Cupertino's Stellar Reputation

   


One of my beliefs is that an elected official is that it's my responsibility to do what Carly Fiorina coaches: See the truth, Speak the truth, Act on the truth. Since I have no financial incentive to lie, and I'm not funded by entities that would gain something by me lying, I am free to act on the truth.

If you believe the narrative of two City Council candidates, the developer-funded YIMBY groups, and a few state legislators, Cupertino has a terrible reputation in the Bay Area and California. Cupertino has been bashed repeatedly by developer-owned State Legislators like Scott Wiener and David Chiu, a State Senator and Assembly Member that have taken big contributions from real estate investors, big-tech, developers, and the WIMBY (Wall Street In My Back Yard) movement. Of course the narratives of those Candidates are complete fabrications, and it's very upsetting to see this kind of false rhetoric being repeated by people that should know better. As former president Abraham Lincoln said, "don't believe everything that you read on the Internet."

This all began three years ago when Cupertino's Mayor, Darcy Paul, was talking about how cities in Santa Clara County fared when it came to their jobs to housing balance. Cupertino has the second best jobs to housing balance of any jobs-rich city in the County, with San Jose being first. This achievement is because Cupertino has not gone on a commercial office building spree, while at the same time adding a significant number of new housing units. The response to Mayor Paul's true statement was a barrage of attacks and lies by politicians at the state and local level.

Cupertino has been extremely active in coalitions that have successfully opposed the anti-affordable housing legislation that these legislators have repeatedly introduced. In 2018 Scott Wiener's SB-827 failed. It was reintroduced in 2019 as SB-50 and also failed. It was reintroduced in 2020 as SB-902 and failed for a third time. Wiener is understandably angry and upset at the coalition of cities and affordable housing advocates that have repeatedly stopped his developer-funded legislation from moving forward. There is such an incredibly huge amount of money at stake for Wiener's backers that he keeps bringing his bills back year-after-year. Yet every year a coalition of California cities, affordable housing advocates, and environmental groups, manage to stop his horrific legislation.

The response of these State legislators has been to lash out and bash cities like Cupertino that have joined with other California Cities, and with affordable housing advocates, to stop these bills that seek to enrich real estate investors but that would be disastrous for both homeowners and renters. I don't think that many of our residents think that displacement and gentrification legislation that would force more children to be living in cars is a good idea. And to be fair, I don't believe that the very few Cupertino residents that favor Wiener's legislation actually comprehend what its actual effects would be. It was rather amusing to be talking to a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, about five months ago, at the campaign kick-off for Jackie Fielder (running against Scott Wiener for State Senate). The Supervisor called Scott Wiener, who is a Democrat, a "Real Estate Republican;" a perfect description because Wiener is certainly not a progressive Democrat. There's an excellent article about this from an affordable housing organization, see https://www.housinghumanright.org/selling-out-california-scott-wiener-money-ties-to-big-real-estate/.


A large number of Astroturf groups, and publications, created or funded by the developers and real estate investors, have joined in the fun to attack Cupertino. Statewide, these are the "YIMBY" groups. YIMBY stands for "Yes In My Back Yard." The YIMBY narrative is that if we let developers build lots of unaffordable luxury housing that eventually that housing will deteriorate, fall in price, and become affordable. It's called the "trickle-down theory of housing," and of course it has no basis in reality. As we have seen, when housing in areas with high land costs deteriorates, it is torn down and replaced by new high-cost housing. A large part of the homeless problem in our region was caused by the loss of SRO (Single Room Occupancy) hotels that were torn down so new, high-cost, housing could be built in their place. The real acronym should be "WIMBY" or Wall Street In My Back Yard" since it's real estate investors and developers that are behind the YIMBY movement that is responsible for displacement and gentrification.

The YIMBY mantra of "Build Baby Build," which advocates for adding vast amounts of housing, without any thought to necessary infrastructure is especially dangerous when it comes to schools (though it is also thoughtless in terms of water, energy, sewage, roads, transit, parks, public health, and sustainability). In most built-out cities in the Bay Area there is no more land for schools. While schools could always build up, the funding necessary for multi-story public schools is not available from the State, County, or from developer-impact fees.

The local Astroturf groups promoting the WIMBY narrative include Cupertino Forward, Cupertino Matters, Cupertino Thrives, United Cupertino, Cupertino Residents for Local Ethical Government, Cupertino Getting Things Done Together, Insight Cupertino, and Cupertino for All. New groups with new names are created so fast that it's hard to keep up with all of them, but all of these groups share the same tiny number of supporters that continuously lie about Cupertino and that have literally cost the City hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years.

One of the biggest lies coming from the Astroturf groups is that the City Council "down-zoned" Vallco. What actually occurred is that the City was sent a letter by the California Department of Housing and Community Development explaining that if the lawsuit against the SB-35 project was successful that the City would be out of compliance with our Housing Element because we had not rezoned any of Vallco for the 389 housing units specified in our Housing Element (plus the Density Bonus). The City Council moved swiftly to rezone a sufficient number of acres from retail to housing so we would not go out of compliance. In the end the SB-35 lawsuit failed and the rezoning was not necessary. But it was never "down-zoning."

There's a Yiddish word for the rhetoric of these Astroturf groups when it comes to their insistence that Cupertino has a terrible reputation--Chutzpah (shameless audacity), because they are the ones that are spreading the false information about our City in the first place. It is like the child that is convicted of murdering his parents and then begs the judge for mercy because he's an orphan, or the arsonist demanding stricter fire codes. In Chinese, the closest translation I could find is 無所顧忌 or "no scruples."

Of course the reality about Cupertino's reputation is quite different than these groups pretend it to be. Cupertino actually has a stellar reputation in both the State and the Region.

The YIMBY Big Lie About Apple Park, Job Numbers, and Housing

An endlessly repeated lie about Cupertino, by the YIMBYs and by Scott Wiener, is "Cupertino added 13,000 new jobs with the new Apple Campus and didn't add any housing." Of course the reality is quite different. While the Apple Spaceship does hold about 12,000 people. Steve Jobs nixed that narrative on June 7, 2011, when he stated, "well we're not increasing the employment by much, it's by like 20%." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M&feature=youtu.be&t=993). This is correct. HP had about 10,000 employees on that land when the campus was full. Apple will have about 12,000 employees in the "Spaceship," so as Steve Jobs stated, it was about a 20% increase in employment at that site. It's also vital to remember that all 10,000 HP employees left Cupertino, either due to transfers, layoffs, or attrition, but the vast majority of Apple employees working at Apple Park, about 85%, moved there from other Apple buildings, these were not new employees.

The other part of that big lie is the claim that Cupertino did not add any housing when the new Apple Campus was built, In fact the City added hundreds of units during that time, even though there was not the housing situation that existed at the peak of the previous tech boom.

A Specific Agenda Drives the Lies of the Astroturf Groups

Be very careful about believing the false rhetoric of those groups and individuals that have an agenda that requires denigrating Cupertino for their personal political gain. While there is always room for improvement, Cupertino residents can be proud of the accomplishments of our City when it comes to housing, the environment, transportation, and public health.

One person from the Astroturf groups showed up at a recent City Council meeting to give the City Council a "report card." As you would expect, we failed miserably! One complaint the speaker had was the large number of "Closed Sessions" that the City Council has been required to hold. She did not understand the reasons that we are mandated by law to discuss certain matters in closed session. We hold closed sessions when we discuss contracts, personnel matters, purchases and leases of property, and litigation. We don't necessarily love having so many meetings either, but it's an obligation that we take seriously. It's incredibly insulting to be attacked for fulfilling our obligations as City Council members. Left unsaid by the speaker was that members of these Astroturf groups were partially responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation costs and settlement costs paid out by the City of Cupertino. That money could have been spent on items that would have benefited all residents instead of being wasted on lawyers and legal settlements.

The reality is that the current City Council has been diligently working. in very difficult times, to promote the interests of Cupertino, the region, and the State. We work very long hours, endure many late nights, and attend meetings all over the Bay Area, and State. We do this because we care about our City and its residents. We receive a stipend of less than $700 per month which works out to far less than minimum wage (when we were having in-person meetings we were also provided with a take-out dinner). We have no agenda other that doing what is best for our City. We sometimes make decisions that some residents don't like, especially when it comes to using public land for the benefit of the general public but we are obligated to look at the big picture, consider all the facts, and do what is best for the majority of residents.

We now have four out of five Council Members that believe in transparency, ethics, and fact-based decision making, and hopefully that will increase to five out of five in the upcoming election, if I am re-elected and if Planning Commission Chair Kitty Moore is elected.

We’re in a time when there is great cynicism about our national and state government’s ability to accomplish goals that benefit our citizens. In Cupertino we can be very proud of our City for its accomplishments in sustainability, housing, and transportation. Cupertino is a City that other cities in California respect and look up to. We need to continue our leadership in the future by electing City Council members that are not controlled or funded by special-interest groups.

Proudly NOT Endorsed or Funded by the Developer-Controlled
Cupertino Chamber of Commerce and San Jose Mercury News,
Special Interest Groups, or WIMBYs!

Steven Scharf for Cupertino City Council 2020 FPPC ID #1388099