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Questions & Answers
1. What is the biggest environmental issue facing Palo Alto?
Palo Alto is a suburban community in one of the most populated areas in the most populated state in the country. In a sense, our biggest environmental problem is ourselves. Too many of us. Too many of us in too many cars at the same time: on 101, University Ave, Embarcadero, Page Mill-Oregon and Alma, not to mention El Camino, Middlefield, or San Antonio. Too many of us wanting to work at Stanford or the Palo Alto Medical Center. Too many of us wanting to work in the Stanford Industrial Park or in downtown.
The problem is a regional problem and the solution has to be regional. Even if technology improves the pollution side-effects, increasing miles per gallon requirements doesn't solve the problem that our "thoroughfares" are at capacity. One of the solutions lie in limiting or reducing the number of car trips.
Some steps have already been taken. The Stanford new General Use Permit does not allow Stanford to increase net trips. The housing on San Franciscito Creek is intended to be occupied by current Stanford employees. If the units go to individuals and families who are now commuting through the City at peak commute times, then eventually car trips should be reduced. The Marguerite Shuttle is being used and an unexpected result of Palo Alto's own shuttle is that a sizeable number of Paly students use the shuttle instead of driving or being driven to Paly at prime commute times.
Unfortunately, we are paying the price of past mistakes, many of which were not of our own doing. The residents of San Mateo County voted against the extension of Bart and its equally unfortunate that the Santa Clara light rail doesn't come up as far as the Stanford Shopping Center.
We are at capacity in many areas besides traffic: landfills are full, water and electricity barely meet the demand. After decades of growth, we now must individually and collectively ameliorate the negative impacts of what we have done.
2. What have I done to protect the environment and to improve the quality of the lives of Palo Altans?
The environment is first the earth, the air and the water. But the environment is also in large measure the surroundings that define the place we live in. It is our libraries, the Baylands, Foothills Park, the Lucie Stern Center and the Children's Theatre. It is the Gamble Gardens, Cubberly and our neighborhood parks and it is the Little League Field and the Winter Lodge, to name a few of our unique community resources.
As the founder of the Trust for Community Skating and Community Skating, Inc., I worked for sixteen years to implement the will of the voters who overwhelmingly passed Measures A & B to preserve community accessible recreation in Midtown.
As a founding member of the Palo Recreation Foundation, I have worked for the last 12 years to raise additional funds for community recreation and to fund grants to programs enriching the lives of my fellow residents or to fund grants to remodel community facilities such as the Baylands Nature Center or the Little League playing field.
As an accounting professional, I have used my expertise to assist non-profit groups such as the Friends of the Children Theatre, Palo Alto Housing Corporation, Adolescent Counseling Services, Urban Ministries and Morrissey Compton Education Center in meeting their financial reporting obligations or in dealing with the City. It has been my way of contributing to those groups who enrich our community environment.
3. Describe the environmental justice problem in Palo Alto.
Palo Alto's environmental justice problem is the destruction of Natural Space by Developed Space. Nowhere is this conflict more clearly illustrated than at Stanford where the Ohlone fields open since before Stanford's founding have disappeared to highway type housing and the hills and horizon once visible the length of El Camino have been blocked by multi-story parking structures and the new higher level shopping buildings. If we do not want our community to completely devoid of open sky and fields, Density has to be monitored and Build-Out carefully reviewed. In Stanford's case, the monitoring outlined in the GUP has to be implemented and honored.
4. What else would I do to protect the environment as a member of the City Council?
Palo Alto has a long and admirable history of environmental protection whether in the nature of preserving unique habitats such as the Baylands, Foothill Park or the Arastradero Preserve or in developing programs to increase recycling or to treat waste water. The challenge for the future is to ensure that these special resources and programs continue to receive the funding necessary to keep the sites in pristine condition and to ensure that the programs continue to be effective. Funding depends on fiscally responsible management and I believe that I can contribute in this area.
One of Palo Alto's major resources is our highly committed and active citizenry. Through such organizations as the Committee for Green Foothills, the Sierra Club, or the Peninsula Open Space Trust, we, the community, actively monitor our environment and develop proposals to protect and safeguard it. In my role as a volunteer and in my professional capacity, I have experienced first hand the frustration felt by dedicated and informed residents who feel that they are ignored by those whom they have elected to represent them. Responsiveness to the community is fundamental to a participatory democracy and, if elected, I will make it a central principle of my decision process.
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