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Palo Alto, CA -- home of @Stanford and @Tesla -- is probably the most exclusionary major suburb in the United States, and this November's city council election may decide whether the area remains a racially and economically segregated community. (thread) https://suburbs.substack.com/p/local-politics-is-the-reason-your
For context: Palo Alto's median household income is $157k, and the city is just 7% Black or Latinx. The neighboring city of *East* Palo Alto has a median household income of $65k and is 74% Black or Latinx. Here's a photo of the highway overpass that divides the two.
For a very long time, Palo Alto has resisted adding significantly to its housing stock, citing typical suburban concerns like traffic, parking, and school overcrowding. But its location in the heart of Silicon Valley means it is within a short commuting distance of tons of jobs.
In fact, aside from tiny Colma (1,800 residents), Palo Alto has THE worst jobs/housing balance in the entire Bay Area, at 3.5 jobs for every 1 home in the city. A healthy jobs/housing ratio is considered 1.5, which Palo Alto more than doubles.
Despite the obvious data on the housing shortage and Palo Alto's especially egregious role in it, 3 out of the 7 current city councilmembers got their start in local politics by opposing not just housing but *affordable housing for seniors.*
This is an archived Google Maps photo of the Maybell Orchards property in 2011, a holdover from when Silicon Valley used to be farmland. It had been fenced off and inaccessible to the public for a long time.
Here's the view of the property half a block away. It was behind a row of single-family homes, with a tall apartment building on the other side.
The Palo Alto Housing Corporation, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, acquired the land, and in 2013, proposed building 60 affordable apartments for seniors, which would would be cross-subsidized by 12 market-rate single-family homes.
They requested a fairly modest zoning change to allow more subsidized units on the parcel, which the Palo Alto City Council at the time unanimously agreed to, citing the lack of suitable sites for affordable housing in the city.
However, a group of neighbors, upset at the increasing housing density and skeptical of what they perceived as corrupt dealing by the council (with a nonprofit affordable housing developer?), gathered signatures for a "referendum petition."
This forced the council to either retract their approval of the project or put it before voters before confirmation. The council didn't back down, and the matter went before voters in a November 2013 odd-year election.
The anti-housing residents group waged a vigorous "No on D" campaign. With a very poor (for Palo Alto) voter turnout of 41%, voters vetoed the affordable housing project 56-44.
At the time, the @paloaltoweekly editorial board wrote, "No one wants the outcome of this controversy to be the sale of the entire property to a developer who will maximize profits on the site, and we don't believe that is the likely outcome if Measure D fails.”
However, that is EXACTLY what happened. The nonprofit developer saw there was no financially feasible affordable housing project that wouldn't lead to massive community pushback, so they sold the site to a for-profit developer.
Seven years later, in 2020, a property that could've had 72 homes, including 60 affordable senior units, will instead have 16 massive single-family homes expected to sell for $5 million each: https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/23/fierce-7-year-nimby-battle-in-palo-alto-reaches-a-luxury-conclusion/
Seeing such a grossly unjust, segregationist outcome would of course lead to community introspection and the condemnation of those responsible, right? WRONG. 3 of the people responsible for killing the affordable project were later elected to council and still serve today.
Tom DuBois and Eric Filseth were elected the following year in 2014, and their slow-growth ally Lydia Kou joined them in 2016. All three see themselves as champions of social justice and/or responsible regional planning.
In June of this year, DuBois implored his Twitter followers to join him at a Black Lives Matter rally. (FYI, Palo Alto's Black population has been declining for 30 years thanks to anti-housing policies that he supports.) https://twitter.com/VoteDubois/status/1269360008447299584
Amateur economist Eric Filseth blames the region's affordability problems on the expansion of the tech sector, not decades of under-building housing. (Ignore that he's a former tech CEO and an angel investor.) https://web.archive.org/web/20200105131733/https://padailypost.com/2020/01/03/guest-opinion-who-should-pay-for-tech-expansion/
And Kou blames YIMBYs for "cities only accessible to the rich," a laughable assertion in a place where the median home price is $3.1 million: https://twitter.com/lydia_kou/status/1109391701704007680
(She also denies that there's a housing shortage, naturally.) https://twitter.com/lydia_kou/status/857012783895912450
Sadly, despite their horrifying entrance into local politics and their record of deepening racial and economic segregation since, both Filseth and DuBois were re-elected in 2018. But it's not too late to get rid of Kou!
Kou is one of at least 9 candidates running for 4 seats on the Palo Alto City Council this November. See this article for more detail: https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2020/08/06/palo-alto-mayor-will-not-seek-reelection-to-city-council
If there's any justice in this world, Kou will lose her job at the same time as her anti-affordable housing ally, Donald Trump: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1288509568578777088
If the situation in Palo Alto angers you as much as it does me, here are some things you can do:
- Join @paloaltoforward and @penforeveryone
- Follow pro-housing Palo Alto mayor @adrianfine
- Follow justice-minded former council members @judgecordell and @corywolbach
- Join @paloaltoforward and @penforeveryone
- Follow pro-housing Palo Alto mayor @adrianfine
- Follow justice-minded former council members @judgecordell and @corywolbach
- Support candidates who care about equity and are committed to justice in the city, like Raven Malone (Call_me_rai_), Cari Templeton (cariforcouncil), and Steven Lee ( https://www.facebook.com/StevenforCouncil/)
In 2016, 82% of Palo Alto voters supported Hillary Clinton. It's a city that THINKS it's progressive, but its track record clearly doesn't support that. If you live in Palo Alto, I hope you'll get involved in the fight for a less racist, less exclusionary future.
And if you're interested in the intersection of race and the suburbs, I cover topics like this in-depth on my substack, "The Suburbs Should Be Less Racist." Please subscribe! https://suburbs.substack.com/p/local-politics-is-the-reason-your
Of course I forgot some of the @'s in a long thread like this. Raven Malone is @Call_me_rai_ and Cari Templeton is @cariforcouncil!
