A lot of courage shown by the editors to endorse the incumbents. Not. The endorsement of Lucas Ramirez could also turn out to be a jinx on him winning a seat. I remember when the Voice endorsed a clearly less qualified Alicia Crank who ended up finishing near last and a two time council race loser. Surprised Abe-Koga did not receive an endorsement.

Personally, I would not vote for the incumbents (Clark and McAlister) for lots of reasons - including that they were endorsed as candidates (last time and probably again) by big landlords and placed on the November ballot competing rent Measure W just to draw votes from the real rent control initiative (Measure V). Plus, the incumbents have endorsed VTA sales tax Measure B. If it passes, the VTA will no longer care about public opinion and will proceed to take the left lanes on El Camino Real for its infrequent "rapid transit" buses only - bringing other traffic to a near standstill most of the day.

Mountain View is in the midst of "hyper-gentrification". This is not a good thing. It is displacing longtime residents, disrupting and making unpleasant life for those that choose to live in a suburban environment, causing urban blight, making it unaffordable for new residents to move in. Our neighbor Palo Alto has woken up and elected a pro slo-growth city council. I would cast my vote behind a candidate who shared these views. Unfortunately all of the MV candidates seem to be more of the same development centric views as the current and previous unsatisfactory MV city councils. Either supported by the developers or with the misguided opinion that building more housing will trickle down to low/middle income residents rather than simply raising existing residences to everyone. Look at NYC and to see how that plan works. The only positive thing the city council did was award the North Bayshore development rights to LinkedIn rather than Google, which unfortunately seems to have failed - with underhanded swap deals. The city shouldn't do their planning in response to tech bubbles. I believe I am not alone in this sentiment if you look at some of the MV Voice commments that get a lot of resident upvotes. Where are the slo-growth candidates? I welcome comments from thiose who are on the ballot to earn my vote.

I guess the Voice editorial board members were not impressed by MA-K's past work on the Council. Or, maybe she wasn't giving them straight answers? ("the third issue" = "safety, open space and quality of life" - ah Margaret, that is three more issues!)
I also am going to pass on "mak" this election cycle. She has done some reasonable work on the county governmental organization committee (El Camino back in check) - maybe she would have been effective in cleaning up that tax payer fund sink? $1,000,000 golden parachute ????
M-AK is also seemly going to recycle her views on Bus Rapid Transit taking up El Camino lanes (her love of the VTA and it's process).
Sure she will consider running for County Supervisor when our current un-beatable Dem. retires. Can't wait (opps - yes I sure can wait).

@ recycled "mak" guess not,

Many of us remember the job that Abe-Koga did as a previous council member. Her experience is needed now, more than ever as the council is drifting in the wrong direction for our city.

People have a right to display who they support for council. If you do not agree with them, STOP stealing my yard signs that I have for her. It is happening all over my neighborhood.

Yes, I will vote for Abe-Koga, again!

It is unfortunate that anyone candidates' supporters are suffering yard sign stealing, which is against the law.

I don't know of any 'comic relief' on that (did you catch Stephan Colbert last night?)
But, Rhymes With Orange in the comics today had this 'comic relief', which I think applies to "mak" campaign;
Let's put the "re" in rebrand. REMAKES, REBOOTS, RETREADS ... that's where the edge is.

Apparently, the Voice editors thought there was no 'edge' to recycling MA-K again.

According to this MV Voice article, these are the candidates' positions:

NAME.............................W .......................V
1. Lucas Ramirez .............. YES......................YES
2. Margaret Abe-Koga............YES.......................NO
3. Thida Cornes .................NO.......................NO
4. Greg Coladonato ..............NO.......................NO
5. Ken "Kacey" Carpenter....... YES......................YES
6. Chris Clark .................YES.......................NO
7. Lisa Matichak ................NO.......................NO
8. John McAlister...............YES.......................NO

Election 2016: Council race finds Mountain View at pivotal juncture

Web Link

According to this MV Voice article, these are the candidates' positions:

NAME...............................W ..........................V
1. Lucas Ramirez ................ YES.........................YES
2. Margaret Abe-Koga..............YES.........................NO
3. Thida Cornes ..................NO..........................NO
4. Greg Coladonato ...............NO..........................NO
5. Ken "Kacey" Carpenter......... YES.........................YES
6. Chris Clark ...................YES.........................NO
7. Lisa Matichak .................NO..........................NO
8. John McAlister.................YES.........................NO

Mark,

I am somewhat disappointed. I attempted six (6) time to comment (see below) on your article:
"Election 2016: Council race finds Mountain View at pivotal juncture"


Is there something wrong with the website?
Mark,

I am somewhat disappointed. I attempted six (6) time to comment (see below) on your article:
"Election 2016: Council race finds Mountain View at pivotal juncture"


Is there something wrong with the website?

According to this MV Voice article, these are the candidates' positions:

NAME...............................W ..........................V
1. Lucas Ramirez ................ YES.........................YES
2. Margaret Abe-Koga..............YES.........................NO
3. Thida Cornes ..................NO..........................NO
4. Greg Coladonato ...............NO..........................NO
5. Ken "Kacey" Carpenter......... YES.........................YES
6. Chris Clark ...................YES.........................NO
7. Lisa Matichak .................NO..........................NO
8. John McAlister.................YES.........................NO

Jim Carrol Jones

Could you repost one more time the city council candidates positions on measure V & W. I'm still unclear after the third post.


What's wrong with me

@ recycled "mak" guess not,

With the number of people that I am hearing from, who have had their "mak" signs stolen, it suggests to me that somebody must be concerned about her winning council seat again, for the 3rd time.

Maybe it is the Voice editorial board doing it?

Anybody who follows the Voice knows that they have an agenda. Both the "news" column, and the "editorial" column are heavily slanted to one side.

According to this MV Voice article, these are the candidates' positions:

NAME...............................W ..........................V
1. Lucas Ramirez ................ YES.........................YES
2. Margaret Abe-Koga..............YES.........................NO
3. Thida Cornes ..................NO..........................NO
4. Greg Coladonato ...............NO..........................NO
5. Ken "Kacey" Carpenter........ YES.........................YES
6. Chris Clark ..................YES..........................NO
7. Lisa Matichak .................NO..........................NO
8. John McAlister................YES..........................NO

Measure V is a Horrific measure that deserves a No Vote.

My family owns a 5 plex, Mother and Father, sister and me.
We each have a 25% ownership interest in the property.

My sister lives in another state, she has a son and daughter.
The son wants to go to Santa Clara University next year.
The year after that, the daughter wants to go to Palmer College.
We have already been talking that they will be living at our 5 plex.

We want them to live in the only unit that has a 2 bedroom.
Under this new law, if it passes, we will not have any legal right to move in any family member, if it is occupied.
You will have to have a 50% ownership interest first, and then go ask permission first from the rent board.

Each of us has a 25% interest, we have no legal right to do this as you first need a 50% interest!
How can this be even legal.

How can any of you justify this!

How can anyone support a council member or a candidate, that supports this measure.

We will just be continuing with these divisive acts against minority groups in our city if we send divisive candidates into the position of city council members.

Our city used to be a tolerant one. Our councils represented everyone, fairly an equally.
Now we have become like Washington and brought that nasty politics to our city, we no longer look at people and guarantee that everyone has all the same rights as others, but now it is about group politics to see who can we take rights away from to give to others.

"endorsed a clearly less qualified Alicia Crank..."

Clearly!

One thing I was glad to see is that none of the eight candidates is rushing to eliminate weekly garbage pick-ups as part of plans to implement citywide a new food scrap/yard waste collection program. Unfortunately, the current city council is scheduled to consider this proposal on December 13th, after the election but before the new members are seated. Hopefully, the vote will be delayed, but in the meantime, more than 250 residents have signed a petition urging the council to continue weekly garbage pickups in Mountain View. All of our neighboring cities have food scrap collection programs while maintaining weekly garbage collection. Go to change.org to read the petition and add your name.

Web Link

Here is the link to the petition to keep weekly garbage collection. It will be shared with both the current and new city council members: Web Link

@ Sue,

You are right, you will not be able to do a family eviction if measure V passes. It's a power grab.

You will not get any answers, from any questions like that from the people who wrote that measure, from people at the Voice, or from candidates who support taking over people's business-property, which is measure V.

Measure V is 27 pages long. It is impossible to put 99% of what's in it, on the voters ballot guide.

This measure exempts all newer apartments built after 1994 from this rent control.

It exempts houses, townhouses, condos, duplexes.

It is up to us to get informed about what is in it, and then educate our friends and neighbors.

If you support rent control. Vote yes on W.

Vote NO on V.

I will vote no on both.

All you need to do is look at what has been happening from the people who are the proponents of measure V. They do nothing but use scare tactics and call other names who do not agree with them, and keep repeating false information.

I still would love to see a public debate,in council chambers with people from both sides debate what is in this measure. But that will not happen as they are attempting a power grab and they do not want the truth to come out.

If anyone has a question about measure V or W, post it here and I will do my best to answer your question.
And that includes copying and pasting actual language from the measure to prove my point.

Vote No on V.

This issue is to important to be buried on the third page.

Let's keep the discussion going.