We're losing our neighborhood-serving businesses to office-serving businesses - hotels, cafeterias, etc.

The last time we had a real downtown shakeup, in the 1980s, the city invested in the character of our downtown. They supported bringing Printer's Inc (now Books, Inc) and Tied House here and did much more.

Mountain View is not poor. We have some of the richest companies on earth here. It's time to invest in our downtown's character again and we certainly have the money to do so.

Comments like the above from Concerned Citizen are confusing. It seems people on Town Square love to complain about rent control (i.e. government overreach) for people who live in Mountain View but have a problem with business landowners raising the rent on tenants or remodeling their properties, thus losing local businesses. In the latter case, you *want* the government to intervene. Like I said...confusing.

Which is it Town Square contributors? Do you side with the tenants or the property owners? And why is one group better suited for government help and the other not?

I suggest Andrew Andrade step away from his city desk and go door to door and ask the businesses what they are experiencing. Reports are fine but nothing compares to interviewing the business owners themselves. Yes, the tech workers drink, but that’s not enough. There are 9 closed or for lease storefronts on Castro Street alone. I don’t call that thriving. I happened to be on Castro Street yesterday. Of course at 11 am, parking was already impossible. I expected the restaurants to be busy, but even on a nearly 70 degree Thursday at noon, restaurants had mostly vacant seats and the sidewalks were empty. Where are all the people who parked in our lots???

Mountain View Residents **Wake up** This trend of replacing our smaller, older shop spaces for modern office (or so called multi-use space) buildings will reduce our attractive little downtown to just another workspace. We have a wonderful asset in our downtown as an interesting place to go, close to home (even walking distance for some of us). Thoughtless development in the heart of downtown may end up costing us its attributes that make it so nice in the first place.