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FEBRUARY 15, 2008 VOLUME 16, NO. 6 INSIDE: WEEKEND | PAGE 15 650.964.6300 MountainViewOnline.com Mayfield project marches forward COUNCIL GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO MASTER PLAN — DEMOLITION ALONE COULD TAKE A YEAR TO COMPLETE By Daniel DeBolt in “the worst place they could have found,” being only a few feet fter four years of meet- away from a Central Expressway ings, the City Council on- and off-ramp. Afinally delivered the mas- For the first time, the coun- sive Mayfield housing project cil had a discussion about the Tuesday night, approving a con- “quality” of the project. Siegel ceptual master plan, a demoli- said quality was “a measurable tion plan and the first phase of thing.” Mayor Tom Means, who construction. had previously criticized the use “I think we’re all tired and we all want to see this completed in the See MAYFIELD, page 11 best way possible,” said Nola Mae
DANIELLE VERNON McBain, a Monta Loma resident who had fiercely opposed the UNITE THERE: Members and supporters of the local chapter of UNITE HERE, a union rep- project over the years. Cops ID resenting hotel workers, staged a rally last Thursday evening near Google headquarters. With more The council would vote 4-2 on than 100 people chanting and waving signs, the group called on Google to address the unionization of the master plan, with member Jac future workers at the company’s proposed hotel. See story, p.5 Siegel being the only earnest “no” victim in vote. He explained that he felt there were too many concerns about the loss of trees, the lack shooting of park space, the un-designed District gives nod to new parcel tax pedestrian tunnel, the poor loca- JEFFREY JOHNSON tion of the pool, and the strange JUNE MEASURE WOULD UP TAX BY 69 PERCENT, EASING IMPACT OF STATE CUTS plan for garbage removal. KILLED, ANOTHER MAN The 450-unit project, located WOUNDED AFTER By Casey Weiss the district’s chief financial officer. language learners and at-risk stu- at 100 Mayfield Ave., is one Mountain View residents passed dents in the middle schools, as well that residents ultimately will be MAYHEM IN OLD acing huge state budget cuts the original parcel tax in 2003, as hands-on science programs in unhappy with, he said. MOUNTAIN VIEW that threaten elementary and when the district faced similar cuts the elementary schools, according “I won’t be supporting the Fmiddle school programs and for school libraries and arts and to Goldman. But with the threat motion,” Siegel said. “There are Staff Reports small class sizes, the Mountain music programs. of state budget cuts, the additional too many unanswered ques- View Whisman school board voted revenue will likely be used to fund tions.” ountain View police last week to seek a 69 percent more fundamental programs. The other “no” vote came from have identified the increase in the current parcel tax “Our first priority Parcel tax revenue can only be council member Nick Galiotto, Myoung man killed when it comes up for renewal on used for programs listed on the bal- who opposed the conceptual in Old Mountain View last the June ballot. will be to respond to lot measure, and may not be used plan because of the pedestrian Thursday night in a dou- If it passes, the tax would raise to pay administrator’s salaries or tunnel, which he felt was unsafe. ble-shooting which also left $1.7 million a year to fund “essen- state budget cuts.” benefits. The council was warned by another man wounded. tial programs,” smaller class sizes “We fully intend to return to our Wouter Suverkropp, Monta Mountain View resident CRAIG GOLDMAN and to attract and retain teachers. old vision,” Goldman said. “We plan Loma Neighborhood Association Jeffrey Johnson, 20, died Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s to hold onto as many programs as president, that “Once the project from a single gunshot to the proposed cuts in education, if “The parcel tax saved all those we can from the old parcel tax.” is underway, Mountain View has torso, police said. Another approved by the Legislature, would programs,” said Charles Heath If renewed, parcel tax rates would lost its bargaining position.” man, who stumbled into a hit the district hard, taking away an of Tramutola, a consulting firm jump 69 percent, with the biggest After the master plan was local hospital with gunshot estimated $3 million. helping to prepare and pass the property owners — with lots of approved, the council would wounds minutes after the “Our first priority will be to measure. more than 44,000 square feet — unanimously vote for a differ- incident, suffered non-life- respond to state budget cuts without Board members originally hoped paying more than $1,000 per year ent location for the pool in the threatening injures. them having an impact on essential the new tax would continue to design. Siegel said the pool was programs,” said Craig Goldman, fund special programs for English See PARCEL TAX, page 9 See SHOOTING, page 8
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Photo of Rachel Mercik who was in Buenos Aires Argentina to play soccer for the U-17 national team.
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4 ■ MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE ■ FEBRUARY 15, 2008 MOUNTAINVIEWVOICE ■ CITY COUNCIL UPDATES ■ COMMUNITY LocalNews ■ FEATURES Union to From the Editor’s Google: Let’s Desk make a deal By Daniel DeBolt
ore than 100 union supporters gathered The Mnext to Google’s head- quarters Thursday evening to demand that the Internet giant address efforts to organize a principal’s union at the company’s proposed hotel. Late last year Google received office exclusive rights to negotiate with By Don Frances the city for a planned 200-room hotel with a 30,000-square-foot RECENT STORY about a conference center. As part of the gang stabbing has stirred agreement, the city would allow Aup a lot of feelings here use of nine acres of its “Charles- in Mountain View, perhaps ton East” site, while Google nowhere more so than at Gra- NORBERT VON DER GREOBEN would build the hotel and hire an ham Middle School. Kathy Nilsson stands in Willowgate community garden, where she and Luba Kaplun (below, standing operator. Graham was singled out for with Nilsson) and other gardeners say the city has been overzealous in enforcing garden rules. In anticipation of the deal some choice remarks in the story, going through, the local chapter prompting a phone call from of UNITE HERE, a hotel service Steve Gingras, director of special workers’ union, wants Google to education for the district. Green thumbs seeing red enter negotiations for a “labor “What I heard in that article,” peace agreement,” and held a ral- he told me later during a meeting CITY FALTERS IN EFFORTS TO REGULATE WILLOWGATE COMMUNITY GARDEN ly Thursday to get the company’s on campus, “was a return to the attention. City manager Kevin kind of attitudes toward Graham By Daniel DeBolt plots would be taken away and Duggan says the union issue is that existed eight or nine years given to someone else on the Criminal gardens part of ongoing discussions with ago.” ost gardeners say city’s long waiting list. The increased pressure at Google. We were sitting in the office their hobby brings “It reminds me of our years Willowgate may have its roots At the rally, the local activist of Principal David Pribyl, who Mthem peace. But elsewhere in town. Last fall, group Raging Grannies sang showed me a chart indicating things have been anything but neighbors near Beatrice and “High ho, high ho, we workers strong academic improvement peaceful lately at the Willow- “It reminds me of Bonnie streets began a cam- need more dough,” and union among the school’s students, gate community garden, where paign to prevent the city from supporters held signs reading most especially its Hispanic and more than a dozen gardeners our years back in establishing a new commu- “Google + service workers rights at-risk students, between 2001 say the city is railroading them nity garden there. They held = no matches found.” and 2006. over petty infractions. the Soviet Union.” up Willowgate as an example Hotel workers also talked about “That’s closing the achieve- Willowgate, located north LUBA KAPLUN of what would happen to having to work multiple jobs to ment gap,” he said, pointing at of Central Expressway near their neighborhood, saying make ends meet. According to the numbers. (API scores for Moffett Boulevard, is a patch the “ugly and messy” gar- UNITE HERE, non-union hotel Hispanics had jumped by 103 of land owned by the city that back in the Soviet Union,” den would lower home values workers in the South Bay average points, and for at-risk kids by 117 is divided into 84 plots. There, said Russian immigrant Luba and bring excessive traffic to $7 to $8 per hour, without health points.) 84 plot-holders grow flowers, Kaplun. “We are free people the neighborhood. Some were benefits. By contrast, union Gingras, a trained psychologist fruits and vegetables, paying [in America], and we really concerned about loitering and workers in Local 19 make $11 per and counselor of Baby Boomer the city about $37 a year for the expected to be treated with hour, with health benefits, and age (he even sports a gray pony- right to do so. respect.” See WILLOWGATE, page 10 wages are expected to increase tail), gave a bit of school history. The angry gardeners say the this year. Graham was in bad shape, he unrest, which began in earnest The issue hit close to home for said — and with a corresponding two months ago, is due to Stanford students Theresa Zhen reputation — in the years before overzealous actions by Allison and Paltua Cha, whose mothers the Whisman and Mountain Peterson, the garden’s overseer, were both hotel housekeepers. View school districts merged in who is also a Parks and Recre- “I can’t help but think of my 2001. Since then, a number of ation manager. Two years ago, mom,” Cha said. The mentality highly successful programs have Peterson stepped up efforts to of “‘better them than us’ is not turned things around, includ- straighten up the garden, and going to get anyone anywhere,” ing: things have been rotten ever she said. since, users say. Sandy Perry, outreach minister ■ Several police-affiliated pro- Most recently, Peterson sent for First Christian Church in San grams, such as Dreams and plot-holders notices on rule Jose, said situations of such low Futures, school resource officers, violations — plants blocking pay were a shame in Silicon Val- the Mountain View Gang Task pathways, for example — lead- ley, a place with “all this wealth, Force (which works with the ing some to believe that if the and these multi-billion dollar problems weren’t fixed, their See EDITOR’S DESK, page 7 NORBERT VON DER GREOBEN See GOOGLE, page 12
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