East Palo Alto News: December 2008

It is important to us to familiarize our supporters with the amazing community of East Palo Alto that we feel so fortunate to serve.  This new column will feature various aspects of life in East Palo Alto, including interviews with local leaders and youth.

East Palo Alto is a community which faces great challenges but which also has a rich history and is animated by the dreams of a diverse and resilient population.  Because too often, only the bad news is broadcast about East Palo Alto, the community is plagued with stereotypes and fear mongering in the mass media.  It doesn’t help to romanticize life here either—we suffer from some profound difficulties and disparities that often defy simple explanation. After working here for less than two years, I still consider myself a newcomer, and I learn something new about this amazing community with each passing day.  Generally, what I learn only fuels my growing passion to serve the people who live here.  With three decades of personal experience in social service, I have served many communities, but none have been more interesting or more complex than East Palo Alto.

During my first week on the job, I began a self-taught course I called “East Palo Alto 101.”  Essential reading was a Masters’ thesis written by Mike Berman, a beloved teacher at East Palo Alto Charter School.  Mike is one of many who have studied at nearby Stanford University, and have found opportunity to learn and to serve in East Palo Alto. His thesis, titled “Race, Ethnicity and Inter-minority Suburban Politics: East Palo Alto, 1950-2002,” provides one fascinating perspective on the evolution of a community.  Like many others, Mike fell in love with East Palo Alto and has committed himself to teaching East Palo Alto children.  The results at East Palo Alto Charter school are amazing—the school’s test scores and academic achievements are astounding, and the students benefit from a school culture where every child is encouraged and prepared to go to college.

A documentary film called “Dreams of a City: The East Palo Alto Project,” provides another amazing introduction to the community. "Dreams" was originated by Stanford’s Committee on Black Performing Arts, in collaboration with the citizens of East Palo Alto, and was produced and directed by another Stanford alumnus, Michael Levin, who currently serves as Executive Director of www.EPA.net.  The documentary focuses on the evolution of the area during the 20th century--from its agrarian beginning in the 1920's, to attempts to encourage large economic development projects in the final decade.

Another incredible read is the Week’s Neighborhood Plan, a planning document developed in 1997 by community advocates and environmental visionaries to preserve one of the many great neighborhoods in East Palo Alto that has had a rich agricultural history.  The area was named after Charles Weeks, an agricultural developer and one of long line of entrepreneurs who sought unusual ways to sell land in East Palo Alto.  "One Acre and Independence" was Weeks' famous motto, and was also the name of a book he wrote promoting the idea.  In the 1920s, Weeks sold 640 mini- one-acre farms where families raised chickens, rabbits, goats, fruits and vegetables on what is now present-day East Palo Alto.

Since the late 1990s, the Weeks Neighborhood has been rapidly changing, as has the rest of the city.  At a breakneck pace, land in East Palo Alto is being subdivided, houses are being built, new businesses and shopping centers are opening, and more people of all income levels are seeking houses to rent or buy here.  More and more people are driving their cars through East Palo Alto on the main drag of University Drive (essentially a corridor between the 101 and the Dumbarton Bridge leading over to the East Bay.)  University has become so heavily trafficked that it is under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Transportation.  The 101 Freeway also passes right through the center of the community, and many in the community perceive air quality issues; East Palo Alto has the highest rate of child asthma hospitalizations in San Mateo County.  This is among many other health disparities that exist in East Palo Alto. A health profile of East Palo Alto is available here.

East Palo Alto residents have a lot of pressures on them, coming from outside and inside the community.  The history of East Palo Alto has been written by many, and there is even a version by Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation, once the largest toxic waste handler of its kind in the country.  Romic was located in East Palo Alto until it was shut down last year.  Commercial interests may well try to re-write the history of East Palo Alto again, given that the city’s real estate is now in such high demand. Gentrification is rapidly changing the landscape in the city as new condominium and commercial developments are being built so fast that it is hard to keep track of them all.

According to the 2000 census, the city is 58.8 percent Latino, but the Ravenswood City School District that serves East Palo Alto reports the ethnic make-up of the population is dominantly Hispanic (70%), African American (20%), Pacific Islander (9%) and other 1%. After the most recent election, for the first time in East Palo Alto's 25-year history as a city, a majority of the five City Council members are Latino.  Political newcomers Carlos Romero and Laura Martinez will join Ruben Abrica and David Woods, who were not up for election, and A. Peter Evans, who won re-election.  Martinez, 24, is Program Director for the local YMCA and the youngest person ever elected to the council.  She went off to college and chose to come back and serve her community, a tradition in her family, and increasingly among other families in East Palo Alto.

We hope that over time this column will help to sketch out a picture of our community that will enhance your understanding of our work, and lead you to join our mission of food system change, health and environmental education in this amazing city.
-- Executive Director, Wolfram Alderson