Hard Truths

This was published as an op ed in the January 24, 2022. edition of the San Mateo Daily Journal. It’s surprising people are congratulating the San Carlos City Council, on which I used to serve, for standing up to Sacramento “usurping” local control over housing policy. They’re ignoring where that

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The Trillion Dollar Club

Long-time readers of this blog will recall my last State of the City address focused on just how gigantic the Bay Area economic powerhouse is. I knew it was big…but had no idea just how big it was, despite having lived here for many years. Today the Federal Bureau of

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Let’s Not Forget Commuting’s Carbon Footprint

This op ed ran in the Palo Alto Daily Post on December 8, 2021 (I’ll add a link to the paper’s version if and when the publisher posts a link to it). It was prompted by comments made by Gina Papan, who serves on the Millbrae City Council, about how

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Droughts and First Come, First Served

Recently a question was raised on NextDoor about why new homes continue to be constructed when we’re in the middle of a multi-year drought. It’s a great question and sparked a lot of discussion. These are some thoughts on the topic and how it relates to the principles we’ve embodied

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Commuting, Carbon Footprints and Data Mining

I was recently motivated to write an op ed about how the carbon footprint of commuting generally gets overlooked in discussions about addressing climate change. I’ll publish the piece online after the print edition comes out, but here I wanted to talk about how you can access all sorts of

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Comments on Redrawing County Districts

I made a brief version of these comments at today’s County Board of Supervisors meeting (there were so many commenters the Board chose to limit public comments to one minute rather than the normal two…which is perfectly understandable but was unanticipated by me :)). Good morning, and thanks for giving

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