More housing by 2035? Most of the prospects will be around mid to upper 30's by then. Wish they would erect more affordable housing within a few years and quit playing "hide the weenie". This is a state issue and it's not going away.

Yet google gets a sweetheart deal - guess it's who you know.

Google deals with Mountain View, not with the county. Google pays taxes.

Nothing short of highway robbery. Stanford is a captive audience here...Facebook, Google and any other company can pick up and leave if these outrageous demands were placed on them. Stanford would be welcome anywhere in the country for what it brings and does for the surrounding communities. As a cancer patient at Stanford Healthcare, no where else could I receive the level of care, with the latest advances in cancer research than at Stanford. These demands on a teaching and research institute will do nothing other than mis-use funds that could go towards more research and financial aid. Stop looking just at Stanford to solve problems created by the Silicon Valley boom. By the way, the comments by the Mountain View mayor are simply short-sided and not very helpful.

Oh, boo hoo! Poor Stanford is being discriminated against.

Only 24.8 Billion endowment! That's a B.

Stanford has one of the largest university endowments in the country
except for Yale.

24.8B....so what. We all know this is a high cost area for us as well as Stanford (and I'm sure Yale's dollar goes further in Connecticut, than Stanford's in California). As I understand it, the university's endowment functions more like a long-term savings account. Should Stanford empty its savings account to bail out local government's poor planning and lack of foresight? We've known for a while that Facebook, Google, Cisco, Intel, etc. were getting more successful and bigger over the past decade or two. Traffic congestion and housing shortages are not new issues in the Bay Area - but they are now crisis issues. The county supervisors (and now apparently the Mountain View Mayor) are using mis-direction by pointing the finger at the university as the usual go-to villain. Its just plain lazy and easier to go after Stanford than going after Facebook or Google, et al. Again, not surprised.

If Stanford doesn't like being held accountable for the impacts of its added development, then it can choose to renovate existing buildings, and stay within its currently developed footprint.

Good move by the county supervisors.

In this country we use tax policy to encourage/discourage certain things. We tax cigarettes and give tax credits for health insurance. We tax cars and give tax breaks for taking public transit. What message is Santa Clara sending when they tax classrooms and libraries? that education is a bad thing and we should have less of it? Really?

I read the article, but, I really don't understand how these things all tie together. What is lacking is some kind of chart comparing the size of the fees, what they are assessed on, and how these fees would be used by the County, compared to how other SC County feeds paid by Google and Cisco etc. are assessed and used.

One point I would argue is the comment about Stanford being a captive. Is Stanford a classical education-oriented university, or, is it a business with a valuable "brand"? If Stanford wants to act like a business with a brand, then, I would ask the same question as in another thread-- why not build satellite campuses as other university -systems- have done as they have outgrown the ivy-covered-library university concept? Easy to escape SC County fees by building a satellite campus in Lake County or wherever.

When I see Stanford I see a natural resource that is in tension between public and private control. The admin at Stanford can pack up and take their big S with them, the University will remain. It will still be prestigious with or without them. The University is a physical object of the silicon valley cultural capital, that is a natural resource. Is that public or private? Who created it? Name one University admin that made Stanford prestigious. Name just a department. Does Land Building and Real Estate make Stanford Stanford? No. LBRE has failed their duty to the public, they have now damaged the University's goodwill (which is a real asset that has now been damaged by LBRE). The role of elected public policy representatives is to step in when natural resources are mismanaged. They have stepped in. Hopefully, this is goodbye to excess bagage in LBRE. Thet can go find another University to screw up. Maybe Harvard is hiring.

Posted by Students for sanity, a resident of Stanford

>> Name one University admin that made Stanford prestigious.

(see below)

>> Name just a department.

Chemistry, physics, EE, CS were all well known back in the day. SLAC if you want to consider it as a sort of department. The med school and hospital.

>> Does Land Building and Real Estate make Stanford Stanford? No.

Your point is well taken, but, let me be contrarian for a second. After the '89 quake, Stanford somehow made the right institutional choice and actually institutionally decided to re-build in a seismically robust way. That was unusual. I forget the person's name, but, there was somebody, in LBRE I think, who was or is credited with really pushing through on seismic safety. My memory is hazy on the details, but, it is worth looking into. So, if my memory is correct, there may actually be "an admin who made Stanford Stanford" as it is today.

>> LBRE has failed their duty to the public, they have now damaged the University's goodwill (which is a real asset that has now been damaged by LBRE).

Agreed. The last few years Stanford seems to be trying hard to destroy goodwill. I don't understand it.