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News From Silicon Valley's Neighborhoods The Slime That Ate San Martin When San Martin taxpayers shelled out $6 million for a spanking new courthouse, they didn't know it would take on a life of its own. That Dojo Mojo Los Gatos--Los Gatos' newest school board member truly is a master! No matter how angry the voters of Los Gatos may be, Andrew Fanelli-san remains as serene as the lotus floating on the pond. The 28-year-old karate instructor has weathered weeks of criticism for listing "teacher" as his occupation on the ballot, which some folks say misled them into thinking they were actually getting a schoolteacher on board. Fanelli was sworn in last Wednesday at his first school board meeting, which went as smoothly as the calming hand of the master running through the puffy fur of the outraged kitty. The Wheel Deal Cupertino--Departing from its love affair with the high-tech "solution," Cupertino is considering a $12 million Bicycle Transportation Plan to make bicycling a more attractive option for moving around in congested Cupertino. Plan boosters would like to see a bike lane on De Anza Boulevard, a bike and pedestrian overpass over I-280 at Mary Avenue and a White Bike Program in which the honorable citizens of Cupertino could use city-owned bicycles for tooling around town, leaving the bikes at their destinations for others to use. Another breath of fresh air in the plan: require growing companies to install showers and lockers for bike-bound employees. Sandy Feat Saratoga--Does a cool $1,000 stand a chance against the forces of nature? Most definitely, if it's been invested in a marvelous multi-unit self-service sandbagging machine such as the one residing at Saratoga's City Hall these days. The contraption enables a person working alone to fill five sandbags at a time with little effort. The new improved model takes half the time and half the personnel, freeing up burdened city crew members to spend more time bailing out residents in floodtime. [ Metro | Metroactive Central | Archives ]