Greetings Councilmembers,
As a city resident since 1976 I would like to strongly urge the Council to reject the portions of the referenced agenda item proposals having to do with permanent closure of any section of Santa Cruz Ave. in either direction.
The proposals I objected to via public comment in the most recent Planning Commission meeting, which in you will consider in some form at your Aug. 15 meeting, seem to present a false choice with regard to the street closure.
Menlo Park can easily allow the same level of permanent Streeteries accommodations and upgrades that 10 of the 12 downtown restaurants enjoy to the other two restaurants, namely Bistro Vida and Left Bank, while recovering the long-lost benefit of safe two-way auto and bicycle traffic circulation along Santa Cruz Ave.
The fair, safe and efficient solution is to allow Bistro Vida and Left Bank to continue to use the portion of their outdoor dining areas that occupy only the parking spaces directly in front of their venues but no longer occupy the eastbound through traffic lane.
It should be noted that the relevant City Staff report points to the important fact that Santa Cruz Ave. businesses are willing to adopt such a solution as cited in page L-1.4 of this agenda item:
Businesses on Santa Cruz Avenue expressed interest in keeping the street closed because it allows
them to expand business operations, though they acknowledged that it would be okay if the City reopened
the street. Outside of this business outreach, city staff have heard interest from various groups
and individuals in street reopening.
The solution I describe has the following benefits additional to relieving eastbound traffic congestion on Menlo Ave. and Oak Grove Ave. as well as detoured traffic on Maloney Lane, including
* Equitable treatment of restaurants - they can all permanently use the street parking areas but no more than these areas as almost all of them already do. No restaurants would have access to any traffic lanes for business purposes.
* Safer bicycling - I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen cyclists riding eastbound in the westbound lane of Santa Cruz Ave along the temporarily closed block in question despite the appearance of oncoming car traffic in the same lane. Ive had to fully stop my own eastbound car at least 3 times when confronted with such a situation on that block.
This solution is a reasonable compromise for which theres a precedent. Please recall that Galata Bistro once had privileges allowing it to use the closed lane of eastbound Santa Cruz Ave. along its block for its business. Later this privilege was changed, restricting Galata Bistros use to the parking area along its storefront with little or no ill effect on their business.
In short, please consider the small benefit to just two businesses (for only a small portion of any given day during only the warm, dry months of the year) against the loss of significant benefits to local citizens and visitors 24/7 year round.
The ongoing closure of Santa Cruz Ave. isn’t not fair, it’s unnecessary and it will certainly be irreversible.
Thank you all for your kind and diligent attention to this matter.
Best regards,
Rich Wipfler
1045 Valparaiso Ave
(downtown) Menlo Park
