7JFXQPJOU Founding Editor, Kate Wakerly
N S TA F F EDITOR Andrea Gemmet (223-6537) EDITORIAL Associate Editor Renee Batti (223-6528) Staff Writers Daniel DeBolt (223-6536) Kevin Forestieri (223-6535) Intern Cooper Aspegren Photographer Michelle Le (223-6530) Photo Interns Brandon Chew, Natalia Nazarova Contributors Dale Bentson, Angela Hey, Sheila Himmel, Ruth Schecter DESIGN & PRODUCTION Marketing and Creative Director Shannon Corey (223-6560) Design and Production Manager Lili Cao (223-6562) Designers Linda Atilano, Colleen Hench, Rosanna Leung, Paul Llewellyn, Peter Sorin ADVERTISING Vice President Sales and Marketing Tom Zahiralis (223-6570) Advertising Representatives Adam Carter (223-6573) Real Estate Account Executive Rosemary Lewkowitz (223-6585) Published every Friday at 450 Cambridge Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 964-6300 fax (650) 964-0294 Email news and photos to: editor@MV-Voice.com Email letters to: letters@MV-Voice.com News/Editorial Department (650) 964-6300 fax (650) 964-0294 Display Advertising Sales (650) 964-6300 Classified Advertising Sales t fax (650) 326-0155 Email Classified ads@MV-Voice.com Email Circulation circulation@MV-Voice.com The Voice is published weekly by Embarcadero Media Co. and distributed free to residences and businesses in Mountain View. If you are not currently receiving the paper, you may request free delivery by calling 964-6300. Subscriptions for $60 per year, $100 per 2 years are welcome. Š2014 by Embarcadero Media Company. All rights reserved. Member, Mountain View Chamber of Commerce
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â– EDITORIAL â– YOUR LETTERS â– GUEST OPINIONS
A front-row seat watching the city boom
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s I retire from the Voice and reflect on the remarkable way the Chamber of Commerce and the city’s firefighters and police Kate Wakerly went about establishing an independent unions should endorse candidates. Another story covered Demonewspaper for Mountain View, it is easy to see why the cratic state Assembly candidate Sally Lieber, a former City Council paper has been so well-received over the last 22 years. member who was being attacked by Republican Stan Kawczynski Starting in her basement with co-founder Carol Torgrimson, for calling herself a “councilwoman� on the ballot. Kate published the first edition of the then-monthly Voice in the Beyond the campaign issues, City Manager Duggan’s Shoreline fall of 1992. Coincidentally, that was also the year I began my own business strategy was to issue long-term leases to Google and other 22-year run with Embarcadero Media by becoming editor of the high-tech companies that today bring in more than $5 million a year Palo Alto Weekly, then editor and publisher of The Almanac in to the city. It was also Duggan’s idea to reinvigorate the Shoreline Menlo Park, and then, in 2002, editor and publisher of the Voice. special tax district and use funds generated to build the golf course Kate and Carol had a vision for a quality comand a host of other amenities there. Today, the city munity newspaper that needed more resources shares a portion of the Shoreline district’s tax revFAREWELL than they could provide, so in 1994 they turned enue with local schools. A similar redevelopment TO TH E VOI CE to Embarcadero founder Bill Johnson for help. district helped refurbish and enhance the downBill enthusiastically took on the Voice, converted town area. By Tom Gibboney it to a weekly and hired a staff to work with Kate, Not far from Shoreline sits Hangar One, a major who remained on as publisher. It was a formula landmark and remnant of the brief period when that worked until 2002, when Kate, who had been diagnosed the dirigible USS Macon flew out of Moffett Field to hunt with breast cancer, passed the publisher’s role to me, beginWorld War I enemies in the Pacific. But shortly after arrivning a run of 12 years guiding the Voice through a period of ing in Mountain View, the Macon crashed at sea, leaving intensive growth and development in Mountain View. the giant hangar empty. After many years the hangar’s toxic Along the way I have had the good fortune to serve with siding finally had to be removed, and when NASA took many talented journalists and watch the city blossom over Moffett Field from the Navy, disagreements arose over under the guidance of then-City Manager Kevin Duggan, who was responsible for cleaning up toxic debris from the who arrived in 1990 when much of Shoreline was taken PHOTO BY MICHELLE LE/ hangar. It was a huge and ongoing issue covered in depth by THE ALMANAC up by a pig farm and landfill. the Voice. Finally, the Navy stripped the siding off Hangar Tom Gibboney It was this young city manager’s vision and luck to conOne but refused to recover the structure, leaving its skeleton nect with Google early on, which began the high-tech has been editor exposed to the elements in recent years. Thankfully, a deal and publisher boom that defines the city today. Kevin was a quiet leader, of the Voice was struck and Google has agreed to refurbish the huge treating employees fairly and staying out of the thicket of building and will park some of its executives’ planes there. since 2002 local politics. He also made sure that the city kept Voice As I depart, it is comforting to know that Embarcadero reporters and other media representatives in the loop Media is firmly behind the Voice, which survived the Great about the city’s business. His door was always open if we had a Recession and is profitable. Andrea Gemmet, who has been proquestion or concern. moted to Editor, is an experienced journalist and will continue to Luckily, I was able to work alongside Kate for a time before make day-to-day decisions on coverage. Renee Batti, a longtime she stepped down. I learned about her passion for schools, civil editor at the Almanac, our sister paper, will serve as the new associliberties and many charitable causes, including the St. Joseph the ate editor and handle the Viewpoint pages, write editorials and help Worker Center, now simply called the Day Worker Center. with editing. It was a sad day for everyone at Embarcadero and the entire MounAs for me, I look forward to remaining in the area and to staying tain View community when Kate lost her battle with cancer and died active in retirement by volunteering or consulting for organizain 2004. Her Mountain View legacy lives on as her husband, John, tions whose missions I support. With kids who are now both done and her three children continue to support the Voice Holiday Fund with graduate school and embarking on their own careers, it feels every year with a gift through the Wakerly Family Foundation. like the right time to begin the next chapter in my life. No recap of my years at the Voice would be complete without I want to thank all the friends and acquaintances I have made acknowledging the great work of many writers and editors who over the years. I have been extremely lucky to have started as pubhave passed through our doors. Justin Scheck, named managing lisher with Kate and to have watched the city through such a foreditor in 2001, wrote extensively about the toxic solvent TCE, mative period. I enjoyed every minute. which some early computer chip manufacturers threw out the back door, contaminating the underground aquifer in a wide area of northeast Mountain View. The Voice won awards for Justin’s coverage, and has continued to cover issues surrounding the lingering TCE plume. Stories written by Daniel Debolt in the Voice this year about TCE helped win an award for general excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the state newspaper association, a first place in environmental reporting. After a stint as a staff writer, Candice Shih was named managing editor in late 2003. She served during a period of intense growth in the city and at El Camino Hospital. Don Frances came next. He stayed on top of the school beat and El Camino Hospital as the public tried to figure out the hospital district’s complicated governing structure and high executive salaries. When I came in August 2002, the Voice front page carried stories about the upcoming campaign for City Council, school board and hospital board seats. Eleven candidates declared for the council race, a near record, perhaps drawn in by the hot-button issue of whether
â– Mountain View Voice â– MountainViewOnline.com â– July 4, 2014
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July 4, 2014 â– Mountain View Voice â– MountainViewOnline.com â–
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