Dear Menlo Park City Council,
I write to you not as a citizen of your fine city but as one of Pacifica, who journeys to Menlo Park six times a week so that my daughter can train at the Menlo Park Academy of Dance. I was not familiar with the city previously, but have been charmed by its downtown, its restaurants, bookstores and small businesses mixed with bigger entities like Trader Joes and Walgreens.
Towns like this just dont exist anymore. Part of the reason Menlo Park works so well is precisely BECAUSE of its parking lots! Families can come and go with ease and patronize the businesses on Santa Cruz. Every day I witness older people come to the post office, the restaurants, and to shop and they are able to park easily and safely in the lot. Families with small children are not dealing with parking garages, parallel parking, and/ or NO parking!
PLEASE find someplace else for housing. Losing these lots will destroy the small town atmosphere of Menlo Park!
Last year I was in San Franciscos Outer Richmond district everyday when Muni took out ALL the diagonal spaces on Geary Blvd. and replaced them with parallel parking in order to have buses be 3 minutes faster. I cannot tell you how horrible it is. Families and elderly people--a large part of the neighborhood population--now have to fear parking and getting out of their cars with buses and cars racing past. It is really hurting the small businesses because no one wants to look for parking and try to get into the reduced number of spaces. Look at what happened on Valencia Street when Muni took out parking there! PLEASE keep the wonderful small town environment of Menlo Park as it is! Do not destroy a wonderful business ecosystem.
Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Karen Clark
Pacifica, CA
Client Family of Menlo Park Academy of Dance
