!TAYLOR HO! Jazz and Bike event, free at Lytton Plaza Saturday, September 20

Posted on August 27, 2014 by markweiss86

taylorHO

!TAYLOR HO! is my working title for an on-the-fly event I am adding to my and Earthwise’s busy fall schedule.

Taylor Ho Bynum is a jazz musician based in the East Coast who plays cornet –a small trumpet — and write and records and tours. But he is also, apparently enough, a bicycle enthusiast and a bit of a hard case, in the best couple senses of the word: he is touring the West Coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles to play jazz AND doing a century-ride-per-day that is 100 miles and eschewing the devil petroleum products. That is, a bike powered jazz tour. Craig Matsumoto the KZSU dj formerly known as Wedge, wrote about this and I, noting Palo Alto’s convenient situation — as Portola nearly 250 years ago — between his Sept. 19 SF gig and points south, asked our man !Ho! to route thru Lytton Plaza.

Free concert, at Lytton Plaza, Saturday, September 20, 1 p.m.

Taylor Ho Bynum, cornet, with special guest Ben Goldberg, clarinet.

This is also loosely part of something I call ICO-BOPA the International Congress of Buskers of Palo Alto. I have produced roughly six concerts at Lytton Plaza featuring nationally or internationally known recording and performing acts. These events also loosely promote “busking” the historical mode of operation of street musicians since the middle ages thru early Charlie Hunter years. In this case, I book an artist to perform at Lytton but we have an agreement that if the plaza is otherwise occupied, we will simply move the concert to the most logical nearby venue, as a street musician would, or , rather, as street musicians from time do.

The City meanwhile, offers, for a fee and if you have the stomach to sit thru their red tape, a permit which would enable user for exclusive use of Lytton Plaza. But in these cases, and is natural and organic and normal and Democratic –especially if, like Taylor Ho Bynum and Ben Goldberg, you can IMPROVISE, the permit process is superfluous.

There also a little something called The First Amendment which I literally carry in my back pocket which permits us to gather, speak and even, to a certain decibel limit, blow our horns, literal or figurative or both.

Walls may come down.

Goes well with slice of cheese, mushroom and pepper from very convenient regional vender. (If you want a beer, you can peer out from inside said joint, which might still prove interesting).

I am hoping that in addition to reach-out and out-reach to the jazz-bos, that bikers will dig this, reap !HO!’s righteous riffs. I ran this by, or on a roll, Adina Levin, of Menlo Park, a bike activist, who said, surprisingly she knew of Taylor Ho Bynum.

My fondest hope is that a critical mass (!) of bikers will show up and post concert Taylor will lead us (!) six miles down (south) Bryant Street, the Ellen Fletcher Bike Boulevard, before, it seems, heading west and over the ridge towards what I understand is miles to go before he sleeps, Henry Cowell Park in Big Basin. Miss Fletcher by the way was present in spirit Saturday in San Ramon at the retirement party of former Cubberley (formerly? Try FOREEVER!) hoops player and coach and legend Hans Delannoy, if you, and Taylor Ho, excuse the typical Plasticy digression. This be like a jazz solo, methinks.

I personally will be helping to sell cd versions of Taylor’s latest release. Or Ben’s. Or both.

Taylor has the official version of all this on his blog.

edit to add, minutes later: check back to see how I resolve my apparent mixed metaphor of Gabriel and Joshua / Jerico apropos of “the walls come down”. Also: Gideon, or Gideon v. Wainwright? Also, the 12 minute tape I loaded originally seems to have a weird link.

Posted in jazz, la la, media, music, Plato's Republic, this blue marble | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Brown Act, orange juice

Posted on August 27, 2014 by markweiss86
Three Palo Alto council members, Marc Berman (back to us), Larry Klein and Liz Knizz (obscured) toe the line on Ralph Brown Act, Wednesday, August 27, 2014 at University Cafe in Palo Alto, and I wonder if they were as disciplined regarding the excellent pastries, the croissant I can personally endorse, as well as the fresh squeezed.

Three Palo Alto council members, Marc Berman (back to us), Larry Klein and Liz Knizz (obscured) toe the line on Ralph Brown Act, Wednesday, August 27, 2014 at University Cafe in Palo Alto, and I wonder if they were as disciplined regarding the excellent pastries, the croissant I can personally endorse, as well as the fresh squeezed.

Liz Kniss nosed her green Toyota into the spot exactly as I passed, which caught my eye and had me re-route from my typical Coupa to step-to-her-step University Cafe style. We exchanged pleasantries. (I wrote below about asking her, once, about her experiences and aptitude with hula — the dance; today I noticed how nice her hair looks, and commented; someone last weekend said that my coach, the Peninsula playing and East Bay / California coaching legend Hans Delannoy does the same thing — finds something nice to say to all comers — maybe that’s where I got it; it’s certainly my source for “Be quick, but don’t hurry” which is actually from John Wooden, but Hans got it honestly, he took the charge).

When Larry Klein strolled in, I said “Here’s your appointment”. She wheeled –we call that a spin-move, and added “one of them”. Sure enough, in walks Marc Berman, a third Palo Alto council member, and a former goalie for a Paly CCS soccer standout; Marc and I shook hands – I think he is over the “short-pants” comments, not so sure. I made a remark comparing Cory Wolbach’s campaign event Sunday at Seale Park (see also “The Lockhart Loo proposed”) to us four in the cafe: as Wolbach had about 30 VIPs (Jerry Hill, Peter Drekmeier) and 30 regulars, the Cafe, in possible violation of the Brown Act, featured three current council members and no other customers, at 8:10 a.m. on a Wednesday. I guess Liz, Larry and Marc, on account of Monday being a fourth Monday, missed each other much too much.

I kept my cover by ordering an OJ to go, and a croissant and told her to keep the change from my sawbuck. (insert slang term for ten-spot: n the United States, sawbuck is also commonly used as slang for a ten-dollar bill, from the Roman numeral interpretation of the ‘X’ shape of the device.).

Giving actual leadership -- for now -- wide berth I was relegated to al fresco enjoyment of my orange juice and croissant

Giving actual leadership — for now — wide berth I was relegated to al fresco enjoyment of my orange juice and croissant

I waited exactly 5 minutes — in case Marc, not Larry, was in the little boys room — then strolled back past the storefront, hoping to frame the trio in the doorway. You can see from above that Larry gives me a weird little look, but I missed Liz entirely. You’ll have to take my word on it, the Brown Act thing. You do believe me, don’t you?

(Later, after checking my work in “gallery”, on my Moto G, I actually moonwalked back past the opening while pretending to be checking my phone; yesterday, especially in SF’s Mission District, I shot a series of portraits Bill Cunningham style, of people walking with their heads in the web. This little gesture — who knows if they saw me at all? — was my version of a football end zone dance, especially like I saw Gunn v. Los Altos a few years back, a running back turning around to taunt his pursuit as he neared the end zone. Usually I am old school and just hand the ball to the ref. But if not now, when. Like Joe Cassin giving me an elbow to my chest, in 1980, my former Senior Little League teammate, the captain, not happy with Gunn putting the scrubs in, against Los Altos, the runner-up).

edit to add: in my edit of this, the term “bird omenology” popped into my head, now that I’ve had my Coupa cup o’. It means that you can get omens from birds. For instance, Nathan Oliveira the painter says that the inspiration for his Windhover came from taking a walk on the dish and an “acoma hawk” buzzed him. Or, in the movie “Incident at Oglala” based on Peter Mattiesson’s book on Pine Ridge Rez, someone says that, under fire from the Feds –literally, bullets — he saw an eagle and knew to follow it to safety. Or, and maybe my primary source, I knew first from Kirk Endicott’s course and later from a self-trained anthropologist who called himself (!) Kevin Russell of Rainforest Awareness Project that in Borneo the people listen to the birds and get insights from the birds. But I was surprised that if you put “bird omenology” into search-injun (!), you get only 8 results, and the lead is yours truly, Plastic Alto (oddly, about the Varsity). It also mentions Sarawak, another Borneo area tribe, to Russell’s Penan. I saw a bird omen last Saturday, crossing over my car as I helped a friend find her way to a job training near West Hedding in San Jo. Of course here the joke is calling Kniss (who again, I like, she is charming) a bird.

I hope to edit to add with more accounts of the four campaign events I went to, that I discussed briefly with both Liz and Marc: Wolbach, Ken Dauber (^), Tom Dubois and Greg Scharff, formerly my nemesis now we are going thru what I am calling a glasnost. Plus maybe some photos from my journeys the last 72 hours. I’ve shot TK photos on my little over-eager perhaps Moto G.

Posted in ethniceities, Plato's Republic, words | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Open letter to Doug Moran of Barron Park

Posted on August 26, 2014 by markweiss86

Edit to add, three years later: I would not recant this per se but would say that 1) I do respect and admire Doug Moran and his role in local public affairs and 2) I do admit that in the excitement of a campaign I can lack some self-editing. I think of local politics as a bit like intramural sporting events in which during the actual match the blue team competes against the red team or what not then after the match is over you can shake hands and move on. I’m adding this preface rather than taking down this post. Doug is a little different but that adds and not detracts from the world.

 

 

I am the Residentialist, you, sir, are a cyber-squatter

subhead: momentum or geometric progression

Doug, why do you call me “Repeatedly unsuccessful candidate(s)”?

I would say, on the contrary, going from 800 votes in 2009 to 5,700 in 2012 shows considerable momentum. You’ve studied math, right?

Also, I was the one who, after Matt Bowling’s book came out, in tribute to Enid, starting calling this movement “Residentialist” or “new residentialist”. It’s in my 2012 ballot pamphlet statement and blog of the time. Tim Gray and I both used that term in the campaign, uniquely.

I was neutral on the referendum but in a lot of ways my 2012 campaign both predicted and influenced it.

What is your problem?

Mark Weiss

any by the way, I am writing this on a Mac Pro, while sitting thru in person the PARC meeting, where I spoke earlier tonight about PARK IN VENTURA, ON 15 ACRE FRY’S PROPERTY. You idiotically claimed that I was unfit to serve in 2009 because I did not have all the trendy gear of the time. I also have a smartphone.

So far I have about 20 endorsements and expect to garner more than 100 by November. I suspect that at least 10 percent of the endorsers of the so called slate will eventually vote for me and maybe endorse — among current or ex council. I will ask each of them in person.

I am predicting 10,000 this time.

Also, I am the most organic candidate in that I am a product of the schools here, and have been here the longest. Again, what is your problem?

And by the way, registering a domain name (“residentialist dot com”) does not make you a stake-holder in the debate or definition of the issues.

 

Residentialists – Palo Alto California

2014 City Council Election

The term residentialists is being resurrected by the press and others for the 2014 Palo Alto City Council Election. There is no declared Residentialist faction or slate, but various candidates are using residentialist in talking about their positions. However, there is no formal adoption of this term—since I own the domain (and have offered its use), I would expect to be among the first to know.

Widely identified as residentialists (alphabetically):

Tom DuBois: campaign website and PA Weekly article

Eric Filseth: campaign website and PA Weekly article

Karen Holman (incumbent): campaign website

Lydia Kou: campaign website and PA Weekly article

Ones widely regarded as establishment/pro-development:

Greg Scharff (incumbent):

Nancy Shepherd (incumbent): campaign website

Cory Wolbach: PA Weekly article

Repeatedly unsuccessful candidates

John Fredrich: PA Weekly article

Mark Weiss: blogging website: PA Weekly article

New to Palo Alto issues

A. C. Johnson: PA Weekly article

Seelam Reddy: PA Weekly article

From Matt Bowling’s site, and my only quibble with Matt’s work is that it seems to be mostly a summary of existing sources and not original research:

 

For years, “representative businessmen” had governed Palo Alto without much opposition. But in the 1950s, Palo Alto grew at a dramatic (some said alarming) rate, doubling in size from a population of 25,475 in 1950 to 52,287 in 1960. Some worried that growth might continue unabated from the foothills to the bay. Ironically, those who first challenged the city’s growth largely came from the newly developed regions outside of downtown. This group, known as the “Residentialists,” favored slower growth and distrusted large commercial and government projects. In 1962, the Residentialists found an issue to rally around — opposition to the highly controversial Oregon Expressway. Although the road was eventually built, Palo Alto’s first anti-establishment political force solidified in the campaign to oppose it.

And soon the Residentialists began to chip away at the Establishment’s power. In 1961, NASA physicist Robert Debs won election as the first Residentialist council member. Two years later he and Enid Pearson led a successful court challenge to the city’s practice of spot zoning and forced the adoption of a Master Plan. Residentialists Kirke Comstock and Phillip Flint were elected to the Council in 1963 and then Pearson, Edward Worthington and Byron Sher won in 1965. The council was now divided 7-6, with the Establishment holding a narrow one-seat advantage. And tensions were flaring.

edit to add, the next day: I sent this around to a few people who know us both, but resisted sending it to Neilson Buchanon’s “reply all” (as I did with my sample ballot statement on council composition). The line “I am the Residentialist, you, sir,are a cyber-squatter” came to me as I awoke this a.m., although it also references Daniel Webster in 1817 as every Big Green reader will surely note…it also reminds me that someone said I should treat uber-developer Jim Baer with kid gloves on the account on his bike accident — I was troubled by the peculiarity and irony — some months ago of his producing a $250 per plate Martin Luther King event, on public property, while leadership concurrently was trying to ban the homeless from sleeping in cars.(section edited in 2017: references to boxing movies and metaphors for trying hard). Whether I expressed this to him or not, I had thought about challenging him, in reference to his dissing of my STEM skills — I was in the top 5 percent certainly on standardized testing in my day — to a debate based on the work of “Logicomix” the nexus of Bertrand Russell, Cantor, Godel and of course my close personal friend the late Paul J. Cohen, Stanford first Fields Prize winner. Not that I want to convince him one way or the other, just that, within a set of rules I would wager you the reader would not be able to discern the computers doctoral from the Dartmouth English major on caffeine. Resolved: I would rather have disproved Hilbert’s First Problem than taken Quebec. Doug? Any time, any place, give me ten minutes or ten weeks to prep. Your call. Coin flip ten minutes before match indicates which side each is on. (or ten coin flips one minute before match: if all ten come out heads he agrees to write “Weiss rocks my multiplication tables long-time” on his site; if it comes out tails ten times in a row, I will write, here, “Doug Moran is not a zero, he’s the one”).

edit to add: more on Doug Moran weekly site:
For the record, the person I left the ice cream table to go talk to was Trina Lovercheck of LWF. The ice cream had run out, Kerry Yarkin was off to the market, and the line was slow. Later Trina came and found me and said the ice cream was back and now there was a line. The next shift quickly showed up to relieve us three (MW, NS and LK). What’s the big deal?

It’s notable that you slag me again, Doug, rather than taking the time to say something relevant or intelligent. (In 2009 you bemoaned that I did not own a computer, for instance).

And by the way, even though you lump me in with Wayne, Sea and John, I’ve been to about 100 public hearings or meetings between 2009 and last week, which I am sure is more than those three combined, and probably more than anyone else in the race, save incumbents. And like I said above, I’ve written 200 articles on policy, plus easily another 200 comments here. (Although my impression is that John Fredrich, years ago, was quite engaged, and his observations are relevant today, I’d like to hear them).

Actually your term “personal blog” is a misnomer; I think of the internet as a business tool and my blog as somehow related to my writer’s and consulting business or practice.

And by the way, it may interest you to know that, despite the fact that I am commenting here, I am boycotting the Palo Alto Weekly and it’s candidates vetting, partly because of the way you treat me, and your association with them here, partly because likewise Steve Levy but mostly because Bill Johnson is refusing to investigate or even leave a record of my claim that (section edited in 2017: about Grand Jury report and prominent developer and council member I was critical of)

I will respond to questions posed by reporters but won’t sit for him and their content-generation. I won’t sit for a photo either. As someone trained by real daily newspapers, I contend that part of our morass is the fact that local press is too tied in to the developers to cover the issues or the candidates.

I don’t think Palo Alto is serious about Democracy.

And 1:
Palo Alto deliberately runs its elections as a horse race meaning too fast and too little discourse. Favoring incumbents and Establishment. I am reacting to your term “early”. The election is only 6 weeks from now. On Monday candidates are to speak for 30 seconds each, and about two minutes total, at a Rotary club meeting. This is not discourse. This is a game show.

edit to add, Sunday morning, Sept. 21, 2014: all of the above, that I added yesterday, have been deleted from Doug’s Weekly column, so I added back the link to here and a few more thoughts. Notable, that I only referred to obliquely is that Doug Moran claims to work on the Lydia Kuo campaign (her neighbor) — I wonder how mutual the passion is.

This is like a cross between “King of Comedy” and “My Year of Meats”

Doug it is not that you haven’t seen enough of me, over five years (!) but that you pathologically will not say anything fair, relevant or intelligent about me or my work. Which is your right, certainly as a citizen, but I think journalists, or columnists or even bloggers should probably have a higher standard. Or if you are leadership either in your neighborhood, or PAN.

What exactly is your problem? I’m calling you out.

Or why don’t you go full-Stalin and simply delete all reference to my campaign, pretend I am not on the ballot.
And by the way I know Wayne Douglass and he is significantly smarter and a better person than you. (I didn’t recognize his name at first but when I saw Wayne, a few weeks into the campaign, I realized that he and his wife were supporters of my 2009 campaign, and we have a mutual friend in Aleta Hayes, who sang at two of my 2009 events).

haven’t read this, but it popped up on my search engine when I typed in something about what I perceive as Doug’s problem — I am a fan of Upton Sinclair, which the book supposedly references, in the way that Packer’s “the unwinding” does Dos Passos.

Somewhere in all this I believe I have extended to him the challenge that I believe I know more about math per se than he does, despite his PhD in computers; I want to debate him on the field described in Logicomix, Bertrand Russell Meets Cantor, Godel and Cohen.

edit to add: my post has lasted at least 4 minutes; a total of about 1,000 have seen Doug’s article, which implies that maybe someone else will read my post before it is deleted. The first version was more succinct, like what I would say to someone in real life who abused me like this. But I do admit: I have no idea why this page is mostly in italics.

an hour later, responding to a troll:
History Buff is being inconsistent in that he asserts (I guess, I am only guessing) that something about my post cancels out anything else I can say or do either between now and election — 6 weeks — or over the past five years — 2009, 2012 campaigns — I’ve actually lived here on and off since 1974 and arguably have a record of public service since being a student rep to SIP and SITE for Terman in 1977 — YET he also provides a link where PAN has more info on me, or more of my thoughts. Ok.

But don’t take his advice if you already hate me and don’t read any of the other 200 articles I’ve written on policy on my own blog (and 700 posts about culture and the arts), Plastic Alto.

And in theory in keeping with the Stalin-esque theme here, this, like my previous four or five posts, will be deleted in a matter of seconds, like a message to Mr. Phelps in Mission Impossible.

History Buff, do you have a name, sir?

I would add that Wayne Douglass I take over you, a hundred times in a row. Barroom brawl, double date or parliamentary debate.

By November 4, or December 4, we will know the will of the people.

My theory is that potentially Maybell Referendum is a red herring, we don’t know why people voted in that case as they did, and the Slate or a movement of so-called Residentialists (yet excluding, for example, Tim Gray and I, who discussed this term in 2012, and got 7,000 and nearly 6,000 votes) is like building a castle with too few bricks. Slate or no slate, the same 50 people show up at every campaign kickoff and there are 15,000 possible voters.

I think most people read or glance at the ballot statement pamphlet.

So write what you want, Doug Moran. And delete as your under-educated, Stalinist-leaning — and this is not an ad hominem it is based on empirical observation of your actions — self is inclined and compelled to do. And let’s just see what the other 59,000 Palo Altans not your readers do, say or think. (edit to add in 2017: yes, ironic that I have edited some parts from here: I’m trying to be more civil)

There is a leadership problem and we need to fix it but like in Jack London’s “Iron Heel” it may take 500 years.

paste in the History Buff comment:

Posted in media, Plato's Republic | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Lin Sunde ditty

Posted on August 25, 2014 by markweiss86

Posted by Mark Weiss, a resident of Downtown North
0 minutes ago
Mark Weiss is a registered user.
That would be funny if they posed him in his JLS jersey.
actually there is a painter locally who did a great portrait of Jeremy in his Warriors jersey, I saw at Vino Locale

He also played for Kings Mountain I think it was, a Christian middle school in San Jose, before JLS

Good luck, Jeremy, in LA. Good reason to visit the Staples Center. (Imagine how much better you would be if you had led Gunn not Paly to State Title)

and yeah I would probably visit SF to see this. I saw Sarah Cameron Sunde stand still not in wax but in water the other day

Posted in art, media, sex, sf moma, sports, words | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ida, Nancy, Terry (Palo Alto Festival of the Arts three-way-selfie)

Posted on August 25, 2014 by markweiss86
Ida Davis, Nancy Shepherd, Terry Acebo Davis selfie at Palo Alto Festival of The Arts, August, 2014

Ida Davis, Nancy Shepherd, Terry Acebo Davis selfie at Palo Alto Festival of The Arts, August, 2014

I saw Mayor Nancy Shepherd at three candidates’ events last weekend, the Cory Walbach kick-off at Seale Park, the Ken Dauber School Board event at a private Professorville estate and last at Ralph and Jackie Wheeler’s tasteful South Palo Alto Eichler, for former mayor and fellow Old Guard hanging on Greg Scharff. She said she had just seen Terry, my girlfriend, the former arts commissioner Terry Acebo Davis.

Terry knocked on this selfie from the fair. I missed the thing entirely –like a Spaniard at the end of a World Cup loss — but snapped off a few shots at the load out, where I chatted up Fred Mertz (photos, both 121) and Ling-Ann (jewelry, at Bryant).

Nancy and I, while we don’t agree always on the affairs of the day, have a rapport. I am sticking to my story that at the first candidates forum, in 2009, I was seated next to her, at the far end of the dias, and I heard her breathing nervously, and I reached out — literally — and it did calm her, and the rest is history, or her story. I said: anyone who raises a daughter to be a PAUSD teacher gets my automatic vote – there were five seats open that year. She will have to work it hard the next 60-something days to earn my vote and be re-seated.

Meanwhile, Nancy was also instrumental in my meet-up with Olive Borgsteadt, who is a volunteer at the reading room on Cali Ave. Olive stared at me, while I stood quietly, or perhaps inched forward. Finally it came to her: “Fifth-sixth combo, at Fremont Hills?!”. Yes, Mrs. Borgstead was my teacher in fifth grade, in 1974-1975, forty years ago, my first in PAUSD. A good time was had by all, and some learnin’ was goin’ on. (RIP Herbie the Tarantula). I will try to post that. Post-haste. God bless Olive and Nancy – can an assimilated Jew say that to two Christ Scientists? You betcha!

(And speaking of Dauber, I told him that in his honor I am drafting to my Fantasy Football League, “The Gunn National Football League, formerly Gunnnational Football League, after the Gnational Football League, Ken Daube, a wideout with the Saints, if that is a threw-line; also kudos to his wife or thanks I should say…namaste…Michele Dauber for saying that she reads my blog and thinks I am funny…that is enough to win my vote for Ken and maybe my enDolphin. I started to say endorsement then endorphin but things got a little Griese. I’m such a little fiedler. Do the math. Oh, jay. Are you ready for some meredith?)

(I hope to some day read a Michele Landis Dauber law review article and report back, slightly better than I did on my Vince Starzinger Govy 60 midterm in 1985.Heck, it will take some focus just to get thru her 6-page CV, just the titles I mean).

edit to add, minutes later: I chug. That is Dartmouth fraternity basement lingo for “my bad” or “my mistake” or what Ben Franklin would call an “errata”. Ken Daube is NOT as I claim above a wide-out for the Saints who I claim I will try to draft to my Fantasy Football Team in honor of Ken Dauber, future PAUSD school board stalwart, but a sportswriter — duh! — for ESPN who writes ABOUT the Saints and for instance recommends a po boy from Jacques-Imos over Mark Ingram, and how to spot the difference. I will swede in the clip from ESPN mag that launched this whopper of a boner. Boner temps roulette. Which itself is not a Bill Clinton reference, but might be, in a parallel universe.

Like I keep saying: I are a lifelong learner.

Posted in ethniceities, Plato's Republic, sex, where yat | 2 Comments

In this picture please note that both Weiss and his drummer are wearing green

Posted on August 24, 2014 by markweiss86
Photo by Terry Acebo Davis

Photo by Terry Acebo Davis

pasting in my submission to Sierra club, minus the actual names and emails of their people

Mark Weiss:

Congratulations on your decision to run for Palo Alto City Council this fall. If you are interested in receiving the endorsements of the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), please follow the process described in this email. FYI, candidates that we endorse have won about 85% of the time.

If you are not interested in receiving our endorsements, please let us know.

The Sierra Club and the LCV will jointly host in person interviews. Interested candidates will be interviewed for 30 minutes on Wednesday, August 27, starting at 6:30 p.m. Interviews will be held at the home of D_ and N_ A_ at {#@&^} in Palo Alto.

If you’d like to be interviewed and considered for our endorsement, please respond to the attached questionnaire and return your answers by Thursday, August 21. We ask that you return your responses as an attached file and in the text of your email.

We will give you an interview time after we receive your completed questionnaire. After interviews are conducted, the Sierra Club and the LCV make separate endorsement decisions. You will receive an e-mail on LCV’s endorsement decision the evening of September 8. The Sierra Club’s decision will be made around Sept. 12.

If you have questions, we are happy to answer them. Thanks for your commitment to public service!

D_ O_ and T_ T__l

for the Sierra Club and the LCV

PS 2 attachments, one of which is copied here:

Sierra Club & League of Conservation Voters (LCV)

City Council Candidate Questionnaire

Due by August 21 to {#@&^}@yahoo.com

Candidate Information

Name:

Office being sought: member, Palo Alto City Council

Campaign manager &

Office Address: just me: 1788 Oak Creek Drive #217 Palo Alto, CA 94304

FPPC ID: none

Phone: 650 305 XXXX

Website: none, other than numerous posts at “Plastic Alto” a wordpress blog, aka markweiss86/wordpress

{

Etaoin Shrudlu} at #@&^@hotmail.com. Please do not embed the photo into the email as our layout person can not copy it with the resolution needed for publication. (You can cut and paste as you see fit from numerous selfies and the like on my blog or out there in the blogosphere…)

In answering these questions, please remember that most of our endorsement decision is based upon your environmental accomplishments.

Please provide explanations with your answer and please include the original question with your response. Your response must be returned in the text of an e-mail, and as an attached file. The file must include your name in it. Whatever. Will re-send as such.

Palo Alto Specific Questions

A. Given the attached map’s description of potential future impacts to Palo Alto, and given the growing political awareness of sea-level-rise as an issue needing attention, what do you believe Palo Alto should be doing now in anticipation of this inevitability?

I would underplay this question; It’s a macro-issue and we are micro-dealers. Maybe we should all visit New Orleans. Or Napa. (I went to New Orleans, on business, music business, six times in 2003 and 2004 and not since Katrina. Napa we visited last month — you heard there was an earthquake there, although that is more relevant in disaster preparedness overall than global warming of sea-level-rise per se. Maybe we can dig out the 100 homes we put in Baylands to build Oregon Expressway.

B. Assuming that the Measure D results reasonably reflected Palo Alto public opinion at that time, do you think recent policy changes by the City Council are a sufficient response? If not, please tell us what further steps you believe the Council and Staff should take?

I think Measure D Referendum on Maybell Dense Housing is a red herring. I am not convinced that the voters realize how corrupt and unrepresentative our leadership is. Certainly as someone ringing alarms since at least the 2012 campaign, and arguably since 2009, I hope se. I don’t think response by council is sufficient. It is election-season changing of stripes. Meanwhile, there is a huge scam around flushing the Comp Plan / General Plan into the Bay. We should enforce current and existing Comp Plan.

C. What role, if any, do you believe the City of Palo Alto should take to preserve the 126 affordable housing units in Buena Vista mobile home park? This is a great question. Meanwhile, City Attorney Stump is issuing a gag order to candidates, which I hope to challenge. I’ve been saying for a while that the moral thing to do is enforce the covenant; leadership should broker a deal between the Residents-turning-HOA (and their counsel Winter Dellanback) and the current owner. Give him a fair small profit and buy him out be rid of him. (There is a bona fide deal from a bank to help the residents buy the property, as reported; the landlord is pushing for an upzoning and partnership from a commercial developer.

I would rather speak out and have Molly try to make me recuse. I am not sure her legal grounds, but I will look into it.

General Questions

1. We consider your past record as the best indicator of your future action for the environment. What have you done to protect natural resources and the environment?

I’m on a 20-year conversion and am arguably the most environmental person in the race. My footprint is pretty small. Earthwise Productions is a spin-off of Bay Area Action, by the way. I will elaborate time permitting here.

2. What do you regard as the major environmental and conservation issues facing Palo Alto and the Bay Area as a whole?

I would say it’s still consumerism and greed and the Seven Deadly Sins since time began. Now it’s Income Inequality as described by Robert Reich in his film, contributing factor. I think green-washing more than environmentalism has made more gains since 1992, and especially since David Brower died. I recall hearing him speak circa 1993 at Commonwealth Club, and taking my Dad and him greeting Mr. Goldman (funder of the Goldman Award) who he knew from the Jewish Mafia, and was introduced to. Also, War, this is a problem. I was the only candidate in 2009 or 2012 to try to link the War (Afghanistan, Iraq) to our local actions. Seven thousand dead. Lots of environmental damage as well. (100,000 plus foreign dead).

3. What are the principal areas of the environment that you will work on if elected? How will you deal with them?

I want to add a park at Ventura District, former Fry’s site (current site). Per Quimby and our Comp Plan. We are actually in a parks deficit here and now.

4. Are you a Sierra Club member? Membership is not required for endorsement. I’m gonna fish for an endorsement from Adam what’s his name, the young whiz kid former Sierra Club head, who went to work for Walmart — I know slightly from the music scene. He shared an office in SF with Jordan Kurland. I worked on contract for Helena Norberg Hodge, whose book was published by Sierra Club Books, a division of Random House. I recently tried to get Duane Elgin (Voluntary Simplicity) to stump for me; his son lives here.

Climate Change

5. What else should Palo Alto do to reduce greenhouse gas generation?

Get rid of Jim Keene.

6. What do you do as an individual to reduce your GHG generation?

Ride my bike when I can.

Green Building

7. What more can be done to ensure that all new construction and remodeling incorporate green building principles?

I think “net zero” is a scam. I’d rather see a moratorium on new starts. See my comments on 420 Cambridge.

8. What types of projects would you support to provide people with an alternative to the private auto?

Not über certainly. (Tax them!). I think CalTrain needs some love. TDM’s all over.

9. Where would you include affordable housing?

How about in Milpitas? I’d rather subsidize for teachers, artists and public safety than merely throw a bone to the lottery-winning poor. There are needs more encompassing for gerontology and elders — I know from personal experience, my parents, much more than in 2012 and 2009. But this may be beyond the scope of environmentalism per se.

Open Space & Urban Recreation – Access to Nature

10. How will you ensure that residents in Palo Alto will have access to safe and enjoyable parks and open space?

I am reading the Comp Plan plus the revised Attach on Comp Plan and will report back.

Water Conservation & Recycling, Rivers & Creeks

11. California will continue to face increasing droughts, what is the most important water-related issue for Palo Alto and what policies or actions would you advocate for your city to address this issue? I am trying to get my childhood friend and co-editor of the Gunn Oracle Greg Zlotnick to advise me on all things wet and pure, but so far is not helping me much. I think we could reform agro first.

12. What is your position on stream setback requirements for development? Do you believe current requirements are too strict, too lax, or just right?

Not sure

Wildlife

13. What would you do to help preserve wildlife habitat, wildlife corridors, and in the face of pressures from the growing human population?

Not sure

14. Would you support the development of a bird safe buildings ordinance?

I think this Shani person is engaging and worth hearing out. Not sure.

Zero Waste and Extended Producer Responsibility

15. Where do the yard-waste and food-waste collected in Palo Alto go, and how effective is this program in Palo Alto? Good question . I wonder somehow. I want to re-read Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken.

16. Many waste management companies use organics as daily cover at landfills. This causes methane release. Will you support a statewide ban of organics from landfills and from any form of high temperature energy generation facilities like gasification or incineration of mixed waste? Maybe. Where can I read more?

17. Will you push Palo Alto and Santa Clara County to adopt an ordinance requiring drug manufacturers to pay for programs to collect unused and expired medications similar to the one recently adopted by Alameda County? That’s worth looking into. Reminds me of my former Daily Dartmouth colleague Dan Fagin won the 2014 Pulitzer for science writing about Toms River NJ — he might be a good person to shed light nationally on this issue, assertion.

Campaign Reform

18. Will you support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United?

I was actually the first person in Palo Alto to go on record on this. I texted Yiaway Yeh then mayor about this, while listening to a lecture by Jeff Clements (another Dartmouth connection) — that I do not accept campaign contributions, through 2.10 cycles of election and counting –heck, I haven’t spent a dime — are yard signs environmental? — is consistent with my concern with Citizens and McCutcheon. I am by far the cleanest person within 20 miles of this race, and since Ladoris Cordell on this issue. I also asked three candidates to agree to a voluntary cap on spending for this race and so far no takers. Will persevere.

Campaign Readiness –

Tell us about your campaign readiness, including funding, volunteers, and organization. Please bring examples of your prior and current campaign literature.

I have more than 20 endorsements so far:

Matt Gonzalez, former Green Party candidate for Vice President of the U.S, former SF supe, former SF Mayoral candidate.

Chris Gaither, former Palo Alto council candidate

Paul Weiss, big Democratic giver, Jewish community leader, arts philanthropist, my dad, and Rotarian

Greg Brown, artist, former Palo Alto Staff

Terry Acebo Davis, CRONA nurse, artist, former Arts Commissioner

Einer Sunde, attorney, Former Arts Commissioner

Paula Kirkeby, former Arts commissioner

Deirdre Crommie, Parks Commissioner

Hans Delannoy, Peninsula hoops legend, educator, coach

Joe Zirker (Menlo Park) artist

Henry Ford, NFL black pioneer

Rochelle Ford, artist

Steve Koehler, twists balloons at farmers market

1. Please list your endorsements. If they are on your website – please just insert your URL.

2. Please include below an exact copy of your ballot statement as submitted at filing.

this is pretty close:

I am running for Council in the tradition of Simitian, Fazzino and Yeh, who were student leaders here and evolved into public service. I graduated from Gunn( 1982) and Dartmouth College (1986) where I was an English major but also read philosophy, history and government. My campaign expands on five years of serious study of and engagement with local policy and the growing sense that leadership does not represent the interests of the citizens, and instead has been significantly undermined by special interests such as commercial real estate developers. Much of my 2012 platform was incorporated into the new Residentialist movement, the referendum on housing, and is consistent with the findings of the Santa Clara Grand Jury 6/16/14 about 27 University. I feel that my qualifications and values best represent the rank-and-file citizens here, especially those who are the product of PAUSD schools or are long-term residents. I also plan to draw significant support from environmentalists, parks advocates and the 40 percent of citizens who rent. I advise my fellow Palo Altans to lean in NOW on the Comp Plan ratification process. Why flush 120 years of history into the Bay for short term gain or greed? Plato’s Republic | Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

I’m doing two versions of this, the speed-ready version, in case you have a 10:30 or so deadline, and 2) the semi-rushed version, in case you mean midnight Sunday, Aug. 24 as your extended deadline. You also have on file my 2012 responses, that I published on “Plastic Alto” the blog, and maybe 2009. Also, I plan to write a general statement defining my 20-year conversion to Green, coinciding with the formation of Earthwise Productions, the small for-profit socially-conscious business of which I am the CEO.

edit to add:

I doubt Adam Werbach is going to endorse me, but I am curious enough to hit him up and report back.

I wrote about “garbage-to-energy revolution” for Worcester Telegram…in 1985.

enclosed is a photo…there are many others.. good night!

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Oren’s needs tabasco

Posted on August 22, 2014 by markweiss86

IMG_20140822_202436520

Thumbs up for Buzz the app

Thumbs up for Buzz the app

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Ripple effect poster effect

Posted on August 21, 2014 by markweiss86

ripple effect, emanating out of Printers Cafe, I think, July, 2014

ripple effect, emanating out of Printers Cafe, I think, July, 2014

I put up about 20 posters for “Ripple Effect” by SFMT for tonight at 7 at Mitchell Park, “south field” i.e. not in the bowl.

I had an interesting time –as I always do –walking these around to storefronts and offices, mostly near Cali Ave.

There is a play-within-play effect of “ripple effect” in that it is hard to know, by Heisenberg or Chaos Theory, the impact of these posters around town.

I may also meet the group at load-in. Around 2.

There is a Public Arts Commission meeting at 6 I may break away from if I am feeling like either Superman or Shoedinger’s Cat or something.

I am looking forward to the show.

schrodinger’s cat only in that I am in two places at once, not that I am both dead and alive, as far as I can sense.

check that, 3-2 passes gooyer and lew in dissent? will check that…

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Richard Sherman v. 385 Sherman

Posted on August 21, 2014 by markweiss86

wallisParkNearSherman385Ioppose

The quiet enjoyment of humble Palo Alto condo-dwellers, who open their doors to each other each morning and drink tea, is threatened, as is the nearby Sarah Wallis Park, by an over-massive and greedy development at 385 Sherman proposed by Daniel Minkoff and tepidly regulated by ARB including Randy Popp and Clare Malone Prichard, who seem to say “property rights” are protected as people are (Citizens United-style) or that moving in to California Avenue-Ventura 20 years ago is caveat emptor like moving to Weeks Farm in EPA or being a member of the Donner Party 100 years ago.

I prefer Richard Sherman to 385 Sherman.

Richard Sherman actually lived in my building, at Oak Creek — that is, in Palo Alto — part of his senior year at Stanford. I thought he was a good kid. I got immediately his fronting for the tv crew, as distinct from his actual character, and or the animus or anima, the Jungian dark side (we all have, even if we don’t have to chase 49er wideout from Texas up and down the field, in front of a crowd, and the ensuing rush).

No offense or disrespect to Daniel Minkoff, but we don’t detect the soulfulness of Richard Sherman in you.

Maybe we can re-name Sherman in Palo Alto as R. Sherman.

Good luck this season, Richard. Like I said, game like that you deserve a steak not fast food chopped meat patty. (When I met him I calculated phoning over to Harris Steak house a mile or so away and coming back with two steaks and knocking on his door — maybe I can get his endorsement even without the quid pro quo).

edit to add: ARB is, while I write, approving 385 Sherman despite qualms from Birch Court peoples, 5-0, an hour after I write this. I still prefer Richard Sherman to Daniel Minkoff, but I will look forward to updating either here or in my head.Or heart. Richard the Lion I Mean Seahawk Hearted. Minkoff seems a bit…squirrelly? Squirrels with claws certainly, or nails.

and btw my machine wanted to suggest richard shindell as outro but i will refrain hey doc how about a refill or a landfillrich

edit to add, a month later: I saw the Nike commercial, or one of them, about Richard Sherman being the best CB ever; I would bet he is the best CB to have lived in 1788 Oak Creek Drive ever, and I recall him as a nice kid.

Richard Sherman the best ever, to live at 1788 Oak Creek

Richard Sherman the best ever, to live at 1788 Oak Creek

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I forgot the song whiskey baby good luck to wendy

Posted on August 21, 2014 by markweiss86

(My recollection, having played “One More From Or For The Road” a zillion times, while in junior high, which is probably 200 dead rockers ago, is that as an ad lib before this song, one LS guy says “I forgot the song” and another guy says “Whiskey, baby” — I think they are Ronnie Van Zant now in heaven and Billy Powell the keyboard player…I tried to search-injun the words “whiskey baby” and “I forgot the song” but got the null set…good luck to wendy colonna opening for the current Lynyrd Skynyrd in Colorado or Wyoming or Boise or some such, close to the sky situ)

whiskey bottles and blue sky, somewhere your in my head.
too much smoke and too much dope, the smell of it surrounds you, no that is ooh that smell.. and I also like the burt reynolds movie with the synch license to one of these old songs…i am jonesing to check out one of those shows!!! and am flashing to having just met Glenn Bill Max McGee of Dartmouth intramural football lore and now PAUSD chief and my interest in school board: what do they do for p.e.?

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