Any idea on the number of restaurant jobs or cashier jobs empty due to the fact that they can't get employees?

Any discussion on off ramp parking with dedicated shuttles to get employees into town?

No, I didn't think so!

" Earlier this summer, the council approved a budget that allocates $480,000 to support the effort, allowing the nonprofit to add new services and increase the number of transit subsidies it offers to commuters."

So glad the resident taxpayers can help fund the commuters, including city employees? What's the business community doing to pay us back?

Online Name - that $480,000 is funded dollar-for-dollar by increased parking fees for workers (with low-income workers excepted). Since workers making less than twice minimum wage can get $100 passes, that means the fees are mostly being paid by tech companies that purchase garage passes for their workers.

Sounds pretty fair to me. And the tech companies aren't complaining either.

@Council Watcher
Thanks for your clarification about the steep discounting of parking passes for lower income restaurant and retail workers, but how do you explain Tanaka's claim that the new parking pass rates are stacked against these workers?

Council watcher-- are you sure that none of the 480,000 dollars comes from permits that residents are forced to purchase? We didn't have a problem until this parking program pushed parking from downtown on to the street where we live. Seems to me to be a tax on the residents to fund the program. I don't have a problem with subsidizing low income workers, but let's not kid ourselves that there are not costs to residents that did not exist before. Call it a tax or call it a permit , it is money out of our pocket.

>>They serve food, wash dishes, staff shops and hotels and play a leading role in keeping downtown Palo Alto buzzing for residents, employees and visitors.

I commute from Tracy to work in a downtown PA hotel as a food server. To carpool is impractical.

Fortunately I can park in the hotel parking lot. For those who work downtown, parking can be a problem.

Why do city employees get free parking? What makes them so special?

It's one of the perks. By accepting lower salaries (in comparison to private industry) for the lucrative retirement benefits of CALPERS, free parking is just another 'add-on'. Don't complain. Just take a civil service exam and pass the interviewing process. Guaranteed...your opinion will change.