Yesterday, the State Supreme Court handed down a ruling in the case of Neighbors for Smart Rail v. Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority. And in doing so, it also “disapproved” the key legal precedent established in Sunnyvale West Neighborhood Assn. v. City of Sunnyvale City Council (the Mary Avenue Extension Project) – that an environmental impact report (EIR) cannot be based only on future baselines. This is a bit wonky, so I’ll try to explain what this means generally and specifically. And keep in mind that 1) I’m not a lawyer, 2) I haven’t been fully briefed on what this means, and 3) I couldn’t tell you about it once I’m fully briefed anyway – attorney/client privilege, closed session, and so on. Also keep in mind that I wasn’t on Council when this whole thing came down, so I don’t have the background on it that the previous council has. This is just from reading through the decision. First, some history as to why this matters.
FollowThe Merc is reporting that Rural/Metro, the ambulance provider for Santa Clara County, has filed for bankruptcy protection to restructure its debt burden. County officials say that this should not disrupt service, but that they are working on a backup plan if Rural/Metro is unable to meet its required performance goals.
The Silicon Valley Business Journal is reporting that Rreef is looking to sell some 500,000 square feet of Sunnyvale office space, mostly in the Peery Park area. This represents about 10% of Rreef’s Sunnyvale holdings, and they may be doing it in part because of speculation about the outcome of the City’s development of the Peery Park Specific Plan. The buildings in question are already “mostly leased”, according to SVBJ.
I found this part particularly interesting:
Sunnyvale has seen the Valley’s strongest turnarounds in its commercial vacancy rate. Office vacancy plunged from a peak of 39.3 percent in the third quarter of 2010 to just 6.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013, according to Cassidy Turley, as tenants pushed out of the Peninsula and Mountain View took space there.
I’ve now heard multiple reports of a particularly heinous telephone scam that’s been targeting Sunnyvale residents lately. The caller identifies himself as being from law enforcement (I’ve now heard the IRS, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, and “Sunnyvale Police” being given), and the caller tells the victim that the call involves overdue tax payments. The caller directs the victim to either issue a check or purchase some sort of prepaid card, and the caller threatens immediate arrest otherwise (one target was told “within 45 minutes”). It’s the severity of the threats that makes this an unusually dangerous scam. The caller is particularly aggressive and officious, pushing back hard on any questioning of the legitimacy of the call.
The City of Sunnyvale just posted photos and a story about our new Community Service Officers, and it’s worth checking out, to better understand how we’re working to improve public safety in Sunnyvale. This is all reaching the end of a long process to better balance our Public Safety workforce and maximize the hours and effectiveness of our Public Safety Officers (PSOs), and it’s terrific to see it finally coming to fruition.