Samantha Lynn – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Thu, 20 Feb 2014 10:26:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Samantha Lynn – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Off the Grid food trucks arrive in Menlo Park https://stanforddaily.com/2014/02/20/off-the-grid-food-trucks-arrive-in-menlo-park/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/02/20/off-the-grid-food-trucks-arrive-in-menlo-park/#respond Thu, 20 Feb 2014 10:26:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1082512 Wednesday evening marked the first time Off the Grid food trucks came to downtown Menlo Park.

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Courtesy of Rahim Ullah
Courtesy of Rahim Ullah

Wednesday evening marked the first time Off the Grid food trucks came to downtown Menlo Park.

A San Francisco-based company that organizes weekly gatherings of food trucks, Off the Grid now has a yearlong permit that allows the weekly food truck event to bring up to a dozen food trucks near the intersection of Merrill Street and Ravenswood Avenue. The permit was approved by the Menlo Park planning commission at a meeting on January 13, despite some pushback from local restaurants and community members.

“There are concerns that [when] the economy is finally picking up, having these trucks coming in to the city might steer people away from traditional sit-down restaurants,” said Ben Eiref, vice chair of the Menlo Park Planning Commission.

Eiref noted that the planning commission gives the public a forum to voice their opinions and that the January meeting gave people a chance to express their thoughts so that the commission could make an informed decision about bringing Off the Grid to Menlo Park.

The meeting lasted past midnight after almost 20 people spoke.

“It was a lengthy discussion that certainly had conditions, but we’re happy with having the opportunity to move forward,” said Ben Himlan, Off the Grid’s director of business development.

Some conditions of the temporary-use permit included requiring each vendor to have a business license and a restroom agreement.

“There was a whole discussion about whether to have one Port-A-Potty or two,” Eiref said.

A few members of the community also raised concerns about noise, as the weekly market would have some live music, according to Eiref. On the whole, though, Eiref has received overwhelmingly positive feedback–during the meeting and via email–regarding Off the Grid coming to Menlo Park.

Eiref noted that the number of young families in Menlo Park has dramatically increased in the past few years, and block parties and concerts in the park have been “mobbed with kids.”

Many of the restaurants whose owners have expressed concern about the food trucks do not appeal to the same crowd that the food trucks will, Eiref said.

“There are some of the restaurants that cater more to the quick family meal, and they may be affected by this, but at the end of the day, the community has to be open to new ideas and has to evolve,” he continued.

The meeting last month ended with the planning commission in favor of the market. Off the Grid will have a temporary-use permit for a year with the stipulation that the company will be reviewed in six months.

Himlan expressed his enthusiasm about finally bringing Off the Grid to Menlo Park after nine months of discussion trying to set up the weekly market.

“I think we’re most excited about having the opportunity to come to Menlo Park and do what we do and create a really cool and unique experience for the residents of Menlo Park and the surrounding area,” Himlan said.

Eiref, echoing Himlan’s thoughts, said, “I think this will add another element of energy to the community that we just don’t have right now.”

 

Contact Samanatha at slynn2 ‘at’ stanford ‘dot’ edu.

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Off the Grid food truck company plans Menlo Park expansion https://stanforddaily.com/2014/01/09/off-the-grid-food-truck-company-plans-menlo-park-expansion/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/01/09/off-the-grid-food-truck-company-plans-menlo-park-expansion/#comments Thu, 09 Jan 2014 08:43:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1081308 Off the Grid—a Bay Area food truck management company offering lunchtime food truck options here at Stanford—is seeking to expand into Menlo Park despite pushback from local business owners.

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Off the Grid—a Bay Area food truck management company offering lunchtime food truck options here at Stanford—is seeking to expand into Menlo Park despite pushback from local business owners.

Off the Grid applied in October for a permit to set up a group of food trucks in the parking lot of the Menlo Park Caltrain station on Wednesday nights. The Menlo Park Planning Commission will review the application on Monday, Jan. 13.

Some Menlo Park merchants have expressed concern over various consequences of Off the Grid’s presence, from sanitation to parking fees.

Kurt Ugur, the manager of the Italian restaurant Trellis, said customers stay at home instead of coming to eat at his restaurant when streets are crowded with downtown fairs. He worries that Off the Grid will cause similar problems.

“Who’s going to provide parking for 200 or 300 people?” Ugur said. “They’re going to block our city streets, and I will not be able to get my customers.”

According to Off the Grid’s Director of Business Development Ben Hamlin, however, the company has conducted an extensive parking analysis and concluded that parking will not be a problem.

“One of the reasons why we have authorization through Caltrain to use the property is because we feel that there is enough parking that will accommodate our needs for the market,” Hamlin said.

Ugur said that he expects dozens of local business owners to show up to the Planning Commission meeting on Monday to speak their minds in opposition to Off the Grid. Hamlin points out, however, that Off the Grid can actually have a mutually beneficial relationship with those businesses.

“Ultimately what we hope to do is bring in a large amount of foot traffic that will have a positive impact on the surrounding businesses,” Hamlin said.

He added that ideally, people from outside the city who follow Off the Grid or a particular food truck under their management will be drawn to downtown Menlo Park. There, they will have the opportunity to discover new restaurants and other businesses to which they can return.

“We’re looking to create partnerships. We’re not looking to create competition or create bad feelings,” Hamlin said. “We’re trying to create something unique that can play a positive role in a really cool area.”

At Stanford, the company is still offering lunchtime food truck options on West Campus.

Last academic year, one food truck per day was stationed on Lomita Mall, but construction has moved the trucks to the intersection of Samuel Morris Way and Panama Mall this year. Two changing food trucks are stationed there for lunch daily.

Hamlin said this move has caused some minor challenges. Off the Grid tries to capitalize on the visibility of the trucks, which was reduced when the trucks were moved off Lomita Mall.

“Being in a location where we can capture the organic foot traffic that is happening is really important for the success of the vendors,” Hamlin said.

Despite the move, the trucks seem to be doing relatively well in the amount of meals they’re serving, Hamlin added.

Lunchtime Off the Grid trucks were well received by members of the Stanford community when they came to campus last year. However, many reacted negatively to the University’s mobile food vendor policy, which forced some trucks off campus when they were unable to register with Off the Grid.

Those trucks included Mia’s Catering and Net Appetit, which closed after the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) asked the truck’s owners not to return to the Stanford campus.

Contact Samantha Lynn at slynn2 ’at’ stanford. edu.

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Researchers link enzyme inactivation to delaying paralysis https://stanforddaily.com/2013/06/02/researchers-link-enzyme-inactivation-to-delaying-paralysis/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/06/02/researchers-link-enzyme-inactivation-to-delaying-paralysis/#respond Mon, 03 Jun 2013 03:52:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077666 Researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine recently published a study in Nature Cell Biology detailing their discovery that the inactivation of the sirtuin-1 enzyme (SIRT1) in mice may delay the onset of paralysis caused by demyelinating injuries like multiple sclerosis.

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Researchers at the School of Medicine recently published a study in Nature Cell Biology detailing their discovery that the inactivation of the sirtuin-1 enzyme (SIRT1) in mice may delay the onset of paralysis caused by demyelinating injuries like multiple sclerosis.

Demyelination — damage to neurons’ myelin sheath — can be caused by a variety of factors, including genetics and autoimmune diseases. Researchers found that when SIRT1 is inactivated, the production of myelin-forming cells in the adult mouse brain increased.

“The results that we have are still preliminary, but they indicate that mice that are deficient for this SIRT1 enzyme are better in terms of resisting demyelinating injuries,” said Associate Professor of Genetics Anne Brunet, the principal investigator at the lab that conducted the research.

According to Brunet, SIRT1 proteins are known to play a role in many of the body’s functions, particularly in its metabolic processes. Research on the impact of SIRT1 in adult stem cells led Brunet’s lab to the unexpected discovery that a deficiency in that protein increases the production of oligodendrocytes, or myelin-forming cells.

“We’ve always been interested in the role of genes that regulate lifespan or health in the brain,” Brunet said about the work. “In particular in the brain we’ve been interested in the population of cells that have regenerative potential, which are the neural stem cells in the brain.”

The experiments were conducted by Victoria Rafalski Ph.D. ’11 P.D. ’13, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco, who was a graduate student working in Brunet’s lab at the time of the research.

Brunet said that her researchers also had “great collaborations” with Professor of Neurobiology Ben Barres, an expert in oligodendrocytes, and Professor of Pediatrics Lawrence Steinman, an expert in multiple sclerosis and demyelinating diseases.

Although inactivating the SIRT1 enzyme delayed paralysis in mice with demyelinating diseases, the treatment does not directly translate to humans with the same diseases. The study’s abstract notes, however, that the identification of these enzymes could assist in the creation of therapies for demyelinating injuries and diseases.

Though Brunet emphasized that it is still “very early in the process” and expressed aversion to giving false hope about potential multiple sclerosis treatments, she acknowledged that the study’s discovery opens up new areas for future research.

“That could be potentially an interesting avenue for diseases in which the myelin sheath generated by oligodendrocytes is injured,” Brunet said. “Another potential avenue would be for injuries that involve myelin.”

Brunet cited spinal cord injuries as another area where further research on SIRT1 could be beneficial.

“Another potential avenue would be for demyelinating injuries — for example, spinal cord injuries, where it’s possible that having more oligodendrocytes or finding new ways to regenerate or expand the pool of oligodendrocytes could be also helpful in this context,” Brunet said.

The lab’s future research will focus on the influence of age on the production of oligodendrocytes and on specific diseases that affect myelin.

“We’re very interested in understanding how it could connect with aging, because that’s what the lab is doing,” Brunet said.

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Med School study develops models to further muscular dystrophy research https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/13/school-of-medicine-study-develops-models-to-further-muscular-dystrophy-research/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/13/school-of-medicine-study-develops-models-to-further-muscular-dystrophy-research/#respond Tue, 14 May 2013 05:40:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1077153 Researchers in the School of Medicine recently published a study detailing the development of mouse models that use luciferase, the gene that makes fireflies glow, to follow the progression of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy through noninvasive imaging of the luminescent decaying muscle cells.

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Researchers in the School of Medicine recently published a study detailing the development of mouse models that use luciferase, the gene that makes fireflies glow, to follow the progression of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy through noninvasive imaging of the luminescent decaying muscle cells.

The researchers, who worked in the lab of Professor of Neurology and Neurological Science Thomas Rando, began developing the mouse model in 2008. The study was co-authored by Rando, clinical assistant professor Leland Lim, research associate Katie Maguire and Sedona Speedy, an undergraduate student at Northwestern University.

To create the mouse models, Rando’s lab inserted the luciferase gene into the genome of the mice at the embryonic level. When the mice developed, all of their cells carried the gene, according to Rando, allowing the researchers to “decide through another genetic trick which cell it gets turned on in.”

“Our genetic trick is to turn it on only in the muscle stem cells,” Rando said. “You could use this same mouse model and turn on luciferase in another stem cell population just as easily now that we’ve created this.”

According to Maguire, the researchers injected the mice when they were two months old with a substance that turned on the luciferase in their stem cells. After giving them injections for five days, the researchers began the process of conducting monthly imaging on the mice to monitor disease progression.

“You just inject them with a substance called luciferand, and you wait 23 minutes, and then you put them into the imaging chamber and then you image them,” Maguire said. “It really doesn’t take that long to actually do the imaging.”

Maguire and Speedy carried out parallel histological analyses of mice in order to compare the histological method of monitoring the disease to the researchers’ new method. The multi-day histological process in which tissues are collected, cut and antibody-stained was previously the primary method of studying the progression of muscular dystrophy in mice.

“When you have to actually evaluate the effectiveness of a drug, it requires a lot of different time points, a lot of different treatments, so a lot of different mice,” Maguire said. “The paper just shows that instead of doing all these histological analyses, we can just rely on the noninvasive imaging using the luciferase as our reporter.”

According to Rando, current treatments for muscular dystrophy are minimally effective and only work in the short term. Rando said that the mouse models will allow researchers to study treatments in living animals over time.

“This should greatly facilitate the translation of that from an idea from a test in the mouse to getting that to humans,” he said. “What it means for human therapy is that we can take many more ideas through animal testing at a much higher rate in a much shorter amount of time.”

Maguire agreed that the mouse model could eventually contribute to discoveries that benefit human patients.

“We can’t make glowing humans, but we can test drugs, and we can test therapies,” Maguire said. “I also have other models that I’m establishing using similar technology—there will be more glowing mice coming.”

According to Rando, the researchers will continue to conduct studies of therapeutic treatments using the existing mouse models, expanding the scope of their research to include other types of muscular dystrophy and testing out other models.

The lab also plans to distribute the mouse models to outside researchers studying muscular dystrophy and other topics such as exercise science and studies on sarcopenia, an age-related loss of muscle mass.

“We can’t possibly do all those studies here, so our goal really is to share this resource with the community,” Rando said.

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Food trucks not returning to campus in the spring https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/12/food-trucks-not-returning-to-campus-in-the-spring/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/12/food-trucks-not-returning-to-campus-in-the-spring/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2013 06:53:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075840 As the ASSU Executive's winter quarter food truck pilot program comes to an end, a lack of student demand means that late-night food trucks will not return to campus in the spring. Lunch trucks, organized by food truck management company Off the Grid, will return next quarter, while Net Appetit, a popular and long-serving food truck, is unlikely to come back.

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As the ASSU Executive’s winter quarter food truck pilot program comes to an end, a lack of student demand means that late-night food trucks will not return to campus in the spring. Lunch trucks, organized by food truck management company Off the Grid, will return next quarter, while Net Appetit, a popular and long-serving food truck, is unlikely to come back.

SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily

Net Appetit, owned by the nonprofit organization Aid to Children Without Parents and operated at Stanford by Chon Vo, was originally asked to leave campus in January because of a new University mobile food vendor policy, although it subsequently returned in late February. According to Vo, if he was to return to campus next quarter, he likely won’t be permitted to continue serving food in his customary spot on Santa Teresa Street.

“From my point of view, the truck will probably not be able to come back,” Vo said. “We cannot keep on fighting.”

Net Appetit was ultimately asked to leave by the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) on March 1 because it continued to violate the mobile food vendor policy. Vo called his current operation—an afternoon buffet served in his truck on Santa Teresa Street—“group delivery,” while the University maintains that Net Appetit is not delivering to customers individually and remains illegally parked.

“No food delivery truck is allowed to park on Santa Teresa for any time longer than it takes to deliver pre-ordered and pre-packaged food to nearby offices,” wrote Assistant Vice President for Business Development Susan Weinstein ’72 MBA ’79 in a statement. “This policy was enforced by campus police.”

Bill Larson, SUDPS spokesman, confirmed that one deputy was dispatched to Net Appetit at the request of the University.

Vo may be a veteran in the semantics of what constitutes “delivery” services. After Net Appetit served lunch at the Cisco parking lot in San Jose for 12 years, other food trucks came to the same parking lot and began to block parking spaces. At that point, Cisco asked all the trucks to leave. However, Vo won that battle on the grounds that he was a delivery service.

“We asked Cisco whether we could do delivery, and they consulted their law department, and their definition came out that, yeah, actually, they couldn’t do anything about us,” Vo said. “They agreed that our method is delivery.”

Vo called the University’s actions against Net Appetit “an attempt to discriminate,” citing an example of people picking up food from a Domino’s Pizza car in front of the Stanford Humanities Center. He argued this is the same model as Net Appetit’s group delivery system.

According to Weinstein, Net Appetit is given the same treatment that all delivery trucks receive.

“Net Appetit is permitted to deliver food to campus under exactly the same terms as other delivery trucks,” Weinstein wrote. “A pizza truck receives an order, prepares the food off campus, packages the food in a box off campus and brings the order to the individual’s or group’s office or dorm. The delivery truck stops in at campus location for only five to 10 minutes—just long enough to complete the delivery. Net Appetit is welcome to do the same.”

Even if Net Appetit operates as a delivery truck under a definition on which Vo and the University agree, the future does not look bright for Net Appetit’s presence on campus.

“If we do the delivery thing, we may not survive, because that model is cumbersome,” Vo said. “When Cisco Systems allowed us to do delivery, we lasted about eight months.”

 

Late-night pilot struggles

As Net Appetit looks set to leave campus, the trial period of late-night food trucks in the Wilbur and Theta Delta Chi parking lots will also come to a close due to a lack of student demand and profitability.

“The ASSU did its best to promote evening food truck service to the campus community, but demand just wasn’t there,” Weinstein wrote. “This week, ASSU and Off the Grid decided jointly to discontinue weekend evening service.”

ASSU President Robbie Zimbroff ’12 M.A. ’13 expressed satisfaction that the option was at least available to students.

“We went through nine weeks, and they just weren’t profitable,” he said. “Will [Wagstaff ’12, ASSU Vice President] and I are fine with that. All we could do was try and make the option available to students—we’re glad we got done what we said we were going to do.”

Lunchtime Off the Grid food truck service will continue next quarter in a testament to its success to date, according to Weinstein.

“All trucks are meeting their required minimum revenue targets [for lunch], and sales for certain trucks are now far exceeding expectations,” she said.

Although some were upset with the University’s handling of the eviction of non-Off the Grid food trucks such as Net Appetit and Mia’s Catering, Weinstein said that the Stanford community has responded positively to the food trucks brought in by Off the Grid.

“I have heard from quite a few others who are enjoying the new food trucks,” Weinstein wrote. “They like the variety of having a different truck on campus each day, and they think the quality of the food is significantly improved.”

Meanwhile, operators of Off the Grid-licensed food trucks have highlighted their success to date. Sue Altamirano, operator of Sanguchon, the truck that parks on Lomita Mall every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., said that her experience on campus has been absolutely positive.

“We do get a lot of people coming by every week,” Altamirano said. “It’s a good sign.”

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Net Appetit was escorted off campus on March 1. In fact, the truck was asked to leave. The article has been corrected and The Daily regrets the error.

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Under restrictions, Net Appetit returns to campus with its future unclear https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/24/under-restrictions-net-appetit-returns-to-campus-with-its-future-unclear/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/24/under-restrictions-net-appetit-returns-to-campus-with-its-future-unclear/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 07:48:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075239 Vo emphasized that he acknowledges the need for regulation, but thought some of Weinstein's delivery requirements were unreasonable.

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Net Appetit, the food truck that was asked to leave campus earlier this quarter under the University’s new mobile food vendor policy, has returned to Stanford, albeit operating as a delivery truck that can only take orders ahead of time.

The terms of Net Appetit’s return, according to an email from Assistant Vice President for Business Development Susan Weinstein ’72 MBA ’79, stipulate that Chon Vo, Net Appetit’s founder and operator, must take orders and payment off campus, prepare and package food off campus and deliver each meal individually to each customer in dorms or offices. If those conditions are not met, Net Appetit will be removed from campus again.

Courtesy of Philip Spiegel, Palo Alto Patch
Courtesy of Philip Spiegel, Palo Alto Patch

The University’s revised policy for Net Appetit may be more stringent than its approach to other vendors. Delivery services like Domino’s Pizza are paid in cash on campus, while delivery companies often cater large events without delivering food individually to each customer.

Vo said he was unable to reach Weinstein about operating Net Appetit as a delivery service, but ASSU Senator Viraj Bindra ’15 acted as a liaison between Vo – along with concerned students – and Weinstein

Bindra said that when he corresponded with Weinstein about rebranding Net Appetit as a delivery service, she seemed receptive to communication but inflexible about the policy.

“I don’t think she was fully able to appreciate the sense of community that Vo had built,” Bindra said. “[She didn’t believe] that it would merit at least some sort of exception.”

Under the University’s new terms, Vo can continue to serve food in his original location on Santa Teresa Street. Now, however, customers have to place their orders before coming to the truck. In the last week, campus police have visited three times to check that all food is being pre-ordered either by email or text message.

Vo emphasized that he acknowledges the need for regulation through a mobile food vendor policy, but he framed some of the delivery requirements sent to Bindra from Weinstein as unreasonable. However, he expressed general satisfaction with his accomplishments to date.

“[Net Appetit] lasted 10 times longer than I expected, so if it goes away now, personally, I will be totally satisfied because I have done my job,” Vo said.

Vo identified his primary reasons for fighting to stay on campus as his customers and the charity that receives Net Appetit’s profits, Aid to Children Without Parents, an organization in Vietnam that feeds orphans.

“I have a four-year old, and I would never worry about her being hungry in this country, but I worry about her not having the right guidance in her education,” Vo said about the University’s moves to remove him from campus.

A petition in support of Net Appetit and other displaced mobile food vendors, such as Mia’s Catering, has meanwhile continued to gain signatures.

Bindra said that he signed the petition because he disagreed with the manner in which Net Appetit’s removal was handled, despite understanding both the University’s position on the matter and Vo’s perspective.

“I’m slightly pessimistic about [the petition] having any actual impact, but I do agree with the spirit of it,” he said. “I do agree that the University shouldn’t be taking super staunch policies on things that negatively impact the community at Stanford.”

Amidst the ongoing uncertainty involving food trucks on campus, the Stanford Federalist Society hosted a talk about food trucks and economic liberty on Thursday, Feb. 21 at the Stanford Law School. Lawyers and representatives of various food vendor associations spoke about food truck owners’ economic rights to sell food and earn a living.

However, Matt Geller, head of the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association, noted that food trucks “basically have zero rights” on a university campus.

“Stanford has the right and the power to manage its own campus, but beyond that, it should definitely listen to what students have to say,” said Bert Gall, director of the Institute for Justice’s National Street Vending Initiative. “It sounds like there’s been some real backlash, and people are going to miss the trucks that can’t be here anymore, and Stanford probably should have thought about that before contracting out to Off the Grid for the exclusive rights.”

Dan Hugo, head of the Bay Area Mobile Food Vendors’ Association, said that the Stanford community needs to work together to change University policy.

“People are not dissatisfied actively enough in large enough numbers,” he said. “Maybe there’s a unifying force behind Net Appetit.”

Despite that apparent lack of popular dissatisfaction, Vo is back on campus and looking forward to serving his regulars.

“More than anybody, I want this to end in a happy way,” Vo said.

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Another food truck removed, community members protest https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/15/students-protest-food-truck-removal/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/15/students-protest-food-truck-removal/#comments Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:49:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074982 Mia's Catering, a Mexican food truck, will no longer serve food on the Stanford campus as per the University’s new mobile food vendor policy. In response, community members have circulated a petition calling for the University to relax their food truck policy, which has already driven the popular food truck Net Appetit off campus.

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Mia’s Catering, a Mexican food truck, will no longer serve food on the Stanford campus as per the University’s new mobile food vendor policy. In response, community members have circulated a petition calling for the University to relax their food truck policy, which has already driven the popular food truck Net Appetit off campus.

Popular food trucks Net Appetit and Mia's Catering were forced to leave campus due to University policy. (SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)
Popular food trucks Net Appetit and Mia’s Catering were forced to leave campus due to University policy. (SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)

On Monday, a Stanford sheriff asked Mia’s Catering owner Nimia Knuth to leave campus per the University’s new policy that all food trucks must operate under food truck management company Off the Grid.

Knuth had previously parked her food truck in front of Harold, next to Encina Hall, for about 15 minutes every afternoon, and she received a notice from the University before winter break informing her about how to contact Off the Grid to remain on campus. However, Off the Grid’s proposed schedule of 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. two days a week did not fit into Knuth’s scheduled route of construction sites on campus and other locations in Palo Alto.

Knuth only has about seven customers per shift at Harold, but she continued coming to serve a group of faithful customers, including students, staff and faculty. Graduate student Ariel Méndez was one of Knuth’s loyal customers.

“Her food was so good, and it was so affordable, that even on days when I thought I was having a really bad day, as long as I had some of her food for lunch, I felt like it wasn’t a total loss,” she said.

“I hate to leave them,” Knuth said. “It’s my business, but at the same time, I care about them too. Sometimes I’m very late to come over here because my construction holds me longer, and they’re here waiting for me.

“I love that, but at the same time, I don’t want to go against Stanford rules,” Knuth added.

Mia’s Catering has been on campus since the 1997-98 restoration of Encina Hall, serving construction sites at places from the Stanford Hospital to Bing Concert Hall. Many of Knuth’s customers expressed frustration that the mobile food vendor policy prevents Mia’s Catering from remaining on campus outside of construction sites.

“You’re losing a lot of variety and choices, both in terms of food availability, but then also in terms of geography,” said Lucas Puente, a political science graduate student.

In response to Knuth’s removal, Puente created a petition that aims to “end the University-sanctioned food truck oligopoly on Stanford’s campus.” A day after he posted the petition, it had over 120 signatures.

“[The goal of the petition is] just to gather as many names as possible and then show [Susan Weinstein], any decision-maker in that office or in the University more broadly that there are a lot of people who care about the availability of food trucks on campus and that they are not happy with the new status quo,” Puente said.

So far, Puente has tried to spread the word about the petition primarily through social media. He hopes to get at least 500 signatures before presenting it to Weinstein.

The petition addresses Puente’s concerns that the new mobile food vendor policy limits options for Stanford students.

“It’s a very simple microeconomic principle that limiting competition is going to hurt consumers,” Puente said.

Both Puente and Méndez emphasized that Knuth has a spotless health record and operates in line with the University’s standards.

“[Knuth is] a really wonderful, caring person,” Méndez said. “She’s not someone that I would single out as a problem for the things that the policy is supposed to eliminate.”

Puente expressed optimism about the possibility of policy revisions.

“I haven’t talked to anybody who’s strongly in favor of the new policy and wouldn’t advocate at least some changes to it,” Puente said. “I think people want to see the consumers’ interests put first and not the University’s bank account.”

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New mobile food vendor policy drives Net Appetit off campus https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/30/new-mobile-food-vendor-policy-drives-net-appetit-off-campus/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/30/new-mobile-food-vendor-policy-drives-net-appetit-off-campus/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:05:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074501 Stanford’s new policy regarding food trucks mandates that trucks must register with Off The Grid, a food truck management company that has partnered with the University for the winter pilot program to bring food trucks to campus.

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Net Appetit, a popular food truck that has served Thai food on Santa Teresa Avenue for more than a decade, has been asked by the University to cease operations on campus as part of Stanford’s new mobile food vendor policy, which took effect on Jan. 7 of this year.

Courtesy of Philip Spiegel
Courtesy of Philip Spiegel, Palo Alto Patch

Chon Vo, founder and operator of Net Appetit, has operated the truck on the Stanford campus since 2001. All Vo’s profits go to Aid to Children Without Parents (ACWP), a nonprofit organization that provides two meals to children in Vietnam for every dollar donated by the truck.

Stanford’s new policy regarding food trucks mandates that trucks must register with Off The Grid, a food truck management company that has partnered with the University for the winter pilot program to bring food trucks to campus.

Assistant Vice President for Business Development Susan Weinstein ’72 MBA ’79 who helped draft the mobile food vendor policy, declined a request for interview but released a statement saying the notice about the food truck policy and its implementation was given to trucks operating on campus beginning last November.

“The notice informed the trucks that they would be required to have a permit from Off the Grid in order to continue [to] serve campus beginning on Jan. 7, and also contained information on how the food trucks could register with Off The Grid,” Weinstein wrote.

Vo was informed of the decision through an unsigned notice from the Stanford University Department of Public Safety on Dec. 7, one week before the University closed for winter break.

“On Dec. 7, the campus police dropped off the letter,” Vo said. “We only had one week to react, and the letter wasn’t signed, so we didn’t know how to get in touch.”

Since then, he has tried unsuccessfully to appeal to administrators, citing a spotless health record.

“That’s the thing that perplexed us the most,” Vo said. “If we violated stuff like the food safety, then of course we know why, but we have a good record of 11 years. Not a single violation– a spotless record.”

Students and other members of the Stanford community have sent Vo more than 200 emails expressing sadness over the absence of Net Appetit.

The mobile food vendor policy does not specifically state that food trucks must go through Off the Grid to be on campus, however the University defended their decision.

“Stanford has a long-standing policy contained in [Administrative] Guide 15.3, which requires permission from Stanford before any unrelated commercial enterprise may operate on campus,” Weinstein wrote. “Uninvited food trucks do not have such permission.”

“Other food trucks serving campus must demonstrate that they can operate in compliance with the [mobile food vendor] policy and be permitted to sell at a specific time and location,” according to the notice given to Vo. “Stanford has engaged Off the Grid to manage the process to obtain a permit.”

According to Vo, the process of registering with Off the Grid is not as easy as the notice makes it seem– when he applied, he received a rejection letter saying that all the available spaces on campus were taken.

Vo said that Net Appetit was not attempting to grow as a business or take business away from Tresidder eateries such as CoHo, so he capped the number of meals sold per day at 120.  The food truck was making just enough money to cover the cost of operations and give $200 a day to ACWP. Vo called the truck “a gift that kept on giving.”

However, because it is a nonprofit, Vo said Net Appetit doesn’t have the cash reserves of a typical business and wouldn’t be able to sustain itself without business from its on-campus spot.

“If Stanford doesn’t allow [us back] within three months [from December], we will run out of the cash reserve,” Vo said. “We have a month and a half left, and then we will never come back again.”

“The only thing we’re worried about now is that we don’t abandon the people who have been with us,” he added. “Some people have been eating [at Net Appetit] for ten years. It’s not because our food is better. Stanford has the best dining facilities– better than Yale, better than Harvard. I think it’s just there’s not enough ethnic cuisine here… so we concentrate on that, and we’ve been very successful.”

Stanford Law School teaching fellow Matt Lamkin, who used Net Appetit to cater Law School events, was enthusiastic about the truck’s service, low cost, food and mission.

“I sincerely hope that, one way or another, he’ll be able to operate the truck at Stanford, he said. “Selfishly because I love the food, but more importantly, because of the great work that it funds.”

The University will consider adding another truck to the lunchtime schedule, according to Weinstein, but it must meet a list of requirements including not blocking walkways or bike paths and not being too close to an existing campus café.

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Food trucks begin service https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/16/food-trucks-pop-up-on-campus/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/16/food-trucks-pop-up-on-campus/#comments Wed, 16 Jan 2013 08:33:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074107 Food truck management company Off the Grid has partnered with Stanford under the University’s new mobile food vendor policy to provide late night and lunchtime food truck options. The first late-night food trucks appeared on campus on Jan. 11 and 12.

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Food trucks begin service
Food truck on Santa Teresa Street

Food truck management company Off the Grid has partnered with Stanford under the University’s new mobile food vendor policy to provide late night and lunchtime food truck options. The first late-night food trucks appeared on campus on Jan. 11 and 12.

“There were existing policies already about how vendors and commercial businesses operate on campus, so this just extended them to food trucks, which are a unique business operation,” University Spokesperson Lisa Lapin said. “But the real impetus [for creating the policy] was the increasing popularity and variety of food trucks and the recognition that with a larger number of them, we needed to make sure that they are really providing the best service to the campus community.”

Following an initiative from ASSU Executives Robbie Zimbroff and William Wagstaff, a University committee studied how best to provide food trucks to locations that had limited access to food service. The committee, led by Assistant Vice President for Business Development Susan Weinstein, included representatives of multiple offices including Student Affairs and Business Development.

The committee found that the most effective way to provide food trucks on campus was through food truck management company Off the Grid, which now manages food truck pods from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. During lunch hours, one truck will be located on Lomita Mall instead of its previous parking spot on Santa Teresa Street to avoid competition with eateries at Tresidder Union.

“Our communication from Stanford has been very clear about the standards it wants us to bring to campus through the different food options that we would provide,” said Off the Grid founder Matt Cohen. “They’re really consistent with what we’re trying to do, which is really diverse food offerings that are both healthy and reliably there for people.”

Off the Grid has worked with the ASSU before, catering tailgates at football games, and Cohen expressed optimism about the continued partnership.

“We’re excited that the ASSU’s excited, and so we’re banking on them to communicate that there are these options available late at night and for people to take advantage of it,” Cohen said.

According to Zimbroff, food trucks have agreed to advertise only to people in the Stanford community, citing public safety reasons. The main methods of communicating information about the food trucks include email lists and a Facebook group that will be available only to affiliates of Stanford.

“It takes a lot to operate [food trucks]: cost, personnel and resource-wise…and still committing to a full quarter trial of bringing food trucks here late-night is really awesome of [Off the Grid],” he said.

Food truck Me So Hungry occupied the parking lot between Florence Moore Hall and Theta Delta Chi at night on Jan. 11. At about 11:30 p.m., Truck owner Johnny Cron reported that the night had been “mellow” so far.

“We didn’t expect much because it’s cold outside,” he added.

Although the food truck wasn’t busy, Cron said he was excited to be on campus.

“Since we’re a brand new truck, we’ve gotten some really good response from Off the Grid,” Cron said. “When I first bought the truck and brought it to Santa Clara, Stanford was at the top of my list, so when [Off the Grid] came to us, I didn’t even need to think about it.”

“I have no sense of how it will go,” Zimbroff said. “Initially, you expect it to be either a lag and people warm up to it, or a huge interest right off the bat and then it slows down. But either way, whichever direction it levels off, hopefully it levels off at a place where everyone can get what they’re looking for.”

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ASSU Exec to launch late-night food truck program this weekend https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/07/assu-exec-to-launch-late-night-food-truck-program-this-weekend/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/07/assu-exec-to-launch-late-night-food-truck-program-this-weekend/#respond Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:46:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1073856 The food trucks, a pillar of the Executive's platform, will be serving food every Friday and Saturday night during winter quarter.

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The ASSU Executive will bring food trucks onto campus starting this Friday as part of a winter quarter pilot program that aims to diversify late-night dining options. The food trucks, a pillar of the Executive’s platform, will be serving food every Friday and Saturday night during winter quarter.

The program will be run through Off the Grid, a food truck management company that works with over 100 vendors to organize and bring food trucks to locations across the Bay Area. Food trucks will be open from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. in two locations: Wilbur parking lot and the parking lot between Florence Moore Hall and Theta Delta Chi.

To navigate the legal and health obstacles to having outside groups serve food on campus, ASSU President Robbie Zimbroff ’12 and Vice President William Wagstaff ’12 worked with the University throughout the summer and fall. Administrators had been working on a mobile food vendor policy at the same time.

As of Jan. 1, 2013, the University enacted a mobile food vendor policy that sets guidelines for any food trucks on the Stanford campus. The food truck policy sets guidelines that cover everything from parking to sustainability.

“One of the primary concerns is making sure that everyone is properly licensed and permitted to operate in Santa Clara County,” Zimbroff said. “That’s one of the big advantages of what Off the Grid does. They will not send a vendor who does not have the proper clearances to meet county standards, and, additionally, to meet Stanford standards.”

Although the food trucks will not accept meal plan dollars, they will only be available to Stanford students, according to Zimbroff.

“The University is pretty concerned about it being just a Stanford program, and that’s who we’re tailoring it for,” Zimbroff said.

According to Zimbroff, the food truck program was preceded by a lack of late-night options in Palo Alto.

“Why not have someone who’s mobile and easy to get to come to us when everything in Palo Alto closes at 10 p.m. on the weekends and the only thing that will deliver past that time is Domino’s?” he said. “Hopefully it solves some of those problems of having more variety and more options and being really convenient for kids.”

However, the program remains a pilot for the quarter because of concerns about whether there will be enough student interest to keep food vendors on campus.

“They need about 80 to 100 kids to go to each food truck each [night] in order for it to be financially viable for them to continue,” Zimbroff said.

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Palo Alto looks to solve downtown parking shortage https://stanforddaily.com/2012/11/05/palo-alto-looks-to-solve-downtown-parking-shortage/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/11/05/palo-alto-looks-to-solve-downtown-parking-shortage/#respond Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:47:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1072589 Palo Alto officials are looking into radical solutions to the downtown parking shortage, going so far as suspending rules that have allowed monetary fees to substitute off-street parking requireemnts for developers since the mid-1980s.

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Palo Alto officials are looking into radical solutions to the downtown parking shortage, going so far as suspending rules that have allowed monetary fees to substitute off-street parking requireemnts for developers since the mid-1980s.

Palo Alto looks to solve downtown parking shortage
(KATIE BRIGHAM/The Stanford Daily)

The Palo Alto City Council imposed a 45-day moratorium in mid-October on a municipal code parking exemption that allowed developers to pay a fee instead of creating off-street parking for the first-floor areas of buildings.

The square footage of upper-floor development is still subject to the standard square-foot-to-parking-place ratio present in the municipal code, which varies depending upon the type of building.

“The moratorium is very limited,” Palo Alto City Council Member Larry Klein said. “It’s just on this one section of our zoning rules….It wouldn’t have any effect one way or another on either future projects or the present parking problem.”

Although Klein said that the moratorium will have no effect on parking in Palo Alto, city staff and consultants will study the parking in the downtown area during these 45 days to determine the best course of action to solve Palo Alto’s parking problems, according to Palo Alto Director of Planning and Community Environment Curtis Williams.

“We have quite a few parking lots around town, and any one of those theoretically could be turned into a parking structure that could accommodate four times as much parking as it has on the one level of the lot right now,” he said.

Williams added that consultants will also conduct a downtown development analysis to see if current regulations could be changed to ensure that new development is not worsening the parking situation.

In the past two years, two developers requested to use the exemption, which Klein said was an unusually high rate. In response, the city council staff studied the exemption to determine if it was appropriate to apply the exemption for these two developers. Klein said that the developers will likely be allowed to go forward with their projects as planned under the exemption, but that the city has yet to determine what the proper parking fund payment is for each developer.

Williams said that the exemption never realized its intended impact on downtown development.

“I don’t think that it really played much of a role in stimulating that development, initially anyway, and certainly it isn’t needed today,” Williams said. “There’s plenty of activity as far as development goes without provisions like that.”

The city zoning code caps downtown development at 350,000 square feet of commercial space, with an automatic stop on development once that cap is reached. The code also requires that the city study the parking exemption if the 350,000-square-foot development were to be reached. However, the code also recommends that the city conduct that study long before the 350,000-square-foot cap, when commercial development approaches 235,000 square feet.

A recent 50,000-square-foot project at 101 Lytton Ave. prompted the city to impose the moratorium because it put the development square footage at about 10,000 under the 235,000-square-foot mark, according to Williams.

Employees of downtown Palo Alto businesses have concerns about parking, especially with regard to the current color zone system, which implements different parking restrictions based on colored signage. The color zone system allows people to park their cars in certain areas of downtown for only two hours at a time without a permit. Visitor permits cost $16 per day, and permits for using the existing parking structures cost over $540 per year.

“There are only purple zones for miles around my business, and it’s impossible to park for more than two hours, especially when I work an 11-hour shift,” said Jeremy Thomas Lay, an assistant manager at SPOT: A Pizza Place. “Every two hours, you can’t re-park in the purple zone, so you have to park a mile away just to go to work. We’ve actually lost a couple of customers because they can’t find places to park around our business.”

However, Williams said that the study is more concerned with long-term permitted parking downtown and what developers will be required to provide than with short-term visitor parking issues.

“Basically, in all counts we’ve done, there seems to always be space [for visitors],” Williams said. “It may not be the most convenient, but there’s always space and [visitors can buy a one-day $15 parking permit].”

Another concern regarding parking in the city is non-residents who park in residential neighborhoods to avoid paying permit fees for downtown zones. According to Klein, residents of Professorville, a Palo Alto district, are lobbying the city council to create a residential parking permit program that would prohibit non-residents from parking in the areas on either side of University Avenue.

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West Campus gym to focus on outdoor education https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/19/west-campus-gym-to-focus-on-outdoor-education/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/19/west-campus-gym-to-focus-on-outdoor-education/#respond Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:33:54 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1072032 The new West Campus recreation center, slated to open in late 2013 or early 2014, will focus on outdoor education.

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West Campus gym to focus on outdoor education
Stanford Daily File Photo

The new West Campus recreation center, slated to open in late 2013 or early 2014, will focus on outdoor education and feature a new climbing wall as well as an area to rent equipment for outdoor activities such as camping, backpacking, surfing and snow travel. The University recently hired a new director of outdoor education, Chris Pelchat, to oversee these operations.

The Board of Trustees first approved $35.5 million for the Arrillaga Outdoor Education and Recreation Center in December 2010. Permit issues, however, stalled construction until August 2011.

“The project has had a number of challenges, but the key issue has been schedule,” wrote Mark Bonino, the project’s manager, in an email to The Daily. “The building permit for the project took quite a bit longer than anticipated, so the construction site was dormant for almost a year working through issues to get that permit.”

Bonino projected construction to be completed by December 2013, allowing for a late 2013 or early 2014 opening. Tim Ghormley, director of recreational sports facilities, said that workers have finished putting the main steel into place and are currently pouring the concrete slab.

Aesthetically, the new recreation center will resemble the existing Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation on the east side of campus, but will also have a 50-meter pool and a stronger focus on outdoor education.

“The outdoor education component is going to be huge, and I think the students and the entire Stanford community are going to be excited by that,” Ghormley said.

In accordance with the focus on outdoor education, the Department of Physical Education, Recreation and Wellness (DAPER) recently hired Pelchat as its new director of outdoor education. Pelchat, who previously worked at Ithaca College, will be involved with overseeing all the University’s outdoor programs, as well as the new recreation center.

“One of the things that I think is pretty unique in what Stanford is doing is building this outdoor education and recreation center,” Pelchat said. “I think it will really put outdoor education in the limelight.”

Pelchat, who will assume his new post on Oct. 29, noted that many facets of education are catered to outdoor programming, including collaboration, teambuilding and leadership training. He said he hopes to use his background in leadership development and education to connect outdoor education to others parts of the University, such as the Graduate School of Business and the School of Education.

“The center could actually become a bridge for professors and other programs on campus that are looking to teach more experientially to use our center,” he said. “I’m excited to help make outdoor education more of an integral part of our students’ experience at Stanford.”

Estimates vary on the number of people who will use the new gym.

While the current recreation center records more than 30,000 non-unique visits each month, Ghormley noted that it is difficult to estimate whether or not that number will be split between the two facilities. He predicted, however, that new users would be drawn to the gym because of its proximity to their campus residence.

Senior associate athletic director Eric Stein estimated that the new facility will service between 2,000 and 2,500 individuals.

“At some point it may pull some [users] away from the current facility, but we would anticipate that the overall total would probably be up at least 50 to 70 percent in terms of people utilizing on-campus recreational facilities,” Stein said.

The sports facilities department has not yet made official decisions about the future of the Tresidder Fitness Center, which is also located on the west side of campus.

“It’s valuable to certain users, and it may change in purpose and scope, but we don’t know yet,” Ghormley said. The only other athletic facility currently on West Campus is Roble Gym, which houses the dance department.

New recreational and aquatics staff will be hired before the opening of the gym, Ghormley said. There may be job postings for positions as early as the spring of 2013.

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Flipside starts new year under new leadership https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/01/flipside-starts-new-year-under-new-leadership/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/01/flipside-starts-new-year-under-new-leadership/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:50:49 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1071283 This year's first Flipside issue was distributed last week under new leadership, for the first time since it was founded four years ago. Changes under the new leadership include the discontinuation of the numbers section and decision to keep jokes safer and less offensive.

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Flipside starts new year under new leadership
The Flipside, Stanford’s weekly satirical news publication, distributed its first issue under new leadership for the first time since it was founded four years ago last week. (Courtesy of Ralph Nguyen)

The first issue of The Flipside, Stanford’s weekly satirical news publication, was distributed last week under new leadership for the first time since it was founded four years ago. Conor Doherty ’13 and Kyle Hoffer ’14 are the new president and vice-president, respectively. Bill Driscoll ’13, The Flipside’s managing editor, is affectionately referred to as the “Master of Shadows.”

“When we need to bust someone’s kneecap in a back alley, we usually send Bill,” Doherty joked.

One of the big changes the team has planned for the year is the discontinuation of the numbers section, a satirical comment on campus life based around a random number, although The Flipside did include numbers in its first issue. For the most part, the rest of the Flipside will remain the same for the near future.

“We might do a few different things,” Hoffer said. “Not yet, though, we’re trying to just figure out the baseline now before we do anything too crazy.”

The Flipside’s new leadership has decided to keep their jokes on the safer, less-offensive side as they get settled into their new roles.

“We’re not going to be offensive for a little while,” Doherty said. “We’re going to wait until at least the fifth or sixth week before I have to go to sensitivity training.”

The Flipside will continue the tradition of having a fake booth at the winter quarter activities fair and the editorial board plans to keep the website generally the same, but with a heavier multimedia emphasis.

“We’re going to try to do some video stuff because we have a green screen,” Hoffer said.

These changes come on the heels of the graduation of The Flipside’s founder and longtime president Jeremy Keeshin ’12 and vice-president Zach Galant ’12.

“Half [of] the really important people who were in it last year aren’t in it this year,” Driscoll said.

While the new team doesn’t feel pressure to live up to the expectations set by last year’s editorial board–Doherty wondered, “Do people have expectations?”–they do have some hopes for the year.

“Being funny is nice, in general. That’s kind of the goal,” Hoffer deadpanned.

“Don’t make a puzzle that’s too hard or people will whine about it,” Driscoll added.

Doherty agreed, continuing, “There’s a lot of pressure on Akiko [Kozato ’13, the new puzzle master] more than anyone else. People just do the puzzles and don’t even read the articles.”

Primarily though, this year’s team is simply trying to carry on The Flipside’s tradition and keep up its popularity.

“We’re just trying not to run [The Flipside] into the ground,” Doherty said. “Jeremy [Keeshin] ran everything for four years. He could have done everything by himself if he’d wanted to.”

Keeshin and Galant are now working on a startup far removed from The Flipside’s humor, although, according to Doherty, Keeshin remains in constant contact.

“This is like the first passing of the baton, so we want to make sure we don’t drop it,” Driscoll said.

Readers of The Flipside expressed little concern about the change in leadership, so long as the leaflet maintains its signature irreverent humor.

“I guess I don’t know what a change in leadership would mean, as long as they keep the content that I care about there,” said Evan Appel ’13. “As long as they keep it witty, I have no problem.”

Alan Le ’13 said that The Flipside’s levity is important, but was also impressed with its tackling of deeper problems.

“I think it adds a little flavor to lunch which is when they typically pass [it] out. It’s nice; it’s kind of an activity to laugh over,” he said. “[But] a lot of [the articles] are really current issues.”

This year’s first issue of the Flipside was distributed on Sept. 24, the first day of classes. There was general confusion about lines of text missing their first letters, which some students thought was a joke.

“People did not understand why there were printing errors,” Driscoll said.

But not every printing error caused confusion. The first edition’s numbers section said that four freshmen should not have been admitted to the class of 2016, a number far smaller than what the editorial board had intended.

“The number was much larger than four, but [the printer] just chopped it off…for no reason,” Doherty said. “That’s way funnier than the joke we had originally.”

Despite a general desire to keep things the way they are, the new editorial board sinisterly hinted at changes on the horizon.

“There will be changes, and there will be blood,” Doherty said.

“Less blood than changes, though, probably,” Hoffer added.

“Well, officially,” Doherty said. “But you’ve got to be careful about the Master of Shadows.”

 

The Flipside published a satirical article in response to this article. Read it here.

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