Don't do it. Can you imagine the traffic nightmares? And the terrorists would salivate at the opportunity. No, just no.

YES, MOUNTAIN VIEW---DO IT. Build whatever you need to build, and the world will come. LETS BE POSITIVE. Think about it, us locals won't have to travel far. By 2020, the HSR will be here (hopefully) and many visitors to the World Expo here will use it.
The positive possibilites are endless.
John the Man, you can move away...

I'd like to see this idea explored. I was 9 and living in Olympia when the 1962 Seattle World's Fair was held. The fair was good for the economy and left behind some architectural icons including the Space Needle and the Monorail. I think every relative we had came to visit us and then see the World's Fair that year.

I can understand John the Man's concerns about traffic. But terrorists? Do you think they're all lying in wait for the World Expo to do something?

Don't make decisions to crawl into a hole and stop doing high-profile events. Isn't this just playing into their hands? Their goal isn't to kill people, it's to terrorize them. If you are paralyzed with terror then they won.

I'm a world's fair historian that has been to 8 world's fairs so far. I'm really excited about the possibilities of finally having another world's fair in the United States. We haven't had one in the USA since 1984... or in North America since Vancouver's Expo 86.

It wouldn't be the first time a university was created by a world's fair. The University of Washington started out as the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.

Getting Expo 2020 won't be a cake walk, though. There are other US cities looking into a 2020 world's fair as well as cities in Thailand, Turkey, China, Denmark, etc.

In addition to my ExpoMuseum.com site and my podcast (the World's Fair Podcast), I created 2020WorldsFair.com and Expo2020USA.com to help get the word out.

Urso Chappell
ExpoMuseum.com

In 1997 the NASA Ames Open House drew 200,000 people. it was a complete traffic nightmare and it was held on a saturday so there was no competition with workday traffic. Lightrail does not move nearly enough people to make a dent in the impact. HSR would need to have the station AT moffett field given the number of people anticipated. shuttles to/from the caltrain corridor would be stuck in the gridlock that would be the local roads surrounding moffett field. and yes, federal facilities are apparently targets of terrorists, as are any event that draws so many people. Add in a few high-profile landmarks (the big wind tunnel, Hangar 1, and possibly something added for the expo) and it is indeed a likely target. Security would incredibly burdensome and only aggravate the traffic issue further. This is a BAD idea. I think having it in the US would be great, but Moffett Field is not a good idea. Maybe if they built a high capacity elevated transport between caltrain/HSR and Moffett, but then again, HSR is likely to never happen and that high capacity link would be underutilized afterwards.

A UC campus? Of course! We have to give reason for that huge number of high paying foreign students at Foothill a convenient place to finish the remainder of their education. How considerate of us...

Let's bury our head in the sand...
Let's hope the boogey man doesn't come our way...
Let's not trade 6-months of inconvenience for tens of thousands of LOCAL jobs, improved infrastructure, a massive increase in tax revenue, a UC campus, remodeling and upgrading Hanger One and possibly using it as a Smithsonian Museum after the Expo.

No I say... NIMBY!

Just remember to build some big levees. Moffet Field is below the projected mean high tide for 2020.

Sorry, the burrowing owl has laid claim to lots of that land, and the rest is just a festering toxic waste dump...or so I've been hearing the last 10 years.

ALL of the benefits they are claiming will enure LONG beyond the six-months of inconvenience. Along with enduring benefits, there are impacts that need to be considered and mitigated as well. IF the plan is for a UC campus, a west coast Smithsonian, and the aforementioned 10s of thousands of jobs, we need to take a long, hard look at the impact on the immediate community and surrounding communities. The place used to be an active military base, but there was little communiting to/from Moffett for the military. If a UC campus (or smithsonian) would add significantly to the in/out traffic, this SHOULD be weighed against the economic and educational benefits. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a UC campus on the peninsula given my kids will looking for a college in the mid 2020s, but this is not a decision to be taken lightly. It will involve YEARS of heavy construction that will impact the immediate community. Traffic will increase substantially in an already congested area (101/85/237 corridor). The face of Mountain View/Moffett Field will change substantially (hopefully for the better). But, with all the deliberations that go into something as relatively miniscule as a housing development or shopping center, it seems odd that the first I hear of this is when our state's top elected official is pitching it to foreign leaders. It seems awfully presumptive to make the pitch without public discussion within the impacted communities. I mean seriously, NASA proposes a dozen flights a week and years of studies follow. This is BIG, and should be considered as such with the appropriate deliberations.

I believe that being a host for such an event would be of great importance to the Silicon Valley. What better place for a 2020 World Expo than this place? There is a need for jobs and a boost for the economy is critical. I'm almost sure, I won't be living in the bay area when this event happens, but I feel happy for trying to bring the Expo here.

Traffic concerns? That is really a lazy and very lame excuse. Have you ever wonder that there is a need to improve the availability and eficiency of the Public Transit? That's the key to your traffic issue; nothing else. We want the Expo Here!

wait a minute. buildings all along whisman road , middlefield road, and ellis street that have been vacant for 5 years plus now. theres an example of open spaced NOT being used by business and universities. and what of all that boarded up housing on moffet field that could be used to house the low income families that "thrive" here in mountain view? NONE of this makes any sense at all.

Worth pointing out that almost all of these expos - Shanghai, Hanover, Lisbon, Vancouver by a quick search - lose substantial amounts of money, usually over a billion. Who will pay for that? Mountain View? The state?

These vanity projects are always sold as leaving tons of infrastructure and jobs behind them, but if you're going to lose billions on the project, why not just spend the billion on the end-goal directly?

We need more jobs for the Bay Area.
We like to have another UC close to home.
No one likes Traffic Problem, but the risk can be mitigated.

Well, if the California can provide sufficient funding, I am sure there will be a solution. We can build freeway on top of freeway with fewer exit. Or we can get better public transit system in MV.

The environmental impact statement will take at least until 2020 and then the entire thing will be moot. There is NO WAY that a temporary Disneyland will ever be approved on a property that is highly toxic in areas, full of endangered species and bay-locked for sufficient access. A ferry? It's really shallow here, folks. Mountain View manages it's money very well...I hope that there is a big NO to this pipedream idea.

Mountain View may be a very different place 10 years hence. If we have transportation in place, we can put people up throughout Central Calif. If not, will they be sleeping in cars like the world cup??

Also, how much of the development of the area will depend on the Fair; will we turn down opportunities on the hope the fair will settle here??

Just adding to the fascinating questions above. A lot of good points were expressed.

Sorry guys, but I didn't even realize they still do world expos. I was under the impression that, while prestigious, things like the Olympics don't really bring that much revenue to the city, considering the cost. I guess if there's one in our backyard, I'd go. But how much money would the city (or the state) have to spend to make Mountain View a town that others would want to visit?

I don't know, UC Mountain View doesn't exactly have a good ring to it. What's wrong with Berkeley and Santa Cruz? If we can't even get enough interest to sustain the Foothill College Middlefield campus, how are we going to get funding for this UC Mountain View?

In the plans there was an addition of ferry service. Now that is a good idea for the city council to discuss. Having ferry service up and down the bay is a good idea. I'd love to take a ferry boat from Mtn. View to SF, or even to Vallejo. The station can be in Shoreline Park. Why not!!! Good way to get the cars off the roadways and freeways...
Someone mention this to the city council...

The UC is a great idea. An affordable and good school in the neighborhood, my kids can come home on weekends for laundry, who could ask for more?

When planning for these large scale venues (Olympics, World Expo, etc.) we need to fast forward our thinkng to beyond the event and look back to see if what we are left with is of benefit to the community and region, or if we're left to wonder "what were we thinking when we built this white elephant?"

Anyone care to consider the affect this will have on the 129th rescue wing and it's dedicated members. Without an airfield at moffett this wing can not exist. Is the city that willing to rid itself of this great wing and it's members that perform a critical mission. Are we willing to just move them somewhere else in California. I hope not. We owe them more than that especially with all they sacrifice year in and year out. If this plan comes true then say good bye to the 129th.

I noticed, in the artist's conception, that the runways are gone. Where will the Air Guard Rescue unit go?

I don't even know where to begin.

That artist's conception looks familiar. Hasn't Moffett Field already been proposed as an Olympics site? Of course, the Olympics didn't come here; and this World Expo may well go somewhere else, too. I notice San Francisco was listed as one of the potential US locations. If San Francisco wins, will they site the Expo at Moffett Field and call it San Francisco--wouldn't be the first time something in Santa Clara County was touted to the world as a San Francisco event.

I checked out Urso Chappell's ExpoMuseum.com site and found that from 1957-2008, only some of the listed expos had attendance figures, with numbers from 1-51 million. My hazy recollection of such events is that very few make money.

The article and letters above seem to agree that it will be 10 years before the next World Expo, but ExpoMuseum.com lists 19 world expos from 1957-2008--averaging less than 3 years between expos--and shows Shanghai (2010), Yeosu, Korea (2012) and Milan (2015), with potential expos in 2017 or '18 and 2020 with plenty of competition for the 2020 site. A sister site, expobids.com, explains that "sanctioned" (large) expos are held every 5 years (2015, 2020, ...) and "recognized" (not so large) expos are held in between.

If a world expo were held here in 2020, I think it would lose money--probably $2-5 billion. Who would pay the loss? Certainly not Mountain View.

On the other hand, we would get some serious infrastructure: The ferry, Caltrain, and VTA would all be built up; the buildings needed for a UC campus would be built (not free, of course); the big hanger would be refurbished; and, maybe our streets and highways will get their potholes fixed. The number of employed people would be impressive, to say the least.

Assuming attendance averages about 250,000 per day (a much smaller expo than Shanghai), how many hotels would be built? Where? How many restaurants would be built? Where? Could existing utilities handle the load?