BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto City Council candidate Cari Templeton says she’s gained some experience since the last time she ran for council.
Templeton worked as state Sen. Josh Becker’s district representative and on Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian’s campaign for Congress — a role she called the “honor of a lifetime.”
“I’ve worked for two greats,” said Templeton, one of nine candidates running for four open spots on council.
When Templeton ran for council in 2020, she finished in seventh place out of 10 candidates. Templeton now has spent six years on the city’s Planning and Transportation Commission.
She said commissioners, council members and planners have done a lot of talk about housing, and now the city needs to make sure new residents have services too.
First, she brought up childcare.
“I had a wonderful job at Google, and I spent all of my money on childcare those first few years. It’s very expensive,” she said.
She said kids and young adults also need a place to hang out, like the former Palo Alto Bowl, the Old Pro and Antonio’s Nut House.
Since those businesses have closed, people are driving to Mountain View and Redwood City.
“You’re going to have 6,000 new families moving in. Where are they going to hang out? Where are they going to have fun and meet people and live the life of Palo Alto?” Templeton said.
Templeton was referring to a state mandate that Palo Alto permit 6,086 new homes by 2031. Having developers build social spaces or childcare venues may drive up some costs, but it will also make Palo Alto a more valuable place to live, she said.
Templeton wants to make it easier for businesses to open by addressing the long and infamous “Palo Alto Process.”
She wants to look at what other cities are doing and see if permit approvals from various departments can happen at the same time, rather than one after another.
“We take longer than other cities to get our paperwork done. But this has become a bureaucratic problem that is very costly for businesses,” Templeton said.
Maybe she should focus on how much more expensive things are here for RESIDENTS / Taxpayers instead of for busuinesses since PA government is already catering to businesses and not ti us???
Re childcare, that was one of the many perks Google provided to its employees.