Thank you, Betsy, for reading my first email.
I understand your concern about train voyeurism. It’s really just human curiosity. I daresay everyone currently living along Caltrains’ right-of-way moved there after the commuter trains were running. Perhaps they chose those homes as a compromise between a desire to live in Menlo Park and affordability. Nonetheless they factored in the inconvenience of the train in their backyard before they moved in.
Given state mandates and Bay Area growth development along the El Camino corridor is necessary and inevitable. Most of our town’s current and future growth is east of the tracks. For example, there are all those residences east of Hwy 101. East Menlo Park is in a period of revitalization (some would say gentrification) as a result of the presence of Facebook and as the price of homes and mortgage interest rates rise. Then there are plans for hundreds of residences on SRI land. How will these folks receive dependable city services when all of the Caltrain crossings are subject to occasional flooding? We simply must have some streets that cannot be compromised by weather. The needs of the many cannot be held hostage to the inconvenience of the few.
I appreciate the opportunity to comment on an issue that will have major consequences for the future of the town in which we have resided for the major part of our lives.
Steve Machtinger
On Mar 17, 2023, at 3:24 PM, Steven Machtinger > wrote:
We want to speak in favor of complete grade separation for at least the Ravenswood and Oak Grove crossings.
Lowering the roadway, even by a small amount, to accommodate a partial grade separation creates a very real risk of crosstown road closures when heavy rains cause flooding.
https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/rain-causes-flooding-throughout-san-mateo-county/article_9f5ae61a-8973-11ed-9110-b392a47d43d1.html
The result will be traffic chaos, safety issues, and the isolation of the east side of town from the west side. I believe this last consequence is the issue that for decades has paralyzed action on grade separation in Menlo Park. Safety is a greater concern. What route will ambulances and police vehicles take when all four east-west routes to El Camino are closed by flooding?
In our opinion, these issues have a greater quality-of-life impact on more town residents than the possible loss of privacy for a few.
Steven Machtinger, MD
Karen Machtinger
901 Cambridge Avenue
650-796-3813
