Interesting that Palo Alto Online isn't revisiting any of its endorsements in view of recent news and/or even covering the news angle itself.

JLH=AOC: I watched Julie on forums and her Podcast. She is the Queen of drama. I try to watch every CC meeting live online and I don’t want to be watching a Shakespeare tragedy instead. She let the ‘f’ bomb fly and as far as I know has never apologized for it. She would not work well with other CC members. She appears to not have the ability to question the so-called housing experts and the state mandate to add 6000+ housing units and shows naïveté in how to accomplish that. She should read our highly touted (at the time) Comprehensive Plan that had a housing goal of adding 300 units a year starting with the year it was approved. I think we were down 200-250 units that year. All our pro growth and pro housing advocates stumble when asked about housing for the low and very low income people who come to town to serve us every day. And of course their fallback position is to label people like me and my neighbors NIMBYs. I’d like to have candidates come to my house for coffee. I would tell my story about moving here so we could own a house/home in a nice diverse (race, religion, occupation, and income) neighborhood in 1963. Then I’d ask them to step into my shoes and try to feel how I feel about the recent state laws that could dramatically change my quality of life. Of course they couldn’t because they wouldn’t have all the good memories of my past experiences.

@Gale - those are noble thoughts and good ideas, but I think those who are convinced that being a SFH owner is equivalent to being a NIMBY are not likely to consider anything that doesn't fit that narrative. I'm guessing your income in 1963 was drastically lower than what tech jobs are paying now (even adjusted for time) and that you saved to come up with 20% down and then find a house for sale that you could afford. What happened to that model?

And what happened to logic? It is true that Palo Alto is expensive, that there are limitations to what can be built here (some of which are geographic, some due to the already-built environment) and that we cannot possibly accommodate the desire of all people to live here. Like 'em or not, those are just facts. A BIG part of the problem is who is elected. I am not a Republican, but I think we have sent so many Democrats to Sacramento that healthy two-party debate that might lead to reasonable policy has been lost and we end up with remote policy makers mandating illogical, impractical laws.

And I agree with you about JL-H. City Council struggles as is to get through their weekly agenda; drama would only slow that down.

@Annette: You guessed our entry into home ownership in PA pretty well. We rented a 2 bdrm unit at 3153 Alma ($130/mo) when we first moved to PA when I started working for Philco’s Western Development Laboratory on Fabian Way. We learned very quickly about the cost of homes here. I think it was the goal/dream of young couples starting their families to own their own single family home on a good sized lot. We spent many weekends driving to Sunnyvale, Cupertino, and San Jose, to look at model homes that were being shown at new tract home developments. Prices were much cheaper than anything we could afford in PA at the time. But I also heard from co-workers the horrible commute stories they told. We had also settled into a comfortable life style here…church, family doctor, dentist, bank, insurance companies, restaurants, movie theaters, YMCA, auto repair, parks, golf course, and even started gaining interest in city government and the issues of the time. We made the choice to continue to rent and save money for a bigger down payment until we found something on the market in our price range. That finally happened and as the saying goes, “The rest is history”. My wife, Garnet, passed away 8 years ago, but I’m still here in my twice expanded starter home.

I’m going to take a post break but will come back later to describe this neighborhood then, and now, and add more comments about candidates for CC.

Vote like lives depend on it: quality of living, growing for all ages, abilities, incomes:
CC Lythcott-Haims, Lisa Forssell, Vicki Neenker
PAUSD: Nicole Chiu-Wang, Shounak Dharpa
US Rep: Rish Kunar
Water Board: Rebecca Eisenberg
Yes on K, No on L (flawed arguments for and against)
We deserve stronger representation for all people not a few wealthy. Let’s occupy Main Street and take Wall Street back.

Someone hacked my endorsement from Anna Eshoo to Rishi. Vote Eshoo!!! Vote to take back Wall Street and return it to Main Street. Eshoo's weekly town halls during the crisis of Covid saved many from oblivion and illness.
Vote like lives depend on it: quality of living, growing for all ages, abilities, incomes:
CC Lythcott-Haims, Lisa Forssell, Vicki Neenker
PAUSD: Nicole Chiu-Wang, Shounak Dharpa
US Rep: Eshoo
Water Board: Rebecca Eisenberg
Yes on K, No on L (flawed arguments for and against)
We deserve stronger representation for all people not a few wealthy. Let’s occupy Main Street and take Wall Street back.