Conversation

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.

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

there are costs to everyone else:

techcrunch.com

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...

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

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

bloomberg.com

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

Why is Palo Alto responsible for the entire economy? Nobody has to go there if they don't want to. How can one city be creating trillions of dollars of debt for the rest of the world? Should we wall it off?

Palo Alto is the birthplace of Silicon Valley. People don't have to go there, but this behavior in aggregate from our highest opportunity areas costs GDP >$1 trillion a year. Knowledge economies are agglomeration economies; they grow faster w/ more serendipitous interactions.

Not everyone values GDP or serendipitous interactions though. If the people of PA don't value those things, why should it be forced on them? Lots of people retire to low movement areas to get away from what comes with that stuff.

you could easily flip that question around and ask why they are forcing long commutes, extraordinarily high housing costs and exclusion from high quality public schools to everyone else.

Prop 13: Winners and Losers From America's Legendary Taxpayer Revolt

their behavior is also deeply preferenced by California's seniority based tax codes where people who bought early pay a fraction of the taxes that other people who own similar property do. Palo Alto has the highest property tax subsidies in the state.

trulia.com

Corrected on Nov. 30 at 1:30 p.m. ET. See below. California’s Proposition 13 is the voter initiative that homeowners love, local governments hate, and politicians consider a third rail. On one hand,...

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