Senate Bill 50 returns -- and so does Peninsula's housing debate

Has anyone considered how so many Airbnb's are adding to the shortage of full time rentals ?

Adding more housing just makes the problem worse. The Bay Area infrastructure just can’t handle such growth. Make Facebook and google house all their employees on site. Enforce a moratorium on any new commercial building unless they can house staff on site. Our communities should not suffer because of poor civic planning. We’re too crowded already, enough is enough.

@Complete Nonsense
typical boomer mentality. I got mine, me me me. How about we get rid of prop 13?!? The area is not dense at all, not by a long shot.

I agree with the statement that our politics got us into this mess. Our city councils continued to approve massive office expansions (such as Facebook) without planning for commensurate housing. This is leading current residents to being priced out and displaced, some on the street. This bill has been around for almost 3 years now and local control has done nothing to help. Housing prices continue to go up, and so does homelessness. I support SB50 even though I'd prefer a local solution.

This area is a suburb and is not meant or designed for dense housing. Try going from El Camino to Bayfront expressway in the afternoon and tell me we have the infrastructure for more housing or office space. Same with trying to get a seat on CalTrain during the rush hour commute. Those trains are so packed they discourage commuting on them. The state should not be dictating what can be built where to the cities. If this passes there will be a long protracted lawsuit.

I don’t normally comment in this forum because discussions rapidly devolve in attacking broad groups of people or even individuals . By virtue of the year I was born I am a baby boomer. Some short -sighted “contributors” disparage my whole generation because of when we were born. They seem to think we are all the same. MPer: why not make a lucid argument for your position instead of devaluing another’s by painting broad stereotypes? Would you ever say “typical black person comment” or typical gay person comment?” I don’t think so.

@ Complete Nonsense: spot on!
Menlo Park is a small suburb of about 30,000 people. Yet our City Council is allowing Facebook to bring 30,000 employees to our city. This will be ruinous whether they're commuting or living here. Facebook should move to San Jose or some other place with far more space that can handle this kind of growth and where high-rises are more appropriate.
Don't forget that Stanford is already building a huge project that spans several blocks on El Camino. Imagine the traffic jams in store for us.
And once these huge monoliths are built, we're stuck with them, and the face of our once tranquil suburb will be changed forever--and not for the better.
This was a lovely place to live and to raise children. No more.

Keep on cursing Facebook employees. See how far it gets you.

Who do you think your neighbors are now?

Just as the recently enacted anti-Uber/Lyft AB 5 has been fraught with countless unintended consequences, the same is true with SB 50. Tell the local politicians to shove it.

Facebook is still expanding in Menlo Park - with the city government securely in its pocket. Some cities and counties resist the corporate take-over of California. Privately-funded state politicians will take care of that problem. Bye-bye Golden State Hello more high tech workers. Maybe AI will make better decisions.

All the bellyaching about City Council going to approve 30,000 employees for Facebook is nonsense to me. There aren't three votes on City Council to approve such a project.

Drew Combs can't vote - he works for Facebook. That means 3 our of 4 City Councilmembers have to vote FOR Facebook to add jobs.

Cecilia Taylor and Betsy Nash are so anti-growth they initially proposed a moratorium (but then never asked for a vote on the idea.) and Ray Mueller voted against the General Plan.

Even if Cat Carlton supported more Facebook jobs (which she has not said), two of the three council members above would have to vote with her. And Cat Carlton is coming off City Council.

So where are there three votes for more Facebook jobs?

It's amazing to me how many people can recognize that we have a huge housing problem, but refuse to support any efforts to improve it that are realistic. These companies are not going anywhere. This problem affects every town from SF to SJ, but there is no other place to build housing. Efforts are needed in every town, and every community has the same reaction: Not in my backyard.

100 years ago this was all orchard. Things have changed and will continue to for the next 100 years. Sorry you don't like it.

Hey Reality.

I just looked on zillow dot com, and guess what? There are homes available to purchase in Menlo Park. Weird right?

1. If you think adding density (at first) will bring prices down, please show me an example where this has occurred recently.

2. Please look on google maps and show me where you plan to add new playgrounds, sports (soccer/baseball) fields, schools, etc. You know the stuff new residents that pay the price to live here demand.

3. Show me where I can get a seat on Caltrain during commute hours?


Untill you own a backyard, you do not understand what "not in my backyard" actually means!!!

Woodside & Portola Valley are looking more attractive every day. 5 minutes away from most of these issues. And there's lots of open space and green beauty. Don't tell anybody. Thx.

We need to consider the water issue before we sign on to build 100s of thousands of new housing units. The 55 gallon restriction cannot be met now - how will we provide water for all of this new housing?

Oh Boomer, we don’t dismiss you because of your age. We dismiss you because of your generation’s selfish NIMBY practices. You’ve managed to poison the planet and your lack of any long term planning over short term gains has put all of us in a lousy position. You got yours, and you want everyone else to go away. Now it’s our turn to tell you to fade off into your nursing home years. Maybe we can still fix what you completely screwed up.

I am a home-owner, with a big backyard, AND I support SB 50.

Nice slander attempting to put down someone you feel is inferior to you based on your guess at their wealth or home-ownership status.