Say cheese WEEKEND | 21 SEPTEMBER 25, 2015 VOLUME 23, NO. 35
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El Camino bus-only lanes get boost from new study INDEPENDENT GROUP SUPPORTS FINDINGS OF VTA’S TRAFFIC ANALYSIS Since it was first pitched five years ago, the plan has been a ith a final decision just lightning rod, generating more a few months away, a comments and attention than controversial proposal any other current VTA project. to bring dedicated bus lanes to Among the hundreds of comEl Camino Real inched forward ments spread across six affected on Tuesday, following the release cities, many supporters endorsed of an independent study on the the plan as a good step to make public transportation a viable plan’s impacts. The new third-party review option for more commuters. largely upholds findings by the However, a large and vocal cadre Santa Clara Valley Transporta- of opponents have complained tion Authority that the program that VTA was downplaying the plan’s side effects. known as busRestricting traffic rapid transit (BRT) worsen an would cause only ‘We’re happy would already congested minor traffic disroute and send drivruptions. with these ers spilling onto side With the favorstreets, they said. able report in results.’ VTA planhand, an enthusiJOHN RISTOW, VTA ners signaled that astic group of VTA officials dropped PROGRAM AND PLANNING this traffic nightDIRECTOR mare wouldn’t hapa heavy hint that pen although there they would recwould be significant ommend that the board of directors approve the impacts. A draft environmental full BRT plan stretching from impact report published by VTA Palo Alto to San Jose later this staff last year noted that there would be unavoidable disruption year. “It really does look like the to traffic at multiple locations. best project could be dedicated But from reviewing 240 interseclanes,” said John Ristow, VTA tions in the vicinity, transit engiprogram and planning director, neers projected that thousands on Tuesday, Sept. 22. “Really, this of commuters would no longer is the project that stands out, and drive on El Camino if bus-rapid we want to do the best project for transit were implemented. In Mountain View, for examthis corridor.” VTA officials have champi- ple, VTA planners estimated oned dedicated bus lanes on El that by 2018 more than 1,160 Camino as a way to streamline drivers would “divert” from mass transit, despite fears that solo driving on El Camino durit comes at the expense of other ing peak traffic times. In other motorists. The plan calls for words, those drivers would find taking away two of El Camino’s an alternative routes or means six lanes, one in each direction, of transportation. Just under a and restricting them to bus use. quarter of these drivers would The $223-million plan would shift to mass-transit, the VTA essentially redraw the layout for report said. Meanwhile, other El Camino and create 26 new bus See BUS LANES, page 12 stops along the road’s median. By Mark Noack
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MICHELLE LE
Charlotte Christensen, a third-grade teacher at Huff Elementary, has been teaching students how their brains learn new things in her growth mindset curriculum.
Alternative styles praised in local Teacher of the Year winners By Kevin Forestieri
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wo teachers in Mountain View who have taken their teaching techniques off the beaten path, inspiring students and peers alike, have been named Teacher of the Year by Santa Clara County.
Charlotte Christensen, a third-grade teacher at Huff Elementary, and Leo Florendo, a teacher and program coordinator for Freestyle Academy at the Mountain View High School campus, will both be recognized on Oct. 1 at the Campbell Heritage Theatre in Campbell.
Christensen has spent the last year working single-handedly to help Huff Elementary adopt a new curriculum teaching students how their brain works and how to adopt a “growth mindset,” while Florendo has been working at the Mountain See TEACHERS, page 17
Students’ poor test scores prompt call for action DISTRICT OFFICIALS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS SAY ACHIEVEMENT GAP IS A HUGE CONCERN By Kevin Forestieri
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here are no two ways about it. School administrators and board members at the Mountain View Whisman School District agreed last week that the achievement gap is a serious problem facing the district, after the first Common Core test results showed performance
INSIDE
issues among the district’s lowincome and minority students At the Sept. 17 school board meeting, district staff went graph-to-graph showing how economically disadvantaged students, English learners and students with disabilities lagged significantly behind their peers, with a whopping two-thirds of Latino students failing to meet
the state standards for English language arts and 71 percent falling below the standards for math. District administrators acknowledged it as a serious problem, but the presentation didn’t go without some heavy contextualizing. Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph said the See TEST SCORES, page 7
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LocalNews Q CRIMEBRIEFS
POLICE PREPARE FOR SHORELINE EVENT The Mountain View Police Department released an advisory warning people of the potential use of drugs and health concerns expected to crop up at the Beyond Wonderland event at Shoreline Amphitheatre this weekend. The advisory, a joint press release between the department and the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, explains that stimulant drugs like MDMA or methamphetamine, as well as sedatives and hallucinogenic drugs like LSD may be present at the concert, and are associated with a host of health-related issues. One of the main concerns is when drugs at the concert are mixed with other chemicals, which can have some unpredictable effects. “This (mixing) can be extremely dangerous, and even fatal,” said Dr. Sara Cody, health officer for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, in the press release. Tips mostly include concert-goers carefully watching their drinks to make sure nothing is added to them without their knowledge. Anyone who is drugged or observes someone who is drugged is encouraged to seek medical help immediately. Last year more than 100 people were arrested at the two-day concert. See CRIME BRIEFS, page 6
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Q COMMUNITYBRIEFS
3-D PRINTING AT FOOTHILL COLLEGE 3-D printing has made an impression on schools and libraries across the country, and Foothill College is no exception. The college now offers 3-D printing services to students and community members. “Foothill’s 3-D printing service connects engineering with art,” said Foothill College engineering instructor Oxana Pantchenko in a statement. “The types of projects customers may submit are limitless, from cell phone covers and action figures to engineering prototypes and architectural models.” The cost of each 3-D printed item depends on size and other specifications. Each request includes an $11 printing fee, as well as additional fees for inks and filaments, which range from $1 for 10 grams to $6 for 20 grams. Using the 3-D printing service requires filling out a request form and submitting project files in .stl format for a price quote. Completed projects can be picked up at Foothill’s 3-D Printing Lab in Room 4704. “By offering 3-D printing services, our goal is to get current and potential students interested in concept-to-creation engineering, and introduce them to the comprehensive selection of engineering courses that Foothill offers,” Pantchenko said. “It’s an innovative way to bring our community closer to Foothill College.” See COMMUNITY BRIEFS, page 12
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Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q September 25, 2015
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LocalNews MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE
Q CITY COUNCIL UPDATES Q COMMUNITY Q FEATURES
LinkedIn campus plans win praise
SHOPS, MOVIE THEATER AND RESTAURANTS INCORPORATED INTO NORTH BAYSHORE PROJECT tive North Bayshore area. The company plans showed a diligent inkedIn’s transformative effort to make its new campus plans for a new North harmonize with the neighborBayshore campus received hood, said planning commisa round of accolades from Moun- sioner Margaret Capriles. She tain View officials during a pre- pointed out that many businesses liminary review last week. In a being forced out by the new projSept. 16 study session, the city’s ect were invited to come back as Environmental Planning Com- future tenants. “There was enough detail here mission signaled early support for the project, with members for us to see that this is going in the right direcpraising it as a vast tion,” Capriles said. improvement over the standard office ‘They’re trying “They’re trying very hard to make this an park. In partnership very hard to inviting place.” The Linkewith the development firm Sywest, make this an dIn project might be described as the LinkenIn has proposed a new inviting place.’ largest of a series of colossal new tech 10-building camMARGARET CAPRILES, campuses coming pus that would mix ENVIRONMENTAL to North Bayshore. corporate offices with a promenade PLANNING COMMISSION Earlier this year, the professiona l-netof new shops and working company restaurants. The project, along Shoreline Boule- managed to cobble together a vard immediately east of High- partnership between five landway 101, would replace almost an owners for a larger developentire block of established busi- ment. The company’s proposal nesses, including Laser Quest, ultimately won the lion’s share the Sports Page bar and, in time, of a limited pool of office space the city is allocating for the area, the Cinemark movie theaters. As proposed, LinkedIn’s plans besting a pack of competitors would increase density on the land in the extremely competiSee LINKEDIN, page 16 By Mark Noack
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COURTESY OF CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW
A 60-unit studio apartment complex got the go-ahead from Mountain View officials.
New affordable housing for veterans comes with big price tag By Mark Noack
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city committee gave initial support Tuesday for contributing $5.8 million toward building 60 units of affordable housing off El Camino Real, although the project’s price tag drew some winces. At an estimated building cost of $536,000 per studio apartment, the new development could be viewed as the most expensive subsidized housing to date in Mountain View.
The new project was presented Tuesday by the Palo Alto Housing Corporation to the city’s NOFA (Notice of Funding Availability Review) Committee, consisting of three City Council members tasked with deciding which affordable-housing proposals should be funded. In April, the Palo Alto nonprofit purchased a half-acre site at 1701 W. El Camino Real for $5.2 million with plans to build an affordable-housing campus serving mainly veterans.
Constructing the five-story building is expected to cost upward of $32 million, which City Council members and staff both acknowledged as a steep price. The tight housing market and rising land values are making affordable-housing projects more expensive and taking up all the best plots of land, said explained Vera Gil, Mountain View’s affordable housing project manager. In addition, material costs See HOUSING, page 6
County racing to add homeless shelters before El Niño’s rains By Kevin Forestieri
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anta Clara County officials plan to greatly increase the number of emergency shelter space for homeless people throughout the county, and they’re doing it with a sense of urgency. The looming spectre of El Niño, a weather pattern that is expected to bring heavy rainfall to the Bay Area this winter, has members of the county’s Office of Housing and Homeless Support Services working quickly to find and build homeless shelters, including in the underserved North County. The plans, which were presented to the county Board of
Supervisors on Tuesday, Sept. 15, will cost the county roughly $13 million in one-time costs and another $13 million in ongoing costs. If approved, it would raise the number of year-round shelter beds in the county from a meager 130 to 715. At the Sept. 15 meeting, Gary Graves, the county’s chief operating officer, called most of the plans “short-term solutions” and said the money would help to create an acquisition fund, enabling the county to buy any potential shelter space that pops up. In the past, the county has been slow to compete for available space in the red-hot Bay Area real estate market.
“(The fund) would allow us to take advantage of opportunities that come about to increase the number of units that are avail-
In Mountain View, the homeless population has recently doubled. able,” Graves said. The big investment in emergency shelter marks a divergence from the county’s normal focus on long-term solutions for its homeless population, and will instead go towards imme-
diate help for the roughly 4,627 homeless people in the county who are “unsheltered” and living on the street, in encampments or in their cars. Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who helped develop the plans with the county’s Housing Task Force over six meetings, noted a sense of urgency in getting the emergency housing ready as fast as possible. In a press release prior to the meeting, she said the county is in a “race” against El Niño. “We need to take immediate action to reduce human misery from the heavy rains that we expect,” she said. A significant part of the plans include finding a replacement
for the Sunnyvale Armory, a facility that used to provide 125 emergency shelter beds for homeless North County residents during the cold winter months. Last year, the facility closed its doors, leaving minimal shelter options in the county north of San Jose. After months of fruitless searching, the county has found a promising opportunity to open up a temporary shelter on Moffett Field for one year. In a still-pending agreement with the city of Sunnyvale, the county has plans to build a facility on the northernmost end of the former Onizuka Air See HOMELESS, page 8
September 25, 2015 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
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the new project would be nearly 40 percent more expensive than another just-finished subsidized studio project located just one block away at 1585 W. El Camino Real. City officials are expected to cut the ribbon on those homes sometime next month. For the new project, some portion of that $32 million cost should be defrayed through a variety of federal and state subsidies, Gil said. But by exactly how much was unclear. Palo Alto Housing would apply for $4.4 million from a new state fund for veteranfocused affordable housing that was created last year through a successful ballot initiative. In addition, the project would seek $16.6 million in federal low-income housing tax credits. But getting the most lucrative tax credits would be a chal-
lenge because many qualified projects would likely compete for the limited funding. If the new project isn’t selected for those tax credits, it would face a funding gap of about $7 million, which the city of Mountain View would likely be asked to cover, Gil said. In a unanimous vote, councilmen Chris Clark, Mike Kasperzak and Lenny Siegel made a recommendation to the full council to approve $5.8 million for the proposed affordable housing. That contribution would be drawn from a variety of development fees levied by the city. As part of the motion, the committee encouraged city staff and the Palo Alto Housing Corporation to seek the competitive tax credits. Email Mark Noack at mnoack@mv-voice.com
traffic. The man made it a short distance before officers were able to detain him, according to police spokeswoman Shino Tanaka. While detained, Carrillo was allegedly combative and struck an officer in the jaw and in the face, Tanaka said. Carrillo was arrested and booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail on charges of battery, being drunk in public and resisting arrest.
Camino Real on Sunday. At around 9 p.m., police received a report that occupants of a vehicle on the 2000 block of West El Camino Real had been shooting a paintball gun at people, and had struck a 4-yearold girl from San Mateo and a 55-year-old man from Sunnyvale with the pellets. The girl had been struck in the torso and the man had been shot in the back, and neither requested medical attention, according to police spokeswoman Shino Tanaka. While officers were on the scene, police received another report that a storefront at 1595 California Street had been shot with paintballs. The vehicle is described as a green, early 1990s model four-door Honda Accord, occupied by an unknown number of people. Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call 650-903-6395 and refer to case number 15-5763. —Kevin Forestieri
HOUSING
Continued from page 5
October 3 & 4, 2015 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Palo Alto - Los Altos
have escalated and contractors with no shortage of work in the area are demanding higher pay, she said. “It’s expensive when you compare it to projects that occurred five or 10 years ago,” she said. “It’s safe to say this is the one of our most expensive cost per-square foot affordable developments.” The rising costs of affordable-housing projects could be viewed as one yardstick for how the local market has spiked. On a per-housing-unit basis, the newly proposed subsidized housing would be over 50 percent more costly than a similar housing project at 819 N. Rengstorff that opened earlier this year. By the same comparison,
CRIME BRIEFS
Continued from page 4
OFFICER PUNCHED IN ALTERCATION A 45-year-old Daly City man was arrested over the weekend after he allegedly walked into traffic, fled police and punched an officer following a Def Leppard, Styx and Tesla concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre. Police say the man, identified as Peter Carrillo, had stumbled into traffic around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, and when an officer told Carrillo to stop, he fled down the street and into
SPACES
PAINTBALL DRIVE-BY Police are searching for suspects who had allegedly shot a paintball gun at people on El
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A man was standing too close to Caltrain tracks when he was struck by a train on the platform of the agency’s San Antonio station in Mountain View Wednesday morning, a Caltrain spokeswoman said. The man was struck at 7:42 a.m. Sept. 23 by southbound train No. 210 at the station at 190 Showers Drive. He was alive and was transported to a hospital for treatment of his injuries, Caltrain spokeswoman Tasha Bartholomew said. Because of the incident, trains were delayed by up to an hour on the Caltrain system, Bartholomew said. —Bay City News Service
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TEST SCORES
including inaction by former superintendents. She recalled that administrators at the fornumbers should be seen as mer Mountain View School a “baseline” from which the District, before it merged with district can improve in future the Whisman District, tried to years, and noted that school defend lackluster test results districts with similar demo- by blaming the student demographics, like the Berryessa graphics. “The mantra from the disUnion School District in San Jose, scored slightly below trict was, ‘Our the instruction the Mountain View Whisman is fine, it’s the socio-economics and demographics and ethSchool District. “It’s not comforting, but it is to nicity of the students that (is) say when you take into account why they’re not performing,’” the factors, we are outperform- Schultz said. “There was no interest in looking at or changing our peers,” Rudolph. Context did little to assuage ing instruction at the time.” The influx of worries over what new data could kind of job the be useful for figdistrict has been uring out what doing to teach ‘I know it’s works to narrow underrepresented important to the achievement students throughgap, according to out Mountain look at the Associate SuperView. Lisa Garcia, who spent years demographics, intendent Cathy Baur. Because working with the standards are now district’s Spanishbut those shared across all speaking community, said the test numbers are so school districts, she said they scores are terrible appalling.’ can seek out disand demographics tricts with simiare no excuse. She LISA GARCIA lar demographics urged the district that outperform take action immethe Mountain View Whisman diately. “I know it’s important to School District to see what look at the demographics, kind of instructional strategies but those numbers are so are working. Board President Ellen Wheelappalling. We’re comparing ourselves to (districts) that we er was a little skeptical of the don’t want to be compared to,” idea. She said that district officials are well aware of proven Garcia said. Garcia said it’s not helpful methods for improving test for the district to compare scores, like extending the school itself with others just because day and offering more training they share a similar number for teachers, and that she didn’t of low-income and minority think the Mountain View Whisstudents. She called Mountain man district would get much out View a unique area flush with of observing other schools. “We need to see better results, resources and high property but it would surprise me if we values. “We have a $3 million house looked at similar districts and on sale up the street next we found something wildly to apartments that rent for different than what we already $2,500,” she said. “We’re not in know works,” Wheeler said. What will it take to boost test the ghetto, so when we’re looking at demographics I really scores? Rudolph said it’s hard to want to see demographics that tell right now what’s causing the match our students and what persistent achievement gap in they are being exposed to, and the district, and likened it to a what resources we have avail- symptom — in this case a fever — that could be an indication of able to us.” Vicki Hobel Schultz, a for- a whole host of things that could mer district parent, urged the be going wrong. He suggested school board and the super- the district wait for the results of intendent not to chalk up the the $275,000 school audit, which problem to demographics, and the board approved last month, said there are plenty of schools to get a better idea. “We don’t know what the in poorer areas of the state, such as Inglewood, where precise cause of our achievestudents have overcome the ment gap is, and there is a achievement gap and perform whole litany of things we can in the top percentile on stan- point our fingers to, but we may not be prescribing the right dardized tests. The problem, Schultz said, medicine at the right time,” is that Mountain View has a Rudolph said. spotty history of taking action Email Kevin Forestieri at when poor test results come in, kforestieri@mv-voice.com
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LocalNews HOMELESS
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Force Station. The goal is to get that shelter open by Nov. 30 this year, according to Ky Le, director of the county’s Office of Supportive Housing. The previous location being considered in Sunnyvale fell through. County staff considered using a small, countyowned wedge of land next to North Fair Oaks Avenue
and Central Expressway for a shelter facility, but residents in the nearby single-family homes sharply criticized the plans. Le described the shelter on Moffett Field as a short-term facility only expected to be around for a year, to avoid locking the city of Sunnyvale into any long-term agreements. After that, he said, it’s up to the county to look at other locations on the former Air Force
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station or try again to use the county-owned plot along Central Expressway. Until the North County shelters are established, homeless people in need of a dropin shelter will continue to be referred to facilities in San Jose by organizations like the Community Services Agency of Mountain View and Los Altos. Le said the new facility at Moffett is a first step toward
‘We need to take immediate action to reduce human misery from the heavy rains that we expect.’
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SUPERVISOR CINDY CHAVEZ
filling that gap in homeless services in the northernmost communities in the county. “The county board’s intent is to have one or more facilities in the North County area, and I
think we really want more than one in Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale,” Le said. Shelter space is needed now more than ever in Mountain View, where the homeless population has recently doubled. A head count of the homeless population earlier this year found 276 homeless people reside in Mountain View, up from 139 in 2013. All but five of those people were considered unsheltered. Leveraging resources on all fronts The Housing Task Force recommendations included some pretty unconventional ways of getting homeless people off the street, including millions of dollars to house people in citysanctioned encampments, so called “safe parking” sites and faith-based facilities. Le said the safe parking program, which has been successfully adopted in Santa Barbara County, would give a safe haven to people who live and sleep in their vehicles. He said there are roughly 1,000 people sleeping in their cars on any given night, and the program aims to provide a place for them to park
and get basic services such as restrooms and showers. He said there will be security available to monitor the area. Once a city in the county identifies a parking lot that could be used for the program, the county would provide funding to use it as a homeless parking lot. Le said it should have a minimal impact on nearby businesses and residents. “The idea is to provide a space for them to park their vehicles so they can rest and feel more secure,” Le said. Between the high number of unsheltered homeless people in the county and the prohibitively high cost of building shelters for all of the people out on the street, Le said the county is also looking at ways to set up temporary camps on government or even private property where people can stay. The sanctioned encampments, referred to by Le and other county staff as “unconventional” structures and facilities, could be set up by homeless housing organizations using grant money from the county. Email Kevin Forestieri at kforestieri@mv-voice.com V
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Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q September 25, 2015
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September 25, 2015 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
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1531 Tyler Park Way, Mountain View Offered at $1,988,000 Modern Luxuries, Original Charm Extensively updated and elegantly appointed, this 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom home of 3,381 sq. ft. (per county) offers a centrally located quarter-acre lot (per county). Deep porches, white oak floors, and a variety of handsome woodwork underline the home’s authentic character, while spaces that include formal living and dining rooms, a tastefully remodeled kitchen, and a den with a fireplace provide plenty of room for both everyday living and entertaining. The gracious master bedroom is privately arranged with another bedroom that can easily transition into an office, while the walk-out lower level offers large, flexible spaces. Other features include a detached two-car garage, a private backyard with a paver patio, new paint, and fantastic new landscaping. This home is just steps away from the exciting facilities of Cuesta Park, and is also within walking distance of both Mountain View Shopping Center and Grant Park Plaza. Fantastic nearby schools include Benjamin Bubb Elementary (API 920), Graham Middle, and Mountain View High (buyer to verify eligibility). For video tour & more photos, please visit:
w w w . 1 5 3 1 Tyle rP ark.c o m
OPEN HOUSE
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Ken DeLeon CalBRE #01342140
Michael Repka CalBRE #01854880
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6 5 0 . 4 8 8 . 7 3 2 5 | i n f o @ d e l e o n r e a l t y. c o m | w w w. d e l e o n r e a l t y. c o m | C a l B R E # 0 1 9 0 3 2 2 4
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Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q September 25, 2015
371 Duluth Circle, Palo Alto Offered at $1,988,000 Stylish Interior And Flexible Studio Beautiful spaces abound inside this refined 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home of 1,798 sq. ft. (per county) that occupies a lot of 6,713 sq. ft. (per city) and includes a converted studio with 1 additional bathroom. Enjoying a peaceful cul-de-sac setting in South Palo Alto, this stylishly appointed home offers crown molding, VELUX skylights, and dimmable lighting. The informal floorplan provides large living and dining areas that open to the gracious island kitchen, which includes stainless-steel appliances and glamorous granite countertops. Spacious bedrooms include an in-law suite with outdoor access and a private, fashionable master suite with his and her closets and an office nook. The backyard retreat showcases a paver terrace, fruit trees, large sheds, and a flexible studio with a wet bar. Within steps of Robles Park, this home is moments from Mitchell Park Community Center and Library and attractions along El Camino Real. Top nearby schools include Briones Elementary (API 941), Terman Middle (API 968), and Gunn High (API 917) (buyer to verify eligibility). For video tour & more photos, please visit:
w w w . 3 7 1 Du lu t h .c o m
OPEN HOUSE
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Ken DeLeon CalBRE #01342140
Michael Repka CalBRE #01854880
Saturday & Sunday, 1-5 pm Complimentary Lunch & Lattes
6 5 0 . 4 8 8 . 7 3 2 5 | i n f o @ d e l e o n r e a l t y. c o m | w w w. d e l e o n r e a l t y. c o m | C a l B R E # 0 1 9 0 3 2 2 4
September 25, 2015 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
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LocalNews BUS LANES
Q COMMUNITYBRIEFS Continued from page 4
Customers can have their design printed an Objet 30 Stratasys Printer or a MiniMakerbot printer, and may come and see their creation being printed. To fill out a project request form or review printing service specifications, go to foothill.edu/ sli/3D_printing.html.
FINANCE PROGRAM FOR EFFICIENCY UPGRADES Last week the City Council voted to make the HERO Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program available to local residents. Mountain View joins San Jose, Morgan Hill and Gilroy in participating.
HERO PACE financing enables homeowners to make energy- and water-efficiency improvements and pay for them over time through their property tax bill. Given California’s recently adopted regulations aimed at reducing urban water consumption by 25 percent, it could be a timely option for homeowners. “We’re happy to provide an avenue for financing that requires no money down and does not depend on personal credit, bringing efficiency improvements within reach for a broad range of homeowners,� said Blair McNeill, vice president of community development for Renovate America, the company that administers the HERO Program.
The company has a wide variety of products to help homeowners save water, including high-efficiency toilets, faucets and showerheads, drip irrigation systems, rainwater catchment systems, gray water systems, and artificial turf and drought-tolerant landscaping. Some of HERO’s most popular energy-saving products include solar power panel installations, whole-home heating and cooling (HVAC) systems, energy-saving windows and doors, and roofing and insulation, according to McNeill. Residents may begin submitting applications for HERO later this year. Carl Sibley
“Engaging. Fresh. Irresistible.� The New York Times
Continued from page 1
North County cities would see even higher diversion rates. Facing criticism that its traffic projections seemed suspiciously optimistic, VTA officials in March assembled a volunteer steering committee of independent experts to review its data. That committee report, a 100-page document published on Tuesday, deliberately avoided making a yes-or-no recommendation on bus-rapid transit as a policy decision. Instead, the report focused on the quality of data provided by VTA. For the most part, the report corroborated the information from VTA, explaining it was in line with similar projects. Stakeholders and political leaders should have enough information and a range of alternatives to make an informed decision, the report noted.
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Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q September 25, 2015
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â&#x20AC;&#x153;We feel the document succeeds at these tasks,â&#x20AC;? said David Ory, a principal planner with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and one of the committee members. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a reasonable amount of information here for people to make decisions.â&#x20AC;? In a conference call on Tuesday, a panel of VTA officials celebrated the favorable report as a huge boost. Ristow emphasized that the steering committee had complete independence and its members were unpaid for their service. To help the committee in drafting the report, VTA contracted a traffic-engineering firm Iteris for a cost not to exceed $55,000. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re happy with these results. It validates our work in terms of its completeness, its accuracy and the results,â&#x20AC;? Ristow said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t guide them. They did what they wanted to do in terms of the analysis. We did not get in their way.â&#x20AC;? The independent committee did point out some areas that VTA could improve on. The group noted that the diversion rates reported by VTA seemed high and not in line with similar projects, but the committee did not question their accuracy. VTA staff considered traffic diversion in a â&#x20AC;&#x153;conservativeâ&#x20AC;? fashion, which isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t out of the ordinary for an EIR, the report noted. The independent panel noted that its members struggled at times to understand the VTA traffic model and how it projected ridership and traffic patterns. The report urged transit officials to clarify its system. For their part, VTA staff members pledged they would work harder in the coming months to better explain the complex data. Even with the favorable report, it remains to be seen whether the BRT plan wins any new friends. Earlier this year, a split Mountain View City Council endorsed the full plan for dedicated bus lanes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and in the process, spurring a fierce backlash and threats to recall council members who voted in support. Most other cities have avoided making a firm decision. At a recent BRT advisory meeting, many local representatives urged VTA to consider alternatives, such as a mixed-flow configuration that would modify El Caminoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s curbs to expedite bus loading and offloading. VTA officials emphasize that local input from regional leaders is vital, but they also point out that the final decision will be made solely by the agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s board of directors. VTA staff is expected to bring the plan to the full board for a decision in December. Email Mark Noack at mnoack@mv-voice.com V
LocalNews
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School board supports preschool expansion
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STATE BILL WOULD WOULD PROVIDE FREE PRESCHOOL TO ALL ELIGIBLE FAMILIES By Kevin Forestieri
P
reschool has been lauded by education advocates as an essential part of early childhood development, and important tool to make sure kids aren’t behind when they start kindergarten. Now, Gov. Jerry Brown is considering a bill that could guarantee all low-income families will have access to the state preschool program, which could more than double the number of available classroom spots in the Mountain View Whisman School District. The district’s school board voted last week to send a letter to the governor supporting the Preschool for All Act of 2015. The bill would expand state preschool programs, many of them run by school districts, so that any children with families that meet the eligibility requirements can attend preschool. Families have to meet several requirements, including income thresholds. A family of four making slightly less than $49,000 a year would qualify. In the Mountain View Whisman School District there are 96 state preschool slots, which is far below the demand. In a district where 37 percent of the student body comes from low-income families and more than 700 new kindergarten students pour into the district each year, the waiting list has gone up to as many as 200 students in past years, according to a district staff report. That number has since gone down, in part because families are discouraged by the long wait. Many of the families who qualify for state preschool can’t afford the alternatives — namely
the local, private preschools in the area. Monthly tuition ranges from $770 to $1,300 for a halfday of preschool, based on the fees of Hobbledehoy, Montecito School, The Wonder Years and Primary Plus, according to the report.
A quality preschool education provides an estimated return on investment of $15,000 for every child. According to the bill, none of the recent reforms in California public education system address the achievement gap that is already present the day children start kindergarten. The bill cites research that found by the age of 2, low-income children are “six months behind in language development” when compared to their higher-income peers. By age 5, those low-income students are two years behind. The effect cascades in later years, and students who are unable to read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely not to graduate high school on time, according to the bill’s authors. The bill also cites an independent research analysis showing a quality preschool education provides a return on investment of $15,000 for every child served, and is estimated to save $1.1 billion annually on reductions in the prison population.
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See PRESCHOOL, page 14
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September 25, 2015 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
13
LocalNews
Trustee upset over school board agendas By Kevin Forestieri
T
he normally mundane and uncontroversial process of setting items for future agendas in the Mountain View Whisman School District sparked some drama between board members last week, with one trustee threatening to vote no on all future agenda items if he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get his way. Board member Steve Nelson insisted at the Sept. 17 meeting that there is a problem with transparency on the school board, arguing that board President Ellen Wheeler â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and before that former board President Chris Chiang â&#x20AC;&#x201D; refused to honor his request to put items on the
agenda, even after garnering support from other board members. The complaint came after he proposed placing an item on a future agenda to prioritize â&#x20AC;&#x153;guiding principlesâ&#x20AC;? for the districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s facilities. The district has 17 guiding principles, listed in no particular order, including student safety and classroom design, which Nelson said would help to better guide the district as it spends the remaining Measure G bond money on new school buildings. The majority of the board disagreed, and the discussion fell flat when Nelson realized there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough support for his proposal. See TRUSTEE, page 16
Please join the 0RXQWDLQ 9LHZ )LUHĂ&#x20AC;JKWHUV At the 11th Annual Pancake Breakfast
PRESCHOOL
Continued from page 13
Board member Jose Gutierrez, the most vocal supporter of the bill, said state preschool could be a useful tool to curb the achievement gap, and noted the newest Common Core test results show that the gap is not getting smaller. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is very annoying and disappointing to always be looking at the same group of students in the same situation, regardless of the year,â&#x20AC;? Gutierrez said. The board voted 4-0, with board member Greg Coladonato abstaining, to send a letter to Gov. Brown supporting the Preschool for All bill. Coladonato said he wanted to see a clear improvement in the performance of students who attended the state preschool program in the district before supporting higher spending. Funding the preschool bill may be a challenge for the state. Terri Wallace-Bielecki, the districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preschool director, said in an email to the Voice that the state hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t provided sufficient funding for preschool since budget
mittee, estimate that it would cost the state $240 million, assuming roughly half of the eligible four-year-olds are not being served by the state preschool program. That number goes up fast if the ambiguous provisions in the bill include 3-year-olds, which could launch costs above $1 billion. Preschool seats are expected to dwindle after next yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expiration of the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Child Signature Program, which started in 2010 and injects about $45 million into adding preschool seats each year. The funding added 35 more spots for the Mountain View Whisman School District. At a meeting in April, school board members generally agreed it would be a good idea for the district to start putting its own money into the preschool program, rather than rely solely on the state. In addition to filling the gap left by the end of Child Signature Program funding, thenboard president Chris Chiang said it might be worth spending more money on top of that, roughly $700,000, to serve every child on the preschool waiting list. Email Kevin Forestieri at kforestieri@mv-voice.com
cuts triggered by the 2008 recession, and that Mountain View Whismanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preschool program is still being funded at a contract level below what it was receiving in 2010. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If it were to pass, there is still the question as to whether it would actually be funded,â&#x20AC;? she said.
â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;It is very annoying and disappointing to always be looking at the same group of students in the same situation.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER JOSE GUTIERREZ
The preschool bill states that all eligible children will have access to preschool â&#x20AC;&#x153;contingent upon the appropriation of sufficient funding in the annual Budget Act for this purpose.â&#x20AC;? Cost estimates for the bill, according to the Senate Appropriations Com-
V
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Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q September 25, 2015
LocalNews
MV firefighters swim to fight childhood cancer FIVE FIREFIGHTERS TO PARTICIPATE IN SWIM ACROSS AMERICA FUNDRAISER By Kevin Forestieri
F
ive Mountain View firefighters will be headed to San Francisco this weekend for a mile-and-a-half swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to Yacht Harbor Beach to raise money for childhood cancer research. The firefighters will be participating in Swim Across America’s San Francisco Bay Swim, an an annual event used to raise money at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Oakland. Brian Hagerty, one of the firefighters, has been leading the Mountain View team and said he had no trouble recruiting people in the Mountain View Fire Department to help out. “It’s something that people can really rally behind,” Hagerty said. The team had raised about $5,680 as of Wednesday, Sept. 23,
and is looking to raise a grand total of $15,000. The money will also towards the UCSF’s Survivors of Childhood Cancer program, which helps kids who have gone into remission stay healthy and cope with the secondary complications that come from pediatric cancer. For Hagerty, the cause is a personal one. Soon after his daughter Lilly was born, she spent three years in and out of hospitals dealing with a rare combination of leukemia and an autoimmune disease. At one point she spent nearly a year in inpatient care between two hospitals and only had a 25 percent chance of survival. During that critical time, Hagerty said he and his wife had spent most of their time in the hospital, and got to know just about everyone there while supporting their daughter.
COURTESY OF BRIAN HAGERTY
Mountain View firefighters pose after a practice swim in preparation for the Swim Across America fundraising event to fight childhood cancer.
“We just kind of dropped everything,” he said. “We basically just lived there at the hospital.” Despite the odds, Lilly has made a full recovery, Hagerty said, and she has gone into com-
plete remission. The swim event over the weekend is just one of the ways he said he wanted to give back. “We want to give back because we were so fortunate,” Hagerty said.
Anyone interested in donating to the cause can go to swimacrossamerica.org and search for the Mountain View Professional Firefighters team page. Email Kevin Forestieri at kforestieri@mv-voice.com V
September 25, 2015 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
15
LocalNews
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NOTICE TO PROSPECTIVE CONTRACTORS Notice is hereby given that for the purpose of pre-qualification, sealed Responsibility Questionnaires will be received by the Board of trustees of the Mountain View – Los Altos High School District up until the close of business on the date indicated below for: Project Description: Mountain View Los Altos District Warehouse Data Center Expansion. Pre-Qualification Packages Due Date and Time: September 23, 2015 at 2pm at Kramer Project Development Company, Inc., attention Laurie Abate, 4020 Moorpark Avenue, #220, San Jose, CA 95117. Pre-Qualification of Trade Contractors In order to receive plans and bid, Trade Contractors must possess a current and active license to perform the work listed, submit and certify the required Responsibility Questionnaire information and be pre-qualified by the District. All contractors must have substantiated K-12 public school project experience to be prequalified. A. General Trades B. Electrical and Low Voltage Trades
B license required C-7 and C-10 licenses required
Continued from page 5
that included Google. The company’s proposal calls for seven office buildings that would reportedly house about 7,500 employees. Each office building would include shops and restaurants on the ground floor. The development would include a new athletic club, a 200-room hotel and at least three levels of parking. The buildings would include a large amount of open space as well as rooftop gardens. The new development would eventually replace the 16-screen Cinemark theaters. In an email, LinkedIn officials explained their plan was to wait as long as possible before shutting down the theater, but they could not specify an exact date. As soon as possible, a new movie cinema with luxury accommodations would open as part of the campus, they noted. Commissioners last week urged the company’s representatives to find ways to make the building more visually appealing, such as adding artwork to the side of buildings facing the highway. Given its off-highway location, the LinkedIn development would have big ramifications for the North Bayshore traffic flow. Traffic congestion in the area is considered among the worst in Mountain View, coming mostly from commuting workers. City officials require any new development in the area to carefully
TRUSTEE
Continued from page 14
Only Pre-Qualified Contractors will be permitted to bid. Pre-Qualified Contractors will be required to attend a mandatory Pre-Bid Conference scheduled for Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 2pm in the Board Room at Mountain View Los Altos High School District Office, 1299 Bryant Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94040. Opening of the sealed bids submitted by pre-qualified bidders is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, October 20, 2015 at 2pm. Bidding documents will be available to pre-qualified contractors on September 29, 2015. Pre-qualified contractors are advised to verify dates and times of the mandatory pre-bid conference and bid opening prior to the above listed dates. Responsibility Questionnaires and instructions for submission can be obtained by calling Orlando Delgadillo at (408) 2466237 or by email orlando@kramerpdc.com. Contracts will require a 100% performance bond, a 100% Labor and Materials Bond and a Bid Security in the amount of 10% of the submitted bid. The project is subject to the State Labor Code. Labor Code 1720-1861 regarding DIR registration, the payment of prevailing wages and submission of certified payroll statements will be enforced. No contractor or subcontractor may be listed on a bid proposal for a public works project (submitted on or after March 1, 2015) unless registered with the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to Labor Code section 1725.5 [with limited exceptions from this requirement for bid purposes only under Labor Code section 1771.1(a)]. No contractor or subcontractor may be awarded a contract for public work on a public works project (awarded on or after April 1, 2015) unless registered with the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to Labor Code section 1725.5. This project is subject to compliance monitoring and enforcement by the Department of Industrial Relations. Contractors are allowed according to PCC sec. 22300 to submit securities in lieu of retention. 16
Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q September 25, 2015
Up until that meeting, Nelson said the board president and the district administration had “deep-sixed” his agenda item from Feb. 5 all the way until the Sept. 17 meeting, and that it had a “snowball’s chance in hell” of ever showing up on the agenda. He said the board ought to find a way to avoid a repeat of this in the future by allowing for more specific demands for future agenda items, including specific dates. If Wheeler did not follow through with it, Nelson said there would be repercussions. “Believe me, I will vote no on every single agenda item if you deep-six this as you did with (the guiding principles),” Nelson said. At Nelson’s request, the board will be looking at new protocols and formalities for board
address its impact on traffic. As part of its project, the LinkedIn is pledging a fleet of initiatives to lessen the number of cars on the road. The project would help build new bike lanes along Shoreline Boulevard as well as “reversable” lanes for buses to quickly move in the direction of commuter traffic. The company would also help build a new bike and pedestrian bridge over Highway 101. LinkedIn is pledging that fewer than half its employees at the new campus would drive themselves to work. Assistant City Development Director Terry Blount said the LinkedIn project is still barely out of the starting gate. The campus plans would be slowly refined over several future city meetings, including a City Council study session scheduled for Oct. 20. Overall, he expressed enthusiasm for the project as part of a larger transformation of North Bayshore into a vibrant community. “We feel fortunate to have such great plans in place,” he said. “This’ll be a place that’s much more sustainable, much more bike- and pedestrianfriendly and much more of a community than the suburban office park that we’re starting with.” The first phase for the new campus will include a new theater, gym and one million square feet of office space. Company officials indicated they hope to complete the first phase by 2019. Email Mark Noack at mnoack@mv-voice.com V
members to bring up potential agenda items, including written proposals that would need to be submitted prior to the meeting for consideration. Board member Greg Coladonato raised concerns about the proposal, saying he often thinks of future agenda items during meetings rather than beforehand. Board members were also on the fence about whether the extra specificity — adding a specific date onto a request for a future agenda item — would require changing the board bylaws. Board members Bill Lambert and Wheeler, as wel l as Superintendent Rudolph, insisted the bylaws on future agenda items do not allow for board members to demand a specific date for an item to be heard, while Coladonato argued that doing so is certainly within the board’s power. Email Kevin Forestieri at kforestieri@mv-voice.com V
LocalNews TEACHERS
Continued from page 1
View-Los Altos High School District’s alternative Freestyle Academy since the very beginning, creating the philosophy of the multimedia-driven program. Charlotte Christensen Every other year, tenured teachers in the Mountain View Whisman School District go through a teacher evaluation, with plenty of boxes to check off to make sure teachers are doing a good job in the classroom. And Christensen was having none of that. Christensen, a high-energy teacher at Huff Elementary, took on the challenge of adopting a new “growth mindset” curriculum in the classroom last year, as part of an alternative to the typical teacher evaluation. The curriculum was later developed into a school-wide adoption of a ninemonth set of lessons designed to help kids learn how their brains work. The growth mindset teaches that people are not born with a fixed level of intelligence, and that struggling to understand
‘She really believes that every kid can learn. Period.’ HUFF PRINCIPAL HEIDI SMITH
difficult or unfamiliar concepts can actually improve the brain’s ability to learn new things. The concept, based largely off research by Stanford University psychology professor Carol Dweck, is slowly making headway in public schools. Huff’s new growth mindset curriculum came about when Christensen noticed the new report cards include an evaluation of a student’s “perseverance,” which is a big component of the growth mindset. If a student is willing to challenge themselves and not get discouraged by failure, they are more likely to have the grit needed to learn new things. It’s tough to measure something like that for a report card, Christensen said, but she was excited by the prospect of being able to bring that idea into the classroom. “I thought, ‘If that’s something I can teach, that would be amazing,’” Christensen said. In looking around on the school’s website, Christensen said she found there’s an alternative to teacher evaluations — a “self directed” evaluation with which neither she nor Huff principal
MICHELLE LE
Leo Florendo, teacher and program coordinator for Freestyle Academy, helps Kenneth Hamel with the Adobe After Effects program.
Heidi Smith were familiar. She decided that evaluation would be to research, create and pilot an entire set of class lessons that would guide students through growth mindset ideas and give students some elementary ideas about how the brain functions. In one lesson, students manipulate strings that represent neurons in their brains. Something new that they learn is held up by students as a thin, frail strand, that could either be reinforced by repetition, or weaken and break if neglected. Things students do all the time, like recall their own name, are represented with thick pieces of rope that show students how something can become second-nature if they reinforce it enough. Over the summer, Christensen took what worked throughout the year to create a set of growth mindset lessons and activities that could be used by the whole school from kindergarten through fifth grade. The school has since embraced the curriculum, with a lesson each month in all of the classes and quotes on the white board each week inspiring students to challenge themselves. Christensen took on the growth mindset project at the same time she has had to keep up with the new Common Core curriculum, working through thick books to prepare for teaching math to third-grade students. She said it can get a little overwhelming, and she frequently works 10-hour days throughout the early months of the school year. Smith said the alternative teacher evaluation didn’t even need to be that ambitious, but Christensen is always challenging
herself and turned her classroom into a “lab” for the new lessons last year. Above all, she said, Christensen truly believes in the message of the growth mindset, which has helped fuel the work she has put into creating the new curriculum. “She really believes that every kid can learn. Period,” Smith said. Leo Florendo
Long-term projects, inspired by the students themselves, has been a long-standing tenet at Freestyle that Florendo has focused on for nearly a decade in the program. The classes push students to synthesize lots of information across multiple mediums. In one project, students do a profile of a person in the local community,
It’s hard to spot on the Mountain View High School Campus at first, but nestled behind the school, next to the district office, is a thriving multimedia workshop, with juniors and seniors flexing their creative muscles on video projects, books, music videos and documentaries every day. One of the masterminds behind the program is Leo Florendo, the last of the original staff members when Freestyle Academy first opened its doors as an alternative program at the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District in 2006. At Freestyle, students spend half of their schoolday doing English and two elective classes, with a focus on multimedia projects and creative expression. Florendo used to teach physics and some math and engineering classes at Los Altos High School, and said the gig felt a little redundant. His new job as a web design and audio engineering teacher, by contrast, has been active each year, with new software, new techniques and some crazy ideas students come up with that he always strives to make a reality. “It’s not stagnant,” Florendo said. “Physics can be stagnant — it’s basically the same thing over and over again.”
‘I am just struck by how fortunate the kids are to have a teacher like that.’ VICE PRINCIPAL BILL PIERCE
creating a magazine article with images and graphics. Later in the year students have to take that same information and turn it into a short commercial about the person, and eventually a fiveor six-minute video in the film class. “We didn’t want this to just be three classes you take at Freestyle, it’s always been, ‘Let’s work on long-term projects,’” he said. Alta Vista Principal Bill Pierce, who oversees Freestyle Academy, said Florendo has been a lead teacher at the alternative program and is one of the smartest people he knows. “Anytime I’m in a conversation with him about what he does, or I hear him talking to a student, I am just struck by how fortunate the kids are to have a teacher like that, and to have a person who is willing to take on that teacher role,” Pierce said.
Florendo has also helped to make sure the program remains on the cutting edge of technology, Pierce said, scoring several grants to make sure students aren’t using old computers and equipment for their projects. He said Freestyle Academy is designed so that students can go directly into graduate programs or internships in their field of choice, and in order to do that they need to be trained with the most up-to-date technology. With students coming into Freestyle Academy at ages 17 and 18, Florendo said he believes it’s important to get them to learn about what they like — and what they don’t like — through first-hand experience. To learn what they are actually passionate about, rather than what they think they want to do. He said some students go into audio engineering and are taken aback by just how technical it is, while others thrive on it. “At the end of two years they should be able to say with certainty, ‘Oh, I really enjoyed web design, so that’s what I’m gonna do. But I didn’t enjoy animation, so I’m not going to do that,’” Florendo said. Once students do find their niche at Freestyle and work hard to bring a months-long project together, Pierce said it’s obvious the kind of influence Florendo and the rest of the staff have on the the teens. “It’s striking, the diversity of the things they are doing and the passion with which they are doing it,” Pierce said. “And a lot of it comes from the teacher.” Email Kevin Forestieri at kforestieri@mv-voice.com V
September 25, 2015 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
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Arts&Events MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE
A merry war
THE PEAR THEATRE STAGES AN OLD ROMANTIC COMEDY By Elizabeth Schwyzer
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t began in 1933 with a short story published in Cosmopolitan magazine about an upper-class young lady who runs away from home and falls in love with a traveling writer. The following year, film director Frank Capra adapted the story into a romantic comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Now, Mountain View’s Pear Theatre unveils “The Walls of Jericho,” a staged version of Samuel Hopkins Adams’ “Night Bus” adapted by Diane Tasca and directed by Caroline Clark. More than 80 years after it was first written, the story retains its Great Depression-era gender norms and rules regarding social propriety. Yet rather than reducing the play to a quaint anachronism, the time period provides the necessarily narrative tension to a plot that amounts to little more than a young woman and man making their way across the country on a limited budget. While Elspeth Andrews (Sarah Cook) and Peter Warne (Drew Reitz) ride a Greyhound bus through the flooded country roads of the Midwest, the play rides on the couple’s magnetic case of attraction and repulsion which begins the moment they meet and grows stronger with each exchange. The more impetuous and entitled Elspeth proves herself to be, the more Peter finds himself drawn to her; the more stubborn and ruthlessly pragmatic he is, the more she seems to enjoy his company. There are many models for the young couple falling in love against their will, from Shakespeare’s Beatrice and Benedick to Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy to Piper Chapman and Alex Vause of “Orange is the New Black.” In the case of Elspeth and Peter, the stakes are upped not only by their own pride but also by the context they find themselves in: unmarried and traveling together like
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RAY RENATI
Q I N F O R M AT I O N
Elspeth Andrews (Sarah Cook) and Peter Warne (Drew Reitz) are unlikely travel companions, but not quite bedfellows, in the Pear Theatre’s production of “The Walls of Jericho.”
man and wife, divided by social classes and fleeing the perceived wrath of her father, who has put out an award for information regarding his daughter’s whereabouts. One of the greatest charms of this production is the stylized delivery of the narration: third person, past-tense, and shared equally between members of the cast. Aboard the night bus, Peter observes Elspeth for a moment before turning to the audience to declare, “She had a chin that expected to have its own way.” “You shouldn’t try to be poetic; it doesn’t somehow go with your face,” Elspeth informs Peter directly, but confides with the audience, “Peter seemed to be a useful sort of person.” Both Cook and Reitz inhabit their roles comfortably, conveying the confidence of wellrehearsed actors enjoying their characters. Their romance is most believable when at least one of them has a sense of humor intact; a dramatic scene involving a leaking boat and a close
Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q September 25, 2015
What: “The Walls of Jericho” Where: The Pear Theatre, 1110 La Avenida St., Mountain View When: Through Oct. 4. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Cost: $25-$30 Info: Go to thepear.org or call 650-254-1148.
call with a dangling branch is less convincing. Actors Keith Larson, Leslie Newport, Stephanie Whigham and Todd Wright round out the cast by playing multiple supporting roles, from a lecherous fellow traveler to a bus company employee. Newport and Wright offer particularly comical turns as a gum-smacking waitress and a shifty driver, respectively, while Dave Sikula puts on an impressive Scottish brogue as Elspeth’s blue-blood father, Andrew Bruce MacGregor Andrews.
Linda Atkins’ period-appropriate costumes and Charles McKeithan’s spare set adequately convey the context, while Caroline Clark’s evocative sound design makes the world around the travelers come to life with everything from birdsong to bus exhaust. Tunes of the era (“Speaking of the Weather,” “I’m Looking Over A Four-Leaf Clover”) help break up scenes; at a Sunday matinee, cheerful audience members of a certain age were humming along. Longtime fans of the Pear will admire the theater’s brand new
digs, located just a few blocks away from the old location in Mountain View’s North Bayshore. An expanded seating area, a bright lobby and two bathrooms at intermission are among the perks of the newly renovated space. Meanwhile on stage, those titular “walls of Jericho,” so named by Peter after the story recounted in the Book of Joshua, consist of nothing more than blanket hung along a length of rope stretched between a wall and a coat hanger. This flimsy construction serves a physical and symbolic barrier between Peter and Elspeth, meant to ensure both privacy and propriety. The thing about walls, of course, is that they eventually tend to come down. Email Elizabeth Schwyzer at eschwyzer@paweekly.com. V
Viewpoint
Q EDITORIAL Q YOUR LETTERS Q GUEST OPINIONS
Q EDITORIAL
THE OPINION OF THE VOICE Founding Editor, Kate Wakerly
Q S TA F F EDITOR Andrea Gemmet (223-6537) EDITORIAL Associate Editor Renee Batti (223-6528) Arts & Entertainment Editor Elizabeth Schwyzer (223-6517) Special Sections Editor Brenna Malmberg (223-6511) Staff Writers Kevin Forestieri (223-6535) Mark Noack (223-6536) Intern Carl Sibley Photographer Michelle Le (223-6530) Contributors Dale Bentson, Ruth Schecter DESIGN & PRODUCTION Marketing and Creative Director Shannon Corey (223-6560) Design and Production Manager Kristin Brown (223-6562) Designers Linda Atilano, Diane Haas, Rosanna Leung, Paul Llewellyn, Nick Schweich, Doug Young ADVERTISING Vice President Sales and Marketing Tom Zahiralis (223-6570) Advertising Representative Adam Carter (223-6573) Real Estate Account Executive Rosemary Lewkowitz (223-6585) Published every Friday at 450 Cambridge Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 964-6300 fax (650) 964-0294 Email news and photos to: editor@MV-Voice.com Email letters to: letters@MV-Voice.com News/Editorial Department (650) 964-6300 fax (650) 964-0294 Display Advertising Sales (650) 964-6300 Classified Advertising Sales (650) 964-6490 • (650) 326-8286 fax (650) 326-0155 Email Classified ads@MV-Voice.com Email Circulation circulation@MV-Voice.com The Voice is published weekly by Embarcadero Media Co. and distributed free to residences and businesses in Mountain View. If you are not currently receiving the paper, you may request free delivery by calling 9646300. Subscriptions for $60 per year, $100 per 2 years are welcome. ©2015 by Embarcadero Media Company. All rights reserved. Member, Mountain View Chamber of Commerce
Q WHAT’S YOUR VIEW? All views must include a home address and contact phone number. Published letters will also appear on the web site, www.MountainViewOnline.com, and occasionally on the Town Square forum. Town Square forum Post your views on Town Square at MountainViewOnline.com Email your views to letters@MV-Voice.com. Indicate if letter is to be published. Mail to: Editor Mountain View Voice, P.O. Box 405 Mountain View, CA 94042-0405 Call the Viewpoint desk at 223-6528
University irresponsible in withholding data
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t’s not unusual for journalists and others seeking information from government bureaucracies to slam into a wall of excuses for why public officials won’t provide it. Although in some instances those excuses make sense from a legal standpoint, there are other occasions when the public is denied access to information based on convoluted reasoning. Or even bad faith. The Voice ran into that wall recently with its California Public Records Act request for information from San Jose State University, a public institution; the data we sought was compiled in a publicly funded study that relates to a matter of public health and safety. The university’s reasoning for refusing to turn over the data has made our collective head spin. It’s not just the Voice that has been denied the information. The city of Mountain View is preparing to embark on a study that will identify the city’s “soft-story” structures — buildings that are likely to have a structurally weak ground floor because they’re typically open on one long side, such as apartments with an area of carportstyle parking spaces below. The buildings are potentially hazardous during a powerful earthquake, and city officials want to come up with a plan to address this public safety issue. The university, through its Collaborative for Disaster Management, had overseen a study — with funding from public sources including FEMA, the state’s Office of Emergency Services and the county’s Emergency Preparedness Council — designed to survey soft-story buildings throughout the county. In 2004, Palo Alto obtained
the study’s comprehensive list identifying soft-story buildings within its borders, and has put it to use in its effort to ensure the buildings are safe for its occupants. So why have Mountain View and the Voice been denied the information? “The public interest in promoting research on important social issues outweighs any benefit the public might receive from gaining access to the records,” according to the university’s vice president of administration and finance. Providing the data, she said, would “discourage faculty from researching issues of public concern.” According to Nikki Moore, an attorney for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, there’s no provision in the Public Records Act that validates this excuse for withholding information from the public. But aside from that, the university’s tortured argument is simply nonsensical. What might be the “public interest” in research on health and safety matters when the results of that research are inaccessible even to a public agency that wants to use the data to protect its residents? Adding to the frustration is that, according to the university, the list of soft-story buildings in Mountain View has been destroyed; the city has no chance to use data from a publicly funded survey in its effort to address an important public safety matter, and will have to use city funds to do another survey. It’s a project worth undertaking, but a significant amount of time and money could have been saved if the university had viewed its decadeold project as one truly deserving of taxpayer funding because of its important public safety benefits. V
Q LETTERS
VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY
HOUSING ECONOMICS Freshman economics introduces the laws of supply and demand. If demand exceeds supply, prices rise. Conversely, if supply exceeds demand, prices fall. Unfortunately, this lesson seems lost on some Mountain View City Council members who oppose loosening the restrictions on “granny units” (in the Sept. 18 issue), yet believe that rent control (or euphemistica lly “stabiliza-
tion”) is the right way to address rising costs for rental units. The best course of action for Mountain View is to promote residential infill, create housing development along El Camino and Highway 101, and let the market (developers and renters) reach the proper equilibrium. Any wellintentioned regulatory interference will create unintended consequences that benefit no one. Dan Waylonis Stierlin Road September 25, 2015 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
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Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q September 25, 2015