So, does Webb ranch host Dutch Belted or Belted Galloways? We geeks are likely to have to do a major RTFM on the topic of cow breeds to figure that one out.

Webb Ranch, however, raises some other issues. Clearly, this Stanford lease has a checkered history. To be sure, locals have not missed the conditions of the workers there (or former Stanford President Donald Kennedy's claim that Stanford had no more responsibility for Webb Ranch workers than for those who work at upscale Stanford Shopping Center).

Well, Mr. Kennedy, your Neiman Marcus workers have a very different opportunity space than the very poor men and women we see laboring day and night at Webb Ranch (and Stanford barn, and, really, all over the Stanford campus). For one thing, the folks over at Neiman Marcus (and Macy's, and Nordstrom and Abercrombie and Fitch et al.) are mostly white, and educated.

The men and women (and children) we see working at Webb Ranch (at the produce market, the riding stable et al.) are mostly Hispanic recent immigrants. We see, and have come to know, a few folks there: we run at 6:00 AM across the Stanford campus and see hard-working men and women cleaning stables, manicuring Stanford lawns, taking out the Stanford trash every morning. One wonders if there's a different deal for the University's workers, vs. Webb Ranch's.

A small army of Hispanic and Afro-American women and men step down from Stanford's Marguerite Shuttle bus line (which makes a connection to the Stanford campus from the East Palo Alto, East Menlo Park and Redwood City bus lines) every morning, and head to the dorms and cafés and restaurants where Stanford students, faculty and administrators go to sip their cappucino.

Some workers speak a little English: everyone in that 6 AM space is polite - really - and accommodating as we circumnavigate the campus (we've been doing this for 15 years). We wave to people we see every morning: they wave back. We have brief conversations with people whose English is much better than our Spanish.

The biggest danger in the wee hours at Stanford, from a jogger point of view, is incoming Stanford professors, students and administrators who choose to ignore stop signs and cross walks (and sometimes, sidewalks). Their Porsches and BMWs are to be feared by those on foot. Stanford's campus workers are far more polite: unlike their wealthier co-workers, they slow down and stop when they see people in front of their headlights.

But, back to the the cows - Dutch Belteds or Belted Galloways: either way, they are taken care of. Not sure the Webb Ranch workers are as well taken care of... feel free to speak up if my observations differ from yours...
Comments 10:47:17 PM    

Chris Gulker's view from Silicon Valley - in words and pictures