That's bizarre to me. The "architecture" on El Camino in MV is strictly of the suburban-strip-mall variety. Even identikit glitzy new apartment buildings are an improvement over that, even without taking into account how they can help alleviate the housing crisis.
An initiative vote overturned the Planning Commission's approval -- "Big Box" stores were unwelcome (Ironically, a Best Buy now sits on the adjacent parcel).
The site became a residential care facility. Sunnyvale and East Palo Alto get that tax revenue instead.
I would absolutely complain about that. Remove road lanes instead. Why would you remove trees? Are they idiots?
The rest of the stuff (ruining the character, etc...) are fine. There's no reason people can't be upset that this area they moved in to is changing because everybody else wanted to follow suit. I wouldn't want to have moved to Mountain View then all of a sudden Google shows up and now I'm dealing with all this bullshit traffic. Send Google somewhere else. They don't need to be on the coast.
You guys act like people don't have any right to wish to have their way of life preserved. Ridiculous.
Do you currently have a commute that involves Mountain View? Ever driven on Shoreline when there's both a concert and an accident on the 101? Ever gotten stuck on Rengstorff or Castro when there's a Caltrain incident?
Sure, let's remove a road lane. Then all the traffic will back up and clog the residential streets.
Hint: traffic never gets better. It's called induced demand. I for one also don't want my world turned into a mega highway for the suburbs. Once traffic gets bad enough, people will have to find alternatives, like biking, taking the bus, or simply moving to other areas.
-Complaints about the removal of trees to accommodate bicycle lanes
-Complaints about restriping/widening of bicycle lanes
-Complaints about how the architecture of new apt buildings on El Camino Real is ruining the character of MV
-Complaints about how the removal of historic buildings in downtown MV (by their landlords, who can no longer afford to maintain them) is also ruining the character of MV
-Complaints about why are there so many RVs and campers parked on Shoreline
-Complaints about why so many restaurants in downtown MV have a hiring shortage and quick turnover
-Complaints about why the checkout lines in Safeway are so long and there aren't enough checkers
-Complaints about the traffic on Shoreline (i.e. near Google)
-Complaints about Google's attempt to add pre-fab housing
And of course, if you imply that they should sell their $$$ house and move elsewhere, it becomes a discussion of how "my family has lived in MV for 3 generations, etc, who gives you the right to tell me how/when to move"