With Thanksgiving just around the corner, and the end-of-year holidays following shortly after, might I suggest a jar of honey from our own Redwood City Public Library? Talk about living locally: this late summer honey comes from bees that live on the roof of the downtown public library. You certainly can’t get more local than that! Each 6-oz jar costs just $10, and sales benefit the library. Purchase jars of this delicious honey online and then pick them up at the Friends Bookstore (at the front of the library at 1044 Middlefield Rd.). And while you are there, browse their book selection; all books are very reasonably priced.

Sticking with art, I’ve been asked to let folks know that on Saturday, November 23 (tomorrow, as I write this) ART on the Square will be holding its 9th annual Holiday Show inside the San Mateo County History Museum in downtown Redwood City’s Courthouse Square (admission is free). A wide variety of artists will be “selling their fabulous creations on two floors under the museum’s spectacular stained glass dome,” so this could be a great place to escape the rain, if it is still coming down tomorrow. The history museum itself will also be free to the public that day, so in addition to checking out the artists’ work this is a great opportunity to also explore our local history. The show will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. inside the historic courthouse at 2200 Broadway in Redwood City.

Last Sunday I attended an art walk meant to both introduce people to Redwood City’s wide array of public art (over 230 artworks so far!), but also to re-launch the smartphone app that one can use to explore all of that art on their own. That app — Explore Redwood City — is available for both Android- and iOS-powered smartphones from their respective app stores. As for those who don’t have smartphones or who prefer to do their exploring from a computer, point your browser to https://exploreredwood.stqry.app/1 and click on Public Art to begin (you’ll also find history tours there and in the smartphone apps).

The walk we took on Sunday was a relatively short one: it consisted of a loop through downtown Redwood City, extending as far as the city’s Commercial Way Mural Corridor, which surrounds the Perry Street parking lot (behind City Pub, which is on Broadway between El Camino Real and the Caltrain tracks). As someone who tries to keep up with the public arts scene in Redwood City I didn’t see a great deal that was new, but I enjoyed the walk nevertheless. And I was pleased to see that the Youth Mural Alley — which runs along the back of the Hotel Sequoia from Main Street to the Main Street Parking Lot — had some time ago been refreshed with new artworks. I really enjoy seeing what our younger generations come up with, and this latest batch doesn’t disappoint. I love several of them, but my favorite is this one, for its social commentary as much as for the artwork itself:

Created by a team of eight artists headed by Ramon Franco from Casa Circulo Cultural, the work is titled “Back to Books.” The statement the team made to accompany the work is “Technology is wonderful, but we must stimulate our imagination through books,” Hear, hear!

All of the works seem to have good messages, and serve as a reminder that our young people have voices we need to pay attention to. For instance, many long-time Redwood City residents are concerned about the changes that Redwood City has experienced over the past many years, but clearly it isn’t just them. In the alley our youth are expressing something along those very lines, with works like this one:

The statement accompanying this particular work — titled “Redwood City Past & Present. The Future?” — says “We appreciate being able to grow up in Redwood City! Also, we respect the indigenous people of the past and love being here now. We’re concerned about the future of our city and the planet. The images in our mural are meant to represent these thoughts and feelings.” Thanks to the team from Hoover Community School who created this lovely bit of art.

There are quite a number of murals in the Youth Mural Alley; next time you are in the area, do take a moment and check them out.

On Wednesday I took a walk with no particular destination, but just to get out and do a bit of exploring. Part of that walk was through downtown Redwood City, where I noted that Pizzeria Cardamomo, Redwood City’s newest place for what I gather is high-end pizza and other Italian dishes, has apparently been in a soft opening mode for a couple of weeks now. (See this article in The Almanac for some background on the fascinating origins of this new Redwood City business.) Keep an eye on it (as I will) and check it out either when Cardamomo is open for real, or if you catch it during a soft opening.

Pizza Cardamomo is located on the closed (to vehicles) section of Broadway, at 2053A Broadway, in the space previously occupied by Sushiritto.

Directly across the street from Cardamomo, Bao, Redwood City’s newest hand-crafted Chinese dumpling place, is now open. While Bao serves more than just dumplings — see its extensive menu — the menu’s extensive array of dumplings sure seems impressive. I have yet to give this place a try, either, but it, too, is now on my list…

Farther down Broadway, the tired, old Garden Motel is looking somewhat less tired: when I went by this week the 18-room motel was getting a new roof:

The family who owns this small business have been slowly upgrading the motel, which clearly indicates to me that they intend for it to remain pretty much as-is, and don’t intend to replace it with a five-story, 112-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel, as they had previously proposed (and gotten approved — multiple times). So although Redwood City’s Development Projects list still has an entry for the 1690 Broadway project, it’s probably a safe bet that that project won’t be built in the foreseeable future.

Over on Chestnut Street, the residential building that is part of the Broadway Plaza project and that primarily faces that street is getting some of its exterior finishes and colors. Here is a view showing the corner of Chestnut and Bay streets:

This particular building, incidentally, is the one (of the three that will occupy this end of the project site) that will contain all of the project’s affordable apartments. I’m pleased to see that this building is the farthest along, with the other two (market-rate) apartment buildings being not too far behind.

Back on Theatre Way, I was saddened to see that Madison Ave, the mostly women’s clothing store at 816 Middlefield Rd., has closed up shop:

Disappointing, but perhaps the lack of a for-lease sign (as is posted above the next-door space) and the papered-over windows indicates that someone new is already on the way. Fingers crossed…

Along Vera Avenue, interesting things continue to happen. The five-unit for-sale condominium building being constructed at 239 Vera Avenue is chugging along. This building, which stands end-on to the street (the lot is narrow and deep) has been scaffolded, indicating that soon the exterior finish (stucco, I presume) will be applied:

Then, at 533 Vera Ave., a project that is billed as a “two-story addition + remodel” (on the permit, anyway) is coming along — but looks more like an all-new build:

Finally, at 834 Vera Ave., right next to Redwood Church, the project to replace an aging (built in 1929) single-family home with something new is getting interesting. For some time now I’ve been watching as the house was demolished, the lot was cleared, and what appears to be foundation work took place near the front of the lot. Then things went quiet for a while, and now it seems that two stand-alone pre-manufactured ADUs have been added to the very back of this very deep (around 250 feet!) residential lot:

From the permits, it appears that this lot will ultimately contain four dwelling units: those two ADUs, plus, at the front of the lot where the foundation work had been taking place, a duplex. Not having plans for this particular project, I intend to keep an eye on the site to see what actually transpires. I do have to wonder if this project has anything to do with the next-door church: whether it is a project of theirs to construct some affordable housing (perhaps for staff?) or simply an independent developer’s project to make something profitable. If anyone knows more about this one, do let me know…

Have a great weekend, and stay dry! Don’t forget that the circus is in town: they’re only here until the end of the month. As for me, after checking out ART on the Square I’ll be puttering in my garage and, if the rain takes a break, cleaning gutters…