Read article : HILTON GARDEN INN SAN FRANCISCO/OAKLAND BAY BRIDGE HOTEL OFFERING SPECTACULAR VIEWS OF THE BAYSan Francisco, Aug. 22, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- International corporations, software giants and animation studios surround The Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge as clients, and neighbors. Brides choose this hotel and location for exceptional event planning services, and space with spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay. Situated on the waterfront at 1800 Powell Street in the heart of Emeryville, California, The Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge close proximity to headquarters for Pixar Animation Studios as well as the Clif Bar, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Bayer and Clorox. Other residents include international biotech and software corporations LeapFrog and MobiTV that make it an ideal Bay area location for business events and seminars. Just minutes from downtown San Francisco and international airport, this hotel is convenient to UC Berkeley, McLaughlin Last Shore State Park and Seashore, Emeryville Marina, Emeryville Crescent State Marine Reserve, Radio Beach, and walking distance to the popular Bay Street Shopping Center and Public Markets. It is also just across the bridge from the Presidio and AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. Sun-filled guest rooms and suites offer unforgettable views of Oakland/Berkeley Hills or San Francisco Bay including the Oakland Bay Bridge, Angel Island State Park and Alcatraz. Taking simple things to another level, tasteful amenities await guests: flat screen televisions, custom bath products, complimentary WiFi, cooked-to-order full breakfast, Keurig Coffee systems, 24-hour fitness gym, 24-hour business center, and Hilton’s famous custom plush beds, designed to improve circulation and reduce nighttime restlessness for a perfect night’s sleep. Guests enjoy regionally-inspired delicious breakfasts and dinners in the Great American Grill created with locally-grown produce, meats and seafood. Or relax in the lounge with a drink while watching the game. Evening room service, catering department and 24-hour Pavilion Pantry convenience market are also available. The Dine and Unwind Package offers guests up to $25 daily food and beverage credit. A limited time offer, see website for more details. Check out Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge contemporary appointed rooms using the same Google Street View technology used in streets around the world. Creating a high-quality, 360-degree experience, interactive features showcase 278 Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge guest rooms, suites, event spaces and ballrooms. Offering exceptional bay views in over 9,400 sq. ft. of flexible space as a boardroom, event spaces and three ballrooms, Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge is popular for corporate events, seminars and weddings. The Top of the Bay 3,865 sq. ft. ballroom comfortably hosts up to 300 guests and offers magnificent Bay views. Two additional ballrooms offering different Bay and Mountain views, 1,950 sq. ft. each, are ideal for smaller receptions and events for up to 150 guests. Customized media packages, and online planning tools make staging memorable events easy. Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge promises to do whatever it takes to ensure customers are satisfied, or they don’t pay. Guests can count on us. GUARANTEED™. Our Hilton Garden Inn Promise reflects our focus on hospitality and integrity. We are committed to providing an excellent hotel experience for every guest, every time. For more information or to book an event, please visit Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge or call 1-510-658-9300.. Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge participates in Hilton HHonors®, the award-winning guest-loyalty program for Hilton Worldwide. Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, 1800 Powell Street, Emeryville, CA, is operated by Davidson Hotels & Resorts, one of the most respected, successful and creative lodging companies in the industry. For more information about Davidson Hotels & Resorts, visit www.davidsonhotels.com ### About Davidson Hotels & Resorts Davidson Hotels & Resorts is an award-winning, full-service hotel management company providing management, development/renovation, acquisition, consulting and accounting expertise for the hospitality industry. Amassing one of the purest full-service hotel portfolios in the industry, Davidson's proficiency ranges from the upper-upscale to near-luxury segments with nearly 12,300 rooms and 1.4 million square feet of meeting space across the United States. A trusted partner and preferred operator of Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood hotels, Davidson delivers hospitality and creates value for owners with every single hotel. More information can be found at www.davidsonhotels.com. Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fc81c95f-1398-4cfe-a25f-05e79cd07e87 Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6c4947a5-a053-4f4c-b7d1-a97532c4f349 Edana Chisler - Director of Sales Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge 510-658-9300 x 2020 echisler@HGIEmeryville.com
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query San Francisco hotel. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query San Francisco hotel. Sort by date Show all posts
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
HILTON GARDEN INN SAN FRANCISCO/OAKLAND BAY BRIDGE HOTEL OFFERING SPECTACULAR VIEWS OF THE BAY
Sunday, July 30, 2017
How To Road-Trip Along The California Coast
Read article : How To Road-Trip Along The California Coast
Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, Photo Credit: Hyatt Corporation
Leave the whirlwind of warm-weather parties, barbecues and family vacations behind with a little luxe “me time.” Savor the last of the summer rays with a solo road trip to some of our favorite coastal California hideaways. Let sumptuous spas, delicious fine dining and restful resorts guide your way on a high-end adventure guaranteed to leave you feeling refreshed.
DAY ONE: San Diego
No adventure through California is complete without a stop in San Diego. Instead of hitting the more frequented destinations such as downtown, Del Mar or La Jolla, head 40 minutes north of San Diego International Airport to Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad in the North County region. It is a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star resort with an Arnold Palmer-designed 18-hole golf course with clubhouse, a blissful spa and delicious food.
Morning
Upon arrival, make your way to the spa to unwind from the drive in. Loosen your limbs with four-hands massage, during which two therapists synchronize to give you the ultimate stress-releaser.
Afterward, linger in the light-filled solarium. Perch yourself on a lounge chair near the inviting fireplace or the trickling fountain and curl up with a magazine.
Afternoon
After this relaxation ritual, have lunch and lounge in one of the well-appointed cabanas, which are outfitted with a daybed, two chaise lounges, a bowl of fresh fruit, a stocked mini-fridge of nonalcoholic drinks and more. When you need to cool off, take a dip in the Adult Pool, which overlooks the Batiquitos Lagoon and the Pacific.
Another form of relaxation can be found with a good drink. When in San Diego, don’t miss a beer tasting, as the area is known for its breweries. Pop into Mother Earth Brew Co., which sits 16 miles from the hotel and emulates the North County vibe that you’ll see throughout the area.
Evening
With your first spa day out of the way, head to Forbes Travel Guide Recommended Vivace, Park Hyatt Aviara’s fine-dining Italian restaurant. Indulge in rich comfort food made with fresh ingredients, including handcrafted burrata, housemade pastas and the braised short rib Bolognese with rigatoni and Parmesan. Be sure to get accompanying pours from the excellent wine list.
Retire for the evening to the property’s spacious, coastal-inspired accommodations and take in the sunset from your private balcony or terrace.
Terranea Resort, Photo Credit: Terranea Resort
DAY TWO:Los Angeles’ South Bay
After a refreshing night’s sleep, try breakfast at Park Hyatt Aviara’s California Bistro before heading north to Los Angeles.
A nice pit stop between San Diego and L.A. is the coastal enclave of the South Bay. It takes about two and a half hours to get there, but once you pull into Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, you should hand the keys over to the valet with no intention of moving for at least 24 hours. The focus here is on the natural seaside environment that is best enjoyed on your private balcony overlooking the gardens and the ocean.
Afternoon
Pass the day away by sampling a few of the eight restaurants on offer at the coastal California resort. For lunch, opt for fresh New American fare with a California flair at Catalina Kitchen. Accompany your meal with an exquisite glass of vino and ocean breezes.
Spend the rest of your day lounging however you choose — play a round on the nine-hole golf course, check out the spa or take a dip in either of the four swimming pools. Time drips away, putting you in the right frame of mind to mentally check out for a few precious hours before getting back to the hustle and bustle of a road trip.
Evening
Though onsite dinner spots such as Nelson’s and Mar’sel are always good options, we wouldn’t judge you if you decided to make the call for in-room dining before enjoying a refreshing night’s sleep in your stylish Mediterranean-inspired room.
The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, Photo Credit: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC
DAY THREE: L.A. andSan Francisco
Morning
Take a detour through always-happening West Hollywood for an indulgent brunch. If the call of the day is stargazing, go to Catch, one of the hottest tables in Los Angeles. The New York import is a favorite of the celebrity set, and the menu is packed with globally influenced seafood preparations that transport you around the world in one sitting.
If that isn’t quite your scene, head over to Norah for more decadent fare. The open, bright space bubbles like a freshly poured glass of champagne. Chef Mike Williams packs unforgettable flavors into brunch specialties such as buttermilk biscuits and a crispy fried chicken sandwich.
Afternoon
After feasting and some frolicking, get back on track and depart Los Angeles to make the five-hour drive — and longest leg of this this adventure up the coast — to San Francisco.
Evening
In the evening, check into a classic California beauty, lavish Four-Star The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, perched high atop Nob Hill on Stockton Avenue. You’ll be immersed in the elegance of a bygone era almost immediately, as the opulent marble lobby dates back to 1909.
For a superb experience, book a deluxe king room on the Club Level and receive access to one of the Ritz-Carlton brand’s top perks — its exclusive lounge. Inside, a concierge is available for all booking needs and there is continuous food and beverage service for noshing when the mood strikes. Enjoy samples from cuisine of the neighborhoods — The Mission, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown and North Beach — that have made San Francisco famous.
If you’re visiting on a weekend, be sure to take advantage of the hotel’s Vintner Wine Series, where you’ll sip pours of the best of Northern California vintages on Fridays and Saturdays in addition to a caviar presentation with all of the accoutrements.
Spa L’Occitane, Photo Credit: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC
DAY FOUR: San Francisco
Morning
The fourth and final day of this road trip is one dedicated to the good life. At The Ritz-Carlton, check out the Spa L’Occitane by the Bay for the hour-long Immortelle Secret of Youth facial that removes signs of aging and makes the skin more smooth and youthful. L’Occitane treatments blend Provencal-inspired rituals with its signature products enriched with ingredients from the South of France.
Afternoon
After some down time at the intimate spa, liven up your afternoon with a stop at the crown jewel of the San Francisco hotel’s social spaces: The JCB Tasting Lounge from winemaker Jean-Charles Boisset. A jewel box of a space nestled in the lobby, this is the spot to taste rare and exclusive wines from the Boisset collection.
After lunch, work off the calories with a three-block walk to Union Square, a retail mecca with more than 200 shops, departments stores, more restaurants and an event calendar stuffed with all sorts of fun (The Graduate screens at the park on September 9).
Evening
For those who like to plan ahead, aim for dinner at Mina Test Kitchen, one of the most coveted spots in town, to venture out from the confines of the incredibly comfortable hotel. A space for Michael Mina’s team to test new culinary concepts, the cuisines are revolving and currently feature the “Mi Almita” theme, which pays homage to the spirituality and tradition of Mexican cooking.
Expect ceviches, moles, tacos and empanadas featuring traditional, authentic ingredients. The menu is fixed but there are choices within the courses and two different levels of wine pairings.
At the end of the night, come back to a placid view of the city and relax under the rain shower in the full marble bath before climbing into a bed decked out in Frette linens and a 46-inch TV.
Parallel 37, Photo Credit: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC
DAY FIVE: San Francisco
Before returning to a non-vacation mindset, brunch at Four-Star Parallel 37, The Ritz Carlton’s signature restaurant, is unmissable. Specialties include an offering of Chinese dim sum, avocado toast with Easter egg radishes and sprouted quinoa and Dungeness crab eggs Benedict. Fill up before heading back home with a refreshed view of coastal California.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Hotel Beresford | Hipmunk
Read article : Hotel Beresford | Hipmunk
The Charming Hotel Beresford is Ideal for Entertainment-seeking Budget Travelers
What Does a Hotel Beresford Room Include?
Rooms available include one queen bed, two double beds, or two twin beds. Every room has its own private bathroom with either a bathtub or shower, a mini fridge and honor bar, satellite TV, as well as a phone and radio. Each room is uniquely decorated Victorian style, outfitted with cozy linens and antique style furniture.
What Amenities are Available?
The Hotel Beresford offers a complimentary breakfast hosted in the adjoining White Horse Tavern & Restaurant, free in-room Wi-Fi, and an exercise room. For an additional fee, there is valet parking or limo service. There are also fax and copy services available and a computer for guest use.
How Much Will a Stay at the Hotel Beresford cost?
This is one of the San Francisco hotels with nightly rates between $89 and $165. It is a competitive option for your stay in downtown San Francisco.
What’s There to do Nearby?
Just two blocks from Union Square, Hotel Beresford is located in the heart of downtown San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. Brimming with boutiques, a variety of dining options ranging from gourmet to casual, quaint terrace cafes, art galleries, and nightlife, there’s no shortage of entertainment nearby. Chinatown and the renowned Theatre District are a short walk away, as are cable cars that will take you to popular destinations such as Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39, and Telegraph Hill.
What’s the Bottom Line?
This family owned hotel is great for budget travelers who don’t want to compromise on location, charm, or entertainment. Hotel Beresford is one of the best deals in downtown San Francisco, leaving guests more room to enjoy all that this dynamic neighborhood has to offer.
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Awesome lication cool hotel - Review of Hotel Beresford, San Francisco
Read article : Awesome lication cool hotel - Review of Hotel Beresford, San Francisco
clean room and friendly staff, accessible to city center (3 blocks to Union Square, one bus ride to Pier 39, a few blocks walk to SF Chinatown (good dimsum), shopping at westfield and nearby high end shopping boutiques, public transport, and surrounded with good restaurants to choose from :)
Friday, April 21, 2017
Burke Williams Day Spa in the Heart of San Francisco • We Blog The World
Read article : Burke Williams Day Spa in the Heart of San Francisco • We Blog The World
I love the concept of day spas, especially when you want an luxury escape for a few hours, where pampering is the order of the day. When we travel, we often review spas as part of our hotel stay, which is different than purposely making the time for yourself either on your home turf or when you are on the road and wish to indulge in a wellness experience. After all, isn’t your body worth it?
Meet Burke Williams,an urban day spa which has been around since 1984 and has quite a few locations in California. They drew most of their influence from some of the top European day spas. I had an opportunity to get a couple of treatments at their facility based in the heart of San Francisco, which is easily accessible for San Franciscans and travelers alike.
Above, is my favorite part of the spa – their massive hot tub. There’s nothing like a large hot tub and rarely do you find them, even at 5 star hotel spas. The lights were dimmed, which only added to the tranquility.
Nearby is a cold steam room which I saw a woman enter while I was in the hot tub and not leave for ten minutes. Brrr – I didn’t have the courage to try it although I’m certainly aware of the health benefits of cold water immersion and alternating from hot water to cold water dips. We reviewed Refuge in Carmel last summer that focuses on Thermal Cycle which is hot and cold water process mixed with relaxation in between.
Exposure to cold water and ice baths, also known as “cryotherapy,” is a popular technique among amateur and professional athletes as well. At Burke Williams, they also have a very large hot steam room as well and unlike so many steam rooms I’ve tried over the years, it’s actually hot. On-site, they also offer a hot dry sauna, which I relaxed in for around 15 minutes before my treatments — you never want to go into a dry sauna after having a facial.
Spa Baths
They have two tubs in the spa set in a private room where you can take a therapeutic bath. There are many restorative benefits of hydrotherapy and worth doing whenever you have a chance. Here, traditional spa baths are available only in conjunction with another spa service.
Microsilk Baths are available for booking without another service, however, they recommend doing one in conjunction with a massage or facial.
Wetroom Treatments
I tried one of their Wetroom Treatments which are simply divine. While I’ve had body scrubs and wraps before, I’ve never had a salt scrub, which is so renewing for the skin. They talk about your natural glow unfolding from one of these treatments, which couldn’t be truer from how it feels and how your skin looks afterwards. Anthony described my arms as having a “glow” to them and “more radiant.” 
Purposefully designed shower heads envelop your body in cascading streams of water, after which you are scrubbed down with sea salt to remove dead surface skin cells — they refer to it as the Salt Glo, although if you have sensitive skin, you can opt for the sugar exfoliation process instead.
After the salt is removed, they wash you down (front and back) and then apply oil to leave your body feeling ever so soft. I absolutely loved this experience and would recommend adding to another service you’re doing that day. Obviously if you get a facial, do the wetroom treatment first.
Sea salt photo credit: Seasalt.com.
Facials
Of course they offer a myriad of massage treatments, however I opted for the Anti-Aging Facial. If you’re over 40, I’d strongly encourage it.
They use professional H2V products which helps to regenerate and firm skin cells. Botanically derived stem cells and H2V R3 Transform with Matrixyl peptides repair damage, increase your skin’s resiliency, and boost collagen production. I definitely noticed a different to my face’s texture and brilliance after the treatment.
The Anti-Aging Facial
I absolutely loved this very targeted and customized facial designed to repair damage caused by extrinsic aging. They cleanse your face before applying a Vitamin C peel, their first major step of the treatment.
The 30% Vitamin C infuses the skin with protective anti-oxidants that neutralize free-radical damage and help reverse DNA damage. Key Ingredients for wellness geeks, include Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Ascorbic Acid, Bromelain and Papain. This peel is also added to your hands and covered with warm mitts.
Then, they spray the first enhancement: Age-Defy, which is naturally fragranced with apricot milk and is formulated with potent peptides to repair and actively firm the skin to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles. There’s Chlorella in this spray, which is a micro green algae anti-oxidant rich in protiens and amino acids, Antarticine; a peptide with ability to regenerate and protect skin by retaining moisture and water, heal wounds, increase collagen and elastin production, as well as boost hydration.
This peel is by one of the skincare lines I like a lot – Eminence. Note: it tingles quite a bit when it goes on (a rarity for me),something to consider if you have very sensitive skin.
The peel helps to accelerate the exfoliation process by removing dead skin cells, reducing the appearance of pigmentation, fine lines and sun damage. The natural enzyme content of yam and pumpkin leave skin appearing firm and radiant.
Bromelain breaks down connecting structure that holds surface skin cells together and papain breaks down surface dead skin cells for easier removal. It also includes Niacin &Vitamin B3 which when applied topically, acts as a vasodilator to increase circulation, bringing oxygen and nutrients to the skin’s surface.
She then did a Defy mask, which is a potent Resveratrol antioxidant blend that helps to protect and rich skin nourishing fatty acids repair and nourish the skin. Key Ingredients include Monoi oil, Evening Primrose oil, Dragons blood extract, Resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant typically associated with red wine. This helps to protect and nurture cells, improve cellular function, increase collagen production, and improve elasticity while also reducing inflammation.
Their second spray enhancement is a stem cell one which is naturally fragranced with Olive and Coriander and is formulated with skin rejuvenating Mexican Bamboo and Japanese Knotwood to signal skin cells and put them in repair mode. These plant based stem cells stimulate our own skin cells’ natural repair process to help eliminate fine lines and wrinkles.
Believe it or not, there’s more! Unlike so many spas that do not give you the full time (especially your full 60 or 75 minutes “hands-on), they are present every step of the way.
After the stem cell spray, they apply a Cranberry AHA Mask, which is a special formulation designed to enhance the capabilities of the fruit acids combined with moisturizers to leave the skin looking fresher and more supple. Ceramides create a strong water binding capacity leaving the skin hydrated with a visibly smoother appearance. Key Ingredients include Cranberry kaolin, Citric Acid, Glycolic Acid, Lactic acid, Malic acid, Shea Butter, and Wheat ceramides. BRAVO!
They also massage your arms, hands and feet during the treatment before applying the final spray enhancement: Illuminating Enhancement. This one is naturally fragranced with Sicilian Orange and Honey and contains a time released form of Vitamin C that can remain active in the skin for up to a week. This active form of Vitamin C helps to inhibit melanin production while the citric activator spray instantly brighten the complexion.
Before you leave, they also apply an Eye-tox serum to reduce iron deposits under eye and improve hydration as well as a Youth Cell Activator, a Quench Moisturizer and Protect (their SPF).
Like all top notch facials, they did extractions after plenty of steam in the middle of the treatment as well.
While they offer some of the traditional custom facials you’d find at most luxury spas, including teen and gentleman’s facials, I wanted to also mention another unique one I’d love to try at a future time. While the Four Layer Resurfacing Facial is shorter than the anti-aging one, the process includes an intense 4-layer progressive peel to leave your skin hydrated and glowing. Papaya enzymes combine with beneficial Alpha Hydroxy Acids to erase fine lines and minimize imperfections. They also do a detox masque infused with antioxidants.
The Ambiance
Join me on a tour of the spa — you’ll absolutely love the ambiance and their wonderful attention to detail throughout.
Nail Pampering
You can also get your nails done in style. What’s nice is that they have over-sized chairs designed to hug your body. They offer hot cups of tea, a lavender-scented blanket for your legs, and an oatmeal pillow to support your neck.
They also offer other unique services such as body polishes, waxing and advanced eye lifts as well as “sprays” as an add-on to facials, such as stem cell and age defy sprays, which as noted above is included in the Anti-Aging facial.
Below, the vanity room.
They also have a shop on-site where you can purchase water bottles, skincare products, leather bags, gifts and more.
Below is a view from one of the windows — it’s located on the top floor of a mall, the same level as a movie theatre and nothing else. Translation: it’s very secluded and enormous. Two thumbs up!! We would definitely return.
DETAILS:
845 Market Street #510
San Francisco, CA 94103
https://burkewilliamsspa.com
(415) 694-7980
_________________
Note: I was hosted by the spa but all opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Great location - Review of Hotel Beresford, San Francisco
Read article : Great location - Review of Hotel Beresford, San Francisco
The first positive impression is location: just a few minutes walk from Union Square, Market & Powell street, BART station, cable car, and shopping centers.
Hotel room is enough size, bathroom as well, but bathroom equipment is extremely poor.
Breakfast is not rich, on the contrary, very modest: just cereal & fruit, croissants, & muffin. No cheese or ham or even boiled eggs.
Rooms are clean but old and need urgent remodeling and refurbishment. WiFi is free and fast.
Staff is different: in some shifts friendly and polite, in others not much.
Overall conclusion: good place for trip, if you are out most of the time.
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
27 restaurants, pubs and cafes in Bath offering meal deals for a tenner for Great Bath Feast
Read article : 27 restaurants, pubs and cafes in Bath offering meal deals for a tenner for Great Bath Feast
Treat yourself to a £10 meal at one of Bath’s amazing eateries this Autumn.
As part of the Great Bath Feast, restaurants, pubs and cafes across the city are serving up delicious meals for a bargain.
Whether you are into pies and pints, tea and scones or fine dining, there is something here to suit all taste buds.
1. 3 Café Kitchen
Three Ways School, 180 Frome Road, Bath, BA25RF
3 Café Kitchen will be serving up a large sharing platter including seasonal salads, terrines and tarts with a slow cooked roast and the café’s famous scones. All their food is locally sourced and home cooked.
This newly opened café offers young work experience and training to young people with special needs.
5.30 and 8pm sittings; visit website for full opening hours.
2. The Abbey Hotel
1-3 North Parade, Bath, BA1 1LF
Relax with a glass of house wine or beer served with two delicious bar snacks (salt cod croquettes, scotched quail’s eggs & salt and pepper squid and) at The Abbey Hotel’s stylish ArtBar.
Please quote ‘Tenner Treat’ when ordering.
3. Bailbrook House Hotel
Eveleigh Avenue, Bath, BA1 7JD
Indulge in a hearty roast dinner and a drink in the Cloisters Restaurant at Bailbrook House Hotel for £10 per person. Booking essential.
4. Bailbrook House Hotel
Eveleigh Avenue, Bath, BA1 7JD
Somerset Cream Tea for two people for £10 (usual price £8.95 per person) at Bailbrook House Hotel. Booking essential.
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5. Bath Pizza Co
Green Park Station, Bath, BA1 1JB
£10 will get you a get a pizza and drink (pint of beer, glass of Prosecco, or a soft drink.)
6. The Bath Pub Tour
Crystal Palace, 10 – 11 Abbey Green, Bath, BA1 1NW
Sample ales, ciders & historic gastro-snacks on The Bath Pub Tour. £10 for two participants. Pickled egg prizes have been promised!
7. Belushi’s
9 Green Street, Bath, BA1 2JY
You can’t go wrong with this one. A Belushi’s Burger and drink for £10.
8. The Boater
9 Argyle Street, Bath, BA2 4BQ
Potty about pies? The Boater will be serving up a pie (different ones every day) and a pint of London Pride for £10 from 12noon-9pm every day throughout the entire duration of The Great Bath Feast.
Veggie option/alternative soft drink are available as part of the same deal.
9. Bookbarn International (Full Stop Cafe)
Unit 1, Hallatrow Business Park, Wells Rd, High Littleton, Bristol BS39 6EX
Get two Classic British ‘Ploughman’s’ for just £10 in this lovely book café.
This rural gem make their own jam and chutney as well as cakes, soups and salads.
No booking necessary, served all day.
10. CAU Bath
1-2 Milsom Place, Bath, BA1 1BZ
Live on the wild side with a brunch-time Mimosa cocktail and a brunch dish for a tenner.
Served 9am-12noon every day throughout The Great Bath Feast.
11. Chez Dominique
15 Argyle Street, Bath, BA2 4BQ
Cornish mussels in a cider, leek and Alsace bacon broth, paired with an 175ml glass of Jean de Laroche Sauvignon Blanc for £10. Close your eyes and you could be in France…
Terms and Conditions: offer available Monday–Friday lunchtimes and Monday–Thursday evenings, 5:30pm–7pm.
Upgrade your Tenner Treat to include a glass of Prosecco by presenting your LUX Rewards card on arrival!
12. The Clifton Sausage
5 Bladud Buildings, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LS
Spoil yourself with a trio of gourmet sausages (Bath Blue cheese & leek, Clifton and Old Spot Pork) served with creamy mash and homemade gravy. A glass of wine or a soft drink is thrown in for £10.
Upgrade your Tenner Treat to include a glass of Prosecco by presenting your LUX Rewards card on arrival!
13. Coffee2Go
500 Wellsway, Bath, BA2 2UD
Two large coffees, two meals with toppings, and four snacks (crisps or flapjacks) for £10.
14. Combe Grove
Brassknocker Hill, Bath, BA2 7HU
Devour a top-notch 2-course lunch and enjoy the breathtaking views across the rolling Limpley Stoke Valley hills.
15. Garfunkel’s
The Empire, Orange Grove, Bath, BA1 1LP
Family favourites burgers, rotisserie chicken and wraps plus yummy puds will be on offer at The Empire. 2 courses for £10. Perfect venue for the whole family.
16. The Garrick’s Head
St Johns Place, Bath, BA1 1ET
Nosh to make you happy. A hot salt beef roll and a pint of Garrick’s Head ale is yours for just £10.
17. Giraffe World Kitchen
8 Dorchester Street, Bath, BA1 1SS
Lovely liquids here. £10 will get you a bottle of house wine to share, two scrumptious cocktails or four Coronas. Available Sunday – Friday 17.00-23.00
18. Graze Bath
9 Brunel Square, Bath, BA1 1SX
All Hail the Ale! Grab Handcrafted pie are made with Bath Ales’ seasonal Forest Hare ale and a Bath Ales pint for £10.
19. Hilton Bath City Hotel
Walcot Street, Bath, BA1 5BJ
Enjoy the elegant side of Bath with afternoon tea at the Hilton Bath City Hotel.
Served in the renowned Atelier Restaurant, the views of Bath’s historic Pulteney Bridge will ensure you have the best seat in the house.
20. Jamie’s Italian
10 Milsom Place, Bath, BA1 1BZ
Glass of red and a pizza at Jamie’s for £10. Delizioso!
21. The Mint Room
Longmead Gospel Hall, Lower Bristol Road, Bath, BA2 3EB
Cool, contemporary and chic, enjoy a lunch & drink at Bath’s popular Indian restaurant The Mint Room.
Upgrade your Tenner Treat to include a glass of Prosecco by presenting your LUX Rewards card on arrival!
22. Newton Farm Shop
Newton St Loe, Bath, BA2 9BT
Are chutneys, pickles and preserves your bag? Local producers In a Pickle are offering three jars for £10. Enjoy the free samples to help you pick your favourites!
23. The Pump Room
Stall Street, Bath, BA1 1LZ
A visit to the historic The Pump Room is always a treat but have you ever been there for brunch? Wake up to a Bucks Fizz Breakfast: your choice of Eggs Benedict or Eggs Florentine accompanied by a glass of Bucks Fizz for £10
Running from 9.30am-11.45am every day throughout the entire duration of The Great Bath Feast.
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24. Robert Welch Designs*
6 Broad Street, Bath, BA1 5LJ
Stylish and sleek, Robert Welch Signature Stainless Steel Kitchen Utensils will be on offer for only £10 (representing a saving of £6 off the RRP) throughout The Great Bath Feast.
25. The Roman Baths Kitchen
Abbey Churchyard, Bath, BA1 1LY
Located in the beautiful Abbey churchyard in Bath, The Roman Baths Kitchen are serving up two courses for £10 from 12noon-close every day throughout the The Great Bath Feast.
26. The Salamander
3 John Street, Bath, BA1 2JL
Two pub sandwiches for just £10 in one of Bath’s coziest pubs.
27. San Francisco Fudge Factory
6 Church Street, Abbey Green, Bath, BA1 1NL
Fancy fudge and a glass of Prosecco al-fresco-style all for a tenner.
Terms and Conditions: offer available Monday-Friday only.
The Great Bath Feast will be running from Saturday September 23 to Sunday, October 8.
Friday, June 2, 2017
Dispossessed in the Land of Dreams
Read article : Dispossessed in the Land of Dreams
Sometime in July 2012, Suzan Russaw and her husband, James, received a letter from their landlord asking them to vacate their $800-a-month one-bedroom apartment in Palo Alto, California. He gave them 60 days to leave. The “no-fault” eviction is a common way to clear out low-paying tenants without a legal hassle and bring in people willing to pay thousands more in rent. James was 83 at the time and suffering from the constellation of illnesses that affect the old: He had high blood pressure and was undergoing dialysis for kidney failure and experiencing the early stages of dementia.
Their rent was actually a couple of hundred dollars more than James’s monthly Social Security benefits, but he made up the rest by piecing together odd jobs. They looked for a new apartment for two months and didn’t find anything close to their price range. Their landlord gave them a six-week extension, but it yielded nothing. When mid-October came, Suzan and James had no choice but to leave. With hurried help from neighbors, they packed most of their belongings into two storage units and a ramshackle 1994 Ford Explorer which they called “the van.” They didn’t know where they were going.
A majority of the homeless population in Palo Alto—93 percent—ends up sleeping outside or in their cars. In part, that’s because Palo Alto, a technology boomtown that boasts a per capita income well over twice the average for California, has almost no shelter space: For the city’s homeless population, estimated to be at least 157, there are just 15 beds that rotate among city churches through a shelter program called Hotel de Zink; a charity organizes a loose network of 130 spare rooms, regular people motivated to offer up their homes only by neighborly goodwill. The lack of shelter space in Palo Alto—and more broadly in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, which comprise the peninsula south of San Francisco and around San Jose—is unusual for an area of its size and population. A 2013 census showed Santa Clara County having more than 7,000 homeless people, the fifth-highest homeless population per capita in the country and among the highest populations sleeping outside or in unsuitable shelters like vehicles.
San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area are gentrifying rapidly—especially with the most recent Silicon Valley surge in social media companies, though the trend stretches back decades—leading to a cascade of displacement of the region’s poor, working class, and ethnic and racial minorities. In San Francisco itself, currently the city with the most expensive housing market in the country, rents increased 13.5 percent in 2014 from the year before, leading more people to the middle-class suburbs. As real estate prices rise in places like Palo Alto, the middle class has begun to buy homes in the exurbs of the Central Valley, displacing farmworkers there.
Suzan, who is 70, is short and slight, with her bobbed hair dyed red. The first time I met her, she wore leggings, a T-shirt, a black cardigan wrapped around her shoulders, and fuzzy black boots I later learned were slippers she’d gotten from Goodwill and sewn up to look like outside shoes. (She wore basically the same outfit, with different T-shirts, nearly every time we met, and I realized she didn’t have many clothes.) Her voice is high and singsongy and she is always polite. You can tell she tries to smooth out tensions rather than confront them. She is a font of forced sunniness and likes to punctuate a sad sentence with phrases like “I’m so blessed!” or “I’m so lucky!” She wore a small necklace and said jewelry was important to her. “I feel, to dispel the image of homelessness, it’s important to have a little bling,” she said.
In the van, Suzan was in charge of taking care of everyone and everything, organizing a life that became filled with a unique brand of busy boredom. She and James spent most of their time figuring out where to go next, how to get there, and whether they could stay once they arrived. They found a short-term unit in a local family shelter in Menlo Park that lasted for five weeks. Afterward, they stayed in a few motels, but even fleabags in the area charge upwards of $100 a night. When they couldn’t afford a room they camped out in the van, reclining the backseats and making a pallet out of blankets piled on top of their clothes and other belongings. Slowly, there were fewer nights in hotels and more in the van, until the van was where they lived.
A life of homelessness is one of logistical challenges and exhaustion. Little things, like planning a wardrobe for the week, involved coordinated trips to storage units and laundromats, and could take hours. The biggest conundrum? Where to pull over and sleep. Suzan and James learned quickly not to pull over on a residential block, because the neighbors would call the police. They tried a church or two, 24-hour businesses where they thought they could hide amidst the other cars, and even an old naval field. The places with public toilets were best because, for reasons no one can quite explain, 3 a.m. is the witching hour for needing to pee. They kept their socks and shoes on, both for staying warm on chilly Bay Area nights and also for moving quickly if someone peered into their windows, or a cop flashed his light inside, ready to rouse. Wherever they were sleeping, they couldn’t sleep there. “Sometimes, I was so tired, I would be stopped at a red light and say, ‘Don’t go to sleep. Don’t go to sleep,’” Suzan said. “And then I would fall asleep.”
A few months in, a nice man in a 7-Eleven parking lot told them about a former high school turned community center on the eastern side of town called Cubberley. He’d walked up to their van after recognizing signs of life in the car, tired faces among the junk piling up in the back. Suzan and James were familiar with the community center because they’d taken their daughter to preschool there many years before, but they hadn’t thought about sleeping there. Cubberley had a quiet back parking lot, a flat grass amphitheater with a concrete paddock for a stage, and 24-hour public bathrooms with showers in an old gym. Rumor was that the cops wouldn’t bother anyone.
Suzan’s husband, James Russaw, pictured with two of their grandchildren.Cubberley was a psychic relief because it solved so many basic needs: It had a place to bathe in the morning, a place to charge your phone. The parking lot had also formed its own etiquette and sense of community. People tended to park in the same places, a spot or two next to their neighbors, and they recognized one another and nodded at night. They weren’t exactly friends, but they were people who trusted each other, an impromptu neighborhood no one wanted to lose after losing so much. It was safe, a good place to spend the night. But it was next door to a segment of homeowners who were fighting hard to move the car dwellers out.
Normally, wealthy people who move into an area don’t see the results of their displacement because the people who lose their homes don’t stick around; they move to cheaper suburbs and work themselves into the fabric elsewhere. But the folks at Cubberley, 30 people on any given night, were the displacement made manifest. Most weren’t plagued with mental health or substance abuse problems; they simply could no longer afford rent and became homeless in the last place they lived. People will put up with a lot to stay in a place they know. “I’ve been analyzing why don’t I just get the heck on. Everybody says that, go to Wyoming, Montana, you can get a mansion,” Suzan said. “Move on, move on, always move on. And I say to myself, ‘Why should I have to move on?’”
It’s a new chapter in an old story. In his seminal 1893 lecture at the Chicago World’s Fair, Frederick Jackson Turner summarized the myth of the American frontier and the waves of settlers who created it as an early form of gentrification: First, farmers looking for land would find a remote spot of wilderness to tame; once they succeeded, more men and women would arrive to turn each new spot into a town; finally, outside investors would swoop in, pushing out the frontiersman and leaving him to pack up and start all over again. It has always been thus in America. Turner quoted from a guide published in 1837 for migrants headed for the Western frontiers of Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin: “Another wave rolls on. The men of capital and enterprise come. The ‘settler’ is ready to sell out and take the advantage of the rise of property, push farther into the interior, and become himself a man of capital and enterprise in turn.” This repeating cycle, Turner argued, of movement and resettlement was essential to the American character. But he foresaw a looming crisis. “The American energy will continually demand a wider field for its exercise,” he wrote. “But never again will such gifts of free land offer themselves.” In other words, we would run out of places for the displaced to go.
Suzan was born in 1945. Her father worked at what was then the Lockheed Corporation, and her mother had been raised by a wealthy family in Oak Park, Illinois. Her family called her Suzi. Though she grew up in nearby Saratoga—and spent some time in school in Switzerland—she distinctly remembers coming with her mother to visit Palo Alto, with its downtown theaters and streets named after poets. Palo Alto more than any other place formed the landscape of her childhood. “It was a little artsy-craftsy university town—you find charming towns are university towns.”
Like many women of her day, Suzan didn’t graduate from college. When she was 24, after her last stay in Switzerland, she moved to Mountain View, the town on Palo Alto’s eastern border that is now home to Google and LinkedIn. She was living off a small trust her family had set up for her when she met James at a barbecue their apartment manager threw to foster neighborliness among his tenants. James had grown up in a sharecropping family in Georgia, moved west during World War II, and was more than 17 years her senior, handsome and gentlemanly. Suzan thought: “I can learn something from him.” They were an interracial couple in the late 1960s, which was unusual, though she says her family didn’t mind. It was also an interclass marriage, and it moved Suzan down the income ladder.
For years, James and Suzan lived together, unmarried. They bought a house on University Avenue, just north of the county line and blocks from downtown Palo Alto, in 1979, and four years later had their only daughter, Nancy. It was the area’s ghetto, and the only source of affordable housing for many years. It was also the center of violence in the region, and, in 1992, was the murder capital of the country.
They never had much money. For most of their marriage, James ran a small recycling company and Suzan acted as his bookkeeper, secretary, and housewife. They refused to apply for most government assistance, even as homeless elders. “My husband and I had never been on welfare or food stamps,” she told me. “Even to this day.”
Suzan’s parents died in 2002 and 2003, and her older sister died in 2009. (“I thank God that they’re gone,” she told me. “They would die if they saw me now.”) It was a hard time for Suzan, who went to care for her dying parents and nearly left James. She felt he’d checked out of the difficulties. In retrospect, she thinks his dementia might already have been setting in; James was already in his seventies. He had taken out a second mortgage on their home, and they couldn’t pay it after he retired. They sold the house at a loss in 2005; it’s now a Century 21 office.
After they moved into the van, they settled into a routine. On the nights before James’s early-morning treatments, they slept in the dialysis center’s parking lot. Otherwise they generally stayed at Cubberley. They were still living off James’s retirement income, but most of it went to the $500 needed to rent the two storage units where their furniture remained, until they lost one for nonpayment. Finally, a few months in, Suzan was able to use a clause in a trust set up by her mother’s father to help her out in an emergency. It doubled their income—much of which was eaten up by the costs of gas, the remaining storage unit, parking tickets, and the other expenses of an unsettled life. It was a respectable income, one that technically kept them above poverty, but it still wasn’t enough for rent.
James was increasingly ill and van life was taking a toll. In addition to James’s other problems, both he and Suzan were starting to experience some of the health problems common among the homeless. The backseat of the van filled with bags of clothes, papers, fast-food detritus, pens, old parking tickets, and receipts. As the junk built up, the recline of their seats inched forever upward, until they were sitting up all the time, causing their legs to swell and nerves to become damaged, the medical consequences of not being able to raise your feet at night.
Gentrification used to be about poor neighborhoods, usually black and brown, underdeveloped and full of decrepit and neglected housing stock, run by the occasional slumlord—often described as “blighted,” though that designation has always been problematic—and how they become converted into wealthier ones, usually through the influx of richer white people and their demand for new services and new construction. It’s a negative process for the people who have to move, but there’s occasionally an element of good, because neglected neighborhoods revive. But what’s happening now in the Bay Area is that people who’ve done nothing wrong—not paid their rent late, violated their lease, or committed any other housing sin—are being forced out to make way. Displacement is reaching into unquestionably vibrant, historic, middle- and working-class neighborhoods, like The Mission in San Francisco, a former center of Chicano power. (The Mission alone has lost 8,000 Latino residents in the past ten years, according to a report from the local Council of Community Housing Organizations and the Mission Economic Development Agency.) And it’s happening to such an extent that the social workers who used to steer people to affordable apartments as far away as Santa Rosa or Sacramento, a two-hour drive, are now telling people to look even farther out. The vehicle dwellers I spoke with said they’d heard of friends living in places like Stockton, once a modest working-class city in the middle of the state, receiving notice-to-vacate letters like the one Suzan and James received.
For the most part, the traits that draw people to Palo Alto—good schools, a charming downtown, nice neighborhoods in which to raise a family, and a short commute to tech jobs—are the very same things that made the residents of Cubberley want to stay, even if it meant living in their car. The destabilizing pressure of a real estate market is also felt by the merely rich, the upper middle class, and the middle class, because the high-end demand of the global elite sets the market prices. “My block has the original owners, a retired schoolteacher and a retired postal worker,” said Hope Nakamura, a legal aid attorney who lives in Palo Alto. “They could never afford to buy anything there now.” Most people told me if they had to sell their homes today they wouldn’t be able to buy again anywhere in the area, which means many Palo Altans have all of their wealth tied up in expensive homes that they can’t access without upending their lives. It makes everyone anxious.
The view inside a van parked outside a Palo Alto homeless organization.The outcry from the neighbors over Cubberley was so fierce that it reshaped Palo Alto’s city government. The city council is nonpartisan, but a faction emerged that revived an old, slow-growth movement in town, known as the “residentialists.” Their concerns are varied (among them, the perennial suburban concerns of property values and traffic), but their influence has been to block any new development of affordable housing and shoo people like Suzan and James away from Palo Alto. An uproar scuttled an affordable-housing building for senior citizens near many public transit options that had been proposed by the city housing authority and unanimously approved by the city council. Opponents said they were worried about the effect the development would have on the surrounding community—they argued it wasn’t zoned for “density,” which is to say, small apartments—and that traffic congestion in the area would be made worse. Aparna Ananthasubramaniam, then a senior at Stanford, tried to start a women’s-only shelter in rotating churches, modeled after the Hotel de Zink. She said a woman came up to her after a community meeting where the same concerns had been raised by a real estate agent. “Her lips were quivering and she was physically shaking from how angry she was,” Ananthasubramaniam told me. “She was like, ‘You come back to me 20 years from now once you have sunk more than $1 million into an asset, like a house, and you tell me that you’re willing to take a risk like this.”
The trouble for Cubberley began when neighbors went to the police. There’d been at least one fight, and the neighbors complained about trash left around the center. At the time, Cubberley was home to a 64-year-old woman who’d found a $20-an-hour job after nine years of unemployment; a tall, lanky, panhandler from Louisiana who kept informal guard over her and other women at the center; a 63-year-old part-time school crossing guard who cared for his dying mother for 16 years, then lived off the proceeds from the sale of her house until the money ran out; two retired school teachers; a 23-year-old Palo Alto native who stayed with his mother in a rental car after his old car spontaneously combusted; and, for about six months, Suzan and James. “They didn’t fit this image that the powers that be are trying to create about homeless people. They did not fit that image at all,” Suzan told me. “We made sure the premises were respected, because it was an honor to be able to stay there.” She and others told me they cleaned up their areas at the center every morning.
“I said, ‘We have no place to go, and we’re staying right here.’ They were going to know about it.”
Pressured to find a way to move the residents out, the police department went to the city council claiming they needed a law banning vehicle habitation to address the neighbors’ concerns. Advocates for the homeless said that any problems could be solved if police would just enforce existing laws. Local attorneys warned the city council that such laws could soon be considered unconstitutional, because the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was hearing a challenge to a similar law in Los Angeles. Carrie LeRoy, an attorney who advocated on behalf of the unhoused, and other attorneys threatened to file a class-action lawsuit if the vehicle-habitation ban ever went into effect. The city council passed the ban anyway, in a 7-2 vote in August 2013, and the police department and other groups in the city started an outreach program to tell people about the law. “All of them had received these notices from the city,” LeRoy said, “And it was basically like, ‘Get out of our town.’”
A few weeks later, the city council also voted to close the showers at Cubberley and give it a 10:30 p.m. curfew, which made it illegal to sleep there. On their last night there, in October 2013, Suzan and James left around 8 p.m. so they wouldn’t get caught past the new curfew. They tried some old haunts and got kicked out. The stress of living in the van was hard on James. Around this time, James decided to end his dialysis. “Of course, we knew what that meant,” Suzan said.
One night, about a month after leaving Cubberley, the police pulled Suzan and James over. Their registration was expired. “This officer, he got a wild hair, and he said, ‘I’m going to impound your car,’ and called the tow truck.” Suzan told me. They got out of the car. Without pushing and demanding, she realized, she was never going to get out of the situation. She told me she said to the officer, “This is our home, and if you impound it we will not have a home.” He insisted. “I said ‘That’s fine. You do that. We will stay right here. I will put the beds out, I will put what we need here, right here on the sidewalk.” Other officers arrived and talked to them. They asked Suzan whether, surely, there was some other place they could go. “I said, ‘We have no place to go, and we’re staying right here.’ I was going to make a stink. They were going to know about it.” Suzan told me people were poking their heads out of their homes, and she realized the bigger fuss she made, the more likely officers might decide just to leave them alone.
Because James’s health had continued to worsen, he and Suzan finally qualified for motel vouchers during the cold weather. They got a room in a rundown hotel. “It had a microwave and a hot bath,” Suzan said. In his last few days, James was given a spot in a hospice in San Jose, and Suzan went with him. “It was so cut-and-dry. They said, ‘This is an end-of-life bed, period,’ ” Suzan said. “And I never said that to James.” He died on February 17, 2014, and a few weeks later a friend of theirs held a memorial service for James at her house. Suzan wore an old silk jacket of her mother’s, one that would later be ruined by moisture in the van, and a necklace Nancy had made. They ate James’s favorite foods—cornbread, shrimp, and pound cake. Suzan had a few motel vouchers left, and afterward stayed with friends and volunteers for a few weeks each, but she felt she was imposing.
That summer, she returned to her van. It was different without James; she realized she’d gotten to know him better during their van life than she ever had before. Maybe it was his dementia, but as they drove around or sat together, squished amidst their stuff, he’d started to tell her long stories, over and over, of his youth in Georgia. She’d never heard the tales before, but she’d started to be able to picture it all. On her own, without his imposing figure beside her, Suzan was scared, and more than a little lonely. Most nights, she stayed tucked away in a church parking lot, without permission from the pastor, hidden between bushes and vans. The law wasn’t being enforced, but sleeping in the lot made her a kind of a criminal. “The neighbors never gave me up,” she said.
Suzan told me she was in a fog of denial after James’s death, but it’s probably what protected her because homelessness is exhausting. “You start to lose it after a while,” she said. “You feel disenfranchised from your own society.” The Downtown Streets Team, a local homeless organization, had been helping her look for a long-term, stable housing solution. Indeed, Suzan told me that at various times, she and James had 27 applications in for affordable housing in Palo Alto. (When he died, she had to start over, submitting new applications for herself.) Her social worker at the local senior citizens center, Emily Farber, decided to also look for a temporary situation that would get Suzan under a roof for a few months, or even a few weeks. “We were dealing with very practical limitations: having a computer, having a stable phone number,” Farber said. Craigslist was only something Suzan had heard of. She’d finally gotten a cell phone through a federal program, but hadn’t quite mastered it.
For many months, Farber struck out. She didn’t think Suzan would want to live with three 25-year-old Google employees, or that they’d want her, either. She even tried Airbnb. Because Suzan didn’t have a profile, Farber used her own, and wrote to people who had rooms listed to say her 69-year-old friend needed a place to stay in the area for a couple of weeks. “We got three rejections in a row,” she said. Finally, in November, they found a room available for rent for $1,100—about 80 percent of her income from the trust and her widow’s benefits from Social Security. Suzan would have her own bedroom and bathroom in the two-bedroom apartment of a single mother. The mother crowded into the other bedroom with her 16-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter. The only downside for Suzan was that it was in Santa Clara, another charmingly bland suburban enclave in the South Bay, a half hour south of Palo Alto and a world away for Suzan. “It’s out of my comfort zone, but that’s OK!” she told me.
I met Suzan on the day she moved in, and the concept of being able to close a door was almost as unsettling to her as the concept of sleeping in the van had been. “I’m in this kind of survival mode,” she said, and had found a certain comfort in her van. “I’ve got this little cocoon I’m staying in, and everything is within arm’s reach.” She had a big blue mat in the back of the van, like a grown-up version of the kind kindergartners nap on, but soon she’d acquire a bed. She retrieved her old TV from her storage unit. She made a comfortable room, with chairs and a bed and a small table, and decided to eat her meals in there. She only signed a lease for three months, because it wasn’t really sustainable on her fixed income. She’d also applied for an affordable housing complex being built for seniors in Sunnyvale, one that would provide permanent housing for 60 senior citizens from among the 7,000 homeless people in the county at the time. She’d find out in April if she was selected in the lottery. All her hopes were pinned on it.
In the first few weeks after her move to Santa Clara, Suzan spent a healthy portion of her limited income on gas, driving the Explorer back and forth to Palo Alto. After all, her post office box was there, and so were her social workers. Her errands demanded a lot of face time, and in some ways, she still filled her days the way she had before she got her room, moving around trying to solve her problems. Her car was still packed, too, as if she hadn’t let go of the need to drive in it, to move forward, to keep her stuff around her within arm’s reach, as if she were still without a home base.
Two afternoons a week she went to a Palo Alto food closet. She usually made it right before it closed, in the early afternoons. When her number was called, she went up to the counter to watch the volunteer sort through what was left on the shelves, finding the most recently expired items—these were older goods grocery stores couldn’t keep past their sell-by dates. Suzan’s politeness was, as always, almost formal, from an earlier era, when being ladylike was a learned skill. The volunteer would ask her if she wanted milk, or peaches, or a serving-size Baggie of cereal, and she’d say, “Yes, very much so!” These days, she got to take raw eggs instead of the boiled ones, a treat reserved for those with kitchens. Her requests were glancing rather than direct. “Have you any lettuce?” and the answer was often no. I said it seemed like an efficient operation. Suzan said, “I really know the drill!”
Suzan needed to visit her social worker, Julia Lang, at the Downtown Streets Team office to get the form that allowed her to go to an even better food bank. She asked the receptionist whether her social worker was in. She wasn’t, and Suzan explained she was looking for the food bank vouchers. Then the receptionist asked for her address. That stopped Suzan. The receptionist explained that the pantry was for Palo Alto residents, and Suzan was considering, for the first time, whether that counted her. Suzan explained that she and her husband had gone to the pantry the year before, and said they should be in the system. We waited while the receptionist looked. Suzan waved at someone she’d seen around for years, from her car-dwelling days. Suzan told the receptionist, again, that they really should be in the system. But they weren’t. Suzan said that was OK, and she would come back. The receptionist said, “Are you sure? I just need your ID and your address.” Suzan demurred. She needed to talk to her social worker. This is what it meant to have to leave her hometown. She was leaving the city where she and James had known people, the city where James had died, the city where she’d grown up and near where she’d raised her own daughter. It was the city where she knew where to go, where she’d figured out how to be homeless. It was the city where she knew the drill.
That homelessness persists in Silicon Valley has puzzled me. It has an extremely wealthy population with liberal, altruistic values. Though it has a large homeless population relative to its size, in sheer numbers it’s not as large as New York City’s or L.A.’s. Some of the reasons could be found in the meeting on November 17, 2014, when the city finally overturned the car-camping ban. It had never been enforced because, as predicted, the Ninth Circuit had overturned L.A.’s ban. In the end, all but one person who’d voted for the ban the first time around voted to overturn it. The lone dissenter was councilman Larry Klein. “The social welfare agency in our area is the county, not the city,” he said. “To think we can solve the homeless problem just doesn’t make sense.”
This idea was repeated many times among city officials—that homelessness was too big an issue for the city to resolve. The city of Palo Alto itself has one full-time staff member devoted to homelessness, and it coordinates with county and nonprofit networks to counsel, house, and feed the homeless.
Suzan shows where she stored food in her car while homeless.During the fight over the ban, the city tried to devise an alternative—a program that would allow car dwellers to park at churches—but then left the details up to the faith community to work out. Nick Selby, an attorney and member of the Palo Alto Friends Meeting House, said he and his fellow Quakers met with community resistance when they tried to accommodate three or four car dwellers on their tiny lot. Neighbors circulated a petition listing concerns like “the high prevalence of mental illness, drug abuse, and communicable diseases in the homeless population” and the risk of declining property values. But Selby said some of their concerns were fair. “People who objected were saying to the city, ‘What’s your program?’” Selby said. “And the city really had no answer to those questions.” Without a solid plan and logistical help from the city, other churches were reluctant to step forward. “The churches weren’t prepared to deal with this,” he said. After the church car-camping plan fell through, the city council said it had no choice but a ban.
Santa Clara County, too, struggles to address the problem. The county is participating in federal programs to build permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless population, the population of long-term homeless who typically have interacting mental health and substance abuse problems. But land is expensive here, and the area is shortchanged by the federal formula that disperses funds. California, ever in budget-crisis mode, provides limited state funds. There isn’t a dedicated funding stream from the cities, which don’t necessarily pay a tax to the county for these projects, and local affordable housing developments are often rejected by residents as Palo Alto’s was. In September, the city of San Jose and the county announced a $13 million program to buy old hotels and renovate them as shelters, which will make 585 new beds available. While advocates credit the county’s efforts with cutting the estimated homeless population by 14 percent since 2013, the number of people like Suzan, who hide in their cars, is almost certainly underestimated. But most such efforts are centered in San Jose. Chris Richardson, a director of the Bay Area’s Downtown Streets Team, said what needs to happen is not a mystery: Other cities have to fund affordable housing, they have to fund more of it, and they have to do it in their own neighborhoods, without relying on San Francisco and San Jose to absorb all of the area’s poverty and problems. “You can’t just ship them down to the big, poor city,” he said.
When Palo Alto originally passed the car-camping ban, it also devoted $250,000 to the county’s homelessness program. When they voted to rescind the ban, council members asked for an update on what happened to the money. The city staff was not prepared to report on how it had been spent at that council meeting, more than a year into the funding. Members of the council again reiterated their desire to help the homeless. “Helping the homeless” was tabled, as a general idea, for another agenda at another meeting, as it always seems to be, or passed off to the county, or to someone else—and so helping the homeless is something nobody does.
Through the winter, Suzan remained ill; it was a bad flu season. She kept paying the rent on her room, on her storage units, on her P.O. box in Palo Alto, and she tried setting aside money she owed on parking tickets. Some months she’d run out of gas money to drive the 15 miles to Palo Alto and check her mail or visit her social workers. She was waiting to hear about the affordable apartment.
In May, she was denied. Suzan had bad credit, both because of the unpaid storage unit she and James had lost and because otherwise her credit history was so thin. Julia Lang, one of her social workers, told me she couldn’t even get a credit score for Suzan. Lang said people get denied on credit, or because they make too little for affordable housing that’s supposedly intended for extremely low-income people, all the time. “When you’re that destitute and have gone through so many complicated situations, what are the chances that your credit’s going to be good?” she said.
Suzan was livid and despondent, and she decided to appeal. “I wasn’t going to take that lying down,” Suzan told me. “I was proud of myself.” Catholic Charities helped her appeal. Suzan had to write a letter showing how she intended to repair her credit, and that she understood why it was bad in the first place. During the months of back and forth, Suzan bought a new Jeep, only one year newer than the Explorer, in case she needed to sleep in her car again. In July, she learned she’d won her appeal. She had two weeks to get her affairs in order, pay the first month’s rent and security deposit, and move in. Her social workers helped her with some of the move-in costs, and she signed a lease for a year.
I saw Suzan again in August, about three weeks after she’d moved in. Her hair was trimmed. She was wearing a brightly colored muumuu, blue and green with tropical flowers—“It’s a housedress but you can wear it out on the street!”—and a green sweater tied around her shoulders. She seemed relaxed and rested, and I told her so. Her bed was full of folded clothes, and her room was still in disarray. She was trying to cull her storage unit so that she could get a smaller one and cut down on rent. Most of the people in her complex had been in the same boat as Suzan, or had been worse off. She pays $810 a month, the amount determined to be affordable for her income. It had taken her more than three years, help from at least three social workers, and thousands of dollars, but she was finally stably housed. At least, for a year.
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