Why is it that what's good enough for Palo Alto is not good enough for Mountain View?

Reopen Alma at Castro Street NOW!

For years, many community members and working class families have used the intersection at Castro Street and Alma to travel freely - so they can get to work, take care of essential responsibilities, and shop in the local community.

Many families also run small mom and pop businesses on Castro Street and in downtown Mountain View 

Yet, without warning - in 2016 - the Mountain View City Council suddenly announced their intention to permanently close the intersection at Castro Street and Alma: Source

The city inexplicably rushed to make this closure a reality - never consulting community members, business leaders, and families in any meaningful way.

At the time, the leader of the Chamber of Commerce, Tony Siress, responded by saying, "These are the golden blocks of downtown, and they would be decimated...this would close a main thoroughfare that has been here since the start of Mountain View." Source

In the same article, Siress also said, "This whole plan seems to have been done in a bubble without understanding how downtown works...It's literally mind-boggling that no one has looked at all the effects this would have." 

The Chamber and Mountain View Central Business Association also responded by saying they wanted to put forward their own proposals. 

They called for keeping the current road crossing open, and limiting crossing during peak hours - if that is what the city absolutely wants - and building a permanent pedestrian and bike overpass: Source

The city wholly ignored that proposal, and have not even offered community members the opportunity to submit their own proposals.

Instead, the city has permanently closed the intersection.

The city has 82,000 residents. Why are city leaders so opposed to hearing from all community members? 

Another solution the city apparently studied was to build an underpass for vehicle travel - yet some city leaders have claimed the city doesn't have the money.

In fact, Mountain View is in the heart of Silicon Valley, home to Google and many other high tech companies, and the city has for years been splurging on an infrastructure spending spree.

In fact, our neighbors to the north, in Palo Alto, have for years had a two-lane underpass running under the very same exact set of railroad tracks - north of us at University Avenue.

Why is it that what's good enough for Palo Alto is not good enough for Mountain View?

Why is the City Council trying to divide the city, force mom and pop small businesses to close, increase gentrification, and restrict access for working class families?

Gentrification has gotten so bad that many residents are now living in Recreational Vehicles, and pro-gentrification advocates have gone even further - successfully passing a ban on RVs parked on city streets.

The city has gone even further as well. They have now also closed three blocks of Castro Street to cars, further restricting access. They've since reopened one block - but it's not clear why.

Oddly, as well, the city at one point even released results for a vague survey about closing Castro Street to cars they claimed to have conducted - where they happily admitted, "the survey did not request feedback regarding future conditions." Source: Study Session Memo

What's the point of conducting a survey if you're not even going to ask how things should be in the first place?

Now anyone who doesn't live walking distance to downtown Mountain View has to navigate a Rubic's Cube of side streets to try to find parking, which is never available. Many leave and never come back, strangling small businesses even further.

The closures have also severely restricted access opportunities for disabled community members.

Many businesses have not survived. Source

Why is the city so opposed to soliciting input from community members and mom and pop small business owners?

Why not allow community members to submit their own proposals?

Why not put it to a vote of all community members in Mountain View?

Why is it that what's good enough for Palo Alto is not good enough for Mountain View?

Reopen Alma at Castro Street NOW!

Please sign this petition to call on the City Council to support small businesses, stop gentrification, and keep working class families together.

Please sign NOW!