When architect in training Kyu Kim applied for the ARB last fall, he wrote 8 lines. And was seated.
I wrote 118 lines, but got no votes. I argued that the board has an over-representation of architects — the statute calls for only four of the five to be architects or design professionals. I said that my experience producing concerts suits me for either category.
I also included four photos, towards my point and way of thinking. For instance, I did not design Lytton Plaza, the egg, the bike rack, the bikes or the two visible buildings, but I shot this photo, interacted, sometimes quite intimately, with all four humans here, and claim that that kind of thinking, site-specific event design and Beuysian social sculpture helps qualify me to reform the ARB, which many feel disappoints:
Not left to right but near to far: Terry Acebo Davis, a woman with a nice camera and a Spanish accent, Ben Goldberg and Taylor Ho Bynum, Saturday September 20, 2014, around noon, I gathered them, and shot.
I’m not merely engaging in sour grapes. And I did call on Kim personally at his office to make sure he is not upset at my attack, which was kid gloves not Everlast.
By the way, I felt as qualified as Catherine Ballantyne, a Cornell trained landscape architect but do not feel that, once seated she should be forced to resign over her petty property dispute with a neighbor. To me the neighbor has it in for her. (And I am only going on press accounts, PAW and Post, but it looks like she offered to make amends).
The Weekly seemed to hint that a pro-developer operative might be behind the anonymous (?) emails to council attacking her, but actually when I read her application I thought she was too typically pro-development especially in her support of 385 Sherman, which I opposed. I do not know Catherine personally nor have I assessed much of her record, but think this case is a tempest in a clay pot.
Some of this stuff is a side show to avoid talking about more important issues about whether leadership is representative and responsive, and that the press has a pro-developer bias. Did I mention that Dave Price of the Post is a big fat idiot? And an asshole. (When I ran for council I did not bother to interview with them, or the Weekly for that matter; they both mis-represent my work and views. The Post is downright misanthropic).
I said “we are more garish than Gehry”.
and1: Kim and I both spoke about the proposal to put AT&T antennas in the private Little League field. I said I’d rather see us ask Alex Blandino of the Reds, who told me he played four seasons there, than pimp out our kids to some large corporation. There is no centerfield foul pole in baseball. Unless you want to throw down for an Oldenburg and get permission to rig that up.
When he is not on the road with the Reds, Palo Altan Alex Blandino might make a good PARC commish
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 