Mountain View Voice 05.27.2011 - Section 1

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MAY 27, 2011 VOLUME 19, NO. 19

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MountainViewOnline.com

Google buys historic building on Villa Street PACIFIC PRESS BUILDINGS CURRENTLY HOME TO MICROSOFT DIVISION By Daniel DeBolt

cials. Google has already cornered Microsoft in Mountain View’s oogle’s newest real estate office park north of Highway 101, purchase in Mountain purchasing even small properties View is not only home to near Microsoft’s North Bayshore a division of rival Microsoft, it is campus, including the home of The also one of the most historic sites Pear Theater. Meanwhile Microsoft in the city. has considered leaving Mountain In April, Google purchased a View several times, said one city 100-year-old campus along the official. railroad tracks at Shoreline BouleIn 2009, previous owner Metzler vard and Villa Street that was home North America had proposed addto the Pacific Press from 1904 to ing a 90,000-square-foot building 1983. The purchase of the 171,000- and a four-story parking garage to square-foot camallow Microsoft pus is perhaps expansion on the fitting because Google now owns or site. City Counthe Pacific Press cil members had was once a major leases 59 properties allowed city staff employer in to begin studying the city, just as in Mountain View. that proposal as Google is now. part of the city’s The Pacific Press was Mountain general plan update. View’s answer to Palo Alto’s new A Google spokesperson said Stanford University, an effort to he could not announce whether bring “an institution of fine quali- Google would pursue such plans ties� to settle in what was then a for expanding the campus. But he town of 800 people. could say that Google would use With this purchase, valued at over the historic buildings “in a way that $63 million, Google now owns or doesn’t harm the building or alter leases 59 properties in Mountain the building in a way that would View, according to recent news take away the historic significance and 2010 records from the county of it.� But some changes maybe tax assessor’s office. The space is made to enhance the “campus feel� necessary because “2011 will be our there. biggest hiring year in company history,� said Dan Hoffman, real estate Important to city history director for Google, in a statement. “I love the buildings, and whole“We’re excited to continue growing heartedly support their preservain Mountain View and strengthen- tion for their unique historical value ing our relationship with the com- and beauty,� said council member munity.� Laura Macias in an email. Metzler’s Much of the campus, now called proposal “seemed like a good way “The Courtyard,� continues to to keep the old buildings but add to house a division of Microsoft, See GOOGLE, page 10 which shocked some city offi-

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REELING BACK THE YEARS Ani Ralston leads her partner in a Virginia reel at Bubb School’s annual re-enactment of life in colonial Williamsburg called WilliamsBubb. The May 20 event entertained and educated students about America on the eve of the Revolutionary War. A story and more photos are on page 9.

Shoreline disrict takes on new debt By Daniel DeBolt

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o pay for new Shoreline area ball fields, pedestrian overpasses and a fire station, the City Council approved the issuance of $26.5 million in new bonds Tuesday,

extending Shoreline debt payments another 29 years. Paying off the new bonds will cost the Shoreline Community, an authority headed by the City Council, an estimated $58.5 million over 29 years, said Patty Kong, finance director. Pay-

ments estimated at $2 million a year will add to Shoreline’s $19 million in ongoing annual expenses used largely to maintain Shoreline Park and the surrounding business park that’s See SHORELINE, page 10

Emergency rigs get a makeover By Daniel DeBolt

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he satellite dish-equipped vehicles we might all rely on to coordinate earthquake relief efforts gathered in a Moffett Field parking lot over the weekend — and some of the lessons learned were surprising. The four-day event was a Silicon Valley style technology meet-

INSIDE

up for state and local government agencies — the first gathering of its kind for California. It turns out that some of the trucks could not send emails to each other and others were using different radio frequencies. It was better to learn that now than during a disaster, said Martin Griss, director of Carnegie Mellon University

Silicon Valley, which organized the event to establish itself as a partner in emergency response technology. The vehicles that showed up included everything from stateof-the-art big rigs with video conference rooms and fourstory antennas to someone’s See EMERGENCY, page 8

GOINGS ON 17 | MARKETPLACE 18 | MOVIES 16 | REAL ESTATE 21 | VIEWPOINT 11

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