Last time I was in Castro Street for lunch, I was meeting a group from Sunnyvale, my carpool from Palo Alto, and others from Mountain View and Castro Street was the agreed half way point. Parking was difficult for the Sunnyvale and Palo Alto cars and since we were carpooling anyway alternative transportation would have been too time consuming.

The point of my post is that there is no synchronized parking system, no signs saying whether garages or lots are full and no parking app to show available anywhere in the area. This is the heart of Silicon Valley. I have been in other high tech centers in the world and all these areas are much farther advanced. Each garage has number of empty spaces and on which floor signs at each entrance with phone apps to pay for parking. The lots and garages are all on localized parking apps too.

It is embarrassing to find that Mountain View and Palo Alto are so behind the times when we take out foreign visitors for lunch and dinner and the only way to find parking is by circling around.

When is Silicon Valley going to catch up to the 21st century in basic infrastructure?

If we take the Uber and Lyft approach, there should be designated stopping points for them. Too often today they stop in the middle of the street to load and unload passengers and luggage. Thus they end up blocking traffic and creating hazardous driving conditions for everyone else.

Will paid parking help with the concern regarding spillover into adjacent residential areas? Too many tales of blocked trash collection and cars nosing into the driveway entrance to detail.

I know what we should do, we should build a massive rental complex across the street with no parking spaces. That will certainly ease things up! Aren't we such smart thinkers looking out for the city's residents....

We noticed that downtown Palo Alto has 10 times as many bike racks as downtown Mountain View. The bike racks in Palo Alto are full much of the time, which tells me that many people are biking there instead of driving. While not everyone can bike to Mountain View, if Palo Alto's racks are full, then those bikes do mean less cars trying to park. Quality bike racks are cheap and easy to install.

This part of the story is worth reading again: "New developments in the downtown area are partly to blame for the parking nightmare. Several recently built office buildings, including 871 West Evelyn Avenue and 920 Villa Street, opted to pay in-lieu fees instead of providing adequate parking, leaving the city down about 200 parking spaces relative to demand. All told, the city would need to build 236 new parking spaces to accommodate the peak parking demand on Friday evening." One has to wonder, how much were those "in-lieu fees", who received them and why haven't they gone to providing more parking in downtown Mountain View since they were paid specifically to circumvent the city requirements for new building developers to provide said parking? Maybe they have? Does anybody out there know the answers to these questions?

Businesses are reporting they are losing business because customers can't get there. So the council's solution is to make customers pay more one way or another (paid parking, valet, Uber, etc.) for the privilege of shopping there? I think the surrounding cities are going to be happy to welcome the new customers and businesses...

I got a card from the city that announced a public hearing on allowing a restaurant to use up some parking spaces for tables. Some kind of Poke restaurant.

Giving an incredibly valuable resource away absolutely free does tend to lead to shortages of that resource.

ban free street parking city wide. paid parking only

Merchants complain that they don't have enough patrons, patrons have no where to park. So the answer is to charge for parking? Because charging for parking will bring in more patrons?

New office buildings pay a fee to provide not enough parking for thier workers.

Idea = no more in lieu fees. Now how to fix the resulting mess...

For an area with so many " rocket scientists ", the lack of math skills when looking at parking problems is astounding..

1) NO MORE SPECIAL FEES TO ALLOW DEVELOPERS TO GET RID OF PARKING SPACES FOR THEIR TENANTS.

2) ADD A DAILY FEE TO DEVELOPERS THAT FORCE THEIR TENANTS TO USE ON-STREET PARKING. Hey, those public spaces serve THE PUBLIC in this parking shortage, so it is only fair that they pay their fair share for having their tenants use them. Developers: if you don't like this, THEN BUILD PROPER TENANT PARKING SPACES ON THE PROPERTY YOU BOUGHT! This solution works for other cities across the nation, why should it not work here...Or is it " follow the money " time again..

3) VTA runs trains with no people to nowhere. Add that wye at Ellis Street and force VTA to serve Northeast Bayshore housing along with the Googleplex and help solve the VTA ridership problem and the trains to nowhere problem at the same time. At least I hope that the VTA will do the job that they are ( highly ) paid to do this time, instead of seeing an empty train sit next to the terminus at Castro Street for all hours of the day. Or just FIRE people until better qualified " rocket scientists " make things work. That is how Denver's RTD Light Rail Project finally started to work. Money was spent on the Project and did not end up in someone's pocket...

2020 isn't actually that far away from 2016, considering that it takes a few years to build anything. Does anyone know if there were any plans previously made? I know that the city has been trying to sell parking lots for development for a while. I believe that they already have sold some. Our city council seems pretty clueless if this parking shortage is a surprise. Perhaps, I lack the skills of a politician and choose to be prepared.

What did the City do with all of the money they received from the 2+ new projects for the parking in Lieu fees????? There are a number of vacant lots owned by the City located in Downtown Mt. View that are more than adequate for new parking garages. The money the City received for parking in Lieu fees was enough to build parking structures to alleviate the problem!!! Is anyone asking that question???

Why don't we start by enforcing the parking laws that we have? There are tons of people parking in the garages all day long while they're at work whereas those spaces are supposed to be two hours maximum.

Just last Friday, as I was passing through Mountain View, I decided to stop for lunch. I always park in the parking structure next to CVS, to allow others to use street parking. After cruising for a space for over 30 minutes, I gave up. Not only is the parking impossible, but the clueless pedestrians with their phones and crossing anytime they want made it unsafe to drive along Castro and its side streets. I felt like I was in a different country.
The curious part was as I drove around, I noticed that two places I had in mind were gone and now some fusion place. Over the years, I have seen all my favorite places move away or close. Obviously Mountain View doesn't need my business, so I went to Sunnyvale....parked right in front.

@MV doesn't want my business
"...After cruising for a space for over 30 minutes, I gave up... Obviously Mountain View doesn't need my business, so I went to Sunnyvale....parked right in front."

Cool story, bro.

Except that it never happened. Anyone who lives in Mountain View (you list your neighborhood as Cuesta Park) knows where to find the parking in and around downtown at any time of day, in just a few minutes. And no one in their right mind cruises for a parking space for 30 minutes, even in downtown San Francisco or midtown Manhattan. Next time you're trying to park, take a stopwatch and start it when you arrive downtown. You'll spend a few minutes parking, and you'll be seated at your restaurant and have probably already ordered by the time 30 minutes have passed.

Existing parking lots downtown have been sold for development, eliminating countless more parking spaces once the constructuction begins. Why not be proactive, City of Mountain View, by installing robust bike racks near these lots NOW (which are currently woefully lacking), establishing carpool and uber/lyft incentives and easy drop-off/pick-up areas NOW, so that patrons of the downtown area can become accustomed to this before the chaos of construstruction begins?! I am confident both business owners and residents would be in favor of this.

I think the Valet and the uber/lyft ideas are great ones to pursue.
Avoid paid parking for all spots - it creates a different psychological feel about going downtown. It feels like what you have to "deal with" when you go to dense cities like SF and SJ. Keep the friendly "town" feel of MV, but have options like valet for people who want to have convenience and avoid walking a longer distance--and encourage uber/lyft shares.

We need a new Parking Structure as soon as possible, please stop delaying this and get started ASAP. Also no more high rises in the downtown area without enough parking for their use, do not accept a money instead of parking spaces.

All of the discussed ideas are not workable.

I'm astounded at how many people I know who live within one mile of DT but still choose to drive for small errands, parking blocks away then having to walk that distance to and from. I saw one VERY able bodied neighbor at BofA one day. He complained he had to look for parking for 10 mins. I told him I left the house 5 mins ago. When he drove home, I was already in my driveway to wave a nice "Welcome back" to him. Next time you can swing an errand on your bike, do it. It's much faster and stress free. Remember, if you're in a rush, take the fastest mode. That mode is the bike for most short in town errands and you get "front of shop" parking wherever you go.

All this talk of planning to build more parking structures is the opposite of future thinking. We currently devote up to 25% of our precious city space to parking. That's about to change.

Self-driving cars are coming...fast. Within 3-5 years they will hit the streets in a big way, the death rate from driving will drop by several orders of magnitude, and possibly within 10 years a move will be on to ban human driving completely. No one will need or even want to actually own their own car. At that point, cars will drop people off on Castro Street and leave.

Sometime in this time frame, devoting precious city space to parking will start to seem like the bizarre 20th Century anomaly it was rather than anything we should be spending money on moving forward.

In the meantime, maybe we can put a giant parking lot on some unused Moffet Field space and have a free electric shuttle running up and down Moffet/Castro all day? And we can close Castro Street to through traffic to make it a really citizen-friendly, vibrant downtown.

They paved Paradise... Put up a parking lot. Or so sang Joni Mitchell.

I love doing errands on Castro on my bike. I feel like some sort of little Parisian girl in a movie :)

Hey, OMV Resident...

Thanks for reading my message. I really don't care if you believe me or not. I suppose cruising was the wrong word. Most of that 30 minutes was waiting at stop lights and congested crosswalks. It was raining that day, so maybe more people drove than usual. I felt that was a waste of time.
I was think if I needed to go to downtown in the future, I would be better off just using the Google Shuttle and avoid parking entirely.
Glad to hear others have better luck...in Manhattan even, I am impressed.

I also called BS on that "drove around for 30 mins" post as well, just as soon as I read it. C'mon, don't pile it on, it only makes it worse.

[Post removed due to disrespectful comment/personal attack]

This is our out of control growth created by the city council- Don't re-elect them and especially a libertarian like Coladonato who thinks businesses should do whatever they want with their property-

Just follow these rules:

1) Never. Never. Drive on Castro street. Just don't.
2) South Castro - towards El Camino: park near Eagle Park. Access via Shoreline, Church/School street.
3) North Castro: don't cross Evelyn by car, park in Willowgate neighborhood.
4) walk a few blocks.

Although they are a bit outside the core, we can free up some spaces by eliminating the reserved spaces for city council members in the civic center garage.

Analogy: When too many customers in a grocery store are in line, they call up more checkers to open up more lines. They don't raise the price of the groceries hoping to reduce the number of people in the line!!

I don't understand the logic. If the parking lots are at near 100% capacity, and you don't build more structures but instead start charging, that doesn't help Castro street business at all! It helps downtown Sunnyvale a lot though, cause my family (Mountain view residents of over 20 years) gave up trying to go to Castro if we're actually hungry and need to eat soon. We lost count of how many times we tried and gave up just driving to Sunnyvale where it's actually possible to find parking and good food.

While Mountain View is trying to free up parking spots downtown with their right hand, the left hand is busily taking away what spots are left near the downtown parking district.

Right Hand (Council will explore walk, bike, train, ride sharing, valet parking, paid parking options)

[Mountain View City Council members agreed Tuesday night to explore a broad range of strategies aimed at freeing up parking in the downtown area, after city surveys showed that every parking lot in the area is packed to the brim, forcing restaurant patrons to circulate endlessly. …..from the MV Voice]

[Kasperzak said the city ought to encourage alternate modes of transportation, and that it would send the wrong message to people heading into downtown Mountain View if they moved full-steam ahead on a new parking structure."Here we are trying to shift peoples' use of vehicles and the first thing we do is subsidize cars and build free parking for people," he said …..from the MV Voice]

Left Hand (Council currently favors the Residential Parking Permit ordinance 6-1)

The 2nd reading of the Residential Parking Permit (RPP) ordinance takes place tomorrow evening. The ordinance will allow each apartment, condo, pud, tod and single family homeowner 4 street parking permits in the ~Old Mountain View hypothetical parking area by way of a petition process. The ordinance enables residents to move their vehicles from their driveways, garages and parking spaces to city streets and park without restriction, save the 72 hr restriction to move the vehicle. 4 permits per household is excessive. More permits will be petitioned for than the parking district could hope to accommodate. Whatever hope a visitor had to find parking on a time restricted street will soon evaporate.

City staff suggested, early in the process, the RPP program should start small, the program can be expanded more easily than contracted. Flooding time restricted streets for homeowner parking sends the wrong message and defeats the purpose of time restricted streets.

Offer instead a 2hr Time Restricted Block (TRP) program within the hypothetical parking area. The restrictions are 9am-6pm. The number of permits offered per household would be halved from 4 to 2. Any block within the district that is already a 2 hr time restricted block or petitions to become a 2hr time restricted block (most all blocks) will be offered 2 hanging permits at $60 each per year. This program will incent homeowners to park within their footprint, incent all day commuters and downtown workers to use City/Caltrain lots. The TRP will free up parking spaces near downtown for 2 hours at a time during business hours when the downtown parking district is at or near capacity. Residents will have their quality of life made better. Homeowner guests, service workers or home care workers may park unrestricted. The city will save hundreds of thousands of dollars (~$400,000 to start) in color coded signs and administration.
Start small and both hands get what they want, those trying to have lunch and those trying to incent all day commuters and downtown workers to city lots and Caltrain lots.

I often feel like we're driving toward misguided/disparate goals, and it is important to work from certain ground rules.

Here's a suggestion:

- Ped/Bike improvements and discouraged use of cars only works for locals (and fit people from other communities).
- We get money from visitors. They visit by car. We need to build to accomodate cars.
- Locals also patronize other communities. Partly because their friends and relatives can't afford to live nearby. Freeway/Arterial Road access must be preserved and improved.

Let all the solutions be in line with those three.

+1 @ MV doesn't want my business.
It once took me 15 min to cruise up then down the Parking structure at CVS just to find no space. (where is the lot full sign?) A line of cars ahead stopping and waiting and no place to turn around. Yes you can thus cruise for 30 min in total. I never try that place anymore. Most times it under 10 min and it's in front of some home nearby. I have also car pool from a off site parking lot with 3 other drivers because it can be bad.

Mtn View planners never make a parking design like the CVS again!