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From what the article says, the city fears losing control over its local government because Google employees would outnumber the rest of the voting citizenship.

From what the article says, the city fears losing control over its local government because Google employees would outnumber the rest of the voting citizenship. They seem to want to handle this addition of houses and infrastructure slowly, but if Google employees have a majority in the vote for local issues, they could move ahead as fast as Google wants, since it's in their best interest to keep their employer growing.

JoeAltmaier 12y ago
This is true of any small town near a giant corporate campus. Look at Fayetteville AK and WalMart - the old town is a few broken-down houses and shops, next to rows of 1500-person condo units that march across the corn fields like dominoes. What to do about it? Sell out, move I guess. Google wants your land after all.
nsnick 12y ago
This is a good thing. Maybe if there is a google voting block, they can build high density housing, and extend BART into San Mateo County and make BART ring the bay.
Iftheshoefits 12y ago
You're assuming that a lot of Google's employees live in Mountain View, and that "a lot" is potentially a political vote majority. I'm not convinced it's a valid fear, if what that councilman said is a generally held sentiment. I've only lived in the bay area a few years, but it seems to me people commute quite a lot, and it's not unheard of for San Jose residents to work in S.F. or any point between, in the east bay, etc. Even so, the other fear, which I distill to a sentiment of fear that Mountain View will become a city that is more business and less residence/public space, is one that has more merit.
- ZanyProgrammer 12y ago
  Commuting to the Googleplex from Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and large parts of San Jose isn't that far.
- pm24601 12y ago
  10% of Mountain View residents are Googlers.
CalRobert 12y ago
Good. Most of the peninsula is currently held in the grip of NIMBYs who hate trains, hate dense housing, and love freeways and environmentally damaging sprawl. Part of the reason SF costs so damn much is because it's so hard to have an urban lifestyle anywhere but those 49 square miles (and Berkeley and Oakland, which I quite like)
- polarix 12y ago
  There is a reason to hate "trains" when it's fucking Caltrain with at-grade crossings and retarded federal rules about fucking horns all night long. Half the fucking Peninsula is unusable for sleeping as it is.
  - CalRobert 12y ago
    I actually was thinking of CAHSR, but then again the streets are at-grade and nobody seems to mind those. I do sympathize about the horns, though.
  - khuey 12y ago
    If Palo Alto/etc would get off their asses and support an economically feasible grade separation plan this could be fixed in under a decade.
  - pm24601 12y ago
    Oh you mean the horns that this mother ignored? http://www.ktvu.com/story/28181718/caltrain-service-shut-down-after-menlo-park-accident http://www.ktvu.com/story/28181718/caltrain-service-shut-dow... The horns are used to try to get people to not get killed.
    - polarix 12y ago
      Perhaps people who are driving could consider not driving around the railroad gate (which was working when the idiot in that article decided to commit suicide). There are remarkably few good ways out for humans in our society, so this kind of spectacle is often what they end up resorting to.
DannyBee 12y ago
Yes, Google employees have never held different views than their employer </s> Basically, they are afraid the majority of the people they represent may actually make their voice heard in government. What's next, complaining that if we build too much senior living, the old people might vote for what they want?

JoeAltmaier 12y ago

This is true of any small town near a giant corporate campus. Look at Fayetteville AK and WalMart - the old town is a few broken-down houses and shops, next to rows of 1500-person condo units that march across the corn fields like dominoes. What to do about it? Sell out, move I guess. Google wants your land after all.

nsnick 12y ago

This is a good thing. Maybe if there is a google voting block, they can build high density housing, and extend BART into San Mateo County and make BART ring the bay.

Iftheshoefits 12y ago

You're assuming that a lot of Google's employees live in Mountain View, and that "a lot" is potentially a political vote majority. I'm not convinced it's a valid fear, if what that councilman said is a generally held sentiment. I've only lived in the bay area a few years, but it seems to me people commute quite a lot, and it's not unheard of for San Jose residents to work in S.F. or any point between, in the east bay, etc. Even so, the other fear, which I distill to a sentiment of fear that Mountain View will become a city that is more business and less residence/public space, is one that has more merit.

ZanyProgrammer 12y ago
Commuting to the Googleplex from Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and large parts of San Jose isn't that far.
pm24601 12y ago
10% of Mountain View residents are Googlers.

CalRobert 12y ago

Good. Most of the peninsula is currently held in the grip of NIMBYs who hate trains, hate dense housing, and love freeways and environmentally damaging sprawl. Part of the reason SF costs so damn much is because it's so hard to have an urban lifestyle anywhere but those 49 square miles (and Berkeley and Oakland, which I quite like)

polarix 12y ago
There is a reason to hate "trains" when it's fucking Caltrain with at-grade crossings and retarded federal rules about fucking horns all night long. Half the fucking Peninsula is unusable for sleeping as it is.
- CalRobert 12y ago
  I actually was thinking of CAHSR, but then again the streets are at-grade and nobody seems to mind those. I do sympathize about the horns, though.
- khuey 12y ago
  If Palo Alto/etc would get off their asses and support an economically feasible grade separation plan this could be fixed in under a decade.
- pm24601 12y ago
  Oh you mean the horns that this mother ignored? http://www.ktvu.com/story/28181718/caltrain-service-shut-down-after-menlo-park-accident http://www.ktvu.com/story/28181718/caltrain-service-shut-dow... The horns are used to try to get people to not get killed.
  - polarix 12y ago
    Perhaps people who are driving could consider not driving around the railroad gate (which was working when the idiot in that article decided to commit suicide). There are remarkably few good ways out for humans in our society, so this kind of spectacle is often what they end up resorting to.

DannyBee 12y ago

Yes, Google employees have never held different views than their employer </s> Basically, they are afraid the majority of the people they represent may actually make their voice heard in government. What's next, complaining that if we build too much senior living, the old people might vote for what they want?