Many of my neighbors spoke to me about their concerns over what would happen if they did not have the permits before the event and I told them that the City informed me that only warning citations would be issued. However, many of my neighbors decided that they did not even want to take the chance of getting warning citations and decided to either park their cars in other neighborhoods, or drive somewhere outside of Old Mountain View for the day.
When I walked around Old Mountain View on Saturday, it looked like a ghost town. There were hardly any cars on the street at all. It will be very interesting to see what the next event day is like, and to see if the rest of us receive our permits by then. However, it would have been much more interesting if Council had followed staff's advice to wait and see what the impacts (if any) were to traffic and parking and then coming up with a plan, rather than fast tracking it and having it turn into the fiasco it has become.
Staff has done the best job they can to implement the changes, but they were not given the resources or the time necessary. There was absolutely no need for Council to rush this through and now the residents of Old Mountain View are the ones who have to deal with the problems the Council created. I hope that in the future, the Council will choose to wait to get information before they make significant changes.
Jim Neal
Candidate, Mountain View City Council
https://electneal.org (Campaign Website)
info@electneal.org
