Eating underground WEEKEND | 16 OCTOBER 18, 2013 VOLUME 21, NO. 38
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MOVIES | 19
Council closing in on plan for Google, North Bayshore By Daniel DeBolt
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MICHELLE LE
Google shuttles, parked near Shoreline Amphitheatre in the middle of day, are part of the company’s efforts to reduce employee traffic to the campus.
otentially adding space for over 17,500 new office workers, a plan is coming into focus for Google’s neighborhood north of Highway 101 which could include a cap on car traffic and the development of eight-story office buildings along the freeway and North Shoreline Boulevard. Council members indicated support in a study session Tuesday for the “guiding principles” of a proposed precise plan for the area, which could add 3.5 million square feet of office space to an area where 7.5 million square feet now exists, along with a possible new hotel and entertainment venues near 101. In an effort to pull development away from
TCE ON EVANDALE AVE. MAY HAVE COME FROM OLD SEWER LINES
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hirty-five years ago, the Palo Alto Times ran a story headlined “Scores of fish killed by chemical spill in creek.” It was a sign of the times — and may help explain mysteriously high concentrations of toxics found on Evandale Avenue and Leong Drive. The 1978 story reported that 100 dead fish were pulled from Stevens Creek in Mountain View after a spill of acid from Fairchild Semiconductor’s manufacturing plant on Whisman Road. The spill found its way to the creek through a storm drain. The next day, the paper reported that a separate “accident” at Fairchild dumped 2,500 gallons of hydrochloric acid down the sanitary sewer See TOXIC, page 11
INSIDE
VIEWPOINT 13 | GOINGS ON 20 | MARKETPLACE 21 | REAL ESTATE 24
See N BAYSHORE, page 9
MV ‘dream’ bride succumbs to cancer
When semiconductor companies dumped toxics down the drain By Daniel DeBolt
wildlife habitat along Stevens Creek and the Bay, the proposal focuses development of the tallest office buildings in a “core area” of North Bayshore, where most buildings would be four to five stories, but could be as high as eight stories. Approaching local creeks and the Bay, heights taper down so that most buildings would be no more than two to three stories stories tall. Council members wanted to go even further in focusing development in the center of the area and closer to Highway 101. “You go down (Highway) 101 and see the tall buildings in other cities — I don’t think that both-
By Andrea Gemmet
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eniffer Bulik Lang, the Mountain View woman whose terminal cancer diagnosis inspired local vendors to throw her a dream wedding, died Thursday, Oct. 10, surrounded by her family. She was 35. A public memorial service and celebration of her life is set for Saturday, Oct. 19. Her husband announced the news of her death on his Facebook page. “My lovely wife, best friend, and constant companion continues to live on in my heart, and your heart. She’s talking to me constantly, but she left her body at 8 a.m. this morning,” he wrote. She was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in December of 2012 and told it was unlikely that she’d live to see 2014. In July, she married Jeff Lang, a Mountain View yoga teacher, in an outdoor ceremony near her childhood home in San Jose.
Jeniffer Bulik Lang
“It was a magical day for not just me but for everybody,” she told the Voice shortly after her wedding, held July 27 at Saratoga Creek Park in San Jose. The event was organized by wedding planner Erica Ota, who pulled together contributions from more than 40 local vendors. The story of her bittersweet wedding attracted widespread media See JENIFFER LANG, page 7