City celebrates spring with pop-up park events

The city of Mountain View is scheduled to host a series of pop-up events at local parks in the coming weeks to celebrate spring.

City staff will bring lawn games, crafts, music and a bubble show to a different park from 4-6 p.m. every other Thursday, according to the city's website. The events are free and open to all ages.

The next park pop-up is slated to be held at Wyandotte Park on April 28. Klein Park is set to follow on May 12 and then Bubb Park on May 26. A pop-up event at Pioneer Park was originally slated for April 14, but was rescheduled to June 9 due to rain.

For more information and to learn about other city events, visit mountainview.gov/specialevents.

Police Activities League plans "carnival-style" event for young people

The Mountain View Police Activities League is planning to host a Youth Extravaganza event at Rengstorff Park from 4-7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 22.

The gathering is being billed as a "carnival-style" event meant to promote health and mental wellness for young people. It is free for Mountain View youth and families, and will include a picnic meal. Activities will include basketball toss, an obstacle course, an arts and crafts station, ring toss and cornhole, Mountain View Public Safety Foundation Executive Director Amber Wilson said.

"With the amount of loneliness, depression and despair the pandemic placed on the youth, we recognized the need to bring happiness, joy and fun back into their lives," Wilson said in an email.

The Police Activities League is a program of the Mountain View Public Safety Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that supports the city's police and fire departments.

For more information about the Youth Extravaganza, visit mvpsf.org/event/pal-youth-extravaganza.

Foothill to host free astronomy lecture

Foothill College is hosting a free, online astronomy lecture next week from astrobiologist Charles Lineweaver of Australian National University.

Lineweaver's talk, titled “Cosmobiology: Recent Progress in Cosmology, Exoplanets and the Prerequisites for Life in the Universe," is part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series and is slated to be presented at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27.

In his lecture, Lineweaver will explain the progress that's been made in understanding how life fits into the broader cosmic picture and attempt to answer the question of what life on Earth can tell us about life elsewhere in the universe, according to a press release from Foothill College.

Lineweaver has a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley and studies exoplanetology, cosmobiology and cancer, according to the press release.

To watch the lecture, visit youtube.com/SVAstronomyLectures.