On this week's Behind The Headlines, Eric Rosenblum, member of Palo Alto's Planning and Transportation Commission, joins Weekly Editor Jocelyn Dong and reporter Gennady Sheyner to discuss the city's affordable-housing crisis and the Comprehensive Plan update. Watch the webcast here.
Webcasts are posted every Friday afternoon on PaloAltoOnline.com, as well as on Palo Alto Online's YouTube channel, youtube.com/paweekly.
Check out previous weeks' episodes:
• Behind the Headlines: Paly sex-assault report
• Behind the Headlines: Changing retail
• Behind the Headlines: Redesigning rail
• Behind the Headlines: School district's $6 million blunder
• Behind the Headlines: Sexual misconduct at schools
• Behind the Headlines: New vision for the Animal Shelter
• Behind the Headlines: Local theater scene
• Behind the Headlines: A new vision for waste
• Behind the Headlines: Self-driving cars
• Behind the Headlines: Inside code enforcement
• Behind the Headlines: 'Way Cool' open-space events for summer
• Behind the Headlines: Preserving La Comida
• Behind the Headlines: Junior Museum and Zoo expansion
• Behind the Headlines: The future of parking
• Behind the Headlines: cracking down on RVs
• Behind the Headlines: Tracking surveillance
• Behind the Headlines: Debate over Castilleja expansion
• Behind the Headlines: Students speak out
• Behind the Headlines: summer movie preview
• Behind the Headlines: District investigates sexual assault; Saving Buena Vista
• Behind the Headlines: Palo Alto History Museum
• Behind the Headlines: building a bike-friendly
• Behind the Headlines: Housing the homeless; Big East Palo Alto developments
• Behind the Headlines: Rep. Anna Eshoo
• Behind the Headlines: Sex ed controversy
• Behind the Headlines: A vision for Palo Alto's parks
• Behind the Headlines: City Hall Roundup
• Behind the Headlines: FPPC Investigation, Bounty Hunters in East Palo Alto
• Behind the Headlines: Restaurants under pressure
• Behind the Headlines: Inside social-emotional education
• Behind the Headlines: Diversity's champions
• Behind the Headlines: Breaking down the budget gap
• Behind the Headlines: The new City Council; School technology and privacy
• Behind the Headlines: Uproar over land-use plan
• Behind the Headlines: Palo Alto Mayor Greg Scharff
• Behind the Headlines: Seeking sanctuary from domestic violence
• Behind the Headlines: Public Immigration Forum
• Behind the Headlines: Office for Civil Rights agreement
• Behind the Headlines: Best and worst films of 2016
• Behind the Headlines: Year in review
• Behind the Headlines: Carmageddon
• Behind the Headlines: Harvard report on special education
• Behind the Headlines: Palo Alto trees -- dead or alive?
• Behind the Headlines: Board of Education election analysis
• Behind the Headlines: City Council election analysis
• Behind the Headlines: Bullying case tests district's policies
• Behind the Headlines: the debate over weighted grade-point averages
• Behind the Headlines: Palo Alto politics, East Palo Alto evictions
• Behind The Headlines: Campaign finance, Airbnb conflicts
• Behind the Headlines: The Donkeys of Barron Park
• Behind the Headlines: Election special
• Behind The Headlines: Retail news, housing controversies
• Behind the Headlines: Remembering 9/11
• Behind The Headlines: Palo Alto's master plan for public art
• Behind the Headline: The Evolving El Camino Real
• Behind The Headlines: Housing Crisis, November Election
• Behind The Headlines: Stemming the Flow -- Flood Protection
• Behind The Headlines: Muslim in America -- Reaction to rhetoric
• Behind The Headlines: Locals to Impact Olympics
• Behind The Headlines: Race, Policing and Reconciliation
• Behind the Headlines: Reporters' Roundtable
• Behind The Headlines: Innovator in Education
• Behind The Headlines: Spectacular fireworks
• Behind The Headlines: Elementary math, Castilleja expansion
• Behind the Headlines: Saving Buena Vista
• Behind The Headlines: Brock Turner uproar and election recap
• Behind The Headlines: Palo Alto students speak out
• Behind The Headlines: DA's fatal police shooting report & Cash flows into the Assembly race
• Behind the Headlines: Teacher Compensation in Palo Alto
• Behind The Headlines: To the rescue -- Disaster volunteers prepare
• Behind The Headlines: Size Matters -- Student-to-teacher ratios in Palo Alto
• Behind the Headlines: Transportation: problems and solutions
• Behind the Headlines: Taxi struggles and Eichler disputes
• Behind The Headlines: Palo Alto considers full-day kindergarten
• Behind The Headlines: State Assembly District 24 -- A look at the candidates
• Behind The Headlines: College Terrace challenge Stanford toxic study
• Behind the Headlines: Inside the Brock Turner case
• Behind the Headlines: Tackling Palo Alto's housing and traffic problems
• Behind the Headlines: Dr. Steven Adelsheim on youth mental health
• Behind the Headlines: Renaming movement, Addison Donation, Office Cap
• Behind the Headlines: "State of the City" with Mayor Pat Burt
• Behind the Headlines: Bridging the gap - Understanding Palo Alto's Chinese community
• Behind the Headlines: Growing up Undocumented
• Behind the Headlines: Talking Sustainability with Gil Friend
• Behind the Headlines: Secondary dwelling units, New school proposal
• Behind the Headlines: Stanford University and Sexual Assault, Prepping for the Super Bowl
• Behind the Headlines: Development at Stanford Research Park; police and the mentally ill
• Behind the Headlines: Divisive mayoral election; fatal police shooting
• Behind the Headlines: The year's best and worst movies
• Behind the Headlines: 2015 Year in Review
• Behind the Headlines: Inside Palo Alto's Emergency Center
• Behind the Headlines: Undisclosed new-school proposal; groundwater pumping
• Behind the Headlines: Buena Vista owner sues City; New plans for public-safety center
• Behind the Headlines: Palo Alto Fire Department changes
• Behind the Headlines: Midtown bicycle paths; Transgender youth
• Behind the Headlines: New school proposed for Palo Alto
• Behind the Headlines: Tension within governing boards
• Behind the Headlines: Affordable housing; Transportation initiatives
• Behind the Headlines: Paly teacher investigation
• Behind the Headlines: Stanford students' activism against sexual assault
• Behind the Headlines: Preserving retail; capping office development
• Behind the Headlines: Transportation tax; Fiber to the Premise
• Behind the Headlines: Fall Arts Preview
• Behind the Headlines: Police conduct on campuses; new parkland
Comments
Downtown North
on Oct 5, 2017 at 1:56 pm
on Oct 5, 2017 at 1:56 pm
While Mr. Rosenblum seems sincere in his beliefs, I find his perspectives about traffic and parking overly optimistic. Two examples:
-- Public Transport --
Mr. Rosenblum suggests additional shuttles as a primary means of getting people out of their cars.
Certainly, shuttles have the advantage of being directly controllable by the city and do serve some people some of the time. Still, it is hard to imagine shuttles would prove to be an adequate car substitute for more than a small portion of resident, worker, and visitor trips.
City shuttles are essentially mini-buses. Accordingly, they travel on surface roads, meaning they get stuck in traffic, are slow due to multiple stops, often do not take passengers near enough destinations, and seldom cross city or county lines.
-- Parking --
Mr. Rosenblum seems confident that multi-unit housing does not require the amount of parking currently required by city zoning code. To his credit, he suggests conducting research, though I would not rely on self-report data.
My home, directly across from the transit station in the heart of downtown, has 44 units and 44 parking spaces in a private garage. Parking spaces are assigned by deed, with one spot for each unit. Yes, some residents bike to Stanford, take the train to the city, etc. But, this does not replace the need for cars and parking.
Very rarely, no more than once per year on average, a resident offers to rent their parking spot. These are immediately scooped up by other residents because most units occupied by more than one person have more than one car. The typical arrangement is to rent space in an adjoining public garage for parking the second car.
Also, one of the sticking points concerning a possible construction project is that the vendors require four (presumably adjacent) parking spots for about one or two months and the HOA does not have a feasible plan for freeing up the space.
-- Summary --
Without truly extensive, inexpensive, frequent, and fast public transit, our city is simply not prepared to accommodate any sizeable increase in population.
Even if such transportation were available, we would face significant challenges in terms of water, schools, parks, markets, etc.
Personally, I would support converting existing office space to new housing, but I have never heard mention of this idea from City Hall.