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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-

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