Why are you running for Palo Alto City Council?
I am running for City Council because there is a serious disagreement about the future direction of the city, particularly on the question of whether there should be additional development and, if so, what types and where. I believe that Palo Alto is a center of innovation and the center of one of the most dynamic regions in the world. As such, I don’t believe that Palo Alto can or should stand still and lock the gates to newcomers. I believe, however, that we can be smarter in the ways we develop. In particular, I believe that we have sufficient office space, but we need more moderately priced and affordable housing so that young people, our city workers, and seniors who want to downsize can live in Palo Alto if they want to.
I have nearly 40 years’ experience as a lawyer resolving large, complicated and contentious disputes. I am often able to find common ground and achieve agreement between parties who have been locked in disputes for years so that they can end the dispute and move forward productively. I can help build consensus and move the city forward in a positive way. I would be honored to serve everyone in Palo Alto.
What are the top three issues facing Palo Alto?
- Bring development under control without bringing progress to a standstill; we particularly need additional moderately priced and affordable housing.
- Solve our traffic and parking problems.
- Restore trust in City Hall and improve transparency.
What are the innovative and creative solutions you will bring to guide Palo Alto’s policy choices in housing, development, parking and/or transportation?
As noted in response to your first question, I would encourage development of additional moderately priced and affordable housing rather than additional office buildings. We already have a jobs-to-housing ratio in Palo Alto that is greater than 3 to 1. We should begin to correct that imbalance. We should make it possible for young people, teachers, and city workers to live here if they want to, and to enable seniors who want to downsize to find a smaller place to live without having to leave the community. In addition, we should make it easier for homeowners to build more “granny units.” If we locate additional housing in areas near jobs so that workers can walk or bike to work, or near shops and services so that residents need not get in their cars to do their everyday errands, we can take an important step forward toward solving Palo Alto’s traffic and parking problems.
We must also stop making development decisions on an ad hoc basis. Rather than focusing on individual projects, as in the current PC zoning process, we must take a holistic view of development and ensure that it is consistent with the community’s vision for the entire city. We can do that with the update to the Comprehensive Plan that is currently underway. The Comprehensive Plan is our community’s blueprint for guiding and controlling both commercial and residential development over the next 5, 10 and 15 years. The updated Comprehensive Plan should clearly specify the type and extent of the development we want, where it should take place, and the circumstances under which it may occur. Specific zoning changes can then be implemented to realize the community-wide vision articulated in the updated Comprehensive Plan. These steps should be completed before we begin considering specific proposals and zoning changes in isolation from the overall plan.
In terms of parking, I support the proposed residential parking permit program, but I expect that it will need considerable adjustment before we achieve a proper balance between sufficient parking for neighborhood residents and parking for their visitors and people who provide services to neighborhood residents. I also support use of technology to let drivers know where available parking spots are located. This can be in form of signs downtown providing dynamic information about how many spaces are available in which lots. It might also be an app that allows drivers to see, in real time, where parking spots are available. This kind of information would save us all from driving in circles looking for an empty parking space. We should also look at incentives to encourage commercial property owners and others with surplus parking spaces to make any unused private parking available to those who need it, even if only on a short term basis. In these ways, we can cost-effectively improve utilization of existing parking capacity. I think we should also consider building additional parking spaces.
We can and should take active measures to make it easier and safer for people to enjoy the pleasures and benefits of walking and cycling. I support continued efforts to make Palo Alto more “bike friendly.” We must especially ensure the safety of children biking to school. I would also like to find ways to increase utilization of the bike share program. Similar programs have been highly successful in other cities, but the bike share program does not seem to have gained much traction in Palo Alto. I would like to explore whether that is because those who want to use a bike to get from point to point already have their own or whether the bike share stations are not well located.
We can also expand local shuttle services and support and improve coordination and integration with regional transit systems to make using public transit more attractive for getting around town. We can learn from Stanford’s successful Marguerite shuttle system and should explore partnering with Stanford to provide fast, frequent, and friendly shuttle service, especially in areas of Palo Alto most burdened by traffic.
I would like to help our community work together constructively to build a Palo Alto that we are proud of and in which our children and grandchildren will want to and will be able to live.
How can Palo Alto engage its citizens to bring in new voices and perspectives to the public dialogue?
Both the City Council and the City Staff must do more to reach out to and to gather input from neighborhood groups, local non-profits and other organizations, and individuals across the city. Members of the council, as well as staff, must (a) listen to the entire community, (b) give all residents meaningful opportunities to provide detailed input on important issues, and (c) make sure that the concerns of all residents are fully considered. In the case of development issues, our city government must also demand that any impacts of further development be both mitigated to the fullest extent possible and shared equitably across the city.
Online information sites, like Palo Alto Pulse, can play a valuable role in informing interested citizens of the issues being addressed by the city, providing a forum for discussion of and formulation of solutions, and facilitating transmission of information between residents and city government.
