Dear Honorable City Council Members,
I am strongly in favor of urgent movement on the three CAP initiatives to be discussed this evening.
California has a reputation as a hub for progressive policies, and environmentalism is no exception. While the state legislature has a dismal record on climate change action over the past couple of years, there is much that can be done at the local level. If California is seen as the benchmark for progress at the state level, then the Bay Area is the locale one excepts to see the most drastic action being taken. As such, I see it as incumbent on Bay Area municipalities to act boldly and lead the way on transitioning to a zero-waste economy. The means are available, it is only a matter now of logistics and will. If Menlo Park can succeed in its goals, it sets a precedent for the remaining 49 states (and the rest of the world) in terms of addressing the climate crisis.
Beyond the obvious importance of mitigating the existential threat of climate change, one of the CAP initiatives to be discussed this evening impacts my day to day, and that is the availability of EV charging.
My husband and I are owner of an electric vehicle and live in an apartment complex that does not provide on-site charging. Over the past year it has become increasingly challenging to find available chargers. There are two about a three minute walk from our home, but they are typically occupied. It is also no longer possible to check their status using a cell phone app (we used to use ChargePoint, but these charges are no longer supported by tool, it would seem). As such, we often have to make multiple trips in hopes of getting lucky and finding an open charger. We also realize we are among the fortunate in this circumstance given how close we live to the chargers. If we are unable to successfully charge, we must resort to using our other, gas-powered vehicle.
Incentivizing landlords to provide onsite charging would be an enormous win. After all, I would imagine there are many like us who have the desire to to make environmentally-conscious choices but are coming up against obstacles.
Additionally, adding more public chargers would be fantastic. I should say, the chargers near us currently have no time limit, which seems ideal, but given the limited number of them, it might be useful to create a 3 hour limit or so. More ideally, though, there would simply be more chargers available.
Additional action that you could take in the short term would be to a City Manager who is pro climate-change mitigation and who will organize staff to help solve this crisis.
I thank you for taking the time to hear my comments on the issue.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Eliscu
Menlo Park Climate Team
