Soups for the soul
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WEEKEND | 33
GENERAL EXCELLENCE
California Newspaper Publishers Association
OCTOBER 28, 2016 VOLUME 24, NO. 40
www.MountainViewOnline.com
650.964.6300
MOVIES | 36
Bike Share booted, but what will replace it? COUNCIL WARY OF PLANS FOR BIKE SHARE 2.0 By Mark Noack
A
MICHELLE LE
Stevan Spremo, a NASA Space Flight project manager, talks about colleagues diagnosed with ALS at a town hall meeting about the contaminated groundwater plume at NASA Ames.
NASA Ames workers worry over Superfund site’s toxins AMATEUR DISEASE MAP POINTS TO RARE CLUSTER OF ALS CASES AT NASA AMES By Mark Noack
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ollowing news that several employees had developed a rare neurological disease, the NASA Ames Research
Center is facing a new wave of concern that hazardous substances linked to the nearby Superfund sites could be affecting its workers’ health. The recent scare has prompted a
new round of testing for toxic chemicals in old buildings at Ames, but health officials say harmful substances have stayed See NASA, page 20
Trustee clashes with district office over public records requests LENGTHY REQUESTS ARE EATING UP STAFF TIME AND RESOURCES, SUPERINTENDENT SAYS By Kevin Forestieri
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teve Nelson is just a couple of months away from leaving his post as a board member for the Mountain View Whisman School District, but he shows no sign of ending his fouryear campaign as a critic of the district’s leadership. In the latest round of heated exchanges, Nel-
INSIDE
son harangued the district office staff last week, claiming that he had been “stonewalled” for months on public records requests, only to receive 3,500 pages of mostly useless information. Steve Nelson
At the end of the Oct. 20 board meeting, Nelson hauled out a box containing thousands of pages of printouts from the district office that he received in response to a lengthy public records request he made in May. In a chain of emails, Nelson said he wanted information on middle school See NELSON, page 7
VIEWPOINT 29 | GOINGS ON 37 | MARKETPLACE 38 | REAL ESTATE 40
ll seven Bike Share stations, with their dozens of bicycles scattered across the Mountain View, will be taken out in the coming weeks, but it’s not clear what, if any, new bike-rental service will be replacing it. On Tuesday night, the Mountain View City Council kicked the tires of the beleaguered Bike Share service, ultimately deciding the costly program wasn’t worth keeping on the city’s dime. The bike-rental system, which first came to Mountain View in 2013, was previously funded entirely by grants from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. When those subsidies expired earlier this year, Mountain View and several other Bay Area cities experienced a case of sticker shock. Low ridership numbers for Mountain View’s system meant local taxpayers were footing the bill for about $20 for every bike trip. In May, five out of seven council members reluctantly agreed to pay $160,000 to Motivate, the private company behind the system, in order to keep the bicycle service functioning through November. City officials described it as a temporary measure to buy time to figure out a better service tailored to draw in more riders. An early template of that improved system — call it Bike Share 2.0 — arrived in front of the City Council at their Tuesday meeting. The plan is for Mountain View to follow the lead of Palo Alto, which negotiated with Motivate earlier this month for a
new system built around “smart” bicycles. Designed by the New York City company SoBi, these newer bikes would be connected via wireless networking and GPS systems that would create a “geo-fence,” allowing the bicycles to only be used within a specific territory. Unlike the older Bike Share system, the SoBi program doesn’t require docking stations, and riders will reportedly have far more options for where they can leave the bikes. Starting early next year, Palo Alto plans to launch its new system with 350 of the new bikes, which are expected to cost about $1.1 million. As part of its deal, Palo Alto city officials insisted that similar pricing terms be offered to other Peninsula cities under the idea that the new service would be stronger if more cities signed up to participate. As Mountain View staff presented plans Tuesday to remove the older Bike Share equipment, they also recommended the city begin its own negotiations to join the new smart-bike system. They suggested tentative plans to pursue a similar 350-bike system at a $1.1 million price — or about $3,000 per bike. Staff members warned that these numbers would likely change. But more that half the City Council found the concept halfbaked. Even though the smart bikes had some new features, the system was essentially the same as the current underwhelming service, said Councilman John McAlister. “What would we be doing that See BIKE SHARE, page 7
VOTER GUIDE Assembly race PAGE 18