INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Camp Connection Summer 2016 FEBRUARY 26, 2016 VOLUME 24, NO. 5
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MOVIES | 22
Council: no easy solution for city’s car-dwellers MANY OF PEOPLE LIVING IN VEHICLES HAVE JOBS BUT CAN’T AFFORD HOUSING By Mark Noack
T
hese days, Crisanto Avenue near Rengstorff Park looks something like a used-car lot, or maybe a campground. On the far side of the street, a row of nearly 50 motor homes, vans and other vehicles line the road, some with lawn chairs and barbecue grills stationed nearby. This stretch of roadway has become one of several makeshift locations in Mountain View where homeless families, transients and the fully employed have congregated. The car-campers parked and living on Mountain View’s
streets have taken center stage as the latest exhibit in Mountain View’s ongoing troubles with affordable housing and income inequality. Mountain View officials say it’s become clear that a growing number of people have taken to living out of their vehicles rather than pay the rising housing costs. But city officials have been unsure what to do about it, especially since these vehicle-dwellers for aren’t breaking any laws as long as they move their abodes every 72 hours. Among the few car-campers milling about near Rengstorff See CAR-DWELLERS, page 10
MICHELLE LE
Scotty Whaley, 59, is a former property manager who has been living in his van on Mountain View streets since losing his job.
NASA Ames unveils ‘green aviation’
Courts call for release of all students’ data
NEW PLANE DESIGN PROMISES TO REDUCE FUEL, EMISSIONS AND NOISE By Mark Noack
By Kevin Forestieri
P
ersonal information, including social security numbers and home addresses, for some 10 million California students may be released later this year, as part of an ongoing legal battle between the California Department of Education and a group of Morgan Hill parents. According to the court order, all current and former students who have attended California’s public schools since 2008 will be included in the data release. The
massive data dump has prompted concerns about student privacy, as well as data security as a massive amount of sensitive information becomes available to a small group of parents. The Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association, along with the larger Concerned Parents Association (CPA), filed a complaint the California Department of Education in 2012 over allegations that local school districts are failing to provide adequate services to students with special needs. See STUDENT DATA, page 7
I
n what’s being called a revolution for aviation, NASA Ames engineers say they are on the cusp of developing streamlined passenger aircraft that can drastically reduce fuel usage, carbon emissions and noise. The research into what they dub “green aviation” could hold the potential to minimize the pollution from commercial flight at a critical time when ridership is expected to skyrocket. NASA Ames officials unveiled their latest work at a media event Thursday, Feb. 18, timed to
INSIDE
‘This particular airplane and its hybrid electric propulsion will knock the socks off a Boeing 737.’ NATERI MADAVAN, NASA RESEARCHER
coincide with a visit by U.S. Rep. Mike Honda and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the head of the space agency. Stepping into one of the center’s
wind tunnels, the Ames team presented its test model for aircraft of the future. It was a relatively familiar looking design, akin to a Cessna, but it featured a much wider wingspan tailored to minimize drag. If properly implemented, the design has the potential to cut fuel usage by half, carbon emissions by 80 percent and noise levels by a factor of six, said Nateri Madavan, a researcher on the project. He said it was just one design being tested by NASA and its partners, See GREEN AVIATION, page 12
Aloha, poké WEEKEND | 19
VIEWPOINT 14 | GOINGS ON 23 | MARKETPLACE 24 | REAL ESTATE 26