Henry Etzkowitz, who said he led a successful pushback against an expected rent increase at the Stanford Oak Creek Apartments in 2022, has jumped into the Palo Alto City Council race on a platform that includes measures to help seniors deal with rising rents.
Etzkowitz, 84, said in a statement sent to the Post that he believes housing is a human right and the city must provide housing for “city employees, teachers, baristas, near services e.g. California Avenue, Stanford Shopping Center, University Avenue” and set aside 20% of it for the children of Palo Alto residents.
He favors a “rent cap for seniors.” Rent caps is a euphemism for rent control. He said he wouldn’t allow any rent increases after 15 years residency, and rents would be limited to one-quarter of a tenant’s income.
He said he wants to build housing for students, faculty and Stanford employees in the Stanford Research Park. He also wishes to ban Stanford from buying up houses in Palo Alto. He said empty commercial buildings should be converted to living lofts. He said new housing should include day care centers.
He said he favors creating an “urban forest, with orchards, on San Antonio Lands near Highway 101.”
Etzkowitz will be entering an increasingly crowded field of candidates seeking four openings on the council. Others announced candidates include incumbent Pat Burt, four planning commissioners — George Lu, Keith Reckdahl, Doria Summa and Cari Templeton — and Human Relations Commission member Katie Causey. The deadline to enter the race is Aug. 9.
Correction: An earlier version gave the wrong deadline for entering the race.
He’s older than Joe Biden.
Seniors often are older. How sensible since seniors often make 1/10th of the average $270,000K salaries techies get and to whom 85% of the new housing.
What a great platform! Housing help for those who need it and putting Stanford housing on Stanford land instead of reducing Palo Alto’s housing supply.
He’s got my vote!
My vote too! Who has supported senior in this way ever before? We don’t have a senior on council, and not even the non- seniors promote this platform!!
The City doesn’t build housing nor could ever afford to build proposed housing.
The City could afford to build new middle schools and revamp Paly High, and the Mitchell Park library, and now they’re talking about a new police station. But you’re right, they “couldn’t afford to” bail out the residents of Buena Vista even though the story was going global about how heartless Palo Alto was.
Etzkowitz‘s platform: if you work hard your whole life, and then you’re lucky enough to own some property, the city should take it away from you and give it to others who didn’t do so well. There’s a word for that, but I can’t think of it.
Is this the best Palo Alto can muster for City Council? So far we have one incumbent (Pat Burt), four planning commission members, an odd duck woman who just arrived in town and now this clueless guy. It looks like we’re scraping the bottom the barrel. It explains why the city is so poorly run.