Conversation

“Palo Alto — and you can find this data in the census — is increasingly an aging, silver retirement community. It's either — you bought in the seventies, eighties or nineties, or you struck it rich on the startup lottery. I know our town can be a hell of a lot more than that.”

Quote Tweet

Palo Alto Weekly

@paloaltoweekly

· Nov 28, 2020

As he enters his final weeks in office, #PaloAlto Mayor Adrian Fine discusses his frustrations with local leadership, hobbled quests to build more housing and hopes for future council members to move the city forward. paloaltoonline.com/news/2020/11/2

274

Jesse Powell

@jespow

Dec 1, 2020

What’s wrong with it being just what it is? Presumably, it is acceptable for some place to be an aging, silver retirement community. Why not Palo Alto? Being “more” would be something different, which sounds like it’s at odds with the retirement community vibe residents enjoy.

Kim-Mai Cutler

@kimmaicutler

Dec 2, 2020

there are costs to everyone else:

techcrunch.com

East Of Palo Alto’s Eden: Race And The Formation Of Silicon Valley

What if Silicon Valley had emerged from a racially integrated community? Would the technology industry be different? Would we? And what can the technology industry do now to avoid repeating the...

Kim-Mai Cutler

@kimmaicutler

Dec 2, 2020

there are costs to the entire economy, on the order of trillions of dollars a year

bloomberg.com

The Urban Housing Crunch Costs the U.S. Economy About $1.6 Trillion a Year

For the first time, economists have put a price tag on restrictive urban land use policies.

Kim-Mai Cutler

@kimmaicutler

Dec 2, 2020

it also reduces economic dynamism and socioeconomic mobility for the entire labor force. it means the meritocracy doesn't exist at all; in fact, the inverse. a heritocracy.

opportunityinsights.org

Income Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility Across Colleges in the United States | Opportun...

Jesse Powell

@jespow

Replying to

@kimmaicutler

Maybe but it could be that those things aren't desirable in PA. Improving scores in those areas might reduce the cost of labor but it might also be worth it to them to just pay the higher cost to maintain low scores there. Can't blame them for trading in their own interest.

9:53 PM · Dec 2, 2020Twitter Web App

Replying to

and

If every city did this, it would lead to increased cost of living, decreased standard of living, increased commutes, increased homelessness, etc. And in fact, that's what every American city with job growth has done, which explains a lot of our societal ills.

Vadim Graboys

@deapthoughts

Dec 2, 2020

I suppose you "can't blame" Palo Alto for selfishly guarding their own interests at the expense of the entire country, since every other city is doing the same thing. But you gotta recognize that this is very bad, and it would be better if we stopped cities from doing this.

Show replies

Replying to

and

I don’t blame them for acting in their interest, but shouldn’t a functioning democracy stop those acting in their own interest while hurting others? If it suits PA’s interests to tell property owners they can’t build apartments doesn’t it suit the state’s interests to say no?

Jesse Powell

@jespow

Dec 3, 2020

I think the bar for "hurting" in this thread is pretty low. We're talking about voluntary transactions. The state should be careful to avoid the pitfalls of populism and socialism. The state should be concerned about driving out its wealthy employers.

Show replies