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Honorable Menlo Park City Council,
Walkability is the single most important factor I look for in choosing housing these days. Walking for daily transportation enhances health, improves the local air quality and contributes to better regional air quality and planetary environmental metrics,
and improves the safety of our area for everyone by reducing vehicular traffic. Creating affordable housing in walkable areas allows people of all income levels to enjoy and contribute to all of these benefits.
One of my favorite things about Menlo Park is how walkable the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods are. The SRI site is located well for people to use public transit to access other cities along the peninsula. I feel very lucky to be able to take Caltrain
to any of three airports or to Amtrak, linking me with Davis, Sacramento, and even San Diego, Seattle, Chicago and the East Coast. The SRI location could support and encourage a car-free or car-light lifestyle even for people who travel locally or well outside
the region.
The SRI project is also great location for daily walkability without connecting to transit. Alas for walkability, the elementary schools are located on the edges of the district. The SRI project would allow for more families to include walking to and from
(Encinal) school in their daily routines. Downtown Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and all of the amenities within the project itself could easily provide most of a familys daily needs.
We need more projects like this, and we need them to be accessible to residents (and potential residents) of all income levels and family sizes. Please continue to make this project happen and keep it aligned with our values for a healthy and diverse community.
Thank you for making walkable Menlo Park accessible to more of us.
Margaret Cooper
Margaret
California
