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JANUARY 27, 2012 VOLUME 20, NO. 1
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Council passes smoking ban SMOKING NIXED NEAR BUILDINGS AND OUTDOOR DINING AREAS By Daniel DeBolt
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MICHELLE LE
Smokers are going to have a hard time finding places to smoke on Castro Street once the city’s new outdoor smoking ordinance goes into effect later this year.
Eshoo sees progress on Hangar One deal OFFER BY GOOGLE EXECS IS STILL HUNG UP AT NASA HEADQUARTERS By Andrea Gemmet
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oogle’s $32 million offer to restore Hangar One’s siding still hasn’t been accepted, but there has been progress, said Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. “I’m working with the White House, because this is one hell of an offer,” Eshoo told the Voice last week. “All the stakeholders support this,” she said. “It’s a short sentence, but it’s a big deal.” The gargantuan hangar is in the midst of having its toxin-laced siding removed, but funds to replace the siding were stripped from the NASA budget
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by Congressional Republicans last year. In October, Google’s top executives offered to pay for the restoration in exchange for a lease on part of Hangar One to house their private fleet of aircraft, but there’s been no response from NASA administrator Charles Bolden. The offer from Google is now on the desk of the White House’s liaison with the House of Representatives, said Eshoo, D-Palo Alto. Eshoo had no kind words to spare for Bolden, whom she characterized as unresponsive. “I don’t know what’s wrong with (him), if he’s like a deer frozen in headlights or he’s
stupid or what,” she said. Eshoo said she’d been sending letters to Bolden every month, with no response. Her last letter was so terse, she finally got a phone call from him, she said. “I don’t think your staff has served you very well,” she said she told Bolden. “At least just send a canned letter and say we’ll get back to you in five years.” Without Google’s offer to foot the bill, there is no other funding in sight to restore Hangar One, the iconic 200foot-tall structure built in the 1930s to house the airship the See HANGAR ONE, page 8
GOINGS ON 18 | MARKETPLACE 19 | REAL ESTATE 20 | VIEWPOINT 14
t just got a lot harder to smoke in Mountain View. On Tuesday night the City Council narrowly passed a ban on smoking near publicly accessible buildings and outdoor dining areas. Council members voted 4-3, with Laura Macias, John Inks and Tom Means opposed. The new rules mean a $50 citation for smokers who stand within 25 feet of windows, doors —even cracks and vents in the walls — of workplaces, restaurants and any publicly accessible building where smoking is already banned. The Council also put the kibosh on smoking within 25 feet of outdoor dining
areas, including those at restaurants and picnic areas in public parks, where smoking is already banned within 30 feet of a playground. Smoking is now largely banned in busy commercial areas like Castro Street though exception is given to smokers who “are actively passing from one destination to another,” said Kim Castro of the city’s community services department. The vote gave no exceptions to bar owners and patrons who protested the ban, which ends the practice of allowing smoking on outdoor patios near doors and windows, as is the practice See SMOKING, page 6
Survey shows support for new school bond MOUNTAIN VIEW WHISMAN DISTRICT LIKELY TO PLACE MEASURE ON JUNE BALLOT By Nick Veronin
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new public opinion survey has local education officials feeling fairly confident that there is enough support from local voters to pass a $196 million bond measure. In a December 2011 phone poll, more than 60 percent of local voters said they felt that the Mountain View Whisman School district had at least some need for more money and that they would support the proposed bond, according to a report from Gene Bregman & Associates, the research firm that conducted the survey.
“We’re extremely pleased,” said Craig Goldman, Mountain View Whisman’s superintendent. “It certainly validates our belief that Mountain View residents understand the importance of strong schools for the benefit of children and the community overall.” The survey questioned 400 local registered voters. It found that among those voters most likely to go to the polls during the upcoming June election, 64 percent would vote yes on the bond. Of those voters who were likely to turn out in the November See SURVEY, page 7