A jobs-housing imbalance is at the root of the Bay Area’s housing situation

February 15, 2019

Steven Scharf, Mayor of Cupertino, California

Little did I know that a topical joke, in my State of the City Speech, would gain me my fifteen minutes of fame.

My State of the City Speech took place shortly after the time that President Trump was throwing his big temper tantrum and shutting down the federal government because he didn’t get his $5.7 billion of taxpayer money to build his wall–a wall that he earlier had insisted that Mexico would pay for. I joked about building a wall to keep Teslas from Saratoga from driving through Cupertino and clogging up our streets. Everyone laughed. Was I the next Stephen Colbert or John Oliver? Unfortunately not.

Most of the email I got about the joke was along the lines of “Liked the joke; people need to develop senses of humor for goodness sakes!” and “Well, I thought your comments about the wall were hilarious and a very good example of topical humor!” On February 7th I was approached at a local Peet’s Coffee by an employee who told me that the workers liked the content of the me and said “liked the joke, people need to lighten up.” Some email was thoughtful and eloquent, demonstrating the writer’s high level of education (not): “If you like being surrounded by walls, we can shove you in a prison cell. The f**k is wrong with your NIMBY a*s?!?” Oh my!

My Hospital Stay at Kaiser and “What’s Happening with Vallco?”

Another joke in my speech was about being constantly asked “What’s