800 High Street @ Channing Avenue - The Concrete Triangle (Downtown South)

800 High Street @ Channing Avenue - The Concrete Triangle [Downtown] 2003

The POPOS I refer to as The Concrete Triangle could be described as unassuming. You want to come up with some positive things to say about it - and you can - but it can feel a bit forced. Somehow, there is more activity around this POPOS than any other in Palo Alto.

HOURS: It it open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

WHAT’S THERE: There is a bench with a divider so that people can’t sleep - at least comfortably - on the bench. Not much is growing in the gravel-filled planter box besides a small tree. There is a magnolia tree that blooms in the spring in the planter along the building. There is a widish sidewalk where you can cut through and save about 6 seconds walking on the diagonal.

WHAT’S AROUND: This POPOS is part of the 800 High Street condominium complex. Watercourse Way is across High Street, which has a relaxed atmosphere from people who are coming and going from massages and a hot tub.

The Peninsula Creamery & Dairy Store, which has been around since 19xx is across Channing Avenue, with a bustling mix of people enjoying an egg salad sandwich with chips and maybe a milkshake. Diagonally across the way, there is a friendly unofficial POPOS with picnic tables and a roof where people can eat their lunch.

WHAT YOU CAN DO THERE: As a result of all these establishments, there is great people watching from the bench that faces High Street. You might eat a peppermint ice cream cone (a flavor that is available all year round which is not to be taken for granted.) As the husband of one of the Council POPOS decision-makers remarked, it is shady in the summer (from the tall building) which is a plus.

I have meditated, sketched and done some calisthenics there.

WHAT YOU CAN’T DO THERE: You cannot sleep on the bench. They put one of those “arm rests” in the middle to ward that off.