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“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.”
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The question for real estate investors then is: is anywhere safe? Where can one build a low density, high-priced community which will not constantly be attacked by invaders seeking to destroy what the inhabitants value?
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1) this is not-so-coded racist language 2) If you’re that worried about people living near you, buy a ton of land for yourself and fence it off rather than trying to control what your neighbors do
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It depends on the powers of the government. In an HOA, it's up to the property owners to vote. In a government, it's usually up to the residents. Problem is when the residents are at odds with the property owners. Usually, it's the residents trying to take something from owners.
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