OMVNA Newsletter

April, 2001
Volume 13, Number 3

We Look Marvelous -- and So Does Mercy-Bush Park

Leadership Mtn. View Seeks Future Leaders

OMVNA Recognized by Congresswoman Eshoo

Sidewalk Replacements Planned Through 2004

OMVNA's Steering Committee Advocates Careful Review of Development at Bryant and California St.

History Corner: Great Mt. View Naming Flap of 1930

Correction to Article about Ugo Mancini

Masthead

OMVNA Steering Committee

We Look Marvelous -- and So Does Mercy-Bush Park

Over 300 neighbors came together on a beautiful spring morning to celebrate the opening of Mercy-Bush Park. The biggest hit of the day was the cascading water fountain in the sand area where little civil engineers and bakers could try their hands at dam building and mud pie making. The climbing structure and swings also got a good workout and will be a welcome addition to the lives of Old Mountain View kids. Photo by Bob Weaver, Weaver Photography

Leadership Mtn. View Seeks Future Leaders

Leadership Mountain View (LMV) is a community leadership education program that prepares individuals to lead change in Mountain View. Many neighborhood residents are graduates, including Rosemary Stasek, Sally Lieber, Ronit Bryant and Aaron and Anita Grossman.

LMV is seeking participants for its next class, which runs from October, 2001 to June, 2002. Students spend one Friday each month in class learning about leadership and about Mountain View. Training takes place in classrooms and on field trips; the instructors are local leaders and experts from the public and private sectors.

Informational meetings for pro-spective applicants will be held at the Mountain View Library's Community Room on May 2 from 5:30-7:00 PM and May 15 from 7:00-8:30 PM. The best source for detailed information is the LMV web site. You can also phone program director Twana Karney at 968-8378.

OMVNA Recognized by Congresswoman Eshoo

In an e-mail to OMVNA Steering Committee members, City Councilwoman Sally Lieber wrote: "OMVNA recently received verbal kudos from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and the Silicon Valley Mfg. Group (SVMG) for weighing in on a positive note on the issue of the studio efficiencies proposed location in the downtown.

"We discussed the OMVNA's public support for the project and the proposed location when we met with Anna in Washington and she was very pleased to hear OMVNA is taking the leadership role in the community.

"I recently reported this same support to the SVMG and the Housing Leadership Council ... They were impressed with the way that OMVNA and the City are engaging proactively on the issues of housing and development. Kudos to all from the Steering Committee who are making the City look good."

Sidewalk Replacements Planned Through 2004

Sidewalks on some streets in Old Mountain View are being replaced this Spring as part of an ambitious Public Works program. According to Reza Zarghampour of the City's Public Works Department, 2001 is the third year of an annual program affecting the area between Escuela and Bernardo, El Camino and Evelyn. The first two years focused primarily on blocks between Shoreline and Escuela.

Each year the city budgets $500,000 to replace the most deteriorated sidewalks. Because our sidewalks are so old and were not built to modern standards, they are being replaced at no cost to the property owners.

Sidewalks that aren't on the priority list but that are a tripping hazard will be serviced by leveling them with asphalt or grinding down the high points. While this is a temporary solution, property owners may also request to have their sidewalk replaced by taking advantage of a cost sharing program. This program is available to residential property owners who wish to have their sidewalk replaced in advance of the block-by-block program. The actual cost of reconstructing the sidewalk will be evenly split by the City and property owner.

On streets with planter strips the City will also replace the portion of a driveway that crosses the planter strip if it is badly deteriorated. The contractor performing the work has been offering homeowners the chance to replace the driveway between the sidewalk and their garage when the new sidewalk is being poured, but the City isn't paying for this work.

The sidewalks replaced earlier this year are on Sierra, Fairmont and Yosemite between Hope & Bush and on Church between Castro & Calderon. In May the project will include Dana between Bryant & Shoreline. Future years' plans for our neighborhood are shown below.

2002 Projects
Bryant from Evelyn to Mercy
Shoreline from El Camino to Villa
Anza from Loreto to Mercy
Mercy from Castro to Anza

2003 Projects
Velarde from Bush to Calderon
Loreto from Bush to Calderon
Villa from View to Houghton
Bush from Evelyn to Sierra
Oak from California to Church

2004 Projects
Dana from View to Calderon

For more information, contact Robert Kagiyama in Public Works: robert.kagiyama@ci.mtnview.ca.us or 903-6311.

OMVNA's Steering Committee Advocates Careful Review of Development at Bryant and California St.

A developer has presented plans to the City Council to redevelop 3 properties at Bryant and California. The Steering Committee sent the following e-mail to the City Council.

The OMVNA Steering Committee was very interested to hear of TishmanSpeyer's draft proposal for development of three corners of California and Bryant Streets.

Such an integrated project could have many benefits for the City. For example, this could be a means of providing additional public parking that would leave us with more valuable long-term assets than a parking structure on Lot 3. At the same time, we feel that because a good part of the land is currently owned by the City, this is a unique opportunity to create a development that responds directly to a variety of specific urgent community needs -- while at the same time earning a profit for the developer.

We would therefore prefer to see this proposal analyzed in the context of a consideration of what ways and means might be used to meet the City's goals, as articulated by the Council.

We strongly support the following goals:

1. A drugstore or full-service grocery store at California and Bryant. Downtown residents have been clamoring for these basic services in our neighborhood for years. The need for them will only increase with all the new housing and office space planned or proposed in that immediate area. New businesses of this type would clearly give a major boost to the downtown economy.

2. A substantial amount of affordable housing in this development. For example, at least 50% of the units could be affordable by families earning the Santa Clara County median income. This could be owned or rented units, but in any case a way must be found to guarantee that the purchase or rental price of these units remains affordable in perpetuity, not just for the initial occupants.

Although this is certainly not the point to talk about design proposals in detail, we would like to express our continuing general concern that all new buildings should be compatible with the surrounding Old Mountain View houses and commercial structures.

We hope that, in doing its work, City Staff will take advantage of the expertise of members of the Downtown Committee, its Economic Development Subcommittee, and community groups such as the Alliance for Affordable Housing.

We look forward to further discussion of this proposal, within a goal-oriented context. Thank you very much for consideration of our input.

Respectfully yours,
Steering Committee, OMVNA

History Corner: Great Mt. View Naming Flap of 1930
By Lisa Windes

In 1852, Jacob Shumway, John Snyder, Robert W. Canfield, and other pioneers met in Carr's General Store to discuss the new San Francisco to San Jose stage line that would stop there. They decided to call their stop Mountain View because they saw the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west and the Diablo Range to the east.

Almost 80 years lager, a controversy about the town's name was front-page news from October to December in 1930. The editor of the Los Gatos Mail-News believed it was only a publicity stunt. But Mountain View's name had been deleted from the Sunnyvale Naval Air Station, Moffett Field because it alarmed congressmen to imagine a dirigible base in the mountains. (See the Dec. 2000 "History Corner" for details.)

P. Milton Smith, editor of the Mountain View Register Leader was the instigator and most eloquent supporter of a name change. Mr. Smith's opening salvo was a front page editorial appearing in the October 24, 1930, issue of his newspaper. Entitled "Let's Change the Name of this City to Miramonte," he explained that the name Mountain View is too long, so people abbreviated it to Mt. View -- which made him angry.

"People who live half a state away from here and see that name "Mt. View" on a fruit can, or a box of prunes, or the side of a freight car, immediately think of some little jerkwater mail box set on the side of a hill somewhere in the mountains. This city is too big, and too modern, and too much of everything else that is nice and good, to go along any further with a dinky little old abbreviated half-pint moniker like Mt. View."

"Miramonte," Mr. Smith's favored choice, is Spanish for "View of the Mountains," and he felt it would be difficult to abbreviate or replace with a nickname. Interestingly, the editor and some local businessmen believed that Mountain View would soon be incorporated into Palo Alto, just like Mayfield and the district would retain the town's new name.
"I believe the people in the rest of Palo Alto would like it better, and come to love us sooner, if we had a nice Spanish name," wrote Smith.

The editorial ended on a vague call to circulate a petition, "that could be presented to somebody, somewhere, and then we could wait and see what happened."

The heavy response ensured that the issue remained on the front page for weeks. Some letters offered advice. Otis Fellows, Asst. Postmaster for Mountain View said, "pick a one-word name that is short and snappy." R. H. Brotherton, grandson of R. W. Canfield (one of the pioneers who came up with the name) advised "The name should be easy to remember, easy to spell, easy to speak, and of pleasing sound."

Others had their own ideas, especially after it was discovered that "Miramonte" was already taken. Fremont was a popular choice. Other suggestions included Hoover, Hooverton, Hooverville, Wilbur, and Free (after Arthur Free).

Captain Sheldon, a "newcomer," suggested calling the city "El Rancho Pastoria de Las Borregas,", Borregas for short, after the old Spanish land grant for most of Santa Clara Valley. Even Mr. Smith couldn't support this one. After commending Sheldon's enthusiasm, he pointed out "Ranch of the Pastures of the Sheep", or Sheep for short, would not help Mountain View's image.

Ed Cohen wrote, "let me suggest a combination of Aztec and Yiddish. The latter being a contraction of 'mazuma' -- "Montezuma." It means "Mountains of Money." Mr. Smith replied that people "would be calling it 'Zuma before sundown, and 'Zuma means nothing but the small change."

In spite of the creativity of advocates for change, there was a sizable response from "Mountain View" supporters. Some denied there was a problem, "My correspondents always spell the name in full." Others pointed out that other cities had nicknames or abbreviations, L.A., Frisco, and Paly, for example.

E.G. Dorman, a salesman, found the name romantic, "Mountain View! Isn't that enough to make the eyes of any prairie person sparkle?"

Supporters of renaming the city were primarily "newcomers," who had only lived in Mountain View 20 or 30 years. "Old Timers," content with "Mountain View" came to visit Mr. Smith. J. S. Mockbee walked into the editor's office and said, "Say, what is this, just some of your hot air or what?" N.S. Gerrells objected to "Miramonte" because it reminded him of the name of his cat Mary Mouser.

In the end, it wasn't the colorful individuals, but business and civic interests that held the day. The expense of changing letterhead was discussed, but more importantly, as the Native Daughters of the Golden West charged, "such a change would reduce the status of the city to that of an unknown town." Atlases and maps would show conflicting names and confuse people wanting to move here.

Mr. Smith wrote of his many friends who reminded him that Mountain View is a pretty name. He laughed when typesetters at his own newspaper abbreviated Mountain View in a headline. But he admitted, "'Mt. View' gags me."

Correction to Article About Ugo Mancini

In last month's History Corner article about the Mancini house, we wrote that its original owner, Ugo Mancini, allowed neighbors to tour it for 50 cents when it was first built. Donald E. Mancini, Ugo's grandson, wrote us about the article. In general he and his family were happy that his grandparents were remembered and recognized, but he also wanted readers to know "that the tour that Ugo charged fifty cents for was a donation that went to the Boy Scouts of America, and to Italy where he built a shelter for children who had been abandoned or had lost their parents." We appreciate the additional information, and have corrected the version of the story that appears on the web.

The Newsletter strives for accuracy and balance, and appreciates input from its readers.