Talk about the Palo Alto “process.” Fifty years after the frist proposal, regional authorities and municipalities have agreed on a downstream flood control project that should help upstream flooding issues that have plagued Palo Alto,Menlo Park and East Palo Alto residents for over a century. The plan, first proposed 50 years ago by Palo Alto’s City Manager, calls for an $8 million widening of the channel east of Highway 101 and the lowering of a levee near the Faber Tract baylands property. In short, the changes would allow excess water to spill onto marshaland north of Palo Alto and onto the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course. Palo Alto Online : SF Creek anti-flood plans move forward — at last.
Monthly Archives: July 2009
Garland Elementary School Reopening on Hold?
The PAUSD school board is finally figuring out that the demographic flood is over. After years of over-enrollment issues in the K-5 schools, the District is “surprised” that enrollment levels have leveled off. A simple check of demographics showing that the end of the Baby Boom generation is now in their late forties, should ring a bell somewhere that they may be done producing five and six year olds. It will be interesting to watch how local school districts deal with coming under-enrollment issues. Will they make the mistakes of the past and sell off school facilities and land only to be back in the same spot when the Echo-Boom starts reproducing? Let’s hope not. Palo Alto Online : Slowdown on Garland school re-opening?.
Hey Larry! Wanna Buy My House?
Palo Alto and Mountain View residents may be offering to sell their houses to the Santa Clara County Assessor’s Office after Chief Assessor Larry Stone and his deputies raised assessed values in those cities for the 2009 tax year. To give Mr. Stone and his office a break, assessments are based on the value of the property as of January 1, 2009. The healthier markets in the Silicon Valley and Peninsula were late to the bubble pop with pretty much no market in the 4th quarter of 2008 and lower sales posted in early 2009. In short, the County lucked out on the timing, but barring a miraculous real estate recovery, homeowners with high assessed values should see some relief in 2010. Story at Palo Alto Online : Santa Clara County property values stay flat.