Members of Menlo Park City Council:
I strongly support the developments planned for downtown parking lots. Here are some reasons:
I am excited to see many new residents in downtown Menlo Park, patronizing businesses and filling the streets with activity. That is what we need!
We need more affordable housing. By definition, half of all households earn below the median income. Many projects include 15% or fewer affordable homes. That is not sufficient.
Everyone who works in Menlo Park should be able to live here and not suffer a long commute (which robs from family life and contributes to pollution). Think of many service workers — servers, office staffers — and public servants — teachers, police and firefighters — and so on. We are a community. Let’s welcome all of our workers.
Our parking lots are in bad condition and many of the parking spots are too small for today’s cars. Driving down a lane of parked cars is a potential accident since many cars and trucks extend beyond the spaces allotted.
I support investing resources to maintain and develop infrastructure for growth.
I support investing in modern, well-planned parking areas that fit today’s vehicles.
I support investing in infrastructure that provides safe areas for pedestrians and bicyclists.
People living downtown will increase foot traffic, and thus support for our local business owners.
More people downtown will attract additional businesses to set up shop here — especially everyday-needs businesses such as Walgreens and Ace Hardware and moderately-priced restaurants. I want to conduct all of my everyday-needs business here on Santa Cruz and nearby.
People living downtown are more likely to shop downtown and to use CalTrain and other public transit only when needed, reducing the need for additional parking.
A few other considerations:
How are we planning for sufficient water for new developments?
We need to appeal to folks of all ages. Young people will keep Menlo Park vibrant.
We may not need as many parking places as we think. The Springline developers have observed that they planned too many parking spots! So we need to listen to them as to the number of parking spaces actually needed.
Thank you for all you do and for your consideration of these ideas.
Kind regards,
Barbara Gupta
