I would not say Pat Burt “championed a business tax” in that during his sixteen years in leadership Palo Alto failed to enact a business tax and now had budget cuts, having let off the hook a trillion dollars worth of market cap companies like Google, Facebook, Tesla headquartered here, as a favor to landlords. Rebecca Eisenberg a complete outsider and failed candidate for planning commission arguably is the one that got business tax on the agenda during campaign as current council, again, put it off.

This election means either business as usual — rule by landlords and “downtown interests” — and a false dichotomy between “the Residentialists” and “Build Baby Build” — or something encouraging by a strong showing of also rans like Eisenberg, Lee, Templeton and Malone. 

I doubt though I voted for him that Greer Stone can stay independent from that force given that he is mentored by Burt and Karen Holman, the only person who served with Burt in his first term but continues to support him. 

Incumbents Tanaka and Kou though from different pseudo-camps both took the arguably racist dog whistle stance of excluding outsiders from Foothills Park — council voted 5-2 with their dissent to settle a lawsuit from NAACP and ACLU that claimed the park rules had disparate effects on Blacks. 

I would think Palo Altans are already discussing a Burt recall on these and other grounds. He’s polarizing as much as popular.