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News From Silicon Valley's Neighborhoods Big Time Campbell--The gunshots. The car chase. The smashed police barricade. The piggy bank. It could have been Hollywood, but it was just a transient and his cranked-up passenger tearing it up in a delivery van through the sleeping streets of Willow Glen and Campbell last Tuesday night. Shortly after midnight police responded to a call about a man "acting bizarre and carrying a piggy bank" in the middle of Willow Street. By the time the mad chase ended, the driver had rammed through a police-car barricade, aimed the truck at a police officer and been shot at twice. Chicken or Egg Los Gatos--Before Greg and Becky Atwood can get an approved building site to build a home on a piece of county property they're about the buy, the county says they need to build a road to it. Before they can build a road from a city street to their future house, the city of Monte Sereno says they need to have an approved building site. Trapped in a juris-dictional conundrum, the Atwoods have already spent money on a geological study of their building site and obtained a neighbor's permission for an easement. Holy War Palo Alto--Blowing apart a painstaking compromise, the Palo Alto City Council voted five to four last week to ban gas-powered leaf blowers from residential neighborhoods but still allow the machines in commercial areas and city parks. Outraged gardeners, who thought they had worked out a deal with local police, are promising noisy protests and a referendum to circumvent the council's vote modeled on the successful Menlo Park campaign. Mayor Gary Fazzino says he's worried a "holy war" will break out over the issue, but the jihad could lose steam if new council members reverse the decision when they take office next year. [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]