
Palo Alto to Enforce the Largest Mass Displacement of People in History of City - nkzednan
http://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/articles/2015/05/18/palo-alto-enforce-largest-mass-displacement-people-history-city
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ssalazar
This is unfortunate for the individuals who are forced to relocate, and
contributes to the gentrification of the community, but I could really go
without the race-baiting rhetoric. This has nothing to do with skin color; if
anything its a class issue. A 1BR in Palo Alto right now goes for over >$2000;
economically, continuing to operate a trailer park in that environment is a
pretty poor use of real estate.

Based on anecdotal demographics of walking around Palo Alto, whoever replaces
these tenants is just as likely to be Indian or Asian as they are to be white.
But those are apparently the wrong kind of people of color.

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PhantomGremlin
The article uses the very loaded phrase "ethnic cleansing". Wikipedia says:

    
    
       The crimes committed during an ethnic cleansing
       are similar to those of genocide, but while
       genocide includes an intent at complete or
       partial destruction of the target group, ethnic
       cleansing may involve murder only to the point
       of mobilizing the target group out of the
       territory. Hence there may be varied degrees of
       mass murder in an ethnic cleansing, often
       subsiding when the target group appears to be
       leaving the desired territory, while during
       genocide the mass murder is ubiquitous and
       constant throughout the process, continuing
       even while the target group tries to flee.
    

So, "ethnic cleansing" can involve:

    
    
       crimes
       similar to those of genocide
       varied degrees of mass murder
    

Way inappropriate, way over the top. "ethnic cleansing" doesn't explicitly say
Hitler, but it's pretty darn close to it. In this case the article starts with
Godwin's law, rather than a discussion degenerating into using it.

Having said that, I can't believe how poorly mobile home residents are treated
in this country. We had a similar situation in Wilsonville Oregon. It made
financial sense to build apartments, so multiple trailer parks were closed.
Despite them being "mobile homes", they're not that easy to move and
frequently other parks won't accept homes that are more than a few years old.

Mobile home residents are often screwed, badly, in this country.

------
richardbrevig
I'm surprised this has received so many upvotes in the past 2 hours. It rang
like click-bait playing a race card. Maybe someone knows more about the
details than I do, but exactly what injustice is being done? This is similar
to when a plant is closed and the employees are upset. The plant owner didn't
owe the employees a job. The relocation package offered to the tenants
is...amazing...and would probably not have been offered to a trailer park of
people (whatever race) in Florida on prime beach front property. They would
have been told to vacate, no relocation package.

I grew up on the Ernest movies...like "Ernest goes to camp." I remember many
years ago when it dawned on me that the "evil corporation" wanting to shut
down the summer camp was simply acting in their best financial interest.
Something that they _should_ do. It's sad that the film makers decided to
teach false entitlement instead of enlightening how the world really works,
and how the viewer can become part of the true market (and not just victims of
it).

~~~
mhuffman
No injustice is being done. People today really surprise me. Just a few
decades ago, if something bad happened to you, well it just sucked -- but that
was it. Today if anything happens to you (you get offended, shocked, left out,
fired, evicted, etc.) it is a social injustice that needs the keyboard-typing
might of twitter, facebook, and tumblr to "rage against the machine".

------
marze
Can't the city afford to build a nice set of apartments there, and let
everyone continue to live in the same location with the same rent?

~~~
kqr2
From [http://abc7news.com/news/nonprofit-group-hoping-to-save-
buen...](http://abc7news.com/news/nonprofit-group-hoping-to-save-buena-vista-
mobile-park-/701379/)

    
    
      The City of Palo Alto and Santa Clara County each has 
      pledged $8 million toward purchasing the park from a 
      private owner.
    

Although $16 million was offered, it's well below the expected $30 million
that the owners will probably net.

[http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/02/20/palo-alto-
pled...](http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/02/20/palo-alto-
pledges-8m-to-preserve-buena-vista)

Since this has been going on for more than 2 years, it would have probably
been better to use that $16 million to develop a separate property where they
could relocate to as the trailer park is in a very expensive neighborhood
where median sales price is about $2.65 million.

To avoid more incidents like this, Palo Alto needs to make a more concerted
effort to develop housing in order to bring down prices.

~~~
ild
Bay Area is ripe for reurbanization and densification, but 1. Americans do not
have the necessary skills for high density urban planning; 2. too much
opposition to this from the current owners.

