CITY COUNCIL: Palo Alto wants visitors to feel safer

City Council seeks more lighting in parking lots, Johnson Park and installation of emergency call boxes

by Elisabeth Traugott

Partly in response to the beating death of Bert Kay in downtown Palo Alto in June, the Palo Alto City Council took steps last week to make residents and visitors feel safer downtown. The council last week unanimously approved preliminary plans to increase lighting in downtown parking lots and Johnson Park and to install emergency call boxes and pay phones. Funding for those projects will be included in next year's budget.

The City Council had asked staff to study lighting after Herbert "Bert" Kay was murdered while walking alone on Gilman Street after dark on June 12. But in the early paragraphs of their report, staff warned against correlating the study directly with the incident.

"(The murder) was a random act that could have occurred at any location, in any city, at any time, or under any lighting condition," the report states. "The brutal reality is that the only certain way this violent crime could have been prevented from occurring was if a police officer had been on that street at the time of the attack."

Despite the cautious introduction, the report goes on to outline certain areas that could be improved to bolster the "perception" of safety downtown. These include a $156,000 upgrade of lighting in downtown city parking lots, $21,000 in upgrades to the lighting in Johnson Park and installation of emergency notification units or "blue phones" in Johnson, El Camino and Cogswell parks at a cost of $54,000. A study of lighting needs in other city parks and facilities would cost an additional $15,000.

Council member Gary Fazzino took issue with the police emphasis on "perception." If improving lighting was not a tangible factor in decreasing crime "why are we spending all this money?" he asked.

Police Chief Chris Durkin said "perception is a major part of it" when it comes to making residents feel safe. "We could put a police car downtown with no one in it and it would change the perception," Durkin said.

Even so, Durkin added, lighting up the dark corners of downtown can't guarantee all crimes will be prevented. He cited the example of the Peninsula serial rapist, who had no need for the cover of night--he attacked his victims in broad daylight.

And while there was agreement that something needed to be done to illuminate the downtown area, City Manager June Fleming warned the council against being overambitious as some members tried to tack on studies of areas outside of downtown.

Council member Micki Schneider withdrew her amendment to include a study of the few blocks east of Middlefield Road and north of University Avenue she calls West Crescent Park after some of her colleagues challenged the fairness of studying one area of town over another. Schneider, in withdrawing her amendment before it was voted on, said she had met with the neighbors there who had expressed concern that their streets were particularly dark and vulnerable.

Council member Lanie Wheeler voiced concern that some neighbors near where the new lights are proposed may take a different view: They may see the brightness--particularly in the parks--as more of an annoyance than a reassurance.

"We need desperately to talk with and get the agreement of those neighbors," Wheeler said. "We need to go ahead with that balance and that sensitivity."

She echoed the concerns of Dan Lorimer, president of the Downtown North Neighborhood Association. Lorimer said as a neighbor of Johnson Park, "from the aesthetic standpoint . . . I would encourage you not to do this."

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