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East Palo Alto's rent stabilization program, established by voters in the early 1980's, was designed to help tenants know the maximum their future rent increases could be, enabling them to plan their family budgets with a measure of certainty. But in 2005 Page Mill Properties started buying up residences on East Palo Alto's west side and disputes with tenants and then with the city brewed.
Rent hikes, reduced maintenance service, and altered lease terms increased until many of the apartments owned and managed by Page Mill now sit empty, say remaining tenants. Others have left, either unable to pay the increases or confused by frequent notices from the giant landlord. Many of the residents are recent immigrants.
The west side of East Palo Alto sits close to the affluent city of Palo Alto and even shares the same zip code, leading residents to assert that Page Mill's motive is to get rid of all the tenants in order to "flip" the property for monetary gain.
Residents have filed class action suits, formed petition signature drives, and demonstrated in front of Page Mill Properties' Office in downtown Palo Alto. One group of tenants has particular reason to be outraged.
Many East Palo Alto residents are public employees and their retirement system, CalPERS, has Page Mill Properties in its portfolio of investments. CalPERS is the pension fund for California public employees and is one of the largest financial institutions in the US.
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Previous Coverage
The Fair Rent Now Coalition held a petition drive on Saturday, July 26th, to protest rent increases at apartments owned by Page Mill Properties. The increases affect about 1,300 of the private investment firm's 1,650 units in East Palo Alto.
A class action suit was filed by residents on July 15, and the city of East Palo Alto has taken legal action against the private investment firm.
Palo Alto residents and San Francisco Peninsula bike commuters are challenging Santa Clara County's plan to widen Middlefield Rd. near Oregon Expressway.
Proposed alterations to Middlefield Rd. near Oregon Expressway call for removing the trees and resident-created green strip gardens between the sidewalk and traffic lanes. This will eliminate the buffer between cars and pedestrians now enjoyed by neighborhood walkers and students commuting to Jordan Middle School.
Santa Clara County conducted what some residents are calling a stealth campaign. County officials placed confusing announcements in the local paper and sent mailings describing the changes as "improvements to Oregon Expressway", a county road. In fact, the county's plan is to widen Middlefield Rd. (near Oregon Expressway). Other county-proposed alterations in the neighborhood will affect Palo Alto's commitment to improved bike paths.
Bicycle enthusiasts object that putting in a raised median to block Ross Rd. (part of the county's proposal) runs counter to plans for a bike boulevard there. Some Palo Alto city officials say the bikeway will become impossible if that median is built as planned.
The plan to spend $2.8 million in federal funds to "streamline traffic flow on Oregon Expressway in Palo Alto" is generating significant opposition. Concerned residents say that County officials announced community meetings during peak vacation times and without adequate notice.
A public hearing is scheduled for September 2008.
Read More With Photos
Within weeks of forming a union, employees of Bay Area News Group were shocked at the seemingly retaliatory firings of at least 20 journalists who had worked to form the East Bay bargaining unit. Last week, the Northern California Media Workers Guild filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. The 230-member Bay Area News Group East Bay bargaining unit includes the Oakland Tribune and other East Bay papers, as well as the San Mateo County Times on the peninsula.
On June 1st, auto technicians and service advisors represented by the International association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union, IAM Local 1101, went on strike after their contract with Allison BMW expired.
Allison BMW was recently purchased by the Florida based corporation, Autonation. According to picket captain Larry Rondeau, the new owner demanded that workers accept a contract that would, "bring them into line with the rest of the nation." This would require cuts in hourly wages, no paid sick days, fewer paid holidays and higher health premiums and deductables. The issue of greatest concern is that of the flat rate. The company wants a system where the technician is given a time limit for each task. If the worker completes the job within that time frame they are paid the full amount, However, if they don't, for whatever reason, they must complete the work on their own time. The workers see this as a speed-up that would reduce the quality of their labor and erode their pay.
The striking workers are determined, they have a strike fund and the support of fellow workers in the community. The picket line is on the El Camino Real in Mountain View, Near HWY 237, every day until the contract is settled. Meanwhile the company is using replacement workers, aka, scabs.
Striking workers showed up in force on the morning of July 19th to support negotiations scheduled for 10 am at the Mountain View dealership. At the last minute, Autonation inc., the parent company of Allison BMW, demanded the location of the talks be moved to a Dublin Ca. According to Jim Schwantz, the Area Director of local 1101, of The International Association of Machinists, the union representing the striking workers, Autonation scheduled negotiations for 10 am Saturday, July 19, at the Mountain View dealership. However, at 11 pm the previous evening Autonation notified him that the location must move across the bay; the strike comittee agreed to the last minute changes. Meanwhile, at least eighty strikers, their families and supporters lined the street in front of the dealership.
Read More With Photos
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Strike at Allison BMW update
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Autonation NO-SHOW at the Bargaining Table
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Police Link Crimes to Strike at BMW Mtn View
On June 6, a Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Leslie Nichols voided Jaim Nulman and Avelyn Welczer's demolition permit for the historic Juana Briones home.
The judge wrote that the city needs to conduct an environmental impact review that considers "feasible alternatives" to demolition.
Juana Briones de Miranda was a Latina businesswoman, humanitarian, and landowner who built a rare earthen-walled house in the 1840s in what later became Palo Alto.
The group Friends of Juana Briones filed suit against Palo Alto in April of 2007 after working for years urging the city to make the home's owners preserve the house, as was required by the terms of their purchase contract. "This was the last possible way to save this home," the Friends' lawyer told the Palo Alto Daily News. "More often than not, a solution is found at this stage," she added.
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Save The House That Juana Built
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Wikipedia: Juana Briones de Miranda
On May 15th, contract talks for more than 6,000 janitors collapsed when the Bay Area’s largest cleaning companies refused modest pay and benefit improvements to janitors who currently make $347 a week ($23,000 a year). On May 17th, janitors voted to strike and on May 21st, over four hundred workers walked out of a dozen locations in the South Bay. On May 21st, striking janitors staged a morning protest at the annual Intel shareholders meeting for in Mountain View.
The Federal Communications Commisision will hold a hearing about the future of the Internet on Thursday, April 17th on the campus of Stanford University. The 12pm hearing will be preceded by entertainment from the Raging Grannies.
In 2007, several organizations confirmed that Comcast, which is a giant cable company, had been secretly blocking and degrading particular applications over several months, while denying its actions publicly. After consumer groups and law scholars filed a petition with the FCC asking the agency to find that Comcast's misdeeds violated consumers' rights, Comcast packed the seats in a hearing at Harvard University with its own supporters, preventing the public from attending. Activists from Free Press, a consumer advocate group, caught part of Comcast's "sleeper cell" on tape snoozing through the hearing. Free Press estimated that hundreds of interested people, meanwhile, were turned away for lack of space.
Many media advocacy organizations hope that the FCC will change its habit of siding with industry and that net neutrality will be preserved. Internet users are concerned that corporate gatekeepers will try to block, filter, and discriminate against websites and services that are used every day. Media Alliance writes, "Anyone who depends on the Internet for accurate information, connecting with like-minded folks, or promoting events and actions has a huge stake in a neutral Internet. "
"Talk Back to the FCC" speaker practice sessions are planned for cities around the Bay Area this week:
Monday at 6pm in Berkeley | Tuesday at 4:30 in San Francisco | Wednesday at 6:30 in East Palo Alto
Comcast Blocks the Internet, Then the Public Media Alliance
A federal court in San Francisco has wiped whistleblower site Wikileaks.org offline, granting an injunction requested by lawyers for a Swiss bank, Bank Julius Baer, which is attempting to prevent the public from accessing allegations of illegal activity at the bank's Cayman Islands branch. On Feb. 18th, Judge Jeffrey S. White of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered Dynadot.com, Wikileaks.org's domain registrar, to "disable the wikileaks.org domain name" and to "immediately clear and remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name." The permanent injunction was based on a legal agreement between Bank Julius Baer and San Mateo-based Dynadot, by which the bank's lawsuit against Dynadot was dismissed. Wikileaks mirrors such as Wikileaks.be were not affected by the order. Read more: 1 | 2
On February 7th, more than 100 UNITE HERE Local 19 service sector employees and community activists protested across the street from Google Inc. headquarters in Mountain View to support workers' rights. The rally was held adjacent to the site of Google's future four-star hotel and conference center. Despite repeated requests, Google has refused to address concerns about whether future hotel workers will be able to freely choose to join a union.
Speakers at the rally included hotel workers concerned about the impact of a non-union hotel on service workers in the area. Community members voiced concerns that public land receiving public resources should reflect community values, such as the right to a living wage, as Google enters the final stage of negotiations with the City of Mountain View.  Read More and Watch a Video | Photos: 1 | 2
On December 21st, about 30 Mall Walkers for Peace, including members of San Mateo Peace Action, Declaration of Peace, Veterans for Peace, San Mateo Democracy for America and the Raging Grannies, strolled the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo as part of the 4th national Iraq Moratorium event in as many months. The Raging Grannies wore their signature hats and buttons while others sported t-shirts with the words "Troops Home Now!" The Raging Grannies confronted Marine recruiters and sang "No War Toys", "Away in a Sweatshop", and other peace songs. Read More and View Photos
Iraq Moratorium | Raging Grannies
The Iraq Moratorium called on everyone to take some public action to stop the war on Iraq - on Friday, September 21st and every third Friday of the month from now on. In San Francisco there wereactions Friday at 1187 Franklin at 10am and at Market & Montgomery at 5pm.
In San Mateo, 150 people gathered for an evening rally.
In Berkeley, there was a rally at Acton and University. In Palo Alto there was a rally at Lytton Plaza.
In Oakland, was a march on the docks starting from the West Oakland BART station. There were also be rallies at many other location around the Bay Area.
On August 9th, East Palo Alto youth rallied against environmental racism and celebrated the partial shutdown of Romic Technologies, a major toxic waste facililty serving Silicon Valley.
Demonstrators demanded that the Department of Toxic Substances Control implement its Enforcement Order on Romic Technologies in East Palo Alto. Romic is currently in the midst of fighting the enforcement order issued by the Department of Toxic Substance Control. DTSC's enforcement order mandated Romic to stop 70% of their operations which means that they are only allowed to store drums under 85 pounds.
Working together with the Center on Race Poverty and the Environment, community activists plan to file a motion to intervene with Romic's attempt to fight the order.
Romic is an unsafe hazardous waste recycling facility that has been contaminating East Palo Alto since 1964 and has not had a proper operating permit for the past 14 years. Romic has had constant violations that have put the life of East Palo Alto residents at risk. Community residents have waged a campaign to shut down Romic in East Palo Alto since 1989.
Read More and View Photos
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Celebration: Victory Over Environmental Racism!
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Youth United for Community Action
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Raging Grannies Action League
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Previous Indybay Coverage
Michael Moore's movie "Sicko" opened Friday June 29th at movie theaters around the US. The movie focuses on the problems in the US health-care system. It highlights several countries that do not have these same problems since their health systems are not based around the profit motives of insurance companies, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.
On opening night, raging Grannies, doctors, nurses, and patients engaged theater-goers at the Century 16 in Mountain View California, passing out over 1,000 leaflets and collecting postcards that demanded a single payer health care system for California.
Members of East Bay Animal Advocates staged a protest on Sunday, June 10th, in front of the Lunardi's Market in Belmont to draw attention to what they say is animal cruelty behind the production of eggs sold by Lunardi's. East Bay Animal Advocates allege that the chickens used to produce eggs sold by Lunardi's food chain are kept in small battery cages that allow the birds virtually no mobility.
On May 30th, 2007 members of Youth United for Community Action (YUCA), celebrated a California state order that will shut down large portions of a major hazardous waste handler located in East Palo Alto, ironically named Romic Environmental Technologies.
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For 43 years, Romic Environmental Technologies has operated a hazardous
waste recycling facility in East Palo Alto.
Since 1991, community residents have waged a campaign to shut it down.
This year, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) finally began to listen to the East Palo Alto community.
On May 31st, the DTSC announced it had issued an enforcement order to Romic, charging it with such state violations such as unsafe operations (that resulted in a June 2006 toxic release) and reckless disregard (for the risk of serious injury to an employee in March 2006). The order prohibits Romic from handling, treating and storing hazardous bulk liquid waste in containers greater than 85 gallons.
Previous Indybay Coverage:
East Palo Alto Youth Activists/Raging Grannies at OSHA
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East Palo Activists/Raging Grannies PART II
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EPA Youth/Raging Grannies Part III: STREET THEATER
Youth United
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 DTSC Press Release
The Day Worker Center of Mountain View, which has been housed for the past 5 years at the Calvary Church at California Street and Escuela Avenue, is losing its facility on July 31st, 2007. At a press conference on May 18th, the Center was to announce that it has been searching for a new home for over a year, but has been stymied by high real estate prices. The Day Worker Center provides a safe space for workers and employers to connect, fosters community building, and hosts services such as English language classes. The Center is seeking the support of the community to help locate and fund a new space in the appropriate geographic area for its constituency.
A newly formed branch of the Minutemen and other similar groups are targeting the San Francisco Peninsula and South Bay cities with their anti-immigrant messages. The Raging Grannies have sounded the alarm for local community activists to react quickly in response. Calling on peace and immigrant rights groups to counter-demonstrate, the Peninsula Raging Grannies Action League set up a team to get the word out that, "our communities will NOT be divided along lines of immigrant vs. citizen."
7:30PM Tuesday Sep 9
Considering Democracy
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