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Editorial: First St. park worth moving forward

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The Los Altos City Council’s inclination last week to move forward with a proposal for the First Street Green was not only the right move – it was the only appropriate move to make.

Developer Los Altos Community Investments is proposing a half-acre park/plaza on a city-owned parking lot across from Safeway on First Street. A memorandum of understanding allows exclusive negotiations between LACI and the city to create a permanent green space, complete with natural grass, tables and umbrellas, and a staging area for occasional performances. LACI is picking up the tab for the park’s construction.

PTC sends right message on 40 Main: Editorial

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We’re encouraged to hear members of the Los Altos Planning and Transportation Commission say that they are willing to work with two frustrated Los Altos developers in their nearly nine-year quest to build an office building at the northern gateway to the downtown area.

Commissioners June 15 discussed the latest iteration of a three-story office building proposal from Ted and Jerry Sorensen for their 40 Main St. property. The plans met with objections heard before: nonconforming building height, not enough parking. But positives also surfaced: more office space for the sleepy end of downtown, a design complementing the “village-y” style of neighboring buildings.

Out with the brown, in with the new

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A few of you in the left-turn lane at the San Antonio Road-Main Street intersection must have seen the newly installed wayfinding signs pointing to the civic center and downtown Los Altos.

As designs go, its faux-rustic look is a bit pretentious, in spirit, not unlike those tattered designer jeans that cost a small fortune. But the wording – white on a chalkboard green background – is certainly readable and a clear improvement over the old mud-brown signs with the etched street names. Under current city plans, many of these signs will eventually be replaced.

Editorial: June's here and we're all thumbs

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"Blue”

Graduations are over and we are all thumbs as we tackle the week in review.

Thumbs-up: To the graduating classes of 2017, we offer congratulations. You have crossed that metaphorical portal into adulthood – guess that means no longer asking the folks for money. Yeah, right.

Hospital board poised for the future

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Let’s state the obvious: Running an $800 million hospital isn’t easy – especially an independent hospital like El Camino that has to compete with the likes of Stanford, Kaiser and Sutter for its business. That it has to compete in an increasingly difficult and complex health-care system makes the task all the more daunting.

It was in this context that the El Camino Healthcare District board last week expanded the hospital board to include two new appointed board positions. This is in addition to the three appointed seats added in 2012. This creates an 11-member hospital board, which includes the five elected district members. Concurrent with the action, the board kept the CEO as a hospital board member, but made it a nonvoting position.

Editorial: More public engagement for Hillview

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There’s a citywide public “visioning” process underway for determining the future of downtown Los Altos. There’s one also underway for crafting a public art master plan.

How about one for Hillview Community Center? No, and let’s not go there again. That seems to be the sentiment among some observers as the city moves to rebuild Hillview.

Editorial: Is this a renaissance?

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Are we experiencing a renaissance in Los Altos? The spate of ambitious community improvement ideas and resident activism points to it.

Residents gathered recently to discuss the feasibility of a new downtown library, and city officials launched the Downtown Vision project, a blueprint that will determine the look and function of the city’s central business district for decades to come.