Business News

Courtesy of the City of Mountain View
The Mountain View Community Shuttle, a pilot program that has ferried more than a half-million riders, has been renewed through 2019.

 

 

The Mountain View Community Shuttle pilot program, now in its fourth year, has been extended through the end of 2019 at its current service level, with continued funding from Google Inc.

The free service, aimed at encouraging people to get around town and out of their cars, was originally set to expire this year. To date, it has transported more than 550,000 riders.

Even though income and sales volume of realtors have dropped slightly in the past year, membership in the National Association of Realtors has increased as younger agents continue to enter the industry.

According to the 2018 National Association of Realtors Member Profile, membership increased 6 percent from 1.22 million in March 2017 to 1.3 million in April 2018.

Courtesy of Lars Smith
State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria’s Lars Smith, holding trophy, wowed judges at the West Coast U.S. Pizza Cup last month with his grandmother’s recipe for summer ratatouille pan pizza.

 

 

A Roman-style pizza baked in the pan earned State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria’s Lars Smith a silver medal in the 2018 West Coast U.S. Pizza Cup last month. The summer ratatouille pizza, based on his grandmother’s recipe, will make a brief appearance in Los Altos Sept. 26 when Smith sends special editions of the prize-winning pizza into his ovens from 5 p.m. until they run out, as well as pouring the Belgian Saison-style beer he used for pairing during the competition, Modern Times’ Transit of Venus.

The pizzeria’s autumn menu includes a new pan pizza in the regular rotation, a double-proofed, double-baked “Grandma Pie,” limited to 10 pizzas served per day. Other new pizza additions include leek gratin, a brussels sprouts and bacon pie with apple vinegar, and an ‘nduja cream and shishito pepper pie. ‘Nduja is a spicy, soft pork sausage.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously last week to take the first steps in funding affordable housing for residents with developmental disabilities.

The board directed staff to identify $40 million in county funds to support the creation of affordable housing units with supportive services specifically for those living with developmental disabilities in the very-low-income and extremely-low-income brackets.

Courtesy of Ruti Zisser
The Ruti fashion line features a few different jumpsuits, a clothing piece the Los Altos designer herself defends for having a history of being functional yet fashionable for many generations past. This hooded jumpsuit retails for $203.

 

 

Los Altos resident Ruti Zisser came to this area for technical work, as a product manager by day, but the startup she hatched in her garage emerged from a much older family trade – the love of drape and detail that had been shared by her mother and grandmother before her.

Zisser’s chain of boutiques and fashion label, Ruti, started as a tiny import business based out of her home. She missed the fashion of her native Israel and loved to dress others, which she did for two years.

Financial adviser Arvind Ven is scheduled to discuss “The Importance of Retirement Income Planning” 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Orchard Room of the Los Altos main library, 51 S. San Antonio Road.

According to Ven, who writes the Town Crier’s “Fiscal Fitness” column, 15,000 baby boomers will be retiring every day in the U.S. for the next 15 years – one of the largest retiring workforces in the world. However, Ven said, the retirement story in the U.S. is not good, with a significant percentage of people having little to no savings.