The Shame of Palo Alto: An Interview with Kate Downing on Affordable Housing
<i>&quot;Downing and her husband, an attorney and programmer, respectively, say they simply could not afford to pay almost $150,000 per year for housing alone while starting a family in Palo Alto.&quot;</i><p>It&#x27;s interesting the difference a couple of miles make. $150,000 per year is $12,500 a month. The most expensive house for rent in East Palo Alto (3 miles away) is $6,000 (half that) and there are many choices under $4,000 per month. They could live in Gilroy and ride the train for free[1] for around $3,000 a month. They could do even better if they decided to rent an apartment or a townhouse instead of a detached single family home.<p>Whining about not being able to afford to live in a neighborhood where multi-millionaires want to live is not very productive. Unlike San Francisco there are a <i>lot</i> of housing options up and down the peninsula, and since they work (or used to) in Palo Alto it is extremely close to the train station (so an easy &quot;no drive&quot;) commute, which saves them even more because the City pays for their rail ticket and they don&#x27;t have to buy gas.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cityofpaloalto.org&#x2F;civicax&#x2F;filebank&#x2F;documents&#x2F;40189" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cityofpaloalto.org&#x2F;civicax&#x2F;filebank&#x2F;documents&#x2F;40...</a>