During housing booms, market rents rise fastest in low-income neighborhoods that are in proximity to richer neighborhoods, according to the Bay Area Equity Atlas. Many low-income communities of color, which have historically suffered economic neglect and disinvestment, are now at risk for rapidly rising rents due to gentrification.

While Richmond and Mountain View have both recently passed rent control measures, and San Jose approved a list of 10 anti-displacement strategies it wants to implement in the coming years, a large part of Bay Area renters remain unprotected, and existing controls do not limit rent increases between tenancies or cover newer homes.

That’s why Mountain View city officials are taking on a month-long discussion with renters, landlords and developers to address the ongoing threat of displacement as old apartments give way to new ones.

“There may be situations where we can have policies or programs to prevent displacement, there may be some situations where it cannot be prevented,” Assistant Community Development Director Wayne Chen said during a recent community meeting. “So that’s why this is called a displacement response strategy, it’s to prevent (displacement) but also to reduce the impact of displacement so people don’t have to lose their homes.”

Since 2012, city staff estimates that over 1,000 rent-controlled units have been demolished to give way to new construction of mostly market-rate apartments, displacing hundreds of families who struggled to find a new place in one of the region’s most expensive areas to live.

In 2019, the city council for the first time made renter displacement a high priority, and after two study sessions held in Oct. 2019 and Sept. 2020, the city is forging ahead with talks to come up with strategies the council will consider at the start of the summer.

The first two discussions scheduled for Wednesday afternoon will focus on property owners and nonprofit developers. On Jan. 19, city officials will hold discussions with market-rate developers, and on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 tenants will be invited to give their perspectives. A final general community meeting is scheduled for Feb. 21 to summarize all public input from previous meetings before it goes to the city council.

“We can’t do it alone, so partnerships are very important,” Chen said. “To the extent possible we want to keep people in the homes they’re in and if not then keep residents in Mountain View somewhere in the city or if that’s not possible then somewhere close to the city. It’s a unit and place-based strategy.”

Right now Mountain View has some of the best tenant protections of any city in the Bay Area. The city passed a rent-control law in 2016 and extended it to mobile homes in 2022, and throughout specific development projects, it has worked to make sure renters have a place to go or assistance to relocate.

The city has just-cause eviction protections, rent control, rental assistance programs, and a Housing and Eviction Help Center to keep residents in their homes. It also recently passed a Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance and has approved new affordable units to reduce the impact of displacement.

But former Mayor Lenny Siegel and other tenant advocates and housing justice activists believe the city can do more to protect renters.

Siegel said he’s glad that these discussions are taking place now since some state protections are set to expire soon and could use some local backing too. For example, SB 330 — which requires rent-stabilized units be prepared with deed-restricted affordable ones based on the former tenant’s income — is set to sunset in 2030. And the Ellis Act, which allows demolished rent-controlled units to be replaced with “new” rent-controlled units could be bolstered by a city mandate.

Siegel said in an interview Monday that he hopes the council will “establish city policies that are more permanent and that would help as a guide to developers who are thinking of redeveloping parts of the city, especially mobile home parks.”

Siegel said another strategy could be requiring that developers keep units open as tenants move out before construction begins, allowing tenants more time to find new places to live and preventing landlords from renting units on a short-term basis which could also lead to displacement.

“There’s a calculation there, obviously, so that you don’t lose too much money by holding apartments open while trying to get approval for your development, but that’s the way they can get around having to provide assistance to people,” Siegel said.

Also, if there’s a legal way to do it, Siegel said the city should have a “very high bar” for how many affordable units are included in a project that tears down rent-controlled apartments.

“Make it really difficult for it to happen,” Siegel said. “Or have rent-controlled apartments with affordable deed-restricted units given to displaced folks to continue living at rent-control levels in comparable apartments.

But Siegel said the council’s ultimate decision will depend on who replaces Sally Lieber — who was recently elected in 2022 to the State Board of Equalization —  on the council. After much debate, the council ultimately decided earlier this month to appoint a new member to the body instead of holding a special election. The council’s current progressive makeup means they could choose someone who supports the kinds of ideas Siegel is proposing.

“It all depends on the new council member,” he said.

The donation fund is set to prioritize recovery efforts for those impacted by the storms in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, the foundation said in a press release. The fund is getting started with $50,000 in seed money from the foundation and the foundation will continually help fundraise to ensure that money remains “ready for action at all times.”

“The incessant disasters pummeling our communities these past few years — from COVID and wildfires to now the devastating atmospheric rivers — have shown us that communities facing existing inequities are always the ones most disproportionately affected by catastrophic events,” said Nicole Taylor, president and CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. “Our Emergency and Disaster Relief Fund prioritizes those in our communities already facing the harshest of circumstances — and who often shoulder the heaviest burdens caused by natural or human-driven disasters.”

The fund’s launch comes as California continues to experience historic rainfall causing destruction, power outages, flooding and mudslides that have killed over a dozen people so far and caused damage to homes, roads and other infrastructure that some experts say could exceed $1 billion statewide, the foundation said.

The fund will help to provide ongoing, flexible resources for the foundation to respond to communities’ immediate needs in times of emergency as well as to assist in building community resilience and be prepared to act quickly when future disasters occur, wherever in the region.

Depending on the emergency or disaster, the fund will support needs like shelter, food, housing, financial assistance and other services. The Foundation will also regularly report which emergency events or disasters are being addressed and which counties are receiving support.

The foundation will partner with community organizations and other foundations, including community foundations in Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Marin, Napa, San Francisco and Solano counties and the East Bay.

“We know that disasters don’t know county borders, which is why we’ve launched a regional fund that will support the entire Bay Area region in addition to our two core counties,” said Taylor.

If the state rejects Atherton’s updated plan — which also includes a property adjacent to Redwood City — it could lose local development control altogether, putting at risk the bucolic mansion-studded small-town vibe it’s worked years to preserve.

More commonly known as upzoning, some properties will be rezoned to allow more housing — a hot topic since the California HOME Act, which makes it easier for homeowners to subdivide an existing lot, went into effect at the beginning of last year. Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators are pushing to increase the state’s supply of affordable, multi-family housing and slow-growth, but affluent Bay Area suburbs such as Atherton are pushing back.

Some have tried creative approaches to avoid increasing their housing density — Woodside, for example, declared itself a mountain lion habitat. But most have taken Atherton’s tack of assuaging pushback from residents about apartment construction in their neighborhood by relying on granny flats or school sites to try to meet the state-mandated construction of hundreds of new units of housing over the next eight years.

Tasked with where to put its 348 required new homes, Atherton leaders have spent the last year and a half squabbling with their super-rich neighbors over one plan or another. As council member Rick DeGolia put it: “Wherever you propose to do it, whoever lives around that area objects. That’s the constant we’ve experienced in the last year and three months.”

While spending months devising a plan that puts much of the new-housing burden on Menlo School, Menlo College and other public school sites within Atherton, the council had tried to avoid upzoning any of the town for multi-family housing.

But after the town’s housing consultant cautioned that their plan would likely be rejected by the state because it does not include multi-family zoning nor address homes for low- and very low-income families, council members went back to the drawing board to reconsider previously rejected drafts.

“I’ve lived in Atherton over 20 years, and I don’t want to destroy Atherton’s character, but the rationale is to look at locations that will have the minimal impact on the remaining town,” council member Elizabeth Lewis said. “We’ve really tried to not do a multi-family upzoning situation, but it looks like we need to take another look at our housing element before we submit.”

Atherton has until Jan. 31 to submit a housing plan to the state; if it’s rejected, the town will be subject to the “builder’s remedy,” which would allow landowners to build dense housing without the oversight or approval of local officials.

Already one homeowner on Oakwood Boulevard, near the border with Redwood City, has said he’s interested in building multiple units there, though some council members are wary that it will cause too much traffic in a part of town that’s dominated by single-family homes. If the state rejects Atherton’s housing plan, that could mean that owner could build a much denser project with no oversight from town officials. By zoning it as multi-family, the council believes they’ll have much more control on what gets built there.

“Personally I think that one of our best opportunities is 23 Oakwood with whatever clauses we want to put in to guarantee we’re going get something that helps meet our need,” Mayor Bill Widmer said.

The council also decided to upzone 17 houses along El Camino Real, from Stockbridge Avenue to the Redwood City border, for multi-family housing and single-family homes on smaller lots at the edge of a town predominated by acre lots with some of the Bay Area’s largest mansions — an area jokingly referred to as the “poverty pocket” by locals, despite the presence of multi-million-dollar homes.

But the council couldn’t agree on developing an acre-sized area in Holbrook-Palmer Park currently housing the chief of police in a historic 1930s Mediterranean-style home. The Holbrook-Palmer estate was donated to the town in March 1958 after the death of Olive Holbrook Palmer — but for recreational uses only. The town attorney said there’s a clause in the will that says if the town ever uses it for anything other than recreation — potentially including housing — ownership of the land would go to Stanford University.

While the council did manage to upzone parts of town, Councilmember DeGolia said he fears that no developer would be able to afford the pricey land, saying, “I don’t believe you can reasonably build affordable housing” in Atherton.

DeGolia said that what the town really needs to focus on is “housing for teachers and members of the community that need affordable housing,” and Widmer said the town should continue to pursue “activities over at the college” for housing and fill the “need for staffing housing here.”

But for housing advocates such as Jeremy Levine, the question for councilmembers is simple: “Is affordable housing possible in Atherton, and, if so, what can the city actually do to make it happen?”

Since mid-December, much of the state has been buffeted with intense rain and winds that have wreaked havoc on everyone in low-lying cities, mountain communities and urban areas.

From downed trees to flooded homes and power outages, the storms have left destruction in their wake—including in San Mateo, where residents have incurred thousands of dollars in damages to their homes and businesses.

As a way to help those struggling after the storms, Lee set up a GoFundMe campaign that has attracted many small donors and a few large ones, including Windy Hill Properties, a developer with deep ties to the city.

“As the Mayor of the City of San Mateo, the largest city in San Mateo County, I believe in the generosity and resiliency of our community,” Lee said in the fundraiser description. “We cannot wait for FEMA or the state, we need to step up when we see our neighbors and our local businesses in need. That is the San Mateo way. San Mateans want to help folks get back on their feet.”

The effort to fundraise for needy California families suffering from storm-related woes has quickly grown to the point that GoFundMe has set up a centralized hub to raise funds for flood and storm relief “to make it easier for people who want to support those affected,” the company said in a press release.

Along with San Mateo’s fund, GoFundMe is highlighting other campaigns, including a fund to help beloved Mission District restaurant Rintaro after it was devastated by an estimated $150,000 in flood damage on New Year’s Eve, and one for a family in Pollock Pines that suffered extensive damage to their home after a gust of wind from the atmospheric river brought down a neighbor’s tree that was large enough to crack the house open.

San Mateo’s flood relief fund will go straight to the city, Lee said in an interview, though which partner agency the money will go to has “yet to be determined.” She said that at the upcoming city council meeting on Jan. 17, she will ask for an emergency study session to discuss an allocation from the city to issue grants to flood victims.

“I want to make sure that these funds get into the hands of our community members in need most fairly and efficiently,” Lee said. “All of those conversations will be determined, but at this point we’re just in ‘go’ mode.”

So far, the fund has raised about $25,000 in small donations, but Lee has been busy trying to get bigger donors to help — and it’s worked. Bohannon Northwood Joint Venture, owner of the Hillsdale Shopping Center, donated $10,000, as did CalWater and Windy Hill Property Ventures, a Palo Alto-based developer. Other donors like Lane Partners and Prometheus have donated $5,000 each.

Windy Hill Property Ventures Managing Partner Mike Field said it was a no-brainer for him to help when Lee got him on the phone.

“We hope that the community knows that when bad things happen, we’re there for them,” Field said. “We’re here to do good work, but we also want to be there just the same when bad things happen. San Mateo has always been super proactive on helping support retailers through COVID. This is just another part of that.”

Lee is no stranger to coaxing big donations for political causes on the Peninsula; she based this fundraising campaign on a Peninsula-wide effort during COVID-19 to help childcare providers suffering during the pandemic.

Lee said that back in 2020, she saw that the “childcare industry was collapsing” and “rang the bell” to find private donors willing to help prop up a dying industry that’s crucial to keeping women of color and immigrant women employed and independent.

“We raised over $500,000 in private donations that was ultimately combined with city, county and state contributions, so a total of about $5.5 million,” Lee said. “We gave over 300 grants to childcare providers, including 77 in San Mateo. One of the things that made that so successful was partnering with exceptional nonprofits.”

That power struggle has revealed deep divisions within the city on issues like housing, homelessness, development and other issues, but Lee is hopeful that her council colleagues will put politics aside to do good by their residents. She said climate action by the city is more important than ever, including investing in the kind of infrastructure that will make San Mateo climate-resilient for decades to come.

“I am very hopeful that when we have, let’s say, $45,000 or $50,000 in hand from the community, that we’ll be in a position of strength to ask ‘what does support from the city look like?’ My hope is that at this study session, we can evaluate the best allocations and mechanism to distribute this money.”

The Stanford guide quickly became part of the “culture war” discourse, criticized on social media and in the media for going too far in trying to dictate politically correct speech in professional settings.

While it was conceived as a way to promote a more inclusive and welcoming environment for people of all walks of life, the guide “missed the intended mark” and was was broadly viewed as counter to inclusivity,” university spokesman Steve Gallagher said in a statement Wednesday.

Written by the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative at Stanford, in partnership with People of Color in Technology and the Stanford CIO Council, the “language guide” is part of a multiphase, multiyear project to address harmful language in information technology (IT) uses only at the university. Its goal is to “eliminate many forms of harmful language, including racist, violent and biased language” in Stanford websites and code.

Gallagher said the initiative was created to address racist terms historically used in IT, such as “master” and “slave” to describe aspects of systems. The initiative’s scope of “racist terminology in technology” was later expanded more broadly as “harmful language in technology.”

“It was this expansion in scope that is at the heart of the intense recent feedback from the Stanford community and beyond,” Gallagher said. “The path forward will be determined after reviewing all recent feedback and consulting with university academic and administrative leadership.”

In a previous statement, the university made clear that the guide was not university policy and “does not represent mandates or requirements.” But that didn’t stop the Internet from going berserk over what many labeled too politically correct.

Several news outlets and publications, including the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, condemned the guide, calling it “absurd” and “ridiculous.” On Twitter, Elon Musk said the guide “has gone too far, to say the least!” and demanded “an explanation for this madness” from Stanford.

At about 7:36 p.m. Friday police received a report of an armed robbery taking place at the 1000 block of Tanland Drive, where the suspects and last been seen driving away in a vehicle eastbound on Amarillo Avenue. The victim, who is in her seventies, sustained minor physical injuries and the suspect — as well as his accomplice who drove the getaway car — remain at large.

During their investigation, police found that the victim had just returned to her parked vehicle. As she sat in the driver’s seat, she placed her purse on the front passenger seat and then noticed a man get out of a vehicle that had just pulled up across the street.

Police say that man then walked over to the victim’s car, opened the passenger side door, and tried to take her purse. The victim held onto the purse, police said, and a brief struggle ensued before the suspect was able to wrest the purse away from the victim and run back to the waiting car.

The primary suspect is described by the victim as a male of unknown race between 18 and 22 years old, wearing a black or blue hooded sweatshirt with white lettering, police said. The victim did not see the driver of the suspect vehicle, police said.

The victim and witness described the suspect vehicle as a grey minivan or hatchback. Detective are investigating the case. Anyone with information is asked to call Palo Alto Police.

At a time when politicians and the media continue their ongoing debate over critical race theory, LGBTQ discussions in schools and other cultural issues, liberals and conservatives appear to be on the same page about one thing: This Stanford “language guide” goes too far.

Written by the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative at Stanford in partnership with People of Color in Technology and the Stanford CIO Council, the “language guide” is part of a multiphase, multiyear project that addresses harmful language — in information technology (IT) uses only — at the university. Its goal is to “eliminate many forms of harmful language, including racist, violent and biased language … in Stanford websites and code.”

“The purpose of this website is to educate people about the possible impact of the words we use,” the guide’s preface reads. “Language affects different people in different ways. We are not attempting to assign levels of harm to the terms on this site. We also are not attempting to address all informal uses of language.”

The 13-page guide discourages the use of what it calls ableist, ageist, colonialist and culturally appropriative language among others, and urges code writers to avoid words from the obvious “retarded” and “spaz” to phrases that might seem more innocuous, like “brave,” “American,” “Hispanic,” “cakewalk” and “homeless person.”

Members of the committee that produced the guide could not be reached, but the guide itself gives context for why the language should not be used. For example, the word “prisoner” should be replaced with “person who is/was incarcerated” because “using person-first language helps to not define people by just one of their characteristics.” That word specifically has been flagged by the prison abolitionist movement as a dirty one for similar reasons. But “American”?

In the guide, the IT writers suggest using “U.S. citizen” instead, partly because American “often refers to people from the United States only, thereby insinuating the U.S. is the most important country in the Americas,” ignoring the other 42 countries that make up the continent. For many on social media, including Dr. Jay Bhattacharya — a professor at Stanford School of Medicine — the guide goes too far at times. He called it “really disappointing” on a recent “The Ingraham Angle” show on Fox News.

“It doesn’t actually foster respect for people,” he said. “It just makes people think what’s gone wrong with great universities like Stanford.”

Bhattacharya wasn’t alone in his disdain for the “language guide”; dozens of other right-wing media accounts and commentators dug in on Stanford for publishing it. He got a quick reply from Twitter head Elon Musk, who said, “Stanford disapproves of saying you’re proud to be an American? Whoa.”

In a statement, Stanford Chief Information Officer Steven Gallagher said the university actually encourages the use of the word “American.” He sought to distance the institution from the work of its IT experts.

The website “does not represent university policy,” the statement says, and it also “does not represent mandates or requirements.” The website was “created by and intended for discussion with the IT community at Stanford” and “provides ‘suggested alternatives’ for various terms and reasons why those terms could be problematic in certain uses.” Its goal was always to “support an inclusive community.”

“We have particularly heard concerns about the guide’s treatment of the term ‘American,’” the statement reads. “We understand and appreciate those concerns. To be very clear, not only is the use of the term ‘American’ not banned at Stanford, it is absolutely welcomed.”

University of Washington Computer Science Professor and author Pedro Domingos said in an interview that no university “should attempt to stipulate the language its members use.”

“Many of the terms the guide considers harmful and their proposed replacements are frankly hilarious,” Domingos said. “The way Stanford has handled the whole issue is an embarrassment.”

While Domingos acknowledges that the tech and IT world should be conscious of the kind of language it uses, these guides — a similar one was published at UW — are flawed, he said.

“There’s lots the tech community could do to improve its language use, but the Stanford language guide and similar ones (e.g., UW’s) are neither the right way to go about it nor right in content,” Domingos said. “Above all, technologists should strive to be ideologically neutral, not push a particular ideology, whatever it may be.”

Giuseppe Pennisi and the small crew of the 76-foot trawler “Pioneer” haven’t been out at sea in months after Pennisi was diagnosed with a hernia in January and underwent a difficult and intensive surgery that sent him down a months-long spiral of complications, waking up in pools of blood and seemingly endless hospital visits that continue today.

As an integral part of the trawler’s crew, Pennisi’s absence means the “Pioneer” can’t go to its usual stomping grounds near the Farallon islands to catch the rock fish, black cod and other fish that keep bread on the table. Now the Port of Redwood City has had enough. On Oct. 10, officials sent a 30-day notice to vacate, once again throwing the small fishing company’s future into uncertainty.

“I’m just sick of all this,” a visibly upset Pennisi said in an interview. “Trying to keep this fishing thing going has been nothing but disastrous for me because I put so much into it. Whether it’s Moss Landing, Monterey, San Francisco and now Redwood City. The trawler’s in Richmond now and I can’t even fish. It’s just a catastrophe.”

In the letter Pennisi received, Port of Redwood City Business Development Manager Trish Wagner said the port would be terminating its month-to-month agreement based on the lack of fish sales.

“We have valued our relationship with Pioneer Seafoods over the years and thank you for your business,” Wagner writes in the letter. “However, we cannot allow Pioneer Seafoods to continue storing vessels and equipment without providinga public benefit or having an active maritime use.”

That letter reads in stark contrast to the jubilation and open arms that the Pioneer found when it first came to the Port of Redwood City, which at the time was undergoing a cultural transformation. When Pennisi lost the spot where he used to dock in Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, he turned to the Port of Redwood City, a mainly commercial port dealing in materials for making concrete and sheetrock.

In 2021, Port of Redwood City Executive Director Kristine Zortman had a plan to turn the port into a destination for Peninsula families that could be a mini-Fisherman’s Wharf, complete with a real fishing boat and crew. Pennisi quickly invested in getting a food truck up and running that would sell calamari, fish and chips on top of the fresh fish he was selling from the trawler, usually at about $4 to $6 a pound. And Pennisi coaxed live music to the area too, making the area a destination for fresh seafood, music and fun by the water’s edge.

“We were really excited and we’re still really excited,” Zortman said in an interview this week. “What happened is he hasn’t sold fish at the port since February of this year and we were realizing that there’s still a need for people that like to come and get fresh fish. It was definitely successful, and that’s why we want to be able to open it up to other fishermen and even if Pioneer goes back out and wants to reopen selling we’d love to continue having fresh fish sales.”

For Pennisi, getting kicked out of Redwood City after previous stints at other ports in Northern California was a nightmare scenario, especially while going through surgery after surgery. During the interview, Pennisi was clearly upset and questioned his future in the fishing industry.

With the razor margins of the fishing world, nowhere to dock and sell fish, and the likelihood that he still needs months to recover from a year of health issues, Pennisi is throwing in the towel. He’s put the Pioneer up for sale and has had it with “all this government regulations.”

To leave the ocean, which has been his backyard his entire life, Pennisi is giving up a multi-generational trade that was once the backbone of the Bay Area economy, when small fishing boats dotted the Bay and Golden Gate and Fisherman’s Wharf actually meant real fish and real fishermen.

The Pennisi family has a long tradition of sustainable fishing in California and has been trawling in the waters off of California since the early 1900s. Pennisi started fishing in California when he was just seven years old. Beginning his career working on his father’s boats, he has made a career fishing everywhere from Monterey to the Bering Sea despite the decline of the industry and tougher regulations than ever before.

In 2000, he purchased his boat the “Pioneer” and launched Pioneer Seafoods, working alongside federal observes and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration on each fishing trip. Their motto is simple: “strive to provide our customers with fresh, quality fish at an affordable price while keeping our oceans healthy.”

But now that dream of continuing on the legacy of his family is all but gone.

“If I don’t find a place here within a reasonable amount of time, then what am I doing this for?” Pennisi said. “Why am I trying to keep things alive? I mean it’s three generations. I don’t want my kids to go through this kind of hardship.”

Pennisi said the Bay Area “is all about its heritage, and part of that is fishing,” so what he doesn’t understand is “why isn’t this appreciated more?”

“I’ve been doing it my whole life because I know I’m one of the only people that has driven to help bring fresh local fish from own backyard instead of having to get frozen fish from other countries,” Pennisi said. “I’m angry that it’s so easy for them to throw all this away. All these ports are the same, they want their shiny signs but really don’t want to deal with fishing boats. It’s frustrating as hell.”

The money going to Redwood City, Millbrae and Half Moon Bay will go along way in expanding existing programs that steer individuals and families experiencing homelessness into shelter and services. And on the coast the money will go toward providing a safe parking area in Half Moon Bay complete with hygiene facilities and outreach services for people living in their vehicles.

“We challenged our community to develop innovative ideas that will help end homelessness and promised to assist with funding those ideas,” Board of Supervisors President Don Horsley said. “These cities are on the front lines of our countywide efforts to tackle homelessness and also treat everyone without shelter with dignity and respect.”

The three cities will engage their share of the county’s population, which as of the most recent point in time count is about 1,092 unsheltered residents. The county’s three grants will go toward transitioning those folks to interim and eventually permanent housing and they’ll be supplemented by local funds.

Redwood City is set to get a little over $1 million. The city will use the money to build upon the county’s efforts to increase emergency shelter and emergency supportive housing capacity and leverage state and city funding to expand intensive homeless outreach through local non-profits and organizations. The city is also seen as the county’s innovator, and the money will help officials identify and pilot new solutions to homelessness that could eventually expand countywide.

Half Moon Bay will receive about $980,000 to supplement a city program to provide a safe-parking site for people living in vehicles, along with showers, restrooms, laundry and outreach services. The safe-parking site is set to open in 2023 and the nonprofit WeHope will provide case management and give unhoused individuals connections to housing and employment.

“By providing for a safe place to park, use shower and bathroom facilities, and housing and other support services, this program will improve the safety, health, and quality of life for those on the Coastside who live in vehicles,” Half Moon Bay Mayor Debbie Ruddock said. “We’re grateful to the County of San Mateo for this crucial funding and partnership, as well as WeHope and other involved nonprofits which work so diligently to provide substantial, practical help to those in need.”

Through its partnership with LifeMoves, the city will provide “rapid response and outreach” to support homeless individuals.

“Our Homeless Outreach Team pilot program at the Millbrae transit station, in partnership with San Mateo County and the City of Millbrae has proven itself to be a successful model,” CEO of LifeMoves Aubrey Merriman said. “The continuation of this program will ensure that unhoused individuals exiting BART trains receive the care and resources necessary to move off the streets.”

After two years of intense planning and back-and-forth meetings between city officials and Meta — the company that owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger apps — the Menlo Park City Council this month voted unanimously to approve the new Willow Village development, a project that’s set to transform a sleepy industrial park into a walkable urban town center.

When Meta first approached the city in 2020 about replacing their offices on the east side of town with a new mixed-use development, city officials jumped at the opportunity to bring new housing, open space and amenities to a part of town that’s historically been underserved and lower income. In the intervening years, Meta has promised to build 1,730 units of housing, a hotel, a grocery store, an elevated curving park connecting to its headquarters, and a town square next to a modern office campus.

“At the end of the day this project is delivering a lot of what we want which is more housing below market and market rate and senior housing and money for below market rate funds, community amenities and the grocery store,” Wolosin said. “The project itself is really beautifully designed with a town square and community gathering spots. All of that goes to the scales of weighing the benefits and impacts of this project. In the long run, this is the right vote for our city.”

The revamped approach — a result of multiple negotiations with city officials — firms up the number of affordable and market-rate homes and reduces the amount of office space and Meta Platforms on-site employees compared with prior proposals for the new neighborhood.

But some council members are still worried that the project isn’t delivering all that it could, and that it may actually make transportation and connectivity in the area more difficult. While many cities on the Peninsula are focusing housing on the Caltrain corridor, Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Mountain View city officials have chosen to put new developments in industrial zones away from transit to avoid neighborhood pushback.

Councilmember Cecilia Taylor — who represents the Belle Haven neighborhood site of the project — said that circulation and traffic in the area will be a huge problem for her community. While noting that she can live with some aspects of the project, Taylor said there were other things “we’ll continue to talk about moving forward,” but traffic on Willow Road appears inevitable with the current plan.

Taylor wants to make it a priority to connect this new town center to Menlo Park’s Caltrain station and the rest of the city. As part of the negotiating committee with Meta, she also pushed hard to make sure her community would see as little disruption as possible and gain from the project. She was instrumental in making sure that the open spaces, grocery stores and housing are built first before offices and other commercial spaces.

“We have community members that will live here in about three years, and they need to have access so it’s not necessary to drive to the project,” Taylor said. “Willow Road is only so big, and regardless, we’ll have traffic. With transportation and circulation, that’s an area where Meta and city staff and the council and the public will need to continuously be in conversation just so we can make sure everyone is held accountable for impacts.”

Taylor also pushed back on YIMBY Menlo Park residents who wanted the project to have the maximum amount of housing possible. She said she’s supportive of bringing more housing to her district, but she doesn’t want it to be a disproportionate amount. Taylor believes future housing should be spread out across the small city.

Councilmember Betsy Nash also raised worries about the impact that new office space will have on traffic and rents. While it’s rare to have office developments include housing and retail in such a unique way, Nash cited a staff report that says to balance out the project it would need 815 more homes than currently proposed. Meta has said it expects about 20% of its employees will live at Willow Village, but Nash doesn’t buy it, calling it an “optimistic view.”

In a statement to this news organization, Meta Direct of Real Estate Development Brian Zubradt said he was happy with the council’s unanimous decision to approve the project.

“We appreciate the city council’s review and approval of Willow Village, a once in a generation opportunity that will deliver a vibrant mixed-use community that not only facilitates the future of work and collaboration, but also includes much needed housing, jobs, parks, neighborhood retail, and other community amenities,” Zubradt said.