Mary Hodder

Every two years since 2018, the advocacy group Livable Mountain View has endorsed a slate of candidates in the Mountain View City Council Race. To apply for our endorsement, candidates fill out answers to a questionnaire on key livability issues facing our city’s residents. Candidates are also granted an interview if they would like to talk with us about issues not covered in what they wrote on the questionnaire. This year, the questionnaire featured questions on the following issues:

1. Balancing Housing Production and Neighborhood Integrity
2. Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan and Heritage Trees
3. Historic Preservation and Register Update
4. Downtown Precise Plan Update and Moffett Boulevard Precise Plan
5. Shoreline Regional Tax District

All nine candidates opted to apply for our endorsement. Our choices in this election are three former mayors and council members: John McAlister, Pat Showalter, and Chris Clark.

Our #2 choice is the current Mayor Pat Showalter. When the council was proposing its vision for Mountain View’s future, Pat supported livability and quality of life as key city goals. She supports “smart growth” where new housing “fits in with the neighborhood character and enhances it.” Her vision for parks is that “every Mountain View resident should have a park within a short walk of their home”. She supports “preserving buildings where important events in the city took place”. She notes that protecting our downtown historic retail district “is an important part of maintaining Mountain View’s sense of place.” On the Shoreline Tax District, Pat says in boldface on her questionnaire: “So, job number one for tax revenue from the Shoreline Community is for sea level rise protection, maintaining the landfill and the park on top of it and for local infrastructure.” Beyond this, Pat is a positive, respectful member of council who works well with others planning our city’s future.

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Our #3 choice is former mayor Chris Clark. Chris says “The key [to city planning] is to carefully select the growth areas and intensity levels that will allow for a dynamic city like ours to thrive.” He adds “It’s important we preserve our historic structures, especially in the first few blocks of Castro Street.” On the Downtown Precise Plan he supports “enabling economic vitality while protecting the downtown core.” On the Shoreline Tax District, he supports “preparing for sea level rise and implementing other climate resiliency measures.” Beyond this, Chris has worked in several tech startups, a key asset in planning Mountain View’s technology future. He has also been a proven consensus builder on past councils.

Although there are four open seats on the council in the election, the Livable Mountain View Endorsement Subcommittee and Steering Committee did not reach a unanimous consensus on a fourth choice. Our original questionnaire, and the answers each candidate provided (with the exception of those of Candidate Erik Poicon, who did not give permission to share his answers) are available on request. Please reply to this email to request them.  

Thanks for this opportunity to share our endorsement with you. Above all, don’t forget to vote in this important election!