The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Photograph by Kathy De La Torre The Future Unfolds Adams says: Walker will be next governor of California, Moffett will house a mall and the downtown will break ground ahead of schedule By Justin Berton When Sunnyvale resident Tony Adams was a baby, he was often held by a 7-year-old girl who lived in his neighborhood. Her name was Angela, and she claimed to posses psychic abilities. With Tony in her arms, young Angela often told friends and family, "This is the boy I'm going to marry." When Tony turned 20, and Angela 27, the two were married by their Greek-Italian families in their hometown of Los Angeles. The couple moved to Sunnyvale 17 years ago and bought a home on Sunnyvale Avenue, just north of Old San Francisco Road. Soon after, Angela placed a small sign on their front lawn advertising her psychic abilities. Though Angela was the premier psychic of the two, Tony also felt the current of energy that made him sensitive to forces beyond the physical world. Tony remembered one particular evening when the couple watched Robert Kennedy speak on television. It was the same evening Kennedy would be assassinated in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. When the camera panned toward what would be the fateful room, both Tony and Angela were filled with desperate, dark energy. "I said, 'Oh, I don't like that kitchen,' " Tony recalled, shaking his head. "Angela said the same thing." Tony still physically shudders at the thought. Angela gained hundreds of regular customers over the years in Sunnyvale, reading thousands of futures, pasts and presents. Sadly, last March, Angela Adams died. But Tony did not remove the small sign from the front lawn. Instead, he took on the responsibilities of running the business himself. When I telephoned Tony to see if he would like to participate in this story, the first words I heard were "Who's this?" Of course, I figured, he should know--he's the psychic. After a short talk, Tony agreed to read the future for the city of Sunnyvale. As I walked up to the well-kept home later that afternoon, the front door was open and Tony was relaxing on the couch watching Mel Brooks' Silent Movie. A large picture of Angela hung over the fireplace. Tony served eggnog in a wine glass and wasted little time in making his first prediction. "Who's that guy who sits all the way to the left during the council meetings? What's his name?" "Jack Walker?" I suggested. "That guy--that guy is going to go a long way. He's got that special thing where he says the right thing at the right time," Tony said. Tony then closed his eyes briefly and raised his left hand to shoulder height. "He'll move on to mayor, and then be our next governor. This," Tony added with confidence, "I have this feeling." I thought that would be a good place to start my questions regarding the future of Sunnyvale for 1999 and beyond. Will Jack Walker win his seat this year? Yes. Will Pat Vorreiter win her seat this year? (Pause) She has to try a little harder to be more with the people. She'll win, but she has to try more. Will Manuel Valerio win his seat this year? Oh, yes (emphasis). Will the Sunnyvale Public Safety Officers Association and city come to terms this year and sign a new contract? I don't know. It will happen, but it will be very hard and ... not right now; It won't happen very soon. Will Frances Rowe be successful in uncovering and exposing the vast conspiracy she claims was waged against her to remove her from office? (Shakes head) No. No. She will find nothing. She is going to disappear. She has very few friends in office. Will another tornado touch down in Sunnyvale this year? No. That was a freak thing. Will there be any other natural disasters in the city? Earthquakes. Maybe the biggest will be 4.0, but mostly little ones. Will the Mid-Peninsula Alano Club, a safe haven for recovering drug and alcohol addicts, find another meeting place within Sunnyvale after it gets evicted from the Hill Building to make way for the new downtown? Pretty hard. It will be pretty hard, and it will take time. When Mozart Development Group presents its drawings of the proposed new downtown early this year, will residents like what they see? Fifty-fifty. Fifty percent will want it, 50 percent won't want it. They [Mozart] will want to put in a hotel, a movie theater, something with a stage--ballet. They'll want a park, too. I see a lot of statues, a lot of statues. Bronze or something. But yes, a lot of statues. Will the new downtown break ground this year as scheduled? Yes. Might be a little earlier than thought, too. Two or three weeks early. When the new downtown is constructed, will a parking space be found on a Friday night? Hmmm. Yes, but very hard. Will American Mall Properties be able to revive the Town Center into a bustling shopping center? (Looks to the ceiling. Long pause.) Yes. They will generate more people to come to Sunnyvale to see the mall. Yes, they will. Will light rail ever come to downtown Sunnyvale? Oh yes, right away. Another two years. Say, 2001. Will Sunnyvale resident Patrick Salinas be convicted of the burglary/arsons for which he is being held? I hate to say. (Shaking head) No comment. I'd hate to say. That's all. No comment. Will Sunnyvale police ever catch the three suspects who abducted 9-month-old Yecenia Solozano from her residence earlier this year? [Solozano was found unharmed 11 hours after the abduction. Police are still tracking the three suspects.] (Long pause) Yes. But they have to go to another state, or something. They'll get leads from another state. Do you see anything more that could help police? No. Will Moffett Field ever turn into a commercial airport? Oh yes--maybe--we have to fight with Mountain View and what they want it to be. In five years, there will be a mall there. But will there be a commercial airport there as well? I'll go for an airport. There will be an airport. They'll put a mall there, too. Is Stan Kawczynski correct when he states that hired lobbyists by the city are wasting the taxpayers' money to argue on behalf of the city regarding Moffett Field ? That's a hard question. (Pause) I think so, yes. Will the City Council choose to continue the teens' coffeehouse program? Yes, sure, why not. It's good business. Will the new senior center ever be built? I don't see that in the future, not right now. Will the parents who attempted to create the city's first publicly funded charter school be successful in their second attempt this year? I doubt it. If they said no the first time, I doubt it. Will a resident be forced to use one of the city's recently purchased defibrillators to save the life of another resident who has suffered a heart attack? I'm afraid so. In the city chambers, a person might have a heart attack. Will city records suffer from the so-called Y2K bug? I'm afraid so. I'm hearing that people are afraid of this. It will affect many people, I'm afraid. Will the Sunnyvale parrots return after the winter? Oh yes, they'll return. Will residents in Lakewood Village use the annual holiday parade next year as the impetus to secede from the city and claim independence? (Hearty laugh) I don't understand. That's a funny one. That's funny to me. I don't understand. Will the ramp onto East Central Expressway be reopened before the year 2000? Yes, it will be opened before then. Will the San Francisco 49ers win the Super Bowl? (Long pause) No. I hate to say it. I love the 49ers. But it will be Minnesota and Denver. Will an alien visit the city, and if so, when and where? (Long laugh) That's a trick question! I doubt it very much. Maybe Roswell? (Laughing) The day after our meeting, Tony left a message on my voicemail at work. He sounded distressed and instructed me to call him as soon as possible. When he reached me later in the day, he said he'd had a dream during the night and wanted to fine-tune two of his predictions. In the first, he said his comments about Councilmember Pat Vorreiter needed amendments. "Change that to say, 'She's OK, and she's doing a fine job.' " In the other, he said Frances Rowe "is just going to give up on her fight, that's all." I told Tony I couldn't change his original readings, but I would add his dream to the story. I asked him to describe the dream: "There were two women, it was fast and blurry. One of the women was older and one was younger. They were haggling about something. Something, I don't know. But one will do better, and one will give up." At our original meeting, I also asked Tony to give some general offerings on the future of Sunnyvale. He predicted more people will continue to move into the city, searching for a clean, quiet community. He added that he received very positive feelings when he thought of the city. "Everything looks good for Sunnyvale," Tony said. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 30, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.