The Stanford voter’s guide to the 2024 Palo Alto City Council race

Nine candidates are vying for four seats in the race for Palo Alto’s seven-person City Council this election cycle.

Two seats on the city council — which select the mayor, approves the city budget and develops local policy — will be vacated by Lydia Kou and Greg Tanaka while the other two are held by candidates Pat Burt and Greer Stone. The Daily spoke with seven of the nine candidates to discuss their political priorities, which range from housing to environmental protection.

Pat Burt

• Priorities: Develop affordable housing, stronger climate action and support police and fire services that were slashed during COVID-19

Former Palo Alto mayor and incumbent city council member Pat Burt is focusing on quality of life and affordable housing, according to his campaign website. Burt has been involved in 10 different affordable housing projects — currently at varying degrees of completion — near transit centers and serving moderate- and low-income residents as a city council member.

Burt opposes the “builder’s remedy,” which loosens restrictions on housing development provided the developer sets aside at least 20 percent of the units as affordable units. The city can expand affordable housing without “destroying the human scale and livability of Palo Alto,” he wrote on his campaign website.

Burt is also a strong advocate for public safety services, including the police and fire departments. Following the pandemic, he worked to restore these services, which had decreased in availability due to reduced employment. He wrote on his website that he hopes to “complete the full restoration of our Police, Fire, and Emergency services to historic levels.”

Burt did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment.

Anne Cribbs

• Priorities: Implement Sustainability and Climate Action Plan, rebuild Cubberley Community Center, expedite city’s project approval process

While traveling for the 1960 Olympics, Anne Cribbs ’76 witnessed the political divide that defined the Cold War. The experience inspired her to pursue a bachelor’s in political science. Cribbs aims to implement Palo Alto’s Sustainability and Climate Action Plan and bring community spaces back to life, including by accelerating the City Council’s project approval process and rebuilding the Cubberley Community Center.

Cribbs told The Daily she became interested in creating an accelerated approval process after witnessing a group of high school skaters wait years for a skate park renovation project to be approved. The skaters were sophomores in college by the time the project was approved.

“It shouldn’t take that long for young people who want to add something to their community and government to have some success,” she said.

Henry Etzkowitz

• Priorities: Create additional third spaces and apartments at Research Park and Stanford Shopping Center

Stanford sociology research fellow Henry Etzkowitz’s primary goals are to build affordable housing and foster a sense of community among Palo Alto residents. Etzkowitz told The Daily this includes building “25,000 working and living lofts” at Stanford Shopping Center, a variety of community-enhancing third spaces on University Avenue and an underground transportation system modeled after those found in major cities. He did not provide details for how he intends to accomplish this.

The future, Etzkowitz added, lies in spaces that allow people to connect without technology, like bowling alleys, cafes or clubhouses. The candidate implied these spaces would be run by volunteers and partially funded by the government but did not provide more details.

Etzkowitz said he wants to strengthen the relationship between Stanford and Palo Alto — potentially through establishing “Oxford-like” graduate colleges at Research Park in which students and faculty would live side-by-side.

George Lu

• Priorities: Reduce sprawl of new housing, streamline zoning and processing systems, improve street safety

As a Stanford economics major, George Lu ’14 managed KZSU and lived in Otero, French House and Columbae. Lu stayed in Palo Alto after graduation, eventually becoming the city’s Planning and Transportation Commissioner. His platform prioritizes affordable housing, road safety and the revival of Palo Alto’s small business retail scene. 

Lu aims to reduce the “sprawl” of residential areas in the city.

“The answer is always transit-oriented, mixed income housing,” Lu wrote in an email to The Daily. “This is how we create inclusive, climate friendly homes that support our business corridors.”

Lu also supports protected bike lanes along Palo Alto’s Safe Routes to School and streamlined zoning and processing systems.

Doria Summa

• Priorities: Expand the Marguerite, restore pre-COVID-19 police and fire-department employment numbers, conserve and create green spaces

Doria Summa has spent the last eight years as the Planning and Transportation Commissioner. Her platform focuses on affordable housing, local businesses and environmental protections. Summa calls for the preservation of green space amid residential development. 

Summa is eager to support future collaborations between Stanford and the city of Palo Alto, especially because parts of Stanford — like Stanford Research Park, the Shopping Center and the Hospital — are within Palo Alto’s zoning districts.

“I would very much like to partner with Stanford and see the Marguerite serve more areas in Palo Alto, because the Marguerite is great, and Stanford knows how to do it well,” Summa said.

Cari Templeton

• Priorities: Facilitate collaboration between local and state governments, improve street safety

Cari Templeton was driving her kids to school one morning when a car that did not obey a yield sign hit her car, flipping it over. Though she had previously been active in the California Democratic Party and as a district representative working with state Senator Josh Becker, that accident spurred her career in local politics.

Templeton said her experience in local politics allowed her to get a closer view of the collaboration between the local and state governments on issues like road safety. After witnessing some Gunn High School students get “bumped” off of their bikes on the way to school at a crosswalk on El Camino Real, Templeton said she started a dialogue with the city about how to make the intersection safer.

Keith Reckdahl

• Priorities: Expand below-market-rate housing while retaining zoning restrictions, collaborate with Stanford on creating additional housing

Former Parks and Recreation Committee member Keith Reckdahl M.S. ’89 Ph.D. ’96 hopes to maintain Palo Alto’s general quality of life while supporting responsible growth and development.

One of Reckdahl’s top priorities is to expand below-market-rate housing. He supports the creation of “active neighborhoods,” or affordable housing projects that integrate seamlessly with the existing Palo Alto environment, including in Stanford Research Park. He opposes builder’s remedy projects that can ignore local zoning laws, such as the 17-story apartment tower at the Mollie Stone’s Markets site that was proposed last year. 

“It’s not going to be housing for the average person,” Reckdahl said. “It’s going to provide a lot of housing, but it’s going to be high-end housing.”

Reckdahl has also expressed interest in cooperating with Stanford on housing issues. He believes that Stanford and Palo Alto both want “to house people that are in our community that can’t afford to live in our community.” 

Greer Stone

• Priorities: Mental health and environmental protection

Current Palo Alto Mayor Greer Stone seeks to build a unified and sustainable Palo Alto community as he runs for reelection. Stone, who formed the Youth Well-being and Mental Health Task Force as mayor, plans to continue advocating for mental health improvements. He also plans to help protect the city’s natural environment and achieve carbon neutrality for the city by 2030, arguing that while environmental protection projects will increase short-term costs for the city, by the early 2030s “taxpayers are actually going to be saving money because the green infrastructure is going to be long-term far more cost-effective.”

As mayor, Stone has focused on strengthening the Palo Alto community’s unity amid disagreement over the Israel-Gaza conflict. He recalled “very extreme rhetoric in City Hall,” which prompted his implementation of the Unity Statement project, a proclamation drafted by the city government reaffirming Palo Alto’s dedication to dialogue and combating hate. Commenting on campus tensions over the Israel-Gaza conflict, Stone advised Stanford students to “remember our shared humanity to empathize with others” and to “just talk to one another without judgment.”

Katie Causey

• Priorities: Inclusivity and affordability

Human Relations Commissioner Katie Causey said her campaign is committed to supporting Palo Alto’s vulnerable communities. She wants to ensure, for example, that the process to apply for permits for small businesses is easy to navigate for English language learners.

Causey expressed support for building more market-rate and affordable housing by implementing policies that increase “income-restricted housing” and eliminating some permitting processes to drive down costs. She has previously worked with housing nonprofits that help families at risk of becoming homeless.

Addressing Stanford students, Causey said: “If students want to find housing in Palo Alto, I want it to be very easy and affordable for them to be able to be a part of our community and stay in our community.”

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