Sounds way too identity politics-oriented for me... while important on a state/national level, definitely not what Palo Alto needs right now with our very immediate post-pandemic actualized policy needs.

"I am a Black biracial queer resident of the South side of Palo Alto..."

If the majority of Palo Alto voters truly believe in diversity and a progressive society, Ms. Lythcott-Haims should be easily elected.

I imagine Ms. Lythcott-Haims will leave no stone uncovered as a PACC council member and Palo Alto desperately needs more intrepid council members.

Interesting to know more about how she plans or thinks walking down the street and being accepted by neighbors will happen. Reading on Nextdoor there are plenty of examples of people having problems with neighbors due to parking issues, trash cans, construction noise, general noise, etc. This seems to be nothing about how people look, but whether or not they are good neighbors.

Palo Alto is becoming more unneighborly with people not knowing neighbors and even not wanting to get to know neighbors to do small favors such as bringing in trash cans while on vacation and ready to report unmoved cars as abandoned. I wish her luck on getting the residents of Palo Alto to be more friendly. I would like to hear her plans.

RE..."When we walk down the streets of Palo Alto we all want to be treated with dignity and kindness whether by neighbors, store clerks, law enforcement officers, or strangers; all too often many of us are met with the presumption that we don't belong based upon how we look..."

When I was at Whole Foods yesterday, the cashier told me it was a "good day" because only one person swore at her. I don't know when/where things turned, but this town has gotten down-right rude. I've lived here for for the better part of 50 years. We used to have a joke: In Palo Alto, if you left your trunk open, someone closed it for you. Folks were generally more patient, polite and thoughtful.

The place to start is by asking yourself, "Was I thoughtful with the people I engaged with today? Or was I rude and impatient?"
Then ask, did I work to improve the space I was in today? Or did I make a mess and leave that mess behind for someone else?
Then... Do I want to live in my own bubble or a community? If the latter, you need to do the work to cultivate it.

PS. Julie is great. She's smart, a critical thinker, and pro-people/community.

"If the majority of Palo Alto voters truly believe in diversity and a progressive society, Ms. Lythcott-Haims should be easily elected."

Concurring...Palo Alto needs more PACC members of her caliber to question and to keep things in check at City Hall.

The PACC does not need anymore 'yes people' and neither do Palo Alto residents.

Thank goodness for term limits.

I know (though not too well) and like Ms. Lythcott-Haims, and I am excited to hear her positions on our City's big questions and pending decisions compared to other candidates in interviews and forums.

Responding to the comments above, I don't think anybody should be supporting anybody based on what identity-check-boxes they happen to tick. That's not what progress or inclusivity is all about. Keep those ears open!

A vote for Ms. Lythcott-Haims will bring the PACC into the 21st century.

"Thank goodness for term limits."

^ Amen.

A breath of fresh air. Thank goodness she is running for City Council.

What does she know and think about transportation, utilities, the BUDGET. This is the stuff City Councils spend the lion's share of their time on. What city committees has she served on?

You can't build housing if you don't have the money, transportation, and utilities infrastructure in place to support it. What does she know about that?

Is it wrong to care about increasing my property value, not making the city more affordable?

I worked ridiculously hard to be able to afford my small shack here. I pay absurd property taxes.

When was the last time you heard complaints about Atherton’s affordability and lack of access?

The entitlement to owning and living in Palo Alto continues to be absolutely bizarre.

Consider Your Options,
"You can't build housing if you don't have the money, transportation, and utilities infrastructure in place to support it."
--- Thank you.
Technically, you can but then you are left with more gridlock, sewage overflow, shopping in San Mateo, waiting for your doctor's appointment for three months, and classrooms overcrowded.

"believe in diversity and a progressive society" - of course. What does that have to do with the city budget, utilities, and traffic?

I'm sorry but her "platform" reminds me of Cory Wolbach's "civility platform" when we desperately need practical expertise and for the CC to monitor the city manager and city staff which seem to have no problems wasting our time and money on ridiculous projects for which they haven't done their homework WHILE pleading poverty and while cutting services to residents.

Notably her campaign web site doesn't list her endorsements which is usually the real key to where candidates stand.

Today the New York Times reported that Palo Alto has the SECOND highest rents in the country and elsewhere it's been reported that minimum wage workers need at least 3 full-time jobs to pay their rent. The horrible YIMBY-backed new state laws only require 15% below market housing units with only 5% slated for very low income because the laws cater to their tech backers who need to house more well-paid tech workers.

Where's her expertise and what is she going to do about rents that push out people and small businesses? Lecture them on child-rearing practices?

Local government should not be used as a platform for identity politics. Sounds like she's for upzoning everything in sight.

Online Name,
Thank you for your assessment. Agree with pretty much everything. Her numerous endorsements, as the text above has, come from Allison Cormack, Josh Becker, and Marc Berman. That is all I need to know.
She will be further greenlighting 2-3 M townhome developments out of the goodness of her heart and the desire to promote dignity and kindness. I would like to see where that energy, water, sewage capacity, and roadways will be coming from.

@Be Realistic, thanks. I missed the fact that she was endorsed by Ms Cormack. When I mentioned projects where staff and CC didn't do their homework, I always think of Ms Cormack's advocacy of the landlord's proposal to turn Town & Country Shopping Center into "medical/retail" when neither bothered to define what "medical/research" was or to look at all the sales tax revenues the city would lose. and/or to question the laughable claims that people hurting from their medical procedures would go shopping. All this as covid was moderating and just weeks before the lockdowns ended/.

Fortunately residents got together and killed that project, doing the homework staff should have done initially and Town & Country continues to be packed with residents and other shoppers.

Neither Becker nor Berman were honest enough to declare their positions on the housing bills when the held Zoom meetings with HUNDREDS of concerned residents and then immediately voted for those bills which do NOT support affordable housing.

If she wants to run for office, let her leverage her expertise on the Human Relations Commission or contributing to the City Manager's Uplift newsletter with its helpful hints on mental health, meditation and recipes which his ever-expanding highly paid communication staff sends out weekly instead of accurate updatates on crime and power outages.

@Online Name, that's an interesting comparison with Wohlbach.

Especially with a newly smaller council, I agree with you, anyone who runs really should have experience volunteering for civic roles first.

Being truly effective in a position that involves serving the public can be really hard for people who are used to being in charge or being deferred to.

I'm thinking of someone else who served on a commission and ran unsuccessfully for council, who was an absolute nightmare to work with as a volunteer because he really didn't understand or appreciate how much work others had done. Some people want the power, or to step into a leadership roll in organizations they didn't work to create. They can have an outsized idea of their own efforts and dismiss the contributions of others that are greater and/or more effective than their own. It's hard for such a person to be an egalitarian team player and respect/honor the contributions of others, especially if they disagree on an issue or think others don't meet a social standard of worthiness. The latter isn't necessarily society's standard.

When people judge or diminish others for who they think they ARE because they disagree with them on an issue, or if they ascribe libelous motives to people they disagree with rather than dealing with the issue in good faith, that’s poison on a small-town council. When people volunteer, that gives the public a better idea of how they operate.

The Maybell referendum could have been an opportunity for neighbors to come together and create something even before the referendum or after the dense rezoning was rebuffed. I didn’t see JLH joining the neighbors who asked the city to keep rather than sell the property for at least a time so that neighbors could figure out how to make parkland or just affordable housing or both. Those who opposed the referendum had been so confrontational, I guess it was too hard for them to find common ground. (The Klein endorsement isn't a good sign)

A City Council Member's job is to run the city, ultimately a business, not "create a sense of belonging" or run on a platform of identity politics. Palo Alto needs candidates with humility (vs. self-serving promoters), experience listening (vs. performing), ability to navigate complex issues with multiple contingencies with collaboration know-how (vs. grandstanding), experience (vs. having had no experience on city volunteer committees), and goals related to the city's real issues (vs. feel good platitudes): budget, traffic (number one issue per recent surveys), crumbling infrastructure, schools hemorrhaging due to closures, high speed connectivity, etc etc.

The City Council job description pasted below. Nowhere does it say "create a sense of belonging"!
City Council: 2022 Council Priorities graphic
Web Link
Key Responsibilities:
Set City‐wide priorities and policies and direct the City Manager to apply them
Make final decisions on all City matters
Adopt Ordinances and Resolutions
Approve the annual budget
Act as a Board of Appeals

Not to mention, I personally would NEVER vote for a candidate endorsed by Assemblyman Marc Berman whose office * recently* made the national news for sexual harassment of its female employees! It's shocking that a candidate (Haims) is selling to those who "want to be treated with dignity and kindness" while touting an endorsement from an Assemblyman whose office DOES NOT treat it's employees with dignity or kindness! Berman has made NO public statement or apology for his office's documented harrassment, and his silence as an elected rep has been shameful. News story reported in PA Online 4/22/2022:
"I reported my harassment in the California Legislature. Then state investigators went after me
by Ruth Ferguson / Contributor"
Web Link

Forever Name,

That is very well put.
We know Mr. Berman for a while.
Regarding Mr. Becker, he was carefully avoiding Zoom meetings with the constituents on SB9 and SB10. When asked why in one on one setting, his reply was "I am not interested in hearing from the constituents. I am interested in advancing my political career."
The wider community should be aware of that when reviewing the endorsements of CC candidates.

Actually Mr. Becker did have a Zoom on housing that 200+ people attended. When asked specific questions he famously responded that he "was still trying to wrap his mind around" each issue, prompting a friend to suggest that we buy him a turban.

A very short time later he voted without pushing the affordability issue.

No to woke candidates who focus on Marxist identity politics. No thanks.

Reduce utility fees. Fix potholes. Do something about the homeless and about crime. Not this baloney about 'belonging'.

A former Stanford dean (Julia L-H) says trying to fit into 'white environments' left her with $3,900 of credit-card debt at 22.
Web Link

Didn't Ms. L-H write a book on being an adult?

@Citizen, absolutely incredible. Thanks for that link.

Instead of blaming racism for her own financial irresponsibility and ignorance that credit card debt has to be repaid, she might look to history and the century-old phrase "Keeping up with the Jones's" which applies to ALL status-seekers regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation etc. etc.

Since when is "racism made me do it" a qualification for someone seeking to manage city business, spending, unfunded pension fund liabilities, lawsuits and payouts, negotiations with developers, providing staff oversight etc. etc.??

Her list of supporters is a Who's Who of development interests:
Berman, of course. also former mayors Larry Klein and Betsy Bechtel, and former council members LaDoris Cordell, Gail Price, Hillary Freeman and developer John Barton.
What else do you need to know?

Thanks for sharing that link.
So she runs up her credit card debt which is later paid by her parents. That teaches her a big lesson. Do you want to know what the huge lesson was? No, it was not live by your means, be responsible for your spending and debt, or something along those lines. The lesson was "ask for help sooner."
What a great message of someone who wants to be in charge of this city, including its budget.

More development supporters:

Council member Alison Cormack
Stephen Levy
Assembly member Marc Bergman (aka Mr Real Estate)
See also list above.

And backed by big tech /developer money and execs who want housing everywhere but in their own neighborhood:

From today's New York Times:

The Summer of NIMBY in Silicon Valley’s Poshest Town

Moguls and investors from the tech industry, which endorses housing relief, banded together to object to a plan for multifamily homes near their estates in Atherton, Calif.

Web Link

..."Many of the largest tech companies have donated money toward addressing the Bay Area’s housing crisis in recent years. Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, where Mr. Andreessen is a member of the board of directors, has committed $1 billion toward the problem. Google pledged $1 billion. Apple topped them both with a $2.5 billion pledge. Netflix made grants to Enterprise Community Partners, a housing nonprofit. Mr. Arora of Palo Alto Networks was on the board of Tipping Point, a nonprofit focused on fighting poverty in the Bay Area."

Poor babies can't afford a bigger business tax than one allocating under $4 MILLION for affordable housing here. Gotta love the hypocrisy. Congratulations to the tough Palo Alto negotiators for getting such a great deal.

Vote Ed Lauing!
Web Link

He actually cares about Palo Alto, has volunteered his time for DECADES serving Palo Alto City Commissions, has volunteered for Palo Alto Little League for years, has real business experience as a CEO running multiple startups, and with kids and family is invested in the city. Huge list of endorsements! Endorsed by Senator Becker, Mayor Pat Burt, and a long list of others who admire and praise his selfless dedication, volunteer efforts, successful collaboration, and respect from players on all sides of the issues. He understands how city management works and gets stuff done! If you have not heard of Ed it's because he operates with humility and others' interests in mind (unlike a self-promoting author with no experience volunteering on city commissions running on identity politics instead of skills and expertise who is admittedly financially irresponsible).

From Ed's web site:
"Why Choose Ed?"
"My focus for decades has been community service. Even while running startups and raising three kids, it has always been my mission to give back. In addition to serving on city commissions, I have been an active leader in helping expand services for the homeless, managing teams and boards in youth baseball, and leading social action projects."

"I listen carefully to the public and my colleagues of all points of view. I am not ideological on approaching an issue. Instead, I prepare intensely and work collaboratively to construct reasonable and actionable solutions that serve the community. When I have developed a position, I do not duck intensive (but civil) debate on what I think is best for residents."

"I want to preserve our values – and guide inevitable change. While preserving our core community values, innovation, and quality of life, I truly believe we can make changes for the better going forward. I will help lead changes thoughtfully and constructively."

I don't agree with her parenting style. I don't think she would make good City Council decisions.