Is the City Council continuing to add housing to Palo Alto instead of planning for water shortages due to the lack of oversight and regulation of the City Council? Do we need to elect council members by district? To make progress in dealing with water shortages requires some understanding of the origins of the current water mess in California. The need is not only for a clear picture of what happened but for an assessment of the motives and actions of the main players, the causes and consequences of what they did, and the ideas and institutions that encouraged, inhibited and shaped our current water problems.
When a bill was proposed to require developers to identify the source of water to be used to supply a proposed development, it was defeated. The people who should have stopped unregulated development were waist-deep in conflicts of interest. You know the source of water for Palo Alto developments; it is the residents using less water. It soon may be the residents paying for new infrastructure to store water and create a brine drain (rather than a sewage system).
The lack of oversight and regulation of development encourages risk-taking and short-term opportunism. Palo Alto and the Bay Area is moving toward dirtier air (due to more traffic and not enough regulation of big polluters), unsafe roads, multiple-story/crowded schools, a less diverse population and no local farms.
If we elected city council candidates by district, it is easier to recall them if they promise one thing and do another.
