In my neighborhood there is a guy who sleeps in his truck overnight parked in front of a fire hydrant in a red zone. One of our neighbors finally got the police to run him out. Today there is a homeless bum passed out sleeping on my neighbor's lawn.

This is all an indication that the signs are out that Mountain View is a place to come to if you want to live homeless on the cheap in your car, and RV or otherwise. Thanks Lenny and past City Councils. A pox on your homes as well.

@Mike Fischetti of View Street
About the RV BAN.

Mike, you asked this, but the answer is obvious.
>I am wondering why there is virtually no public testimony at council meetings favoring the ban.<

It's rather simple, these days if anyone expresses an opinion that is not politically correct, they are in danger of being targeted for attack.

Now, personally, I don't take a position on the ban issue, I prefer to focus on how to get proper and safe parking made available in M.V.

I know that many people will curse me out just for being neutral on the RV BAN issue.

If someone were to come out publicly at a City Counsel meeting and identify themselves then I would be very worried that they would get punished one way or another for their exercise of Freedom of Speech.

That's why we have private email or letter writing to the City on issues or annon messages on the MV Voice.

I can assure you that only those FEW people who feel strongly on the politically correct side of any issue will come to public meetings to express their opinions and concerns. Most people will write emails because emails are a safe way to talk to your political representatives.

@FreeSpeech?

Correct! There is no way I am going to allow the likes of the individuals who think it is ok to secretly deface campaign signs know my name or address by speaking publicly at council. Email to our council members (and voting members in or out of council based on their positions on the RV issue) is a safer way to go. Nice attempt at trying to bait us, however...

It's telling that you all are perfectly happy to demand the rousting of the poor and homeless, but don't have the courage to say it to their faces. Says a lot about a person, in my opinion.

About SJ Post Record story

@Job Lopez of McCarty Avenue you wrote:

>It is incredible that Mountain View officials have been running public notices during a quarter of a century on a paper that has a distribution of fewer than 50 copies. And most people do not know it exists, much less read it since it is not found in Mountain View.<

Actually, I have always known of this paper Post Record for decades.
And it used to be available in Mountain View and pretty much every city in the county. The Post was used for legal notices from anyone, not just cities.

Now, in recent years the newspaper industry has basically collapsed and circulation for even major papers is a shadow of their former selves, so for such a niche purpose paper, I am not surprised in the current situation.

If you want to complain, gripe at the STATE LAWS that have not kept up with advancing technologies. The city is following standard law and normal practice.

And yes, the same thing is done all over the state and in plenty of other states as well.

This story was a fairly cheap-shot that any reporter could write about most if not all cities in California.

>but she does not care about the fact that the taxpayer has the right to find where to read about what he or she is paying for.<

The city is bound by law, laws written long ago, laws that have never been updated. Talk to your STATE lawmakers to change the laws to ELIMINATE the expense of publishing legal notices in physical newspapers and instead set up a uniform standard state-wide web-site for all government legal notices to be filed with a robust search engine.

Personal public notices should also be updated by law to have a similar web-publishing requirements.

But, don't pat a reporter on the back, nor complain about wasteful politicians until you understand the situation and work to change the state laws and make all public notices available to anyone with internet access.

@Randy Guelph a resident of Cuernavaca

>It's telling that you all are perfectly happy to demand the rousting of the poor and homeless, but don't have the courage to say it to their faces. Says a lot about a person, in my opinion.<

Yes, it says we are not police, not trained to enforce the laws and NOT allowed to carry a concealed handgun to protect ourselves when someone reacts violently to us asking people to obey the laws.

It's the same reason why we have secret ballots for our voting.
Imagine if everyone had to publicly publish all their votes.
How many people would dare to vote?

Ordinary people are not supposed to go around enforcing the laws.
We have government officials to do that for the exact reason that ordinary people are not qualified to confront other random people about anything.

People get killed all the time, all over the world, by trying to confront strangers about some laws they are breaking or even about just being rude to someone else.

I have the courage of my convictions to speak publicly about the things I believe. You are a coward who posts anonymously because you're too scared to face any criticism for your beliefs. Says a lot about a person, in my opinion.

@Congresswoman Anna Eshoo D-Palo Alto

Responding to a letter on climate change

Dear Mr. Lauritzen,

>I was disappointed to read in your recent letter to the editor in the Mountain View Voice ("Discussing climate change," Aug. 23) that you think I don't consider climate change an urgent issue. Nothing could be further from the truth.<

Things have gotten soooo insane these days that no matter how far to the left a politicians has sprinted, there are always lots of people who will attack from the even farther left!

As a Liberal myself, it's just scary how extreme things have become.

T go along with the post above, as an Anti-Trump Republican, there's ALWAYS some far right wingnut spreading the most obviously false lies to try and change my mind, and when logic is gently applied and they cannot argue against it, they resort to attacking the messenger (Me).

Not left, not right, but the fringes, and they are their own thing.
That's why I think a moderate republican could win in a land slide.
Believe it or not, the Anti-Trunmp contingency in the GOP voting populace is expanding rapidly

@Randy Guelph a resident of Cuernavaca

So, by your "logic", the only people politicians should listen to are those people who are willing to have their names, addresses and opinions published for all to see. No unpopular opinions should be heard.

That's not liberty, it's tyranny, tyranny of the mob.

>I have the courage of my convictions to speak publicly about the things I believe.<

But only when you are speaking a politically correct opinion.
Go to a City public meeting and speak out against something that will get other people violently angry at you. Or better yet, go to someplace else in the USA where your PC opinions are not welcome.
Then show me your "courage".

The point of public officials listening to the public in any manner they wish to communicate is NOT about who feels safe expressing themselves in public, it's about EVERYONE being able to express themselves in any manner they wish.

> You are a coward who posts anonymously because you're too scared to face any criticism for your beliefs. Says a lot about a person, in my opinion.<

Thanks for proving my point for me!

Here I am a neutral on the RV BAN and you're attacking me for my neutral position.

No discussion of the issue, just a personal attack because I don't agree with you.

Which again, is why we have a secret ballot.

To insure Freedom of Speech.

@Same here brother a resident of Bailey Park

>To go along with the post above, as an Anti-Trump Republican, there's ALWAYS some far right wingnut spreading the most obviously false lies to try and change my mind,<

I think the issue is that you don't really get to vote for someone who would be a good president, of either or any party. We are only offered candidates that is believed able to defeat the other side.

>Not left, not right, but the fringes, and they are their own thing.<

What has changed over the past 40 years is that many formerly main-stream Democrat policies have been mostly embraced by Republicans. In reaction, the only way the Democrats can say they are "different" is to run as fast as they can to the left.

The fringes have always been tiny, but the Democrats now fear their own extremists, while the Republicans simply try to patronize their extremists.

Democrats always go insane about the NRA, but they don't even recognize that the NRA is the moderate group and many other groups are way way way extreme. The pendulum has swung so far that nobody has a clue where the center is anymore.

>That's why I think a moderate republican could win in a land slide.<

Only as long as the Democrats continue to offer up extremists as candidates.
If the Democrats were to offer up a true moderate, then we would have a real horse race.

>Believe it or not, the Anti-Trunmp contingency in the GOP voting populace is expanding rapidly<

Personally, I have not liked any candidate this century and the people I would have liked (of either party) wont run.

I would have loved to see Colin Powell run for example.

You're assuming a lot about me. I have often taken a stand for currently unpopular opinions because I believe they are right. Your statement reaffirms that you and others here want to hide behind anonymity because you are scared of criticism, that's all.

Civil Rights era protestors believed they were right and had a lot more to fear than someone telling them they were wrong. People fought and died for your free speech, the least you can do to honor them is exercise it. That you don't shows that you all recognize you're on the wrong side of history.

Let's count how many of the true believers posting here have the guts to speak at council tonight...

As expected, just the same one angry woman spoke for it (I think she said Shari?), with everyone else opposed.

I think the voters of Mountain View made it clear what they wanted when Lenny was voted out by a landslide, Pat was voted out as well and Ken didn't even run. RV was one of the top issues in the last election. With all the technologies today such as email, no one needs to appear in person. Plus we are all busy because we have jobs so we can pay city fees/taxes to support the millions of dollars Mountain View is spending on the homeless!

"is that many formerly main-stream Democrat policies have been mostly embraced by Republicans."

Give a list of the top five main-stream Democrat policies adopted, please.

(why do I feel that an AOC rant is somehow forthcoming?)

We elect council members to reflect the interests of the city. Most people don't feel its necessary to attend every meeting unless our representatives are not reflecting our interests. If you want a full participation democracy , then attend every meeting but realize that you don't get any special consideration by attending a meeting.

Thank you Randy Guelph for demonstrating (unwittingly) the very problem "FreeSpeech?" cited in commenting on Michael Fischetti's letter.

You immediately characterized the woman speaker opposing the organized speakers (she was identified in today's new Voice article as Shari Emling) as "angry."

Shari Emling is not an "angry" person in any honest and objective sense. She has long articulated two well-grounded concerns: that some actual MV residents were forced into RVs, and more should be done for those; but also, that the actual fraction of such cases among the RV squatter population is completely unknown, and those who defend the squatting show consistently zero concern about it. They just assume whatever they want, and claim offhand that most RV dwellers are displaced MV residents -- despite some RV residents themselves contradicting that claim. Some have self-identified as out-of-town contractors using RVs to stay midweek; one admitted being well-employed but doing it to avoid paying rent; some have been subjects of police raids with drug-dealing and gun caches. Lenny and co. show no interest in learning who the residents really are -- behaving as if the more the merrier, for purposes of their rhetoric.

@Homie
>why do I feel that an AOC rant is somehow forthcoming?<

I seriously LOVE AOC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not kidding.
I wish AOC statements would get even more news coverage!

I also totally LOVE LOVE LOVE Beto O'Rourke !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47..."
I don't personally own either of those firearms, but hey,
talk about a way to energize 100 million voters and donors!

AOC and Beto by themselves are handing the 2020 election to Trump!

While I am no fan of Michael Moore, Democrats should really LISTEN to what Moore has been saying for at least a year now. Of course, the Democrat leadership ignored Moore from late 2015 through the 2016 election, so why would they listen to Moore now?

I personally would not have a problem with Bernie Sanders winning in 2020.
Not because I want an admitted Socialist as president, but I would like someone who is at least honest about themselves for a change.
Unlike Elizabeth Warren, for example.

I've been waiting since Carter for another (mostly) honest person to be president.

Hahaha I knew that "FreeSpeech?" sounded familiar. Your unhinged rantings gave you away. What made you change your username from "Liberalguns"?

@LOL

Randy Guelph? would prefer you use your real name. We can then save 100 virtual trees and 1000 inane responses referencing the "anonymity" of the wrongheaded. Thanks

Randy guelph and LOL's comments are about as different as LOL and The businessman's are. If you can't tell snark from arguement, you should read more and comment less.