Obscure Bay Area: This Palo Alto park is home to the world s most famous donkey
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Perry, one of two donkeys who live in Palo Alto s Bol Park, is very likely the most famous donkey in the world, thanks to a special connection to the Academy Award-winning film Shrek. Christopher Partin/Special to SFGATEShow MoreShow Less
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Perry poses for the camera on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Bol Park, Palo Alto, Calif.Christopher Partin/Special to SFGATEShow MoreShow Less
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Even the sign has a donkey on it in Bol Park, Palo Alto, Calif.Christopher Partin/Special to SFGATEShow MoreShow Less
Obscure Bay Area: The fairy-tale village hidden off a busy Berkeley street
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Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
The story of how a storybook European village, complete with sloping stairways and pretty stone streets, landed in the middle of Berkeley starts with an inferno.
On Sept. 17, 1923, a wildfire started in the Berkeley hills. Gusty, dry winds pushed the flames down into the city. It roared by Cal s campus, through Northside and down all the way to Shattuck Avenue. By the time it was finally extinguished, almost 600 homes were gone. North Berkeley was little more than charred rubble.
From devastation came opportunity, particularly for one young man named Jack Thornburg. Then just 21, he began to plan out a new neighborhood filled with fairy-tale charm and secret corners.