Council campaign off to slow start Palo Alto Issues, posted by Editor, Palo Alto Online, on Jun 17, 2007 at 8:55 am
Six months before the election, with four spots on the Palo Alto City Council up for grabs, only Planning Commissioner Pat Burt has officially launched a campaign.
Posted by Fairness in Media, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 17, 2007 at 9:51 am
He's not the only one running but it is apparent that the Weekly is promoting him, repeating his name again and putting his picture in the paper. Why are you dragging up this article? to get still more free publicity? Sleazy.
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jun 17, 2007 at 9:52 am
Let's buy Sim City for Kishimoto and the others who want to play what if with the city, and find people willing to do the mundane housekeeping to do the mundane housekeeping.
Posted by Marvin, a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on Jun 17, 2007 at 10:44 am
I agree with you, Walter.
We need people in the council who will be willing to make tough decisions (which may offend or upset some people in the city) in an expedient manner.
We also need people on the council who are concerned about all the really pressing issues facing our city--not just people who are interested in photo opportunities while pushing their personal one-issue driven agenda.
Posted by Fairness in Media, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 17, 2007 at 11:30 am
I agree. Enough of this democracy junk. Let the chamber of commerce and the big money interests run the show. They're doing a great job in Washington, lets give it a try here too.
So what if they build ugly stuff? Let the town look like the Cheesecake Factory. Who cares as long as they make money. So what if the schools are overcrowded, and the roads are breaking down. Who do those people who live here think they are anyway? citizens or something?
Posted by A Resident, a resident of the South of Midtown neighborhood, on Jun 17, 2007 at 12:24 pm
The problem with our City Council is it's too big, we have quantity and not quality. Reduce the number of our City Council from nine to seven like most of the surrounding Cities. Then lets get some action with the really important issues instead of all this feel good stuff and endless talk.
If we only had two spots to fill we wouldn't be searching around for candidates, good or bad, to fill those empty seats at City Hall.
Posted by Forum Reader, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 17, 2007 at 3:21 pm
For those of you who haven't worked it out.
Everytime there is a news article on the home page, there is the opportunity to comment which starts a thread. The thread then starts the thread and is posted by "The Editor" rather than the staff writer who wrote the article. You can also tell, because the thread will only have the first couple of sentences on the article and then a web link, rather than the article in its entirety.
Sometimes, this is why two threads start on the same topic at roughly the same time.
You can check this by looking at all the articles on the home page and then the threads appear below.
Posted by bruce, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Jun 17, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Our council has nine members while all adjacent cities of have five or seven. We now have at least three council members who have limited vision and hype only their own narrow interests. A broad picture of what Palo Alto needs and how to get there is totally lacking.
Our limited resources should be focused on rebuilding the aging city infrastructure. Many hundreds of millions in backlog is awaiting funding. I don't see efforts made to reduce less important programs to free up money for urgent ones. Instead more consultants and managers are hired to forward pet projects. Increasing fees of the Utility Dept. is a form of taxation to increase revenue for the General Fund.
Posted by Norm, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jun 18, 2007 at 11:59 am
Unfortunately, we need a bigger council because of the gorilla across El Camino. If anything affects Stanford, anyone with significant ties must step back. Currently there are three. As long as people with ties to Stanford have the legal right as a citizen to run for office, we are stuck. (Other cities have similar issues with other mega-employers.)
Posted by Norm, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jun 19, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Marvin-
Well, HP figures in also, just a smaller ape.
How long was the bike race discussed Monday night? The batteries died in my radio on the bus home. (NO, they really did. I know how I get, but they did.)