By the Daily Post staff
Lydia Kou, part of the slow-growth bloc on the Palo Alto City Council, announced today that she will be seeking a second term in November.
In the election, four of the seven council seats will be up for grabs — the seats belonging to Mayor Adrian Fine, Greg Tanaka, Liz Kniss and Kou. Kniss can’t run again due to term limits. Fine and Tanaka haven’t said if they’re running for second terms.
The council is split into two factions. The slow growth side, commonly called the Residentialists, consists of Kou, Tom DuBois and Eric Filseth. The more development-friendly side is comprised of Fine, Kniss, Tanaka and Cormack.
Kou, in a statement titled “Why am I running for re-election?,” Kou said she is “frustrated by the city repeatedly incentivizing developers to build office space when the city has a substantial housing shortage.”
She said she favors a business tax.
She was also one of four council members to vote last week to ban the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping devices, a move that is expected to put Mac’s Smoke Shop out of business.
Kou said she disagrees with the approach the council majority is taking on cutting the city budget, which has a nearly $40 million deficit. “The City Council majority is slashing city services, but not the ‘unfunded’ capital improvement projects or generous salaries for city staff, to meet this deficit,” she wrote in her statement.
