The major land use issues during 1996 were continued improvements and new tenants along El Camino, and concerns about large and incompatible new homes in Barron Park and elsewhere in the city (see story on page 1, and survey results on page 2).

Several vacant properties were occupied by new businesses such as Happy Donuts in the long-closed Trailer Hitch building, Celias Mexican restaurant at the former La Terrase, Walgreens new building replaced L'Omelette, the rug store replacing a long-vacant former auto parts store, and the Museum of American Heritage temporarily moved into the former Firestone Tire store.

The Little Garden restaurant remodeled to add 2 apartments over the restaurant and remove the canopy which dated back decades to when this was an A&W drive-in. Plans are well along to replace Rudolfo's with 48 apartments in 4 buildings oriented parallel to El Camino. The site, including the closed veterinarian and former palm reader will be totally redeveloped with significant landscaping and retention of almost all existing trees.

There are active proposals to replace the former La Cumbre at 3901 El Camino with a new building housing Hollywood Video. The Co-op gas station which has been vacant for many years may soon be replaced by a car wash and gas station.

A Zebra Copy shop will open soon at El Camino and Page Mill, recently Firehouse West, but known best as the long vacant Polly & Jake's.

While there still are some undeveloped properties and empty stores, the pace of renovation and redevelopment in the past year has been significant and very encouraging to those who believe that El Camino is a viable commercial area capable of serving neighborhood needs if the proper stores are established.

Both the appearance and function of El Camino improved during 1996.

Creeks

The entire program took more than 10 years, and over $22 million, beginning in 1985 with improvements such as flood walls and widening of the Matadero creek bed near the baylands, moving upstream section by section. Bridges were raised, sharp curves in the channel were made more gentle, and banks were stabilized. A major task was installation of a culvert under El Camino between the parking lots for Fresco and Sizzler restaurants which took almost a year and a half.

It is important to note that the project was carefully designed to leave Matadero and Barron Creeks through Barron Park as natural as possible, and to avoid as much as possible any concrete, flood walls, and any construction in the creeks. To see the original alternate proposal, look at Adobe Creek anywhere from El Camino to the bay.

The last 2 phases passed behind homes on Chimalus and McGregor, creating inconvenience, noise, dirt and dust. The bike path in Bol Park was closed for more than a year with bike traffic diverted along local streets. Use of Bol Park was difficult during construction, and it was hazardous to walk over and visit with Mickey. The construction finally ended in August and almost all of the park and bike path have been returned to their previous condition. Re-vegetation and landscaping began early in October and are almost finished along the bike path. The contract calls for three years of maintenance for the new plants, and replacement of any that die during that time. After the initial three-year period, future care of the landscaping is the task of Palo Alto and the community.

It certainly is a relief to have this major, disruptive project completed. And, it is comforting to know that our homes and property will be protected from all but the most extreme storms and flooding in the future. Barron Park is no longer in a flood zone, and property owners ultimately may no longer have to pay for flood insurance when buying or selling a house.

The entire community owes our thanks to the residents along Chimalus and McGregor who put up with the problems and inconvenience of major construction in their back yards for the benefit of the entire neighborhood. We all are most grateful.

Grafitti

In October it got worse. Some stores such as Gembro were tagged repeatedly. The utility box at 520 Los Robles was tagged every weekend for a month. Oct. 18-19 a group of vandals put almost 20 tags on Rudolfo's walls and windows. Few of the neighbors saw it because I was out early that day and had them cleaned up before 9:30.

While painting over a scrawl on the corner of the building I heard a boy say "I'll take the paint", and saw a teenager about 14 or 15, thin, about 5'7" with brown hair, walk from the back of Rudolfo's to El Camino carrying four 1-gallon paint cans. I stopped him and spoke with him a few minutes. He said his name was "George" and he lived in the apartments, waving towards Arastradero. When I told him I wanted him to come with me, he dropped the cans and ran. When I described him to another BPA member, he recalled seeing him often before. It seems likely that he was one of the bunch that had put graffiti all over Rudolfo's the 18th and 19th.

For the next several weeks the graffiti consisted mostly of stickers on all sorts of places, but not much paint. Apparently the paint they had dropped or left in front of Rudolfo's was all they had for a time. In November they began tagging extensively again. Tuesday evening Nov. 12th about 7:30 I saw "George" and a friend walking on El Camino near the former La Cumbre.

Farther north a number of stores and walls were tagged with huge signs, usually 2 different tags, one with a crown (which was common over the past several months). When I returned along El Camino late that evening several buildings which had not been marked now had large tags on them. It looked as though taggers had been busy. Wednesday morning I took photos of the graffiti, from Curtner to Pepper. I called the Graffiti Hot line to report it, and learned that almost a dozen others also had called about it.

Thursday morning we had our monthly meeting with the police, who informed us that the midnight shift November 13 had caught two 15-year old males putting up graffiti on El Camino. They were arrested and charged with felony vandalism because of the extensive damage and high cost of any repairs. The police were delighted to have the photos as evidence. We are pleased that some of the vandals have been caught. Since then the amount of graffiti has dropped greatly. There still is some, but much less than before the arrests.

After this recent surge in graffiti the BPA approved a $100 reward for every individual who is identified as a graffiti vandal and is convicted of the crime. Call 911 if you see the crime in progress. Call the graffiti hot line, 496-5904, to provide tips or to share information.

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