While I think the situation is ridiculous, I also can't help thinking that if you're one of the most successful companies in the world and you can't get this done. It's either not that great of priority for you or you're doing something wrong.
Nope, it's something Google would really love to see. You have to remember that as the Goliath in the room, Google has to be somewhat careful about how hard they try to persuade local governments, as many residents already dislike how quickly they've grown and how that's contributed to rents going up and traffic getting worse.
And Google has made a bunch of improvements themselves, like, I believe, the buffered bike lanes on Shorebird and the multi-use path that extends west from Shorebird. But they can't just do whatever they want, no matter how rich they are. Just look at how their plans for development in North Bayshore got shot down by the city.
Yup, and thankfully the outgoing NIMBY city council members got replaced last fall with ones that have a more urbanist leaning, and they're moving ahead of housing in North Bayshore now. I just wish it was more than ~5,000 units; that's not very much compared to how many people work there.
I was more thinking of compromising. Making deals is, at least to some extent, what business is about and I don't see the differences as insurmountable. Maybe Google don't play nice with others, but there's firms that do that too in exchange for money.
From what I can tell, Google plays as nice as humanly possible, there were just a lot of NIMBYs in the Mountain View city council until recently who hated the idea of getting housing in that area. But the NIMBYs lost badly last fall, and now the city actually is moving forward with housing in North Bayshore. I just wish they were moving forward with more (I think right now the plan is like ~5,000 units).
My observation would be that relationships are not Google strong suit. They don't really do customers or enterprise. Support has been lacking for a long time. They are not even that good at managing their brand considering their popularity. Maybe they will get their way eventually, but I think people are going to be disappointing in a decade or so. It's supposedly the technology capital of the world and deserves a greater outcome then what a few companies can push through a dysfunctional process.
I'm going to have to ask you to file an environmental impact statement and a report with the coastal commission of california before i'll give you the permits to comment further on this thread :)
