News Features

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier

A car drives past recreational vehicles parked in the Showers Drive Walmart parking lot in Mountain View last week. The Mountain View City Council recently voted to draft the Oversized Vehicle Parking Prohibition Ordinance, which would remove an estimated 192 parked RVs and their residents from city streets. Those who live in the vehicles vowed to fight the action.

Mountain View City Council members have tried to frame their actions as humane and compassionate, but in the end, the council majority last month voted to move vehicle dwellers – particularly those in RVs – off city streets. Those dwellers and their advocates, however, say they will fight the action.

Sticker shock. It’s the term Los Altos Hills City Council members used over and over again Thursday night to reflect how they thought residents might react to future waste removal rates on the horizon.

Beekeeping, apiarist Pepe Coria will tell you, is all about “chasing the bloom,” the constant relocation of hives so their winged residents have access to fresh pollen. In December, following years of performing this labor-intensive work by hand, the Mountain View Farmers’ Market honey vendor traveled from his home in Riverbank to North Dakota to purchase the forklift that would spare his back and his time. There was significantly less work to complete, however, when Coria returned to California with his new tool.

Courtesy of Pepe Coria

Pepe Coria pictured with two of his children. The Mountain View Farmers’ Market honey seller recently lost approximately 340 hives.

Rendering Courtesy of William Maston Architects & Associates
City staff in December denied Ted and Jerry Sorensen’s proposal for a five-story, multiuse complex, above, at their 40 Main St. property in downtown Los Altos. The brothers appealed the decision, which the Los Altos City Council upheld at last week’s meeting, due in part to potential traffic impacts.

A familiar tone ruled the Los Altos City Council’s April 9 meeting, as local residents maintained that they are not anti-development but rather pro-privacy and support preserving the city’s “village feel.”

Such sentiments were expressed during the appeal of Ted and Jerry Sorensen’s proposed five-story building at 40 Main St. through Senate Bill 35 – legislation signed into law in 2018 that aims to streamline the standards to approve affordable housing – and a study session on housing codes.

The former University of Texas at Austin tennis coach accused of illegally helping a Los Altos Hills student gain admission to the college through a bogus recruitment to his team has agreed to plead guilty to charges against him.

Courtesy of Jenna Graham

Mountain View Fire Department Capt. Jenna Graham, from left, paramedic Alison Costello and EMT Patty Juergens pose for the “all-female crew” selfie that went viral via social media.

Blame it on the Chief.

Mountain View Fire Department Capt. Jenna Graham wasn’t thinking of KPIX 5, “Inside Edition” or Cheddar.com when she snapped an impromptu selfie with her colleagues in front of Truck 51, but Chief Juan Diaz’s decision to share the photo via social media certainly made those news outlets – and many others – think of her.