Good evening, City Council.
My name is Carmen Caricchio, and I live in Downtown Menlo Park
We all agree Menlo Park needs more housing. But there are better places than our downtown parking lots.
That’s why I support the Save Downtown Menlo ballot measure.
A decision this important — and this permanent — should be made by the people of Menlo Park.
Rather than repeat what the community has already told you —about the lawsuit and ballot measure, or about the fact that Menlo Park is not Manhattan and people need cars to access downtown, what I want to remind you of is this:
Your responsibility as City Council members is not to act on your personal beliefs or biases, but to represent the community you serve. Thousands of letters, signatures, and now a lawsuit and a ballot measure all send the same clear message: The vast majority of Menlo Park residents do not want our downtown sacrificed. And it doesn’t need to be — And it doesn’t have to be — there are viable alternative sites this council has chosen to ignore.
Consider what real leadership looks like. In San Francisco, Mayor Willie Brown saw potential in underutilized land and brought it to the voters in 1997. What began as South Park is now Mission Bay — home to UCSF, OpenAI, Uber, and major biotech and investment firms representing the highest grossing commercial real estate in San Francisco. That transformation didn’t come from tearing down historic districts, but from reimagining underused areas.
Mayor Brown will be remembered as a leader who listened, compromised and built a future with his community, not against it.
How will this council be remembered? As the one that turned against its own residents, wasting taxpayer dollars on lawyers only to lose at the ballot box? As five individuals lacking real-world business, construction, and development experience, ignoring the vast expertise of its own citizens who are held back from taking open seats in the Housing Council in favor of stacking committees with single-issue housing proponents? As officials who pushed a personal utopian vision Menlo Park never asked for? Or as the council that hollowed out downtown, driving away businesses and destroying local jobs?
True leadership begins when personal beliefs are set aside and the will of the people becomes the moral compass.
Carmen Caricchio
District 4 resident
