Stanford’s place in our community

Stanford is a historical, cultural, economic and community juggernaut and it is impossible to speculate what the Peninsula would be without the founding and emergence of the university.

It is a world-class educational institution that is remarkably open and available as a community asset. The campus is a treasure and it is available to be enjoyed by anyone. The Cantor Arts Center, with its astonishing collection of Rodin sculptures, is free to the public. Hiking The Dish, the top-notch athletics programs, the concert venues that draw nationally renowned talent — these are all benefits to the community. Its commitment to medicine has marked this region as a center of high-quality health care and medical research. It has been central to the creation and dominance of Silicon Valley.

It’s a wonderful place, populated by the best and the brightest the world has to offer. Given all this wonderfulness, I guess it should come as no surprise that it is a surprise to Stanford that people don’t like it. As the Bible tells us, you’re never a prophet in your own land. But there are numerous episodes in which university officials seemed to dismiss criticisms or allegations of misbehavior with the assertion that, as Stanford, it couldn’t possibly do anything that should be the object of disapproval.

This mindset is evident in the original proposal, one that is so large that it would seem to create its gravitational pull around which neighboring communities would orbit. It’s evident in Stanford’s recent statement on its strategic withdrawal from the frontlines of this proposal. In the statement, Stanford says it is “launching a new phase of engagement with our local communities. Through that process, we hope to gain a deeper mutual understanding of the challenges facing our region.”

The key part of that passage is “mutual understanding,” the implication being that Stanford feels misunderstood about its plan, its motives and its prior activities, which they think ought to count for something, by golly. Affirmation of this comes in the final paragraphs of the statement, in which Stanford quotes from a survey showing huge support for the position that it is entitled to the permit allowing all this growth.

Still, it’s a good thing that they have figured out they need to do more outreach, although I suspect they understand it will be dismissed, unfairly, as a token effort, no matter how extensive it may be. Once you rev up long-standing and historic resentments, it’s hard to slow them down them with facts.

No matter how they approach outreach, waiting for them at the end of the process is Simitian, a former Palo Alto councilman and Palo Alto school board member, whose relationship with Stanford is longer and more complicated than anyone’s. Clearly, at least some of what is driving his approach to this is past grievances, either personal or political, possibly both. Asked about his own personal animus toward Stanford, Simitian insists it’s not personal, but he does so with an intensity that belies his customary equanimity.

Simitian has argued that he is merely treating Stanford like any other developer. But Stanford is not like any other developer. It has to apply for expansion through a General Use Permit, not a development agreement, which is the common tool for projects in many cities. If you want to treat it like any other business, Stanford already has built more housing and mitigated more traffic than any developer. If you want to treat it like any other private university, Stanford argues it is being asked to build more housing than anyone ever has.

In the end, we come back to where we started: There is nothing like Stanford, for better and for worse. Like it or not, they will be held to a different set of expectations, if for no other reason than their physical size and their historical stature. What may ultimately break through the hardened lines of this land use dispute is an acknowledgment of its unique place in our community.

Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at mark@smdailyjournal.com.