The Cupertino Courier

Letters & Opinions

Condomania in Condotina? Not likely

By Carol Bogart

This whole housing ratio thing is quite the sticky little wicket, isn't it. As Apple plans its campus expansion with the resultant likelihood of creating at least some new jobs, the state's longtime mandate requires cities to create housing proportionate to employment. Not necessarily housing that new workers can afford, or even housing affordable to such community mainstays as teachers, nurses, police officers, firefighters and young families. A $600,000 condominium "counts"--even if few middle-income earners can afford to buy it.

Condo complexes are a tricky thing.

I remember when, in an attempt to "revitalize" its downtown, Cleveland OK'd a multistory complex the developer dubbed "Park Place." I'm not sure why, unless maybe you could see distant parks from the penthouse.

Initially, it was THE place with panache. The on-air talent at the TV station where I was the just-out-of-college newsroom secretary flocked to it in droves.

These reporters and anchors were NBC's farm team--"sentenced," as one put it, to the network-owned station in Cleveland to get some seasoning.

Many had come from places like Miami and New York City. The anonymity, perceived glamour and proximity to downtown amenities of Park Place appealed to them. They worked long hours, didn't want long commutes, didn't have kids and couldn't have cared less about their neighbors.

Wanting to rub shoulders with the glitterati, I wanted to live there, too, but couldn't on my little salary. I settled for a semi-transient high-rise nearby where apartment doors had double and triple deadbolts.

Today, 25-plus years later, Park Place's well-heeled condo owners are long gone. The original downtown surrounding the complex is just as dead as it ever was. In recent years, the once glamorous high-rise was converted to low-rent apartments and public housing.

Cities lacking horizontal space on which to build have long been building up.

With an "I've got mine, now go away" mentality, some who aren't burdened with hour-long commutes on freeways congested with cars spewing forth greenhouse gases that contribute to Bay Area kids' asthma don't seem eager to add new neighbors, in condominiums or otherwise.

When Mike was small, we lived for a time in an affluent suburb bordered by Lake Erie. The homes were on large lots. Some overlooked a creek.

Sometimes, off by myself in the small portion of woods the developers of the subdivision agreed to set aside as an "in perpetuity" park, I'd close my eyes and try to imagine what it was like when the forest was whole and pristine.

Often, my reverie was interrupted by the giggles of little girls playing in their yards or the thwack of a puck being swept into a net during an impromptu cul de sac game of street hockey.

I liked listening to the birds, the burble of the water, the rustling of the leaves as a light breeze wafted through them--but I also liked the sound of children's laughter. I felt a certain satisfaction knowing that my son's generation and those to come can now enjoy what used to be the exclusive, private estate of a single wealthy family.

Carol Bogart is the editor of the Cupertino Courier. Contact her at cbogart@community-newspapers.com or call 408.200.1055.

Carol Bogart is the new editor of the Cupertino Courier. Contact her at cbogart@community-newspapers.com or call 408.200.1055.