I begin this week with a reminder: the circus is in town! My wife and I attended the Zoppé Italian Family Circus along with two friends last night, and we all had a terrific time. If you’ve never been, this is a very different kind of experience when compared with, say, Ringling Bros. Zoppé’s show is a more intimate affair, with everything occurring in or above just a single ring, but a show with plenty of laughs and some rather amazing feats of agility, acrobatics, and other skills. There are even some animals: a pair of horses, and a number of trained poodles.

Zoppé’s shows are reasonably priced, and we all agreed that the experience was well worth what we paid. They’ll be in town (by the main library in downtown Redwood City) through November 30, and put on their show once, twice, or even three times a day every day except Monday. For the full schedule, plus ticket pricing and a link to where you can buy tickets ahead of time (they are also available on site the day of the show), see the Admission & Tickets page.

Next, I’ve been seeing articles everywhere stating that Waymo has started providing rides in their autonomous vehicles throughout the peninsula, from San Francisco to San Jose (including San José Mineta International Airport, and on freeways). In truth, though, they are phasing in their service in our immediate area (they’ve been operating north of us for some time now); currently, only select riders can take advantage of the expanded service area. However, I believe that they’ll open things up more generally over the next couple of weeks, so for anyone interested in checking them out, download the app to your smartphone and check it from time-to-time.

I’ve been seeing Waymo vehicles exploring Redwood City (presumably, mapping our roads) for some time now. Noticing that at times they seem to travel in packs, I also noted that a lot of the specially equipped Jaguar cars that Waymo uses regularly make their way north along El Camino Real each morning. That led me to wonder where the cars are kept (and charged) when they are not in use. So, when I noticed a handful of them driving south one afternoon, I decided to follow them and see where they were going (I was driving at the time, and had a bit of spare time for the investigation). The robotic vehicle’s route was a bit circuitous, causing me to almost give up, but I kept at it and finally tracked them to their lair:

The above is along San Antonio Road, just north of Central Expressway, in Mountain View. Some of you may recognize it as being the old Mayfield Mall, which for a time after the mall closed was offices for HP. Today, though, the entire property is owned by Alphabet, Inc. (the parent of both Google and Waymo LLC). Note that while you can only see a couple of Waymo vehicles in the above photo, the vast majority were in the garage just behind them — where I believe all of the car chargers are. Oh, and although I am not one of the lucky ones with current access to the Waymo vehicles that are roaming Redwood City today, I did have the opportunity recently to ride in one when I was in Austin, TX for a wedding. It was a fascinating experience, and a good one. I am definitely looking forward to being able to ride them in our area.

Getting back to Redwood City, and indeed the subjects that led me to the title of this post, this week the Redwood City Council awarded a contract to a developer for the Hoover Park Renovation Project. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this project get off the ground for some time — it has been in the works for a couple of years now — but I’m surely not as excited as those folks living in the surrounding area. Not only has Hoover Park seen better days, due to homelessness, encampments, drug use, gang activity, crime, graffiti, and trash, it is far less popular with the locals these days than it once was.

I wrote about the new design for the park back in early 2024, towards the end of my post Not Dead Yet. In short, though, the new design reworks and expands somewhat the parking lot (accessible from Spring Street), removes the swimming pool, adds a “splash pad” for refreshing play during the hotter summer months, enlarges both the playground and the “tot-lot”, and adds the following features:

• A stage
• Two Pickleball courts
• Ping-Pong tables
• A volleyball court (with artificial turf)
• A community garden
• A fitness area
• A fenced dog park, with a divided area for small dogs
• A larger restroom facility that includes a concession stand and storage
• An outdoor classroom area (which can be used by both the school and the Boys and Girls Club)
• A dance floor

All of this should go a long way towards making this park a more enjoyable place for residents, the kids who attend the adjacent school, and the kids who spend time at the next-door Boys and Girls Club. Work is anticipated to get underway in January, and should take about a year. So plan on paying this much-updated park a visit in early 2027. I, of course, will be visiting it throughout the construction process.

During that same meeting, the Redwood City Council also approved an architectural permit for the new YMCA, which is to be built in Red Morton Park adjacent to the new Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center (which is looking to be completed and opened to the public before the end of the year — keep your fingers crossed!). Although it’ll still be some time before the old Veterans Memorial/Senior Center is torn down and work begins on constructing the new YMCA, with firm plans and the approval of the city, it seems time to write about what YMCA of Silicon Valley has in mind.

You’ll probably not be surprised to learn that the design of the new YMCA will nicely complement the new Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center (VMSC). The YMCA, too, will be a two-story building with lots of metal and glass. But the new YMCA is going to employ “hybrid mass-timber construction”: many of its structural beams will be made of wood. Not all, though — they aren’t going as far as the county did when it built the new office building at 500 County Center in Redwood City. But enough to help the project earn a LEED Silver rating, at a minimum.

Here is a rendering that shows the promenade that runs between the new VMSC (on the left) and the new YMCA (on the right); the two will be connected by a metal trellis structure (which exists today; it was built as part of the VMSC project):

Note the general similarity between the two buildings’ designs.

This new YMCA building — which will be paid for entirely by YMCA of Silicon Valley, incidentally (it isn’t being paid for with city funds) — will be a two-story, 36,353-square-foot building. It will have a dedicated health and wellness center with exercise machines, weightlifting machines, and free weights; and it will have dedicated spaces where exercise and stretching classes will be held. The new “Y” will have two pools: a large indoor pool, and an even larger outdoor lap pool. On the west side of the building there will be a large childcare facility capable of serving 72 children (ages 18 months to 5 years); that facility will be accompanied by three distinct outdoor play areas, one containing a play structure. Finally, the new building will have a multi-purpose community room, offices, bathrooms, and, of course, locker rooms.

Here is a rendering of the new Y as viewed from within Red Morton Park:

On the ground level you can see the three separately fenced play areas; the childcare center is just inside the building from these play yards. Above the childcare center is a long balcony extending the width of the building; just inside from the balcony are two large studio spaces that will be used for classes, I believe. This rendering also shows the outdoor pool and, between the play area with the play structure and the pool, another outdoor space that, like the balcony, could be used for exercise classes on nice days. Finally, beyond the pool (and beyond those red trees) is the adjacent VMSC building.

The YMCA building’s lobby will be on the Madison Avenue side of the building’s ground floor. It will be a large glass rectangle (on three sides, anyway) facing out towards the street, with doors on either end. One door will face the VMSC, making it easy to move between the two buildings: one simply need to walk beneath the pergola separating the two:

At the other end of the lobby, the door there will open out onto a walkway that leads past the childcare center play areas and towards the new building’s main parking lot. In the following rendering, you should be able to just make out that door, to the right of the car beneath the tree:

The above rendering also shows one of the wellness rooms, upstairs, where (I believe) some of the exercise machines will be located.

Given the number of people who are likely to use this new Y — the current, smaller one on Hudson Street is quite popular, I’m told — this project will be accompanied by a 180-space parking lot. Most of the spaces will be on the west side of the facility, but some will between the new Y and Madison Avenue. Of these latter spaces, most of the ones up against the building (and visible in the renderings) will be accessible spaces for those with special needs. This new 180-space lot will be constructed as part of the YMCA building project. At the same time, the city plans to add additional spaces along Madison Avenue, and will re-stripe the lot adjacent to the Community Activities Building, the lot accessed from Myrtle Street, and the Red Morton lot so that they all can accommodate more cars. The city’s efforts should add 56 more parking spaces in and around the park, for a net addition of 236 spaces for use by those at the Y, those at the VMSC, and anyone else using any part of the park.

This new building looks to be a terrific addition to Red Morton Park. Although a membership will normally be required to access the Y’s facilities (unlike the VMSC), the rates seem fairly reasonable. And note that the Y already offers a variety of discounts, including ones for seniors and veterans, and offers scholarships and financial assistance for those that might need some extra help. Finally, there will be free teen memberships during the summer months when schools are not in session, and a number of opportunities for non-members:

• Quarterly “free access” days for Redwood City residents
• Open community swim for residents on the first Sunday of each month
• Free quarterly education seminars and workshops (covering subjects such as nutrition and wellness) for Redwood City residents
• Joint city/YMCA community events

As with any such project, just because the Y now has its architectural permit doesn’t mean that construction will get underway soon. YMCA of Silicon Valley has a lot of behind-the-scenes work to do before breaking ground, so don’t expect any real on-site activity (other than, perhaps, demolition of the old VMSC building, which could theoretically occur any time after the new building is open) for a year or two, at least. Once construction does get underway, the project should take about two years to complete. And at some point — possibly after the new building is open for use — Redwood City will be purchasing the Hudson Street site from which the Y operates today. No word yet on what the city plans to do with that…

I of course visited the site this week, but did so really just to check on the progress at the VMSC. There, the landscaping looks just about done; otherwise I have nothing new to report. But while on that walk I visited a number of other spots throughout the city, some of which are worth a quick mention. Down on Vera Avenue just west of El Camino Real, the lot where the seven-story, 176-unit affordable housing project is soon to start rising looks just about ready for foundation forms:

On Main Street, just south of Middlefield Road (in downtown Redwood City), the outdoor space where The Yard Coffee located is still being remodeled — the project seems to have taken a bit longer than anticipated:

However, they just announced that they’ll again be open on Saturday, November 15, at least out in the yard (the indoor work seems to still be ongoing).

Finally, I recently showed a picture of Stanford Health Care’s nine-story medical office project as viewed from the freeway, but this week I was able to walk down Broadway to the site and take some better pictures from the front. When I was there (on Tuesday of this week) I could see that the building has essentially reached its ultimate height: the support beams sticking up from the taller section of the building will form the ninth, or top, floor:

Note how there is a three-story section out along Broadway, with the taller portion being back towards the freeway. The three-story portion seems to be complete, as far as the steel framing goes, whereas the taller section is being built somewhat unevenly; they aren’t completing each level before working on the next. Ultimately, though, that taller section will be filled out to become a large nine-story block attached to the rear of the three-story one.

That’s about it for this week, but I thought I should put in a plug for Thanksgiving dinner at The Wild Rover Pub: if you don’t have plans, they’ll be serving a three-course dinner (salad or soup, turkey dinner, pumpkin pie) for $45 on Thanksgiving day. You do need to make an advance reservation: either talk to a staff member, or call The Wild Rover at (650) 363-2620.