Another day, another bulldozer

By JON HOORNSTRA

Ask any Cupertinian what the city's official logo is and I'll wager the answer will match what Monta Vista baseball coach Russ Loafman said. Loafman has lived here since forever, so I asked him what the city's logo is.

"It's some kind of funny-looking hat, isn't it?" he replied. Right on the money, coach. Definitely some kind of funny hat.

For the record, the city's official hat is a "Morion." It is described as "a crested metal helmet with a curved peak, front and back, worn by soldiers of the 16th and 17th century." Guys like explorer Col. Juan Bautista De Anza wore them. He passed through the area in 1776 and a college and boulevard now bear his name.

But it's the wrong logo. At the start of the 21st century, few people know what that hat is. Moreover, it suggests aggression and conquest, not mere exploration. We are a much nicer people today, right?

The city should adopt an emergency, interim logo in recognition of who we are and our most pressing problem--the housing crisis. The temporary logo must be easily recognized, something that honestly speaks to who we are. I nominate the grand, all-American bulldozer as the perfect symbol.

Imagine the power of symbolism on the flag pole at City Hall: the American Flag proudly on top, then the state flag with California's extinct grizzly bear, then a bright yellow bulldozer flag, symbolic of our readiness to either crush or create.

Bulldozers are everywhere. One cannot travel more than two or three blocks without seeing them poised to strike, or spot the pile of rubble they left behind. S

What is happening is a fairly simple process. Real Estate developers are in the heat of a desperate search for high-end housing near good schools. They troll the streets in search of old houses, make lavish offers to the owners who retire to Arizona or nursing homes. With permits in-hand, the developers erase yesterday and give us a new today.

And what sort of place are they building? It's grim. Today's new houses haven't much more appeal than bulldozers. They aren't honest. Like old, fat men wearing under-sized T-shirts, they look grotesque, squeezed painfully onto undersized lots.

Architecturally they are boring. Each new house has the unmistakable look of every other new Mediterranean-style house. Adorned with half-hearted columns, they strain to look like mansions. The narrow color range also smacks of the mass merchandising behind them. Buyers choose something between the color of wet sand and dry sand.

Second, what about people? The bulldozers and the faux-mansions that follow mark the end of affordable housing and the start of something offensively expensive. The median price of a new home in Santa Clara County is now $559,000. In Cupertino, that could buy a spot close to the railroad tracks.

Renters are under enormous pressure as well. The cost of a one-bedroom apartment in the county jumped nearly 20 percent between the first and second quarters this year.

The city has worked with developers in recent years to create both "affordable" and "below market rate" housing. Some 24 units will be built behind the new fire station on Stevens Creek Boulevard and possibly another 50 across the street adjacent to a new hotel. But the influx of people and diminishing buildable space is overwhelming.

One of ironies in this story is that density threatens the community's functionality. We are already crippled.

If unchecked, we will have to summon the bulldozers back and start over again.

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