So very sorry Summer Winds is closing in Mountain View.

I will miss Summer Winds. Another business bits the dust because of high rents….

This is what happens when extremely successful, extremely wealthy tech companies move in and take over - Google in MV, Apple in Cupertino and now moving in on Sunnyvale.

Housing prices go thru the roof, and business rents follow. How can restaurants and small businesses afford it? Why not just move out to a non-corporate owned city or just fold entirely?

So what does that mean? A lot of the convenient businesses everyone patronizes will be gone, and you'll have to drive further to get what you need. More and more land is going to Googleplexes and apartment blocs to house Google employees, less and less to restaurants, retail, gas stations, ...

A terrible loss. It is a wonderful place to browse and consider possibilities. We just bought some plants a few days ago.

This is terrible. We just lost the store in Sunnyvale. This makes me very sad and upset. There is no better place to buy your plants from then Summerwinds!

The rapid disappearance of Peninsula and South Bay plant nurseries is truly shocking. It's due not only to high real estate prices & rent but also due to changing demographics and also the massive and permanently disruptive 2001 and 2008 recessions, which have altered consumer spending choices for at least 2 generations of home owners. Since Summer Winds in Sunnyvale also is closing, our two closest decent choices are Summer Winds Palo Alto and Yamagami's in Cupertino. Welcome to --- whatever we have now.

Never been there, but Yamagami's in Cupertino is where I go, so it's no big loss to me.

Sorry to lose a valuable part of our community. Makes one wonder if we have a sustainable model for our city - will all the vital elements it takes for a city be able to afford to be here, or will we just be offices and housing in another 10 years and have to drive out of town to get groceries, gas, a nail, car repair, dirt?

Do our elected officials realize they are not powerless to stop this erosion of our community? Zoning is the tool to keep properties from changing to the latest, highest paying use.

Every time you see a "Gatekeeper" request, you should be very alarmed. It means our city council is considering disobeying the general plan and zoning to give in to a developer - with the resulting loss of another place for one of the fundamental businesses.

@Frank

No, this is what happens when a subset of a community does everything in it's power to restrict development in a high-demand area. What little that's available becomes highly valuable, rents rise, and only the deepest pockets win. If there was enough supply then rents wouldn't be through the roof and this nursery wouldn't be shutting down.

"If there was enough supply then rents wouldn't be through the roof and this nursery wouldn't be shutting down."

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh msg board experts on everything, you never disappoint.

So your "handle" YIMBY implies sure, you want development. Lots of development. Well, you got it! "If there was enough supply..." Are you kidding? You don't just create land like Google creates Android phones. We are in a narrow valley surrounded by mountains, a bay, and the Pacific Ocean. MV already has been built out - where is this "supply" going to come from?

Restrict development? Come again? Google has how many buildings in MV? Apartment blocs popping up on El Camino, and townhouses are getting built on every little parcel. Just where can even more development be done? Start building on Cuesta Park?

@William Hitchens - Yup. 20-something H1Bs working at Google don't have much interest in planting flowers or vegetables, and they don't even have the space when you're living 3 employees to a two-bedroom apartment.

@Frank

Oh yes, I want lots of development. And no, we're not going to just "create land". You see, a most recent and amazing technological innovation has come about. It's called "tall buildings". As miraculous as this may sound, you can actually build a building that is taller that 4 stories. So instead of building yet more suburban sprawl and detached single-family homes, you build tall complexes. More places to live means less competition per-unit means rent increases lessen until they finally start to level out and reduce as demand is met and over-satiated.

I read this in a British Air flight last year-- an article on fairly new British CEO
implant to "Silicon Valley" who was quoted as saying:

"You should have seen Silicon Valley 30 years' ago -- all it was was orchards and
fields."

Yes it was -- as another British implant from the 1960s, I really liked it that way!

Aw, what a shame. It has been so nice having a local nursery - this one is less than a mile from my house, and it's where I've gotten most of my plants over the past two years. They have a good selection of plants, and the staff are helpful. Definitely a shame to see this much-patronized local business falling victim to high rents. I wonder what it's going to be replaced with? Neighboring the highway, the garden center (i.e., bulk rock and dirt), and the auto dealership, I can't imagine it's a prime choice for a residential development...

Both the location of the old 7-11 type market at Rengstorff/Old Middlefield and the ex-Walgreens location at Central/Rengstorff have been empty for a long time. The location of the soon-to-be Safeway at Middlefield/Rengstorff was also empty for years. Would think that a wealthy city like Mountain View would be a a desirable place for a retail business. Most likely lack of interest is due to the high (and increasing) minimum wage, high rents, high taxes, litigious legal environment, stifling environmental regulations, ... As I was walking into a store I noticed that they had posted about 4-5 inspection notices from different bureaucracies. Come to think about it, anyone who starts a business here in Mountain View deserves a medal.

I started a business here 4 years ago. Its really not as bad as the above poster makes it out to be. Maybe it looks more daunting if you're not involved, looking at it from the outside

I just wonder how long the one in Palo Alto will remain. That rent must also be high and it is a prime location for development of something or other.

Sad to see useful places closing. Soon we will be forced to shop online because there will be nowhere left to buy things we need in real stores.

@YIMBY

Great! Build high-rise complexes...in Mountain View. Kiss the green, quiet, historic Santa Clara Valley behind...hello New Los Angeles!

And we'll put SummerWinds Nursery on the 12th floor above the Whole Foods!

I'm in Santa Clara - a big, big solution was...build a STADIUM! Know how that's working out for us?

One problem when you build huge cities and infrastructure based on one industry - tech - believe it or not, there's going to be a downturn at some point. Layoffs. Shuttered buildings. See what happened to Detroit?

@PA Resident

Yes, Palo Alto is one of the "gated communities" segregated to keep out the non-elite riff-raff, so you'll be left with nothing but $4M homes, Stanford U, and ultra-high-end eateries because no mom-and-pop businesses could ever survive there. You'll have to drive to the slums of Sunnyvale or Redwood City to buy the lower-class retail items. Oh well, there's always Amazon...

@Frank

Ah yes, clearly keeping the character of the neighborhood "quiet" is worth pushing out families who can't afford the resulting rent increases. I'm sure in 20 years though history will realize how right you were to prioritize such things over people, though.

Are you seriously trotting out the poor decision of Santa Clara to build a stadium and subsidize a sports team as an argument against new housing? Or are you using it as an argument against development in general? What is the argument here even?

Yeah, let me know when the foundations of modern society see a downturn. "Tech" is everywhere. It's not a single thing like car manufacturing. It's pervasive and intertwined throughout everything.

YIMBY,

Oh those poor...Google employees. I guess they can build Google-owned subsidized housing blocs (I think they are already, in Google multi colors?) but that still doesn't solve the problem of small businesses that can't afford rent.

Ever go to Seoul, where Samsung practically owns the city?

Oh well, progress...

You think it's Google employees getting pushed out? Way to broadcast how detached you are from the reality of what's happening here.

I know 5 Google employees pushed out. Full names and all. YIMBY, your one of those experts on everything aren't you? Sorry, i should have said self perceived expert. Well, you're not, you've proven it. Jus sayin'. Maybe this will stir bit of self reflection.

No need to worry about the future of Mountain View. It has none. The city, the county, and the entire state are going to drown in the tsunami of red ink about to roll in as a result of your absurd pension plans for government employees. Count on it.

Sorry MV isn't for you and I hope you're not too disappointed when the world doesn't blow up as you think it will. Thing's will be OK in the long run, count on it. Continue to hate on elsewhere Captain Optimism. There are many other skies that may be falling. You seem really happy.

@Clinical

Let me restate: you think the primary population of people being pushed out of Mountain View are Google employees? In fact, if Google employees are no longer able to afford the area, that is yet another sign of how under-supplied the area is with housing.