Mayor Combs and City Council Members,
I support more affordable housing in Menlo Park. In the right locations, it will strengthen our community.
But our community is built around a shared downtown — and the downtown depends on the public parking plazas. Repurposing those plazas would be a once-in-a-generation decision with extreme consequences.
On this decision, I trust the people of Menlo Park to do whats best for the town in which they live.
I therefore urge you to adopt the Downtown Parking Plazas Ordinance, giving residents the right to vote on the future of their downtown.
I was born and raised here. I left for college and lived in LA for 12 years, then San Jose for 5 years but once I had my son in 2022, knew I wanted to be back in this town. I now live a couple blocks from downtown in a home my husband I bought in 2023 and just love. We came back to this city because of how much we love it and my experience growing up, I knew I wanted that for my son. Repurposing the plazas would change this city dramatically, I fear, for the worse and not the better.
Thank you for your service in representing the people of Menlo Park.
Lauren Hall
