Menlo Park is located in the heart of Silicon Valley. It’s one of the proponents of NIMBYism that is preventing major housing developments. Removing NIMBYism would ultimately create a path to affordability in California.

This article highlights how local municipalities such Menlo Park make it hard to do what’s right at the state level: Article 

I’ve mentioned what’s going on previously: 2021 blog post The facts are clearly reported here.

Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and other states are winning the hearts and minds of Californians not just because of quality of life, but due to the lack of common sense affordability. The State of California and regional planning efforts understand the housing scarcity problem. Unfortunately, it took decades to push towards sensible development laws.

The Austin area is benefiting as much from NIMBYism elsewhere as it is from the massive buildout of housing here. Businesses such as Samsung, Tesla, SpaceX, and most recently, Apollo Global Management, expand in Texas because their employees can attain solid housing. At the same time, Austin is displacing the creative class and essential workers who can no longer afford to live here.

This is also an old vs young problem. Much like the American Congress that doesn’t have a retirement age, cities need to embrace change in the ways Austin has with younger leaders taking charge. With elections happening across the country, a vote against incumbents is a vote for change — especially against those who sat complacent while housing became a problem.

[written without AI]