From: Scott O"Neil
To: Council, City
Subject: April 6, Action 15: Meeting Procedures
Date: Friday, April 3, 2026 11:22:32 AM
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I am writing on the topic of the changes to meeting procedures being considered on April 6.
First, a note on geography.
While Palo Alto is a uniformly rich city, it does have a noticeable wealth gradient.
City Hall is located near the far North end of the city, surrounded by the most expensive land and the wealthiest families, including some actual billionaires.
Meanwhile, the city is most aggressively planning for more economically diverse multifamily development at the far South end the city.
You rarely see me in chambers, because I live on the southernmost fringe of the city.
My
household has one car, which is mostly reserved for my wife's use.
On those occasions when
you have seen me in chambers, I have generally rode my bike uptown to be there.
If I lived
where Mark Zuckerberg lives, you would see much more of me.
I live in multifamily housing.
I
live where the city is considering planning for residential highrises.
As you are considering dumping public comment from me -and people like me- for items not on the agenda to the very end of the meeting, when everyone has left and many Councilmembers are sure to be sleepily scrolling on their phones, I ask you to keep all of that in mind.
I'm not going to pretend I used that public comment window much when it was available to me, but I wouldn't consider reopening it at the end of the meeting to be reopening it at all.
I am aware of the hate bombing problem, and I am sympathetic to it.
If it were not for the
geography, I would see no tension between what I hope are shared values and the action contemplated.
Which is to say that it seems to me that this issue reveals our built environment to itself be a moral problem.
How strange it is that Palo Alto has a centrally located downtown, and yet City Hall is planted on its wealthiest fringe. The city could build its way out of this situation, This message needs your attention
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were it so inclined. I'm not going to pretend City Hall would be moved over one this issue.
But if we're considering how a city should be laid out that reflects our values, and contemplating what sorts of investments we might need to make in the coming decades -- doesn't this seem like something we should be looking for an opportunity to fix?
-Scott O'Neil