Please call your state Assemblymember and Senator about SB 827 and 828, which will allow this to happen. They are certain to be contentious bills. You can find them here: https://sankarravi.github.io/yimbyscorecard/
Caltrain capacity increase is on the way in 2-3 years thanks to electrification and a new fleet of trains.
Note that 828 is purely declarative ("It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would do all of the following"); only 827 would have immediate effect.
828 is still worth watching, to see who comes down on which side.
BS ... Manhattan is dense and not a ghetto. Stop scare mongering. A lot of people are sick of paying 3-5K for single-two bedrooms in Mountain View. Just because you have had yours doesn't mean the rest of us don't deserve the opportunity to live in SV.
There are high rise "settlements" all over the former Eastern Bloc countries, and none of them have become ghettos. It's social inequality, lack of access to good health care, and education that lead to ghettos; not density and public transit.
Your points are sound, however you're simply wrong about Eastern Europe not having high rise ghettos.
Bucharest has several that are among the most dangerous urban areas on earth. And Romania is better off than some of the poorer Eastern European nations such as Moldova or Bulgaria.
Caltrain capacity increase is on the way in 2-3 years thanks to electrification and a new fleet of trains.