Palo Alto Pulse sent the same four questions to all 12 City Council candidates so they could tell Palo Alto voters how they feel about key issues facing the city in their own words. Read on to hear what Cory Wolbach has to say about development, housing, communication and more in Palo Alto.
Why are you running for the Palo Alto City Council?
I have been concerned by the style and substance of our community discussions over the past year in particular. Traffic and housing have been pitted against each other in a false dichotomy, and the debate around affordable housing has been extremely hostile. The city government has been seen as out of touch, and members of the community have responded with frustration and anger. Rather than continue this destructive pattern and deepen the divide, I see a need to focus on common ground and to have an inclusive discussion. Drawing on my perspective as a Palo Alto native, a former private sector manager, a political activist, and as a district staff member in the office of Senator Jerry Hill (where I have served as the liaison to Palo Alto and several neighboring communities), I see the need for rational, reasonable discourse, and a pragmatic approach to public policy locally.
I am an independent candidate and am concerned with a breadth of issues, especially environmental protection, maintaining fiscal health for the city, and flood protection, homelessness, and strengthening partnerships with the school district and neighboring cities. We need to make sure the city council is composed of a diverse group with broad policy interests. Single-issue candidates make for poor public servants, and slate politics are infamous in Palo Alto history.
What are the top three issues facing Palo Alto today?
Traffic, housing cost, and communication.
What innovative and creative solutions will you bring to guide Palo Alto’s policy choices in housing, development, parking and/or transportation?
Housing and other development, as well as transportation (including parking), cannot be addressed adequately independently; they must be dealt with in tandem. Palo Alto’s jobs-housing imbalance has worsened over recent years. Office space and intensity of office use have increased without housing supply or transportation sufficient to maintain balance. This has resulted in worsening traffic and parking impacts in some neighborhoods, as well as skyrocketing housing costs, leading to many getting squeezed out of Palo Alto.
For housing, we should focus small unit rentals around services, particularly Downtown and near California Avenue. El Camino, Midtown, and Fabian-San Antonio are also possibilities. We should use specific/concept area plans for this. (see below).
In-law/granny units should be easier to add legally. There are quite a few illegal ones in Palo Alto, and lots of demand. Making it easier to add a second unit to a residential home is something that should be considered on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis, and focused on areas without parking issues. Particularly if someone has an “empty nest” home with only one or two people in a house meant for five, I see no reason to not allow them to turn, for example, a master bedroom into a separate unit. That specific approach would be good for extended family, caregivers, or renters, without adding to the size or number of buildings.
For transportation, I am in favor of pushing aggressively for traffic demand management. The City should take the lead in trying to bring together a variety of shuttles in Palo Alto, and merge them into a unified system. Stanford’s Marguerite, the Palo Alto Free Shuttle, and a few companies in town have independent programs which should be combined. The Palo Alto Unified School District should also be at the table for this discussion. As Santa Monica has the Big Blue Bus, perhaps Palo Alto could have the “Little Green Shuttle.” Regardless of branding, the headways (time between shuttles), routes, and hours of operation need to be dramatically expanded to adequately provide the community with a truly viable alternative to driving. Regular shuttle routes perhaps could be paired with a secondary tier of door-to-door vans, integrated into the same system.
Inter-city transportation improvement requires regional cooperation and leadership. My own experience, relationships, and approach will be assets in this arena. Palo Alto has a tradition of trying to do things on its own. It is time we move past that and instead start being the positive, leadership force we should be.
I support Caltrain electrification and separating at-grade crossings to eliminate the danger and traffic impacts of road-train intersections.
How can Palo Alto engage its citizens to bring in new voices and perspectives to the public dialogue?
I look forward to instituting regular neighborhood meetings with council members and community members meeting to discuss relevant and future-focused concerns. Community meetings held on an ad-hoc basis, sometimes with only consultants or staff representing the City government, have proven inadequate and have earned as much ire as gratitude from the public. The nine members of the Council should split up the load and lead regular, scheduled meetings. The first round should also include planning staff, transportation staff, and members of the Planning and Transportation Commission, with a focus on housing and transportation.
I support greater use of Specific Plans or Concept Area Plans, which rely on extensive community input, to plan neighborhood-by-neighborhood for our future. As a supplement to our city-wide comprehensive plan, this is an open, inclusive, thoughtful process which we should embrace as a regular practice.
Online, Palo Alto presents our financial data in a clear, deep, accessible manner. The same should be done for planning projects and to explain the process for our Comprehensive Plan update.
The community at-large, not only city government, must take responsibility for improving the style and substance of our community discussion. By explicitly prioritizing civility, accuracy, and welcoming adverse opinions and a healthy, friendly debate, we can have the conversations necessary to move forward together.
Check out these Palo Alto Pulse articles to learn more….
