Shoreline West Association of Neighbors (SWAN)

Shoreline West Association of Neighbors (SWAN) aims to promote and advance neighborhood goals and to preserve and enhance the welfare of the Shoreline West neighborhood.

SWAN will seek to:

1. Encourage community responsibility, identity, and pride.

2. Collect and disseminate information of interest to residents.

3. Provide a forum for the expression of wishes and grievances of residents, and to act as liaison between neighborhood residents and the City of Mountain View.

4. Promote cultural, civic, social, educational, and recreational activities for the benefit of the residents of SWAN.

5. Coordinate with and support other community organizations and activities as appropriate.

SWAN Steering Committee - Established 2017

The SWAN Steering Committee was formed in 2017. The first meeting was held on 17 August 2017. This meeting was attended by six neighbors: Elise Bergeron, Cheryl Chang, Tracy Chu, Devon Conley, Leona Pearce and Aaron Phillips. Our by-laws were established at this meeitng and that can be found here.

The SWAN Steering Committee mets every other month to discuss topics such as civic engagement, CERT (community emergency response training), communication and event planning.  The SWAN Steering Committee maintains a SWAN website at shorelinewestmv.com and produces a quarterly newsletter to keep SWAN neighbors up to date with neighborhood information and City of Mountain View updates. 

SWAN Steering Committee Volunteers

SWAN History

From Mike Groethe: SWAN President 1995 - 2010

SWAN was formed in 1994 after neighbors were concerned by the city's interest in developing four parcels of land near Shoreline/Latham and Shoreline/California, which now remain open spaces for all to enjoy.  In the late sixties the City started talks of widening Bailey Avenue (Shoreline Boulevard today) and building the Central overpass and this involved a lot of people losing their land and houses through eminent domain. In the early 90s there continued to be bad feelings about this action, which some considered a land grab.  At this point, the area of SWAN was part of a larger neighborhood group known as Bailey that went from El Camino and Shoreline through to the 101.  

When the city spoke of taking back the four parcels of land (the only open space in SWAN) a number of residents gathered to confront the City and at one of the council meetings it was said by a councillor "sounds like we have a new neighborhood association in the making".  After flyers, block parties and other gatherings to gain momentum to stop this proposed sell off, SWAN was created. 

The name SWAN was coined as an acronym for Shoreline West Association of Neighbors and was an ideal name for our neighborhood, given that a swan is known to nurture its young and protect its nest.  Mike was instrumental in  getting four way stop signs installed to create more safety for our neighborhood and also adding 25 MPH signs to try to slow traffic down in our neighborhood. 

From Deniece Smith: SWAN President 2010-2017

While hosting open houses in our neighborhood for my career, I ran across so many amazing neighbors  including  a few who said that there used to be a community association that they wished would start up again. At that point I did a little bit of research and found that Mike Grothe was the president of SWAN and began conversations with him about what it would take to renew our community association. Mike had some very official paperwork to pass on to me when he passed the torch. 

Along with three other neighbors, SWAN was reborn. SWAN's new board did everything possible to make sure SWAN was social and that we got to know our neighbors. Thanks to the City and their Community Neighborhood Committee, we had grant money to reach out to everyone and to create community. We had social events including ice cream socials and block parties. We created the SWAN Facebook Page, SWAN Shutterfly website and joined Nextdoor.com. 

The most influential meeting we had was called after several accidents had occurred with pedestrians in our neighborhood. With the super capable assistance of my husband and SWAN Vice President, Cary Smith, we gathered together move than 80 people to discuss how we could make our neighborhood streets more safe.  With lots of cooperation from the Police Department, Public Works, council members, and neighbors we were able to get several crosswalks with flashing lights installed on Shoreline Boulevard and a stoplight installed at Mariposa Avenue and California Street, creating safer passage to Castro School and Mariposa Park. Most importantly, we helped bond our community.