OMVNA Newsletter

June, 2001
Volume 13, Number 4

Come Celebrate Summer

Get Involved! Respond to Emergencies

Get Involved! Join the Steering Committee

Get Involved! Deliver the Newsletter

The Purpose of OMVNA

Help Catch a Peeping Tom

The Downtown Beat: Construction Update

Police Department Offers Online Reporting System

Final Mtn. View Segment of Stevens Creek Trail Set for City Council Review

History Corner: Spanish Settlers Crossed 3 Oceans to Live in Mountain View

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Masthead

OMVNA Steering Committee

Get Involved! Respond to Emergencies

OMVNA's Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is made up of individuals who are willing to help their neighbors when disaster strikes. The group, which was formed early last year, is seeking new volunteers.

CERT can't realize its full potential without the involvement of people like you. Now is the time to become involved -- you'll be helping to ensure that your family and your neighborhood are properly prepared for "The Big One."

To sign up or get more information, contact Tim Johnson (962-8609) or Aaron Grossman (969-4031). You'll find them at the Ice Cream Social, and they'll be eager to talk to you about the many ways you can contribute to CERT. They may even share some exciting news that we're not allowed to print yet.

Get Involved! Join the Steering Committee

The OMVNA Steering Committee is a group of eight neighbors who are elected at the Fall General Meeting. Each year a Nominating Committee is formed to recommend a slate of officers for the coming year. The Nominating Committee strives to create a Steering Committee that reflects a balance between experience and fresh faces, between owners and renters, and between the different parts of our neighborhood.

If you would like to join the Steering Committee you should begin by attending some of the upcoming meetings. Then make your interest known to Steering Committee Chair Jean McCloskey (965-9724). The meeting dates and locations are printed in the masthead of the Newsletter. We look forward to seeing you at our July meeting!

Get Involved! Deliver the Newsletter

As the number of residences in our neighborhood grows, and as newsletter delivery people (and others) are driven out of town by rising housing costs, we have vacancies for some of our delivery routes. This is a great way to help OMVNA. Call Julie Lovins (964-0368) if you would like to join the delivery crew.

Two downtown routes are open, each about 40 newsletters for businesses on Castro and nearby.

Another route has 80 newsletters, mostly delivered in large bunches to apartment buildings and a few other sites along Calderon and Dana. Daytime delivery is needed to access the apartment managers. We could split the route if two people volunteer.

We also need two delivery people who would be willing to deliver to the west side of Castro.

The Purpose of OMVNA

Ever wonder what OMVNA's reason for being is? According to the by-laws adopted in 1992, our purposes are:

• Encouraging community responsibility, identity and pride.
• Collecting and disseminating information of interest to residents.
• Providing a forum for the expression of wishes and grievances of residents.
• Acting as a liaison between neighborhood residents and the City of Mountain View.
• Promoting cultural, civic, social, education and recreational activities for the benefit of the residents of the Old Mountain View neighborhood.
• Coordinating with and supporting other community organizations and activities as appropriate.

Help Catch a Peeping Tom

There have been problems on Oak and Sierra streets with a Peeping Tom. He's been to a couple of homes several times over the past few months. If you see anything suspicious in progress, please call 911.

While Old Mountain View continues to be a very safe place to live, these incidents serve to remind us to take some precautions in order to keep it that way. Don't leave windows and blinds open at night. Install motion-sensing lights. Get to know your neighbors better and watching out for each other.

You can also ask the Police to do a safety check of your home or help you form a neighborhood watch group. You can also obtain a list of registered sex offenders who live in the area.

The Downtown Beat: Construction Update
By Julie Lovins (964-0368 lovins@concentric.net)

The most obvious thing going on downtown continues to be construction. The OMVNA Newsletter readers who live closest to Castro will have (we hope) a City-produced construction update delivered with this issue of the Newsletter.

The new Main Post Office on Hope Street is scheduled to open on June 25. The temporary location at 357 Castro will therefore be closing. It seems like a remarkably rapid construction process, and we'll all be glad to have a new, larger Post Office in the neighborhood.

The Mountain View Hotel on Castro, which has been closed for several years (except for two retail businesses on the ground floor), was a major topic at the May Downtown Committee meeting. The discussion focused on ways to help the owner restore useable space that would benefit the community.

In the near future the renovation of Meyer Appliance will be finished. We will also see a sparkling new facade for the former Town Club and the travel agency just north of it, as it is converted to a cheerfully decorated restaurant. The pedestrian walkway next to the property will also get a facelift, making the trip to Lucy's Tea House more enjoyable.

As detailed in a recent issue of the Mountain View Voice, the idea of a downtown lunch shuttle serving North Bayshore employees has been nixed for now. However, the door has been left open for future reconsideration, probably if there is a sufficient show of enthusiasm by potential users and financial supporters. Ideas about other shuttles around town have also been floated. Please let me know if you have a particular interest in this.

Also on the transportation front, a major study of the system used in selling downtown parking permits is under way. (These are issued to businesses and some residents.) This is just one piece of the puzzle of how to encourage efficient use of parking spaces, a sometimes-scarce downtown resource.

Police Department Offers Online Reporting System

The Mountain View Police Department has a new "Online Reporting System" which allows community members to file certain types of police reports through the Internet.

The system is designed for events in which the criminal activity is not in progress and the suspect is unknown. Crimes that can be reported this way include: theft, vandalism, auto burglary, lost property, credit card & check fraud, suspicious activity, and traffic complaints.

The service can be found on the web at http://www.mvpd.gov Click on the "On-Line Reporting" link in the left hand navigation bar.

Final Mtn. View Segment of Stevens Creek Trail Set for City Council Review

On Wednesday, June 27 the City Council will decide whether and how to complete the Stevens Creek Trail. The portion under consideration is called Reach 4, Segment 2 and runs from El Camino to Mountain View High School.

The Parks and Recreation Commission has recommended that the new segment of the trail have five access points. On the west side: Sleeper Avenue Open Space, Kentmere Court, and El Camino Real. On the east side: the Dale Avenue / Heatherstone Way curve and the former Emporium site.

Anyone wishing to comment on this topic or receive more information should call Fred Irwin or Joan Jenkins at the City. The phone number is 903-6311.

Although the Council meeting begins at 7:30 pm, the exact time this item will be heard depends on the number of items on the agenda.

History Corner: Spanish Settlers Crossed 3 Oceans to Live in Mountain View
By Lisa Windes

Spanish involvement with Mountain View began in 1842 when the Governor of Mexico gave a land grant to the Castro family. The Castros were descendants of a member of the Anza Expedition. Their 14 square mile ranch included what are now Mountain View and Sunnyvale.

A new set of Spanish immigrants came in the early 1900's. They arrived from an unexpected direction -- crossing the Pacific from Hawaii!

When the US annexed Hawaii in 1898, sugar plantation owners were searching for new labor sources because the Chinese exclusion laws eliminated their traditional labor supply. The U.S. government and plantation owners sponsored free trips to Hawaii, promising employment at a dollar per day, housing, medical care, and schools. Immigrants were required to sign a contract promising to work a predetermined length of time (up to 10 years!) to pay for their passage and the company's expenses before they could go elsewhere.

Over 8,000 Spaniards, called Los Viajeros (The Travelers), eagerly signed the contracts to escape government and economic instability. They were attracted by the high pay -- five times what they earned in Spain -- and the opportunity to move to the US mainland when their contracts were up. From 1907-13, there were seven voyages from Gibraltar around Cape Horn to Hawaii. The journey by steamship averaged 56 days. Living conditions on board were very poor. Many immigrants became ill and some died.

Upon arrival the travelers went to La Casa de Inmigración in Honolulu, a fenced area with barracks and tents where they regained their health before going on to the plantations. Los Viajeros worked rain or shine, sick or well, 6 days a week. Although schools were provided, children were encouraged to work too. Living was expensive in Hawaii, so the higher pay didn't go very far.

Dissatisfied with conditions in Hawaii, Los Viajeros looked to California where friends and family wrote to them of better jobs, better wages, and better housing. To pay the $25 per person fare for the 7-day trip to San Francisco, the Spaniards supplemented their income by raising cows, chickens, and vegetables.

After living in Hawaii, San Francisco's cold weather was a shock, and most of the Spaniards moved on to the Santa Clara Valley. Many moved to Mountain View and settled in the Washington/Jackson Street area. They called it la charca de la rana (the frog pond) because the low lying land flooded during the winter rains. They started working in fields, orchards, and canneries. Eventually Los Viajeros leased land for farming, later purchasing farmland or small businesses for themselves.

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