I would think the purchaser simply needs a larger residence, which s/he will build on this 50,000 square-foot (1.16-acre) parcel, perhaps converting her existing 5,600 square foot structure into remote maid's quarters or storage space or another nursery.

Whatever way it goes, this thread will be entertaining.

Now thats called planning, living in a funeral home is forward thinking so I guess we cant call you hopelessly misguided.Earning your place in forbes magazine and killing thousands of other people's income is quite easy for you.


I'm Tabblessly lost

A fly was sitting on a buffalo's back for a number of days. One day, it decided to fly off so out of courtesy went upto the buffalo's face and said "thank you for supporting me but now I have to leave " to which the buffalo replied "ok, I dint even know you were there"
Thats exactly the relationship between MM's toy thing Yahoo and our life with Yahoo mail.
I guess TABS (THE ULTIMATE MULTI-TASKING TOOL) would be spoken by our children that "oh , tabs existed at grandpa's time ?!?! "
All my contacts are surprised that they havent received emails from me for the past 10-15days as I have been getting angry /confused/upset/lost looking at my yahoo interface .
Even if I manage to somehow piece an email together,it gives and error sending it so bam goes my laptop lid !!!!
Blackberry gave up its OS10 and came back to OS7.1.
Yahoo has way too many users , internet searches show 270million (not accurate) , so getting 80997 votes for a "bring back tabs" dont make a difference.
God Bless you Marissa Mayer the killer of our livelihood( todays era, no communication = no income).
Yahoo User
Sometime 2002 - October 2013

i think she really just needed open access to parking lot for when she entertains...

Maybe she just didn't want yet another stack and pack project blighting her neighborhood.

Doesn't she already own the most expensive house in San Francisco? I bet the funeral parlor is to motivate under-performing employees.

Whatever she does with it, I'm sure it will be better than whatever the developer leading our City Council around by the nose today would have.

I wish more of our well-healed neighbors would stop the overdevelopment madness by such private acts of investment, especially if some are turned into public benefits for our town ala Andrew Carnegie. (Even if in this case it's to stop overdevelopment near her home, good for her. There was a time when I would have experienced knee-jerk upset about the housing, but not after the Maybell fiasco. Making such huge land-use decisions, which are permanent, when transportation solutions would be cheaper and more flexible, is just dumb and causing the problems - like congestion - they were intended to prevent.)

When I was growing up in Palo Alto, lots of people lived here till their demise. Given the skyrocketing costs of living in Palo Alto, it is fitting that death can no longer compete with McMansions.

So sad that R&H found that they couldn't resist... There really does seem to be absolutely no point to trying to carve out a little space for low-income seniors in an area that even the very rich are leaving now that they can sell their properties to MZ and MM. There was an excellent letter in the PADN the other day about how all of us not ultra wealthy and not able to qualify for low-income accommodation know we have to leave here. And yet, even if we had low-cost housing, what exactly could we afford here?

Nice outcome. And MZ and MM, Harvard and Stanford products, have done exactly what sort of good for anybody other than the government?

I'd rather MM than one of DeLeon's bus loads of visiting, wealthy, out of country people who are looking for "summer" homes to buy and then rent out to those of us who live and work here at exorbitant prices. Good for you MM. Keep the property for those who matter - your employees and neighbors.

"those who matter" ?
"out of country" ?
MM's employees and local by birth's neighbors aren't the same thing, as lbb will find out in time, probably not much time.

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@Bob, you can use Alta Mesa Cemetery. They have a beautiful new chappel on-site

Thank you, Native.

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I'd guess she's going to build a mansion on that plot. She's not a developer.
by neighbor Oct 29, 2013 at 9:59 am

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How sad that increasing land values and bad zoning practices have made it impossible for funeral homes to pay rent or justify the use of the land in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. But that begs the question of what happens to people after they pass. Where are the bodies supposed to go between death and burial? Palo Alto just lost one more thread of the fabric that makes this place a community.
by Someplace else Oct 29, 2013 at 10:29 am

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I didn't know about this until my eighty=five year old aunt just called frantic this a.m. She had pre-paid all arrangements. I'll be taking care of it all finally - is there another mortuary in Palo Alto? What do we do now?
by Bob Oct 29, 2013 at 10:31 am

[Post removed due to deletion of referenced post.]

"I didn't know about this until my eighty=five year old aunt just called frantic this a.m. She had pre-paid all arrangements. I'll be taking care of it all finally - is there another mortuary in Palo Alto? What do we do now?"

The deal closed Oct. 7, according to Jim Spangler, president of Mountain View-based Spangler Mortuaries, which purchased Roller & Hapgood & Tinney's business assets.

I am far from xenophobic, I love other cultures and live/travel extensively to learn more about the world - too bad others don't! What I find amusing is all the crap about xenophobic when it was the farthest thing from my mind. I just want those who have lived here for a long time be able to remain here and hopefully keep up with the prices and retain their own lifestyle and properties.

Where did I say Chinese??? I don't care if they're Australian, Asian, African or Canadian...I just want to maintain the beauty of this city with trees and well taken care of land/housing AND allow those of us who have grown up here still be able to live here. Is that an issue? I don't think so...Hulkamania..."when in rome, do as the romans" is all I ask.

When I live abroad (as I have done for many years) they didn't change their practices to accommodate me...I needed to blend into their culture - which I loved to do and learned so much. I have lived in Europe, Asia and East Africa...all very different, all very wonderful...and I loved the experience...so take away that Xenophobic typical crap that I hear.

However, when I returned here I was shocked to see that we have to change our culture to accommodate them. Since when do we give away everything we have worked so hard to build??? Get over yourself and your semi-liberal claim to the world. Scratch the surface and I'm sure you'll find you're more right wing that you claim!

Lbb-- well you thanked native for his comments and you mention " out of country people"

"However, when I returned here I was shocked to see that we have to change our culture to accommodate them. Since when do we give away everything we have worked so hard to build??? Get over yourself and your semi-liberal claim to the world. Scratch the surface and I'm sure you'll find you're more right wing that you claim!"
How do you have to change your culture if someone foreign buys the house in your neighborhood. Who is this " them" you refer to. Your thinly veiled comments are so xenophobic and of course, you include the famous " some of my best friends are...." excuse.

I am very sad to read of the closing of Roller, Hapgood, and Tinney. They have been the place my family has gone to when there has been a death in the family since the time of my great-grandparents. When my son died in 2003 at the age of 10 it was a huge comfort to me that I was able to use a mortuary that my family already knew. Even nicer was the fact that Debbie Hapgood helped us make arrangements. It turned out that Debbie's father and my mother had gone to high school together, so again there was comfort in knowing that I was within a web of relationships that had gone back for decades.
I know that times, places, and people change. I, too, have lived abroad and I am happy that I live in a California - a state that has more diversity than many others. But, I mourn the loss of what made Palo Alto a "home town" to me and the previous three generations of my family. I miss Congdon & Crome, Douglas Fabrics, Werry's Electrical, The Golden Crescent Bakery, and the Palo Alto Times, just to name a few. My grandmother was once Queen of the May Day Parade. In the future I wonder if there will be anyone left here who can even say that their grandmother marched in the parade? I miss the sense of continuity that this community used to have.

They say your housing choice matches your career trajectory. If so, MM might want to think twice. Anyway, not sure if I can share a link here, so go to change dot org and sign our petition to get MM and Yahoo to fix the colossal failure that is the new Yahoo Mail.

@local by birth

"AND allow those of us who have grown up here still be able to live here"

If you can't afford to live here, you only have yourself to blame. The citizens of Palo Alto have done all they can to drive housing prices through the roof, and then they turn around and complain about how they can no longer afford to live here.

You do realize when the current Palo Alto homeowners die off, they are going to be replaced by foreign investors, and this certainly isn't the fault of said investors.

Ah - October 7! That must be where the old (functioning, good, intuitive) version of Yahoo Mail was buried on October 8! Now it all makes sense.

I think she's hedging her bets in case she has to bury Yahoo

> Alta Mesa Cemetery

Wonder how long it will be before a Developer makes an offer for this cemetery, will plans for a gated community, or some such, making it impossible to be laid to rest in the same town you lived in most, if not all, of your life?

It's only a matter of time.

This would be an ideal spot to build subsidized senior housing given its proximity to the downtown amenities. I doubt this is MM's intention, though.

just dreaming, you can forget any kind of senior housing, subsidized or otherwise.
Even if their housing costs are minimal, they can't afford anything else here.
If they don't make it into the category eligible for subsidized housing they have to leave the area.
Even if their parents are billionaires, they can't resist leaving when someone offers them $14 m for their house.
Got it?

It would be perfect for subsidized senior housing. Why rule out possible philanthropy on her part?

Was it a private sale meaning that MM was the only buyer just like MZ which could be applied to any property in Palo Alto. You could buy a bunch homes, pick one, and remove the others.

If someone has 30 million dollars to spend it can be done.

>> Alta Mesa Cemetery

>Wonder how long it will be before a Developer makes an offer for this cemetery, will plans for a gated community, or some such, making it impossible to be laid to rest in the same town you lived in most, if not all, of your life?

Is it too soon to arrange for the removal of Pig Pen's remains to some more suitable site?

This property must be zoned for anything but residential, at the moment.

Wonder what kind of zoning will be requested by the new owner.

Wonder if this will be done quietly, or if it will get a full public review?

As my wife noted, there are some hilarious comments in this thread. However I think Robert's comment hit the nail on the head. No one is forcing anyone to sell. Those that do sell for high prices are entitled to do so as owners of their property.

There's another thing to keep in mind: as much as some of us would like the world to remain as we remembered it, things and times change. We should all be glad Palo Alto remains a highly desirable place to live. If you want to see examples of the alternative, visit Detroit or better yet, visit Butte, Montana, which was once a very wealthy town due to the huge copper deposits it was built upon. Last time I was there a number of the old and very beautiful Victorian homes were derelict.

Joking aside, I think it will be interesting to see what is going to happen to the site. In many ways, this purchase by Mayer may have done us a service since it is now on the radar of Palo Alto watchers.

It is close to downtown, close to an elementary school and on Middlefield so it is a prime location for all sorts of things.

PAW, please continue to watch this site and inform us of any possible rumors as to what will happen next.

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There's a nice mortuary in East Palo Alto, right next to Ikea. I don't think any tech multi-millionaire will be buying it out any time soon.

well, e-commerce isn't working so well for Yahoo, maybe e-undertaking is the next big thing!

I don't like the new PALOALTOONLINE.com/square
Please bring the old version back - it was much more user friendly

Thank you for buying up the street Marissa. This way you can make sure that those that can not afford to live here will either sell out to you or work for you. Good move with the funeral home. I guess not only can people not afford to live in palo alto, they can't afford to die here either. Maybe the next purchase can be a senior center?

I love how the adjoining Webster Wood apartments is stated as the "low income complex" next door to the funeral home MM purchased. Why not just say : " The apartment complex located next door" or "The adjacent Webster Wood apartments" I mean we wouldn't say, "the apartment complex next door the that overly wealthy ladies house" or would we???? The residence at WW are people, not of the low income kind, just people.

Now that I will live even closer to you MM, will I get a "Please be discreet" neighborhood invite to your next big party?

Buying a funeral home! Now that explains her penchant with Halloween.

Jeez, I just purchased (paid in full) a pre-need policy from them recently. I did this so my family would not have to worry back home. Nobody said anything to me about plans to sell the funeral home. Maybe they didn't know at the time. Everybody was very nice there and I am sad to see what is happening to downtown Palo Alto. I hope I can transfer my policy to the new funeral home.

They haven't written their own obituary yet. The Roller & Hapgood website is still up.

YAHOO! & P.A. ONLINE: STOP REFERING TO OUR HOME AS THE "LOW INCOME APARTMENTS" IT IS THE "WEBSTER WOOD APARTMENTS!" PALO ALTO ONLINE GET IT HUMANLY CORRECT OR DONT SAY IT AT ALL

Do you mean the PAHC Webster Wood Apartments?

yeah, we're all dying to see what she'll do with the property

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So Marissa is buying a funeral home and firing 500 employees at the same time? Just a coincidence???? Web Link

>> The property owner would most likely request RM-15 or RM-30 zoning, which would allow for up to 15 to 30 units per acre, Aknin said.

Aaron Aknin must have been misquoted. The Yes argument in my voter pamphlet states as a FACT that developers can put more than 20 units per acre onto RM-15 zoning. Otherwise their threat of 46 multi-bedroom residences if D fails would be arithmetically impossible.

Just part of her Halloween decorating.
Real ghosts!

First - lets give Ms. Mayer the benefit of the doubt, if I had tons of money and a big piece of property was for sale down the street, I'd buy it to control what happened to it also. The likelihood of her actually building a new home on the corner of Middlefield is pretty small. BTW - I think Webster Woods is a lovely property.

As far as what could go on the site, the lot is already zoned as a Planned Community. The City has said it has the potential for 21 units of housing.

Zoning Map
Web Link

City Doc

Web Link

21 units is about right, given that the property is 1/4 of the block, 3/4 of which is currently occupied by 68 family units (according to the PAHC website). Last I heard, ABAG wants at least 2000 new units over the next eight years, or one development of this size every month from here on out. Coming soon to a block near you. To me the wording has been ambiguous whether the housing just needs to be planned or must be actually built.

@musical,
I think if Measure D fails, we should ensure that the $15-16 million in public money goes to buy up the 4acres at Buena Vista along with the $14.5 million the residents have on the table, instead, making a competitive offer. That's 2acres for the City and County, a comparable property. It would save over 400 low-income residents who are longtime Palo Altans from being evicted.

That's real affordable housing, which it sure seems like ABAG rules are doing nothing to help us retain. The city has the incentive to let Prometheus put in a giant PC upzoned market-rate development and evict all the actual low-income residents, because it can count a few BMR's toward their total, but they get no credit for saving the existing units.

We should care more about affordable housing than ABAG, save the residents, and make a letter-writing campaign to ABAG to shame whomever is wrong or misusing the requirement (be it here or at ABAG).

As for the orchard, it's too bad the Maybell neighbors don't have MM living up the street frm them!

@musical - ABAG and it's ongoing entity called "One Bay Area" require that the land be zoned so the housing can be built. There's no requirement to actually build since the city cannot compel property owners if they do not want to build it.

This method of land use planning is zoning for what the state government wants, rather than zoning for what we want. It's an unfunded mandate from the state that violates the will of local voters and costs us financially and harms our quality of life. Staff and Council are not willing or able to represent the will of the voters that elect them.

Not surprising that someone would jump at the chance to buy that property.

After all, for years people have been dying to get in there!

I live very close to Addison School, and I would happily sell my house to Mayer for the right price! Marissa, are you listening?

I'm hoping it's the beginning of random acts of investment by the most well-heeled among us ala Andrew Carnegie to save our town from our overdevelopment-crazed City Council!!

Marisa,
If Measure D fails, please consider saving the orchard! The 2.5 acre property includes 4 perfectly good ranch homes that could be renovated for corporate housing within walking distance to elementary, middle, and Gunn high school, and would be worth around $2.5 million - 3 million each if renovated and some land were added in the back (which neighbors wouldn't complain about). That would leave the heritage orchard for $5M, which could be a charitable right off, or neighbors would raise the money to repay you -- as they did mostly pay for Bol Park -- and neighbors would be happy to volunteer to raise money to put in a small community center and make the park truly accessible to all. If that sounds good to you, please contact info [at] paloaltoville.com

It would free up the neighbors from fighting each other and allow them to join together on saving the Buena Vista residents from eviction, which would be a bigger win for affordable housing. Might even save longtime relationships in the neighborhood. And making that location a low traffic use (regardless of who goes there, density is a bad idea in that location) may very well save a child's life someday

Sorry, corrections:

'm hoping it's the beginning of random acts of investment by the most well-heeled among us ala Andrew Carnegie to save our town from our overdevelopment-crazed City Council!!

Marissa,
If Measure D fails, please consider saving the orchard! The 2.5 acre property includes 4 perfectly good ranch homes that could be renovated for corporate housing within walking distance to elementary, middle, and Gunn high school, and would be worth around $2.5 million - 3 million each if renovated and some land were added in the back (which neighbors wouldn't complain about). That would leave the heritage orchard for $5M, which could be a charitable right off, or neighbors would raise the money to repay you -- as they did mostly pay for Bol Park -- and neighbors would be happy to volunteer to raise money to put in a small community center and make the park truly accessible to all. If that sounds good to you, please contact info [at] paloaltoville.com

It would free up the neighbors from fighting each other and allow them to join together on saving the Buena Vista residents from eviction, which would be a bigger win for affordable housing. Might even save longtime relationships in the neighborhood. And making that location a low traffic use (regardless of who goes there, density is a bad idea in that location) may very well save a child's life someday.

What would you do? SHE may decide to use it for senior housing or something else to the benefit of the community. The consequences of one's actions are the only true belongings. They are the only things that we take with us at the end.

@ anon,
If she wants to build senior housing there, she's welcome to do so if she respects the existing zoning, though we'd try to talk her into keeping the orchard and building for seniors where there are at least grocery stores and medical they can walk to.

If the majority of the property weren't going to a for-profit developer, for that developer's profits on the sale of the homes, you'd have a point. My soul doesn't get anything from making school children less safe in order to allow a for-profit development that destroys a cohesive neighborhood's character, and that uses affordable housing to divide the residents and get away with it.

She should concentrate on fixing the disaster she has created for Yahoo Mail before she gets too comfortable buying real estate. Her "re-design" of Yahoo Mail is a complete disaster.

Having a funeral home on her property -- Very apt indeed.

The City Council should encourage her to do something for the community - like building the proposed Housing Corporation Senior Housing on this parcel. It's within walking distance of downtown, on or close to bus transportation, close to a library and to Avenidas, etc, etc and so forth. They could even put in enough parking spaces for all the units.

Again we see various PA citizens who love to tell others how to spend their own money.

@PA Grandma,

The senior apartments at Maybell were never really well-conceived. It all started with the desire to buy the property and get something built on there cheaper via the market-rate part. I agree with Neilson Buchanon, who called on the City Council to take a much more fact-based and deliberative look at the issue of senior housing in this area, and come up with a plan to provide for the needs at a regional level - he specifically suggested something like Channing House, and involving seniors of all income levels. The Maybell apartments weren't even a senior center with amenities.

In the meantime, there are senior centers with empty BMR slots, like Moldaw, and there's also a new senior center just blocks from the Maybell site which will have senior BMR units, too. Better to assess the need and figure out a way to match the immediate need with available slots.

I cried when I heard Roller and Hapgood had been sold. I have understood for a long time that those of us who grew up in Palo Alto can no longer expect to live there, but to have the place where we gather for comfort and for help when our family members die sold to the woman who least understands or represents the soul of Palo Alto shocked me.

RH&T sponsored my Little League baseball team back in the early 80s. It was bad-ass having a funeral home as a sponsor! The other teams were always scared of us.

Interesting story. When and how did the "Tinney" name come into the picture?

Thanks, Phil for resurrecting this story, which I believe has relevance beyond the specifics of that property, specifically to the problematic Maybell/Clemo property next-door to PAHC's Arastradero Park complex, just as the Roller and Hapgood's property is next-door to PAHC's attractive Webster Wood complex at the intersection of Middlefield and Addison.

RFT was a building - not a burial place. People keep expressing all kinds of attachments to the place when in fact their relatives are not located there at this time - they are down at Alta Mesa or other some other cemetery. It is obvious that RHT was overcome with the rules and regulations concerning the funeral industry and could no longer make a go of that location. Funeral homes are managed by huge corporations and are taking over most independent funeral homes because they have more resources to deal with the whole operation and the legalities associated with the business. RHT would have been prohibited to run a crematorium in that location - thus you have the Neptune Society type ceremony.

Since Andrew Carnegie has come up - go to downtown Pittsburgh and see the desires to update the city and find reuse for old buildings, including churches.

There are churches that no longer function as churches and find other uses, so why not a funeral home? Try going to some other major city on the east coast- Baltimore - you will see a vacant church on every 4-block area.

I think the results of this transition has turned out very well - it s beautiful property that is getting good use.

@Resident1
"I think the results of this transition has turned out very well - it s beautiful property that is getting good use."

I walked around that block this morning and experienced the sensation of being in a redwood forest right downtown. Webster Wood, the PAHC housing development that fills the block with the exception of the former Roller and Hapgood property is a community treasure. l wish PAHC had been able to expand there, but the market spoke--a very large, attractive, well-located property can sell for more as a single-family home lot in this market than a developer is able to pay in order to build many units of housing.

So we have a tech executive choosing to live in the shadow of a beautifully maintained and landscaped affordable housing development. Those who disdain affordable housing should take note.

Perhaps the Maybell/Clemo property next to PAHC'S Arastradero Park Apts., sheltered from view on one side by the Tan Apartments and open on another to beautiful Briones Park could give our neighborhood relief from the worries of increased density and traffic while giving us a status upgrade if someone bought the whole property and realized their dream of a worthy estate in the flatlands of Palo Alto.

Tacky, but true--even in Europe, once-great Cathedrals and palaces are being used as hotels and restaurants.

On my last trip to East Germany, I had dinner in a restaurant inside the cathedral where Charlemagne had been crowned as Holy Roman Emperor.

Several years ago, I attended a multi-course banquet at an 820-year-old monastery in France. On that same trip. I stayed at a hotel in what was once Marie-Antoinette's La Petit Trianon Palace in Versailles.

Sad, but money talks.

It is so - I do not think that is sad - I think it is brilliant planning for the European Countries that are so dependent on the tourist trade. They have preserved their national treasures and made them available for other people to see and enjoy. They cannot afford to support those buildings without the income that is generated by the tourist industry.

Spend time at Filoli or any of the other National Trust Properties across the US - all of the national treasures require constant behind the scenes maintenance to preserve the beautiful buildings with historic value.
In my travels all historic buildings thrive with tourist dollars.
The travel show on PBS tells it all - that is why people are going there.