The ‘Wrenching Transformation’ Of Our Suburbs

In California, the goal of high-density public and semi-public housing to “defeat” climate change is destroying one community after another.

Cherie Zaslawsky | August 13, 2026

What’s happening in the Silicon Valley suburb of Menlo Park, where I happen to live, should concern everyone. Unlike its bustling neighbor Palo Alto, Menlo Park is a classic bedroom community. Much of the city’s appeal is centered on its “village character” downtown with its assortment of “Mom & Pop” businesses in mostly one-story buildings.

Yet Menlo Park’s City Council plans to convert three of our busy downtown parking plazas serving our one-of-a-kind small businesses into high-density seven- and eight-story subsidized housing projects.

If this housing is built, half of our small businesses would likely close during the three years of construction alone. More will close once the housing projects are built, when our tranquil, small-town ambiance morphs into chaos and crowding as a thousand new residents move into the 345 units in apartment towers shoehorned between our one-story buildings.

When locals first learned of this plan, many exclaimed: “That makes no sense!” That sentiment eventually resulted in civic action and a ballot measure slated for the upcoming November election.

Sadly, Menlo Park is not the only city facing such radical urbanization in Silicon Valley and beyond. It’s open season on suburbs throughout the country.

What we’re witnessing in the SF Bay Area is not normal city planning or normal growth. Massive high-rise apartment complexes are popping up in our suburbs as if teleported from Chinese ghost cities.

As a special incentive for people who might otherwise not wish to live in these prefab monoliths, many units are offered below market rate as “affordable housing.” And since California is notoriously generous with OPM—other people’s money—even if a family of four earns up to $250,000 per year in certain Bay Area counties, they’ll qualify for a hefty rent reduction.

On the flip side, developers........

© American Thinker