It's great to see Director Cameron describe what's still to come along that stretch of Castro. Ambitious, but it should truly result in a project we can all be proud of in Mountain View!

All it takes is one fire on Castro that the Fire trucks can’t get to….

Have we considered street dining as Los Altos does it? There is seating in the parking area directly in front of a block of businesses, and the cars are allowed through in the two open car lanes. I hope that is an option that is being looked at by our Council.

I'm wondering if the business owners on the rest of Castro Street (outside the couple of blocks discussed in this article) should be asked how they are faring and what they think. Are customers making an effort to find those restaurants and shops, or are they staying within the closed-off blocks?

Excited for this. Here’s hoping they plow ahead and don’t listen to the tiny number of negative Nancys here and on nextdoor that complain about 1 little thing that they think makes them look like a genius.

Pedestrian malls a struggle for fire departments? Didn’t know we were inventing a whole new concept and this had never been tried anywhere ever.

Streets allowing traffic like Los Altos? It’s almost like they surveyed the population with that option and people resoundingly said no to it.

Having lived in Germany for a couple years where you see many vibrant pedestrian malls, I was so happy to see us move to this sort of model — at least temporarily — in downtown Mountain View. I think it really improves the quality of life here …it sets a good example for other nearby towns ….it encourages biking & walking …and I do believe it will make our town more of a destination once it’s all redesigned. My husband and I have been biking downtown more often, ever since this pedestrian area was put into place. Kudos to Mountain View City Council for experimenting with a new way of doing things!

Yes, we should pay attention to the other blocks of Castro, too. Maybe they can be closed to cars as well!

I hate how in all the MV town surveys for Castro, none even offered an option to keep the roads open so cars can get in from Central Expressway. It was a false choice. I know a ton of MV families north of central expressway who have already started dining out more in Sunnyvale, Cupertino, or Santa Clara because it’s such a pain to go to Castro now. Also Palo Alto opened up University Avenue streets for driving already during the spring of 2022.

Castro is a ghost town now, particularly the Castro block between Dana Street and Villa. Empty/bankrupt stores everywhere. People stopped going to Castro because it’s not convenient at all to access anymore. Congrats to terrible decision making, leading to ruining Castro street as a vibrant downtown area compared to other cities in the area. OPEN Up the roads and let people drive in from Central Expressway !!!