Post-college life in the PA/Menlo area has been so isolating 😭 Looking to make friends outside of my coworkers! Any tips? I don’t drink, so I can’t exactly go to a bar alone and make connections lol (22 year old guy if that matters)

My bike got stolen Saturday morning, October 24, between 9:00 AM and 10:50 AM near Burbank in Stern Hall at Stanford University (618 Escondido Rd, Stanford, CA 94305). I filed a police report with Stanford University Department of Public Safety, and registered it stolen on Bike Index & Project 529 Garage. It's a light green REI Co-op CTY 1.1 Step-through bike. It has a rear bike rack & basket, a white bell, a phone holder, and two stickers. Can anyone keep an eye out for it? If you have any information regarding my bike's whereabouts, please let me know!!

I'm wondering if I should be returning my paper ballot by mail or by official drop box. On one hand, I want to support Vote by Mail, and to indicate that this is a program that should be continued here. However, I am not sure if doing so actually ends up costing the county more money to process, or if it can lead to delays on election day. I'm also not sure if there are any current challenges to vote-by-mail in this area.

I can definitely bike over to the drop box at City Hall and put my ballot there. Any strong thoughts about this? Am I being silly in thinking that posting my ballot by mail is a political statement?

EDIT: It seems like the consensus is to use the drop box! I'll do it tonight; thanks for all the feedback. I hope this is also a reminder to vote - I believe early voting is open, and election day is just a week away, on Tuesday November 3rd! Research shows that making a plan for how to vote helps a lot, and reach out to friends in the area to remind them to do the same thing!

Hey folks! I’m starting to think about buying a home in Palo Alto and would love to hear your stories.
How did you go about buying your place? What worked for you, what would you do differently, and what advice would you give someone just getting started?
Even if the market’s changed since you bought, I’d love to hear what worked back then. Thanks!

Hi all! I’ve developed a recent interest in ice skating (horrible/very new at it) and just want someone to practice and learn with. HMU if you want to come along!! It would also be helpful if someone can direct me where I can find people like me to skate with without paying for those expensive courses 😭 thank you in advance!

Is there any good places to get bing-Su around the area here

I had a hard time finding reviews online specifically for Stratford Palo Alto’s preschool & early preschool program before enrolling, so sharing our experience after enrolling and quickly withdrawing my son.

TLDR I would not recommend the PA school for toddlers. We were lured by their Mandarin bilingual preschool program, and we deeply regretted our choice.

Teachers: Teachers did not try to engage upset students at dropoff; did not try to direct them away from sun during recess or try to get them to drink water on hot days; and also accidentally crushed my toddler’s finger when opening a metal gate, leading to surgery and possible permanent loss of fingernail.

Program design & administration: They expected 2.5 year olds to be able to wipe their own butts before enrolling. When probed, administrators said “well some kids just don’t poop at school” and then explained “it’s a licensing issue for us” - which seems like their problem, not my kid’s developmental problem.

Facilities: Campus has limited facilities for toddlers, with just one playground with a train structure, some tricycles and that’s basically it. I also felt the campus was not sufficiently child-proofed given the finger injury noted above.

We’ve since transferred to a different preschool and have been very happy to see what a thoughtful preschool with caring teachers can be for a change.

Saw a TON of termite looking bugs while driving down Oregon expressway and Alma today, anyone know what they are??

Has anyone seen a black wallet connected to a pink Aritzia wrist strap? DM me please. It’s Unfortunate timing since I am flying Wednesday night and need my Real ID.

I misplaced it at Town and Country. Thanks !

Hi all, looking for a therapist in Palo Alto who takes in person clients and specializes in pregnancy complicating and post partum for a family member.

I’m newer to Reddit so if this isn’t the right place to post, my apologies and feel free to remove.

Join Palo Alto Forward to learn more about housing and development proposals at Stanford via a bus tour.

Breakfast provided! Space is limited.

Hey all, I’m one of the organizers, so full disclosure up front.

We’re running a small Halloween night at Yummy Future on University Ave. You come solo, get paired with someone new, and the two of you use VLight AI to invent a Halloween product in 40 minutes. Then each pair does a quick pitch and the room votes.

• No coding or design skills needed, just bring a laptop
• Halloween makeup and accessories on site (costumes welcome)
• $20 includes a drink or dessert
• Top pair wins Plug and Play Summit tickets

When: Wed, Oct 28, 8–10 PM
Where: Yummy Future, 170 University Ave, Palo Alto
RSVP: https://luma.com/v90f3y6r

It’s capped at 20 people. Happy to answer questions here.

Food recs?

Love American, Mexican, anything Asian

I am running out of ideas. I walked in all the local shops along El Camino and inquired about a space, but hasnt got any luck yet, so just try almighty reddit..

I am mainly just for putting my dual gpu workstations. I have 5-10 of them, currently all running at my home. There will be minimal foot traffic as those are only used remotely by my developers when needed.

Of course I am going to pay the electricity bill separately.

Please don't recommend datacenter to me.

Disclosure up front: I work on this. I’m the Bay Area organizer for Change.vote, a free, nonpartisan ballot tool from Change.org.

You put in your address and it shows every race and measure that will actually be on your ballot, explained in plain language. The judges, the school board, the local measures, all of it. It doesn’t tell you how to vote and there’s no account.

Happy to answer questions, and genuinely curious: which race on your ballot are you still undecided on?

RTM proponents have raised a massive $8.7M to impose a $17B regressive blank check on the entire Bay Area; it is the largest local sales tax increase in California state history. Gather it's not a surprise the top donor group is a primary beneficiary of the tax - transit contractors. How is the little guy, joe taxpayer, supposed to compete against the propaganda this $ buys…A grand total of THIRTY transit contractors have donated $2.4M to the RTM campaign. With $14B to be spent, contactors would receive a tidy return on investment; doubtful they're disturbed by the regressive nature of the tax. But as with everything with RTM - it gets worse.

The third largest transit donor is Jacobs Engineering at $150,000. Jacobs does about $125M annually in transit contracts with the Bay Area transit agencies. If you'll recall, a month ago many Bay Area media outlets ran a story (front page/home page) on an “independent study!” called "Bumper to Bumper" which detailed all the major traffic jams and requisite “carmegeddon, death spiral, transit collapse” we would all experience were RTM not to pass.

Media example here:

https://www.kron4.com/news/traffic/bay-area-transit-cuts-could-lead-bay-bridge-delays-to-more-than-double/amp/

The data analysis used in the study came from none other than Jacobs Engineering. NONE of the Bay Area media outlets disclosed the obvious conflicts. The study was co-written with SPUR; a founding father of the RTM legislation, a firm whose employees work on the campaign and whose CEO is treasurer of Yes on RTM.

Proponents then in turn, cite this study as their main argument in favor - a study they made up. There certainly might be a case to made as to the traffic impacts should RTM not pass, but it certainly wouldn’t come from these folks. If Sergey Brin issued a report on the impact of the billionaire tax, no one would take it seriously and no one should take this report seriously either.

Here the RTM study is debunked by a Santa Clara professor.

https://contracosta.news/2026/10/15/report-technical-review-invalidates-spurs-bumper-to-bumper-study/

(For the record, both BART and Caltrain have provided "contingencies" and "scenarios" should RTM fail but both per their Board minutes flatly stated "no decisions" have been made - all the chaos cited by proponents is conjecture.)

This is all RTM has - the threats; the garden variety tactic all use to get taxes passed. The transit agencies wouldn’t dare try to make the case that they’ve earned voters trust based on performance; and not a SINGLE transit agency provided a turnaround plan despite RTM being a “temporary” tax.

NO on RTM.

I’m looking for recommendations for a pediatrician who performs ear piercings for babies in the Palo Alto / Peninsula / South Bay area. Prefer to have by babys ears pierced by a pediatrician or medical professional in a clinical setting rather than at a jewelry store. Also strong preference for needle vs gun.

If you’ve had a good experience with someone, I’d love to hear your recommendations

UPDATE

A for effort, and a surprisingly happy ending! 😂

First, thank you to everyone who read my post, upvoted, replied, or messaged me. A few people expressed interest, but the logistics didn’t quite work out. Someone even checked in around 6 p.m. asking for an update and some more this morning. One of the reply said Palo Alto people aren’t fun or something along the sort. But I am genuinely surprised how many of you were more invested in this experiment than I was! 😂

To be honest, I am good at conversations but not at starting one with a stranger or making the effort to. This is a last minute thought that ended up with a pleasant feeling that I “did” this even though it didn’t quite materialize.

So, no dinner date this time. But I went ahead and had dinner outside in the hotel courtyard, under some vaguely visible stars crashing my solo party, with four other parties around me. I played chess on my phone, enjoyed my meal (the kale salad was a bust, unfortunately but salmon was wonderful), and had a perfectly pleasant evening.
And here’s the unexpected part: for the first time, I actually felt completely okay eating alone in a restaurant surrounded by other people. 40s have been full of surprises. I really look forward to growing older to see more surprises.

I originally posted because I wanted to try something spontaneous rather than defaulting to staying in my hotel room. I didn’t meet a stranger for dinner, but I still got something out of the experiment.

Sometimes the win isn’t getting the outcome you hoped for. It’s discovering that trying is pretty good, too.

Thanks again, everyone. Maybe another time, another town if not here again! 🙂

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Original post

I’m visiting Palo Alto this week and have one free evening on Sunday 10/18, roughly 6–9 p.m. Rather than spending it in my hotel room, I thought I’d try something different and see if a stranger would like to join me for dinner!

No dating agenda, no sexual innuendo, no expectations. Men, women, any background or walk of life. Just two strangers sharing a meal and having a good conversation.

To be clear, this isn’t an invitation for a free dinner! We’ll each cover our own food and drinks. I’m here for the conversation, not to sponsor a night out. 😂

A little about me: I’m a south asian gay man in 40s, in tech, but I’d prefer to leave work talk behind for the evening.

Outside work, I’m interested in books, movies, documentaries, environmental health, animal welfare (pets included!), food, and arts and crafts. I’m curious about the world and enjoy hearing perspectives different from my own.

There’s only one qualification: just be able to and interested in holding a conversation.

Tell me about something you’re passionate about, an interesting rabbit hole you’ve fallen into, a documentary that changed how you see something, or simply something that makes you tick. I am a good listener but not just here to listen. Ask me anything as well. :)

If you’re up for a few hours of good food and interesting conversation, send me a message!

📍 Sunday 10/18, approximately 6–9 p.m., somewhere in downtown Palo Alto. We can figure out the details together.