Streets in Old Palo Alto are impacted Thursday morning due to a visit by President Barack Obama to a private fundraising event on Seale Avenue.
Seale between Alma Street and Middlefield Road, and Emerson Street between Tennyson Avenue and Oregon Expressway are impacted by parking restrictions and closures to accommodate the presidential motorcade.
Expect temporary road closures between 10 and noon for Obama’s visit, according to the Palo Alto Police Department. Officers will be directing traffic as needed, according to a tweet from the police department’s Twitter account.
Obama is attending a $33,000-per-person fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at the home of Amy Rao, CEO of Integrated Archive Systems, according to Democratic party sources.
Later in the day, Obama will attend a public fundraiser in Atherton at the home of former state Controller Steve Westly and Anita Yu, after which he flies to Los Angeles to tape an appearance on the “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and attend DNC events.
Air Force One touched down at 7:09 p.m. Wednesday at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View.
The president was greeted by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, Mountain View Mayor Pat Showalter, Maj. Gen. Nick Tooliatos in charge of the 63rd regional support command of the U.S. Army and Col. Greg Jones, commander of the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard.
Obama’s last visit to the Bay Area was in October when he attended a fundraising concert at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco featuring rapper Kanye West.
By Palo Alto Weekly staff/Bay City News Service
By Palo Alto Weekly staff/Bay City News Service
By Palo Alto Weekly staff/Bay City News Service
The fundraiser in chief!
Who pays for all these junkets?? They are political personal junkets and very costly. Air Force One, limos , a separate plane for press, limos, etc. secret service, hotels, and “golf fees?” Do the PA Police Department bill his ‘campaign”.
This is very inconvenient – not knowing where or when he’ll pop up. Frankly, residents in the Bay Area are getting annoyed.
Is there any reason why he can’t use a helicopter to get around the Bay Area when he is here? It is always very frustrating when streets suddenly get blocked by police because he wants to get to his next venue. I understand there is some secrecy involved for safety reasons, but it is very inconvenient for us when we can’t get where we need to go.
The ordinary people have lives too!
And who’s going to remove all those Do Not Park signs so sloppily taped to every vertical surface in the area?
Well I’ll be… As soon as I type that, the signs come down. Which tech company equipped the city with mind reading devices?
“Who pays for all these junkets??”
The same people who pay for all the Wall Street donations: you and I eventually.
That’s why we need to overturn the Citizens United (misnomer) decision.
This is Obama’s first trip to the Bay Area in 4 months.
Obama’s public fundraiser in Atherton has been publicly known for quite a while,
The event on Seale Avenue is private.
David Brook’s said he is already missing Obama after being over-exposed to this year’s crop of crude candidates.
Last time Obama held a big fundraiser in Atherton, the town could not collect for expenses of security, street closures, etc. There was a cost of $8000+ to the residents. Neither DNC nor Host of event would cough up the money. We now have a requirement that all expenses be paid for by the host or organization being benefited. Maybe Palo Alto needs a new ordinance?
At least we got traffic warnings about this.
Yesterday I got stuck in the big construction mess on San Antonio near Safeway about which there was no advance warning or even signs at El Camino advising people to take an alternate route.
Quit complaining and just pay up. He’s our president for pete’s sake. Jeez
President’s visit was totally uncalled for. My father and I sat on a side street off of page mill road for a god damned 45 minutes. No notice no nothing about what time and where road closures were to happen until after the fact. The rest of us have lives too besides sitting in traffic waiting for potus to go by. Hello secret service have you guys heard of something called a helicopter. That would have saved us hard working minions time and money instead we just sat in a parking lot spinning are wheels. Future presidents go home or visit some other state but leave us the fk alone.
Just to read these comments shows us to be a peevish lot in Old Palo Alto and near by neighborhoods!
OMG! Whether you complainers like it or not Obama is still the 44th President of the United States! Just like the Bushes, Reagan, Clinton, etc…Get over it and if you want to be notified the day before look at the news ticker or better yet read the Daily News or Google: Palo Alto City Hall for what’s going on today. Always complaining go walk your pets, take up a hobby, educated your mind but allow The President of today to get the same perks as the rest of our Presidents received.
Boy, everyone has such high expectations and low thresholds.
Be thankful for everything you have. Lots of people would give their eye teeth to be living in Palo Alto.
I, for one, love it when dignitaries, celebrities, and special events come to Palo Alto, and I am more than willing to put up with a little inconvenience for the added excitement that these visitors and events bring to our boring city.
Now is the time to present the details of Mr. Whitney Dafoe’s condition to the President of the U S, while he is “just in the neighborhood”.
This condition of Myalgic Encepholomyelitis is so serious that it shouldn’t be attended by his aides. He needs to know himself. And then he should do whatever it takes to help.
The “zika virus” sure got some immediate money! ME needs that kind of help.
@ marie. Seriously? A helicopter landing in a Palo Alto neighborhood? Exactly how?
Next you’re going to tell us he should have used a JetPack.
Obama’s motorcade was frightening. Sharp shooters had their guns drawn and were aiming directly at us, as we stood in front of our houses. When President Clinton visited our neighborhood 20 years ago, he got out of his car and came over to shake our hands and greet us. This event today was not appropriate for children to view. Very scary.
Even a black POTUS doesn’t have white privilege, Resident. You know what is inappropriate for all of us who are peaceful, rational citizens? The number of threats this POTUS has received and the racist, hateful, alarming rhetoric coming from a top Republican candidate for POTUS.
This could be a teachable moment for kids, depending in their age.
It’s amazing to live in a community that is near so much greatness. Stanford, the Super Bowl, the 44th President, NCAA championships, top rated public and private schools. And, with that greatness comes some inconvenience, crowding, traffic, etc… For goodness sakes, even DJ Khaled caused a traffic problem last week. See http://patch.com/california/mountainview/heads-entertainer-dj-khaled-enroute-palo-alto-square. Let’s be honored that the President joined us.
No Marie, the President’s visit was called for evidently, because he was invited to come.
I’ll never forget Charles de Gaulle’s motorcade up Cowper Street.
“Who pays for all these junkets?? They are political personal junkets and very costly. Air Force One, limos , a separate plane for press, limos, etc. secret service, hotels, and ‘golf fees’?”
Why, the American taxpayer, of course.
“The President was in Palo Alto “to rake in money for fellow Democrats”. http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_29502601/obama-lands-mountain-view-rake-cash-democrats?source=pkg
That’s right, taxpayers like you and me pick up the tab when the Prez comes to town to kiss Silicon Valley a**, not for legitimate national business but for the avowed purpose of partisan fundraising.
Really, resident? Sharpshooters were aiming their guns at you? Care to embellish the story a little more?
And of course, Obama is the first president to do this kind of fundraising. Republican presidents like bush, bush and Reagan never did it.
But I guess this gives palo,alto something new to complain about. How come they didn’t complain about the noise form Air Force one???
Im trying to have empathic feelings for you residents of Palo Alto…However, I’ve lived in Menlo Park my entire life. While the evolved community we live in is no longer the quietest neighborhood in the bay area, we have to come to terms with change, and of course, results of the success our geographic area has amounted. It reminds me of going to the Rose Bowl and during a very exciting play in the game, two men of at least 70 years old starting throwing popcorn at my father and me for enthusiastically cheering on the team. This is the same exact thing, you people are no better than anybody else, but you continue to want it exactly your way with no exceptions. well, you may be lucky enough to hide in palo alto for the remainder of your lives, but you will never truly be able to say you lived a full life.
Be proud of your area’s accomplishments and popularity, take it as a token of importance. But don’t run to a computer screen to impulsively voice your irate emotions, because thats what middle schoolers do, and you probably don’t look very much like a middle schooler.
“That’s right, taxpayers like you and me pick up the tab when the Prez comes to town to kiss Silicon Valley a**, not for legitimate national business but for the avowed purpose of partisan fundraising.”
Bush 43 was on the road 30% of his time in office. Guess who financed those long vacations. Hint: it wasn’t the tooth fairy.
Fundraising to get Democrats elected IS legitimate national business. They clean up the messes left by their Republican predecessors.
Wow. You people are embarrassing. What a bunch of privileged A-holes. We were so excited he was coming and we got to see his whole motorcade. It was thrilling to say the least! I think the host of the event pays the overhead and who cares anyway??? I feel like it’s a lose-lose with all of you whiners.
You are a bunch of bitter party poopers