This is a wee bit PoMo so work with me:

—– Forwarded Message —–From: Council, City <city.council@cityofpaloalto.org>To: mark weiss <earwopa@yahoo.com>Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2020, 05:23:17 PM PDTSubject: Your e-mail to City Council was received

Thank you for your comments to the City Council. Your e‐mail will be forwarded to all seven Council Members and a printout of your correspondence will also be included in the next available Council packet.

If your comments are about an item that is already scheduled for a City Council agenda, you can call (650) 329‐2571 to confirm that the item is still on the agenda for the next meeting.

If your letter mentions a specific complaint or a request for service, we’ll either reply with an explanation or else send it on to the appropriate department for clarification.

We appreciate hearing from you.

—- Forwarded Message —–From: mark weiss <earwopa@yahoo.com>To: Bill Johnson <bjohnson@embarcaderopublishing.com>; Gennady Sheyner <gsheyner@paweekly.com>; Jocelyn Dong <jdong@embarcaderopublishing.com>; Tom Zahiralis <tzahiralis@embarcaderopublishing.com>Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2020, 05:19:32 PM PDT

Subject: my censored comment in response to your anonymous reader
Alexandria $850m stake is a data point but obviously does not fit my model of Downtown VS The Residents since their holdings are at Baylands, Bayshore and Stanford Industrial Park.But it fits the model that real estate is a billion dollar (per year) industry here and likely spends tens of millions in aggregate lobbying. AJ Capital is an example of an out of town interest getting the courtesy usually reserved for the frequent flyers. Bob Moss I recall wrote a white paper on the topic of favoritism that some local developers get here.Also: how many staff people are only here long enough to get hired by the industry? 
I am guessing — based on another recent article by George Avalos in what used to be the Merc – that real estate here is worth about $50B. It’s sort of like that scene in “The Third Man” where they look down on us from the heights and ask “how many dots you can afford to spare?”
But the business tax, as imagined by candidate Rebecca Eisenberg, targets large employers and tech unicorns and not holding companies, I wouldn’t think. There could be real estate transfer taxes. But the landlords have quashed all such talk.It’s a shame that we are cutting $40m in services this year yet under our watch fledgling companies like Google, Facebook, Palantir were nurtured here and are now worth a combined $1 Trillion, with a T. Maybe some of you were early investors but generally Palo Alto gets dick from this. Zilch. Zero. Nada. Palo Alto as an HP company town in the 1960s was a different flavor but still literally divisive: Oregon Expressway dividing “South Palo Alto” from Palo Alto. 

[my comment from 17 minutes ago ie 5:15 Tuesday was automatically deleted and censored by Bill Johnson of the Palo Alto Weekly, despite the fact that I paid $10 to subscribe…]

PALO ALTO — A big Southern California real estate and investment firm has gobbled up its latest in a string of Palo Alto office property purchases, a deal that extends a buying spree in the Silicon Valley tech hub that now tops $850 million.

Alexandria Real Estate, acting through an affiliate, has bought two Palo Alto office buildings on Hillview Avenue near Arastradero Road, acquiring a site that’s in the famed Stanford Research Park.

The deal suggests investors still seek to collect commercial properties in choice and prestigious locations despite the economic uncertainties that the coronavirus has triggered.

The just-purchased buildings have a combined 77,000 square feet, according to Santa Clara County property documents and commercial real estate listing services. SAP, a tech giant, is the tenant in the two buildings. by George Avalos — I pay them $10 a month now too.

edit to add: holy shit, there is a great annual report by Larry Stone’s office, 36 pages, linked to by the Mercury’s online edition with all kinds of cool info. Here are my quick notes:

But I was off a bit, in my headline and in what I tried to post but was censored from the PAW: Palo Alto has $42 BILLION in real estate assessed. Keep in mind that, especially due to Prop 13 — although Prop 15 on the ballot could provide redress — that tax values are much lower than market values. So saying Palo Alto is a billion dollar real estate industry (meaning per year) is easily supportable.

County wide the tax rolls went from $299 B in 2011 to $551B today, a delta of $252. That’s an 84 increase in nine measured year, or roughly 9 percent per year. This is the highest total capital in the 12 county Bay Area, but only the fifth greatest per capita. Whatever that could mean.Palo Alto is on the rolls for $42B combined, fourth in the County – but what is per capita?Twenty thousand parcels counted.Nearly $7B in exemptions. I.e. do not pay taxes.

Check back for updates. How come PAW isn’t covering this?