Mountain View Voice: Candidates again tackle housing in final forum (November 3, 2006)

“We cannot solve a regional housing problem in Mountain View, nor should we try,” said Jac Siegel about the “F” housing grade given to the city by the Bay Area Council using methodology from ABAG.

Siegel’s remarks seemed to reflect the opinion of many of the candidates.

Upon seeing the report, “I was perfectly enraged by it,” said Ronit Bryant.

John Webster said the ABAG report reminded him of central planning in Communist Russia.

This reminds me of this letter back in August:

Mountain View has too many jobs

Editor:

The Bay Area Council has given Mountain View an “F” for providing housing because of the jobs-to-housing imbalance. The common assumption seems to be that Mountain View doesn’t have enough housing.

I would like to suggest that Mountain View has too many jobs. The Bay Area Council could just as easily have cited Los Altos and Los Altos Hills for not providing enough jobs for their citizens, thus requiring them to drive to Mountain View. We could quickly achieve a more equitable balance by transferring the land that Google sits on to Los Altos.

Glenn Meier

Walnut Drive

In summary:

• Thinking about moving to Mountain View? Please don’t. You’ll just make things worse for everyone else.
• Need to work in Mountain View? Please don’t. Commuting from Stockton won’t help either as it will make traffic worse.

Thanks Prop 13.