Wiener takes all WEEKEND | 20 APRIL 17, 2015 VOLUME 23, NO. 12
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Council OKs $1.2 million for studies of North Bayshore housing REVISING PLANS FIRST STEP IN ALLOWING NEW RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD By Mark Noack
the sought-after office park. The city ended up receiving seven hrowing a new twist into proposals seeking to develop future development plans more than five million square in North Bayshore, the feet in the area, with Google Mountain View City Council on proposing to use all 2.5 million Tuesday night signaled that more square feet for a dramatic new than 100 acres of land should be headquarters. At the time those proposals used to build a new residential were submitted, the neighborhood. city had no official In a 6-1 vote at plans to allow housthe April 14 meet‘I hope we ing in the North Baying, with John Inks shore area. Under the opposed, council can get previous City Council members approved city planstudying the feaworld-class majority, ning efforts restricted sibility of bringing hundreds of proposals out new development in the area to offices and new, tightly packed commercial uses. homes to a clusof this.’ But t hat ter of parcels near COUNCILMAN changed following Shoreline BouleCHRIS CLARK November’s election. vard north of HighIn February, with way 101. In doing three newly elected so, council memmembers creating bers challenged developers to present ideas for a new majority, the council making the area a model for changed position and endorsed adding new homes. modern urban design. On Tuesday, city staff pre“I’m excited about this. We have a great opportunity to create sented their first preliminary a live-work-play neighborhood in study showing areas that could the North Bayshore,” said Coun- be suitable for residential develcilman Lenny Siegel. “If we take opment. City Principal Planner all of this together, we can come Martin Alkire flipped through a up with a really exciting urban litany of maps, showing the district’s anticipated sea-level rise, design plan.” Home to Google, LinkedIn, highway noise, building-height Microsoft and other tech firms, restrictions, wildlife corridors Mountain View’s North Bay- and other factors. Based on all shore district has become the this, he zeroed in on five parcels main focus for the competing suitable for homes in the area, development interests in town. some of which overlapped with Last December, city officials set the land sought for commercial a limit of 2.5 million square feet use. It became an open quesof new development that would be allowed in the area. That cap tion exactly how these two effectively created a fierce com- uses would bump against one petition between Google and other firms looking to expand in See NORTH BAYSHORE, page 11
T MAGALI GAUTHIER
Hotranatha Ajaya, owner of downtown’s Book Buyers, says he and his staff are doing all they can to save the business.
Used bookshop scrambles to save business BOOK BUYERS REDOUBLES EFFORTS IN FACE OF POSSIBLE CLOSURE By Mark Noack
H
otranatha Ajaya, the owner of the downtown shop Book Buyers, committed what some merchants might consider a blunder — he openly admitted that business wasn’t so hot. Costs are rising, sales are sluggish and online competition is undermining the bottom line, he wrote in his newsletter last week. In an earnest confes-
sion, he estimated that his used bookstore had three months to turn around or be forced to close down. But Ajaya made a sincere pledge: he would do everything he could to prevent that from happening. He and his close-knit cadre of employees at Book Buyers are now making a last stand, working hastily to reinvent and reinvigorate the Castro Street bookstore, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary
next month. They are readying a spree of new events, price cuts and promotions all designed to rekindle interest in the printed word. They are now coming to direct terms with a question familiar to many in retail: How does a brick-and-mortar shop survive in the age of the Internet? Ajaya describes himself as a “stupid optimist” who can’t See BOOKSHOP, page 7
School board plugs gaps in preschool funding WITH STATE CUTS, 25 PERCENT OF PRESCHOOL SPOTS WOULD DISAPPEAR By Kevin Forestieri
S
anta Clara County is experiencing a drought in preschool funding, and it’s taking a toll on Mountain View schools. Federal preschool grants skipped over California for next year, and the state is allowing a program to expire that funds 25 percent of the preschool spots in
INSIDE
the Mountain View Whisman School District. Rather than sit idly by, the school board agreed earlier this month to look at ways to help fund the difference and keep the existing preschool spots open, and possibly expand the program to bring down its long waiting list. The state has been spending about $45 million each year since
2010 for the Child Signature Program to inject some muchneeded money into preschool programs at school districts across the state. For the Mountain View Whisman School District, that adds up to 35 more preschool spots for families free of charge, according to Terri See FUNDING, page 14
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