Personally, I’m not singling out Palo Alto. I’m on the board of a group called Peninsula Forward, which is asking all Peninsula cities to do their part to fix the housing shortage. I just happen to live in Palo Alto and am therefore speaking about Palo Alto at this point in time. But it’s a problem everyone needs to work to fix. However, because Palo Alto has the highest jobs-housing imbalance in the nation (3:1.) Their record on this is particularly atrocious and they are the worst offenders when it comes to offloading their housing responsibilities on other communities who don’t get to enjoy the same tax revenues from these companies that they do.

As for these companies getting big — that’s something to celebrate and be happy about, not to lament. It means you live in a prosperous area with lots of high paying jobs and that your city is getting tons of tax revenue to support the sort of services and programs residents want to see. The response is to build out the necessary infrastructure to make sure your city can handle the growth and plan thoughtfully about how to grow in a way that will be beautiful and convenient. The response isn’t to murder the golden goose which is making your city so desirable in the first place.