All of the proposed housing projects, including the Willow Road and downtown “affordable housing” are ridiculous.
By this I mean the following:
1. The Willow Road development is not logical, the traffic is already a nightmare and this will affect Palo Alto/Santa Clara county
Has there been a study made by independent means on how this will affect the San Francisquito creek? Does anyone on the council consider this?
It will ruin Linfield Oaks,
The traffic is already obscene,
You know in your hearts that nobody poor will be able to afford this housing (take a look at Mountain View and Redwood City, the new housing there is not affordable),
Stop looking at profit and begin thinking of the humans and animals that inhabit this space.
This is a mistake. Housing should be built in areas where groceries are available and affordable (Willow Road Market is upscale).
2. Downtown housing
You know it won’t be affordable for the poor. As it is the affordable housing isn’t affordable. My rent is paid by family and I can barely afford to live here.
There are better ways to support downtown. Why don’t you lower rents on Santa Cruz and invite business? The restaurants downtown are not affordable.
I already know of three businesses that will leave if the housing is built, as there is already very little parking available.
How do you propose to deal with parking? A huge parking garage will be ugly. Menlo Park still has some remaining small town charm.
No offense to any of you, but my guess is that none of you live near the areas of proposed development or you would see the glaring issues here and take a look at the mistakes that other local cities have made.
I have seen nothing about studies of how the traffic will affect downtown. Said traffic will affect Santa Clara county and the wealthier neighborhoods in Atherton.
The completely unaffordable housing by the train station has changed Menlo Park dramatically.
These housing developments are nothing more than big bucks for already wealthy developers. Has anyone really stopped to think about what being poor means in Menlo Park?
Are any of you low income?
Take a page from Mountain View. None of this proposed housing will help the real poor in the area. None of this proposes to help the homeless population, which has doubled downtown since Trump was elected.
This is an expensive place to live. Public transport is expensive. Groceries are expensive. Gas is expensive. Health care is expensive. You know that this housing is not for the poor but for the wealthy that Menlo Park obviously desires.
Calling it affordable housing is misleading. It won’t be. You know this.
Both of these proposals are mistakes and you know this.
Sincerely,
Nancy Davenport
Sent from my iPhone
