Four Seasons' lie-to-children

The Four Seasons Hotel, the gateway to Palo Alto, is only minutes away from the town's shops, restaurants and fun. The pitch is so important that it's even repeated in the kids' coloring book the lucury hotel gives to visiting families, obtained by one of the contributors to Silicon Valley Moms Blog. Unfortunately, by "gateway" to Palo Alto, the authors mean East Palo Alto, across the 101 highway, the Silicon Valley slum that was once one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the US. And, instead of writing that the Four Seasons is minutes away from the chi-chi stretch of University Avenue, the hotel's shameless marketers ought to warn children of something else: they're about one minute away from the liquor stores and drug dealers of the hotel's immediate vicinity.

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