Hi everyone,
I wanted to share my thoughts on a couple of matters that are coming before the city.
1) Please approve the budget request for the climate resiliency role. This will be essential as we pursue our Climate Action Plan, particularly Action #6 which is focused on preventing and managing the effects of sea level rise. Funding this role is also important from a justice and equity perspective as those living in Belle Haven and North Fair Oaks would be amongst the first impacted by rising sea levels. Let's get ahead of it by funding this resiliency role.
2) As housing development plans wind their way through the city process, I want us to ensure that the affordable housing is actually affordable. A different way of thinking about the pricing of affordable housing was highlighted in a book I recently read (The Purpose of Power by Alicia Garza, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement). When she was organizing communities in SF, they were trying to ensure that developers made housing affordable for the people who *actually live in the neighborhood receiving the housing development*. Since Menlo Park is a small city, but with a wide range of income levels, I'd love to see us take that into consideration. If we consider affordable housing as not exceeding 30% of household income, we could identify the average income level for each of our districts/neighborhoods and ensure that "affordable housing" is priced not to exceed 30% of the average income in that area.
Thanks for listening and for your service to our city and everyone who lives and works and plays here.
Nancy Larocca Hedley
District 4
