BY ALLISON LEVITSKY
Daily Post Staff Writer
Mid-Peninsula marijuana users will soon no longer have to travel to San Jose or San Francisco to pick up cannabis products, Mountain View City Council decided late last night (Oct. 2).
Around 11:20 p.m., council voted 5-2, with Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak and Councilwoman Margaret Abe-Koga opposing, to allow two marijuana shops and two delivery services to secure permits and operate in town.
Matichak and Abe-Koga, who have been less enthusiastic about allowing marijuana to be sold in town, wanted to allow a total of two businesses, rather than four. But Mayor Lenny Siegel and council members Chris Clark, John McAlister, Ken Rosenberg and Pat Showalter voted that proposal down.
The issue proved to be divisive along cultural lines, with dozens of first-generation Asian residents speaking out against the prospect of marijuana businesses in town.
Many residents said they worried their children would be enticed by the shops and that marijuana use would become normalized.
Siegel said that while he had never used marijuana or even “had too many drinks,” he sees marijuana use as a legal, socially acceptable activity in Mountain View.
“There are plenty of people in Mountain View in every neighborhood near every school, people who are productive, moral citizens, residents of our community, who use marijuana,” Siegel said. “If you don’t believe me, you’ve been living in a dream world. Marijuana is ubiquitous in Mountain View, and that’s why people voted for Proposition 64.”
Almost two-thirds of Mountain View residents voted for Prop 64 in 2016, which legalized the sale and use of recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older.
Clark pointed out that kids have much easier access to more dangerous and addictive products like alcohol, cigarettes and cough syrup at grocery, drug and liquor stores.
Advertising restrictions
Cannabis stores in Mountain View won’t be allowed to advertise their products outside, and merchandise won’t be visible through the windows.
To get past the stores’ waiting room-style lobbies, patrons will have to scan their IDs to prove they’re over 21.
Many said they felt council was rushing the issue and that they had only recently heard that pot businesses could be coming to Mountain View.
Several council members responded that they had been discussing the proposal in public meetings for more than a year.
A number of residents specifically took issue with allowing a shop to operate at Grant Park Plaza, down the street from Huff Elementary School.
Ultimately, council heeded that concern and eliminated the Grant Road and Phyllis Avenue area from consideration.
Pot shops could still open downtown and on El Camino Real and in the North Bayshore and San Antonio neighborhoods as long as they’re at least 600 feet from a school or childcare center, or 250 feet if they’re on the other side of highways 101, 237 or 85, or Central Expressway.
City to hire two employees
The city will also hire a new full-time police officer and a new part-time community service officer to enforce and administer pot business regulations.
The funds for those positions will come from registration fees covered by the businesses.
Mountain View residents’ concerns are not heard unfortunately by the councils. Don’t confuse passing Prop64 with opening retail stores in the city. Dare the city put this issue on ballot instead of doing a only 600 survey and see how residents respond? Obviously they are not taken Asican or Latino community into consideration. Go figure!
Yes let’s all freak out about two cannabis dispensaries opening up…while your kids are likely stealing prescription pills out of your medicine cabinets and/or vaping nicotine on them fancy USB vaping pens.
God forbid parents actually act like parents and teach their kids what they should and shouldn’t do.
If the majority vote for it, then they SHOULD be okay with it being in their city. If you don’t like it, don’t patronize it. And vote for different council members.
Now at least the RV dwellers will have something to do all day.
Funny
Asian parents oppose cannabis? Who would have thought. We all know kids can’t become doctors, lawyers, or engineers if they smoked weed!!
More bad decisions by Pat Showalter actions that end up hurting Mountain View and the place we want to live.
Remember this and Vote SHOWALTER OUT this November.
She has added to RVs and homelessness in MV. Her brand of politics has got to stop, for the sake of MV!! Vote Out SHOWALTER
whats everyones issue with there being a weed shop in town? It literally has 0 effect on anyone aside from those who smoke weed. If you think any differently then I suggest you stop watching the DARE videos from the 90’s.
Woohoo!!
Don’t worry, asian parents. Everything will be okay.
Lets make a compromise. We’ll keep all the evil marijuana stores in SF and SJ if you remove the driver privileges from all those Asian people who vote for this.
The headline should read “Some Asian parents…”. This Asian parent welcomes pot stores on the principle of open-ness. I look forward to a discussion with my kids about the plus/minus of pot. if we already have to talk to our kids about hard drugs, liquors, sexual abuses, gangs, homeless, etc., then talking about pot is a walk in the park if one is willing to consider the substantial evidences of the effect of pot on local population.
I don’t want my kids or their friends dealing with back-alley drug dealers out of curiosity and experimentation. Let’s get this product legalized and controlled in the open.
I think this post is pretty racist. It assumes all other race parents are fine with marijuana stores and it assumes only asian parents are against it. As evident by some of the comments above, it reinforces common stereotypes. Can we not have a discussion without making it about a particular race or gender all the time?
There’s nothing racist about pointing out the race of those who are speaking. I don’t see anything derogatory about mentioning the race of the speakers. But I guess you’re saying the media shouldn’t mention the race of those who are commenting? That should be censored because it doesn’t meet your standard of political correctness?
Yeah, because all Asians are Chinese, and all Asians weren’t born in the USA, right? Your ignorance is showing.
This article assumes parents of other races do not have issue with the marijuana stores and only/all asian parents do. It reinforces racial stereotypes- as seen by some of the insensitive comments above. Very poor quality of reporting.
The issue with the council is not that they have approved 2 cannabis stores, but that they want to add a 9% tax to cannabis sales. Communities are not going to get wealthy from this tax. Before hiring new enforcement personnel, I want to know what the savings are in non-enforcement of the old law? Mountain has a very large police department already, I am sure this is “in the noise”.