San Pablo Voters Approve Measure R Sales Tax as Bay Area Cities Rally

Municipal tax stabilization, cultural plaza celebrations, and neighborhood streetscape petitions highlighted civic activity across Bay Area communities this week as San Pablo voters approved a sales tax extension, Mountain View gathered at City Hall for its sixth annual Día de Muertos festival, and North Fair Oaks residents pressed San Mateo County for urban canopy restoration.

San Pablo Voters Pass Measure R Half-Cent Sales Tax with Nearly 71% Support

According to Richmond Confidential, nearly 71% of San Pablo voters approved Measure R as of Friday's vote count, enacting a five-year half-cent sales tax beginning in April 2027 that will step down to a quarter cent in 2032 for an additional five years. City Manager Matt Rodriguez stated on Wednesday that the vote demonstrates local support for maintaining municipal services, including crime prevention, a daily senior meal program, and homelessness assistance.

San Pablo's baseline sales tax rate is 9.5%, and Measure R brings the rate to 10% on retail goods, dining, and gasoline while exempting groceries, prescriptions, and rent. Because residents have been paying a half-cent sales tax under 2020's Measure S that drops to a quarter cent in October—reducing annual city revenue by about $1 million—consumers will pay a 10% rate while both measures overlap from April to October before the rate settles at 9.75%. Rodriguez noted in a May budget presentation that sales taxes fund about 10% of the city budget, while business license taxes from the San Pablo Lytton Casino account for 59% of general fund revenue each year. Since 2022, casino revenue growth has slowed to about 0.5% (half of 1%) annually, creating a $2 million budget deficit across the current and next fiscal years that San Pablo covered using municipal reserves.

Mountain View Hosts Sixth Annual Día de Muertos Celebration at Civic Center Plaza

In the South Bay, the Mountain View Voice reported that hundreds of residents gathered at Civic Center Plaza and City Hall on Saturday, November 7, 2026, for Mountain View's sixth city-hosted Día de Muertos celebration and its third year as a standalone event separate from the city's Monster Bash Halloween festivities. The pre-Hispanic Mexican holiday observed on November 1 and November 2 opened with an Aztec dance performance by San Jose-based Grupo Esplendor Azteca Xipe Totec featuring ayoyote ankle seeds and burning copal incense, alongside appearances by Catrinas Embajadoras.

Mexican Consul to San Jose Neftali Said Pérez González addressed attendees in Spanish on passing cultural traditions to the next generation, while Mountain View multicultural engagement program coordinator Nancy Ducos and Mountain View Solidarity Fund co-founder Azucena Castañon highlighted months of planning and weeks of altar and paper-flag installations alongside the Community Services Agency, flower-crown making, sugar skull decorating, and face painting.

Over 140 North Fair Oaks Residents Petition for Middlefield Road Tree Replacements

Along the Peninsula, The Almanac reported that more than 140 residents signed a revived petition organized by the North Fair Oaks Community Alliance urging San Mateo County to plant replacement trees, install working irrigation, and expand business outreach along Middlefield Road between Fifth and Ninth avenues. First launched in 2024 with more than 40 signatures, the petition was presented during an October 15 study session of the North Fair Oaks Community Council by alliance member Gabriela Valencia, who noted that the corridor's trees were planted 25 years ago, while Council member Kelly Parisi raised concerns over canopy loss from new construction replacing 900- and 1,200-square-foot homes.

Alliance President Ever Rodriguez reported that an early August count between Fifth and Ninth avenues found 26 existing trees, with 13 appearing ill and 8 empty planter spots missing trees. San Mateo County Public Works Director Tory Newman and Deputy County Executive Nicholas Calderon told the council that contractors are inspecting the original irrigation systems to prune, maintain, and replant the corridor—where Newman noted 1 tree is failing and 6 are currently missing—while educating corridor businesses so only Public Works crews prune the street trees.