Many are the ways to take stock of a year. Photographs can sum up powerful moments of raw emotion, while words reveal people’s perspectives and their attempts to shape public policy.

This year, as issues of unrelenting traffic congestion, the woeful inaffordability of housing and missteps in the Palo Alto Unified School District made the headlines, city leaders and residents alike weighed in.

To help you think over what happened this past year and what it all meant, here’s a playback of some of the comments that were selected as the Palo Alto Weekly’s Quote of the Week that touched on development, homelessness, schools, traffic and other topics.