Mayor sparks controversy with 'wall around Cupertino' joke at State of the City address

CUPERTINO, Calif. (KTVU) - Cupertino Mayor Steven Scharf began his State of the City address with a joke about building a wall.

He said, "You've heard about the wall along our southern border. This is the wall around Cupertino. We have a big problem with all these Teslas coming in from Saratoga and other people from other cities. So we came up with this proposal. San Jose will be mainly paying for it."

The response from San Jose officials was swift and also a bit tongue in cheek.

Online they posted a picture of several city council members holding signs saying they would not pay.
But really, they say they are not amused.

In fact, Leslye Corsiglia executive director of CASA and SV@Home says the real issue came later in the Mayor's speech
where he attacked the idea of a regional solution to the Bay Area housing shortage.

Scharf said, "It's called the Committee to House the Bay Area. But I really call it the Committee to Destroy the Bay Area."

Corsiglia says an taking an isolationist approach is a mistake. She says, "They really believe this is something to be solved city by city instead of seeing it as a regional problem. And really the truth is we don't have walls around our cities."

This comes at a time when Cupertino has added thousands of jobs at Apple's spaceship. And when a potential development at the old Vallco Mall remains in limbo.

Some residents say they too have concerns about development.

David Ong of Cupertino says, "I agree with him because the traffic is horrible."

But he says he isn't sure the wall comment set the right tone.

Ong says, "He shouldn't politicize the wall thing. It's very sensitive where there are a lot of immigrants."