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With residential and corporate developers beating a path to their door and companies like search-engine giant Google firmly entrenched at Bayshore, the state of the city looked decidedly rosy to Mayor Laura Macias and city manager Kevin Duggan during a two-hour presentation Monday.
The city’s annual report was brimming with good news, including another year of increased revenues and numerous capital improvements, such as an $18 million parking garage, a $19.8 million water tank and a $16 million senior center.
To top it off, the city’s population is expected to increase 10 percent in the next 10 years, possibly a conservative guess since there are currently 3,400 housing units in the pipeline.
“I can’t think of another city that has gone through all the changes Mountain View has,” said county Supervisor Liz Kniss before the presentation Monday.
Duggan started the presentation by showing off the Mountain View Senior Center, which opened last year and has been so popular its parking lot reaches capacity daily. He also talked about Devonshire neighborhood park, which opened last year, and mentioned plans for Sierra Vista park, which were formalized Tuesday.
The eight-million-gallon water tank under Graham Middle School’s sports field got some attention, with a series of photos showing the various phases of construction during the city’s award-winning-partnership with the school district.
While on the subject of water, Duggan explained a $15 million plan to restore the city’s water pipes in conjunction with Palo Alto. He didn’t forget the re-plastering of the Rengstorff Park pool.
“We take pride in the little things and the big things as well,” Duggan said.
City staff couldn’t resist adding some music to a series of photos showing construction of the Bryant Street parking garage from the top of the building across the street. The music: Strauss’ theme used in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
“I bet you’ve never seen a presentation for a parking garage like that,” Duggan joked.
Longs Drugs is expected to open on the first floor of the structure this fall.
Macias’ presentation touched on several highlights from the past year, and on plans for the coming year. For example, last year Mountain View became the first city in the country to have free WiFi Internet access citywide thanks to Google. Only last week, Google announced that 15,000 people use the system every month, with a 10 percent increase every month.
As for the coming year, Macias said community gardens are slated to open on the Hetch Hetchy right-of-way near Beatrice Street, and that a bridge over Moffett Boulevard would connect the last section of the Stevens Creek Trail that currently requires a street crossing.
For more highlights from Mayor Macias’ speech, see the full story here: http://www.mv-voice.com/story.php?story_id=3298
