Study on displacement of residents raises eyebrows

We need to address this issue seriously and quickly or we are going to have a community made up of Senior Citizens and young millioners!

Of course any study that FaceBook would pay for would say that “housing demand will not increase beyond Menlo Park's available housing”, and would not deal at all with the devastating effects on the low-income residents of Belle Haven and East Palo Alto that will be caused by the great increase in gentrification caused by FaceBook addingn thousands of new well-paid employees

Of course that study said FaceBook’s expansion plans would have little effect on local low-income residents.

If you believe that, I have a bridge I can sell you.

Remember: FaceBook is giving every employee who will move to within 10 miles of its offices $10,000 each. Doesn’t this sound as though they are encouraging gentrification?

Gentrification is already happening. FaceBooks expansion plans will just make it much worse. And we all depend on the work done by low-income people -- many of whom are already moving out of the Bay Area because they can no longer afford the current high costs of housing here -- because of gentrification. Our local school board has seen this, and is quite concerned about this.

MidPen’s plans to build a relatively small number of apartment units on Willow Road are a wonderful thing, but, although this would help a few people, it is only a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.

I’m all in favor of adding more jobs here in the Mid-Peninsula, but overworked young techies should not be almost the only people who get really good pay. All employees who are now getting substandard wages should get much better pay, so all of them can finally have much better lives

The 3,500 housing units that are planned to be built on FaceBook’s land east of 101 sound great -- but are most of the tenants expected to be FaceBook employees? If so, will most FaceBook employees freely choose to live in the same apartment complex as other FaceBook employees? Don’t most people need to keep their work lives separate from their private lives?

Once the Menlo Park City Council approves FaceBooks expansion plans (which can’t help but encourage gentrification and worsen traffic), the die is cast for the present residents of Belle Haven and East Palo Alto.

This study should do much more than "raise eyebrows". But it won't. Sigh.....

So why don't you just use eminent domain to acquire Facebook's property and kick them out? My property in Belle Haven has increased significantly thanks to Facebook. Soon there will be supermarkets and dry cleaners in Belle Haven thanks to Facebook. All you people who live on the other side of the freeway seem to think you know what is best for us.

Butt out! We don't want your interference. Mark Zuckerberg is the best thing that ever happened to Belle Haven. He has taken a poverty stricken area and is making it a desirable place to live.

Thank you Mark!!!

"My property in Belle Haven has increased significantly thanks to Facebook. Soon there will be supermarkets and dry cleaners in Belle Haven thanks to Facebook. All you people who live on the other side of the freeway seem to think you know what is best for us.

Butt out!"

EXACTLY!

If companies add jobs, people complain about traffic and housing prices.

If companies add housing, people complain about gentrification and traffic.

If companies add housing AND jobs (which helps address traffic concerns), people complain about gentrification.

It's certainly reasonable for communities to have criteria for building/adding homes and offices. But the governments that represent these communities need to set clear criteria for building then get out of the way.



Jez, there's no pleasing some people

Same issue is going on in San Jose:

Web Link

You can read the entire article and get all warm and fuzzy, but the key paragraph is this, “The only thing the Housing Commission was expected to do at the meeting was make a recommendation about whether Facebook should have flexibility in how it decides to go about building 20 affordable housing units or paying the monetary equivalent of $6.3 million. The commission agreed to recommend to the Planning Commission and the City Council that Facebook be granted that flexibility.”

Web Link

If you think for a second that Facebook will build affordable housing you are clueless. They will pay the fee.

The article I posted earlier refers to the Reserve apartment complex in San Jose. The builder is building 0 affordable housing; they are just paying the fee. And the City has no plans on using the $ to build any affordable housing.


Web Link

City of Menlo Park is using Facebook as a part of their slight of hand politics. The Displacement report, reported the information as requested by the City. Therefore it didn't include foreclosures and evictions. Check the MidPen report for more accurate information. Why would the City want to publicize the gentrification (re-colonization) of Belle Haven? After all, think of how full the coffers will be when Belle Haven is nothing but apartments and business.

We have people on the Menlo Park Housing Commission who are not experienced and well versed enough on the subject matter to represent the community of Menlo Park.

A few of them have their own agendas.

Companies such as Facebook have employees who are extremely educated, experienced and well versed on the subject matter who can speak intelligently on the issues.

The Menlo Park Housing Commission needs to listen and learn from the experts!

Yes, this is an old discussion, but I wanted to reply to two commenters. It may seem silly of me, but I wanted to say some important things, late as this response is.

"Free Market"
Where will all those low-paid employees of all those dry-cleaners and supermarkets and other retail businesses that you think will appear near FaceBook's campuses live? In East Palo Alto or East Menlo Park after the property values have gone sky-high? How will they be able to afford the rent?

Yes, your property is bow much more valuable. But -- where will you go to shop for food or get your clothes dry-cleaned or find anything else you might want tyo buy from a nearby retail store? Or where will you dine, when no waiters or cooks or dishwashers can afford to live within even barely tolerable commuting distances of the restaurants they will be working in?

Can you enjoy eating all that money your property is now worth? Will that be a good substitute for good restaurant food?

And exactly where will you go for medical care when you need it? there are no hospitals in East Palo Alto or East Menlo Park, and I am sure the few clinics that are there now will not be able to handle the huge increase in demand for basic medical services after FeceBook hugely increases the number of its employees, and I would be very surprised if you would be satisfied with the level of care you would receive at those clinics from their overworked staff, who will not have much time to spend with any one patient. So -- will you go to Stanford Hospital? Or anyof theri clinics? How will you get there? Traffic is often very bad in this area, as I am sure you know.

And with a large increase in the number of FaceBook employees, traffic will get even worse. Then -- hwo will first responders be able to get to your home when there are big traffic jams between where they are and your home? Same applies to anyone in this area who needs medical help NOW. Traffic jams can and will cuse people to die because they will not be able to get to emnergency rooms fast. Remember both Kaiser and Stanford are west of 101.

"peninsula resident":
No, I will not "BUTT OUT". Why should I? I care a lot about the people in this area -- and about you, too -- and I see a lot of very bad effects that have already happened from FaceBook's presence here, and almost no good effects overall. And the planned very fast increase in the number of FaceBook employees will only make thigns worse for all of us -- and this includes all FaceBook employees.

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to keep silent."

I refuse to be silent.