First things:

Now would be a great time for the City to institute a much better use of technology for City meetings, so that citizens can register and join in, make public comment, and even provide real-time "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" feedback to proposals from the dais that councilmembers can view afterwards, all ONLINE.

Secondly, one way the public should be allowed out and about should be permitted drivers to get driving practice for licenses. Students with permits are already at home with their parents, if they are with their parents in the car, already have permits and some driving experience, they should be allowed to get their driving hours in. It's better now anyway with less traffic. If they have elderly family members, they could be called to drive in a health emergency, and can help the community better as young people to volunteer to get supplies for others.

You know what would help the most for middle-class people is just if Congress would repeal the 2017 tax changes for anyone whose taxes went way UP, and let people amend their returns back to those changes.... It would be nice if the media would report on what happened to MILLIONS of people on the lower rungs of middle-class in high cost areas. Somehow the rightwing interpretation that this was about state taxes in high cost of living areas lowering their state taxes got furthered, but the fact that someone making $150,000 here is living the equivalent standard of living of someone making $23,000 in many parts of the country and is ALREADY paying much higher taxes to the federal government than the person in the exact same economic class elsewhere (so their taking a larger deduction is appropriate) never gets mentioned. Those people already can't take advantage of all kinds of aspects of the tax code that were targeted to people in their exact economic stratum, because the cost of living is never factored in.

Why isn't THAT being reported on? The 2017 tax code brutally raised the taxes of millions of middle-class people in many states, and has changed the housing market and caused an exodus to cheaper states that cost-of-living alone didn't, yet still it does not get mentioned in media coverage.

Someone making $109,000 here is considered low income, because it is the equivalent of way less than $20,000 standard of living in many parts of the country. Someone making $150,000 with $30,000 in unreimbursed medical can actually be in worse shape than someone making $20,000 somewhere else because there are no helps for anyone in that bracket, because there is zero consideration of the difference in cost of living.

"On Monday, the city convened the Citizens Corps Council, a group that includes representatives from Stanford University, Stanford Shopping Center, the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce and other major employers and organizations, to help coordinate the city's evolving response to the public health crisis."

Stanford University
Stanford Shopping Center
Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce
"Employers" - there are thousands or is it just Palantir

None of these organizations represent me. What other organizations? PA Forward?Kniss, Tanaka, Fine, and Cormack have done the opposite of representing me.

Just sayin, that if this is who the City runs to in a crisis then day-today ....

How about PAN, the neighborhood groups, somebody who doesn't have other interests to prioritize?

@PA Citizen
The Citizen Corp Council (CCC) link is difficult to find on the city website so here it is, Web Link There is a member on it from the Emergency Service Volunteers (ESV) which represents the neighborhood-based Block Preparedness Coordinators (BPC), as well as a PAUSD representative.
One of the recommendations made in our letter to the council, referenced in the article, is to appoint an Emergency Task Force of community domain experts and civic leaders to expand and leverage expertise, strategic planning, communications and grassroots volunteerism. This could be through an expanded CCC or a complementary body.
As emergency preparedness experts understand, emergencies require enlisting far more resources and expertise than the city has on staff. The city really needs to reach out to the community for broad collaboration.

How about a holiday on utilitiy bills for those in need.

Why is the local Chamber of Commerce included here when the national Chamber f Commerce has already come out against helping workers and giving them paid sick days?

Are any small local businesses included here?? How about all the struggling restaurants, the "gig" workers who get no benefits, the musicians who can't tour, etc., etc.?

Wouldn't it be valuable if all those ex-mayors and city leaders offered support, encouragement and practical suggestions rather than whining about "transparency and communication". Seems to me that the communication from the city has been detailed, perhaps even over intense, and the opportunity for folks to participate is there. Did any of these named civic volunteers try the slack channels that are already in place, or any other existing avenues - to offer specific expertise and to volunteer services? Thought not.

"Wouldn't it be valuable if all those ex-mayors and city leaders offered support, encouragement and practical suggestions rather than whining about "transparency and communication". Seems to me that the communication from the city has been detailed, perhaps even over intense, and the opportunity for folks to participate is there. Did any of these named civic volunteers try the slack channels that are already in place, or any other existing avenues - to offer specific expertise and to volunteer services? Thought not."


Sure... but, Wouldn't it be more valuable if the very inexperienced young Mayor and his family members are more concerned about
protecting community versus protecting peoples political careers?

This is not the time for people to air petty grievances, rather a time for trusted leaders to help lead us through the many challenges we face as a community to best serve all of us!

anon,

Your very cryptic comment is not in the spirit of transparent communications.

Posted by Citizen local, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood

>> Now would be a great time for the City to institute a much better use of technology for City meetings, so that citizens can register and join in, make public comment, and even provide real-time "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" feedback to proposals from the dais that councilmembers can view afterwards, all ONLINE.

Unfortunately, all of these videoconferencing technology "soultions" incorporate elements that are largely proprietary. I always favor open standards, and, someday, we will get there, but, today, there are a few dominant web applications used for this in business and education. The most widely used/publicized right now is Zoom meeting. It is being used in many schools and universities now during the coronavirus crisis. I suggest that city council meetings start taking place *VIA* Zoom. Broadcasting via Zoom or another internet video system is not enough-- we need the actual meetings to take place via Zoom so that all relevant information is shared across the board among council members and audience.

I should add that I'm not sure what the legal ramifications are. It might be that actual legally binding votes have to be deferred until an actual CC meeting quorum is physically present in a public room. To make this work, CC members could mutually pledge not to change their votes without another meeting. A public meeting, broadcast, with only a few witnesses, could work. We are dealing with a highly contagious virus, so, it makes no sense to pack the CC together with a large bunch of citizens as we are accustomed to doing. Yet, we need an open meeting. I suggest trying Zoom (or -- ?) to see if there is a way to keep meetings transparent and open following the Brown Act, and still, safe for the CC and the public.

Iconic Mountain View comic store, Lee's Comics, has shut down. ): The store used to be in Alma Plaza as a corner store, way back when. Lee Hester, the owner, is in the vulnerable demographic, so I think this is a wise move. Lee's Comics continues its mail order operations, though. Palo Alto Online may wish to interview small businesses still operating in Palo Alto for future columns and articles.

To support local businesses, particularly restaurants, I suggest Palo Alto Online reaches out to local restaurants to create a local take-out menu for Palo Alto residents, as well as modified hours for stores (eg. Safeway which has also announced special hours for seniors). Restaurants may also wish to offer ingredients in their menus, to reduce resident's reliance on making trips to the grocery.

Best wishes to everyone during the quarantine.

@Anonfrom another Neighborhood
Thanks for your important questions about the legal ramifications of the emergency situation on city governance.
On Monday, the council ratified a historic Declaration of Emergency, Web Link This was a necessary action empowering broad and dramatic changes to the authority of local government including; reductions in CEQA requirements, waiver of certain government liabilities, empowering the establishment of curfews, and significant relaxing of rules governing public meetings and the Brown Act requirements, Web Link Under the Declaration, rules are streamlined for remote participation by members of public bodies including that a council quorum does not need to be present physically for votes to be binding. This was one of the many important issues raised in our joint letter to the council.
The highly consequential ramifications of this Declaration were not explained by the city attorney to the council or the public on Monday and have not yet been reported on in depth.

Are you kidding me the City of Palo Alto is still performing building inspections. Sending city staff into peoples houses for hot water heaters, bath room remodels, etc. possibly infected people into “shelter in place” homeowners what if the building inspectors are already infected or just carriers. This thing is never going to end.

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