' "sort of the prototype ... of what's happening in Silicon Valley housing," she said.'

Well, it's been happening in silicon valley since that very phrase appeared in print almost 50 years ago -- or longer -- as silicon-valley housing prices pulled away from the rest of the Bay Area's due to concentrated high-tech hiring. So, word has been out about this for a very long time. It's an expensive region to choose to live in, and you do choose.

Best take any complaints up with the latest group of fast-growth high-tech firms, and their highly-compensated employees (some even with extra housing allowances) who eagerly bid up the housing prices (even faster than in the 1970s, as some recent firms grow much faster). Employees who then turn around and complain too about the high prices (and accuse existing residents of somehow orchestrating it), as though they themselves had no role at all. . .

Other surrounding cities have this code violation in the books, too. Nothing unusual. They should just move their RV to MV, we are welcoming any vehicle dwellers, especially from out of town!

Here’s a mind blowing suggestion - move in with your great grandmother.

Had Menlo Park had Lenny Siegel on its council, he would have ordered the city manager to not enforce this RV ordinance. Just like he did in our city. Then you have the problem grow so big that you say we can not end it, but we need to open up the entire city to expand the parking to the rest of the city.

Duh, just bring it over to Mountain View and park it here! Problem solved! Preferably in front of Hick's, Ramirez's or Siegel's homes.

“Limited options?” How about living for free in the house that is 10 feet away where your great grandmother lives? The house you’ll probably inherit anyway.

If this is the best the Voice can do to give us an RV sob story, they need to try harder.

“ For months, they've been living quietly in an RV parked in the driveway of Bain's great-grandmother's house on Madera Avenue in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park, a setup that offers them some privacy while still being close enough to be of support to the 93-year-old homeowner.”. Why this great-grandmother doesn’t want them to live in? And they have to violate the code and ask for public’s support to their housing arrangement?

Her grandmother has a right to have a vehicle in her street, and they should be able to live there without any nuisance. As far as I am concerned, Arlena and her boyfriend weren't causing any problems in the neighborhood. It looks like some [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]
got bored in their houses and decided to phone up bogus complaints regarding an "unsightly" RV. If she was able to live with her grandmother, she would've. Why do you [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]
do not understand that people have domestic issues?! They've a right to live in that RV, and they've rightfully claimed a space in their neighborhood with their grandmother's permission.

The relevant part of the Menlo Park City Code (8.20.020 Front and side yard storage) is under chapter 8 "Peace, Safety & Morals"

Hard to see how storing a boat, an RV or pars of it in a private yard... interferes with Peace or Safety.

Menlo Park has a dubious sense of morality if it uses Morals as the basis for that ordinance (and for displacing these grand children).

Is MP run by a Council of members from the Democratic Suburban Party? They of course are much more responsive to suburban property concerns than any old compassionate Progressive of any persuasion. The Democratic presidential candidate in 2016 got 12.8K votes in the city and the Republican got 1.9K. So MP does not "appear" to suffer from loyalty to Trumpian political ideas. Or looking deeper ... ?

MP's elementary school district, like MV's suffers from an ongoing "20 worst in the nation" academic Achievement Gap between well-off/poor. NY Times' report from a few years ago, and recent updates of Stanford Professor Reardon's national research data base.

NEVER a Trumper (but he is not the only USA public policy malady IMO)

This is a textbook example of the Rational Industrial structure of consciousness (rules, laws) gone pathological. Young people who are productive, tax-paying members of society, living on private property, caring for their elderly relative (thus removing that burden from the state) are being harassed based on a pathological need to enforce every law "objectively" despite it being objectively harmful for absolutely everyone involved.

Zoom out to 100 feet and the pathology becomes clear.