Priorities
A practical agenda to build a Mountain View that works for all.
1. Safe streets that children and adults can walk & bike
Getting around Mountain View shouldn’t mean that every adult owns a car, or that you have to worry about your child every time they leave for school on their own.
- Build a connected network of protected bike lanes linking neighborhoods, schools, parks, downtown, and transit.
- Redesign the most dangerous streets and intersections for people, not just based on outdated design guidelines that focus on increasing car dependency, while also improving safety for those driving by adopting street design that naturally prevents speeding.
- Maintain and improve our sidewalks for everyone, ensuring that no one in a wheelchair or pushing a stroller ever has to go out into the street just to get from point A to point B.
- Make it easy to get around without a car for every trip — so going car-light is a real, convenient choice, not a sacrifice.
- Make our transit system the best it can be — James supports the Connect Bay Area transit ballot measure that will help to fund bus & train service improvements in Mountain View. A good transit system works in tandem with bicycle & pedestrian infrastructure to deliver the best transportation system possible for our city.
- Ensure that street improvements incorporate new street trees and plants, to make using our streets more pleasant, reduce urban heat island effects, improve stormwater runoff, and reduce the amount of asphalt that the city has to maintain.
2. Build the homes Mountain View needs
The single biggest thing the city can do for affordability is allow more homes — especially near jobs, transit, and downtown.
- Legalize more housing throughout the city, so that people can live near the transit, jobs, parks, schools, and services that they need.
- Modernize outdated rules, so the projects we zone for can actually break ground instead of stalling out on paper.
- Adopt single-stair reform so small lots can become the kind of mid-rise, family-sized apartments other cities already allow.
- Cut the time and cost it takes to get a permit approved so housing actually gets built.
- Base fees on new construction on real evidence, so that projects don’t die because they can’t pay arbitrary fees that the city has never justified.
- Continue strong tenant protections while we grow, so today’s residents aren’t displaced by tomorrow’s progress.
- As more housing is built, ensure that our parks, streets, and local businesses are set up to support our new neighbors. Embrace that more Mountain View residents means an improved quality of life for everyone, with more people to support more local businesses, more tax revenue to maintain our parks, and more people riding and funding our public transit.
- We are in a climate crisis, and allowing more homes to be built in Mountain View is critical to reducing emissions and reducing unsustainable urban sprawl into rural areas.
3. A Mountain View that protects its residents
The City of Mountain View already discontinued its contract with Flock after it discovered that data from the automated license-plate readers were being illegally shared with outside agencies. In the current national political environment, it is more important than ever to use all the tools at our disposal to protect our most vulnerable residents.
- Protect the privacy of Mountain View residents, avoiding the wholesale data-collection that occurs with Flock and similar Automated License Plate Readers.
- Maintain and build on Mountain View’s “Community For All” initiative to ensure that immigrants feel comfortable interacting with the city and its police department without worrying that they will be asked about their immigration status. Our police should be able to focus on doing their job of keeping Mountain View residents safe, and should not worry that they will be placed in conflict with the people they are sworn to protect.
- Continue to refuse to allow City land to be used for ICE activities.
- Join other cities in legal actions against the Federal government.
- Ensure that Mountain View has the space and the homes to welcome immigrants and refugees. So long as we protect our rights locally and build the housing that people need, Mountain View can serve as a refuge for those seeking access to safe abortions, gender affirming care, and basic civil rights.
Have an issue you care about that isn’t here? Tell James about it.