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...
Mountain View nonprofit forgoes federal funding on principle
The Community Services Agency in Mountain View is opting to forgo some of its federal funding, rather than compromise its commitment to serving all those in need, the nonprofit announced this week. CSA has decided not to apply for funding through the Community Development Block Grant program after the federal government required recipients to check the immigration...
Mountain View wants more parks — but it won’t be cheap
Mountain View is nearing the finish line to adopt a new parks and recreation strategic plan that aims to expand and improve access to the city’s parks, open spaces and trail system over the next decade, with a particular focus on underserved neighborhoods. Presented to the City Council last week, the plan lays out a...
Mountain View police turn off license plate cameras after breach
All of Mountain View’s license plate cameras are being disabled, effective immediately, Police Chief Mike Canfield announced Monday afternoon. The move comes in the wake of the police department’s disclosure last week that hundreds of law enforcement agencies had accessed the sensitive data in violation of the city’s policies for over a year. The cameras will remain...
Mountain View launches pop-up program due to downtown vacancies
On a recent Saturday afternoon in downtown Mountain View, groups of people filled the outdoor seating at restaurants along Castro Street, dogs and their owners strolled the sidewalks and minutes after the Don’t Eat Me storefront opened its doors, people shuffled inside. The pop-up shop recently opened in a previously vacant space on Castro Street,...
Palo Alto police add clinician to aid with mental health crises
The Palo Alto Police Department just regained a clinician from Santa Clara County to assist officer response to acute mental health calls after the program went without one for more than two years. The Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) program began as a pilot in 2021 and pairs a mental health clinician with a police...
Palo Alto council vows to prioritize ‘efficiency’ in 2026
After floundering for hours in their own stratified vocabulary, Palo Alto officials coalesced on Saturday around a new list of goals for 2026: government efficiency, housing production, economic development and the renovation of Cubberley Community Center. The City Council direction, now led by Mayor Vicki Veenker and Vice Mayor Greer Stone, marks a departure from...
Palo Alto braces for lean years as financial outlook worsens
In light of the regional economy downturn, federal cuts and an uncertain political future for the country, Palo Alto leaders are staring down the barrel of years of budget deficits totaling more than $80 million, according to a new financial forecast. While the budget allocation process doesn’t truly begin until next month during the mid-year...
Mountain View’s Nob Hill Foods slated to close in May
After decades serving the Mountain View community, Nob Hill Foods in the Grant Park Plaza shopping center is slated to close in late May. The upscale grocery store is owned by The Raley’s Companies, which acquired the Nob Hill Foods chain in 1998. “The Raley’s Companies leadership team has made the difficult decision to close...