As a bay area resident who regularly has to listen to people whine about 'all them outsiders moving in', I have no sympathy for the residents of MV. Build some dense housing around here and stop whining. We don't all need ranch homes with 3 parking spaces. Build up, build dense, and build mass transit.
> “Our problem is that we have too many good jobs,” said Leonard M. Siegel, a 66-year-old environmental activist who was recently elected to the City Council. “Everyone else wishes they were in our situation, but it’s a crisis for the people here.”
If this person is actually an environmentalist then they should welcome my message of build up, build dense, and build mass transit. Per-capita carbon production goes down as density goes up. Low-density urban living, think suburbs, are terrible at keeping per-capita carbon production low. An actual environmentalist would welcome an opportunity to develop dense urban environments free from a reliance on fossil fuels.
If you want to have a low carbon footprint; live in a place like Manhatten, eat vegan, sell your car and don't travel. In other words, if you claim to want environmental policy, you should be working to make that lifestyle accessible to more people.
> “Nobody wants change,” said Gilbert Wong, a councilman in Cupertino, Apple’s hometown.
I'm sure if I told this person they were a conservative they would take offense. But what other way is there to read this? These people are misappropriating the term conservationist. We're interested in protecting the trees, not your lawn.
Places like Mountain View or Palo Alto could be examples of a new kind of sustainable dense urban living. Instead they're completely wedded to automobiles and a mid 19th century obsession with detached home ownership.
Exactly. It's a travesty that Silicon Valley looks like a suburb in 2015. It should've been a great example of a dense, clean, urban region, which would also mitigate the commuter problems and the pressure on San Francisco rents.
This is one thing Vancouver has going for it: density. There's far more for-sale development than necessary and nowhere near enough purpose-built rental buildings, but at least the new development is more 100+ unit condo towers in the same square footage as four single-family homes.
That, plus new investments in public transit (and, hopefully, more to come) means more walkable neighbourhoods, more services more accessible to people, and fewer 90 minute commutes on car-clogged freeways to get to a choked downtown core and $25/day parking fees.
Vancouver is trying to be a lesson to the world in sustainable, eco-friendly living, and I'm really hoping that we can make it happen.
> If this person is actually an environmentalist then they should welcome my message of build up, build dense, and build mass transit.
Did you actually read the story? Later, it says:
"Google’s headquarters proposal does not include any plans for housing. But the company has told the City Council that it wants housing, and lots of it. Councilman Siegel, for one, agrees. He wants to amend the city’s plan to allow at least 5,000 new housing units."
Maybe we have different definitions of what dense means. But 5,000 housing units is barely a fraction of what MV needs. They should be looking at a number closer to 50,000. As should the other MV communities.
> “Our problem is that we have too many good jobs,” said Leonard M. Siegel, a 66-year-old environmental activist who was recently elected to the City Council. “Everyone else wishes they were in our situation, but it’s a crisis for the people here.”
If this person is actually an environmentalist then they should welcome my message of build up, build dense, and build mass transit. Per-capita carbon production goes down as density goes up. Low-density urban living, think suburbs, are terrible at keeping per-capita carbon production low. An actual environmentalist would welcome an opportunity to develop dense urban environments free from a reliance on fossil fuels.
If you want to have a low carbon footprint; live in a place like Manhatten, eat vegan, sell your car and don't travel. In other words, if you claim to want environmental policy, you should be working to make that lifestyle accessible to more people.
> “Nobody wants change,” said Gilbert Wong, a councilman in Cupertino, Apple’s hometown.
I'm sure if I told this person they were a conservative they would take offense. But what other way is there to read this? These people are misappropriating the term conservationist. We're interested in protecting the trees, not your lawn.
Places like Mountain View or Palo Alto could be examples of a new kind of sustainable dense urban living. Instead they're completely wedded to automobiles and a mid 19th century obsession with detached home ownership.