The Mayor's Perspective: July 16 - August 12

After adopting the General Plan, the City Council went into summer recess, but that doesn't mean that things stop happening in our town.  In fact the summer has been pretty hectic, at least for me.

I have had the opportunity to make several visits to local companies and not-for-profits, including Abilities United, which while in Palo Alto, serves Mountain View as well.  Rich Gordon and I had a great tour and meeting with the staff of this vital organization which does so much to work with and empower people with various disabilities.

The Economic Development Department staff, Councilmember Macias and I later had the chance to visit the Khan Academy.  You may have heard about this amazing Mountain View non-profit that is taking education by storm.  TIME Magazine recently did a big article on Khan Academy describing how Sal started with a simple YouTube for his niece to help her understand math.  Some 32,000 lessons later, millions of people around the world use Khan Academy to help with their schooling.  Who knew we such a prominent leader in the education field downtown right there on Castro.

Later in the week I was able to attend Statcomm's 25th Anniversary, and then meet with the folks at Carnegie Mellon University-Silicon Valley.  Most people aren't aware that Mountain View is now, and has been for 10 years, a University Town.  Carnegie Mellon's Silicon Valley Campus is on the historic Moffett Campus.  They have graduated over 600 engineers since opening, and I had the opportunity to address this years graduation class at Commencement this morning. 

Towards the end of July, the City Hosted a presentation by Energy Upgrade Mountain View.  Again, this is a one year project to help people find ways to save electricity.  If you have a Smart Meter, you can sign up and get a free audit and evaluation which can help you save energy and money.  The program ends at the end of the year and is limited in capacity, so don't wait too long to sign up.

You may have heard me mention Nextdoor.  This is a very interesting neighborhood based social networking site.  They recently hosted an event for all their neighborhood "leads" in the Bay Area and over 100 people attended.  You may have read about them in the paper as San Jose just joined the program.  We have over 15 Nextdoor neighborhoods in Mountain View already, and they are a great way to get to know your neighbors and foster a stronger sense of community.  In fact our neighborhood, Nextdoor Gemello, held a National Night Out event on August 7 which we arranged through our site.

Towards the end of the week, I met with several representatives of State Municipal Leagues from around the Country to talk about the Healthy Eating Active Living campaign and how Mountain View has used the campaign to create an employee wellness program, include a Health Element in our General Plan and taken other steps towards building a healthier community.  If you haven't seen the HBO special, Weight of the Nation, I highly recommend watching it.  It is available for free online. 

My HEAL meetings were a great lead-in to the Senior Health Fair this weekend at the Senior Center.  There was a great crowd and several folks took a "Fun Walk" around the Park with the Mayor.  It pretty much turned into a Walking Mocha with the Mayor, without the Mocha, but we had some great discussions.

Which reminds me, the next Mocha with the Mayor will be this Wednesday, August 15 from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM at Clocktower Coffee on Middlefield Road.  Hope to see you there.

And to wrap things up, the nomination period for the Mountain View City Council Election has closed and there are officially six candidates for four seats.  While you may start seeing some local campaigning, things don't really get started until after Labor Day.  So, if you get a friendly knock at your door, its probably one of us walking precincts to get the word out.