George Lu wants to ‘move the needle’ on traffic safety and housing affordability

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer

Planning Commissioner George Lu, who is running for council, says he wants the city to set a specific date for turning off the natural gas in Palo Alto.

“It will eventually be perceived as an antiquated way to cook or otherwise heat your home … like whale oil,” Lu said in an interview.

The shutoff date would be later than 2030 but some time in the next couple of decades, Lu said. “We need to do some more planning, specifically for Palo Alto, to land on that date,” Lu said. Currently, the city is offering rebates to customers who replace their natural gas heaters with an electric heat pump.

Lu said he is anticipating the number of households using natural gas to eventually fall to 2-5% citywide.

“Then there’s a really difficult decision of like, do we actually subsidize all this natural gas infrastructure?” Lu said. “At that point, the city would certainly have to make a hard decision, and I do favor a specific shutoff date in the long run that we’ll figure out.”

Lu is endorsed by Councilwoman Julie Lythcott-Haims, school board member Jennifer Di-Brienza and eight former mayors including Larry Klein and Gail Price.

Lu, 31, grew up in Millbrae as the child of immigrants and graduated from Stanford in 2014. He now works at Meta as a product manager and lives in the Mayfield neighborhood by California Avenue.

Lu has been on the Planning and Transportation Commission since last April. He said in his announcement that he’s “seen first-hand how challenging it is to move the needle” on issues like traffic safety and housing affordability.

“Our city deserves an efficient and responsive government,” Lu said. “If we work together, we can reduce traffic deaths, invest in our neighborhoods, achieve our climate goals, and ensure the viability of local businesses.”

Lu said on his campaign website that he wants to make it less expensive and less complicated for small businesses to operate in Palo Alto.

“When we lose businesses like the Nut House or CineArts theater, we don’t get them back,” he said, referring to a longtime bar on California Avenue and a movie theater at Palo Alto Square.