Shhhhhh......does everyone hear that? That's the sound of all of our Menlo Park real estate going ever higher!!!! ;0)

oh nooooo! They're going to ruin our "village atmosphere." Whatever that is. Oh, I forgot, Facebook is out in east Menlo where no one really matters. Never mind.

But with a certain amount of apprehension, is it really in everyone's best interest to one company owns more than half of our M2 industrial base? Are we a company town now? What happens when everyone goes, 'nah, i don't do Facebook anymore,' where does that leave us?

Eggs… one basket….. too many.

As a resident for over 7 years here, I am thrilled with the renewed interest in our neighborhood due to FB's presence. I'm willing to risk becoming a "company town" if it means increased property values, remodeling run down homes and becoming a safer neighborhood. What's the other option? Wait for help from west Menlo? I'm also still waiting for Menlo Gateway to break ground...

Tech has ruined the Bay area. It is sad.

I generally appreciate Facebook's presence.

On the one hand, the new West Campus is a cool bit of architecture. I love how they minimized the space occupied by parking and are making a tree-lined park on the roof. I hope the public gets a chance to check it out.

On the other hand - if Facebook ever has a significant reduction in workforce, and decides to vacate that building - it'll be a bit of trick to find a new tenant, mostly because it has a massive, single, open-air room, not meant for subdivision. It might be a little tricky to find a new occupant for such a space. Cisco's policy of having multiple moderate-size buildings which could be leased out when there's workforce reductions seems wise.

As long as the newly acquired properties can be subdivided "just in case", it should be fine.

I love that this Billion dollar company moves into what once was known as a "Ghetto" by some. Now everyone takes an interests to move there yet my property taxes keep going up by 2000 a year and I am not making $200,000 working as an engineer. Being offered a facility or kitchen job won't help me pay my increasing taxes!

This part of Menlo Park has been the source of most of the city's revenue -- from sales and use taxes that generally increase more than inflation over time. Now the city is increasingly dependent on property taxes that increase at rates set by Prop 13. Commercial properties rarely flip, so these taxes will wither over time in relationship with city costs. This is unsustainable. Our development-happy Council needs to do a reality check and have a solid long-term financial plan for the city. That would be the adult, responsible thing to do but - Oh yeh, they won't be in office when the @$#(& hits the fan.

Dear East of 101:

Property taxes increase because governments spend more, not because industry moves into an area. We should try to get our elected officials to reduce spending. The last time we were successful was the passage of prop 13, maybe we should start a prop 14 movement.

"Property taxes increase because governments spend more"

Wrong, property tax revenues increase when properties change hands or are improved or by the Prop 13 annual limit - not because governments spend more.

Peter:

You are wrong. Prop 13 allows the increase in taxes for the reasons you mentioned. Governmental entities dont have to raise taxes. They do because of their continual increase in spending. N'est-ce pas

Ron - You are simply wrong. Local governments cannot raise their property taxes; those tax increase solely because of properties changing hands, remodeling and annual Prop 13 limited increases.

@member (of Portola Valley) who wrote: "Tech has ruined the Bay area. It is sad."

I have a question to you: what do you mean by this question?

Do you mean it's too bad that Lockheed had its Missile and Space Division in Sunnyvale, around the mid-50s? Or, that Shockley started his Beckman division to commercialize transistors, also about that time? Or that Fairchild, Intel, and so many others also emerged? Or hey, maybe we should blame it all on Ames Research that was here before those? Lest we forget Stanford which was also a magnet for your hated "tech?"

Or maybe what you're really upset about is the emergence and growth of Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others. Well sure, I also don't like the increased traffic. But I much prefer that over what we've seen in the likes of Detroit.

Tech got started in bay area so we must deal with issues.

Why not plan a urban village with Facebook, open space, stores, services, entertainment and transit.

BART needs a second transbay line, rail line is nearby, so why not work out a deal.

For all of you who are worried about orphaned real estate if Facebook ever shrinks - which companies blossomed using the former HQ real estate shells of:

* Silicon Graphics
* Adobe Mt. View
* Sun Microsystems
* Xerox Parc

Out of the ashes (or corporate move) comes the new Phoenix...