Mtn. View continues outreach to RV dwellers (California)

Los Altos Town Crier ^ | 3/14/18 | Bruce Barton

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Mountain View will not ban people from living in parked vehicles, despite rising pressure to do so.

Instead, the city council last week granted police greater discretion in issuing fines and ordering vehicles towed.

Mountain View is home to an estimated 250-300 vehicles parked on city streets. City code calls for moving parked vehicles at least 1,000 feet every 72 hours.

But seeking a balance between enforcement and compassion, council members also reviewed $230,000 in services, including a waste dump program, biohazard cleanup, a “rapid rehousing” program in partnership with Santa Clara County and funding for a safe-parking pilot program.

The council’s lengthy discussion of the complex and controversial topic March 6 featured numerous speakers, mostly advocating for the vehicle dwellers. Some residents living near the parked, lived-in vehicles expressed frustration with the unsanitary conditions and the city’s tolerance. The council also heard complaints that the parked RVs take up parking spaces and obstruct views for street crossing.

Others decried the housing crisis that has prompted people to live in their vehicles. Members of the Mountain View Tenants Coalition were on hand to support the vehicle dwellers. Members held a rally prior to the council meeting.

“It was pretty clear to the city council that people want to be compassionate to their neighbors,” said coalition spokesman Daniel DeBolt.

The number of homeless in Mountain View has skyrocketed – city figures report 416 in 2017, up from fewer than 150 in 2013 – the result of housing demand and escalating rents.

[Silentgypsy]

Actually, I went to SF once for a martial arts competition in the late nineties. Stayed at the Y located somewhere called the “Tenderloin.” Walked to the university where the event was held through neighborhoods with lots of places named after Malcom X and MLK (bus service was abysmal). Unfortunately not tech savvy. We do have a motor home but stopped driving extensively in 2012. Therefore, since we steer pretty well clear of California and SF in particular, I guess SV info would be wasted on me. Thanks, anyway!

[martin_fierro]

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[kearnyirish2]

Great pics and history; thank you! A friend that lived in northern California described hiking in the mountains and coming across a small stone marker indicating where a town with thousands of people had been during the gold rush, and now nothing at all remained. He said there were many places like that.

Along the NY/NJ border were settlements like this related to iron mining, furnaces, and forges; as the mines closed there was no need for the woodcutters that fuels the furnaces & forges, the small farms that fed the workers and draft animals, etc. - they all moved on (with small pockets remaining trying sustenance farming). Those areas are all state park land now, but you can still find the settlements by their stone foundations, old roads, and cemeteries.

[ßuddaßudd]

o my gosheses, that was one of the first places I went drinking at when I moved out here around ‘94 or so..
who could forget the 30’ tall wonder woman??

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Me, too. Bri gs back memories, huh? I lived across the street, so it was real “convenient.”

[martin_fierro]

OK, added

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My folks lived west of Philly and I used to visit the old iron works around there. Those mines you describe were instrumental in winning the Revolutionary War. A huge chain was strung across the Hudson to prevent the British from sailing up river to cut New England off from the southern colonies. The logistics of mining the ore, smelting the iron, fabricating the chain, transporting it and installing it are fascinating. Great book with more about the chain and iron works in:

Chaining the Hudson: The Fight for the River in the American Revolution by Lincoln Diamant.

[kearnyirish2]

I am familiar with the chains; IIRC they were draped across a string of rafts (so they wouldn’t sink). Fortunately the northernmost one (at West Point) was never breached. There seems to be a pissing match between ironworks up here as to where the chains were forged.

The success of those Hudson River defenses made the victory at Saratoga possible, and that battle signaled to France that we were worthy of support (in other words, that we could win).

[TADSLOS]

You would think an RV park would make money here...

Too many lefty environmental laws, zoning regulations and taxes for that now. Even if someone were allowed to build a new park, they would have to charge more than most with an RV would be willing to pay for a site in order for the owners to break even.

Liberals ruin everything they touch.

[ßuddaßudd]

I didn’t know it had burned down a few years later ,, thats too bad ..