Perhaps it's more accurate to describe the majority of Palo Alto City Council priorities as idealistic rather than practical.

Having worked retail in Palo Alto and having visited PAMF in Palo Alto this year I see the city has placed its recycling bins with attached posters in every nook and cranny. This requires man hours and visits from PA staff to educate the uneducated. Non compliance is enforced. I've seen notices posted on the dumpsters of our apartment for improper recycling. This tells me that recycling, and zero waste is a huge priority of Palo Alto. Meanwhile I ride my bike daily in Palo Alto and watch cars drive through stop signs, fail to yield etc. This is standard because drivers face no consequences. Meanwhile school-age kids and all of us are at risk from drivers that openly violate laws. People drive on Middlefield like it's an expressway. Forty years ago everyone knew: speed on Alma and you risked a ticket. Those days are gone. Personally, I'd like to see more attention paid to our safety on the street and less on our dumpsters.

I also would like a higher priority put on safer street design and traffic enforcement.

I drive, but I bike or walk for most of my local trips, and driver behavior has seems to have gotten worse.

Please help, officers! Thanks for all you do.

The Palo Alto CC would do well to emulate Los Altos - thriving downtown, minimal virtue signalling.

I would like to see more priority given to residents' issues, infrastructure issues particularly power and traffic efficiency, as well as transparency from the City.

"The Palo Alto CC would do well to emulate Los Altos - thriving downtown, minimal virtue signaling."

I am grateful to be residing in Los Altos rather than Palo Alto based on Mondoman's observations.

Los Altans discourage homelessness and over-development to ensure quality of life parameters for all who reside here and we do not dwell on nebulous climate change/global warming initiatives that will have minimal bearing on improving the environment.

@Lorraine If we ask nicely, may we join Los Altos? :)

@Mondoman

In the City of Los Altos and the Town of Los Altos Hills, the majority of residents do not virtue signal like many do in Palo Alto.

Taking the moral high ground serves no practical purpose unless it is combined with constructive action.

One reason there is minimal homelessness in Los Altos is because our local churches and local government have joined forces with the Community Services Agency and Hope's Corner in Mountain View. We support and refer the Los Altos homeless population to these Mountain View-based facilities where they can be better served and cared for.

Perhaps Palo Alto could join this local humanitarian network as there is plenty of money in the city coffers to assist in any capacity.

The upside would result in a far more enjoyable and vibrant downtown shopping and dining experience...just like Los Altos!

If you build it, they (retail customers and diners) will come but first you have to create a far more inviting environment free from unpleasant distractions. San Francisco has learned this the hard way.

I suspect that the majority of Palo Alto City council members do not really care about any homeless situation that might exist in downtown Palo Alto or of its adverse impact on local businesses.

And in all fairness to them, perhaps Palo Alto does not really have an actual homeless problem like in other cities.

During the few times we have ventured into downtown PA, the only homeless we witnessed were at the 7-11 on Kipling or at the SP train station. This is somewhat minimal given that Palo Alto extends all the way from Stanford Shopping Center to San Antonio Road.

Being relatively free from these types of social concerns and issues easily allows the Palo Alto City Council and its residents to focus more of their attention on climate change initiatives and virtual signaling. Just guessing.

While virtual signalling is perceived by some to be a pejorative, isn't it reassuring to reside in a city that focuses much of its attention on more pressing issues like climate change, eliminating gas stoves, global conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, cancel culture policies, and a conceptual sales tax on meat consumption?

Progressive college towns (like Palo Alto, Berkeley, Austin, Chapel Hill, Madison, and Ann Arbor) tend to be more progressive than those in agricultural or rural areas because their visions are more expensive and inclusive.

Palo Alto has more homeless people because it's a progressive town. I rarely see homeless in Danville and I think it's the political climate. It's not like there aren't homeless in Contra Costa County. The homeless don't feel as welcome in Los Altos as Palo Alto, and that's the difference.

We participate in the annual Life Moves bike ride to end homelessness and it can be done on an actual bicycle or on a Peloton at home. Participants get a colorful bike jersey to show their support and individual sponser-supported miles are contributed to the program.

Last year my husband bought a Colnago racing bike to participate in the ride and our son's rode their new e-bikes. Though some of our more skeptic neighbors questioned our fiscal outlay for these seemingly expensive bicycles, we assured them that it was going towards a good cause and hopefully we can assist those in need of shelter.

This is the Palo Alto way of showing support and caring.

> This is the Palo Alto way of showing support and caring.

What's next? A caravan of Palo Alto progressives driving sponsored miles in their Teslas to Napa Valley or Lake Tahoe in support of anorher well-intentioned humanitarian cause?

Most of the money from these various fundraisers goes towards administrative costs and promotion.

Just like most of our taxpayer dollars in Palo Alto go towards city administrative costs and promotion.

Palo Alto is also a mecca for highly-paid consultants who assume many of the duties our city administrators should be doing.

Unlike Los Altos and Mountain View, Palo Alto city leadership tends to be more concentrated on progressive ideals that are either extremely difficult or unrealistic to initiate.

It would also be safe to assume that most Palo Altans are more concerned about their utility bills, NIMBYisms, bike lanes, rail crossings, and climate change initiatives than alleviating the more serious issues like homelessness and affordable housing.

If this were not the case, development issues would not be such a dominating topic in the everyday lives of Palo Alto residents and city leadership.

It is absolutely mind-boggling that the residential real estate prices are so high in Palo Alto considering that it is no longer one of the best cities to live anymore.

RE agents will never divulge this simple truth a prospective homebuyer because they too are part of the problem.

@Penny Latham, as I am reading through the comments something dovetailed in my brain. And that is real estate agents are not selling a product, they are selling vague promises of a certain type of lifestyle the buyers don't get to try on until they sign the contract and get the keys. The market is still ripe enough to re-sell it to the next person in line, call it "flipping" and show an appliance or new landscape feature, if they discover PA's flaws. There used to be a kind of magical feeling entering the city limits here. But now, it's got a run-down appearance. And for all the crowing over multimillion dollar sales in Menlo Park and Atherton, it doesn't put a penny in PA's pocket because those cities aren't in Santa Clara County. PA has done everything from refusing to allow big box stores here, AND all but forbidding any fast food restaurants to exist, to shutting down public streets from traffic for the local foodies. On one hand the City wants to be known as a safe and secure bedroom community, and on the other they want to be known as a restaurant carnival. Which is it? Sleepy bedroom town, or Mardi Gras every day on California Avenue?

The end of your comment rings so true: "RE agents will never divulge this simple truth a prospective homebuyer because they too are part of the problem". What you didn't say was "investors tend only to have to make a one-time investment and then passively wait for their returns." That's how real estate works here. But in slow motion.