Ray, Betsy, Drew, Cat, Cecilia, I understand the City Council will be discussing the closing of Santa Cruz Avenue this evening to allow restaurants to open outdoor seating on the roadway. While I support the needs of our local restaurants to reopen and be able to do enough business to survive this COVID-19 storm, I do not feel that closing Santa Cruz Avenue is the best option. There are many other, non-restaurant businesses on Santa Cruz Avenue, what about them? Preventing traffic and parking on the street will not help their businesses. This is also a major connecting road from East to West, blocking it will not be a benefit for anyone crossing through Menlo Park. Why is the City Council not proposing less intrusive options such as allowing restaurant space behind the restaurants in the parking lots that backup to their buildings. It would be easier to close off one late of the parking lots and set up tables in the back? If closing Santa Cruz in the only option then limit the hours the road is closed. Restaurants have certain hours where they do the majority of their business. This would be the evenings when people are going to dine out. If you closed Santa Cruz at 5:30 PM and re-opened it at 11:00 PM that would minimize the impact of residents that use the road as well as other businesses on the street. I hope you take into account that while restaurants are an important part of the city so are the residents and the other businesses on Santa Cruz Avenue. This is a public street and should be available to the public, not set aside for limited private use. If a decision is made to close it then the businesses benefiting from that closure, even short term or temporary closure, should be required to pay a fee for the space they are using to help the city with the financial crisis it is facing. Best Regards, Brian Gilmer Received on Tue Jun 09 2020 - 10:16:38 PDT
