Around Town Around Town (April 28, 2004)

IF A TREE FALLS . . . It was two centuries in the making, and three days in coming down. A grandfatherly valley oak tree in Palo Alto's Juana Briones Park met its end last week, after city staff determined that the diseased tree was a hazard. The oak, whose branches spread over a picnic area for generations, had been cordoned off months ago for safety reasons. As the public-works crew buzzed the oaks' branches, nearby Barron Park residents were sad -- but resourceful. Several neighbors stopped by and asked to have logs from the oak for firewood, a crew member said. The tree's trunk and larger branches were to be hauled off to the dump.

YOU CAN GO BACK ... Students in Larry Wong's 1997 fourth-grade class will be having a flashback this Sunday. The group of now-Palo Alto High School juniors is going to be publicly revisiting a history project from those crazy halcyon days of youth. Back then, the students studied the history of their neighborhoods. They will be sharing their findings at the Lucie Stern Community Center. The talk, which is the monthly meeting of the Palo Alto Historical Association, begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 2.

OLD PRO, NEW LEASE . . . Reports of the Old Pro's demise -- or at least, departure -- from its old Quonset hut along El Camino Real have been greatly exaggerated. Making that absolutely clear, managers of the 40-year-old sports bar have posted a sign on the building: "We have life! Open till 2006." Although the outfit opened a second branch on Ramona Street last year in anticipation of losing its El Camino lease, the tides have changed. Speaking of which, the downtown joint has jumped on the low-carb bandwagon, touting itself in its window as the "House of Protein" and listing steaks and seafood as its specialties.
LIBRARY IDEAS SOUGHT ... New Palo Alto Library Director Paula Simpson won't be asking anybody to quiet down on Thursday night, April 29. Instead, she will be hosting a meeting about the future of Palo Alto's library system, asking for advice and suggestions. One of the ideas she reportedly floated at a recent Library Advisory Commission meeting was to have the main library relocated downtown. Commission members thought that was theoretically nice, but completely unrealistic. The meeting will not be held at one of Palo Alto's five libraries, as one might expect, but rather at the Palo Alto Art Center auditorium, at 1313 Newell Road. The brainstorming session starts at 7:30 p.m.
KEEPING FUNDS LOCAL ... Last week, a consortium of local California cities reported they had gathered more than a million signatures, hoping to place a measure on the November ballot to keep the state from raiding local tax money. One unnamed Palo Alto man, though, decided to take matters into his own hands last week. He brought his car's $280 tax refund check to City Hall, giving it to the city. He said he understood that California cities like Palo Alto had been promised the money to help them provide needed services, and wanted to do his part to keep them local.

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