Around Town Around Town (December 14, 2005)

IT'S A WRAPP . . . Where in the world did World Wrapps go? The popular lunchtime restaurant at 201 University Ave. is no more. Long white paper wraps the windows to prevent anyone from looking in and a stripped World Wrapps sign remains out front. Meanwhile, the Web site still lists Palo Alto as one of its locations. "It was a corporate decision. We're closed for good. Costs were too high," said a spokesman in the Seattle-based corporate office.

A COMPLETE COLLECTION. . . It may please only the most devoted local politicos, but the City of Palo Alto's collection of mayoral photos is now complete. A collection of photographs of all Palo Alto's mayors hang in the Council Chambers of City Hall. But one photograph -- of the first mayor, John C. Spencer -- has long been conspicuously absent. Credit Deborah Hudson, who's been writing about the recently completed renovation of the Hewlett-Packard garage for HP's corporate Web site, with finding the photo. Spencer, it should be noted, owned the HP garage and, after he died, his widow rented Bill Hewlett and David Packard the home on Addison Avenue where they both lived and worked while founding the company. At last week's City Council meeting, HP officials presented Spencer's photo to the city and Hudson recalled how she searched far and wide for it. She finally found it in a copy of a book about renowned men of California at the turn of the last century. "Eureka!" she remembered thinking.

GOT GAS? . . . "The fence is down. The fence is down." Those were the words that quickly spread through numerous coffee shops of the Midtown Shopping Center one morning late last week. For those not familiar with Midtown-speak, "the fence is down" refers to the former Arco gas station at 2995 Middlefield Road. A chain-link fence and overgrown foliage had become eyesores after the gas station suddenly closed down on Feb. 28, 2004. Just as suddenly, the fence was removed last week. There was hopeful speculation that the former owner, Dee Ortiz, would be back to run it -- but he denied the rumor. "No, it's not me," Ortiz said. "I'm retired." City planners acknowledge that British Petroleum (which bought Arco in 1999) recently submitted new plans for the Middlefield site, but were unable to comment further.

WASTING WATER . . . The City of Palo Alto is not following its own rules for water conservation in its parks, according to a new report from City Auditor Sharon Erickson. The heart of the report about parks focused on how the city could save money by contracting out maintenance. But one of Erickson's 22 recommendations was to have the city follow rules it forces on private projects for water irrigation systems. In 1992, the city adopted water-efficiency standards that called for new irrigation systems to met certain water-conservation needs. But in the last 10 years, the city has installed or renovated 13 such systems and did not comply with those requirements, Erickson found. The city's Parks Division's water costs, Erickson noted, have been increasing dramatically the last few years, from $134,542 in 1997-1998 to $348,740 in 2004-2005.

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