Palo Alto Silver Bullet - Grass Roots Advocacy

Make your voice heard!

Recent letters to Palo Alto City Council

Palo Alto is a small city, and city council is often responsive even to a small number (about 10) of voices conveying a consistent message.

STEP 1: compose a short message of 250 words or less

1A. You should make one simple point, then urge support of the Silver Bullet proposal.

Examples of points to make: (most of these ideas were voiced by Palo Alto residents in casual conversations with Cities21)

• We need to do more to limit greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
• We need to do more to protect children's lungs. The recent reports of the serious consequences of air pollution on developing lungs are a wake up call.
• Traffic congestion is bad and growing worse. Studies forecast a significant increase in the number of cars on the road in the coming years.
• California population is increasing by 600,000 people per year. This trend is expected to continue for the next 20 years. Rather than allowing unplanned, sprawling growth, we should combine high quality transportation and housing in strategic locations. We need to preserve open space and hold the greenbelt firm.
• Silicon Valley is the world technology leader. It is time to apply our technological know-how to transportation in order to reduce traffic congestion.
• The loss of hotels and auto dealerships, combined with the expansion of retail in adjacent cities, has dramatically reduced Palo Alto's tax base. We should make Palo Alto a more attractive place to live, work, and shop. Palo Alto should be invigorated.
• Councilmember Kishimoto and County Supervisor Alvarado co-authored a September 13, 2004 Mercury News Opinion demanding smarter spending of our tax dollars on transportation projects. The Silver Bullet proposal promises congestion relief at zero taxpayer cost.
• 47% of Palo Alto office park workers reside within a two-mile radius of a Caltrain station. For these workers, we need better connecting transit service from the Caltrain California Avenue train station to their offices. This is a very cost-effective plan to increase transit patronage.
• We must reduce our dependence on gas-powered cars. Advanced transportation using Electric Vehicles (EVs) is 97% cleaner than gas-powered cars. This includes the emissions from the electric power plant. EVs require less maintenance than gas powered cars. EVs are quiet, minimizing sound pollution. EVs will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil. (see http://www.baaction.org/ev_project/#welcome).
• In Palo Alto politics, there is always a significant amount of time spent debating "current year" issues, such as {pick your favorite issues here}: council social etiquette, 800 High Street, traffic management, etc. Palo Alto should spend more time addressing long-term issues that have a large impact on the lives of many Palo Altans.

Urge support

• Because of the important issue above, Palo Alto should support the Cities21 Silver Bullet proposal. (http://www.cities21.org/SilverBullet.htm). Palo Alto should become a 21st century city. The Council should authorize mechanisms for 100% private sector financing.

1B. In your signature, include your name, address, phone, and any special Palo Alto or Stanford affiliation. Newspapers require a phone number to verify your submission. They will not print your number.

STEP 2: e-mail your message to the city council:

To: city.council@cityofpaloalto.org

Bcc: cities21@cities21.org

E-mail correspondence to council becomes public record and is reproduced in printed form in packets provided to council members at the next city council meeting.

STEP 3: e-mail your message to the PA Alto Daily News editor

To: editorial@paloaltodailynews.com

STEP 4: e-mail your message to the Palo Alto Weekly editor

To: letters@paweekly.com

STEP 5: If you have an affiliation with Stanford, submit your message via the Stanford Daily News web page:

http://daily.stanford.edu/daily/servlet/tempo?page=lettertoeditor