juyvova

Palo Alto is in serious trouble - little (new) housing stock, tremendous affordability issues, no zoning reform, most housing projects rejected... The city is bleeding human capital at an astonishing rate - and not just teachers and fire fighters, even those earning high salaries such as techies and attorneys struggle to afford to live here. The response ... "move some place cheaper", "don't buy expensive lattes and you'll be able to afford a home here some day", "your generation is entitled", "we have too much traffic already", "stop the jobs", "it's Palantir's fault"...

What do you say to this? Young people in Palo Alto and renters are subsidizing existing residents. By heavily restricting housing supply residents have built an investment machine. Foreign-owned "ghost houses" are a testament to that.

Questions: Can anything be done to build more housing in Palo Alto? Should we do it? Does Palo Alto care? And at the end - is Palo Alto even worth it? Maybe we all should move away...

this is such an important subject and I'm happy it's finally getting attention in larger tech community. while housing is a regional issue, it also all starts at home with each city committing to housing policy changes. in Palo Alto Adrian Fine is leading that change - he works for nextdoor.com, he was born and raised in Palo Alto, he is a young, urban planner, govtechy and cyclist. let's start paying attention and start small - if you live in Palo Alto or know someone who does - check out www.votefine.com and support him any way. housing is a social equality issue