I understand you are discussing the use of Santa Cruz Avenue at your meeting tonight. I want to endorse the positive changes that the read closure has brought to the town.
The concept of a design district with vacant rug shops really destroys the community-building opportunity of a pedestrian experience on Santa Cruz Avenue withlocations for eating and meeting. Removing traffic barriers will not increase traffic to the existing rug shops (the issue is that there is almost no market for their products, not a question of access to their stores).
Having a vacant downtown, like most of downtown Santa Cruz Avenue is on weekends, is a blight on our community. Our children have no local destination to meet, families have no local places for food or entertainment. It diminishes the value of the properties in the town since you cannot work, play and eat in one town anymore.
Portola Valley has had a huge resurgence as a community since The Alpine Inn re-opened. It provided a safe space for dining and meeting throughout the pandemic by providing an outdoor eating area. The few remaining restaurants on Santa Cruz Avenue are trying to provide the same atmosphere for our town-an atmosphere that will attract new members to our community.
We moved to Menlo Park with the idea that we could walk to an accessible downtown space with restaurants and entertainment. Unfortunately, the town has lost a lot of this alure with its mis-directed planning efforts towards products and services unneeded and unwanted in the community. Tonights meeting is a chance to retain what little spark there is to downtown Menlo Park.
Kevin Schulman
Leland Avenue
