Hi Brian, We don’t have a confirmed date yet. As I mentioned, we are looking at a few dates. We’ll confirm a date next week. Best regards, Kirsten Keith, Mayor On Fri, Nov 10, 2017 at 8:18 AM Brian Gilmer > Thank you, I appreciate the urgency that you are giving to this matter. > If we are confirmed for the next council meeting I will let the Willows > Neighbors know so that we can attend and speak on the topic. I do not know > if I will have time to get a small group together to come up with > suggestions, but I will try. > > > > Best Regards, > > > > Brian Gilmer > > > > *From:* Kirsten Keith [mailto:kkeith_at_(domainremoved) > > *Sent:* Thursday, November 9, 2017 10:29 PM > *To:* Brian Gilmer > > *Cc:* city.council_at_(domainremoved) > > > *Subject:* Re: Please help adress this serious issue > > > > Hi Brian, > > > > Thank you for your email. I live in the Willows and completely understand > your frustration and that of all of our neighbors. I’m so sorry that your > car was hit. That is very scary. > > > > Amy Roleder wrote in earlier this evening and I have already written to > our City Manager about trying to find some immediate solutions to the > serious increase in traffic in the Willows. > > > > I usually reply directly to people who write to me on CCIN, but thought > this warranted responding to CCIN. > > > > I will add this to our 11/29/17 or 12/05/17 council agenda so that we may > discuss short term solutions that we can quickly implement. I will also > confer with our city attorney about the possibility of discussing this > topic at our next council meeting, 11/14/17. > > > > Again, thank you for writing to me. The City will address these concerns. > > > > Best regards, > > > > Kirsten Keith, > > Mayor of Menlo Park > > > > > > > > On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 8:38 PM Brian Gilmer > > City Council Members, > > I am writing today to bring to you attention a matter that poses a serious > safety hazard as well as impacting the lives of my family and many of the > residents in the Willows. That matter is the cut through traffic and the > impact it is having on our lives and safety. > > I know you are aware that cut through traffic in the Willows has been an > ongoing issue for many years, I have lived here for 50 years. We have a > lot of cars trying to avoid University Avenue and Willow Road by cutting > into the Willows neighborhood, driving down residential streets not mean > for a high volume of traffic and then back on to Willow at O’Keefe, Durham > and Chester. While driving through the Willows many of these drivers fail > to obey the posted speed limits and in many cases run stop signs at various > speeds. With the number of children in this neighborhood this poses a > serious threat to their health and well being. > > As bad as this problem has been in the past it just became much worse, > dare I say untenable. The Willow Road / highway 101 interchange work is > progressing and as part of that work two additional stop lights have been > activated on Willow Road. This has created a traffic debacle. Congestion > is much much worse now. Starting at about 4:00 PM myself and many of my > neighbors on O’Keefe are not able to leave our driveways due to the line of > cars backed up trying to turn right onto Willow Road East. This back up > eventually extens well past Laurel Avenue three blocks south of Willow > Road. I have spoken to my neighbors on Durham and if anything the backup > is even worse there. I can only imagine how bad it must be on Chester. I > am enclosing some pictures I took this evening. Starting as just after > 4:00 PM the cars on O’Keefe street extended from Willow past Arnold. By > 4:45 they extended past Regal and included buses from Facebook. > > I challenge each of you to attempt to drive from City Hall to Bayfront > express way at 5:00 on a week day evening in under 1 hour. When you find > that a near impossible challenge I invite you to walk through the Willows > neighborhood and observe the congestion on the residential streets and the > impact it’s having on our families. If a fire truck or other emergency > vehicle was needed it would take a very long time to get through. > > Finally I would like to add that as I was writing this letter one of the > construction crew working on my house came in to inform me that my vehicle > had been hit by another vehicle attempting to squeeze between the traffic > trying to get onto Willow and my SUV parked on the street due to day time > construction. This is the second day in a row that has happened, with the > car breaking my driver side rear view mirror yesterday. This has never > before happened to me and just indicates how drivers are in a rush and are > driving dangerously. > > Please do something NOW to address this. We can’t wait for another 3 > years while another traffic study is done, issues are debated, etc. > Someone is going to get hit by a car speeding through the neighborhood or > need an emergency vehicle that cannot reach them in time. > > Sincerely > > Brian Gilmer and Zhanna Sardaryan > > > > Two photos attached. One of the line of traffic down O’Keefe toward > Laurel taken from the middle of the 500 block. The other the cars blocking > the drive ways so we cannot get out. The line grew even longer but it was > difficult to get a good picture when it was dark. > > > > > > -- > > Best regards, > > Kirsten Keith, > Mayor of Menlo Park > -- Best regards, Kirsten Keith, Mayor of Menlo Park Received on Fri Nov 10 2017 - 09:01:57 PST
