This blog isn’t called “Walking Redwood City” for nothing! This week I took two long walks, on Tuesday and Wednesday (both of which were on the warm side, but nothing like what we experienced on Thursday, thank heavens). These were in addition to the art walk my wife and I took on Sunday, which was quite enjoyable and surprisingly (to me, anyway) well attended. There were enough people that we had to be divided up into three or four separate groups. In any case, the apparent success of Sunday’s event — which was intentionally a sort-of trial run — likely ensures that the Redwood City Arts Commission will hold additional such walks in the future. So if you are interested in a guided stroll throughout downtown Redwood City to see a number of the city’s public works of art, keep your ears and eyes open for future announcements from that group. Oh, and they are apparently working on an app that will help you easily locate all of the city’s public art (including the 80 or so painted utility boxes!), so keep an eye open for that as well. Naturally, if I hear more about the app or about future guided walks, I’ll pass on what I’ve heard.

My Tuesday walk was primarily aimed at ferreting out some of the city’s more interesting Halloween-decorated homes. Given the size of Redwood City’s residential neighborhoods, I of course was only able to get to a small portion of the city (for instance, I have yet to get out to Redwood Shores to see how the folks out there are getting ready for the spooky season, nor have I yet made it to some of the neighborhoods closer to Woodside Road). But assuming that many of the winners of last year’s city-wide Haunt Your Home Halloween home decorating contest will have impressive displays again this year, I tracked down as many of those as I could, based on the video that showed the winners of last year’s contest. Of course, because I was looking for decorations two weeks before Halloween, only the really die-hard decorators had their decorations up when I went by, two weeks early. And, of course, I was viewing the decorations during the daytime, decorations that are designed to be enjoyed at night. So not only are not all of the homes decorated yet, of that are, many are only partially done. For instance, my perennial favorite, the Turnsworth Cemetery (at 224 Iris St.) had a few decorations up in the side yard (along with the holiday gate), plus some neat “stained glass” windows and busts that were not part of the display last year:

The rest, though, was not up as of last Tuesday.

There are two houses on Grand Street that won plaudits last year. One is at 272 Grand Street, and it bears checking out on Halloween night, if what I saw is any indication:

(The above is just one portion of their front yard.)

While there, be sure to cross the street and head a few doors down, to 257 Grand — unless you are particularly afraid of clowns:

I also walked the length of Arlington Road (in the Edgewood Park neighborhood). One house that won an award last year hadn’t been decorated this year; I’ll have to check back on that one. But there were a number of well-decorated houses along that street, such as this one that can be found at (I believe) 926 Arlington Rd.:

Of course, there is quantity, and there is quality. I really appreciate a simpler display if it is done well. I love this group of witches:

I do feel for the poor witch who lost her hat, though…

And then there is this house, which is focused less on Halloween and more on the fall season and Thanksgiving (although those lights along the walkway are cute little ghosts, so there is some Halloween spirit going on here):

These days, what is Halloween without “Skelly,” the 12-foot skeleton from Home Depot? I saw at least four of them on my Tuesday walk, and I know that there are others scattered throughout the city. For instance, here is one, in the front yard of one of our newer homes in the Mt. Carmel neighborhood:

If you are into decorations like these, be sure to keep an eye on this year’s Haunt Your Home contest. Tonight (Friday, October 20) at midnight is the deadline to enter. But judging will take place next Tuesday and Wednesday, after which the list of entrants, the winners, and a video of the contest results will be posted to the contest website. So watch for that to get some tips on where just some of the best Halloween-decorated houses can be found in Redwood City. Oh, and if Halloween isn’t your thing, but Christmas is, the city holds a similar contest at Christmastime, so keep an eye out for that one if you plan to do an award-winning job on your house in December.

Before I leave Halloween altogether, the city has assembled a list of fun and popular Halloween parties and activities for young and old alike. In particular, the Halloween Spooktacular is being held from 12 – 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 21, at the Red Morton Community Center. This event is for kids up to 10 years old (and up to two parents per child), and will include carnival games, crafts, and other fun activities. Tickets are $10/child (accompanying adults are free) and can be purchased online or at the door. This activity, and many others can be found on the city’s Halloween Hub web page; check it out!

On a related note, Mexico’s Day of the Dead is on November 2 this year. Casa Circulo Cultural’s big Redwood City celebration of the event will take place on Sunday, November 5, from 4 to 8:30 p.m. in and around Courthouse Square, so mark your calendars! This free, fascinating event will consist of “ceremonial altars created by the members of the community, a procession, catrinas, face painting, free children’s activities, food court, and live entertainment throughout the evening.” It’s on my calendar — we’ve gone in the past and had a wonderful time.

While the principal aim of my Tuesday walk was to look for Halloween decorations, I of course made note of a number of other things, some of which I’ll hold for a future post. But I thought it was finally time to give a quick update on the Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center project. That truly innovative new building is being constructed in Red Morton Park, and is finally receiving at least some of its exterior finishes: the recycled wood wall panels that will cover most of the building are starting to be installed:

Some parts of the building will receive dark metal panels instead, to provide contrast to the light wood (and the great many glass windows). The building is now almost entirely covered in the insulating foam board that will hide beneath those exterior panels:

Based on the renderings, this should be a really good looking building:

On my walk I also took a peek at the building at the corner of El Camino Real and Winklebleck Street — the former Signarama building that should, someday, be a restaurant of some sort. Progress on this project has been proceeding at a glacial pace, but recently the sidewalks were poured (we walkers give thanks!) and some landscaping has been put in, so at least the idle building looks nicer to those driving by on El Camino Real:

I of course couldn’t help but look into active the ELCO Yards parcel along El Camino Real, mainly to check on that staircase that now sticks up from the deep pit that will someday be a three-level parking garage. For a long time there was a dirt ramp that allowed equipment and workers to enter and exit the pit, but that ramp had to be removed in order for the concrete floor and sides of the future garage to be poured. Without the ramp, there needed to be some way to enter and exit the pit, and this stairway (which, by its height, hints that it’ll be used by work crews to access the various levels of the building that will sit atop this underground garage) is it:

Incidentally, the lowest level of this garage has been poured, and the crews are currently pouring the floor for the middle level. This picture not only shows the wooden form that will support the concrete floor until it dries, it also shows the ramp that goes from level two down to level three:

On Wednesday I took a fairly long walk for a much different purpose. Recently, the County of San Mateo approved a project that would put a 69-room hotel on three parcels at the corner of El Camino Real and Northumberland Avenue, in North Fair Oaks (quite close to the Redwood City border). Two of the parcels are located along El Camino. These two:

The third parcel currently serves as a parking lot behind these two buildings. This project likely won’t get underway for some time, but I wanted to get some decent “before” photos, and part of my walk that day was for that purpose. I then kept going, heading down to Fifth Avenue which I then followed over to Middlefield Road. There, I got a good look at the county’s project to improve conditions along that street through North Fair Oaks. Most of the barriers that have constrained traffic for months now have been removed, and traffic is starting to get back to normal. The sidewalks are poured, and are very welcome to those of us who use them. As well, lovely new streetlights have been installed:

As you can see, though, countless wires still criss-cross the street. Removing all of them is one of the main goals of this project; presumably all of the underground conduits needed to contain those wires are now in place, and soon specialized crews will reroute the wires through their new underground channels and then remove all of the wooden power poles that currently line the street. Things should look substantially better after that.

It has been an endurance contest for all of the merchants who line this busy portion of Middlefield Road; hopefully their customers are starting to return, and business is picking up. Personally, I finally managed to try Cuco’s Burritos, at 2855 Middlefield Rd. I had an excellent lunch there, eating at one of their shady outdoor tables behind their building. Although I just ordered a burrito (which was excellent, and very reasonably priced), they brought me free chips and salsa plus a carafe of water, which was most appreciated on what turned out to be a pretty hot day. Having started with their signature burrito, next time I’ll try something else. And there definitely will be a next time…

On my way back to Redwood City via Middlefield Road, my final planned destination was the Middlefield Junction, the Mercy Housing California project to build 179 affordable apartments on a county-owned parcel behind the North Fair Oaks Health Center at Redwood Junction. When I visited the site in July, the land had been cleared and some work in preparation for the foundations and underground utilities was underway. Since then, though, they’ve really made progress:

The two buildings that will make up this affordable housing development will start really taking shape soon. I foresee more walks to this site, and, likely, more lunches at Cuco’s…