HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-10-07 City Council EmailsDOCUMENTS IN THIS PACKET INCLUDE:
LETTERS FROM CITIZENS TO THE
MAYOR OR CITY COUNCIL
RESPONSES FROM STAFF TO LETTERS FROM CITIZENS
ITEMS FROM MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS
ITEMS FROM OTHER COMMITTEES AND AGENCIES
ITEMS FROM CITY, COUNTY, STATE, AND REGIONAL AGENCIES
10/7/2024 Prepared for:
Document dates: 9/30/2024- 10/7/2024
Note: Documents for every category may not have been received for packet reproduction
in a given week. 701-32
From:Henry Etzkowitz
To:Whitney McNair
Cc:Aram James; Representative Eshoo; Rebecca Eisenberg; Richard Horning; mickie winkler; Roberta Ahlquist
Subject:Stanford-sares Regis compact
Date:Sunday, October 6, 2024 7:56:29 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking
on links.
Whitney
Gentle reminder to share this principal/agent contract with the residents of Oak Creek Apartments: Stanfordstudents, faculty, post-docs, seniors and others who live under its authorit
Stanford: Display transparency, act humanely! Reverse the “unhumanization” of our Clubhouse, a policy that youragent Sares Regis undertook with your knowledge, evidenced by the provost receiving numerous petitions andappeals that were passed to you for response.
Restore face-to-face comfortable chairs where we chatted with eye to eye contact. Return the less comfortableoutdoor furniture to its previous place on the deck. Re-umbrella the deck furniture facing the pool: protect us fromcancer-causing sun exposure bring back the ping pong table, billiards and knock hockey. Reopen the theatre andrestore its varied offerings, including films v children. This is the Oak Creek Club residents, young and old want:aninter generational sociability space (COCR focus group, 2022).
SincerelyHenry EtzkowitzCo-Organizer, Community of oak Creek Residents, a North Palo Alto residents association since 2022Retired Professor, Community Oratanizer. City Council Candidate
Ps Experience US local democracy in action atOxford Style Debate, Oak Creek, Green open air “Lincoln-Douglas like” outdoor venue. Sunday 20 October 206:30pm. Sares-Regis and Stanford invited to facilitate. support COCR, a north Palo Alto neighborhood association.
All 2024 City council candidates invited to prepare to address the question of the day, especially relevant forrenters, seniors and all who work in Palo Alto who would also like to live in Palo AltoSent from my iPhone
From:Henry Etzkowitz
To:Whitney McNair
Cc:Aram James; Representative Eshoo; Rebecca Eisenberg; Richard Horning; mickie winkler; Roberta Ahlquist
Subject:Stanford-sares Regis compact
Date:Sunday, October 6, 2024 6:25:09 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking
on links.
Whitney
Gentle reminder to share this principal/agent contract with the residents of Oak Creek Apartments: Stanfordstudents, faculty, post-docs, seniors and others who live under its authorit
Stanford: Display transparency, act humanely! Reverse the “unhumanization” of our Clubhouse, a policy that youragent Sares Regis undertook with your knowledge, evidenced by the provost receiving numerous petitions andappeals that were passed to you for response.
Restore face-to-face comfortable chairs where we chatted with eye to eye contact. Return the less comfortableoutdoor furniture to its previous place on the deck. Re-umbrella the deck furniture facing the pool: protect us fromcancer-causing sun exposure bring back the ping pong table, billiards and knock hockey. Reopen the theatre andrestore its varied offerings, including films v children. This is the Oak Creek Club residents, young and old want:aninter generational sociability space (COCR focus group, 2022).
SincerelyHenry EtzkowitzCo-Organizer, Community of oak Creek Residents, a North Palo Alto residents association since 2022Retired Professor, Community Oratanizer. City Council Candidate
Ps Experience US local democracy in action atOxford Style Debate, Oak Creek, Green open air “Lincoln-Douglas like” outdoor venue. Sunday 20 October 206:30pm. Sares-Regis and Stanford invited to facilitate. support COCR, a north Palo Alto neighborhood association.
All 2024 City council candidates invited to prepare to address the question of the day, especially relevant forrenters, seniors and all who work in Palo Alto who would also like to live in Palo AltoSent from my iPhone
From:Henry Etzkowitz
To:Whitney McNair
Cc:Aram James; Representative Eshoo; Rebecca Eisenberg; Richard Horning; mickie winkler
Subject:Stanford-sares Regis compact
Date:Sunday, October 6, 2024 6:25:05 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking
on links.
Whitney
Gentle reminder to share this principal/agent contract with the residents of Oak Creek Apartments: Stanfordstudents, faculty, post-docs, seniors and others who live under its authorit
Stanford: Display transparency, act humanely! Reverse the “unhumanization” of our Clubhouse, a policy that youragent Sares Regis undertook with your knowledge, evidenced by the provost receiving numerous petitions andappeals that were passed to you for response.
Restore face-to-face comfortable chairs where we chatted with eye to eye contact. Return the less comfortableoutdoor furniture to its previous place on the deck. Re-umbrella the deck furniture facing the pool: protect us fromcancer-causing sun exposure bring back the ping pong table, billiards and knock hockey. Reopen the theatre andrestore its varied offerings, including films v children. This is the Oak Creek Club residents, young and old want:aninter generational sociability space (COCR focus group, 2022).
SincerelyHenry EtzkowitzCo-Organizer, Community of oak Creek Residents, a North Palo Alto residents association since 2022Retired Professor, Community Oratanizer. City Council Candidate
Ps Experience US local democracy in action atOxford Style Debate, Oak Creek, Green open air “Lincoln-Douglas like” outdoor venue. Sunday 20 October 206:30pm. Sares-Regis and Stanford invited to facilitate. support COCR, a north Palo Alto neighborhood association.
All 2024 City council candidates invited to prepare to address the question of the day, especially relevant forrenters, seniors and all who work in Palo Alto who would also like to live in Palo AltoSent from my iPhone
U.S.U.S.
2023 ACS 2015 ACS 2018-22 ACS 2011-15 ACS 2018-22 ACS 2023 ACS
Number % of total Number % of total Number % of total Number % of total Number % of total Number % of total
1 person 9197 33.1%6872 26.4%6479 24.9%7200 27.6%28.3%28.8%
2 persons 8341 30.0%7965 30.6%8882 34.1%8191 31.4%33.8%34.3%
3 persons 5407 19.5%5336 20.5%4572 17.5%4722 18.1%15.5%15.2%
4+ persons 4823 17.4%5857 22.5%6131 23.5%5974 22.9%22.4%21.8%
Total 27768 100.0%26030 100.0%26064 100.0%26087 100.0%100.0%100.1%
HH 30.4%35.4%32.1%34.8%30.2%28.8%
with children
0-17
Average HH Size
Palo Alto Jan 1, 2024 2.49
Notes
The single year estimates for Palo Alto have a small sample size. It will be interesting to compare the 5-year 2019-2023 estimates coming out soon with the 2018-22 estimates
There are precise definitions for HH and families
HH are who occupies a housing unit
Families are groups related by blood, marriage or adoption
The 4+ person HH have several components that I do not have data on
a) larger families like 2 parents and 2 or more children
b) groups of unrelated residents living together to save on housing costs
c) multi-generational families living together for cultural reasons or to save on costs
Anecdotally the number of larger HH formed to save on housing costs has grown
In the future HH size will decline from a) falling birth rates and b) aging that produces more senior 1 and 2 person HH
From:Henry Etzkowitz
To:Council, City; provost@stanford.edu
Cc:Amalia Tormala; Palo Post; Sarah Wright; Braden Cartwright; Gennady Sheyner
Subject:Supply issues loom as California phases out gas vehicles. - Los Angeles Times; implications for Palo Alto?
Date:Saturday, October 5, 2024 11:05:57 AM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of openingattachments and clicking on links.
Dear Council members
Should not Council weigh in on this issue on behalf of Palo Alto residents, as on phasing outgas usage, even though at first glance, it may appear to go beyond Council’s unanimous vote
to abjure from discussing, let alone taking a stand on issues above the local level?
what to do when issues are simultaneously local and state level, even local, regional, federaland global?
In reviewing the recent study session on the airport, it must be asked:Where is our
neighborliness, in the Fred Roger’s sense? Should Council not consider option 6, movinggeneral aviation to Moffett field, further away from population centers, given the airport’s ill
effects on the health of Menlo Park and East Palo Alto’s children, stated by their parents at theairport study session.
I had the opportunity to discuss these concerns with airport leaders, during a leafleting visit on
Airport Day. As pilots and executives of aviation firms they were willing to engage inreasoned discussion. It was soon “Marty and Henry” on first name basis. they were familiar
over the years with critics whom they referred to as “activists”
They may have been trying to divert us from further leaflet distribution through conversationbut we had underestimated the popularity of Airport Day and soon ran out of copies of:
“Should Palo Alto Airport Move to Moffett Field” that you have been provided with alongwith explication.
During a graciously provided golf cart tour, I had the opportunity to ask about the “bump” on
the runway described by a pilot at the study session. We were informed that it was, moreprecisely a “swail” caused by a pushing up of the water under the runway that runs closely
parallel to the Bay wetlands.
The wetlands are literally protesting against the intrusion of the airport on their natural space.They are pushing back and sending a message to us to respect the environment.
Mayor Grant: you called parkland “sacred” during the study session and proudly noted Sierra
Club’s endorsement of your re-election campaign. Given your environmental credentials, youshould be leading the movement to move general aviation to Moffett Field. Tear up this
runway, Mr.Stone. Listen to the wetlands! Be neighborly to the environment.
Let’s make reparations to the wetlands. Expansion of the runway into the wetlands, one of thefive options provided by expensive experts given an excessively narrow remit by Council, was
ruled out after strong negative public expression at the study session.
Let’s learn from this experience in which considerable funds were wasted and think motecarefully before spending excessively. Indeed, why spend at all, or minimally, when we can
access aviation expertise at San Jose State University. Let’s learn from New England’stradition of town meetings and convene a civic dialogue day, building upon the Council study
session mode.
The late Bill Miller, former Stanford Provost, government official and entrepreneur, convenedJoint Venture Silicon Valley in the mid 90’s, an open brainstorming series of events, inviting
proponents and critics of tech industry to share their views in what he called a “venture capitalmode of winnowing a few good ideas from a wide range of expression” He explained this
innovation strategy during an interview I conducted as part of a National Science Foundation(NSf) study of state level science policy, one of a series of studies that regularly brought me to
Palo Alto and Stanford decades before taking early retirement from the State University ofNew York at Purchase and accepting then Dean of Research Artie Birkenstock’s invitation to
be a visiting Scholar in Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing in 2005. putting aside aninvitation to stay on in favor of a term appointment as Chair of Enterprise, Creativity and
Innovation at Newcastle University in the UK.
I returned to Palo Alto in the Fall of 2009, with a Newcastle colleague, invited as FacultyResearch Fellows to the Clayman Institute for Gender Research to write a book on women in
technology transfer based on a European Union multi-country study following up previousNSF supported studies of women in academic science, including a co-authored book “Athena
Unbound: the Advancement of Women in Science and Technology” (CUP, 2000).
The Clayman remit called for proximity to Stanford. My criteria were: walking distance toClayman and a heated swimming pool.
Inevitably, that led to the Oak creek apartments on Sand Hill Road on the Stanford Land Grant
and that is where I live to this day. recalled to active duty as a community organizer, re- takinga 60’s calling in response to Stanford’s taking over the complex to house post-docs, convening
our neighborhood association, Community of Oak Creek Resident’s opened the path way torun for council to represent under-represented seniors and renters as “SENIOR
RENTARISTA, a synthesis of the “Houser and Residentalist” position, with a fresh overlay of“Big, Bold” ideas, according to the Post.
A focus group conducted during the 2022 campaign cycle included Seniors, post-docs,
students and other Oak creek residents along with then candidates for cycle, Ed Laing andDoria Summa, waterboard official Rebecca Eisenberg and representatives of other Palo Alto
neighborhoods affected by Stanford’s house purchase program.
The key finding was the strongly held feeling by both Seniors and Post-Docs to preserve theevolved inter generational community, treasured by old and young and resist Stanford’s
attempt through their Sares Regis agent, to remove Seniors through maximum allowed rentincreases.
An invitation by then Council candidate Vicki Veenker to her Greenmeadows campaign event
allowed a presentation of the oak Creek situation, receiving expressions of support from thatneighborhood, an offer of assistance by supervisor Joe Simiitian and an invitation by then
Mayor Burt to provide a letter explaining the Oak creek situation, duly sent by Arshi, then
COCR Secretary but she received no reply.
Oak creek was virtually invisible to many. when I was interviewed by Council member GregTanak for his U-tube podcast, he first googled to find Oak Creek and assure himself that it was
indeed within the city’s boundaries. Once assured, he conducted an excellent interview,reaffirming the wisdom of supporting his original Candidacy.
During his congressional run in 2022 Greg and his son successively approached me at
California Street Farmers market to inform that Representative Eshoo was 80 years old. Myreply: “That’s not a good selling point to an 82 year old.” Congratulations to the representative
on her service, especially appreciated her regular phone meetings with constituents!
Henry EtzkowitzSenior Advocate
Candidate for Palo Alto City Council
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-09-26/how-will-the-state-manage-the-slow-death-of-californias-gasoline-industry
Sent from my iPhone
From:Rice, Danille
To:Council, City; Shikada, Ed
Cc:Executive Leadership Team; Clerk, City; Tran, Joanna
Subject:Council Consent Questions: 10/7/2024
Date:Friday, October 4, 2024 11:19:49 AM
Attachments:image008.pngimage009.png
Dear Mayor and Council Members,
On behalf of City Manager Ed Shikada, please view the following links for the agenda and staff
responses to questions submitted by Council Member Tanaka:
October 7, 2024 Agenda
Staff responses to Items 9 and 15
Respectfully,
Danille
Danille RiceAdministrative AssistantCity Manager’s Office|Human Resources|Transportation(650) 329-2229 | danille.rice@cityofpaloalto.orgwww.cityofpaloalto.org
4. Valley Water has ignored a major source of water -- the excessive groundwater in
the Palo Alto-Stanford area and is now wasting money by evaluating desalinization.
5. Valley Water staff in recent years proposed a doubling of the agricultural
groundwater production charge.
It seems to me to be a futile use of my time to advise a government agency that (as
noted above), among other things:
(i) is engaged in violating the civil and other rights of Director Eisenberg whorepresents the Palo Alto area including but not limited to her First Amendment rights;
(ii) is squandering Valley Water's money in attacking Director Eisenberg;
(iii) has demonstrated a quarter century of gross incompetence concerning
appropriately mitigating the flood risks posed by the San Francisquito Creek;(iv) has tolerated, aided and abetted the hoarding of groundwater in the Palo Alto
area and thus promoted the needless importation of water from outside of Santa
Clara County
(v) has aided and abetted global warming by not encouraging the beneficial use of thePalo Alto area groundwater for sports fields, lawns, landscaping, sequoia trees, and
orchards
(vi) has a staff that is willing to publicly propose the doubling of a water charge (an
essential utility) in a single year(vii) faces serious allegations of financial mismanagement and worse -- including
incurring legal fees and running an advertising campaign that is self-aggrandizing and
silent concerning Valley Water's long record of multiple failures.
I have accordingly, after much thought and based primarily on the above, decided to
resign my agricultural water advisory committee role effective immediately. Thank
you.
Sincerely,
Dhruv Khanna, CEO, Kirigin Cellars
From:Henry Etzkowitz
To:Palo Post; Amalia Tormala; eic@stanforddaily.com; Avroh Shah; Gennady Sheyner; Sarah Wright; BradenCartwright; Jim Hersh; Rebecca Eisenberg; Council, City; provost@stanford.edu; Roberta Ahlquist
Subject:“Consultocracy”: the Corruption of Democracy in Palo Alto
Date:Thursday, October 3, 2024 1:01:53 AM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking
on links.
in the Republic Plato outlined the forms of government: democracy, rule by the many; autocracy, rule by the few;
gerontocracy, rule by elders etc. in Palo Alto we have added “Consultocracy” a variant of Technocracy, rule by
experts, to the classic Platonic repertoire.
How does Consultocracy corrupt democracy in the Palo Alto City Council? I first observed the surface aspects of
the corruptive consulcratic process in a Council study session on retail decline in which a hired “expert” presented
obviously off the shelf ideas that had likely been marketed to many clients. That’s how the consulting process
scales and earns!
Rather than first hand investigation of a local reality, a time and labor intensive process that can be handled at little
or no cost by a teacher and a class of students, the contemporary consultant draws out of the firm’s files or virtual
equivalent a generic solution, like inviting chain stores to move in where boutiques and local retail have moved out,
leaving empty storefronts that add up to high vacancy rates, producing depleted downtown districts. At this
meeting, a member of Council introduced the idea of “third spaces” places of sociability apart from workplace and
home, a sociological concept pioneered by Ray Oldenburg. Council passed this suggestion by just as it ignored a
resident’s suggestion presented at another meeting by City Manager Ed Shikada to build affordable housing on the
platform of Stanford Shopping Center Garages.
Mayor Stone recently noted in reviewing the work of the city’s airport consultants that environmental considerations
had not been taken into account sufficiently in the 5 options put on display at City Hall at significant cost. The
outpouring of public scorn led to rejection of airport expansion but not yet full consideration of relocating the airport
further away from population centers at Moffett Field.
But that’s how consultocracy works! So called experts are hired to present a narrow range of alternatives, allowing
city staff and council members to set priorities for our community behind a facade of neutrality.
I will work to zero budget out consultants and invite faculty and students from Stanford and San Jose state to work
our problems, like the civil engineering professor and his class who volunteered in 2019 to analyze and provide
solutions to the railway that divides our city.
Sincerely,
Henry Etzkowitz
Innovation Scholar and Senior Advocate, Candidate for City Council of Palo Alto
Sent from my iPhone
Cc: John Salois <amat721@outlook.com>,provost@stanford.edu, City Council
<city.council@cityofpaloalto.org>, Amalia Tormala<akttormala@gmail.com>, Braden Cartwright
<bcartwright@padailypost.com>,eic@stanforddaily.com, Ed Shikada
<Ed.Shikada@cityofpaloalto.org>, Rebecca Eisenberg<rebecca@rebecca4water.com>Subject: Stanford Sares Regis contract
Whitney
In a previous mail on hosting a city council candidateevent, you cited this contract as a kind of charter
document, like the Mayflower Compact, regulatingallowable behavior at Oak Creek Apartments. Kindly
share a copy with our neighborhood association,Community of Oak Creek Residents (COCR), making
the conditions of our communal life transparent.
Sincerely Henry Etzkowitz
Co-Organizer, COCRCandidate for Palo Alto City Council
Sent from my iPhone