Palo Alto Matters - Community voices for sustainable solutions
News, data, commentary and connections to help Palo Alto residents get informed, get involved, and speak up about community concerns.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Linda Taaffe / August 17, 2017
Palo Alto could move ahead with plans to transform its rail corridor without a formal community stakeholder group to provide feedback on the project if the City Council approves its Rail Committee’s recommendation, which runs counter to what the city’s Planning and Transportation Commission supported last week.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Elinor Aspegren and Shawna Chen / August 16, 2017
The shuttle plan recommended by city staff includes three routes: a new South Palo Alto route that will replicate Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s Route 88, which is being eliminated, and add some new stops; an expanded Crosstown route that will extend to Stanford and San Antonio shopping centers; and an expanded Embarcadero route that will service East and West Bayshore roads and Fabian Way.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Jocelyn Dong / August 16, 2017
Avenidas, the downtown Palo Alto nonprofit that provides services to seniors, plans to open a cafe in its center at 450 Bryant St. — ending speculation that it might continue to host longtime lunch program La Comida.
The Almanac – by Kate Bradshaw / August 15, 2017
Facebook sponsored study of the Dumbarton transportation corridor looks at feasibility to: Increase the frequency and number of destinations of transbay buses by 2020; Convert a traffic lane on the road bridge to either an express lane or a shifting lane that matches commute direction by 2025; Rebuild the abandoned rail bridge and activate a rail shuttle across the Bay to connect Redwood City to Union City by 2030.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Elinor Aspegren, Shawna Chen and Jocelyn Dong / August 15, 2017
Unhappy over the City of Palo Alto’s planned eviction of a dozen nonprofit organizations and businesses that have been using First Baptist Church in Palo Alto as their home, members of the groups and their supporters turned out in force on Monday to plead with the City Council to change zoning rules to allow them to stay.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Aldis Petriceks / August 14, 2017
For many today, Palo Alto feels more cardboard than community; more ideal than reality. Silicon Valley’s culture is fixated on status, not service; on power, not people. We might benefit by pulling those blinders back. We might come together in unexpected ways, by engaging our community as much as we do our work — or, God forbid, our phones.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Sue Dremann / August 11, 2017
College Terrace Market, the longed-for grocery store at 2100 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, finally opened on June 14, but the hoped-for crowds of customers have been slow to materialize.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Gennady Sheyner / August 9, 2017
As Palo Alto moves ahead with plans to transform the rail corridor, city officials are struggling to reconcile two seemingly competing goals: catching up to other communities in a race for Santa Clara County funds and engaging in the type of prolonged deliberative process that has long been synonymous with City Hall culture.
A recent study of Airbnb impacts on the District of Columbia is prompting legislators to crack down on the use of housing stock for commercial “tourist” rentals.
The growth of the commercial STR [short-term rental] market has serious negative implications for housing affordability and quality of life for D.C. residents. While the District grapples with a serious housing affordability crisis, the widespread conversion of residential units into short-term rentals makes it even harder for families to find affordable places to live. Commercial short-term rental operations may be pushing steeper rent increases across the District. Moreover, regulators have not exercised enforcement of health, safety, zoning, and rental housing laws on short-term rentals.
San Francisco is also trying to manage the housing impacts of short-term rentals. In 2015 and 2016, San Francisco rolled out rules requiring that all short-term rental hosts register with the City. In addition, hosts may only rent out their permanent residence, an entire home may not be rented out for more than 90 days per year, and no one may rent out more than one unit. Despite those rules, the city found that 75 percent of short-term rental hosts continued to operate illegally. Under a recent legal settlement with San Francisco, two major short-term rental companies, Airbnb and Home-Away, will actively participate in monitoring and enforcing the registration requirement.
While of course Palo Alto is not D.C. or San Francisco, the D.C. study shines light on concerns shared by many Palo Alto residents and San Francisco’s experience provides insights into the feasibility of various controls. As we confront our own housing affordability crisis, shouldn’t Palo Alto be asking the same questions?
A search of Airbnb’s website on July 22, 2017, showed 306, “entire-home” Airbnb listings in Palo Alto. The average price per night for an Airbnb home in Palo Alto:
Click here for Airbnb data for Palo Alto and East Palo Alto by analytics firm AIRDNA
Visit our Check the Facts page for more info to put Palo Alto’s challenges into context.
Palo Alto Daily Post – by Elaine Goodman / August 7, 2017
An agreement in which city workers will pay more toward their pension costs is expected to save Palo Alto $1 million a year — a small step toward bridging an employee pension gap that could be as large as $800 million.