Cupertino’s Planning Commission chair is getting slammed for trolling YIMBYs on Nextdoor and making not-so-veiled threats about trying to get them fired.
City officials distanced themselves from Ray Wang’s comments about pro-housing activist Richard Mehlinger, saying he was speaking in his capacity as an individual and not on behalf of the Planning Commission.
Considering how other prominent Cupertino officials have publicly downplayed the housing crisis and quipped about building a wall to keep people out, it certainly reflects poorly on a city already branded as a NIMBY stronghold.
Unsurprisingly, this all started on the NIMBY cesspool that is Nextdoor.
Wang, part of slow-growth group Better Cupertino, posted a message urging folks to attend a pro-growth event to stick it to Vallco developers Sand Hill Property Company and “save the suburbs from an onslaught of anarchists and YIMBY neoliberal fascists.”
Achievement unlocked: Get called a fascist by a sitting public official!
Ray Wang, chair of Cupertino Planning Commission, says:
"Go to their free meeting and defend Cupertino and our way of life. Save the suburbs from an onslaught of anarchists and YIMBY Neoliberal fascists." pic.twitter.com/6O7v7qCQo8
— YIMBY Neoliberal ???️?? (@YIMBYNeoliberal) June 22, 2019
A YIMBYite published a screenshot of the post on Twitter, where it caught the attention of Mehlinger, a Dropbox software engineer, who called Wang’s diatribe an “unhinged rant.” Back on Nextdoor, Wang responded indirectly, saying “we’ll have to talk to Richard’s employer, Dropbox.”
Wang then doubled down. “Next time you get harassed by a YIMBY, track down their employer and send their HR, legal and CEO a letter outlining their YIMBY stance, and all their tweets, their digital and social comms to show their lack of civility,” he said.
That didn’t sit well with Mehlinger, who showed up to last week’s Planning Commission meeting to give Wang a piece of his mind.
“I am not afraid of your threats,” he said, “but there are many, many people in this valley who would be on the street if they lost their next paycheck. The precarity of their situation is due to the racist, classist and exclusionary policies that you and your allies at Better Cupertino consistently defend and attempt to further.”
Now the Merc is demanding that Wang at least apologize. “If he can’t see the need,” the editorial board wrote, “he should resign from the commission.”
There was a time when civilized society settled these issue’s with a proper dual. Today we resort to all manner of tattling, bullyragging, and skullduggery.
This speaking as a member of the public dodge is really a way to insult the public. Brian Doyle, the City Attorney in Santa Clara does it all the time. Both Doyle and this planning commissioner are COWARDS. Public forums are for members of the public not for morons like Wang and Doyle to inflame the discussion and scurry back under the rocks they inhabit.
WOW – Cupertino is a dumpster fire at this point. San Jose should just incorporate them and call it a day.
This is the first I has seen this. But, actually, Ray Wang is correct. The YIMBY movement really is in the neoliberal tradition of holding private interests higher than community or public interests, and is propaganda so the wealthy can take their profits from the commoditization of land and housing. Fascism is the combination of corporations and the state, so that the government can carry out corporate interests. Pretty clear that the public officials approving these projects are doing so at the behest of the backroom deals with developers. SJI did some good articles related to this showing the cozy relationship between the ex-cupertino city council and the developer, and firing of the City attorney.
So describing it as “YIMBY neoliberal fascists” is factually correct.
Sort of ironic that a ‘pro-growth’ software engineer from the west valley is up there giving a speech. Kind of like the CEO of Wells Fargo giving a speech advocating for banking reform.
@The Fly, can you clarify how this is racist? You made an accusation of racism here. False until you can provide direct proof
Fly didn’t make the accusation. Notice how that comment you’re referring to is in “” quotes.
Those crooks from Sand Hill bribed Council officials to get their development project passed for Vallco. How much more one percent can you get? Seems like these yimby’s don’t even care that these corrupt one percenters can shove their development plan through against the desires of the people to have more commercial rather than housing. Keep in mind that Sand Hill did NOT allow other people to bid on building a hotel there. They just approved a hotel owned by the owner of Sand Hill, which is Peter Pau. Cupertino also does NOT have a downtown. How come neighboring areas like Palo Alto and Sunnyvale can all have a downtown area, but Cupertino cannot? This is just totally ridiculous…
Disagree Wang is correct. Attempting to silence someone by threatening to embarrass them to their employer is lower than a snake’s belly. Any claim by a city official that they are wearing a private citizen hat when making public comments are disingenuous and wholly unbelievable. Wang should resign.