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By Paul Losch
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About this blog: I was a "corporate brat" growing up and lived in different parts of the country, ending in Houston, Texas for high school. After attending college at UC Davis, and getting an MBA at Harvard, I embarked on a marketing career, mai...
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About this blog: I was a "corporate brat" growing up and lived in different parts of the country, ending in Houston, Texas for high school. After attending college at UC Davis, and getting an MBA at Harvard, I embarked on a marketing career, mainly in the Bay Area with different companies. My former wife went back to medical school after we had been married a few years, and we moved into married student housing at Stanford, had our two now adult children while she was a medical student, and moved into Palo Alto when she started her Residency. Been here ever since. As my kids were going through the Palo Alto schools, I was actively involved in their activities, most notably head umpire for Palo Alto Little League and 9 years as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, among other activities. My kids both are grown, my son teaches 5th grade locally, and my daughter, fluent in Mandarin, is working in China. I sold the business I owned and ran for 8 years in 2012, worked on the Obama campaign, and am consulting for non-profit organizations, which gives me a nice, flexible schedule. Lots of stamps in my passport, and for fun, I like live performances &emdash; theater and music - and of course the Giants!
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Gymnasiums Needed
Uploaded: Jun 7, 2009
Every time I drive by the long ago closed ARCO gas station that adjoins the Winter Park Skating Rink, I see a gymnasium.
Too many who are into indoor sport activity such as basketball and volleyball have to go out of town to play.
I think some creative thinking is needed to expand gym space in Palo Alto for community purposes.
I perceive that the School Board and Superintendent Kevin Skelley have open minds about how gym space could be developed that not only serves our kids during the school times, but can serve oftentimes the same kids or their parents at times when school district needs are not in conflict. Now is the time to think that through, as the bond measure that passed in 2008 provides a great deal of funding for schools throughout town.
I perceive a number of properties, mainly churches, that are underutilized. This is not a judgmental comment on my part, one way or the other. But it does conjure up the notion from a community standpoint if there is a greater good if certain parcels became gymnasiums rather than languish in their current capacities.
There is a bit of good news on this gym front. The JCC complex under construction at Charleston and San Antonio includes some gym space that will be available to Palo Altans in general will have available. Also, once the JCC is operational, some gym space at Cubberley which they control will revert to the city's Community Services Department for general public use. These are encouraging developments, but insufficient to address the demand that's out there.
Even in this current environment, I think it is possible to identify private/public partnership arrangements that can create new gym space for Palo Altans. It does call for major creative thinking.
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