Publisher - The Spectrum Magazine - Redwood City's Monthly ...
Publisher - The Spectrum Magazine - Redwood City's Monthly ...
Publisher - The Spectrum Magazine - Redwood City's Monthly ...
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y Judy Buchan<br />
Contributing Writer<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Spectrum</strong> . <strong>Redwood</strong> <strong>City's</strong> <strong>Monthly</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Much Ado About Middlefield<br />
the City Council, stating that he “would hope that the City will allow input from our<br />
group and at least call a meeting were we could participate.”<br />
Transforming the east-west segment of Middlefield Road that bisects Downtown into<br />
<strong>The</strong>ater Way so that drivers can find what will evolve into <strong>Redwood</strong> City’s theater district<br />
with the multiplex cinema and the historic Fox <strong>The</strong>ater seemed like a good idea.<br />
But not all the affected businesses on Middlefield knew of the concept, which was<br />
incorporated into a Parking Facilities Agreement ratified by the City Council last year<br />
until a few months ago.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ensuing controversy played out in earnest this month, and will surely be part of<br />
the City Council’s final call on renaming<br />
the street sometime in July.<br />
“We should have argued about this last<br />
year instead of this year,” Mayor Jeff Ira<br />
sighed.<br />
Ira was adamant that nothing about the<br />
proposal is set in stone. “This is definitely<br />
not a done deal; there is no commitment<br />
to do this,” he said,.<br />
He explained that turning Middlefield<br />
Road into <strong>The</strong>ater Way was a concept<br />
raised by the project developer early in<br />
the negotiations with the City and<br />
Redevelopment Agency. When the final<br />
amended Disposition and Development<br />
Agreement (allowing the project to<br />
move forward) was approved in<br />
December 2002, renaming the street was<br />
left out of final negotiations. Instead, an<br />
attachment to the document listed the<br />
“business points” which were agreed on<br />
by the City, the Redevelopment Agency,<br />
the developer, and Century <strong>The</strong>aters, the<br />
project’s main tenant.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Parking Facilities Agreement for the<br />
retail-cinema project, which incorporated<br />
the “business points,” was adopted by the<br />
City Council on June 28, 2004.<br />
Should the street renaming proposal have<br />
been presented to affected businesses on<br />
Middlefield Road last year? Joel<br />
Patterson, Community Development<br />
Services Director, was quite candid when<br />
describing the myriad tasks involved in<br />
preparing for the cinema. “<strong>The</strong>re are one<br />
dozen ordinances and other changes to be put in place before the cinema opens,”<br />
Patterson said. “It (notifying the affected businesses) was considered a smaller issue in<br />
relation to dealing with parking.”<br />
“We are facing the same issues now as we would have faced last year,” Patterson said,<br />
as he acknowledged that City staff should probably have worked with the businesses<br />
sooner.<br />
Dr. Jeffrey Filippi, <strong>Redwood</strong> City chiropractor, whose practice spans the past 20 years<br />
at 627 Middlefield Road, agrees. Filippi learned of the street name change from one of<br />
his patients in late March of this year. Taken by surprise, Filippi took his concerns to<br />
Approximately 10 days later, Filippi said, affected businesses were invited to attend<br />
city-sponsored meetings where they could learn more about the potential name change.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Council absolutely insisted that staff go out and talk to them,” Mayor Ira said,<br />
adding, “we forced them to go out.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> meeting was attended by Filippi, the owners of his building, neighboring chiropractor<br />
Dr. William Amalu, attorneys Anthony Gibb and Geoff Carr, and a representative<br />
of the Service League, Susan Moeller of the Redevelopment Agency, and John<br />
Anagnostou of the Fox <strong>The</strong>atres. It<br />
started, Filippi said, with a presentation<br />
of the “whole scenario of the rebirth of<br />
downtown <strong>Redwood</strong> City.” He was quick<br />
to note that his group is “all happy about<br />
what’s coming and we support it.”<br />
As the discussion turned to the renaming<br />
issue, Filippi said there was “downright<br />
deception.” <strong>The</strong> section of Middlefield<br />
from the parking lot to Broadway was<br />
presented to the group as having historical<br />
significance because it was once<br />
known as “<strong>The</strong>ater Way.” In actuality,<br />
Filippi said, <strong>The</strong>ater Street was once<br />
behind the Fox <strong>The</strong>ater (and is now<br />
known as Hamilton Street).<br />
Filippi claimed his group was then told<br />
that Middlefield Road has a “bad image.”<br />
A member of the City Council, he said,<br />
also told him that the street has a “bad<br />
image.”<br />
“Do we have racism going on here?”<br />
Filippi asked. “Middlefield is an old area<br />
of <strong>Redwood</strong> City with a large Hispanic<br />
population.” He expressed concern<br />
about what he felt was an “elitist/racist<br />
attitude” on the part of City Hall. He<br />
added that the he and his neighbors<br />
came away from the meeting “unanimously<br />
against this” (renaming the<br />
street) and “believing it was a done deal.”<br />
Susan Moeller, Redevelopment Director,<br />
did not return a call for comment on<br />
Filippi’s assertions.<br />
When Filippi and his neighbors subsequently<br />
learned that the renaming concept was part of the 2002 agreement and ratified<br />
by the Council in 2004, they took their frustrations to the City Council on June 13. “If<br />
this was in the works in 2002, why didn’t they talk to us about it then?” he said.<br />
For John Anagnostou, the historical problem with Middlefield Road is one of logistics.<br />
“Middlefield Road starts in San Jose,” he said “and runs straight to <strong>Redwood</strong> City,<br />
where motorists encounter a right turn to continue on the street. People get lost.”<br />
“Everybody who has real estate around here knows there’s a problem.”<br />
Anagnostou contended that he made the original suggestion to rename the street. He<br />
believes changing the street name is a “chance to fix a historical problem.” He envi-