Unparalleled Parking

In Palo Alto “safe parking” programs triggering discussions on how we identify and help neighbors who park their homes on our streets.

By now you’ve probably seen the local news, read the local paper or jumped into the Nextdoor.com discussions. Safe parking for homeless folks has come to Palo Alto. Well, at least in four parking spaces on the property of the First Congregational Church.

Dr. Eileen Altman, associate pastor of the church, is as sincere, thoughtful and well-informed when she participates in welcoming behavior as she is playful when she shares her faith with all the littles in the church where I raised my kids, now young adults. She is very aware of both the safety issues of those — more often than not single women head of households removing themselves from an unsafe or unhealthy environment who have found no other choice but to create a home behind a steering wheel — as the unrealized “threat” to safety of children when strangers are nearby.

Strangers, I have found, is such an interesting concept in the Palo Alto community. We can be quick to label a person on the street as a stranger, but if they own or rent a home in your neighborhood, place a note in Nextdoor.com community website and say they are lonely or in need of someone to talk to or can’t find work or are unable to get to the grocery store or pick up medications … suddenly a “stranger” turns into a “neighbor.” Kind people come out of the woodwork to lend a hand…