Thanks for being vigilant re all matters involving further potential erosion of our constitutional rights–including the right to privacy and the right to seek out the health care of our choice—and to manage our own bodies.

Your point is well taken that there seems to be a parallel between the effort to criminalize car dwellers in this city–without any hard evidence of any sustained pattern of law violations by said car dwellers–and the apparent lack of any substantial complaints directed against the folks who practice the healing arts at Happy Feet.

I must admit I am not familiar with this particular healing art–but absent proof that the folks at Happy Feet are engaged in unsafe/unhealthily practices—I am highly suspect that the police have a motive to close down this establishment that has little or nothing to do with their stated reasons.

My position is that the state has the burden of proof to establish that some unsafe or unhealthy practice or practices are occurring on the premises of Health Foot—before actions to close down this business should be allowed to proceed. You have also made a very solid point in suggesting that this is really an issue that should be looked at by health and safety officials–not the police– at least until there is some indication that criminal activity is afoot.

Are we dealing with a case of discriminatory enforcement—i.e., a situation where the city/police have chosen to come down hard on one business while looking the other way while real crime goes uninvestigated ? Or are we dealing with a case of racial profiling? –that is going after a business not because of any illegal practices but rather because of the ethnic or racial makeup of those who own and operate the business.

I don’t have answers to the above questions–at least not at this point –but I think asking the questions may focus our investigation in a more productive manner/direction.

Is the threat to require customer logs accessible to the police without probable cause of illegal activity —a way to intimidate potential customers by insinuating that if their names surface during a routine search/drop in by the police that the customer will be assumed to have been engaged in unlawful conduct?

I am glad you are on this story and hope you are able to reveal more details to the public re the true motive for this proposed action as the matter/issue is more closely scrutinized. Again–thanks for bringing this important local issue to the attention of the public.

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In particular, I represent the great number of extremely pleased customers of the business: HAPPY FEET. They provide a most valuable service at such a reasonable price that one can give a hundred percent tip, and still pay less than any traditional massage place in Palo Alto.

I moved to Palo Alto about thirty-five years ago to complete a Ph.D. at Stanford, and have experienced a wide range of traditional and alternative health services all over the Bay Area and beyond, including many at famous massage schools. None of them have had the tremendous healing affect I get at HAPPY FEET.

The Chinese-trained people at HAPPY FEET truly have a gift. I appreciate that they do not perform traditional, U.S.-based massage. Instead, they seem to open areas of the feet, and then encourage energy from the rest of the body to move out.

Perhaps barbers and pedicure technicians understand this process when they rub peoples’ legs or neck even though their job could involve only toenails or hair. They do not need massage permits to continue their business, yet the revised ordinance will force HAPPY FEET people to have them.

If people feel concerned about potential sexual activity during alternative healing sessions, they should look into places where people get serviced in private while not wearing clothes. They do not have to worry about the fully clothed, group environment of HAPPY FEET.

The drive for some of the revised ordinance may have come from the more expensive, traditional massage places that view HAPPY FEET as undesired
competition. However, putting HAPPY FEET out of business may not get them additional customers because many of us would rather travel to distant cities to get the service we prefer.

The State of California supports alternative healing, and would also support Palo Alto’s ordinance with an exemption for HAPPY FEET. Mountain View made sure that HAPPY FEET could stay in business. I suggest that Palo Alto does the same.

The most effective way to heal our planet starts with the healing of each individual. I believe that this ultimately involves the release of body energy the way it happens during a session at HAPPY FEET. Please, do not force them out of business with an ordinance modification. Thank you.

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Dainuri Rott, Palo Alto resident entrepreneur and happy Happy Feet customer.

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That’s a good question. I have not heard from the Golins for quite some time so I don’t know where the case stands. I will reach out to them for an up-date. In the meantime, Jeff Golin can be reached at jeffgolin@yahoo.com.

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This may be perfectly innocent. Or it may be one person writing under different “names,” which is sort of like stuffing the ballot box, eh?

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Obviously you do not know how much work is involved in the veterinary clinic (which also does close to 3000 surgeries a year)…
The veterinary staff does not only cater to the animals that are in the shelter…

Concerned employee

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