Around Town | March 17, 2023 | Palo Alto Weekly | Palo Alto Online |

Palo Alto Weekly

News - March 17, 2023

Around Town

PLENTY TO CELEBRATE ... A new Chinese restaurant in downtown Palo Alto, HE&C Tea+Pot, marked its opening with a launch party on International Women's Day. Female leaders from around Palo Alto attended the March 8 event, including Mayor Lydia Kou and former Palo Alto mayors Liz Kniss and Nancy Shepherd, as well as Saratoga Vice Mayor Yan Zhao. Sarah Burgess, president of Neighbors Abroad, a nonprofit that facilitates Palo Alto's sister-city relationships, was also present. Kniss, now president of the local League of Women Voters, said around 30 people attended the event. The event also celebrated five years since Palo Alto and Yangpu, a district in Shanghai, became sister cities. Kniss traveled to Shanghai in 2018 during her third term as mayor, when Palo Alto was establishing its sister-city relationship with Yangpu. She said she's enthusiastic about Palo Alto's numerous sister cities around the world. "It's a terrific way to get to know another culture, another language, another whole set of mores from a different part of the world," she said. "The event was a wonderful way to honor the community and culture of China through food," Burgess said. "It was great to be able to join so many civic leaders and others to welcome this restaurant to the Palo Alto community."

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Comments

Posted by felix
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 17, 2023 at 1:27 pm

felix is a registered user.

Would have been nice had Palo Alto Mayor Lydia Kou been interviewed/acknowledged for the item about opening of HE&C Tea+Pot on International Woman’s Day given her role in our City.
[Portion removed.]


Posted by Michele Dauber
a resident of Barron Park
on Mar 17, 2023 at 5:40 pm

Michele Dauber is a registered user.

Regarding the short documentary discussing the Persky Recall, it is told entirely from the perspective of the recall opponents, and merely rehashes their arguments made at the time -- arguments that were rightly rejected by 62% of Santa Clara County voters.

The 2018 election out was about the treatment of victims of gender-based violence in Aaron Persky's courtroom. In accordance with the California Constitution, voters in Santa Clara County were the decision-makers. They reviewed his record and overwhelmingly decided that Persky should not continue as a judge, because of his poor record in the case of Brock Turner and others. They were right.

As for any supposed negative consequences of the recall, there is no credible evidence that the recall election produced longer sentences. That's because, contrary to the arguments of recall critics, most judges are trying to follow the law and act with integrity rather than following election results. On the other hand, the recall had the positive consequence of making a strong statement against rape culture in the legal system.

This film fails to address the extensive and disturbing victim blaming engaged in by the leaders of Judge Persky's campaign, who repeatedly pointed to the fact that Turner's victim was intoxicated as an excuse for Turner's light sentence. Nor does the documentary disclose that Persky's campaign strategist was Donald Trumps' Arizona State Director, while our campaign against him was endorsed by dozens of leading women's rights organizations and progressive Democratic elected officials across Santa Clara County, California and indeed nationally.

Aaron Persky has never taken responsibility nor apologized for the many shameful victim-blaming comments made by leaders of his campaign. That merely serves to underscore that we were right to vote him out. I continue to be glad that no rape victim will walk into a courtroom to find that her case will be presided over by Aaron Persky.


Posted by TruthHertz
a resident of Barron Park
on May 25, 2023 at 11:20 am

TruthHertz is a registered user.

"Aaron Persky has never taken responsibility nor apologized for the many shameful victim-blaming comments made by leaders of his campaign. That merely serves to underscore that we were right to vote him out."

Nice circular logic and appeal to authority there. [Portion removed.]

Perksy has no reason to apologize. The rabid overreaction that was drummed up by the medias anti-white male bias ignores the nuances of the case that warranted a lienient sentence. An unconcious victim where both parties are intoxicated. Persky was absolutly right that a longer sentence could have a severe impact on a person that young, essentially runing his life over a crime that the victim couldn't even remember [portion removed.]
Ridiculous words like "rape culture", far from the reality and overreaction we have seen, are used to try to create the oppressor/oppressed narrative here and promoted by the media.

[Portion removed.]

The film rightly addresses the facts ignored by th[ose] [portion removed] who called for persky recall and those who vindictively support the longest sentence possible.


Posted by Bruce Haren
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 25, 2023 at 12:19 pm

Bruce Haren is a registered user.

Persky would still be a judge had he imposed a harsher sentence.

Simple as that.


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