Dear City Council members, I hope everyone and your families are healthy and managing well in the face of this pandemic. Thank you for all of your hard work during these difficult times. I've been meaning to write to express my concern on two fronts. The first is the city's budget. As a business operator I run a media company in SF; live in Menlo), I think it's really incumbent on the city leadership to take strong steps to revise downward significantly revenue projections for the next 2-3 years and the figure out how to cut expenses to get in line with that. It's pretty well understood that we have a very big budget for a city of this size and hefty pension obligations, which will only deepen in this crisis. Now is the time to reduce staffing and services as a well as capital projects in order to avoid a budget crunch and/ or increased taxes. I know that's painful and budget trimming is not a familiar exercise in most cities. Nonetheless, it really needs to happen lest Menlo Park get into far more serious fiscal trouble. Second, I want to register my opposition to the creeping effort in this city to make movement by car more inconvenient as a means to suppress use of cars for transport. I am a cyclist, but I am also in my 60s and many of my friends are much older. I see this issue from the standpoint of someone who values bike lanes and also wants to be able to park close to Trader Joe's when I need to drive there. I don't believe that the heavy pro cyclist-bias in the recent road work, especially the reduction in parking spaces - took into account the varied needs of the community. Making the roads safe to share with cyclists is fine but making it difficult for people who can't / won't ride bikes to get around or park downtown was not the right trade-off. Now we are hearing about plans to close streets altogether, which I think is a terrible mistake. I know there are people who believe that more foot traffic and fewer cars will somehow improve the environment or make for a better atmosphere in town, but they have no right to impose that vision on the rest of us. Short of a ballot measure indicating widespread support for such a plan, I don't believe the city should support any plan that makes access around Menlo Park even more difficult for the very wide range of people - not just older folks - who cannot or will not get around on foot or by bike. Let's not let the enthusiasms of the few folks impose restriction on the freedom and mode of movement in Menlo Park. Thanks for listening. Ned Desmond 1360 Crane Street Menlo Park Received on Mon May 11 2020 - 18:01:51 PDT
