Category archive

Featured - page 100

Woman stabbed in San Carlos, estranged husband arrested

in Crime/Featured/Headline by

A woman was stabbed and battered in San Carlos Monday night by her estranged husband, who was arrested at the scene, according to the San Mateo County Office of the Sheriff.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the 900 block of East San Carlos Avenue about midnight after receiving a 911 call from a female who lives there, deputies said. The dispatchers could hear a disturbance in the background, and deputies were immediately sent to the scene.

They arrived at the home within two minutes and found the victim with injuries from a stabbing and battery.

Deputies discovered that the suspect had broken into the apartment purposefully to attack the victim, and also learned that two children were in the home when the assault occurred.

The suspect, who was not immediately identified, was booked into County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder, burglary and child endangerment, deputies said.

Anyone with additional information about this crime is encouraged to contact Sheriff’s Detective Velasquez at (650) 363-4062 or via email at jvelasquez@smcgov.org. Anonymous calls can be made to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Anonymous Tip Line at 1-800-547-2700.

Firefighters take part in Camp Fire exposure health study

in Community/Featured/Headline by
Local firefighters participate in health study following Camp Fire exposure

San Mateo County firefighters weren’t just trying to protect homes and lives in the devastating Camp Fire in Northern California. They also took steps to determine the longterm health of firefighters exposed to the immense amount of smoke during large wildfires.

Immediately after coming off the fireline Thursday, San Mateo Strike Team 2276A participated in an exposure study that aims to assess documentable levels of significant, sustained smoke exposure. The research will be conducted by the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and is sponsored by the International Association of Fire Firefighters (IAFF).

The image above, posted to the Redwood City Fire Department’s Instagram account, shows a Redwood City firefighter taking part in the study, which was initiated by San Mateo Fire Battalion Chief Joe Novelli.

Last Tuesday, members of the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation (SFFCPF) began receiving texts and phone calls about firefighters concerned about the level the toxic exposure at the Camp Fire.

“The question that resonated among all of them was if we were going to be able to get up there to get blood samples to be analyzed,” according to the SFFCPF.

Enloe Hospital in Chico stepped up and offered to draw blood, and the foundation connected with UCSF to conduct the study.

“[UCSF] requested that urine samples be taken and respirator filters be saved to analyze,” the foundation said.

This coming week, “We will have all samples sent to UCSF to be stored until we have permission from an internal review board to go ahead with the analysis,” the foundation said.

The hope is the study “provides information that benefits the entire industry and leads to best practices that support long term health for firefighters,” the foundation said.

Car crashes into business near Sequoia Station

in Community/Featured/Headline by
Car crashes into business at Sequoia Station

The Redwood City Fire Department shared this image of a car that drove into a business at Sequoia Station Sunday morning.

The accident occurred about 7:30 a.m. and significantly damaged the storefront of the Bluemercury beauty store at 1043 El Camino Real, but no one was injured and the store was closed at the time.

The driver pressed the accelerator instead of the brakes before the crash, police told NBC Bay Area.

The store will remain closed for a few days for repairs, a store representative told Climate Online.

Political Climate with Mark Simon: Leo Ryan an overlooked part of the Jonestown Massacre

in Featured/Headline/PoliticalClimate by

My mother, Barbara, was heavily involved in San Mateo County politics as an operative, campaign worker and campaign manager, which means I grew up surrounded by political discussion, debate, campaigns and candidates.

The first candidate I met was Leo Ryan, who was in my living room, conducting a campaign coffee, when I came home one afternoon from the fourth grade.

The 40th anniversary of Jonestown has generated an expected and understandable series of news stories about the horrendous tragedy in that distant jungle.

But it always has felt to me that Leo was an overlooked part of this story, not only because he was the catalyst for what was an inevitable march toward madness and mass murder, but because of who he was – a true maverick, a rule-breaker and a bold personality.

So, in observance of the 40th anniversary of his death, consider this a tribute to a man – frequently and flamboyantly flawed, but one of us, our congressman, our homegrown politician who was, in many ways, truly larger than life.

In addition to cluttering up my living room one fall afternoon, Leo was an English teacher at Capuchino High School in Millbrae, and he led the school’s famous marching band to Washington, where it marched in President Kennedy’s inauguration parade. My brother, Rick, was part of that expedition.

Even then, he was angling for higher office and the legend goes that while the high school band toured Washington, Leo was roaming the halls of Congress, paving the way for his future career.

He served on the South San Francisco City Council at a time when the politics of that city were thoroughly dominated by the Italian-American community, and his election remained a source of resentment among those who thought his seat should have been theirs.

This resentment extended to his election to the state Assembly, representing the northern half of San Mateo County.

By the time he was elected to Congress, he was easily the most dominant political figure on the Peninsula. In one of his elections, he secured the Democratic and Republican nominations and he appeared on the November ballot as the sole candidate.

LEO. JUST LEO: You may have noticed that I’ve been referring to him as Leo, rather than his last name or his title. Everyone knew him as Leo. He was everywhere – speaking to local groups, talking with local newspapers, and gaining headlines for his “investigative representation,” in which he would go places and confront issues.

That was his trademark. He served as a substitute teacher in Watts after the riots there, posed as an inmate at Folsom Prison, and confronted pelt hunters slaughtering baby seals in Newfoundland.

He believed that bringing attention to issues and conditions would spark public policy to address those issues. If, along the way, he gained attention for himself, well, it was only a reasonable result of the risks he was willing to take.

Only one member of Congress has come close to matching Leo’s unique ability to generate publicity that addressed critical issues and raised the member’s profile. That’s Jackie Speier, Leo’s protégé, whose own ability to pull an issue into the spotlight has made her a figure of national reputation.

Leo looked like a congressman. He had silver hair, carefully coifed, and a booming voice. He was well over six feet tall, his face had strong and distinctive features and he could dominate any room he entered.

He was not a team player in Congress and a number of insiders dismissed him as a lightweight, but he didn’t care. He had his own agenda and it wasn’t the classic mindset that you had to go along to get along.

He was proud of his local roots, however, and what was said about him locally mattered to him a great deal. He once sent a handwritten note to my mother, apologizing for a disagreement. As a political reporter, I covered his last campaign for Congress in 1978, and I recall him calling me into his office and conducting a detailed and loud critique of one of my stories.

COME TO JONESTOWN: All that means I was well acquainted with Leo, not just as a political reporter, which I was in 1978 for the Redwood City Tribune, but as a family friend.

On election nights in San Mateo County, it was customary in those days for candidates to make personal appearances at the offices of the county Elections department in Redwood City, where they could get the latest results and speak with the press.

Covering the election for the Redwood City Tribune, I bumped into Leo in the Elections office and, leaning against a row of three-drawer filing cabinets, we talked about the election.

Then he turned the topic to his upcoming investigative trip to Guyana to check on the Peoples Temple. He said something about doing so on behalf of some constituents.

Familiar with Leo’s crusading, some would call it grandstanding, I was skeptical that this was anything more than a junket, and I said as much to him.

I told him I thought he would spend an hour in Guyana and then zip off to some exotic island.

No, he said, this is serious, and he said I ought to join the group of reporters also making the trip. I told him he needed to talk to my editors.

Apparently, he called them the next day and urged them to send me on the trip. They declined. The Redwood City Tribune was a small newspaper that lacked a lot of resources, and they had spent a good chunk of change earlier in the year sending me on a two-week trip around the state with Jerry Brown and Evelle Younger, covering the governor’s race.

Some days later, of course, we got the news about Leo and the Jonestown massacre, which included the shooting of several of the reporters on the trip.

We met in the Tribune newsroom the next day and Managing Editor Glenn Brown, City Editor Bruce Lee and Editor Dave Schutz decided to send me and Bill Shilstone to Washington in time to cover the return home of Leo’s body and to do what reporting we could on those who were returning from Jonestown.

It was a Sunday morning in the days before ATMs and we didn’t have a petty cash fund on hand, so Glenn Brown contacted his pastor at his church and he gave us the money from that morning’s collection plate. I don’t know how much it was, I just remember a lot of small bills. Shilstone, who doubled as an assistant city editor and education reporter, handled the money.

Off we went to Washington. It was a different time. I was able to get into the hospital room of an NBC sound man who had been wounded and into Jackie’s hospital room, although she was in no position to answer questions.

On the flight home, I sat with Joe Holsinger, Leo’s closest friend, as he reflected on his friend’s career. Leo had been getting ready to run for Superintendent of Public Instruction. He was going to push for a statewide ballot measure embracing charter schools. He was going to shake things up.

A UNIQUE BRAND OF FEARLESSNESS: He was always willing to shake things up. It’s what he did. He was fearless. He was convinced his office carried enough stature that it would protect him.

Who would be crazy enough to attack a member of the United States Congress? In fairness, no one knew how crazy Jim Jones was.

All Leo knew was that some of his constituents were scared, terrified for their own family members. And he was determined to do something about it. He knew Congress would do little or nothing. So he decided to take direct action.

He did what he always did. He went to see for himself. It was an act of courage. It got him killed.

As stories pour forth on the events in Jonestown, I like to remember Leo – fondly, of course, with an appreciation for how fully human he was, and with respect for a public servant who saw his job as a platform for courage.

I’m forced to ponder if we’ll ever again see anyone quite like him.

Contact Mark Simon at mark.simon24@yahoo.com.

*The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Climate Online.

Climate Magazine earns 10 Press Club awards for writing and photography

in Community/Featured/Headline by

Climate Magazine won 10 awards for writing and photography at the 41stannual San Francisco Peninsula Press Club competition, including four first-place prizes.

The awards, in the magazines and trade publications category, were presented Nov. 15 at the Press Club’s annual dinner, held at the San Francisco Airport Hilton.

Climate’s Creative Director Jim Kirkland won all three awards for photography in the magazines category, including first prize for his photos that illustrated a story on a Realtor who collects antique bottles. Second prize was for a somewhat humorous illustration that accompanied a weight-loss feature, and the third prize was awarded for photos of a story examining San Mateo County’s homeless population. Kirkland also took home a first-place award for commentary.

Climate Editor Janet McGovern won first place in the investigative reporting category for her story about the county’s homeless. She also won a third-place award for the bottle-collector profile, as well as two awards for headline-writing.

Food writer Emily Mangini collected a first-place award for her columns, and history writer Jim Clifford received a second-place award for his columns. Clifford, who also writes for the San Mateo Daily Journal, received a second-place award for a column he wrote for the newspaper on a radio station once located at Redwood Shores.

Also at the Press Club event, Kirkland was elected the organization’s new president, succeeding Antonia Ehlers.

40 YEARS LATER: Jonestown Massacre, a Peninsula story

in Community/Featured/Headline by

By Ryan McCarthy

Leo Ryan was a homegrown political success story – a large Irishman with a booming voice who dominated San Mateo County politics in a congressional district that encompassed all of the county.

A true maverick, never played along to get along, the time-honored way of succeeding in the U.S. Congress.

His career was marked most distinctly by his crusading nature. He was unafraid to venture places an elected official never went – Folsom Prison, where he posed as an inmate to push for prison reform; the Arctic Circle, where he personally confronted hunters who were clubbing baby seals to death.

His constituents loved all of it. In the 1972 election, he was the nominee of both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Rep. Leo Ryan (left) meets Sen. John F. Kennedy when Ryan was a South San Francisco councilmember in the 1950s.

He believed he could go anywhere and do anything and the attendant publicity would raise his own profile, and, not incidentally, focus attention on an important issue.

Wherever he went, he believed his office would protect him.

It was a fatal miscalculation. But he was compelled by his constituents, many of whom had expressed directly to him their fear over what was going on at the Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, a remote outpost in an obscure South American nation not far removed from colonial status.

They were Peninsula mothers and fathers, who had come to his office, often in tears, terrified that their sons and daughters were in danger, being misled by a mad man.

Somebody had to do something.

Leo Ryan was that somebody.

When the news began to trickle about the fullness of the tragedy of Jonestown, it seemed like a story from a faraway place.

But, it was a local, Peninsula story. It was our story.

***

Rosalie Wright left her home in Belmont, moved into the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco and bought a Beretta .380 semi-automatic pistol. The 35-year-old editor of New West magazine was threatened by the Peoples Temple against publishing an expose of Jim Jones. Phone calls at 2 a.m. to Wright’s home warned her: “Don’t do it.”

But Wright, who took firearm instruction at Coyote Point in San Mateo, ran the magazine story that detailed how guards patrolled the aisles during temple services on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. New West told about the temple newspaper ‘Peoples Forum’ exalting socialism and forecasting a government takeover by American Nazis. And about former temple members talking of “regimentation, fear and self-imposed humiliation.”

The night Jim Jones learned about the magazine expose he announced Peoples Temple would leave for the South America jungle settlement called ‘Jonestown.’

Sixteen months later cyanide killed nearly a thousand people. Jones directed mass death on Nov. 18, 1978.

The same day at an airstrip six miles outside Jonestown, temple security known as the Red Brigade shot and killed 53-year-old Rep. Leo Ryan, three newsmen and a woman trying to leave Jonestown. Jackie Speier, then a 27-year-old attorney on Ryan’s staff, was shot five times but survived.

***

Ryan went to South America to investigate accounts that Jonestown was an inhumane, armed camp. Families from San Mateo County, which Ryan represented in the 11th Congressional District, had contacted him about relatives in Jonestown.

Jones, 47, told his followers gathered at the settlement’s tin-roof pavilion the day before Ryan’s arrival that the congressman was part of a CIA conspiracy against the Peoples Temple.

“I didn’t come this far to be pushed about by someone from Burlingame or San Mateo, and now we found the CIA, we found our link, he’s the catalyst,” Jones said of Ryan. “We found out just exactly that. He is the catalyst.”

Jones’ paranoia and drug use spiked in the jungle. Without providing details, he said Ryan’s visit was part of the conspiracy that the temple leader said extended to groups as varied as the American Medical Association and Michigan State University. Jones claimed the university was a CIA front group.

He complained that his followers had traveled to the South American jungle only to face an inquiry by Ryan.

“We been raised up to run clear over here to find some peace to have that son of a bitch come up out of San Mateo,” Jones said. “He can take his ass back to San Mateo.”

Jones said he didn’t vote for Ryan.

“And I don’t know where Burlingame is,” Jones told followers in the jungle. “A few of you may have been there. I didn’t come from Burlingame. I don’t want nothing from Burlingame.”

When Ryan, Speier and reporters reached Jonestown the next day – Nov. 17, 1978 – Ryan told Jones’ followers that he was there for a congressional inquiry.

When Ryan said that some people in Jonestown believed this settlement was the best thing that ever happened to them, his comments were greeted with long and raucous applause. Smiling, Ryan said “I feel terrible that you can’t all register to vote in San Mateo County.”

Jones replied that people could vote by proxy.

Ryan laughed again.

“By proxy. Okay. We’ll do that if we can.”

Less than 24 hours later, Ryan would be shot dead at the airstrip.

***

In Jackie Speier’s newly published book ‘Undaunted’ the congresswoman writes about Ryan’s decision to investigate Jonestown.

“He knew that Jones had considerable political clout, with close ties to Democratic leaders in San Francisco, Sacramento, and even with the State Department of the Carter administration,” Speier recounts. “Politically, there was nothing to gain — and everything to lose — by taking on Jim Jones.”

The temple leader “arguably played a huge role in electing Mayor George Moscone in 1975, then again in defeating a recall attempt in 1977,” Speier said. “Several politicians praised Jones, none more effusively than Supervisor Harvey Milk, who went as far as writing a letter to President Jimmy Carter extolling Jones’ work.”

Speier said of Jim Jones that, “Everything about him made my skin crawl.”

“We could all sense the palpable tension in the air, hovering just beneath the surface,” she said of Jonestown the day before the settlement ended in death. “It felt like if you struck a match, the whole place would instantly explode.”

Of the deaths by cyanide of almost 1,000 people, she said, “This was not a mass suicide. It was a mass murder.”

Bill Royer, former Redwood City Councilman and San Mateo County Supervisor, won the special April 1979 election to succeed the slain Ryan. The Washington Post described Royer as a 58-year-old millionaire realtor who was friends with Hall of Fame baseball player Willie Mays.

Congressional hearings began Feb. 20, 1980 in Washington D.C. about putting in place government recommendations that followed Ryan’s death. Royer talked about Ryan’s friends as well as relatives of people who died in Jonestown.

“They all had one thing, one request – to come back here and see if everything had been done that could be done to bring the killer or killers of Leo Ryan to justice – and to see that never again would there be a situation where 900 American citizens would die in a foreign land under the tyrannical control of a false prophet such as Jim Jones.”

Clare Bouquet, a Burlingame schoolteacher whose 25-year-old son Brian died in Jonestown, spoke to the congressional panel.

“Some segments of our society have dismissed them as a bunch of crazy fanatics, or a grotesque spectacle,” Bouquet said of temple members who went to Guyana where Jonestown was located.

“But someone loved each one of them,” Bouquet said. “They went to Guyana looking for some sort of promised land, and found themselves prisoners in hell.”

She later said of her son’s death in Jonestown that, “I’m not at peace, and I’ll never be at peace.”

“But I’ve separated my son from the whole mess. He’s still my Brian. I’m very proud of him and he broke my heart and it’s still broken. It was such a waste of a beautiful life.”

Brian Bouquet had attended Mills and Serra high schools as well as the College of San Mateo.

***

Among the dead in Jonestown was 31-year-old Teresa King, who before joining the temple had dropped out of the University of Arizona when her boyfriend won a chemistry fellowship at Stanford.

King got a job at Kepler’s bookstore in Menlo Park where she helped try to organize workers and was disappointed by the store owner’s opposition. A temple member King met on the Peninsula told her about the Peoples Temple, which crusaded against capitalism and for Marxism.

Each new story the temple member told seemed to offer King hope.

“What I described,” the temple member said, “offered something to live for and ultimately to die for too.”

King joined the temple in 1973. In Jonestown, six months before the jungle settlement’s deadly end on Nov. 18, 1978, she spoke in favor of “revolutionary suicide” and described herself as having been one of “capitalism’s casualties.”

“I didn’t have anything to live for, but since I’ve been here, love has given me something to live for, and I’ve seen this happen in the lives of everybody here,” King said.

“I’ve been able to see that communism is what is necessary to bring this about,” she continued.

***

At his law office in San Mateo, Will Holsinger spoke in October about working for Ryan when Holsinger was a 27-year-old graduate of Hastings Law School in San Francisco.

“He was the quintessential Irish Catholic politician,” Holsinger said of Leo Ryan.

At Ryan’s funeral at All Souls Catholic Church in South San Francisco, security was tight because of fears about surviving temple members trying to take revenge.

“I had to wear a bulletproof vest,” Holsinger recalled.

Seven months before his death, Ryan had traveled Newfoundland to monitor the harvest of Canadian harp seals on ice floes.

Rep. James Jeffords, a Republican from Vermont, joined Ryan for the trip. In a 2007 book Jeffords wrote about Ryan as “a born challenger who wanted to build a coalition to save the world.”

Ryan “got me involved in one adventure after another,” said Jeffords.

“Leo was a complex character,” Jeffords said. “He could drive you crazy with his shenanigans, but he had a big heart and was willing to take big risks for causes he believed in. He died doing so. His death haunts me to this day.”

***

Clare Bouquet, now 88 and living in San Mateo, called Speier a very brave woman and spoke about Ryan as a hero.

“Leo had a heart,” Bouquet said.

When learning about conditions in Jonestown, “He didn’t say, ‘I’ll send an emissary.’”

Ryan traveled to the jungle, unaware of what awaited him, she said.

“And he lost his life,” Bouquet said. “I’ll never forget that.”

Headline photo of Jim Jones (on right) with an unidentified man at Jonestown on Nov. 18, 1978. (FBI)

Hillsdale Shopping Center to debut its new Dining Terrace

in A&E/Featured/Headline by
Hillsdale Shopping Center to debut its new Dining Terrace today

Hillsdale Shopping Center is set to debut its new Dining Terrace today with a ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening celebration, according to the shopping center.

The ribbon-cutting will take place at 11 a.m., and from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. there will be live music and dancing at Macy’s Center Court, lower level, at the mall at 60 31st Ave.

The Dining Terrace offers a variety of casual dining flavors, including new food operators Blue Whale Poke Bar and Grill, Haägen-Dazs®, Kuro-Obi Ramen, Panda Express, Tacos El Grullense, Sarku Japan, ShareTea, and Uncle Tetsu.

MidiCi The Neopolitan Pizza Company, which is located next to the Dining Terrace, is scheduled to open in December.

The space is open, airy, contemporary, with indoor and outdoor patio dining areas, lounging spaces, rooftop views, fire pits and heaters and Wi-Fi network.

Activities will take place throughout this weekend at the Dining Terrace, the first of Hillsdale’s developing North Block project to open. The first 500 customers will receive a free gift commemorating the grand opening.

“We are thrilled to be opening the new Dining Terrace,” said Christine Kupczak, Marketing Director for Hillsdale Shopping Center, in a statement. “Shoppers will be pleased with the remix of casual dining options and the re-imagined contemporary design of the space. Their attention will be drawn to the new foods and flavors that can be enjoyed in comfortable indoor seating or an outdoor patio area that can be used year-round.”

Video! Painstaking work to preserve history at 851 Main St.

in Featured/Headline/Infrastructure by

Redwood City contractor W.L. Butler recently shared a fascinating video showing its careful work to preserve historic aspects of a building site at 851 Main St.

According to project owner Acclaim Companies, the four-story development, approved by Redwood City council this past summer, will merge four existing parcels at the location into one “neoclassical, mixed-use building.” The office and retail project will feature 246 underground public parking spaces and 50 bicycle parking spots.

As described in part by the video, the project is particularly interesting as it will maintain and enhance three historic storefronts from the 1920s. Large portions of existing exterior walls, including the street façade, side wall next to Odd Fellows building and rear east wall, will be preserved and rehabilitated.

Here’s the description of the preservation efforts and the project, as provided this week by Acclaim Companies and W.L. Butler.

“The panels adjacent to the Odd Fellows Building and rear east wall will be carefully removed, stored and reinstalled under supervision of a consultant specialized in historic renovations. The Main Street façade will be protected in place to ensure that the historical cornice features are maintained. A tiered four-story building will be constructed around the historic building walls, and the lobby of the new building will be home to a public art gallery. The office space will include elevated outdoor areas. The upper floors will be set back 40 and 80 feet from the street as it rises four stories above. The massing for the building is lower along Main Street and gradually steps up to four stories along Walnut Street. This stepped massing creates several terraces that will overlook Main Street. Trees will also be planted along both Main and Walnut streets.”

DES Architects was the project’s architect.

For project renderings, click here.

2nd suspect in assault at Redwood City 7-Eleven arrested

in Crime/Featured/Headline by

The second of two suspects involved in a stabbing outside the 7-Eleven store in Redwood City on June 30 is now in custody, according to the Redwood City Police Department.

Abran Gutierrez, 32, from Redwood City, was tracked to Oregon, where he was arrested by the U.S. Marshal’s Service and subsequently extradited to San Mateo County. He was booked into San Mateo County Jail on Wednesday.

The incident occurred about 2:55 a.m. on June 30 when two men ages 23 and 24 went to the 7-Eleven at 460 Woodside Road to make a purchase, police said. Inside the story they were confronted by two suspects, Gutierrez and Justin Guidici, 24, of Redwood City, who allegedly made threatening comments toward them, yelling gang slurs, police said.

Redwood City police catch up with 7-Eleven assault suspect
Justin Guidici, 24, of Redwood City

“The suspects lured the victims outside, where they subsequently attacked them,” police said. “One victim was stabbed during the assault.”

The victim received a significant injury requiring emergency surgery, police said.

Guidici was detained at the scene when police arrived and later booked into San Mateo County Jail for felony assault with a deadly weapon and for participation in a criminal street gang. Gutierrez fled the scene — and the state, police said.

In September, he was tracked to Oregon. He is currently in custody awaiting court proceedings.

Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to contact Detective Sergeant Perna at 650-780-7672 or the Redwood City Police Department’s Tip Line at 650-780-7107.

Most local schools closed Friday due to Camp Fire smoke

in Education/Featured/Headline by

Like many Bay Area school districts, the Redwood City School District, the Sequoia Union High School District and Cañada College have decided to close their schools on Friday due to the unhealthy air quality levels caused by the devastating Camp Fire in Northern California.

“The Air Quality Index reached the Very Unhealthy level earlier this afternoon and the forecast is expected to be the same for tomorrow,” according to the Redwood City School District. “For that reason, RCSD has decided to close our schools for tomorrow, Friday, November 16.”

Given the current and ongoing air conditions, “we feel this is the best decision for the health and safety of our school community,” according to the superintendent of the Sequioa Union High School District.

Cañada College, College of San Mateo and Skyline College will be closed through Saturday, with classes and campus operations resuming on Monday. Many other neighboring school districts have made the same decision.

Also closed are the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District, San Mateo-Foster City School District, Ravenswood City School District and many others. However, the San Carlos School District has decided to remain open.

“Please follow recommendations from the EPA to stay indoors, keep your children indoors, and keep your windows closed,” the Redwood City School District stated. “Also, it is recommended that you refrain from any strenuous or vigorous activities until the air quality improves.”

1 … 98 99 100 101 102 … 146
Go to Top