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Council OK’s plan to allow dogs in parks By Daniel DeBolt
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COURTESY SHONDA RANSON/CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW
EARTH DAY FOR BURROWING OWLS ... AND SPIDER-MEN There were some notable volunteers helping with a project to restore burrowing owl habitat at Shoreline Park on Monday, April 21, including Jamie Foxx, who chatted with Mayor Chris Clark, and fellow cast members from the new Amazing Spider-Man movie. Roughly 100 people from Google volunteered for the early Earth Day project, according to Google spokeswoman Veronica Bell. That’s not including the contingent from Hollywood: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan and Marc Webb.
Superintendent: Reopening WhismanSlater area school ‘a given’ HUGE RESIDENT TURNOUT SUPPORTS BRINGING BACK A WHISMAN-SLATER SCHOOL By Kevin Forestieri
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arents and kids alike came out in big numbers Thursday night to show support for reopening an elementary school in the Whisman and Slater neighborhoods. Well exceeding the 50 seats provided, and likely breaking a maximum occupancy rule, neighborhood residents showed up at the April 17 Mountain View Whisman School District board meeting in a show of public support for bringing back a school to what they say is an under-served area of Mountain View. They got a good response for their efforts. After the presentation, Superintendent Craig Goldman told parents that opening a school in the area is not just on the table; it’s going to happen. “From my perspective, the opening of a school in the SlaterWhisman neighborhood is a given. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when,” Goldman said. Since the closure of Slater elementary school in 2006, the northeastern “quadrant” of the
city, roughly the area between highways 85, 237 and 101, has gone without a neighborhood elementary school. The area is instead sliced up so parents have to drive their kids to four different elementary schools across the city. And while the the closure of both Whisman and Slater schools was an important sacrifice to stay within the budget for the school district, representatives from the Whisman and Slater neighborhood associations say the district has the money, the elementary student population is rising fast, and it’s high time an school be brought back into the neighborhood. Greg Coladonato, president of the Slater Neighborhood Association, said he was thrilled with the turnout, and that the board seemed to show interest in the ideas they had for reopening the school. “We really brought reality to the board, and showed we had the support,” Coladonato said. Parents from the neighborhood spoke to the board stressing the need for a school in their
neighborhood, and assured the board that they would switch to an elementary school their area. “If a neighborhood school was to reopen in the Slater-Whisman area, I would sign up both of my boys today,” said Greg Chapin at the meeting. Others voiced concern to the board about the impacts of not having an elementary school in the community. “We have a cul-de-sac in our neighborhood that literally has three families with children that don’t know each other,” said Soosh Gandhi, former president of the North Whisman Neighborhood Association. “They don’t go to school together, they don’t play together. It’s really tough to build the community.” The board mulled over the idea of hiring a professional demographer to update the studies on student population across the district, and considered a survey for whether parents would send their kids to a school in their neighborhood. Jessica Gandhi, president of See SCHOOL RE-OPEN, page 15
ity Council members decided to let dogs go off-leash in numerous city parks Tuesday, legalizing something that many residents at Tuesday’s council meeting confessed that they were already doing. “I’ve been studying this issue for about eight years and I have found that it works very well,” said council member John McAlister, who said he used to bring his dog to Cooper Park every morning where a group of residents said they haven’t had any conflicts or issues with letting their dogs off-leash during a regular time every morning, from 8:30 a.m. to about 10 a.m., despite the fact it wasn’t legal. “I used to be part of the group but my dog passed away last Wednesday,” McAlister said, his voice breaking up. “I can no longer enjoy the crowd but I see great benefit in this.” The council ended up voting 5-2 to allow dogs off leash at several parks for a one year trial: at Cooper, Bubb, McKelvey and Eagle parks Monday through Friday from 6 a.m to 10 a.m.; at Whisman park seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to a half a hour past sunset; at the Cuesta “dog training area” seven days a week from sunrise to sunset; and at the Cuesta Annex seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Council members Chris Clark and Ronit Bryant opposed the plan, proposed by McAlister, because of the inclusion of the Cuesta Annex. It’s a place where
Bryant noted that a rare great Blue Heron hunts, and that she’d prefer if the city consulted with wildlife preservationists before allowing off-leash dogs there. A representative of the Audubon Society said there wouldn’t likely be an issue, but declined to go on record about it. Council members said that having posted times for dogs to run off-leash could prevent conflict with residents who would like to avoid dogs. “I’m also a dog owner and I have the cutest dog imaginable but not everyone likes him,” Bryant said. “We do need to respect that fact that not everyone” wants to be around dogs. Dogs do bite, members said. Council members rejected a recommendation from the Parks and Recreation Commission to build two new fenced parks, one at a parcel along Shoreline Boulevard near Eagle Park (costing up to $40,000), and another at Rengstorff Park costing $30,000. Both would have been be simple, fenced-in areas with a water fountain. Council members balked at the cost and at using up more space at Rengstorff, and residents complained that it wasn’t a good idea to have dogs along busy Shoreline Boulevard. The Parks and Recreation Commission recommended only two new off-leash areas, one at Whisman Park and another at Cuesta Park. A resident complained that many more parks were originally proposed for off-leash areas, such as Thaddeus Park in the Monta Loma neighborhood, but the See DOG PARKS, page 9
Vote for the Best of Mountain View Mountain View Voice readers have great taste, and that’s why we seek their expertise every summer as we search for the best our city has to offer. From book stores to bakeries, boutiques to body shops, we’re asking you to single out the best restaurants, the best retailers, the best services and the best places to have fun. Easy online voting starts Friday, April 25. To find the online ballot, go to our home page,
www.mv-voice.com. Vote for at least five categories by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, June 1. Be sure to activate your ballot by responding to a confirmation email, and you will be entered into a prize drawing. Prize winners will be contacted via email after voting ends. If you can’t find your favorites in the drop-down menus, submit them as write-in votes. Write-in votes help new businesses qualify for next year’s ballot.
April 25, 2014 ■ Mountain View Voice ■ MountainViewOnline.com ■
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