Around Town Around Town (January 28, 2004)

OFFICIAL SECRETS ... Thought you knew the real scoop on Palo Alto's top city officials? Think again. At last Saturday morning's City Council retreat, Assistant City Manager Emily Harrison broke the ice by revealing "secrets" about each council member and department head . After those in attendance got three guesses, the real identities were revealed. What we learned: City Manager Frank Benest once "seriously considered" divinity school. (So if some of his weeks in Palo Alto resemble Purgatory .... ) Mild-mannered Administrative Services Director Carl Yeats was asked to be the bass guitarist for Van Halen. Community Services Director Richard James spent a night of his youth in a Mexican jail for gambling, even though all he was doing was playing 7-Up. Police Chief Lynne Johnson wanted to be a doctor when she was growing up. And Fire Chief Ruben Grijalva once cross-dressed, while Councilman Jim Burch played with dolls in preschool. After all the secrets were spilled, one official asked: "Are these going to appear in the Palo Alto Weekly?" What did you think the answer was going to be?

WHAT'S IN A NAME? ... Now's the time to put your creative genius to the test -- the Palo Alto Historical Association is looking for name suggestions for the South of Forest Avenue Park in the downtown Palo Alto area. The park is on the former Palo Alto Medical Foundation site. The City Council will consider name suggestions, but they must be entered by 5 p.m. on Jan. 29. Name suggestions should be geographically or historically significant to Palo Alto or the area where the park sits. Suggestions should be mailed or brought to the city clerk's office at City Hall, or e-mailed to city.clerk@cityofpaloalto.org.

PALO ALTO IDOL ... If you watched Fox's "American Idol" on Tuesday night you may have caught a glimpse of Palo Alto High School's own Genevieve Yang . Yang, a senior, was expected to catch some air time as part of the show's San Francisco audition process. The show has been cycling through cities across the country in efforts to gather a group of American pop idol hopefuls. Tuesday's show featured footage from auditions in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

CHEW ON THIS ... The Palo Alto Youth Council and Lucille Packard Children's Hospital are planning a forum on food and nutrition, entitled "What's In Your Mouth?" The two-hour discussion will examine healthy eating habits, eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, and other complexities of digestion. There will also be mini-workshops on topics like pilates, healthy cooking, personal training. Last year, more than 200 students attended the event. The forum will be held Feb. 3 at 6:30 p.m. inside the school district's office, at 25 Churchill Ave.

STANDING UP FOR PEACE ... Did you hear the one about the Jewish and Palestinian-American comedians doing a show together at Stanford? It's no joke. Scott Blakeman and Dean Obeidalleh will perform together at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Stanford Coffeehouse. "We hope that our comedy can bridge the gaps between Arabs and Jews and foster understanding," said the New York-based Obeidallah. The performance is being co-sponsored by several student groups.

SAFE ROUTES ... The city and school district are being asked this Tuesday -- the anniversary of the Jan. 28 death of 6-year-old Amy Malzbender -- to create a special task force to explore how to make "significant and sustainable shifts" in how Palo Alto students get to school. Translate: Walking or biking is cool, but the routes need to be safe. The PTA Traffic Safety Committee asked the school board Tuesday night to join with the city and all 17 schools and their PTAs to establish a Safe Routes to School Community Task Force. It is being presented today to the monthly meeting of PTA presidents, and is set to go to the City Council Feb. 2, according to Kathy Durham , chair of the PTA Traffic Safety Committee. Durham emphasized the task force concept is based on a federal program of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the Department of Transportation, and reflects requests for safer routes in a petition signed by 148 persons who participated in a March 2, 2003, memorial ride for Malzbender.

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