Out to launch over Moffett
IN BUSINESS | P.13 APRIL 2, 2010 VOLUME 18, NO. 13
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INSIDE: WEEKEND | PAGE 17
MountainViewOnline.com
Water use flowing downward, city finds ECONOMIC RECESSION, LOCAL INITIATIVES AND OTHER CHANGES LEAD TO INCREASED CONSERVATION By Daniel DeBolt
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Robert Baertsch, vice president of software engineering for Unimodal, shows off a SkyTran pod prototype at NASA Ames on Tuesday.
Could investors fund city’s transportation future? COUNCIL RESOLUTION FAVORS GENERAL CONCEPT OF ‘PERSONAL RAPID TRANSIT’ By Daniel DeBolt
getting all of the funding from private investors. “Investors have told us, bring us a project and we’ll finance it,” said Robert Baertsch, Unimod-
unanimously supported “the general concept of an automated company that has set personal rapid transit (PRT) up shop at NASA Ames system in Mountain View” after Research Park claims its being lobbied by another PRT system for automated company — one not pod travel could lift located at Moffett — Mountain View out of called ULTra. The city is considering a PRT its traffic and public The city is transportation woes — considering a PRT syssystem from the downtown train and the city may not tem from the downhave to spend a dime station to the Shoreline area. town train station to on it. the Shoreline area, So claims Unimodal where young employInc., which says that for the first al’s vice president of software ees from Google and Microsoft city to say yes, it can build its engineering. are expected to embrace its SkyTran system — small cars or Though the jury is still out cutting-edge means of moving “pods” which move about auto- on the merits of such a system, people around. matically on a network of rails, the City Council has already heading to their destination at made a preliminary step in its the push of a button — while favor. On Feb. 23, the council See RAPID TRANSIT, page 8
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he economic recession appears to have been good for water conservation, with total water use in 2009 reported to be the lowest in Mountain View since the mid1990s. The city used about a billion gallons less in 2009 than in 1997, when water use peaked at 13.25 million gallons per day. Last year, an average of 11 million gallons per day were used. There are several reasons for the downturn, said Elizabeth Flegel, the city’s water conservation coordinator. A declining economy causes businesses to cut water costs. Drought-tolerant landscaping has become popular, as have water-efficient faucets, shower heads and toilets. And Mountain View is no longer home to a number of computer component manufacturing companies which used more water than the office buildings that replaced them. Several city initiatives may help lower water use. The city’s new recycled water system north of Highway 101, which waters Shoreline Park and Google’s landscaping, is capable of reducing the city’s water use by 1 million gallons a day. If expanded south of Highway 101, the system could save millions more, said Greg Hosfeldt, assistant public works director. Meanwhile, a green building code is in the early stages of development that may call for water-efficient faucets and fixtures in new Mountain View developments. Several cities on the Peninsula are working on similar indoor water-use regulations, Flegel said. New rules for outdoor water
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use are in the works as well: As reported last week, the city is proposing to require water-efficient landscaping on new developments. City staffers hosted a public hearing on the issue last Wednesday evening, and a handful of residents attended to put forth, among other concerns, the question of who exactly would be subjected to the ordinance. Flegel said it would only apply to major new development projects which require planning permits — typical homeowners See WATER, page 10
Crash victim was football star, soldier FUNERAL SERVICES HELD THURSDAY FOR 21-YEAROLD KYLE SIMPSON By Daniel DeBolt
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he 21-year-old Mountain View man who died in a solo car crash in Cupertino early Friday morning was a well-liked former football star at Los Altos High School who possibly fell asleep at the wheel. Kyle Simpson had just returned home from Army training before the crash. On the night of the accident, friends say, he had just left his job as a security guard at a South Bay bar and grill and was still adjusting to the time See SIMPSON, page 11