Gang activity? Drug deal gone bad? Fighting over a girl? Let's see the next police department news release.

These things happen at Rengstorff park.

That kid is my cousin and he didn't get stabbed one time, he got stabbed eleven times. But why was he out that late with his girlfriend. He got lucky that they didn't do anything to her just pushed her out of the way. But it's also my cousin's fault for posting things he ain't supposed to and hanging out with gang members. He is in the hospital thankfully better. All we can do now is pray for him.

So pleased that this was not a gun shooting. So pleased that the victim will recover. So pleased that a person wasn't killed with perhaps others hurt also.

Thanks for sharing more information. I'm truly sorry about your cousin.

This is a chilling reminder for the rest of us to keep an eye on our children's online and social activities and know where they are at all times --- and/or who they are hanging out with.

I'll be staying away from rengstorff for a while.

This is still really alarming. If what "Dope" says is correct in that the victim was stabbed 11 times, that's not just a small thing. Just as bad as a shooting in my book.

Its like Afghanistan...agencies try to clean it up, but there are simply too many people in the area intent on doing too many crime related activities. The park is their safe place, not ours. I don't blame the cops for throwing in the towel on getting the gangs and crime out. That battle cannot be won; at least not with just the MVPD

Sorry Dope, your cousin brought this on to himself in some manner, and may have nearly had the girl badly injured or killed. Better pray for him turning around his life or there will likely be more of this to come.

A 1 bedroom apartment in Mountain View goes for $2,000-6,000/MONTH yet we have this kind of activity and these gangs still taking over our parks.

Homes essentially start at $1.5M.

How?? How do small, hard-working families struggle to live here but gangsters stab each other, possibly 11 times, on random Sunday nights in our city?

@Silicon Valley

I don't have your question, but there is something that I have wondered. I've never had an answer, and I still don't.

I wonder if Mountain View as a city is at a crossroads of deciding what it wants to be. There are several scenarios, but three that come to my mind:

- There is trying to preserve the charming little Mountain View that has been for 50 years, since the orchards and fields got torn up for a mixture of business and residence. This one has been dying over the years; and probably is dead by now.

- There is acknowledging the high cost of living, and becoming an affluent low-crime community (like Los Altos or Saratoga). This is hard to do with a renter population. Unless you have affluent high-income renters. This could happen.

- There is becoming an actual city. Which it looks like we are. With distinct neighborhoods, a commerce center, a few parks, and crime hotspots. With that comes all the commensurate challenges. Neighborhoods that get the cops on bikes, and neighborhoods that get the cops in full riot gear. Those who model after San Francisco or other bigger cities seem to be guiding us in this direction.

In the latter, criminal activities are going to happen. The best you can do is ride herd on it. San Francisco and Oakland have had their share of police issues (between officer misconduct, shootings, etc). I think they are sad and tragic things, but normal given what an urban center is.

It's easy to be tourist-minded, and think of SFMOMA and GG Park and whatnot. But that doesn't explain what happens in dark corners of the Mission or the Tenderloin. It's easy to think of Central Park and the East Village, and not think of what happens just a few blocks north. It's easy to think of Leicester Square and the West End, and not think of shadier parts of the East End, or people getting mugged in the tube station at night. It's easy to take photos of the National Mall and the monuments in Washington DC, but just a few blocks over are places I wouldn't want to walk alone at night (much less a lady or an elderly person or a child).

But we live here. We need to think it through. And understand without being reactive that whatever we choose has consequences that we must face. And if we want to be a friendly and neighborly city in spite of growth and development, then we need to face it together. As civil, respectful, and active citizens.

That's what I think of, anyway.

Argh.

s/don't have your question/don't have an answer to your question/g

Silicon Valley, look up Rengstorff Park on a map and take note of the surrounding "neighborhood". You'll have your answer.

I know the area; it's not great by any means but it's still quite costly. I live in Monta Loma; houses sell for $1.6M+ and it's a quite safe neighborhood....yards away from Rengstorff and that scares me.

Latham Street- I'd never feel safe walking there but I know a lot of young families who live there and I also know rent is $2,000+ for a one bedroom so my point and question remains the same.

AC's points are interesting. My dislike about this incident and area is that these juveniles are in our parks, schools (that's a BIG one for me- Monta Loma Elementary is a 7 but could have been be so much better), and hanging out on the street corners day and night.

This is a much bigger problem than one stabbing, ironically.

Just like many people in south Palo Alto feel like the love from city council goes to north Palo Alto, I often feel that the love from MV city council goes to downtown and south mountain view (Huff/Bubb/Cuesta park areas). We've given up on Rengstorff/Latham/California/etc and subsequently the gangs that hang there. Is this what we want for Mountain View?

You simply can't price out everyone. Put 2-3 families in any house and the cost to live there is dispersed greatly. The teenagers of those families don't really have to pay rent so they are free to stab others. That's how it happens. The question is how do we stop it. The answer is police walking a beat...not driving, but walking. That's how you stop it, but the cops need to be on board first.

The police are only part of the answer. When we had the 2 rival gangs that lived in the city in the 1980's, we had a city council that turned a blind eye to the problem, many believed it was because the gangs
where a minority group and the council did not want to offend them.

There where many neighborhood meetings with the city and you had apartment managers complaining that they where in fear of their lives just walking the property. Many said that they carried a firearm for self defense.

It was only when we had the first drive by shooting and it made national news and a newspaper called part of our city "gang central" then the city council acted and gave instructions to the Chief of PD to stop it. It took years to get it under control but what really ended it was the Dot.Com era of the 1990's. With the escalating rents at that time and property owners fixing up apartments, only then the gangs moved out to less expensive areas. Then the police department also disbanded the gang unit.

@The Truth

Thank you. I think the background that you shared with us is actually quite important.

But it also does speak to the observation I made. We may be at the moment where we become a high-priced, affluent, and exclusive community. That would certainly make it safer.

I've been pulled over by Los Altos PD for things like, "Sir, I thought you should know that you have a tail light bulb out, which you really might want to fix before someone actually gives you a ticket." Not much by way of stabbings or shootings, certainly.

I wouldn't be able to afford to live here if we did that. But I really couldn't complain. I've lived in Mountain View these last 23 years because it's just been the best place to live. Good work/life balance, and close to affluent communities with low crime. Seriously, when I moved here in '93, I thought of it as a young person's first step toward the idyllic American dream of a house and a white fence and a yard. And as the dotcoms rolled in, I accepted that I wouldn't be able to afford the house and fence and yard here; it's just too expensive. But I've stayed. Still a renter after 23 years, rising rents and all.

Life has taken its toll, and I'm not so young anymore, and my income doesn't increase like it used to. I may not be able to afford to live here if the costs continue to rise; but how can I complain when those same reasons which have caused the rising costs (business, economy, majority rental city) are the same reasons I've stayed here?

Or... we could truly urbanize. Honestly, either scenario wouldn't look too good for me, because there are rising costs either way. But I could in conscience find grounds to complain if I got priced out by urbanization. I get frustrated at people modeling Mountain View after big cities; because that hasn't been what this city has been about. But maybe it is becoming that. Maybe it will be that soon. I'll understand it, but I'll be sad of it.

But in scenario one, I'd bemoan the city I've loved, that I just could no longer afford. And in scenario two, I'd have the sourness that the city I've loved is well and truly dead and gone, and by the way I can no longer afford it.

The crime issues, important as they are, are plugged into a bigger picture. I hope we all keep our eyes on that bigger picture. Scenario one gives us a police force that gets cats out of trees. Scenario two means more vigilance, more PD, more infrastructure. Nothing wrong with either. Just the consequences.

Well I'd be all for cops getting out of their cars and walking the parks, getting to know who's out there by name. Less time in cars never hurt anyone.

It's sad that the anti-rent control fanatics are blaming this violence on poor people, knowing full well that pricing the poor out of this area is a way to keep them out.

With the assault on the middle class, we are headed toward a civil war. Shove disparity of wealth in people's faces hard enough and there will be a reaction. Rent control is a civilized form of balancing the unfairness, but if that doesn't pass, then expect a strong, perhaps violent reaction.

And who would be to blame? The answer is clear.

@unbeliveable,
I stated facts that happened at the time. My main point was, it is up to the city council to set the policy and to direct the agency's to follow them. There was nothing anti rent control about it.

There was one night in the late 1980's where 3 gangs members beat up and robbed 2 drunk guys below my window. I called the police and as I hung up, one of the gang members started smashing the windows on the first floor. I ran down stairs and out the door and the window smasher took off running. The other 2 split apart and the first one had a boom box and he swung it at my head, I ducked and pepper sprayed him in the face. The second guy came at me with a fist but pulled it back as he saw what happened to the first guy with the pepper spray. I ran after the window smasher and came by a parked car down the street, he was hiding by it and when I walked by he came out after me, I pepper sprayed him and he went down crying like a baby begging for some water.

Both pepper sprayed guys where caught by the police. The window smasher made a plea deal with the DA. The other one had attempted assault charges on him. He lived down the street in a well known gang apartment house. His parents hired a private investigator and did an investigation on me.

The morning of the trial, both a witness that saw this whole thing, and myself showed up in court for the trial. But before it got started, they made another plea deal and settled the case.

That gang apartment house was later sold and they evicted everyone in the building and remodeled the whole thing.

I lived thru those times, do not want to do it again. I have more stories that happened, including the first incident that happened to me that put me in the hospital. At that time you had to take a class to be allowed to have pepper spray, which I did and always carried it on me after that first incident.

@unbelievable- I'm not sure where you saw anti-rent control come through in the meaningful conversation above. I've appreciated this thoughtful dialogue that's provided some good insight, experience, and questioning.

But let's not call an apple an orange. Let's be honest. RE: rent control- If you price out crime, it usually leaves. Or it just bunks with 3 other families in one apartment, but I doubt that can last forever.

Anyway, I was going to say that rent control is a separate issue but you're right. It's really not.

This is my neighborhood. I have lived here many years, and I think that it is the most beautiful place in the world. I feel completely safe in any area around these blocks, and it is a shame that this stabbing had to occur here, considering how far Mountain View has come in terms of gang violence, and violence in general. For the families and friends effected by this, I give you my remorse, and hopefully all people who are thinking of joining gangs / other criminal things will think about incidents like this, and the people who are hurt by them, and realize what they are choosing to do is NOT the right path.