Stewart Hyland of East Palo Alto shares this story below. If you have a story to share, visit our “Share Your Story” page.

Robert ‘Bob’ Hoover has been an institution in East Palo Alto starting in 1959 when he and his wife had come to Stanford but were not allowed to rent a home in Palo Alto so they moved into East Palo Alto. Carlos Romero went door to door in 1981-83 to advocate for residents to incorporate from a county municipality to a city. Both men served together to incorporate EPA.

In 2011 Mayor Carlos Romero convened two retreats to design a better funding strategy for Measure C Crime Prevention Parcel Tax. Making It Happen for Our Children President Bob Hoover, advocated for cross-service sector coordination as described in the Kania & Kramer’s ‘Collective Impact’ (http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/collective_impact). Both men have made lifelong commitments to a multicultural and changing East Palo Alto. [Read more…]