Undeterred by an ongoing legal challenge, the nonprofit Alta Housing last week filed a formal application to construct an affordable-housing complex with 72 apartments on a downtown parking lot near the corner of Lytton Avenue and Kipling Street. The six-story project on what’s known as “Lot T” is the first to take advantage of the city’s new...

The Palo Alto Police Department just regained a clinician from Santa Clara County to assist officer response to acute mental health calls after the program went without one for more than two years. The Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) program began as a pilot in 2021 and pairs a mental health clinician with a police...

After floundering for hours in their own stratified vocabulary, Palo Alto officials coalesced on Saturday around a new list of goals for 2026: government efficiency, housing production, economic development and the renovation of Cubberley Community Center. The City Council direction, now led by Mayor Vicki Veenker and Vice Mayor Greer Stone, marks a departure from...

In light of the regional economy downturn, federal cuts and an uncertain political future for the country, Palo Alto leaders are staring down the barrel of years of budget deficits totaling more than $80 million, according to a new financial forecast. While the budget allocation process doesn’t truly begin until next month during the mid-year...

After radiation therapy, certain cancer patients face a lingering question: Is a troubling lesion a return of the cancer, or is it damage caused by treatment? At Stanford, researchers are testing an artificial intelligence model designed to help doctors tell the difference. Dr. Michael Chang is an assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology at...

Palo Alto plans to electrify more homes, buildings and cars, as well as expand communications to the community, as part of an effort to meet its ambitious environmental goals, according to a new plan. One of the primary goals of the plan, known as Sustainability/Climate Action Plan, is to achieve an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas...

Just two months after he was honored by Palo Alto’s elected leaders for nearly three decades of service, retired Fire Chief Geoffrey Blackshire has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming the city illegally withheld wages for him for more than five years. The legal dispute revolves around a 3% wage premium Blackshire said he...

Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, a longtime Portola Valley resident who became as well known for his Fogarty Winery as for his invention of the balloon catheter, a groundbreaking medical device, died on Dec. 28 in Portola Valley. He was 91. Born on Feb. 25, 1934, Dr. Fogarty grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father died...

The complaints from residents of Palo Alto’s Crescent Park neighborhood about the recent changes on their block began more than five years ago via letters to planning staff, phone calls to City Hall and reports filed on 3-1-1, an online portal that residents use to report everything from potholes and downed branches to zoning violations....

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors expressed dedication on Tuesday, Dec. 16, to partially funding allcove Palo Alto, a youth mental health center, despite facing approximately $1 billion in annual federal funding cuts countywide. Santa Clara County uses half of its $13 billion yearly budget on health and hospital services. Under President Donald Trump’s...