Since wildfires seem to be our new normal, I’m hoping the council is in serious discussion about ways to help keep the public safe. Specifically: -we need current, accurate, local air quality data so people know whether it’s safe to spend time outdoors. -we need a plan for quickly notifying and evacuating people if needed. And just telling people to evacuate isn’t going to work. We need to make sure there are clear routes with all lanes open in the direction of the evacuation to get people moved out quickly. Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto has a way to switch lanes from eastbound to westbound to accommodate the large flow of traffic during Stanford home games, couldn’t we set up Sandhill, Santa Cruz, Willow, Marsh, 101, 280….etc….to have all lanes head in the direction of the evacuation? And once we evacuate….where are we going? Are there places that have been identified as shelters locally, or are you just hoping we all have friends or relatives someplace which hopefully isn’t burning? Looking to the future: -can’t we start putting our electrical lines underground? It would have the added benefit of getting rid of the eyesore of overhead wires (esp. on Middle!). -are you going to regulate all the diesel/gas generators everyone is now going to want to buy? Those can emit a lot of pollution and make neighborhoods quite noisy. -can our planning department persuade people to stop designing homes with wood exteriors and roofs (nothing quite like nailing kindling to your home!). Carole Grace 100 Garland Drive Menlo Park, CA carolelfgrace_at_(domainremoved) Received on Mon Oct 28 2019 - 16:35:00 PDT
