Mountain View’s budget is on track for the current year despite lingering uncertainties about an economic slowdown, a trend that has defined the city’s financial projections for the past couple years. Mountain View is expected to close out the 2025-26 fiscal year with a roughly $1.8 million operating balance, excluding any pending changes. That’s according to Derek Rampone,...
Palo Alto RV parking enforcement up, residents still unhappy
Palo Alto leaders are increasingly looking to regional partners to help address widespread RV parking throughout the city after months of increased enforcement has seemingly done little to alleviate concerns from residents and business owners. The effort is being led by the City Council’s recently established oversized vehicle ad hoc committee, which is made up...
Mountain View terminates license plate camera contract
The Mountain View City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to terminate its license plate camera contract with Flock Safety, heeding the calls of dozens of impassioned residents who spoke at the meeting urging the city to cut ties with the surveillance technology company. Police Chief Mike Canfield disclosed last month that unauthorized law enforcement agencies had searched the city’s...
Bernie Sanders warns about AI ‘tsunami’ at Stanford town hall
Workers, students and researchers in Silicon Valley are no strangers to the idea that artificial intelligence may be coming for their jobs. Many are under the impression that it’s not a matter of if, but when. But for Sen. Bernie Sanders, a longtime critic of the billionaire class, the new technology has ramifications that go...
Silicon Valley lawmaker’s bill aimed at suicide prevention in K-12
Editor’s note: Resources for any person who is feeling depressed, troubled or suicidal are listed at the bottom of this article. With Palo Alto facing increased pressure to address youth mental health, Assemblymember Marc Berman introduced legislation this week aimed at providing access to free suicide prevention training to all K-12 students, teachers, administrators and parents...
Palo Alto homeless residents find shelter in Sunnyvale hotel
It’s a simple hotel room: a bed and night stands, a small kitchenette and a bathroom tucked in the far corner. For Paul and Sheryl, it’s the difference between a good night’s sleep and a restless eight hours in a crowded shelter — or worse, on the street. “Out there, you have one eye open...
Mountain View in ‘active negotiations’ for new pickleball facility
Mountain View recently announced that it has identified a site for an interim pickleball facility after a proposal to build courts at Cuesta Park and the adjacent annex fizzled last year in the face of substantial opposition from nearby residents. The city is currently negotiating the use of a privately owned property that could be developed...
San Jose lawmaker’s housing bills advance through Congress
A pair of bills spearheaded by Congressman Sam Liccardo that aim to speed up the approval process for new residential projects advanced through the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week as part of a bipartisan housing package. The bipartisan act aims to alleviate the housing shortage by streamlining housing regulations, updating certain programs in...
Mountain View approves plan to close downtown train crossing to cars
Long-awaited plans to close Castro Street at the downtown Caltrain tracks and fully divert vehicle traffic at the rail crossing are moving forward, after the Mountain View City Council voted Tuesday to approve the new design for the major transit stop. The project, which will reconfigure the roadway and dead-end Castro Street at West Evelyn...
Developer applies for Palo Alto housing project despite lawsuit
Undeterred by an ongoing legal challenge, the nonprofit Alta Housing last week filed a formal application to construct an affordable-housing complex with 72 apartments on a downtown parking lot near the corner of Lytton Avenue and Kipling Street. The six-story project on what’s known as “Lot T” is the first to take advantage of the city’s new...