Traffic advisory: Halloween festivities close some Old Palo Alto streets

Love how this has grown over the years. Good to see the streets are closed so kids can run freely.

Disappointed that Lynn Brown had to turn Halloween into a political game asking young Trick or Treaters if Donald Trump is Good or Evil before giving them candy.

Wonder what festive idea she has up her sleeve for the kids at Christmas.

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The commercialism that Halloween has become is very disturbing to me.

It used to be that children dressed up in home made cute costumes and went to their own neighbors to get a small amount of candy. It was a way of neighbors getting to know each other and children to understand how to make friends, show manners to grown ups and how to take pride in their own neighborhoods.

Now it is all about expensive costumes and decorations, the most candy, the most famous homes. Their used to be bumper stickers saying "He who dies with the most toys wins". Never has this been so true as at Halloween.

Closing streets to enable this is just getting about as commercial as it can get.

How sad.

The sad part were the pleas on Nextdoor for trick-of-treaters to come to Midtown for candy bars. Vast crowds visit elaborate displays put up by the richest of Old Palo Alto's multi-billionaires and ignore the more modest but heart-felt efforts of those in other neighborhoods.

It is very evident today that there are many neighborhoods very disappointed that they are not cool enough for Palo Alto trick or treaters.

We trick-or-treated at Steve Jobs' house in 2007 and was in his courtyard alone with him; he was nice to my toddler, talking and joking with him about swimming in the smoking cauldron. I asked if he would take a photo with my son and he was polite in declining. Just two years later, the lines at his house began.

Viewing these photos, it appears there are many adults. Since there is security and road blocks, perhaps they should just allow youths/parents in until 8:00, and adults later. Children shouldn't have to wait in long lines and trick-or-treating is for kids.

>> It used to be that children dressed up in home made cute costumes and went to their own neighbors to get a small amount of candy.

Costumes were also non PC...I can think of several designs that I and others have gone as that would be unacceptable in Palo Alto today.

Posted by For the kids, a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis, on Nov 1, 2018 at

>> Love how this has grown over the years. Good to see the streets are closed so kids can run freely.

Kid safety is important to us all. Too bad -every- residential neighborhood wasn't closed off.

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The streets were not closed to the public. They were closed to cars for obvious safety reasons. Just leave your car at home and walk through.

Traffic is terrible Halloween night - the combination of everyone trying to get home early, along with parties and last-minute run for candy makes the roads dangerous. I like the idea of closing roads for trick-or-treat children. People just drive to crazy on Halloween.

From reading related threads and pictures of the Jobs halloween event, this seems to be an event that many out of towners come to and many (many) adults, who I guess are more star struck with trick or treating at Steve Job’s house than the kids.

While it’s very generous that these events are held every year at the homes of the famous, these Halloween activities seem to have outgrown the residential locations and could become unsafe despite closing down streets. People are apparently coming from all over the Peninsula.

Given their success I would suggest holding the festivities at a venue like Cubberley or Mitchell Park where there is parking. It would still be fun but safer.

Little kids don’t care whose house it is, as long as they can dress up and have their parents walk them house to house.

>> Costumes were also non PC...I can think of several designs that I and others have gone as that would be unacceptable in Palo Alto today.

What is a non PC costume? I was in Tennessee last Wednesday evening and witnessed a variety of costumes. Some were scary, others thematic.

In addition to the more traditional skeletons and witches, I also saw children dressed up as Arab sheiks, Mandarin Chinese with pigtails and straw hats, Buckwheat, homeless/tramps, some boys dressed in drag (as girls), a few as Indians (both native and Eastern) and one was wearing a zarape and sombrero. They all looked kind of cute but now I'm wondering, would this kind of costume attire be considered non PC (or does it just depend on the locale)?

QUOTE: ...would this kind of costume attire be considered non PC (or does it just depend on the locale)?

I'm going to run with the specific locale or neighborhood. *LOL*

In Crescent Park, it would be highly entertaining.

> I'm going to run with the specific locale or neighborhood.

OK. So like you shouldn't go trick or treating on a reservation dressed as a Native American Indian, or in the barrio wearing Mexican attire, or in Chinatown dressed as a Mandarin? If so, I imagine going as Buckwheat wouldn't be appropriate in Compton.

But it's still OK in parts of Tennessee and Palo Alto?

QUOTE: But it's still OK in parts of Tennessee and Palo Alto?

*ROTFLMAO* You're killing me!

I haven't the foggiest. Maybe someone else can chime in with a keen insight.

BTW, are you an Ethnic Studies major at Stanford?

> BTW, are you an Ethnic Studies major at Stanford?

Hardly. That's not a very lucrative major. I'm working on an MS in Structural Engineering.

Getting back to the costumes for a moment, people shouldn't get upset over the way others dress up for Halloween. If some kid went as me (average-looking white guy), I wouldn't get bent out of shape.

As long as the costume does not depict hatefulness, you should be able to wear whatever you want. Caricatures are relatively harmless and oftentimes quite humorous.

When in doubt, just ask someone representative of who you will be portraying. Get their feedback and if it's non-offensive to them, no biggie.

Usually it's the PC fanatics who get all upset as they have nothing better to do.

Dear ‘For the kids’ (who ever you are),

Thank you for your feedback around Halloween. Your info is a little off. Halloween themes not withstanding, there is no mention of “evil”. It actually goes like this:

Kids: TRICK OR TREAT
me: Trick!
Kids: Wwwwwwhat?!!
me: You ready? OK. Is Donald Trump a good guy or a bad guy?
Kids: (answers vary)

Kids, most kids, have opinions and it’s interesting to hear their thoughts and ideas. When kids have the opportunity to share it’s worth listening. A number of parents told me their kids liked being asked. One mom came back and said she had to tell me how great her daughter thought it was talking about Trump/environment/deficits/et al.

I’m so sorry it wasn’t to your liking. I hope the chocolate helped?

As for Christmas, since you asked, my idea is sort of a ‘green santa’ thing with recycled stuff. I’ve been saving plastic bottle caps to make garland or something - maybe a big tree if I can figure something.

Regards,
Lynn

@Lynn Brown

For upcoming Christmas parties, some folks are getting POTUS piñatas for the occasion. The item is still very popular in Mexico and at various import shops.

Last year there was a run on them. I imagine one could easily be DIY'd with paper mache. Be creative.

Comments like Feliz Navidad do not help in sympathy for immigration. I was watching a Dia De Los Muertas festival on Spanish tv held in Mexico City yesterday. The city has a very modern skyline depicting a well-off city. It is the biggest city on the North American Continent. So answer your own question as to why such a big, well-off and modern city and country cannot function to the benefit of it's own citizens. So sense of irony here that you want to make every countries internal problems someone elses's fault? If you are looking for a problem then look no further than SF with it's homeless problem and poop on the streets. We can't pay for cleaning up our own messes and have no real plan to do that. One only wonders how Halloween was handled in "the City" for the young trick or treaters.

As to the festivities in PA I went last year and thought it was really a great time and appreciate that those homeowners went to the great trouble to make this "non-political and non-religious" event fun for the children and the adults. So thank you. And no thanks to people who turn this into a political opportunity and PC squash to creativity. How can people who have invested no time and energy turn any and everything into a political stunt?

> I was watching a Dia De Los Muertas festival on Spanish tv held in Mexico City yesterday. The city has a very modern skyline depicting a well-off city. It is the biggest city on the North American Continent. So answer your own question as to why such a big, well-off and modern city and country cannot function to the benefit of it's own citizens.

Mexico City is a very modern international city but there are also many areas of poverty remaining in the country. The extremes are highly visible to anyone who has visited there and has had the opportunity to witness both sides of the economic environment in Mexico.

>> So sense of irony here that you want to make every countries internal problems someone elses's fault?

Ideally, countries should do their best to solve/resolve their own internal economic/political problems. When this is no longer a viable alternative, many of its inhabitants will often migrate to other areas they feel will offer improved opportunities.

This in a nutshell is the history of the various populations in the United States.

So happy that we have PBS and other stations which provide history as to how the US was built and populated. Yes we needed immigrants for factories, mining, building the RR across the country. But now those factories are in Mexico and Canada due to NAFTA. Our economy right now has been gutted of all of the "middle class" economical factors. So we have those areas of poverty right here and are trying to figure out how to correct that issue - and it is putting people to work. We have the same problems as other countries so maybe we should all immigrate to Mexico and see what jobs we can do there. But that won't work because Mexico has very stringent rules regarding US Citizens who want to live there on the cheap. So why is this always a one-way discussion.

> So we have those areas of poverty right here and are trying to figure out how to correct that issue - and it is putting people to work.

Remember when the apparent 'cure all' for this economic dilemma in the United States was 're-training? in terms of certain job skills'

Countless pundits once cited 'high-tech' as the next wave of viable employment options. So what happened? H1-B visas and outsourcing put that concept to rest.

Though cyclical at times, the construction trades seem to be doing very well due to the over development of office buildings, high-rise residences and various other commercial endeavors. All that's required at best is a high school diploma and a willingness to learn/work the required skills.

These so-called employment 'experts' don't know jack.

The reason there are so many H1B visas is because companies e.g. employers cannot find enough suitably educated high tech workers.

There is no point in having all these wonderful liberal arts courses and degrees that don't train the graduates anything useful for a job. If you want a job in high tech then that is what you need to study for. It is high time the schools pointed out that high tech and servicing the high tech industries is where the jobs will be. All the automated cars, checkouts, online shopping centers, etc. don't employ low income or inadequately educated personnel. They are employing the code writers, and the engineers who assemble the high tech tools.

Don't blame the H1B employees or the employers. Instead, blame the lack of home educated people with no employable skills in the field.

> There is no point in having all these wonderful liberal arts courses and degrees that don't train the graduates anything useful for a job.

Concurring. There are way too many liberal arts degrees (especially BAs) floating around. Absolutely useless in and of themselves unless as future preparation for a teaching degree or grad school.

Inflation rages on...not only in terms of decreased monetary values but also in regards to certain degrees. A BA in liberal arts/humanities is worth about the same as a high school diploma nowadays. And a skilled tradesman can easily out earn them.

What's the point of being 'educated' just for the sake of being educated? It certainly doesn't make one a superior person (or more intelligent) than than anybody else.

A liberal arts degree is just an extension of high school and more along the lines of arrested 'grad school' for someone with no further viable aspirations.

So now the liberal arts degree is being attacked? Liberal Arts is an umbrella term that covers a lot of topics - like history, political science and psychology. If you understand history of any specific area and time period then you can put new ideas into context - or listen to stupid political speeches and know they are stupid. Any major company has to have an effective Human Resources department, effective business format, effective global perspective to market a product profitably. Simply learning code is not going to get you there. Isolating a person in math world will create a nerd without any complex system for understanding how their job fits into the bigger program. There are lots of extension courses that can fill in and round out a person. Otherwise you will end up with a coder who can be fed any number of political ideas that have no context in realty.

> There is no point in having all these wonderful liberal arts courses and degrees that don't train the graduates anything useful for a job.

>>Liberal Arts is an umbrella term that covers a lot of topics - like history, political science and psychology. If you understand history of any specific area and time period then you can put new ideas into context...

^^^^ @resident

You seem to be saying two things. Seemingly contradictory.

Where do you really stand on Liberal Arts?

Since I was the one who first mentioned liberal arts degrees, let me qualify my thoughts a little.

Many of the studies included under the umbrella of liberal arts are definitely useful, no argument about that. History, as mentioned, is essential for study and research to prevent repeats of the same mistakes. We also have to judge history by historical standards, not modern standards, and all that has to be done by having knowledge of history.

I am not taking away from study of these subjects. What I am saying is that we have an unbalanced skew towards liberal arts rather than STEM in our universities which means that when it comes time for these graduates to look for useful employment using these skills, they are few and far between. We do need these things studied, but we are probably producing too many grads in things where there is no useful employment future for the majority of those graduating.

Instead, we really have to get more American and in particular California or bring it local enough to say Silicon Valley high school students, interested in STEM. We hear all the time of programs to encourage girls in STEM, but we need more students of every demographic to be interested in STEM careers. We need the encouragement from middle school onwards.

Other countries are doing a much job of producing highly qualified STEM graduates and these are the ones who are coming here on H1B visas, and employers are giving them jobs because they can't find enough American educated ones.

Don't just take what I am saying about it. Ask any recruiter in any of the big companies and particularly those in the not so big ones.

How about this...

Major in STEM. Minor in the humanities/liberal arts. Done deal.

Reduce scholarships/grants for the humanities/liberal arts and increase them for STEM...at least STEM graduates will have a better chance of landing a real job with just a BS degree. We don't need any more college educated BA baristas.

That should do the trick.

These companies are not bringing in the H1b people because they are smarter. They are bringing them in because the do not actually work for the company - they work for an intermediary supplier who then outsources them to the company. That results in no payroll taxes for SSN, SDI, etc. If they hire a US citizen person directly then they have to pony up matching SSN up to the specified dollar amount - get involved in SDI payments. Possible 401K contributions.That translates into a bigger payroll department that will get audited by the government for compliance to US IRS tax rules. Quit buying the hype for H1B - you all have paid to get your children through college and they all have been on computers as soon as they could walk. Every child out there has to come to your families house to help you when your computer goes south. Note there are more than 1 "resident" on this thread so don't misread comments. So people don't buy the hype that they are smarter - if you have worked in Human Resources and Payroll Accounting then you know the drill on compliance with IRS and government compliant taxes and you know the drill on Equal Employment Compliance. Seems that our favorite tech companies are having big problems in those areas because they avoid it as an excess business expense. Note that SU is a non-profit for tax purposes and they also avoid these topics due to their tax category. Anything you hear from SU on taxes has to applicability to a for-profit company on the stock exchange.

Palo Alto wants to fashion itself as a location for start ups. Start-ups do not move up to be a company that is responsible for payroll taxes or compliance with any US government employment requirements. Meanwhile the D party keeps promising all type of "benefits" to who ever gets in the border door. Where does the money come from for those benefits? From payroll taxes that are matched by the employer. Those payroll taxes come from people's paychecks. The nerds out there do not make the connection and connect the dots. The system is set up for payroll taxes being applied to SSN, medicare, SDI, etc. If you are not paying into the system then you do not get anything. If the whole economy is set up to farm jobs out to other countries then there is no payroll taxes coming in to pay for it all.
Welcome to NERD world. So you can code and create another APP. WE have more APPs then we need, as well as WAYMO Cars littering the roadways.

How did this thread go from street closures to start-ups and college majors???

I think it started with the Feliz Navidad entry switching the topic to immigration and other people asking children's opinions on candidates. And what type of costumes the children were wearing - PC correct? So a bunch of adults, me included - used a children's fun day to post their political opinions. The whole year has been this way. But judging from other cities worrying about PC correct costumes says it is a national problem. Then someone goes off on H1b visas - a sore point for me. Another sore point - NERDS trying to run the show - hoping some one will buy their APP they cooked up in their college dorm for a billion dollars.

> Another sore point - NERDS trying to run the show - hoping some one will buy their APP they cooked up in their college dorm for a billion dollars.

Last time I checked...isn't this the new American Dream? IPOs are a close second.

I have no problem with new companies starting up. I have a problem with any one city making start-ups their stated goal. A start-up is not contributing to the cities tax base. A city cannot keep pushing out larger companies that are contributing through their tax base to the city, county, and state. And H1b "employees" are important to these companies because they work for an intermediary and do not require a payroll department to comply with IRS payroll tax requirements. That is both state and federal requirements. Many "google" people are not employees - they are in the "consultant" category and are paid a flat rate. The whole base of the "benefits" of SSN, medicare, state disability, etc. was based on large companies with tax compliant payroll systems. The Silicon Valley business model has holes in it.