The Cupertino Courier

Letters & Opinions

Cupertino community in need of jobs, services and housing

By DON BURNETT

This fall we are faced with two ballot initiatives to block housing in Cupertino. Fourteen years ago, I ran for the Cupertino City Council advocating balanced growth. I believed adequate jobs, housing and services were all needed to provide the best community to live in. After having served the city for eight years on the council, I still think so.

Silicon Valley has grown because innovative businesses have come here, thrived and replaced an idyllic farming community with the innovation capital of the world. Further industrial growth here is inevitable.

Growth in industry has consequences. It creates a need for residential housing for the incoming workers and also a need for the additional people to provide the goods and services these new workers require. The physical needs include schools, parks, roads, medical facilities and the rest of the infrastructure required for a strong community. Providing for these needs is a responsibility of our local government. Our quality of life depends on how well this is done.

These issues are little discussed by the opponents of new housing in Cupertino as they attempt to block housing projects. Some celebrate Apple Computer's plans to build a campus for 3,500 workers with no concern whatsoever as to how those workers are to be housed and serviced. On the other hand, they are appalled by the thought of adding 1,000 new housing units, claiming this will grievously harm our city, strangle our traffic and seriously impact our schools.

There are currently about 18,000 housing units in Cupertino. I don't believe adding another 1,000 housing units will paralyze our traffic or lead to the ruin of our schools. For most of the 45 years that I have lived here, I have heard predictions that awful things are going to happen as a result of growth. But roads, parks and schools have been built and the community has thrived. Our school districts have done a remarkable job of providing quality education during continuous growth.

Have housing opponents really thought about where new workers will live? Workers living in Tracy and other Central Valley communities already face brutally long commutes. We are experiencing the increased pollution and congestion caused by these commutes. How much worse this will get will be determined in part by how much housing we provide locally.

Housing opponents claim to be the true voice of the citizens of Cupertino in spite of having lost a growth-limiting ballot initiative they instigated last year. They have every right to fight for what they want, but they are but one interest group, not the voice of the people, as some of them claim to be. I hope the voters go to the polls with the best future for the entire community in mind and vote no on these shortsighted initiatives on the November ballot.

Growth has consequences both positive and negative. But it is going to happen. Is blocking housing in Cupertino in the best interests of the community at large? I don't think so.