Redwood City vs Redwood Shores. All the resources will go to redwood shores....

Article is incorrect: I have never participated in a previous roundtable event.

However, Louise Katz, a neighbor and friend, is well qualified to present the concerns of home owners, particularly those of us who live South of El Camino real.

Just because more housing will be built, does not mean everyone of the occupants will work in Mt. View or for Google, whereby making traffic issues even worse. Affordable housing should be part of the new buildings being planned for N. bayshore.

With the price of land and the housing market realities the only affordable housing you will get must be subsidized.

Our "new" nasty landlord (whose spouse just died and was in charge of the apartments where I live) just announced a big rent increase for us come January. They own the joint outright, so money can't be a factor for them. Must be plain ol greed. It's all about sticking it to the little people these days. AND I work at Google yet still can not afford a rent increase of what's to come!

Google can just relocate to Gilroy and everyone would be happy. Lots of land there.

Too bad that none of the newly elected candidates were there. They based their campaigns on housing issues, but they were no shows at this event.

@KateinMV

Probably they were on a round table with the NEC and realtors; which are the ones that elected them after all!

Since this Round Table discussion was taking place after the election, I don't see what the problem would have been with including candidates, or current council members, or planning commissioners.


Jim Neal
Old Mountain View

Uh, Jim -- we've had to put up with your attempts to get attention all throughout the election season. Seeing as you got a total of 6% of the vote this past election, it's becoming obvious that the majority of the electorate in Mountain View have tuned you out.

So continuing to try to draw attention to yourself, for whatever reason, will be like digging yourself in a hole.

@Really, Jim?

I'm one of those 6% that voted for Jim Neal, remember that we hare 6% more votes than what you got just sitting in front of your computer trashing people for their civil involvement in the city !
Get involved run for city council yourself, with no special interest money sponsoring you and let's see how you do !

Go Jim stay involved !

@Voter -- With supporters like you, Jim Neal doesn't need enemies.

Wow! Some people have so much hate! I wonder why? I didn't say anything about myself being on the panel or even about my campaign. My comment was signed with only my name and location so what's the problem?

My objection was to the fact that the people they chose to exclude have a lot of knowledge about the issue that was being discussed and could have added something additional to the discussion. I get it that some people have an irrational, personal hatred for me and think that I have no right to say anything, but as long as this is a free country, I will continue to express myself.


Jim Neal
Old Mountain View

@Really Jim of Cuernavaca

Wow where do you get off trashing someone because of their civic involvement? Did Jim Neal rear-end your car or steal your girlfriend or something? You sound really angry in a really personal way. I'm guessing "the majority of the electorate" wished they could have voted for more than just 3.

Thank you Jim for your involvement, your perspective, and your honesty. I'm glad you're able to not take personally such immature and inappropriate criticism.

For the record, attendees included council members John McAlister, Mike Kasperzak, and John Inks, and candidates Jim Neal, Greg Unangst, and Ellen Kamei. Not sure about planning commissioners. Did I miss anyone? Yes it would make sense for all those people to attend such a meaningful discussion and hear more than 3-minute comments from the podium. I understand some candidates might be on a vacation after the election, I would not expect the organizers to include all or any of them on the panel, but it sure seems like it would be to their benefit to attend.

Some pretty heavy trolling these last few days. Sort of triumphant, or something.

Anonymity emboldens people to trash others in a discussion. This comment system is definitely got two edges. It encourages some people to speak out in welcome ways (who wouldn't otherwise do so), but it also brings out some real a-holes.

The elected and commissioner attendees were announced at the beginning of the meeting. If I remember correctly, it was council members Margaret Abe-Koga, John McAlister, Mike Kasperzak, and John Inks,
candidate and BPAC member Greg Unangst, candidates and planning commissioners Ellen Kamei, Lisa Matichak,
planning commissioners Robert Cox and John Scarboro and parks and rec commissioner Thida Cornes.
Jim Neal was also there but wasn't announced because candidates weren't announced. I didn't see any other candidates but I might have missed them.

Interesting article in today's SJ Mercury, on neighborhood opposition to a proposed 650-unit, 6-story apartment complex. The developer is Greystar, the same company that is building 801 El Camino. Here’s the article: Web Link

Just in case any of our present or future council members happen to read this, let me point out that these apartments are (of course) a profit-making venture, meant to generate a generous and long-lasting income stream for the landlord. The whole point is to pull money out of the community. They are not ownership housing, and I doubt whether they will be what most of us would call “affordable”.

Lenny, Pat, and Ken - I really hope you can deliver better developments than this one. If this is our future, it’s not a pretty one.

Stack 'em & pack 'em and overload all the infrastructure & gridlock the traffic even more. Who says we need to house everyone who would like to crowd into this really nice area until it is ruined? The developers do! $$$$

Heck, if we have to sacrifice to be nice & accommodating, let's be really humanitarian & invite everyone from over crowded China to take over this area. Swap out with them just to be nice. Don't they deserve something really nice for a break from their squaller?

Makes about as much sense...

And rents will soar ever higher with each new complex, not drop as promised by the three candidates who won. They had the audacity to promise the impossible just to win. The gullible public votes for the impossible promises to solve all the problems, while the candidates with real knowledge & experience, who did not stretch the truth at all, fell asunder. Truth isn't as pretty as the make believe future presented by the three who won.

There is nothing innovative of the status quo which calls for building more dense-luxury-car-based housing in a city already clogged with cars. Nor is it a solution to say the housing crunch is someone other region's problem, when it is the leading concern for half the city that rents.

Density should be tied to increasing ecological sustainability and the only ecological place to build dense housing is right by large work places, with the essential condition that such new dense housing not provide for any private parking, but instead build for shared car services, bike parking, shuttle access, and places for community gardens and farmer markets.

We can have it all if we are willing to engineer our way to a better solution, isn't that what made the Silicon Valley prosperous?

When the new city council looks at North Bayshore, I hope they will strongly consider a new type of carbon neutral non-car based extreme micro living (micro is the only way to achieve affordability for a large number of people and maintain developer incentives to build on expensive land), and if no developer and resident wishes to build/live this way, then not build anything at all.

As for the earlier comment on China, it's both ignorant and racist to call an entire nation the size of China as crowded or squalid. Here's a micro housing design from China Web Link and here's a 21st century eco-city being developed at this moment in China Web Link

Excerpt from this Chinese eco-city project:
"The eco-city will vary in income levels and professions, creating a diverse social atmosphere. The project's aim is to develop a strong eco-culture among residents, where 90% will walk, cycle, or take transit. Per capita daily domestic waste generation per person will not exceed 0.8kg and 60% of waste will be recycled."

This whole concept of microhousing attached to a major employer reeks of the old sweatshop days in the US and the large migrant worker factories in China.

These are old and dangerous ideas. This is Silicon Valley and we need to innovate beyond the disasters of yesteryear.

@Roll Call, thank you for providing the correct info on who was there

@C Thru It, instead of these immature and false exaggerations you might be taken seriously if you at least attempted to do some homework before commenting

@Christopher Chiang, I fear that a lot of people are not ready to engage in higher-level thinking and informed discussion that you possess

@No Ant Farms Please, did you even read any of the linked articles about other types of housing? how can you say we need to innovate without examining the innovations that other municipalities are trying?