Monday, March 19, 2012

Mystery Deepens: No Word on Missing Sign! Costume Bank Faces Exile from City Council!


The annoying Sign That Ate Our Orchard remained down today at City Hall--with just the posts remaining to remind us of its bossy message ("Planning For Tomorrow: Eighteen Acres of Opportunity!)

I'm so obsessive, I once again drove over to the-sign-across-town, just to see if that one is still up. It is.

I've never found it as annoying because it doesn't block one's view of our orchard.  But I admit the first time I spotted it--What? Three years ago?--I wondered what the heck they were thinking of putting the new City Hall down at that end of town on a little berm adjacent to the expressway.

The sign-at-the-other-end of town.

Of course that wasn't what they were planning at all.  They were likely fulfilling some legal requirement to post the proper number of signs giving us all notice before they stick it to us, I mean, before they launch their campaign for that $65M bond.

Anyway, still no word on what's really going on, sign-wise.

Meanwhile our city council has voted to have a committee (?) look into "phasing out" (whatever that means) all "non conforming buisinesses" in "non conforming buildings" downtown. (Will the business owners and their employees be exiled, or what? They don't say.)  This includes banks (no retail excitment there--just the occasional bank robbery), the Masonic Lodge (the city council should think twice about upsetting them. Don't they hold some kind of Secrets of the Founding Fathers?)  and our cherished Costume Bank in our city's old Fire House.

The Los Altos Costume Bank run by the Assistance League. A painting by Carolyn Hofstetter for a local book called Paint The Town, published in 2000.

The Costume Bank, as you might suppose, rents out costumes. It has been in the old Fire House since 1964, and is run by a philanthropic organization called the Assistance League of Los Altos. The league gives scholarships and helps the community in many other ways.

Cripes, who would want to have a bunch of trouble-makers like that in the old Fire House--drinking and carrying on and parking their motorcycles ... wait a second.  That's what's going on at Starbucks

The Costume Bank ladies are all very quiet and well-mannered as they rent us their lovely costumes for our parties and events. How retro is that?

That must be why the city council wants them outta here.

But this may be a Bridge Too Far for our city council. One wag posted a note on a local web site about this latest bit of nonesense saying:  "How about if we keep those non conforming businesses and phase out those city council members?"

Wow.  That guy must have been reading my mind.


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