Honey on the hands WEEKEND | 18 JUNE 26, 2015 VOLUME 23, NO. 22
www.MountainViewOnline.com
650.964.6300
MOVIES | 21
City’s homeless population doubles COUNTY NUMBERS GO DOWN, BUT STILL HIGH By Kevin Forestieri
S
anta Clara County’s homeless population is the lowest it’s been in a decade, bringing in praise from city and county officials who say the efforts to reduce homelessness are finally paying off. But in the North County, things are looking worse than ever. The county released a report this week that gives a “snapshot” head count of the ever-shifting homeless population in its jurisdiction. The report found that between 2013 and 2015, the homeless population in Mountain View ballooned from 139 to a high of 276. County Supervisor Joe Simitian said there’s a clear connection between the increase in Mountain View’s homeless population and the loss of the Sunnyvale Armory, a cold-weather homeless shelter for as many as 136 people before it was closed
for demolition last year. The data seems to indicate that all those displaced people have headed northward, Simitian said. “I (proposed) back in early 2014 that we need a replacement shelter because I think this was, altogether, predictable,” Simitian said. The city now has 271 people with no access to an emergency shelter or transitional housing who are stuck on the street, living in cars or living in encampments around the city. People who are homeless in Mountain View are frequently referred to the nearest drop-in shelter, in San Jose, according to Tom Myers, executive director of Community Services Agency (CSA) in Mountain View. The lack of homeless resources in the area could be fueling the high homeless count, according to Ky Le, Santa Clara County’s See HOMELESS, page 13
MICHELLE LE
‘I HAVE TWO MONTHS TO MAKE A MIRACLE’ Public accolades and private turmoil have marked the past 18 months for community activist Elena Pacheco, who was honored in April for her 25 years of volunteer work at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The tireless volunteer and teacher found herself battling cancer and having to search for a new home after rent increases displaced her from the apartment she’s lived in for more than 20 years. Our story and photo essay documenting her struggle to reclaim her health and her life in Mountain View begins on page 10.
The robo-car revolution hits Mountain View streets By Mark Noack
A
MICHELLE LE
Systems engineer Jaime Waydo talks about the design concept behind Google’s new fleet of self-driving cars. The Voice was given a sneak peek at the cars, which will hit the streets of Mountain View this week.
INSIDE
question kept ringing through my mind as I took my first ride Monday in one of Google’s prototype self-driving cars — Is this newfangled robo-car a better driver than I am? I thought about taking my driver’s test many years ago at the Los Gatos DMV, my hands nervously gripping the steering wheel of my mom’s cumbersome Ford Aerostar while a heavyset bureaucrat checked off my mistakes. I didn’t scan my mirrors frequently enough; one
VIEWPOINT 15 | GOINGS ON 22 | MARKETPLACE 23 | REAL ESTATE 25
of my turns went a little wide; I hesitated to remember my turn signals. Nevertheless, I passed and became a newly minted American motorist — one who still remains alive to drive another day despite my share of errors. Many aren’t so fortunate: Each year approximately 30,000 people are killed due to roadway crashes, the equivalent of a 737 airplane falling from of the sky every four days. These grisly numbers are fresh in my head because they come up eventually in most conversations with a Google spokesperson while
talking about the autonomousvehicle program. They bring up the crash statistics to make a fair argument. If human mistakes are to blame for all those fatalities, then isn’t it worth trying to design a system that will never lapse in judgment? Wouldn’t the nation’s roads be safer if all cars were scripted to abide flawlessly by the DMV handbook? That autonomous car revolution still remains far off, but it is inching closer by the day, and its crucible is the streets of Mountain View. The Google team, which has already logged roughly 1 million miles on local roads, announced it would begin ramping up its testing this week with a new line of 25 See ROBO-CAR, page 8