Talk:Palo Alto, California

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[edit] Two caltrain stops or three?

This article says "Caltrain has two stops in Palo Alto", but Caltrain (and the Caltrain timetable) list a "Stanford - event service only" stop between University and California. I can't quite figure out where it does stop - is there a stop where the train crosses Embarcadero (which would be relatively handy for the football)? Or does this entry in the timetable really just mean a stop at University Ave? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 02:13, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I believe that it stops right before Churchill Ave., next to the PA High School track. Since this is only for standord events, I didn't list it. You're welcome to work it in. --ChrisRuvolo 23:28, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Hmm, I've never noticed it (must look next time I'm in town). I've added it, and clarified bus service a bit. Thanks for the info. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:43, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Yeah, it is hard to see. It isn't really a train stop so much as a strip of asphalt beside the track, kind of like the old Rengstorff Ave stop in Mountain View. --ChrisRuvolo 00:32, 25 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Ok, I was mistaken. Official Caltrain literature says "Embarcadero Rd. & Alma St." It IS just a strip of pavement (I saw it this weekend), but I was remembering it in the wrong place. Correcting article. --ChrisRuvolo 01:07, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Hrmm... there is a California Ave. station and a University Ave. station.

--the MOLIU gecko 00:53, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if caltrain ever stops there anymore, but the stanford stop was just north of embarcadero; i did get on the train there once (when FIFA world cup was at stanford stadium)
The Stanford stop is used only when there are games starting or recently finished at Stanford's stadium, courts, or fields. If you're headed to such a game, or coming back, it's easy to catch the train there, but otherwise you might never know about the stops -- they don't note them on http://www.caltrain.org/ as far as I can tell. --James S. 01:07, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] North vs. South snobbery?

Well, as a resident of South I'm a bit surprised at the emphasis on North vs. South in this article. Who cares? I'm sure the guy who bought the $2.5 million dollar house around the corner from me would be surprised to learn that all of the nice expensive houses are in the north part of the city. More to the point, Is this the second most important thing to discuss in an article on Palo Alto?

I agree. I removed a little of this while rephrasing the paragraph. It isn't just S. Palo Alto which has rather "average middle class" style housing stock. Downtown, W. of Middlefield is predominantly that too. I agree that the intro could still use much improvement. Sfba 00:16, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
Small articles like this, which have been worked on seriously by only a few people, tend to be rather unbalanced. I do think the article should mention the urban form of the city (mature city articles often do), but indeed it's not the most important thing about PA. I don't really think it's snobbery (I'm a former south-central PA resident myself), but PA does have a reputation of being only mansions, when really that's largely not the case (and the fact is, I think, significant enough to merit a mention). The article certainly needs more stuff added about the city and its form. We need, I figure:
  • a sentence or two about university ave and the central biz district (wasn't the apple store the first one?)

(absolutely PA apple store was not the first)

(didn't webTV start in that crappy building on Alma beside the watertower opposite the caltrain station?)

(that was their second place at best. Lytton near Waverly was earlier.)

  • it really needs a map (which, legally, someone needs to draw)
  • PA goes to the bayshore (I think) south of EPA, so some discussion of that would be good
  • unless I'm very much mistaken, the Sun office on San Antonio is no longer Sun (could someone check?)
  • someone added highschools, but other schools (and the DeAnza campus on middlefield) could be discussed briefly too
  • it's Foothill's middlefield campus... not DeAnza's -the MOLIU gecko 01:08, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
So yes, the article is unbalanced. We'd really appreciate your help in adding more stuff to balance and enrich the article. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:52, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I live in the South and thouhgt the article's descriptions pretty accurate. I agree it is perhaps an odd thing to feature, but serves the article as a way to characterize geography and real estate. --

Rather than focus on the rather old fashioned North vs. South demarcation, the article misses the point that Palo Alto is a very diverse city with a mix of neighborhoods that make it a very interesting place to live and visit.

The main problem with the North-South split is that it just isn't very accurate. Yes, there are some "elegant homes" north of Oregon, but there are lot more "nice suburban homes" (including a fair number of Eichlers) on plots that most American suburbanites would consider tiny. Furthermore, there are some *very* nice houses south of Oregon. It's hard to know how to fix the article -- maybe by just removing the whole North-South structure? Little Miss Might Be Wrong 22:57, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Palo Alto Schools

I've seen Gunn High school ranked a couple times well within the top 1 % of high schools nationally, so maybe the "at least by California standards" caveat about school quality could be misleading, since California is near the bottom by many educational metrics.

  • Where do you see the statement "at least by California standards?" I don't see it anywhere. If you're talking about the statement on the high school page, it simply lists the high school's rank in the state and the nation. No caveat. Wodan 01:49, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)

I've seen Pinewood School listed here even though it's in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. Would someone please explain why it belongs in the PA article when "most of the students are from Los Altos Hills/Los Altos area"?Bayberrylane 22:18, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

"Juana Briones Elementary has a student/teacher ratio of 14.4 [1]." Despite that, Juana Briones consistently receives (among) the lowest STAR (standardized testing) scores in the district. the MOLIU gecko 01:24, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vagrants / Bums / Homeless

Palo Alto is unsual in the large number of vagrants, bums, and homeless people who congregate on University Avenue. Typically, "affluent" communites don't have these problems. They're there mostly because the Stanford crowd pays them to be there. Perhaps there should be some mention of this troubling phenomonon? - - Author Unknown

The REAL Palo Alto by Andrew L. Freedman / 650 493-5000, ext. 60001

---Andrew L. Freedman here - I do not agree with the Vagrants, bums and homeless statement above. I've lived here my entire 49 years. Palo Alto, like many successfull cities, has a perportionate number of homeless people. I'm a renter, however, my mom owns a house in Palo Alto. If my mom were not here, I would be a paycheck away from being homeless. I'm single and a renter and acknowledge that rents are EXTREMELY high here (typically, about $2000 for a 1-bedroom apartment). Some of the haves here in Palo Alto, possibly the writer of the above, do not want to see these folks in our downtown shopping area. However, most of the haves and people like me, understand that there are reasons for homelessness (addictions, mental health, unemployed, no family resourses) and we do what we can to help them when we can. We are the ones who will help them, as opposed to what the writer above refers to as the Stanford croud paying them. At $38,000 tuition per year, the "Stanford Crowd" aren't the most charitible for good reason.

Palo Alto has sometimes been referred to as a victim of its own success. Palo Alto has a huge jobs / housing imballance. Palo Alto has some of US's top companies, (i.e., HP, Lockheed, XROX, etc.), law firms, and many other busnesses, however, we have more jobs than housing.

In any event, if anyone wants to know more about Palo Alto, call me at the above number.

What a load of crap. $2000 for a 1BR? You're not looking hard enough. Those are Manhattan prices. There are deals to be had, and they don't involve living on El Camino or bordering 101. I've *never* seen a homeless problem in a suburban area like Palo Alto before. Palo Alto has an attrocious homeless problem for a community of its size and it bears mention because it is so unusual. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 22:58, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Andrew Freedman here again - $2000 is the average, but I looked hard enough and I live in a very small place for under $700. But I have no kitchen. That's okay with me; I just buy prepared food at places like Whole Foods.

I don't know the demogrphics of Palo Alto's homelessness, but I would suspect, as in the case of many homeless folks, that it's a matter of choice. That is, one would rather do drugs and alcahol in excess than to do the things that would buy them a place to live. I'm not at all saying that there are others who, by way of illness, including mental health, lost job and other non-drug-related reason, are un-housed.

Many years ago, I lived right where that old picture of Palo Alto is (at the main Palo Alto page of this Wikipedia). My girlfriend was a bartendress at one of Palo Alto's last hole-in-the-wall bars (located in the same area of the picture). I got to know all the homeless folks, including some holdouts of the Marry Pranksters from Tom Wolf's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Trip. They all took drugs and drank, but they adapted well and weren't simply bumming or breaking the law. Kind of like the folks in John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. - Andy

[edit] PAUSD school board info moved from article

It seemed a but too detailed:

The PAUSD school board members are Mandy Lowell, Gail Price, Camille Townsend, Barb Mitchell and Dana Tom. Mitchell and Tom are the newest school board trustees; they were elected to the board Nov. 2005. The PAUSD Board of Education meets at 7 p.m. the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month. The board meetings are open to the public and cablecast live on Cable Services Channel 28 in Palo Alto.

-- Egil 07:16, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Replacing; this is good information, of the nation's exemplar district. --James S. 01:58, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Exemplar? Plenty of better districts around:

District name FTE student/teacher ratio
WOODSIDE ELEMENTARY 12.3
PORTOLA VALLEY ELEMENTARY 14.1
LA HONDA-PESCADERO UNIFIED 14.6
HILLSBOROUGH CITY ELEMENTARY 15.6
LAS LOMITAS ELEMENTARY 16.0
MENLO PARK CITY ELEMENTARY 16.6
REDWOOD CITY ELEMENTARY 17.5
PALO ALTO UNIFIED 17.6

--171.66.111.77 01:45, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Environmental Features - Radiohead

this item under environmental features does not seem noteworthy nor does it belong where placed. further there is no source...it seems like this item shoul be removed, sincerely Anlace 15:07, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree. Bayberrylane 22:21, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] People

Why is Woz listed as a PA resident? Pretty sure he lives up in the hills in Los Altos..

[edit] Too much detail

Do we really need all that fire department radio frequency detail in a general article about Palo Alto?

The large amount of un-wikified content seems to suggest that maybe this is copied material. I'll try to see if it's infringing anything (by googling?) Can someone verify? Nimur 15:19, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dead link

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

maru (talk) contribs 06:33, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dead link

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

maru (talk) contribs 05:20, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name of the town

Palo does in one context mean "pole", but here it means tree. It is a common enough term in Spanish (also means "mast" on a ship, and has a few other meanings). Cf. Palos Verdes, CA, and the famed Puerto Rican rum Palo Viejo, whose logo is a Norfolk pine. My Spanish is at a level of mastery (I edit in it, translate it, etc.). So, I've added that context. Andarin 16:23, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] No parking meters? Really??

I could have sworn that there are parking meters along University. Can anyone confirm/deny? (Little Miss Might Be Wrong 23:48, 1 November 2006 (UTC))

Yes, I can confirm. I've walked, driven, or parked on University almost every day for the past 30 years. I live 3 blocks away. There are no, repeat no, parking meters.

[edit] Housing prices - Need source

The article states about housing prices: "with the median being in the $1.05 million area".

This is laughable for anyone who has shopped for a home in Palo Alto (I have been for the past year and a half). $1.05 Million gets you a literal tear-down. $1.25M gets you a 1300 or so sq ft post-war cottage on a 5000 sq ft. lot in South Palo Alto. This is an entry level home. You may be able to find an apartment/condo conversion for $1.05.

Any median price quote should be sourced.

OK, I added a cite. Note that the #'s you quote are for single family homes -- Palo Alto has many condos which go for less than a $million. Sfba 00:16, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] College Terrace

There is a wiki page for College Terrace as well -- College_Terrace_(Palo_Alto). A link to this page ought to be worked into this article. Josh Thompson 07:31, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

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