Sweet success WEEKEND | P.19 APRIL 13, 2012 Volume 20, NO. 12
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INSIDE: MOVIES | PAGE 21
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MV man, 26, killed on Shoreline Boulevard ERIK ONORATO, MVHS ALUM, REMEMBERED BY FAMILY AND FRIENDS By Nick Veronin
E JAMES TENSUAN
Erik Onorato’s family organized a vigil Tuesday night, after the 26-year-old Mountain View resident was identified by police as the pedestrian fatally injured when a truck struck him Monday night
Plastic bag ban is back on the table By Daniel DeBolt
T
he City Council could approve a ban on disposable plastic shopping bags in October — earlier than anyone expected — thanks to an agreement with San Mateo County. The ban could go into effect on July 1, 2013 under a “work plan” approved by the council Tuesday evening. San Mateo County has offered to include Mountain View and other Santa Clara County cities in its environmental impact report (EIR)
on its proposed plastic bag ban. Mountain View’s inclusion will save at least $40,000, according to city staff, and lower the cost of the ordinance to $10,000. The EIR would allow Mountain View to ban access to disposable plastic bags at grocery stores and require a minimum charge of 10 cents per re-usable or paper bag for the first 18 months and a charge of at least 25 cents thereafter. Restaurants and charitable operations such as Goodwill are not included in the ban. The council voted 5-1 at its April 10
rik Onorato will be remembered as “an incredible child, an incredible brother, an incredible son and friend,” his mother said on April 11, two days after the 26-year-old Mountain View resident was struck and killed by a pickup truck on North Shoreline Boulevard. “We will miss him every day for the rest of our lives,” Debbie
meeting to allow city staff to work on the ordinance, with Vice Mayor John Inks opposed and council member Tom Means absent. “As an exclusive canvas bag shopper, I think this is a lot of work and a lot of time for a tiny part of the waste stream,” Inks said. He added that the money should go towards lowering the recycling bills of residents. A handful of residents spoke against the ban, including Jim Neal, who began coming to council meetings to oppose the city’s new ban on smoking near publicly accessible buildings. “I feel like this is a tax on the poor and
Onorato said. Police are still investigating the accident, which occurred just before 9 p.m., April 9, near the intersection of Wright Avenue, according to Mountain View police spokeswoman Liz Wylie. Onorato, who was not carrying any ID, was not identified by the police until the following day. The driver, who is cooperating with the police, See ONORATO, page 7
an attack on the poor,” Neal said. “You are going to charge them for paper bags? To me that’s unconscionable. Have you ever tried to carry a paper bag in the rain?” Council member Ronit Bryant responded to Neal’s concerns, and recalled the first time the council considered a ban along with Santa Clara County. “7-Eleven sent us hundreds of emails about how people’s quality of life would deteriorate if they didn’t have a plastic bag,” Bryant said. But after cities such as Palo Alto and San Jose began implementing their own plastic bag bans, “we See BAG BAN, page 8
CHAC’s Monique Kane named ‘Woman of the year’ By Daniel DeBolt
I
t was by a stroke of good fortune that Monique Kane, just named “Woman of the Year” by state Sen. Joe Simitian, is where she is today. The director of Community Health Awareness Council narrowly escaped death as a child escaping the Nazi invasion of France in World War II. Kane, now in her early 70s, hardly looks her age. She was 2 years old in 1940 when the Nazis
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invaded France. Her mother, an American, fled and hitchhiked across France with three children in tow to catch the last civilian ship to the U.S. “We were pretty emaciated” by the time the family reached the ship, Kane said. Things got worse when the ship encountered a German U-boat. Expecting the ship to explode, the passengers boarded lifeboats, Kane said. “The captain of the the German ship and captain of American
ship had a conversation,” Kane recalled. “And the American captain talked the German captain out of bombing us.” The narrow escape had a lasting effect on the family and Kane, despite her young age. “My parents remained separated for years,” Kane said. Her mother, who had followed her marine engineer husband to France, “wouldn’t go back and MICHELLE LE
See KANE, page 12
GOINGS ON 22 | MARKETPLACE 23 | REAL ESTATE 24 | VIEWPOINT 16
Monique Kane hikes in Foothill Park with her husband, Bill Heinz.