This Week with the Mayor: Oct 29 - Nov 4

I hear a huge sigh of relief around town at the prospect of this being the last week of the election campaign (and the removal of all the political signs).  Tuesday is election day and so many people have already mailed in their ballots.  If you have not mailed in your ballot, the only way it will count is if you hand deliver it to a voting precinct or a drop off center such as the City Clerk's office.  Beware of the signing requirements and not just anyone can deliver your ballot for you. 

The past week was a pretty busy one, starting with a neighborhood Halloween parade in my neighborhood which was organized by one of our Nextdoor.com neighborhood members.  We had one more campaign endorsement interview on Monday at the Daily News (better late than never, but really, one week before the election?)  I am glad to say I was fortunate to receive the Daily's endorsement in addition to that of the Voice.

Tuesday saw the opening of a new restaurant downtown: welcome Crepevine!  Crepevine has been around the peninsula for a while, and this is a great location for them.  The serve a real breakfast and the lunch and dinner fare are great.  Prices are very reasonable and they should be a huge success in Mountain View.

On Tuesday several members of the City Council were able to tour the construction site at San Antonio Center.  The Safeway looks like it should be a great addition to Mountain View and will be a great improvement over the existing store on California.  The apartments are going to be luxury apartments for Mountain View and the amenities look spectacular.  I think a lot of these will be snapped up by high tech workers.  Depending on what happens at next weeks Council meeting on the Rental Housing Impact Fee (which I support) there may or may not be any affordable units at San Antonio.  Lets hope there are!

After attending the American Red Cross Heroes Breakfast on Monday during which a local Mountain View man was honored for saving a life, our Economic Development Team and I visited BMW Technology.  This is BMW's main US technology center where they work closely with Silicon Valley leaders on cutting edge automotive advancements.  The work they are doing on driverless vehicles (its not just Google), creating communications between vehicles and traffic signals for better mileage and even energy storage using old batteries is just amazing.  BMW is not the only auto company with a technology center here, but I will admit I don't usually think of Silicon Valley as an automotive center, notwithstanding Tesla.

Thursday was my usual Mocha with the Mayor at Peets.  Several neighbors from the Gemello neighborhood came by to talk about the new signal Caltrans plans to install at Clark Avenue and El Camino.  There is a lot of concern in the neighborhood about more traffic driving through the neighborhood to get easier access to El Camino.  Unfortunately, the State seems not to care what local communities think.  Rather than modify the median to prevent turns onto El Camino, the State wants to spend over $500,000 to install another traffic signal, 500 feet from the signal at Escuela.

Friday morning found me at a Wireless Communications Symposium sponsored by Joint Venture Silicon Valley.  It is amazing how wireless is being utilized in the healthcare industry, not to mention its impact on disaster preparedness and response.  This theme is also one of the main topics at the Carnegie Mellon - Silicon Valley Disaster Management Initiative I am attending this week.

Following a day of meetings, I was honored to do the Coin Toss at the Mountain View vs. Palo Alto football game at Mountain View High School.  The first half did not go well and we ended up losing 56-28.  Quite a reversal from the game with Homestead.

That's it for the first week of November.  Don't forget to Vote!