The fast and fresh Asian box WEEKEND | P.21 JUNE 1, 2012 VOLUME 20, NO. 19
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MOVIES | PAGE 24
MountainViewOnline.com
Neighbors frothing over beer garden plan By Daniel DeBolt
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MICHELLE LE
Roger Brown is lobbying to allow skateboarding on city trails.
Skate and enjoy ENGINEER, 55, SEEKS TO CHANGE CITY’S SKATEBOARDING BAN ON TRAILS By Daniel DeBolt
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oger Brown may be 55 but that isn’t keeping him from riding his skateboard. Leave that up to a city law. “It makes a nice workout,” said Brown, a computer engi-
neer who enjoys the relatively new sport of longboarding. The Santa Clara resident says he rode his board 27 miles in one trip last month. The Bay Trail in Mountain View, where he once worked as an engineer at Silicon Graphics, is one of his favorite spots.
But skateboarding isn’t allowed on Mountain View’s section of the trail, though it is allowed in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale. A ranger at Shoreline Park confronted him after he’d been skating the trails for a year. See SKATER, page 6
Measure G supporters raise big bucks By Nick Veronin
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upporters of Measure G have raised far more than opponents of the $198 million school bond set to go to a vote in the June 5 election — by about 60 to one. Mountain View for Safe and Efficient Schools — a group backing the Mountain View Whisman School District mea-
INSIDE
sure — raised $61,250 between March 18 and May 19, according to papers recently filed with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. The biggest contribution came from Piper Jaffray, a Minneapolis-based investment bank that contributed $25,000. The same documents indicate the campaign spent a little more than half of the money raised —
$32,412.27 — over the same time period. While the pro-Measure G campaign’s fund-raising success could be seen as an indication of the bond’s future success at the polls, the man leading the opposition to Measure G said it is only evidence of a corrupt political process. See MEASURE G, page 8
handful of condo dwellers on Bryant Street have so far been successful in blocking a new restaurant and beer garden proposed for 895 Villa Street, but applicant Ted Kim is asking for the City Council to reverse the decision before summer break. Kim says he will pay a $2,500 fee by June 1 to appeal the ruling by Zoning Administrator Peter Gilli, who cited neighbor concerns about noise in capping the proposed restaurant’s patio use to 6 p.m. half the year and 8 p.m. the other half. “It would be a huge part of our business we’d be losing,” Kim told the Voice. The business would not be viable without the patio open for diner, he said. He had already reduced the patio’s size from 160 to 64 seats and moved the restaurant’s entrance off Bryant Street. Kim says it’s been his dream for five years to open a “Germaninspired American rendition of a beer garden,” and says the Villa Street location was seen as the perfect spot after a year-anda-half-long search. He plans to invest $1 million in the restaurant and hire over 60 employees to serve “gourmet comfort food” and “high-end beer.” And he’s recruited an award-winning chef, he said. The proposal was effectively blocked by a handful of neighbors in the 20 unit-condo com-
plex at 230 Bryant Street, some of whom attended the May 9 administrative zoning hearing. They complained about existing problems with the Monte Carlo night club, whose patrons spill out into the parking lot behind 895 Villa at 2 a.m. and are known to urinate, fight and litter near the condos. Neighbors complain “Until the noise problem at present levels is mitigated, I wouldn’t want to expand alcohol licenses,” said 230 Bryant Street resident David Lynn. “I personally don’t want listen to 64 people talking outside my bedroom window seven days a week,” said another resident, Michelle Lynn. Roger Koa, the owner of 895 Villa, was incensed by the comments. “Stein’s Beer garden hasn’t opened yet,” Koa said. “How can you complain they are noisy?” Comparisons were made to the Tied House next door, as it has an outdoor patio behind it facing another condo complex at 108 Bryant Street. Kim says he wants the same hours as the Tied House, which is open until 10 p.m. most nights, and 11 p.m. on Fridays. Lynn claimed he could hear people cheering at the Tied House Patio during hockey games. “I like the Sharks but sometimes my child is trying to sleep,” he said. See BEER GARDEN, page 11
Election Day Election Day is Tuesday, June 5. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. To find your polling place, go to sccgov.org and click on the Registrar of Voters link. This election brings several changes — new open primary rules take effect, and as do newly redrawn districts for state Assembly and Senate races that affect Mountain View. Election results will be available online after the polls close at mountainviewonline.com.
VIEWPOINT 19 | MOVIES 24 | GOINGS ON 25 | MARKETPLACE 26 | REAL ESTATE 28