of Redwood City - Climate Magazine

Spotlight: Senator Jerry Hill
Profile: Gelb Music
Food: Timber & Salt
I S S U E T W E LV E • A P R I L • 2 0 1 6
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•
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHERS •
Surprise! You just joined our birthday party.
No presents necessary; your readership is all the gift we hoped for.
Climate turns one year old with this issue and we have to say that not only
did the year pass quickly, it went by with an absence of trauma and drama for
which we were not prepared.
Launching a print magazine in the Internet age, a gorgeous four-color publication on stout coated paper stock when newspapers are shrinking their pages
and printing on, well, toilet tissue, and giving it away, to boot, does not sound
like a survival strategy.
But succeed we did, from the first issue. We give all credit to this wonderful
city in which we live, work and play. The success is not ours, it’s yours.
Lori and I love this city and figured it held enough secrets that a readership
would develop as we poked around its dusty corners, hidden wonders and delightful features, from history to restaurants to business to the terrific characters
who make it what it is.
We could not have sustained this magazine without our advertisers. To each
one of them, transient 1/8-page spot advertisers to committed full-page supporters on annual contracts, I express my humble appreciation.
A final thank-you to our talented writers. Please join me in a round of applause, because they are a terrific bunch.
Enjoy this issue, our anniversary treat. We present a view of the Port of
Redwood City you’ve never seen before, and our feature about Senator Jerry
Hill shows a side of him not often brought to light. He and wife Sky are a team,
and it has taken both of them to get through the trauma of the PG&E tragedy
in San Bruno.
We illuminate a stalwart and historic Redwood City business, Gelb Music, in
business here for 76 years.
On a somber note, the enchanting Ida Balsamo, featured last month in our
article about Fox Theatre’s Usherettes, passed away this month.
She was so sweet, kind and full of grace. Bravo, Ida, bravo! You will be missed
and always remembered. Thank you for sharing your wonderful stories.
Here’s to the certainty there are many more to come.
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 3
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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S •
FEATU RE
Port of Redwood City
8
SPOTLIG HT
Senator Jerry Hill
14
PROFILE
Gelb Music
20
AROUND TOWN..... 24
CITY EVENTS........... 30
FOOD..................... 32
HISTORY................. 35
ART SCENE............. 36
4 · CLIMATE · April 2016
•
C L I M AT E •
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 5
CLIMATE
R E D W O O D
C I T Y
M A G A Z I N E
Publisher
Eric and Lori Lochtefeld
Creative Director
Jim Kirkland
Editor
Don Shoecraft
Contributing Writers
Don Shoecraft
Janet McGovern
Emily Mangini
Beth Mostovoy
James Clifford
Photographer
Jim Kirkland
Editorial Board
Eric Lochtefeld
Lori Lochtefeld
Jim Kirkland
Don Shoecraft
Ernie Schmidt
Amy Buckmaster
Redwood City CLIMATE magazine is a monthly publication
by Golden Fox Venues, a California Corportion. Entire contents
©2016 by Golden Fox Venues. All rights reserved. Reproduction
or use in any manner without permission is strictly prohibited.
CLIMATE is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.
CLIMATE offices are located at 2221 Broadway Street,
Redwood City, CA 94063. Printed in the U.S.A.
6 · CLIMATE · April 2016
•
C L I M AT E •
3636 Haven Ave., Redwood City • 650-701-9200 • carlsen.prosche.com
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 7
•
F E AT U R E •
Port a Tale of
The Tecumseh, CSL America’s three year-old selfunloading Panamax bulk cargo ship and frequent port
visitor, is 750 feet long with a keel that can be as much as
43 feet below water fully loaded.
8 · CLIMATE · April 2016
•
F E AT U R E •
Time and Tides
No port, no Redwood City.
By Don Shoecraft
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 9
I
It has changed dramatically over the
centuries. It’s not even in the same location.
The assertion that the city wouldn’t
exist were it not for the port certainly is
spurious. However, what was called the
Embarcadero centered the territory around
it when Spanish landowners shipped out
cattle hides for food and hard goods.
Today’s Port of Redwood City down
the creek and out by San Francisco Bay
also centers a geographical region with
commerce it cannot do without, as it has
done since the 19th century. Without it
Redwood City would be a very different
place. So would the Bay Area.
Beyond that, it is a fascinating study,
a place of hard hats and steel-toed boots,
boxcars, commodities weighed in hundreds
of thousands of tons, bauxite, rocks, carbon
black, petroleum, steel and salt in a world
of bioengineering, information technology
and social media.
The port survives as a very busy and
profitable enterprise in such a milieu
partly because technology needs bauxite,
sand, stone, steel and many other items the
port’s customers provide.
There would be no new campus for
Apple Computer without the port. There would be no new SalesForce
tower downtown.
Computer chip makers would starve
without chemicals that pass from its rail
yards to tanker trucks.
Port of Redwood City commerce is so
important to the region the President of
the United States keeps it in the nation’s
budget, making sure the ineffable creep of
siltation does not shut it down, a federal
concern since 1882.
One of only four commercial shipping
ports in the main reach of San Francisco
Bay, Redwood City is far south of what the
world thinks of as navigable waters, but
that adds a distinction.
It is the only port in California located
in natural tidal wetlands, which gives it a
10 · CLIMATE · April 2016
•
F E AT U R E •
cachet denied to Long Beach, Oakland and
San Francisco.
Not bad for a port that got its start
as a handy place to make cement from
oyster shells harvested in San Francisco
Bay mud.
So it remains in the modern era.
Cement’s ingredients, aggregate gravel,
sand, bauxite and gypsum, continue to be
mainstay port commodities, but this time
they are immigrants, brought together in
Redwood City from sources in Canada
and Mexico.
This trade is by big ships, the ones
commuters on the Hayward-San Mateo
Bridge or the Bayshore Freeway see
plying the waters regularly between
the port and the Golden Gate. A dozen
to twenty big ships or barges a month
visit the port, typically off-loading bulk
cargoes of concrete’s ingredients or
picking up 25,000-ton loads of shredded
recycled steel.
The port is the wharf provider for
shipping, but it’s also landlord for the big
enterprises that bring the cargo in, Cemex
and Sims metal being primaries.
But its business is extremely diverse,
extending from the nautical — the 75 yearold Sequoia Yacht Club, the marina, dry
boat storage, the Spinnaker Sailing Club
and berthing for up to 150-foot temporary
visitors; to the public recreational — the
launch ramp, fishing pier, picnic area and
pedestrian access; to the commercial — the
Seaport Conference Center and the 90,000
square-foot Portside I and II office complex
leased to Fivey Company.
Its diversity extends to entertainment
— Clark’s By the Bay, the venture of the
San Francisco 49ers football hero famed
for “The Catch,” overlooks the turning
basin, though there’s no fun to be found
there. It is defunct and has been closed and
untouched for years.
In this, the Portside area, it is as likely
to run into a CPA or lawyer on the way to
work as an old salt heading to the marina
for a day’s sail.
That broad economic base helps
the port sustain an annual subvention
to the City of Redwood City that these
days amounts to between $400,000 and
$500,000, though there’s no doubt the big
users are the big economic engines of port
finance.
As the budgetary connection would
indicate, the port is a subdivision of the City
of Redwood City, with a separate budget,
a separate management and, though
they are appointed by the city council, a
separate board of harbor commissioners.
The two agencies are intricately
intertwined, as they have been since the
keel of the wooden freighter “Redwood”
was laid in Redwood Creek a half-mile or
so upstream in 1850.
It is possible to argue the technicality
that the port is still in Redwood Creek, a
fact the affable port director, Mike Giari,
notes can be argued contrarily.
Originally the Embarcadero lay at the
margin where bay tides met the freshwater
creek in downtown Redwood City, but as
ships got bigger and drafts got deeper
maritime activity moved to its present
location in 1903, thanks to dredging by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an
agency that remains to this day a critical
port partner.
Though it’s in the channel where
Redwood Creek flows to the bay, “really,
it’s a tidal port now,” Giari said. “It’s not a
creek. Because we deal with big ships, we
don’t like to call it a creek, although I’m
sure some do. But it’s tidal now…the tides
here almost on a daily basis will change
eight feet. With a creek you consider the
flow, but there’s no flow into the turning
basin from the creek.”
According to Katherine Reyes, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco
District Project Manager, the feds first
committed to keeping the port depth at
•
F E AT U R E •
Port of Redwood City commerce is so important to the region the President of the United States keeps it in the
nation’s budget, making sure the ineffable creep of siltation does not shut it down, a federal concern since 1882.
30 feet in 1931 and have maintained that
commitment since. It is a complex matter
that involves competition for the same
pot of funding from projects around the
country every year; fortunately, Congress
and the President have supported the
Corps and its recommendations for years.
“Because the project is one of many in
the navigation business line in the past,”
Reyes said, “we have had to share the pot
specific to the navigation line. But in the
last years we were able to achieve a good
amount of success in our project.
“With the success and how visible the
project has been we continuously have
received funding in the last few years.
There’s been a lot of growth at the port,”
she added.
Redwood City’s dredging is supposed
to deepen the port turning basins, of
which there are two, to 30 feet “zero tide;”
sometimes the funding allows the Corps to
get to 30 feet. Other times 29. Sometimes
28. The port channel is part of a navigation
system that includes a channel called the
San Bruno Shoal: both have to be dredged
to the same depth.
The last dredging project concluded in
January, with several hundred thousand
cubic yards of the dredged material, called
“spoils,” pumped out onto Bair Island
next door to be used as part of its wetland
restoration effort.
Since the San Bruno Shoal is a 30
foot-deep, 500 foot-wide channel from
Redwood City to roughly San Francisco
International Airport, port access actually
starts more than 12 miles to its north.
A foot of depth here or there anywhere
in those miles of what the nautical folk call
“maintained channel” is no trifle.
The Tecumseh, CSL America’s three
year-old self-unloading Panamax bulk
cargo ship and frequent port visitor, is 750
feet long with a keel that can be as much as
43 feet below water fully loaded.
When it arrives in the bay from
Canada as it did last month, its seven
holds loaded with 69,000 metric tons of the
world’s finest cement aggregate from Port
McNeill, British Columbia, it drafts around
32 feet.
Since it arrives needing a deeper
channel than Redwood City provides,
getting it here can take a few days. First is a
stop at the Port of Richmond to offload part
of the cargo. Last month it dropped 17,000
metric tons at Eagle Rock Aggregates,
according to Brigitte Hebért, Director of
Communications for the CSL Group, Inc.
From there it may make another
stop, a “cargo lightering” visit to a barge
anchored in San Francisco Bay to offload
a bit more. Last month 15,400 metric tons
were offloaded to Chartres barges in San
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 11
•
Francisco Bay, from where they were
pushed up the Petaluma River.
Then the fabled San Francisco Bar
Pilots work out the winds, tides and draft of
the ship to choose the precise time to bring
the Tecumseh and its primarily Ukrainian
crew down the bay to Redwood City.
Since tides can make eight feet of
difference, the issue is not quite as critical
as getting a ship drafting 30 feet through
a 28-foot-deep channel may sound, but
it is very critical in the San Bruno Shoal
because that channel has “hard bottom.”
“You don’t bounce the bottom of a ship
off San Bruno Shoal,” Bar Pilot Capt. Ed
Melvin said. “It’ll rip the bottom out of it.”
The port’s bottom is of concern, but
lesser, because it’s mud. The Tecumseh
berth even less so because it has been
dredged to 34 feet, zero tide.
A ship like the Tecumseh never comes
alone. It takes two tugboats to maneuver
her into port and to swivel her 180 degrees
in the turning basin when she departs.
The call already having gone out to
the Longshoremen’s Union hiring hall, a
crew of linesmen arrives to wrangle the
four-inch lines fore, midships and aft and
snug the ship against the hydraulic dock
bumpers, each of which cost $1 million.
Waiting on the dock is a port official,
the offloading supervisor from Cemex and
United States Customs.
Every ship arriving from foreign
port must pass a customs inspection that
includes food, cargo, crew papers and
personal belongings. No one comes or
goes when customs is aboard — even the
gangplank must be out of reach.
Ultimately the gangplank and customs
come down and everyone gets to work. It
only takes a crew of about 23 to run the
big ship and unloading takes even less
manpower.
From an automated control room two
operators move the unloading conveyor
12 · CLIMATE · April 2016
F E AT U R E •
Top: It takes only two operators to
offloaded about 2,500 tons an hour of
bulk cargo.
Right: Mixer trucks are stored on the
Cemex site. They’ll be dispatched to
batch plants throughout the Bay Area.
into position and within a few
minutes about 2,500 tons an
hour of bulk cargo pours off the
conveyor, into a connector, over
the dock and onto the ground at
Cemex.
This, Hebért said, is the finest
aggregate in the world, quarried from
Polaris Materials Corporation’s Orca
Quarry.
A native tribe, the ‘Namgis First
Nation, owns 18 percent interest in the
product, meaning that Apple’s massive
“flying saucer” headquarters under
construction in Cupertino and the eastern
span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
Bridge, since they used Orca Quarry
aggregate, helped support a native
Canadian tribe’s economic development.
So, too, did San Francisco General
Hospital,
the
new
Amazon.com
distribution center, Sonoma State’s Greene
Music Center, the new bore of the Caldecott
Tunnel, the Presidio approaches to the
Golden Gate Bridge and the U.C. Berkeley
football stadium, all of which were built or
are being built with the product.
The port also receives and Cemex
acquires shipment of the other constituents
of concrete, bauxite and sand. Gigantic
piles of bauxite are stored under tarps in
various parts of the port.
As much as comes in, so much of
each goes out, in a continuous stream
of two-trailer tractors and dump trucks
bound for concrete batch plants around
the region, where fleets of ready-mix
trucks wait for the magic ingredients to
be combined and loaded.
From there they disperse to thousands
of jobsites, from the nether reaches of San
Jose to the upper reaches of San Francisco
Bay, some famous, some obscure, but all
benefiting by a bit of the brawny business
of the Port of Redwood City. C
•
F E AT U R E •
Sand in the foreground is offloaded from the Tecumseh at rear.
These aggregates and sand, best in the world for making concrete,
come from the Orca Quarry on ‘Namgis First Nation tribal lands in
Port McNeill, B.C. Local works like the new Apple headquarters
help support the Canadian tribe’s economic development.
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 13
•
SPOTLIGHT •
•
SPOTLIGHT •
Senator H
Hill
a softie for good guys, a steely foe for CPUC.
By Don Shoecraft
Elected representatives sign on for anything
—pols do not get elected on platforms that omit tax policy
or public safety or any other responsibility — but in fact the
professional life of, say, a state senator never before required
“the member,” as they are referred to by staff in Sacramento,
to deal with a massive gas explosion, the consequent death
of eight constituents and pervasive corruption in a state
agency responsible for it, until Jerry Hill came along. It turns
out there are, or have been, probably few like him, if any,
in public office capable of dealing with such a catastrophe
with quite the same result.
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 15
T
Those faculties that endowed the 13th
Senate District representative with the tools
to confront this tragedy, the San Bruno
PG&E gas line explosion that devastated
the Crestmoor residential neighborhood
in 2010, is a quick intellect, a lifetime of
knowledge about how government works, a
soft heart, a steel spine and a determination
and stubbornness that border on bulldog.
He is admired for his honesty and
fortitude by many, but none more than wife
Sky, who can fill in the details of a character
portrait that Hill’s genuine, self-effacing
modesty tends to leave out.
“He always wants to know,
nonstop,” Sky said. “He always
wants to learn, always wants
to be stimulated and learn
something new.
“He has an incredible work
ethic and a high standard with
how he treats people and cares
about people.
“But when he sets his mind to
something, you’d better look out,”
she added. “Determined. I would
say that.”
He developed that quality
early. The details emerge
inadvertently when he sketches his personal
background.
The San Francisco native graduated
from Balboa High School top of his class,
president of the student body and captain
of the football team. Then the learning
began.
“Growing up there were things I
wanted to do, and one of them was martial
arts,” Hill said. “Just coincidentally when
I was getting a teaching credential at San
Francisco State I became friends with a
fellow, a Japanese guy the same age, also
taking credential courses, and he was a
karate instructor.
“We became friends and he taught a
whole group of us. I spent many years with
him, and worked my way up the ladder. It
was great fun, but I just had to get to the
16 · CLIMATE · April 2016
•
SPOTLIGHT •
Pressed to weigh whether this kind of
persistence summed him up, he demurred.
“I never thought of it that way. I did
very well in high school…back then the
state met the master plan for education,
and it worked, so I had the ability to go to
(University of California) Berkeley out of
high school. I did, and then, after a year, they
asked me to pursue my educational career
elsewhere. So I flunked out of Berkeley.
“I went to CSM for a year,” he said. “I
would not be in this position today had it
not been for the College of San Mateo. They
enabled me to gain confidence in myself.
CSM taught me how to study.
It gave me some ideas.
“People say, ‘You flunked
out the first year, aw, you must
have been partying all the time,
having a great time.’ I wish that
were the case. It wasn’t. I was
studying all the time but didn’t
know how to study the right
way, because I didn’t have to in
high school.”
At this point the coerced
Hill self-portrait appears to
be taking on Rocky-esque
Cal Fire aerial tanker drops fire retardant on the
dimensions, but it veers.
San Bruno fire Sept. 9, 2010. Cal Fire’s help was “After a year, I said I wasn’t going to let
accidental.
it beat me. I was going to get back and I was
take you on a 20-minute flight in a little going to graduate. I had to petition to get
in and I met with the dean. I’ve been trying
two-seater airplane.’
“So I said, ‘I’ll do that,’ and I went to locate this dean and I’ve been working
down there and did that and, god, I fell in through the government affairs office to
find him or who he was — I can’t remember
love with it.
“It was wonderful to get up in the his name — but I remember the meeting in
air and see how it all works. So then I his office at Sproul Hall and petitioning to
started taking lessons, and I got a private get back in and his saying, ‘Well, you know,
pilot’s license, and a commercial pilot’s you only get one semester to build your
license, a multi-engine pilot’s license and grade points up to a C, a 2.0.’
was instrument rated, which is one of the “He said, ‘You are so far behind, there’s
hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, no way you could get that in one semester.
with the hood and you don’t see out of the I’ll give you two.’
“And that saved me. That one,” here he
airplane, but you’ve got to fly it.
“I wanted to do that, and did it, and paused to shed a few tears and regain his
finally learned how a plane stays up in the composure, “that one, generous guy…you
don’t think of how one person can make a
air and how to keep it there.”
end. I had to get a black belt. And I did.
“Similarly to that, I was curious about
learning and wanted to know, this is silly
and kind of stupid, the how and why about
airplanes. How does that thing stay up in
the air?
“So,” he continued, “at a time when
community colleges had more community
learning opportunities, evenings I took
ground school for pilots at College of San
Mateo. I wanted to learn how does this
thing work.
“Then somebody said, ‘You can go to
San Carlos Airport and for 20 dollars they’ll
•
SPOTLIGHT •
Senator Jerry Hill and wife Sky.
difference in your life. That guy did it. I was
able to go graduate and go on to something.
He didn’t have to do that. He could have
said, ‘To heck with you.’”
Hill has been highly regarded among
nonprofits in his district, which extends
from Brisbane to Santa Clara and Los Altos
Hills and includes 931,000 constituents, for
never saying ‘to heck with you’ when asked
to help a cause.
Hill is perhaps the most successful
charity dinner live auctioneer in the
district’s history, certainly most successful
since the days he and the late San Mateo
County Supervisor Mike Nevin were
able to double-team dinner guests for big
money, making them laugh as Hill picked
their pockets in a good cause.
He’s done it numerous times for
charities like Samaritan House, the San
Mateo Police Activities League, the MillPeninsula and Sequoia hospitals’ respective
foundations, the Boys and Girls Club of
Central San Mateo County, the Sheriff’s
Activity League, the county Fatherhood
Collaborative, which he helped start — the
list goes on and on.
The agency names come and go on
that list, but there is one that will remain in
perpetuity.
That is the scholarship fund Sue Bullis
set up for her son, Will, who perished in
the family home as a burst PG&E pipeline
spewed flames into their San Bruno
neighborhood Sept. 9, 2010. Her husband,
Greg, 50, and mother-in-law, Lavonne
Bullis, 82, also perished in the fire. Will
wanted to be a chef and the fund, for which
Hill has served as fundraising auctioneer
and which he intends to continue to do as
long as he is able, has thus far raised more
than $41,000 for the California Culinary
Academy.
“Jerry has on his desk the names of the
eight people who perished in that fire and
it’s a daily reminder to him of what he’s
there for and what he works for,” said San
Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane, who has worked
side-by-side with Hill the last six years to
defeat the “collusion” between the utility
and the state overseer that was supposed to
protect against such events.
“He’ll never forget that and I never will
either, and neither will the council in San
Bruno and the people in San Bruno.”
Sky Hill’s opinion is that “a lot of
people would not have pursued it the way
Jerry has pursued it, because to him this is
personal. The loss of those lives, the stories
of those people who suffered through this,
it’s personal. He just cannot live with the
iniquity of that and he has to pursue it.
“You will see these tears, whether he’s
home alone with me or whether he’s at any
function,” she added.
Hill has given it considerable thought.
“That issue has become very personal,” he
said. “I can’t, for some reason, having been
there that day and that next morning, I can’t
look at that neighborhood and know the
people who were living there that lost their
lives without feeling terrible.
“And it could have been much worse
had a number of things that were accidental
had not happened. The fire department
didn’t even know there was a gas line there,
that’s how bad the communications were
with PG&E. The fact that Cal Fire brought
in the (air) tankers was serendipitous,
because they never would have come in on
their own.
“But because they thought and
everyone else thought this was San
Bruno Mountain that was on fire, because
San Bruno Mountain and rural and
unincorporated areas are their jurisdiction,
they just took off. There’s a canyon where
the explosion was. It could have taken off
and gone down the canyon and across San
Bruno Avenue. It was just amazing.”
The consequence of “the way he
pursued it” in the company of San Bruno
city officials has led to the resignation
of the chairman of the California Public
Utilities Commission, which was supposed
to watch over Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s
safety program, the replacement of its chief
administrator, imposition of hundreds of
millions of dollars in fines against the utility
and a criminal trial about to begin.
Hill’s bills have cut off the former
utility chairman, Michael Peevey, from the
eight non-profits he founded to fund and
patronize his supporters, and much more is
to come.
The next fight, ironically, is a possible
legislative effort to “recreate” the CPUC.
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 17
•
“There’s an effort to almost disband the
PUC and recreate it in another form,” Hill
said. “We have to have that conversation,
but my fear is if you let the legislature
act as a regulator in some way, we’ll be
back to what we were in 1910, when
Southern Pacific Railroad owned the state
legislature, downright owned it. Hiram
Johnson wanted to take the state back in
1910, that’s when the reform era began…
they set up the CPUC to independently
deal with the utilities.
“Only today it won’t be the railroad
(that will own the state),” Hill said of the
idea to replace an oversight agency with
the legislature itself, “it will be the utilities,
because they’d love to see that. They have so
much power in Sacramento the way it is.”
Changing the audience never changes
the words. There’s no difference between
the public Jerry Hill and the private. It’s
fair to say thousands have come into his
orbit over the years and can attest to that,
and anyone wishing to test the claim can sit
down across the table with him for a cup
of coffee at one of his numerous “Java with
Jerry” events.
Sign up for notice on his legislative
website and receive periodic invitations to
just show up; the last one was at Madhouse
Coffee in Brisbane. Next one might be 40
miles away. It sounds like a long distance,
but Hill notes he’s a lucky senator; his
district only covers two adjacent counties.
“Some senators have four counties they
have to go to,” he said. “My senator from
the north goes from the Golden Gate Bridge
to Oregon, and it takes him seven hours to
go from one end to the other driving.”
This constituent exposure predates his
election to the senate. The former council
member and mayor of San Mateo moved
up to the San Mateo County Board of
Supervisors in 1998, served for 10 years, then
won election to the state assembly from the
19th District. When the state reapportioned
senate districts in 2012, putting Hill in the
18 · CLIMATE · April 2016
SPOTLIGHT •
middle of the 13th, he ran for the seat and
won with 51 percent of the vote.
It’s hard to question his assertion that
“You have to have a pulse of the community,
to really understand where people are if
you’re gong to make decisions on their
behalf. I think I do that because I’ve been
around the area long enough.”
Longevity also helps explain his
prodigious fundraising power: “It’s his
knowledge of his audience,” said Roseanne
Foust, executive director of the San
Mateo County Economic Development
Association, beneficiary of many of his
charity efforts.
“He knows so many people and they’re
never uncomfortable around him,” she
added. “He knows each of these agencies
very well and he’s very genuine. They’ve
seen Jerry in action and have become
comfortable that he’s saying exactly what
he thinks.”
It will probably surprise those who
have heard him give a smooth and cogent
speech off the cuff that he has been known
to need help writing a speech.
Sky has provided that help, organizing
his thoughts and notes into a deliverable
address.
How did she come by that skill?
“English is my second language,” she
laughed.
Her first? Latvian.
Sky was born on a farm in Canada to
immigrant parents who spoke Latvian, but
“my first week of grade school I discovered
the town library, and that began my reading
career,” she said.
“I just always read. To me,
communication is very important, and
what you say and how you say it is how
it’s perceived. How you intend your
message to be received and how it’s
actually perceived are worlds apart.
“It’s very important to refine that,
especially if you’re in the public eye or if
you’re going to communicate to one person
or a group.”
Indicating Jerry, she said, “He’s a good
instrument. He’s a pretty great guy.”
They are a pretty good pair, as well,
managing three businesses, a household in
San Mateo and another in Sacramento and
two careers between them.
Hill still owns the swimming pool
service his father founded; Sky co-owns
Spa Luxe in San Mateo and has owned the
Estheticians Professional Skin & Body Care
for 40 years.
She says Jerry is her primary skin
rescue project.
He’s a self-described sun worshiper who
never wanted anything but a convertible.
“She’ll tell you when we met I looked
older than I do today,” Hill said.
“Absolutely,” she added.
“I love the sun, I love to have a tan, but
I had crevices, articulated, deep lines…”
“Twenty-three-plus years after I met
him,” Sky said, “his skin is better than it
was when I met him” because he follows
her regimen for skin and lifestyle.
She has a regimen for the mind, as well,
that appears to be working for the spouse.
She pays close attention to the décor and
design of his offices, which, where they left
to his devices, would best be described as
“piles,” he said.
“I’ve always been fascinated by line
and design,” Sky said. “To me, it’s part of
life. It’s surrounding yourself with what
makes you happy, so that’s part of the
balanced life.”
“A sense of balance,” Hill added.
They shared a long moment of silence
and a gaze, a quiet moment in a world of
exploding pipelines, destruction and death
and corruption on a scale not seen for years.
A moment of balance. A moment of
peace. C
•
SPOTLIGHT •
Changing the audience never changes the words. There’s no
difference between the public Jerry Hill and the private. It’s
fair to say thousands have come into his orbit over the years
and can attest to that, and anyone wishing to test the claim can
sit down across the table with him for a cup of coffee at one of
his numerous “Java with Jerry” events.
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 19
•
20 · CLIMATE · April 2016
PROFILE •
•
PROFILE •
Gelb Music:
a Store that Redefines “Customer Returns”
By Janet McGovern
Riley Bradley and Tommy LeMar are salesmen at Gelb
Music who are carrying customer loyalty about as far
as the concept can go. As kids, both bought their first
instruments at the landmark music emporium and are
now helping wannabes young and old buy what they
need to chart their way to musical self-expression.
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 21
S
Salesman Bradley made multiple “flybys” checking out guitars before zeroing
in on just the one. Fellow Woodside High
School graduate LeMar vividly remembers
standing in line at a private sale two decades ago buying the first instrument he’d
ever purchased with his own money.
“I’ve been coming here for 25 years,
pretty much, since I was a kid,” said LeMar, who is 35. To come full circle at the
store so critical to his own growth as a musician, “that’s pretty cool, to be part of the
legacy. That’s the best way I could put it.”
Established in 1939, Gelb Music has
remained an institution in Redwood City
four decades after the original “Gelb” sold
the business. The store remains “Gelb Music” despite a recent ownership change,
only the second in its history.
Founder Sidney Gelb, a violinist from
Chicago, was a friend of Walt Disney, who
talked him into moving to Los Angeles.
Gelb liked the Bay Area a lot better and
opened a store in Redwood City. He sold
it in 1972 to one of his guitar instructors,
Kevin Jarvis, who expanded the business
significantly. A little over a year ago, Jarvis
retired and sold the business to his friend,
Massoud Badakhshan, who owns Haight
Ashbury Music Center in San Francisco.
“A two-link chain,” Badakhshan said
laughing. He plans some accounting
upgrades and cosmetic changes such as
lighting improvements, but the Gelb name
won’t change.
“It’s been here 76 years,” he said.
“Gelb stays Gelb.” Though the baton has been passed
to a new leader, Gelb customers arrive at
the store expecting the same things they
always have: a vast inventory of instruments, gear and accessories; knowledgeable sales people and instructors; and a
relentless focus on customer service.
Some customers arrive at Gelb through
a rather nondescript front door at 722 El
Camino Real, but a growing number arrive
22 · CLIMATE · April 2016
•
PROFILE •
Founder Sidney Gelb, a violinist from Chicago, was a friend of
Walt Disney, who talked him into moving to Los Angeles.
Sidney Gelb on stage during a benefit recital performed by his students.
at www.gelbmusic.com or via Gelb’s eBay
site. For that, much credit belongs to yet
another Gelb “returnee,” Mike Craig, now
47. He got his start in music taking guitar
lessons from Sidney Gelb. As a teen-ager,
Craig worked in the store for Jarvis, but
as an adult went on to a career in marketing/e-commerce in Silicon Valley.
When Jarvis brought Craig back in
2009 to amp up e-commerce, Gelb had a
basic “show and tell” website and an eBay
account used largely to get rid of excess
inventory. Initially, while work on upgrading the Gelb website was underway, Craig
and store manager Don Frank focused on
eBay sales, putting 200 snare drums online. That move generated about $200,000
in revenue the first year and was incentive
to go further.
In the years since, the small independent music store’s reach has extended as
far away as Israel and Australia, thanks to
the Gelb team’s push into online sales and
social media. The expansion into digital
sales required the store to move from relying on handwritten sales receipts and calculators to a computerized inventory database and sales system, a major transitional
challenge. Today about three or four percent of the 100,000-plus items in the twostore inventory is offered online. Working
in a tiny studio with a faux red brick wall
to give the effect of a green room, Craig
photographs products and creates videos
and interviews to post online.
These include clinics with visiting
manufacturers’ representatives or wellknown music industry figures. Fans may
happen upon the videos on YouTube,
which brings them to the Gelb Music website. Beyond learning from luminaries
such as guitarist/guitar maker Buzz Feiten
or drummer Gregg Bissonette, Gelb’s site
also features its own employees demonstrating products.
•
“If we are closed and a customer has a
question, there might be an answer on our
website,” Bradley said.
Al Schneider, who has worked in
drum sales and repair for 40 years, presents step-by-step ‘how do you do that?’
educational videos on assembling a drum
set, from how to set up a cymbal or snare
stand to how to attach a cowbell or blocks.
He grew up in Belmont, got into repairing drums as a teen-ager and has been
around Gelb Music his entire life. He knew
Sidney Gelb and was friends with Jarvis
from their time attending Carlmont High
School. Years ago, Schneider had a drum
shop on Broadway Street, around the corner, which Jarvis later took over and is now
the location of the Gelb Music Teaching Institute. Students can take private lessons
from renowned instructors such as Mike
Curotto and Tony Lindsay. Tony Baker,
another of Craig’s former teachers, is still
there, too.
PROFILE •
al musicians like himself a well-stocked
inventory and good selection of cymbals,
snare drums and other equipment. It is,
as well, “just kind of a community center
to run into people you know,” he said. “I
think music stores are really important
in terms of musicians being able to meet
each other.”
Gold received so much encouragement and good suggestions from Gelb
store manager Don Frank that he singled
him out for thanks in an instructional book
Gold wrote on drum phrasing technique.
Gelb is by no means resting on its laurels. The store inventory branches into new
areas to keep customers coming back, with
Bradley the go-to-guy in the ever-evolving
pro-audio department. The store recently
added flutes, clarinets and wind instruments from the Haight Ashbury store. Responding to the explosive growth of ukulele players in the Bay Area, Gelb now stocks
about 30 different models.
“It’s been here 76 years. Gelb stays Gelb.”
Though he retired as a professional
musician in 1998, Schneider, 69, clearly
enjoys the challenge of repairing drums
or getting long-forgotten instruments back
into playing condition, as well as being
around customers and his coworkers.
“I’m dealing with the grandkids now,”
he said, though he confesses that some faces have “gotten blurry.”
In about 5,000 square feet, Gelb is a
musical candy store catering to everyone
from an entry-level student to musicians
who want high-end and custom gear.
Looking for a dulcimer? Check. Salsa
cowbells for Latin bands? A half-banjo/
half-ukulele? Check, and check again. A
destination for percussionists all over the
Bay Area, the drum shop carries more than
200 different types of drum sticks alone.
Drummer/percussionist Russ Gold
values Gelb Music for offering profession-
Saturdays are always busy and foot
traffic on a recent one was non-stop. A father came in with his two children looking
for a low-budget starter ukulele. A musician from Santa Cruz arrived to take home
a custom, hand-wired amplifier. A customer who’d run into a roadblock with his recording software got help from Bradley.
A high school boy who’d brought
in an acoustic guitar to ask why it didn’t
sound the same after he had replaced the
strings got personal attention. He had
bought it from a competitor, but LeMar
didn’t ask to see a sales receipt, obligingly
strumming a few chords. He reassured the
boy that strings stretch with use and that
the guitar would sound good again. “It’s
just because the strings are new,” LeMar
explained, and the boy went happily on
his way.
Having bought a
drum set and a guitar
from employees he
ended up working
with, Bradley has
been in Gelb sales
long enough now to
identify with the kids he
sees moving from entry-level to better equipment and
then into recording gear.
“It just snowballs,” he
said. “Same as it did with
me. That’s something that
sets us at Gelb apart. We
know the history of the customer. We know kind of the
direction they are trying to
go. We want to help them
do that.”
Even, perhaps, helping them some day into a
job at Gelb. C
•
AROUND TOWN •
Optimist Club Crab Feed
An Optimist Club crab feed, featuring
healthy crab obtained during the ban on
local crab fishing, sated the public taste for
the delicacy March 5, with Redwood City
schools and youth groups benefiting.
Proceeds from the event, financed
entirely by club members, will defray
cost of improvements at the La Honda
Youth Camp and a Grand Canyon trip
for 7th-graders.
The cooking crew for the Crab Feed
from left to right: John Butterfield,
John Allen, Octoviano Morfin, Cathy
Brda, Ralph Garcia, Gene Firpo.
Accenture Unveils Liquid Application Studio
Accenture opened its first Liquid
Application Studio on March 8th at
Seaport Centre. Liquid is a new facility
designed to help businesses dramatically
accelerate application development
by using contemporary architectures,
reusable components, automation tools
and leading software development
methods.
In layman’s terms, Liquid is a think
tank and fulfillment center wrapped into
one, catering to Fortune 500 companies.
Accenture is a leading global
professional services company, providing
a broad range of services and solutions in
strategy, consulting, digital, technology
and operations.
Left: Bhaskar Ghosh, group chief executive,
Accenture Technology Services
24 · CLIMATE · April 2016
•
AROUND TOWN •
Sequoia Awards Celebrates 25 Years
The Sequoia Awards, a non-profit
organization dedicated to honoring
volunteerism in Redwood City, celebrated
25 years by awarding $175,000 in
scholarships to 27 students bound for
college. These high school seniors were
recognized purely on their uncompensated
community service.
Founded in 1991 by Pete and Paula
Uccelli, Ted Hannig, Bob Franceschini,
Jack Castle, Alpio Babara, and Pete
Hughes, the six founders donated $100
each, awarding $600 to Tony Campbell
with an additional $100 allocated for Tony
to donate to the charity of his choice.
To date the organization has awarded
over $1.9 million in scholarships.
Student scholarships ranged from
$5,000 and $7,500 and the top recipient
Sadie Rhen won a $25,000 scholarship.
Also honored as Outstanding
Individual was Alyn Beals for his volunteer
efforts with a multitude of charities spanning over 30 years. The Outstanding
Business Award went to DPR Construction.
Beyond volunteer efforts, DPR formed its
own foundation in 2008 and has awarded
over $4.2 million in grants to economically
disadvantaged youths
Left: Sadie Rhen, recipient of the Outstanding
Student Award — a $25,000 scholarship.
Student recipients of Sequoia
Award Scholarships: Dalia
Barrientos, Claire Bugos,
Jennifer Cuevas, Tatiana
Guardado, Elizabeth Lahey,
Jennifer Lazo, Abby LopezRamirez, Lauren Ringman,
Jessica Robles Diaz,
Anika Rohlfes, Chelcy
Toscano, Babak Amerian,
Maria Bolus,
Blake Carbonneau, Patrick
Driscoll, Salma Ismail, Komal
Kumar, Cyrus Morrison,
Bianca Munoz, Emma
O’Hara, Jordan Sandoval,
Juliana Shahid, Kristoffer
Sjolund, Sofia Surraco, Mijal
Epelman, and Elisa Guizar
Right: Peter Nosler of DPR and
members of his team, receive their
award for Outstanding Business.
Tony Campbell, the first recipient of a Sequoia
Awards scholarship of $600.
Mayor John Seybert hands the Individual of the
Year award to Alyn Beals.
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 25
•
AROUND TOWN •
Chamber of Commerce goes to Sacramento
The Redwood City Chamber of Commerce
hosted its second annual legislative
trip to Sacramento March 7, ferrying a
delegation of 30 local businessmen and
women to the state capitol to meet with
district representatives. The bus journey
brings local issues to state legislators,
gives the local delegation a feel of what
it’s like to work in the state legislature and
allows participants to learn of colleagues’
concerns.
Personal presentations were made
by 13th District Senator Jerry Hill, 22nd
Assembly District representative and
Speaker pro Tem of the Assembly Kevin
Mullin and 24th District Assemblyman
Rick Gordon. The trio hosted an hourlong questionand-answer session for
the delegation that covered a spectrum
of concerns from the political workings
of the legislature and Congress to water
conservation and housing policy.
Lunch featured presentations by a
panel of lobbyists moderated by Kaiser
Permanente Director of Public Affairs
Stacey Wagner.
For more information concerning next
year’s trip contact Amy Buckmaster:
amy@rdwoodcitychamber.com
26 · CLIMATE · April 2016
Mario Rendon,
District Director for
Assemblyman Kevin
Mullin, and Amy
Buckmastere make
connections upon
arriving.
Top: Senator Jerry Hill greets Chamber
member Tamera Del Bene.
Right: Senator Hill and Assemblymen
Kevin Mullin and Rich Gordon speak
with the group.
Below: An assembly of Lobbyists field
questions during lunch.
•
AROUND TOWN •
SAMCEDA Presents Awards of Excellence
The San Mateo County Economic
Development Association (SAMCEDA)
presented its Innovators Awards of
Excellence at Oracle Conference Center
March 11. Awardees were noted for their
technology and their contributions to the
local business environment. They were:
· Carbon 3D, innovators of 3D printing.
· Health Crowd, defining the mobile
health market.
· Fit 3D, body scanning technology
· Norse, global leader in live attack
intelligence.
· Oric Pharmaceuticals, innovative
therapies for cancer.
· Wonder Workshop, teaching coding
to children.
· Wayne Bunker, President & CEO
of Provident Credit Union received the
Bohannon Award for leadership.
Top: SAMCEDA CEO, Roseanne Foust
with Wayne Bunker, President & CEO of
Provident Credit Union.
Left: Oracle CEO Safra Catz
St. Patrick’s Day Celebration and Auction
Top: New Mayor John
Seybert poses with new Miss
Redwood City Elyse Vincenzi.
Left: Kieth Everett wears his
Irish proudly.
St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated
in style with an auction dinner
benefiting Kainos Home & Training
Center, held at the Veterans
Memorial building. The event was
hosted by Peninsula Sunrise Rotary
Club and underwritten by San
Mateo Credit Union. This was the
Left: Kainos Director
22nd consecutive St. Patrick’s Day
Andy Frish and
event put on by the Rotary.
Development
Director Kristen
Uthman.
Left: Event caterer, Dave Hyman, with
wife Diane and daughter Elizabeth.
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 27
•
AROUND TOWN FOLLOW-UP•
Literacy Group Meets
Last month’s Climate featured an article
about literacy in Redwood City and the
efforts being made to help those who
cannot read. A meeting of prominent
business and community leaders was held
at the home of Bonnie Hanson March 2 to
raise awareness and gather support.
Speakers included Mayor John
Seybert, Bonnie Hanson, Assistant
Superintendent at Sequoia High School
Union Dist., John Baker, Superintendent of
RWC School District.
John Baker, Superintendant
of RWC School District.
Aili Ice Celebrates Reopening
Aili Ice Designs, Creative Floral
Concepts reopened on March 16 at its
2363 Broadway location after repairs
were completed due to damage caused
by the Broadway Masla Indian Cuisine
fire in December.
With champagne in hand, owner
Aili toasted guests who came to help
celebrate, saying, “It’s been a trying
time, but it is so good to be home again.”
Ida Balsamo 1926 - 2016
Our last issue of Climate featured four
women that were once usherettes at the
Fox Theatre. It is with great sadness that
we report that Ida Balsamo passed away
on March 10th.
A graduate of Sequoia High she
lived and worked in Redwood City for
some 67 years. Ida was married to Art
Balsamo who passed away just before
their 51st anniversary.
Ida worked at the Fox Theatre, the
creamery, EZ Davies Chevrolet and the
Sequoia Union High School District
28 · CLIMATE · April 2016
before retiring to travel with Art.
Together they managed to cover six of
seven continents.
“She was an active senior and a
social butterfly.” says only son, Jeffrey.
“And I think shopping came naturally to
her. Kohls stock should be plummeting
any day now.”
Services were held at St. Pius
Church on March 28th. Ida Balsamo was
a great friend to many and she will be
missed.
•
E N T E R TA I N M E N T •
April 1 Jazzi Jan & Bay Area’s Finest
April 1
Salsa Spot - Orquesta Borinquen
Female Jazz Ensemble
April 16
April 2
Nelson’s Illusions
April 6
SPLEAN
TEMPEST - High Energy Celtic Rock!
April 22
Club Fox Blues Jam
Lara Price’s Girls got the Blues Revue
Wael Kfoury Live in Concert
April 8
Rock-n-Soul’s Time Traveling Jam
April 29
For tickets and info go to: foxrwc.com
April 9
Salvador Santana plus Camino,
Foreign Frontiers
April 14
Antsy McClain and Friends
Featuring Jacob Johnson
April 15
Salsa Spot - Saboricua
April 23
Fundraising rib & chili competition
for the St. Pius school
April 16
Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers: a ZZ Top
Tribute, The Butlers, and Featherwitch
April 17
The Nancy Gilliland Trio Salutes Frank
Sinatra - Benefiting the Sequoia YMCA
April 20
Club Fox Blues Jam - Marina Crouse
and Garth Webber
Every Friday & Saturday
Belly Dancing
April 21
Assembly of Dust
Doobie Decibel System Band
April 22/23
March 25 - April 10
Tainted Love
Too Much, Too Much, Too Many
Club Fox Blues Jam - ON TOUR:
The Rae Gordon Band
Sherri Park performs
Wear and Tear Living Woman
April 27
April 29
HOT FOR TEACHER
the Van Halen Experience with Stung:
A Tribute To The Police
April 30
House Of Floyd
For more info go to: clubfoxrwc.com
April 4
For more info go to: dragonproductions.net
Backyard Coffee
April 1 Singer Songwriter Night 7pm
April 2 Girls Night Out 7pm
April 6 Philosophy Throwdown
April 2 Scott Dailey Trio
April 3 Mike Galisatus Big Band
April 5 The Denny Berthiaume Trio
with Special Guests Kathy Holly &
Gabrielle Cavassa
April 6 Kate Targan -Singer-songwriter
April 7 Pamela Rose & Her Swinging Band
April 8 Tribal Blues Band
April 9 County Line Trio
April 10 Bay Area Belly Dance Festival 6th Annual - All Day Belly dancing!
April 12 The Denny Berthiaume Trio with
Special Guests Moy Eng & Michele Weir
April 13 Vocal Friends’ Day: Rick
Ferguson Trio with Special Guests
April 14 Will Russ Jr. &
The Force of Will Band
April 15 The Grateful Bluegrass Boys and
The Steven Graves Band
April 16 The Touch of Class Band
April 19 The Denny Berthiaume Trio
with Special Guests Letitia Burton &
Yolandra Rhodes
April 20 Aria Bella Trio- Classical &
Opera Italian Songs
April 21 Ruth Gerson & Her Students
April 22 Carolee & FlashDrive Featuring:
Charlie Barreda & Rafael Ramirez
April 24 Mike Galisatus &
The San Mateo Jazz Ensembles
April 26 The Denny Berthiaume Trio
with Special Guests Ellen Robinson &
Andrea Wolper
April 27 Rick Ferguson Dinner Piano Music
April 28 Belly Dance Show With
International Superstars
April 29 Keith Andrew Band and
Darryl Walker
April 30 ELVIS PRESLEY TRIBUTE
ARTIST ‘George Silva’
Every Tuesday
Open Mic Hosted by Pete Sommer
For more shows and info go to: angelicasllc.com
Open Discussion 7pm
April 8 Pavlov’s Kats Band 7pm
April 9 Evening of Indie Rock 7pm
April 6-13-20-27 Comedy Night 9pm
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 29
•
COMMUNITY CALENDAR •
April
!
8:30 am – Coffee with the Cops
5
7:00 pm – Planning Commission meeting
8:30/9:30 pm – Magic Lantern 3-D Show
6
7:00 pm – Zoning Administrator meeting
11 7:00 pm – City Council Meeting
12 8:30/9:30 pm – Magic Lantern 3-D Show
13 7:00 pm – Zoning Administrator meeting
14 8:30 am – Coffee with the Cops
1:00 pm – Senior Affairs Commission meeting
15 7:30 pm - Sequoia High School: Dance ‘16
16 11:00 am - STEM Festival
7:30 pm - Sequoia High School: Dance ‘16
17 8:30 am – Coffee with the Cops
7:30 pm - Sequoia High School: Dance ‘16
197:00 pm - Planning Commission meeting
7:00 pm - Literary Board meeting
8:30/9:30 pm – Magic Lantern 3-D Show
23 8:30 am - Annual Earth Day Spring Cleanup
9:00 am - Compost Giveaway
25 7:00 pm – City Council Meeting
26 7:00 pm – Housing and Human Concerns meeting
8:30/9:30 pm – Magic Lantern 3-D Show
27 8:00 am – Port Commission meeting
30 6:00 pm – Wild Wild West Library 150 year Celebration
For details and more events go to:
redwoodcity.org/calendar
Letters to the Editor
Send your thoughts and
comments to:
Editor@climaterwc.com
Letters must be kept to
150 words or less and
be signed.
30 · CLIMATE · April 2016
•
C L I M AT E •
Send us your best
4th of July
photo!
Cruise and Island Resort Combo Special
If chosen it will appear in our
July issue. So dig up creative
shots from recent or past
parades, fun moments or artistic
festive expression and send it in.
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What we need: a digital file
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• FJ$100 resort credit at Tokoriki Island Resort
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Questions to the same address
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Lindam@tadvisor.com www.traveladvisorsoflosgatos
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April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 31
•
FOOD b y E m i l y M a n g i n i •
Timber & Salt
At Timber & Salt (881 Middlefield
Road) a cocktail is not just a drink, it is
a moment in time. This is exactly what
self-described cocktail nerds and Timber & Salt owners Brian Matulis and
Stewart Putney had in mind when
they set out to create the cocktail-forward, comfort food restaurant. Where
a casual consumer might simply see a
mixed drink, Matulis and Putney saw
much more than liqueurs and alcohol.
They peered into the soul of cocktails
and saw so much more.
“There is such history behind
the cocktail,” said Putney, a veteran
of the startup world turned private
farmer and food writer. “And there
is a beauty too. The bottles, the glassware, even the sounds when a drink
is being made are beautiful.”
How beautiful? Consider an apothecary-like wall, lined with bottles of every
color, curve and size, catching the light of
happy hour’s fading sun. Tiny boulders
of ice, just chiseled off the block, clink,
clink into the shaker. An arc of gin follows, then a splash of curacoa. With a flick
of the wrist, the bitters are in. A couple of
hard shakes, nonchalant yet precise, and a
smooth rivulet of liquor swan dives into
a delicately stemmed glass. Here’s your
Moonrise Kingdom.
The pair’s choice of Redwood City as
the home for Timber & Salt was rooted in a
similar esthetic appreciation.
“This town and community has a
great vibe, and we both liked that it has a
rich history,” explained Matulis, a botanist
by training and mixologist by passion.
The name itself is homage to Redwood
City’s history: “Timber” represents the
redwood mills that put the city on the map
and “Salt” references the salt production
that has been a feature of the bay shoreline
32 · CLIMATE · April 2016
Brian Matulis and Stewart Putney
for a century. Murals depicting both industries painted by one of the servers decorate
the restaurant’s walls.
While the duo is excited about cocktails
and history, attention to food is not left to
chance. Matulis and Putney entrusted the
culinary menu to Chef Dylan Harper.
Focusing on comfort food, hearty
dishes like fried chicken, or steak and
frites, grace the Timber & Salt table.
“We are cocktail focused, but we want
the drinks to accentuate the food, and vice
versa,” explained Matulis. Consequently,
small plates are a staple. This is where duck
confit tacos meet Pullman Toast, a thick slab
of bread with truffle burrata, roasted forest
mushrooms and a poached egg.
To seal the deal of artisanal fanfare,
Harper has dared to bring back the culturally dubious fondue. Adding a rustic
modern twist, Harper makes his fondue
with beer and cheese, serving it with apple
slices and warm chunks of crusty bread.
Food and cocktail are serious craft
at Timber & Salt. As Matulis creates
the cocktail menu he focuses on details
as specific as how many drinks are to
be shaken, how many stirred. Even
the proof of alcohol is considered: The
owners hold that the key is to use full
strength alcohols so that drinks won’t
be diluted by the bevy of bitters and
tinctures, many of which are made inhouse using herbs and produce from
Putney’s farm. Despite this dedication to serious
craft, there is a buoyancy in the sea of
plaid-clad servers and dark corners
of refurbished wood. Matulis created
drinks inspired by Wes Anderson films
to add a bit of playfulness.
“It all started with the Zissou, named
for Bill Murray’s character in Life
Aquatic,” he said. “In the film he plays
this washed-up Jacque Cousteau-like
character. Not only do I envision him
drinking this vermouth cocktail on the
deck of his ship, but Zissou was based in
Port au Prince, Haiti and the cocktail uses
Haitian rum.”
As for the spring menu, the naming
theme is still to be determined. “Maybe I
will do music, something to go with the
lightness of the season” he mused.
Opened in September of 2015, Timber & Salt is seven months into its year of
“firsts.” But in the end, the partners are
taking it one day, one season at time.
Matulis summed it up simply: “We’re
excited to be here in Redwood City. We’ve
got a big first year ahead of us, but it’s going to be fun.” C
Read more of Emily Mangini’s food adventures at
www.mytartufo.com, on Twitter @mytartufo
•
33 · CLIMATE · March 2016
C L I M A T E ••
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 33
•
34 · CLIMATE · April 2016
C L I M AT E •
•
HISTORY by Jim Clifford•
Woman’s Club Baby Clinic – Little Known, but Not Forgotten
March was Woman’s
History Month, a time
when the often overlooked contributions of
women are touted. One
chapter of Redwood City
history that gets little, if
any, touting was a Well
Baby Clinic operated by
the Redwood City Woman’s Club.
The clinic’s accomplishments were obscure until a few years
ago when researchers at the history
room in the city library hit upon the
clinic saga while gathering information about the club’s history.
Though it drew statewide attention in the midst of the Great Depression, the clinic virtually vanished
from Peninsula history. The facility
was lauded in the 1930s in an extensive article that appeared in the California Federation News published
by the federation of California women’s clubs. The Redwood City club
“is justly proud of its club women
to whom each and every little life is
precious,” the newspaper said.
In the late 1920s the women were
asked to house the clinic, then limited to one room downtown, in the
club building on Clinton Street. The
county turned to the club for help
“when use of the room could no
longer be had and no other central
place could be found,” according to
the account in the Federation News.
The article said mothers brought
babies from as far away as San Francisco to the clubhouse, where the
infants were weighed, their height
measured and a diet prescribed. A
chart was kept of the child’s progress from week to week. The clinic
catered mainly to poor immigrant
families, mostly Mexican. San Mateo County furnished all supplies
as well as a social service nurse.
Doctors Adelaide Brown and Ralph
Howe, aided by club members, volunteered their services at the clinic,
which operated every Wednesday.
Later the clinic moved to Washington School where club records for
1937 showed there were 354 visits by
mothers who were seen by a doctor,
“our own Mrs. Nelson Andrews.” In
1940, the records referred to Andrews
as “Doctor Bertha Andrews,” who
by then was giving immunizations
against diphtheria and small pox.
The detailed 1940 report by
the club’s Child Welfare Section
stressed that the clinic was, as its
name implied, for “well children.”
Any cases of illness or accident
brought to the clinic were “immediately referred to the family phy-
sician or, if necessary, to
the County Health Department.” The report
said that between June
of 1939 and May 1940 the
clinic staff examined 697
children. There were 33
immunizations as well
as four smallpox vaccinations.
The clinic hit its peak in
1950 when it cared for 817
babies, according to a report in the Redwood City
Tribune. Polio shots were added to
the clinic’s offerings in 1956. After
this, there is little known about the
clinic. There is no mention of it in
the 1958 report by the club’s president. Apparently the clinic’s function was taken over by the county. A
club note in 1972 said the clinic was
moved to a union hall where it was
operated by nurses from the County
Health and Welfare Department.
C
April 1
History Museum Continues Its
Free First Fridays Program
April 16
11th Annual Maritime Day. This FREE event
highlights the Charles Parsons’ Ships of the
World exhibit gallery that features 24 model
ships hand crafted by expert model maker
Charles Parsons.
For information go to
www.historysmc.org or call 650-299-0104.
April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 35
•
ART SCENE by Beth Mostovoy•
Public Art Update: Shadow Art Brightens Downtown
Damon Belanger grew up
in San Jose, married, has
an 18-month-old daughter,
works as a graphic designer and lives in San Carlos. Nothing there to hint
that Belanger has a secret,
shadow life, filled with
imaginary creatures that
ride trains and unicycles or
lurk by mailboxes. There
are monkeys in this secret
life. And robots; lots of robots. Step into the shadows
downtown, where these
creatures now can be found,
and all will be revealed.
Belanger, a “mostly self-taught artist,” was chosen among several applicants
by the “Art Gorillas Committee” to bring
public art downtown and is recipient of a
$30,000 arts grant, which supports his effort to make more vibrant public spaces in
and around Courthouse Square.
Goal of the project is to add beauty
and vibrancy to downtown, to “bring art
to unexpected places with sidewalk and
shadow art” whereby everyday objects
like bike racks, benches and light posts
have mismatched painted shadows or are
decorated as animals or flowers.
The concept was born at a January
2015 an Art Forum held at Fox Forum. Fox
owner Eric Lochtefeld attended “just to
check in. I did not know what event was
happening. I find a room filled with artists
with ideas and projects they wanted to do
for years.”
Lochtefeld also serves as Chairman
and President of the Redwood City Improvement Association (RCIA), a non-profit organization in contract with Redwood
City to administer annual revenues for the
Community Benefit Improvement District
to fund special benefits or services.
36 · CLIMATE · April 2015
Artist Damon Belanger
“I immediately realized that we
(RCIA) had money we wanted to spend on
public art to beautify the downtown but no
ideas,” he said, “and the artists had tons of
great ideas and no money. We needed to
make a bridge to connect with the art community.”
As a result, RCIA invited members of
ARTS RWC to present ideas and approved
the $30,000 grant.
To administer the program the RCIA,
Parks, Recreation and Community Services, Redwood City Parks and Arts Foundation and ARTS RWC formed the “Art
Gorillas” Committee to do the job. The
Gorillas approved a Sidewalk and Shadow
Art Project and called for artists to apply.
Belanger was thrilled to have his designs selected.
“It’s a great opportunity right in my
backyard. Redwood City is what a downtown should be: great events; public art
happening. Before, artists only looked at
San Francisco and San Jose. That is changing now.”
As subjects Belanger chose themes and
characters from past work. “I painted my
whole life and did a lot of ‘cartoonish’ art,
often exploring humanoid forms with aug-
mentations like bicycle
wheels instead of feet,
or octopus-like arms. I
worked at Guitar Hero
and came up with robot
characters for them.”
Using the pavement
as canvas at 20 locations, Belanger’s shadow creatures debuted in
late February.
“They are fun, unexpected characters designed to catch people
by surprise and make
photo by Beth Mostovoy them laugh,” he said.
“My daughter saw me working on the
flower shadows and laughed when she
saw them. It’s great to see the reactions of
people when they see a bike rack and the
shadow I painted is a robot hand.”
Lochtefeld is pleased, and believes this
is the beginning of many public art collaborations.
“The community voted to include the
Percent for Art in the Community Benefits
package,” he said. “People are noticing
Magic Lantern, murals and now shadow
art. RCIA funding for public art will increase. We want to hear the reactions to
these exciting art projects.”
Belanger continues to populate downtown with shadow art creatures, but at the
same time he is pursuing new figurative
artwork he calls a “180-degree change.”
It involves painting realistic portraits emphasizing culture and family. Showing a
few examples of this work, Belanger mentions how much he enjoys working with
his new medium: light.
C
www.damonbelanger.com
(RCIA) visitrwc.org
•
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April 2016 ·
CLIMATE · 37
•
COMMUNITY NON-PROFITS•
Redwood City Gets the Giving Feeling!
Redwood City Gives Together is a coalition of Redwood
City nonprofits spearheaded by the Redwood City
Education Foundation and the Redwood City Parks &
Arts Foundation to bring awareness to the Silicon Valley
Gives event on Tuesday May 3, 2016. Silicon Valley
Gives is a 24-hour online event held throughout the Bay
Area to provide a simple way to connect donors to the
charitable causes they care about most.
Our Library: 150 years young
The Redwood City Library Foundation is celebrating the 150th
Anniversary of our Library. Celebrate with us! Join us for the Wild,
Wild West party on April 30th at Devil’s Canyon Brewery.
DID YOU KNOW? the Redwood City Library is older than the city of
Redwood City? Yes! We reach all the way back to the Wild West years.
Yee-Haw! Register and get your tickets! www.rclfdn.org/events
On May 3, go to your favorite nonprofit’s website to
see if they are participating so you can give to make
Redwood City even better!
Climate invites community non-profits to send us announcements
for upcoming events. Send to editor@climaterwc.com
Good food. good friends. good family.
Sale!
Limited Victoria Bracha
Outerwear
60% off
Plus large size women’s
blouses and pants
Canyon Inn is a family owned restaurant
that has been serving the Redwood City
community since 1973.
We must be doing something right.
587 Canyon Road • 650.369.1646
38 · CLIMATE · April 2016
Vacuums & Sewing Machines
• Sales & Service
• Bags, Belts & Filters
837 Main St., Redwood City •
650-368-2841
Redwood City’s Historic Downtown Hotel
868 Main St., Redwood City · (650) 363-1642 · pacificeurohotel.com
NEW! Magic Lantern 3D Show
The Redwood City Improvement Association invites the public to an
amazing FREE light and sound extravaganza at the Courthouse Square.
Experience the transformation of the San Mateo County History
Museum via 3-Dimensional Video Projection Mapping. Please see the
schedule below for show dates and times. There will be two 15 minute
shows per night in front of the Fox Theatre.
Dates
1st Show Times
2nd Show Times
April 5/12/19/26
8:30 - 8:45 PM
9:30 - 9:45 PM
Two shows per night running through April 26
(every Tuesday night)
For more info go to: visitrwc.org
Presented by
Sponsored by
www.visitrwc.org
www.rwcpaf.org