The name may be reminiscent of the pastoral 1960s TV show, but Green Acres in Palo Alto is better known for its close proximity to three top-ranking public schools: Juana Briones Elementary School, Terman Middle School and Gunn High School.
“The schools are excellent, and the bonus of having kids able to walk to school independently from grades K-12 is priceless,” said resident Susan Pines, who has three school-aged children. “The location of the neighborhood is great, for schools, for walking on the bike path to Bol Park and biking to Stanford. Another bonus is the underground utilities.”
Green Acres consists of two sections: Green Acres I, which covers the small area from Arastradero Road to Glenbrook Drive and from Los Palos to Pomona avenues; and Green Acres II, which is larger, and stretches from Maybell Avenue to Arastradero Road and from Coulombe Drive to Georgia Avenue.
Ruth Satterthwaite, one of the leaders of the Green Acres II Neighborhood Association, said she has seen many changes in the area since moving there with her husband in 1985.
“There has been a fair amount of turnover, especially recently, as some of the original owners have moved away … new families with younger children are moving into the neighborhood,” Satterthwaite said.
Jim Colton, who has lived in the Green Acres neighborhood for more than four decades, said he also has seen the demographic changes.
“What hasn’t changed though is three schools within walking distance and the quiet of the neighborhood,” Colton said.
The biggest complaint residents said they have about the neighborhood is the lack of retail stores.
“When we moved here, there was the All American Market on El Camino at Los Robles. Now the small Barron Park Market is the closest option when you run out of essentials. Walgreens just has snack food. We are used to planning our grocery trips with the car,” Pines said.
Satterthwaite and Colton also pointed out that Green Acres II has no stores in it.
“The closest store is Walgreens on El Camino, about a mile away, with a few more small stores a bit further north on El Camino. But for major grocery shopping, either Los Altos or Piazza’s on Charleston and Middlefield are much more practical; likewise, most other shopping needs or errands unfortunately generally require driving to another area,” Satterthwaite said.
Residents Lorie and Eric Englhardt make do with closer options. They often buy milk at Walgreens, deli sandwiches at Driftwood Market and tea drinks at Teaspoon in Los Altos, Lorie said. The couple and their four children have lived in Green Acres II for 16 years.
“Our four kids have gone through Juana Briones,” she said. “We still have one at Terman and one at Gunn. We love having the schools so close. We have enjoyed getting to know our neighbors and have liked the annual summer block party. Our two daughters babysit and enjoy working for families in the neighborhood.”
Just like Green Acres II, Green Acres I is a purely residential neighborhood dominated by single-family homes and in walking distance to schools.
Vidya Maharajah, a Green Acres I resident for 10 years, said she can walk or take a quick drive to stores she needs.
“I have no complaints about the neighborhood,” said Maharajah. “It’s a fantastic place, with lots of greenery, schools nearby, and a trail behind. The walkability score is high. You see kids playing around. Neighbors are close to each other and help each other out.” Crystal Tai, 2017
FACTS:
LOCATION: Green Acres I: Arastradero Road to Glenbrook Drive, Los Palos to Pomona avenues; Green Acres II: Maybell Avenue to Arastradero Road, Coulombe Drive to Georgia Avenue
CHILD CARE AND PRESCHOOLS: Palo Alto Montessori School, 575 Arastradero Road; Whistlestop Child Development Center, 3801 Miranda Ave. No. T6B; Young Life Christian Pre-School, 687 Arastradero Road
FIRE STATION: No. 5, 600 Arastradero Road
LIBRARY: Mitchell Park branch, 3700 Middlefield Road
NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: (Green Acres I) Alice Sklar, a2sklar@aol.com; (Green Acres II); Jim Colton, 650-464-1775.
PARKS: Juana Briones Park, 609 Maybell Ave.; Terman Park, 655 Arastradero Road
POST OFFICE: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.
PRIVATE SCHOOL: Bowman International School, 4000 Terman Drive
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Juana Briones Elementary School, Terman Middle School, Gunn High School
SHOPPING: El Camino Real, San Antonio Shopping Center, Downtown Los Altos
I’m not surprised that the residents love their underground utilities. I wonder why the city never moved forward with that pilot project. I would be all for it.
Old PA sure is snotty, never welcomes anyone with open arms– not even St e Jobs or Larry Page when they first bought homes here. This neighborhood seems to hate newcomers. Beats me as to why
Green Acres is a wonderful, close neighborhood, which is more low-key and friendly than any other neighborhood I’ve lived in across Palo Alto. People usually move in and stay, so home sales are rare. It’s one of the only parts of town where kids can easily walk to elementary, middle, and high schools.
PS – Jerry Underdal is a well-known crank from Barron Park who has a pattern of being unable to work out disagreements with others, even if the goal is the same, and instead chooses to demonize people’s motives. He has been relentlessly negative about residents of Greenacres in the Maybell situation, ignoring the overwhelming sentiment in favor of keeping the affordable housing, and even though there was a great deal of effort to try to figure out how to create a working group and accomplish the goals without having to upzone the neighborhood so severely. He is often wildly inaccurate in his accounting of events, in order to make them fit his personal biases. Unfortunately, the TS moderator seems to share his bias and usually chooses to delete accurate firstperson accounts and leave Underdal’s (even verifiably inaccurate or highly and perniciously speculative ones) allowing him to continue maligning a wonderful neighborhood with caring residents — which is a real tragedy. If anyone could have found a better way to come together and with volunteer energy, meet everyone’s goals for that project (except perhaps the for-profit developer, which is almost certainly why the residents never got the chance), it would be the residents of this neighborhood.
I prefer to think of Palo Alto as Merriam-Websters dictionary defines things.
neighborhood as: : a section of a town or city
neighbors as: fellow man
Why worry what side of the street one lives on? We are all part of this city, this county, this state, this country, this world. Everyone deserves to be heard from and valued.
Sorry this was in response to a post that was removed before I finished and submitted the above post so the context of the post is less meaningful.