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Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of City

siliconvalleydebug.org

1–10 of 10 posts

Re: Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of City

#3
This is unfortunate for the individuals who are forced to relocate, and contributes to the gentrification of the community, but I could really go without the race-baiting rhetoric. This has nothing to do with skin color; if anything its a class issue. A 1BR in Palo Alto right now goes for over >$2000; economically, continuing to operate a trailer park in that environment is a pretty poor use of real estate.

Based on anecdotal demographics of walking around Palo Alto, whoever replaces these tenants is just as likely to be Indian or Asian as they are to be white. But those are apparently the wrong kind of people of color.

Re: Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of City

#5
I'm surprised this has received so many upvotes in the past 2 hours. It rang like click-bait playing a race card. Maybe someone knows more about the details than I do, but exactly what injustice is being done? This is similar to when a plant is closed and the employees are upset. The plant owner didn't owe the employees a job. The relocation package offered to the tenants is...amazing...and would probably not have been offered to a trailer park of people (whatever race) in Florida on prime beach front property. They would have been told to vacate, no relocation package.

I grew up on the Ernest movies...like "Ernest goes to camp." I remember many years ago when it dawned on me that the "evil corporation" wanting to shut down the summer camp was simply acting in their best financial interest. Something that they should do. It's sad that the film makers decided to teach false entitlement instead of enlightening how the world really works, and how the viewer can become part of the true market (and not just victims of it).

Re: Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of City

#6
post #4

Can't the city afford to build a nice set of apartments there, and let everyone continue to live in the same location with the same rent?

From http://abc7news.com/news/nonprofit-group-hoping-to-save-buen...

  The City of Palo Alto and Santa Clara County each has 
  pledged $8 million toward purchasing the park from a 
  private owner.
Although $16 million was offered, it's well below the expected $30 million that the owners will probably net.

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/02/20/palo-alto-pled...

Since this has been going on for more than 2 years, it would have probably been better to use that $16 million to develop a separate property where they could relocate to as the trailer park is in a very expensive neighborhood where median sales price is about $2.65 million.

To avoid more incidents like this, Palo Alto needs to make a more concerted effort to develop housing in order to bring down prices.

Re: Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of City

#7

I'm surprised this has received so many upvotes in the past 2 hours. It rang like click-bait playing a race card. Maybe someone knows more about the details than I do, but exactly what injustice is being done? This is similar to when a plant is closed and the employees are upset. The plant owner didn't owe the employees a job. The relocation package offered to the tenants is...amazing...and would probably not have be…

No injustice is being done. People today really surprise me. Just a few decades ago, if something bad happened to you, well it just sucked -- but that was it. Today if anything happens to you (you get offended, shocked, left out, fired, evicted, etc.) it is a social injustice that needs the keyboard-typing might of twitter, facebook, and tumblr to "rage against the machine".

Re: Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of City

#8
post #4

Can't the city afford to build a nice set of apartments there, and let everyone continue to live in the same location with the same rent?

The world is full of people who have unmet needs. Why should this property owner have to give up his rights simply because you and others feel bad about the victims of the sale?

Feel bad every time you overpay for your own pretentious northern California rent.

Re: Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of City

#9
post #6
post #4

Can't the city afford to build a nice set of apartments there, and let everyone continue to live in the same location with the same rent?

From http://abc7news.com/news/nonprofit-group-hoping-to-save-buen... The City of Palo Alto and Santa Clara County each has pledged $8 million toward purchasing the park from a private owner. Although $16 million was offered, it's well below the expected $30 million that the owners will probably net. http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/02/20/palo-alto-pled... Since this has been going on for more than 2 years, it…

Bay Area is ripe for reurbanization and densification, but 1. Americans do not have the necessary skills for high density urban planning; 2. too much opposition to this from the current owners.

Re: Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of City

#10
The article uses the very loaded phrase "ethnic cleansing". Wikipedia says:

   The crimes committed during an ethnic cleansing
   are similar to those of genocide, but while
   genocide includes an intent at complete or
   partial destruction of the target group, ethnic
   cleansing may involve murder only to the point
   of mobilizing the target group out of the
   territory. Hence there may be varied degrees of
   mass murder in an ethnic cleansing, often
   subsiding when the target group appears to be
   leaving the desired territory, while during
   genocide the mass murder is ubiquitous and
   constant throughout the process, continuing
   even while the target group tries to flee.
So, "ethnic cleansing" can involve:

   crimes
   similar to those of genocide
   varied degrees of mass murder
Way inappropriate, way over the top. "ethnic cleansing" doesn't explicitly say Hitler, but it's pretty darn close to it. In this case the article starts with Godwin's law, rather than a discussion degenerating into using it.

Having said that, I can't believe how poorly mobile home residents are treated in this country. We had a similar situation in Wilsonville Oregon. It made financial sense to build apartments, so multiple trailer parks were closed. Despite them being "mobile homes", they're not that easy to move and frequently other parks won't accept homes that are more than a few years old.

Mobile home residents are often screwed, badly, in this country.