A central police station may be an "amenity that has been eluding officials for decades" --- but it is an idea who's time has passed.
Made outdated of all things by this thing Palo Altan: an iPad, Web Link

To boot, Japan, among other countries has shown the world that the Koban based system leads to much better community policing with the patrol men on foot, bicycle , or bike being present in the neighbor hood, and much shorter reaction times. Central police stations are mainly used to increase the self-worth of the police chief. With few people in his/her direct view the Chief will do what David Packard and Bill Hewlett prescribed many years ago: walking around. Or biking around.

If your house burns, do you want the fire truck to come from a central fire station? And here is the space and financial solution for the police stations problem: add a police floor, or two, to the fire stations. I won't cost $54Million.

I appreciate the fact that the topic of transportation planning is on the table for discussion. It looks well thought out.
Above reference to Japan has no applicability to this situation - they have a different societal structure and all use bicycles. It is imploding other country economic structures on PA. Focus on the Now, Place, PA environment. That is the topic on the table.

Read Doug Moran's blog:
Web Link
then let Jay Paul know he needs to build his complex where jobs are needed and people don't have to commute hours to get to work.

If Palo Alto would pay for its own public safety building, this project would have no legs.

Why do we need to relocate the current public safety building. Can't it be torn down and rebuilt on the same spot?

If Jay Paul's property is already built to its legal limit, why are we considering this at all?

Judith says:

"If Palo Alto would pay for its own public safety building, this project would have no legs."

She has hit the nail on the head, and I completely agree. The root cause of the problem is that the city council has absolutely no concept of fiscal responsibility. Marc Berman is on record as wanting to raise a bond for infrastructure so the general fund can be used for pensions and perks for the city bureaucracy. The council recently approved hiring a Chief PR officer at a cost to taxpayers of over a quarter million dollars per year. We continue to rack up pension debt (if I recall, Scharff promised to address this issue, as well as to stand up to PC zoning abuses in 2010 when he was elected, which makes him 0-for-2) and we still pay a Utility Users tax on top of exorbitant utility rate hikes just so the city can raid the utility revenue for itself. Despite this they still cannot set aside enough money for one of the core purposes of government in the first place: public investment in infrastructure.

It's maddening. Bob Moss, please run for council in 2014. I hope the Zoning coalition folks put up a ticket so I can vote in 5 new candidates who are not tone deaf and arrogant.

Lets get some addresses right! The article said: The police headquarters would stand across the street, at 2045 Park Boulevard, and would feature underground parking for police vehicles.
2045 Park is near Peers Park and Stanford Ave - 1/2 mile away! Shouldn't that be 2845 Park Ave?
And on that note, does the City own the land where the new Police HQ would be built? If so, where did the money come from to do the current excavation?

PTC Commissioners Mark Michael and Eduardo Martinez often wax poetic in their gratitude when the public shows up at their meetings.
Then they vote for big development and ignore everything the public says. Martinez said 3159 El Camino is a wonderful project.
The hypocrisy is sickening.

So, did the JayPaul people give any indication when their data, and analyses, would be available to the public?

Absolutely no more new office buildings, apartments or condominiums in Palo Alto. El Camino is a parking lot from : to 6:30. Where is the hell are these people going to park, there is no parking in downtown Palo Alto now. The last three times I went to Palo Alto between 11:00 and 1:30 I could not find parking, especially because the idiots building the new buildings downtown have blocks of parking spaces blocked off.
I went to Mountain View to shop and eat lunch.
Clearly the City Council is in the pockets of the developers. Have a MORATORIUM ON ALL BUILDING IN PALO ALTO FOR 5 YEARS NOW.

Whoowns it,

Thanks for the catch. The address for the proposed police building is 3045 Park Boulevard. Sorry for the typo.

-Gennady

Rainer,
You are absolutely right. This is a really brilliant point you have made. Please write to the City Council. We should have distributed police around town. I'm very concerned to hear about all the police cars being in underground parking in one place too. It smacks of the kind of thinking that put New York's disaster response center in the World Trade Center even after terrorists had tried to bomb it.

Having less centralized police presence would also allow us to build smaller stations over time rather than having to wait until we can foot one giant bill.

[email protected]

Since we all know they don't listen too well if it doesn't align with their development vision, please share your letter with [email protected], it will get distributed around town.

> PTC Commissioners Mark Michael and Eduardo Martinez often wax poetic
> in their gratitude when the public shows up at their meetings.

If these meetings were streamed, and people could speak to the P&T Commission from home, via Skype/VideoChat (or other video chat software), then people would be able to communicate with the Commissioners during meetings, and not have to drive downtown and sit through their meetings.

We have a lot of technology at our disposal that is not being used. It's a shame that this Commission does not understand the possibilities, and call for support from the IT Department.

Wayne Martin writes: "If these meetings were streamed, ...

Wayne, did you try to watch any of the PTC or Council meetings during the Maybell discussion this past spring and summer? For us, it was mostly unviewable with frequent drop outs and disconnects from Media Center's server. It was terrible. I can't imagine that two way video chat would even be possible with Palo Alto's terrible residential internet service.

@Joe asks:

> Wayne, did you try to watch any of the PTC or Council meetings during the
> Maybell discussion this past spring and summer?

No, I did not.

> For us, it was mostly unviewable with frequent drop outs and
> disconnects from Media Center's server. It was terrible.

Without more knowledge, it's a little difficult to comment. However, I can ask: "Did you complain to the Media Center, and the City Council?"

In my opinion, the Media Center is not the right organization to be responsible for the video recording/display of all public meetings/business. This group (Media Center) has never shown much understanding of the digital world, so I believe this responsibility should be reevaluated and removed from them.

> I can't imagine that two way video chat would even be possible
> with Palo Alto's terrible residential internet service.

OK, but I can.

The suggestion that two-way video would be provided is certainly possible. I was assuming that the current mode of people getting a few minutes (2-5, depending on the topic and people wanting to speak.) However, there really is no reason that two-way communication with the people on the Dais should not be the goal of the City. My sense would be that a PC with Skype installed would be cabled to a large screen on the wall, where the caller's image would appear. Also, small screens on the Dais for each Council Member/Commissioner to see the caller is another possibility. Getting the video technology installed in the Council Chambers would not be difficult, nor expensive.

You speak about dropouts from the MC server is interesting, but you then seem to be blaming the residential network. Why? Are you aware that server software often is limited by the number of licenses paid for by the server's operator? Server capability is also an issue. Suppose Google were the provider of these services--do you think that Google might be able to do a better job than the MC? Most streaming works at fairly slow speeds, but obviously, higher speeds are better.

City Manager Keene rambles on about Palo Alto being a "digital city", but he has yet to produce any plans that would allow for the integration of existing Internet/WEB-based technologies to be utilized by the city and the residents intelligently today.

In November 2014 we MUST get rid of some of this council, and that means that qualified residents must come forward to run for council. Yes, the $$$ from the developers and architects AND the unions crowd will pour money into the campaigns of THEIR candidates. But Measure M showed that the 'little people' - the residents can fight back. And being a bright light on the school board doesn't mean that he/she will shine on the council bench. Gail Price is an example. In the meantime I'm starting to clean closets and attic and garage and reading the real estate ads - someplace else. I have to be careful when I schedule a hair cut, grocery shopping, a doctor's appointment. Allow extra time. The traffic is obscene. The last time I went to downtown Palo Alto to shop or dine was two years ago. Stanford Shopping Center - five years ago. Menlo Park is getting to be just as bad. YES , stand up to ABAG. Did anyone ever take its mandates to the State Supreme Court???

> “Why do we need to relocate the current public safety building. Can't it be torn down and rebuilt on the same spot?”

The current public safety/police building is on the first floor of City Hall. The city tells us that it’s seismically unsafe, which is why a new building is needed. But if the police department is unsafe, that means the whole City Hall is unsafe. Yet the city manager has asked for $2.1M to upgrade JUST THE FIRST FLOOR.

Jay Paul can easily afford to buy the city a new police station from his pocket change. Here’s one of his other projects: Dirt starts flying at Jay Paul's $500 million Transbay highrise
Web Link

Before suggesting on how to decentralize police and its services, please learn the constraints under which the police work. Many factors affect the ability of police to provide safety which should be understood before making changes to present procedures. For one the amount of equipment each officer uses is very large and needs a central place to be stored. It can't be carried on a bicycle or even in a patrol car.

There is no present Public Safety Building to raze and rebuild. The present quarters are a small part of City Hall, and several studies have already been done to investigate this idea. Also read the Infrastructure Blue Ribbon's report on what is needed for a Public Safety Building.

We are not Japan or any other country which has one or more characteristics such as a large population of bicycle users, flat country, and densely built up living units.

We do not want to see the white of jay Paul's eyes nor do we want to see his large Planned Community. WE DO NOT NEED HIS PLANNED COMMUNITY!! We do not need more congestion. We do not need further development that makes one man rich and leaves the res of us in our cars to pollute the atmosphere while we sit in traffic Jay Paul caused by building his Planned Community. The city council and all the other that would-like-to-be powers need to get the message. Palo Altans are a bit fed up with the constant granting of variances to build and build and build.

Developers seem to consider the maximum to be the minimum. Lets see, the maximum height allowed is 50 ft so we will build 57 feet high and describe the additional 15 feet as mechanical equipment = 72 feet. City planning will surely go along with that.

Two stories of mechanical equipment doesn't need parking, and we should be given an exemption for how beautiful our "gateway" to Palo Alto will be...

Maybe the developers should make sure other developers aren't abusing the system if they want to build anything themselves.

Sorry to hear that some folk are avoiding Downtown Palo Alto, Cal Ave and downtown MP because it is too busy. Driving/parking is a big pain so I ride a bike for short trips. The bike racks are pretty full so there are plenty of others cycling. Palo Alto (and Menlo Park) have among the highest rates of bike commuting in the country, the terrain is flat, the weather is great most of the time. If you want to avoid the traffic/parking hassles, use a bike. If you are elderly or disabled - but the rest of us who are able-bodied use a bike for short trips - that would be less traffic and more parking for you.

The pipeline is gushing projects into a City which is already suffering
severe effects of overdevelopment. The just approved 4-story Ken Hayes office/penthouse project at 611 Cowper would require 115 parking spaces but with the credits and grandfathered conditions needs only 62 spaces leaving a deficit of 53. The project is not in the parking assessment district.
The "environmental review" assured us that "the proposed project would not result in any new significant effects relating to traffic...". And overflow parking down Hamilton into Crescent Park does not constitute a "traffic" or environmental impact apparently.

The City of Palo Alto is being pounded. In boxing this would be ruled
a "technical knockout" and the fight would be stopped. We need a moratorium
on new office projects while we undertake a review of all our zoning.

Hm, on top of the comments "resident", "a resident of Charleston Meadows",
claims that my reference to Japan’s Koban community policing system has no applicability to this situation – “they have a different societal structure and all use bicycles”. Does that mean they “all” use bicycles and export their Hondas, Nissans, and Toyotas to the US?

How long has "resident" lived in Japan? It is amazing how some people just throw out claims about facts which they think will kill what they do not like. But in the age of the Internet you do not need to have access to Stanford Library (which I have).

So here we go after the facts: According to the OECD the US has 0.8 cars per person, Japan 0.6 – ahead of car crazy Germany. And the US is mainly ahead here because in the empty states like North Dakota, where the average household has 5 cars, the numbers are double. In cities they are more equal.

And even if the “all” use bicycles, which they do not, it is easier in a city to catch a thief on a bicycle a bicycle than with a patrol car. But this is not what community policing is all about.

So in summary the claim by "resident" is, without any grounding in facts or theory is that a distributed police station system based on getting around on foot, bicycles and motor bikes (and squad cars parked locally and ready to go if needed), would not work in the US, because we are...what?...so exceptionally different and other BS. Just because Japanese speak Japanese?

There is "George" above who thinks Japan is a flat country of bicycle users. Naturally on Google Map we do not see the bicycles, but where are the flat areas like the mid-western plains? But where are all the bicycles on Goggle Street? And why would it matter?

He must confuse Japan with The Netherlands, or maybe even Palo Alto?

Maybe the problem is that policemen here carry around a ridiculous amount of gear on the belts instead of policing. I have never seen French Gendarmes walking around with that much stuff, but they know their neighborhoods..

I am sure there are lots of studies which tell us we need a $100Million "public safety" building. But maybe we do not. Just look around what other cities and countries do. And the location: at least now the police station is in the middle where most of the after hour robberies happen. On Park Boulevard....?

My mother used to work at Parker Center in LA. That was the central control point for containment of sensitive information concerning activity on the streets. Yes - LA does have a Japan Town section. They are Americans. Oakland is building a central crises center from which to get a grip on their problems. They have a vibrant China Town. The bay area has every type person and community represented here. We do not have to go across the ocean to pick up clues as to how to function - they come here to pick up our clues. You can watch NCIS-LA, any current police/detective show. We are not in the middle of a crime wave but that is because there are technological tools being used to monitor the safety of the streets. Those tools are evident on TV shows - not is your face. Please let the police force run their show with the best technology available - that is their job. They go to school for this.

Read our lips: NO new developments!

My guess is Mr. Paul doesn't live in Palo Alto so this massive building means nothing to him except $$$$$.

Every PC project should be put up to a vote paid for by the developer. Then we will see if the perceived benefits mitigate the next 50 plus years of pain. We are slowly being boiled in oil here.

I agree with the poster up page. STOP BUILDING IN PALO ALTO FOR 5 YEARS!!! At the very least, stop approving bungalow tear downs that are replaced by crappy Spanish style delios.