This town council has done massive damage to local housing affordability and to any effort to increase diversity. Please just stop blaming others and do your job or get out of the way. The minority population has declined over time. They have ignored traffic and fire safety planning. They have welcomed expansive houses where affordable housing once stood. This council has presided over a massive gentrification of PV which was once a small rural town. From canning Town Manager Nick P for "wanting to run the town like a business", to calling citizens names, to violatios of their obligation to open government, to propoganda laced presentations and disrespectful behavior at meetings, to smear campaigns against everyday citizens, to trying to stop the addition of affordable child care options in town, to stacking town committees with their followers, and finally to calling the Almanac and being qouted in falsehoods, this council has no respect for the public. And that is what the PV Town Council has done for years.
I totally agree with Maryanne "With a heap of disinformation, a prickly subject and a Machiavellian nature, a group can prey on the public's fears by constructing a false reality and essentially undercut democracy". These good people were elected to REPRESENT the townspeople's views, and it does appear from the quotes in the article, that arguing personal views and opinions, rather than hearing and representing the voices of the constituents, may be swaying some council members' positions. We are all so grateful for the time and work of our town volunteers, but that doesn't mean they were elected to argue for their personal beliefs on any one issue. More importantly, I believe the article does a terrific job of illustrating the concerns. And yup, not everyone has the good fortune to choose to live out here, but for many of us, moving here was the achievement of a hard fought goal and we invite all those who appreciate the character and have the good fortune to be able to move here to do so. We choose to live out here because it is rural - there are plenty of lovely options around with more condensed housing and the wonderful services that are associated with those communities. In the spirit of healthy debate, I disagree with David B. Why in the world would it make sense to have high density housing in the middle of nowhere where there are no services and public transportation? And event of a fire, everyone trying to evacuate from one highly dense part of town all at once. Good urban planners would balk at this State mandate. no infrastructure to support this kind of housing in this type of town. They are opposed to obliteration of equestrian facilities and trails which is what the town was founded on (and what people from all over the area come to enjoy on weekends on bikes and by foot to escape their suburbs). The residents opposed to the approach the Town and its committee are taking are opposed to the concentration of the high density in one area of town for obvious reasons such as there are only two routes to evacuate residents in case of fire. If we want high density, we'd move to Palo Alto or the sprawl of what is now known as the suburb of Gilroy or Morgan Hill (formerly farming communities). This is not about keeping low income or diverse residents out.this is about the absurdity of high density housing in a rural, equestrian environment. Town residents are rising up because their concerns are not being heard. Always making it about elitist people who want to keep others out. The spin on this article is so predictable. A resident of Portola Valley: Central Portola Valley
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