> build a few high-rise

The dominant political view in the area is that building high-rise anything anywhere is something that should be stopped at all costs

True in much of Silicon Valley (especially places like Palo Alto, which want to retain a suburban layout), but there's some moderate densification going on in San Jose. It lulled for a bit during the financial crisis because a bunch of projects' financing fell through—some apartments under construction had work stopped for ~2 years. But construction seems to be back in swing again now.

Sam is right about "the wildly-out-of-control housing costs, which is probably the biggest weakness here right now". FYI, some Mountain View tech workers volunteer for an organization called MV Voters for Housing Diversity. See who we endorse for City Council at www.mvhousing.org, and vote tomorrow! http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/find-polling-place.htm

In Palo Alto, there's a similar organization called Palo Alto Forward, which I know some Palantir employees are involved with. www.paloaltoforward.com

Recent thread on So You Want To Fix The Housing Crisis:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8549454

Basically, people need to vote if they want to see any changes.

Not sure where they would build "high-rise" anything - zoning laws would preclude that in most places in the bay area.

Political action to allow higher density?

Silicon Valley is already a dubious value proposition for most startups, if not outright terrible.