Cupertino’s new mayor might have been joking when he suggested the city should build a wall around itself, but Bay Area housing advocates aren’t laughing, especially with thousands of families struggling to survive in one of the nation’s most expensive real estate markets.

Mayor Steven Scharf is unrepentant despite the firestorm his comments sparked.

“They look for every opportunity to bash Cupertino,” he told this news organization Wednesday.

In a reference to President Donald Trump and his promise to build a border wall and have Mexico pay for it, Scharf suggested during his State of the City address recently that not only should Cupertino build a wall but San Jose should foot the bill.

“You’ve heard about the wall along our southern border,” Scharf said near the beginning of his State of the City address, showing a picture of the city surrounded by a black border. “This is the wall around Cupertino. We have a big problem with all these Teslas coming through our city from Saratoga, and other people from other cities, so we came up with this proposal. San Jose will be mainly paying for it. It’s not going to come out of our own taxes.”

The apparent joke drew some chuckles when it was delivered. But the comments have drawn ire online, particularly from those who have criticized the city and other wealthy suburban towns for failing to add enough affordable housing. Plans to build housing at the old, almost-vacant Vallco Mall site have been met with intense pushback from some city residents, particularly a group that calls itself Better Cupertino.

The new NIMBY mayor of Cupertino made an entirely tasteless joke about building a wall around Cupertino and then making San Jose pay for it in his State of the City address. https://t.co/YDPLwHQupp pic.twitter.com/xOBz5blYO0 — Kim-Mai Cutler (@kimmaicutler) February 5, 2019

“Our housing crisis and the pain it is inflicting on thousands and thousands of Bay Area residents is no joke,” the Bay Area Council said in a tweet responding to the mayor’s address.

Our housing crisis and the pain it is inflicting on thousands and thousands of Bay Area residents is no joke. https://t.co/HEw2kBtPMi — Bay Area Council (@BayAreaCouncil) February 6, 2019

Reached by phone Wednesday, Scharf noted the city has given the green light to a number of affordable housing projects, though he acknowledged few projects move forward quickly.

“We’re kind of in a quandary,” said Scharf, who was endorsed by Better Cupertino, which opposes high-density housing.

Still, housing groups and elected officials in San Jose aren’t finding humor in the mayor’s comments.

Congrats to Cupertino Mayor Steven Scharf for out-Trumping Trump on the night of the SOTU by declaring that Cupertino will build a wall and make San José pay for it. We are not amused. https://t.co/u68Pdp7GD9 via @Emily_DeRuy pic.twitter.com/Rfgwbs6Q0r — Lân Diệp (@LTDiep) February 6, 2019

“Congrats to Cupertino Mayor Steven Scharf for out-Trumping Trump on the night of the (State of the Union) by declaring Cupertino will build a wall and make San Jose pay for it. We are not amused,” tweeted San Jose City Councilman Lan Diep, the only remaining Republican on the council.

Okay. Then let's see how many Apple employees show up for work on Monday. https://t.co/KLPey26TpP — Dev Davis (@DevDavisCA) February 6, 2019

“Okay. Then let’s see how many Apple employees show up for work on Monday,” tweeted Diep’s fellow council member, Dev Davis, who left the Republican Party last year.

A couple of years ago, the tech giant built a massive spaceship-looking office complex in Cupertino, home to some 13,000 workers. Housing groups called on the city to add to its housing stock.

But, Scharf said, the idea that all those Apple workers were new to the area isn’t fair. Before the spaceship, the site was occupied by a Hewlett-Packard office complex, and most employees at the new Apple office already had been working at the company’s old headquarters.

The idea that the spaceship threw the city’s jobs-housing balance out of whack “is just not accurate,” he said.

Scharf also criticized CASA, a regional group made up of private and public sector members focused on increasing housing production in the Bay Area, particularly affordable housing.

“It’s called the Committee to House the Bay Area but I really call it the Committee to Destroy the Bay Area,” the mayor said during his address.

The Silicon Valley town of Cupertino, home to Apple, builds virtually no new housing and has a median home cost of $2.3M and rents at $3,200. So when the mayor jokes about putting a wall around the city, it's not much of a joke for non-rich people https://t.co/oDsa8CCP1p — Mike Rosenberg (@ByRosenberg) February 5, 2019

The funding scheme, Scharf added, is “very scary,” with the group wanting to take property tax revenue away from smaller cities. He also suggested that building high-density housing would drive up house prices.

“We really have to start not falling for the false rhetoric that we’re being presented with,” Scharf said.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo declined to comment. But in the past, Liccardo, who has called on San Jose to add some 10,000 affordable homes to the city’s housing stock in the next several years, has urged the mayors of surrounding cities to do their fair share to address the region’s housing crisis.

This isn’t the first time Cupertino’s elected officials have made controversial remarks about housing.

Last year, then-Cupertino Mayor Darcy Paul suggested during his own State of the City address that the city’s lack of housing was not “dire,” sparking anger from housing advocates.