On Tuesday, September 2, 2025, at 11:24 AM, Aram James wrote:
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FYI:
Hi Riley,
Thank you for your response; I appreciate it.
I have an idea we could discuss. It involves the Safe Parking Program from
Santa Barbara, which includes a comprehensive counseling center called New
Beginnings. I visited their program in 2012, and Rolling Stone published an
award-winning piece about it at the time, titled "The Fallen."
Given the demographics in both Palo Alto (PA) and Santa Barbara (SB), I
believe the similarities may still apply to PA’s situation. I also reached
out to Vicki Veenker about the program and suggested she contact New
Beginnings. No response!
Palo Alto has a reputation as a pretent want to be gated community, at
least among many homeowners. You may have seen the piece in the San Jose
Mercury News on Sunday, August 24, titled "Unhoused Population: Does this
Small City Have the Bay Area’s Worst Homelessness Problem?” The Palo Alto
City Council and the Policy and Services Committee didn’t seem to care
about the challenges faced by less-resourced cities in our county. With a
population of 60,000, Gilroy has over 1,000 unhoused individuals, while
Palo Alto, with a similar population, has just over 200.
I commented at the Policy and Services meeting on these issues, citing
Justice Stanley Mosk’s dissent from *Tobe v. City of Santa Ana*, California
Supreme Court (1995), which seems relevant to PA’s current situation:
“The City cannot solve its homeless problem simply by exiling a large
number of its homeless citizens to neighboring localities.”
Most members of the Palo Alto City Council are millionaire homeowners who,
in my cynical view, will prioritize their own interests over the needs of
less fortunate neighbors like Gilroy.
I will oppose any actions taken by the council that suggest Palo Alto is
different from its neighbors and that we should be treated as a gated
community, our unhoused population be damned.
Best regards,
Aram James
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