2026 Election: Questionnaire for MV City Council Candidates

Paul Donahue's Response

1. Knowledge and priorities: What do you see as the biggest barriers to making walking and bicycling safe, comfortable, and convenient throughout Mountain View? What specific changes would you prioritize to address them?

The biggest barriers in Mountain View are gaps, crossings, and delivery.

Gaps. We have good pieces, like the Stevens Creek Trail, the Permanente Creek Trail, and protected lanes on California Street and El Camino. But they don't connect. And the protected bike lanes on El Camino have portions near intersections where they revert to sharrows. A network is only as safe as its weakest link.

Crossings. Our hardest barriers are El Camino Real, Central Expressway/Caltrain, and the wide arterials on our Vision Zero high injury network. On those streets, speeds are high and safe crossings are far apart.

Delivery. The city has had many of its key transportation planning positions vacant, and some projects have slipped by years. A plan does not protect anyone until it is built.

My priorities are:

Focus on implementation of the new Active Transportation Plan. We should close gaps where possible. I personally use one of the pedestrian hybrid beacons on El Camino all the time, and we need to expand the number of safe crossings.
Get adequate staffing under the new Chief Transportation Officer so we can actually follow through on our plans.
Focus on Safe Routes to School and ensuring that streets and sidewalks are safe for our youngest residents.

Everyone deserves to get where they’re going safely.

2. Judgement: Mountain View has made a number of changes to its streets in recent years, including
the California Street Complete Streets Pilot. Which changes do you consider successful, and which have fallen short? What lessons should the City take from these projects, and what measures should it use to evaluate the success of future street improvements?

The Castro Street pedestrian mall is the clearest success. It began as a pandemic experiment, and the council made it permanent in 2022. Today downtown retail vacancy is down to about 6 percent and sales tax receipts are up. It shows that giving street space to people can help businesses, not hurt them. The Stevens Creek Trail is another model: separated, connected, and used by all ages both for transportation and recreation. After years of talking, we need to complete the original vision of extending it to Mountain View High School.

California Street is a partial success. It was a response to three pedestrian deaths on the corridor, and people report slower speeds and more families riding. I believe that it has fallen short in at least a couple of ways. Parked cars obstruct the vision of drivers leaving driveways. Drivers need to be educated about where to park and, more importantly, where not to park. This is exacerbated by the fact that it removed scores of parking spaces in this dense apartment corridor. I’m looking forward to the results of the pilot project survey to fully identify the shortcomings. Then we must focus on solutions.

Lessons:

Set goals and measure a baseline before construction.
Design driveway and intersection sightlines from the start, not after complaints.
Engage the people who live and work on the block early.
Build connected routes, not isolated spot fixes.

To measure success, set targets before construction and publish results on a public dashboard. The goals should consider things like fatal and severe injury collisions, speeds, walking and biking counts, emergency vehicle response times, surveys of residents, and maintenance costs, among other things.

3. Vision and city role: What is your vision for the future of downtown Mountain View? What would you like Castro Street and the surrounding downtown to be like in 5 to 10 years, and what changes should the City make in economic development, public space, transportation, land use, or other areas to achieve that vision?

In 5 to 10 years, I want Castro Street to be Mountain View's living room. That means an intentional pedestrian mall, not two sidewalks and a closed street in between. I picture three blocks with a uniform height, continuous shade, good lighting, seating, play space, public restrooms, and room for markets and festivals. Those blocks should be framed by the historic storefronts and independent businesses that make our downtown unique.

I grew up watching my parents run a clothing store on the main street of our town in Illinois, and I later served on Mountain View’s Downtown Committee. A downtown lives or dies by its small businesses.

What the City should do:

Execute the Economic Vitality Strategy, where dozens of actions haven't been started.
Keep cutting permit red tape, much like the effort I was involved in on the Environmental Planning Commission.
Fund and build the permanent mall design as I mentioned above.
Complete the rail crossing closure with a safe walk and bike connection to the station.
Make better use of existing garages with even better wayfinding downtown.
Update the Downtown Precise Plan, and use a local alternative plan under SB 79 to add housing near transit while protecting the historic core of Castro.

A downtown that works as a Community for All welcomes families, seniors, teens, and workers of every income, whether they arrive on foot, by bike, by train, or by car.

4. Leadership and handling opposition: Improving bike and pedestrian infrastructure can require reallocating space or changing how streets are used, which can generate opposition from some residents, businesses, or drivers. As a Councilmember, how would you approach that opposition while advocating for the changes you believe are necessary?

I start by listening early, long before a design is locked in. Many objections are about real, solvable problems. Examples are a driveway you can't see out of or a business that needs deliveries. Solve those, and opponents often become supporters.

We should:

Start with a goal. These projects exist because people were killed or seriously hurt, so Vision Zero and the data should drive decisions.
Talk with the people who are affected, including residents, business owners, and people who use the street in question. Talk to people on nearby streets who might benefit from the project or who might be affected by spillover traffic.
Remember who isn’t in the room. Not everyone can attend an evening meeting. Projects might affect kids riding or walking to school, seniors who don’t drive after dark, and people working multiple jobs.
Use pilot projects. Publish goals and metrics, measure success, and make adjustments.
Address concerns, but recognize when an objection is simply to any change at all.

After two decades on city commissions, I've learned that respect and follow-through build the trust that makes hard decisions stick.

Responses from the Candidates