Dear City Council members,
I am writing to voice an opinion about naming the new complex in Belle Haven.
I am a termed out former library commissioner, 15 year resident of Belle Haven, a 20+ year Menlo Park teacher, and current vice-chair of the Complete Streets Commission. Suffice to say, Ive been civically engaged for quite some time.
As Ive long advocated for a full branch library in Belle Haven (along with the notion of including it as part of a community center rebuild), Im beyond excited to see this project come to fruition. My 18 year old was in Kindergarten when I first started asking and working towards this goal.
I was at the meeting where Facebook (now Meta) unveiled its proposal to our community to rebuild the community center and include a new library as part of it. I was there to hear multiple community members express concern that this would result in the building removing the name of Onetta Harris and replacing it with Facebooks. If you havent gone back to watch the recording of that meeting, you should. Facebook representatives went out of their way to clearly state they had no interest in the naming of the building. They were interested in building a new facility to support the neighborhood they had so overburdened with construction and traffic. Their intent was to build the facility and then turn it over to the city who could name it however they wanted.
Of late, every time we have a meeting about this facility, a handful of residents seem to feel its somehow insulting Facebook to not put their name on it and I want to make clear how much I DO NOT want this to happen. Facebook didnt want it that way when confronted with the community outrage. It seems lame to build it and then pout that we arent naming it after them.
As I read the current city naming policy, it seems to indicated that buildings named after community members will not have those names removed except for extraordinary circumstances. Im sure one could make the argument that the complete rebuild presents as such. Dont do that. It doesnt. Even now, the company that proposed this new building is no longer the company still building it. Corporations are temporary. Neighborhood communities are forever. We owe far more of what we have in Belle Haven to the advocacy efforts of residents than we do to Sun, Facebook, Tyco or Meta. See all those name changes? Facebook didnt make this offer because Arillaga has his name on half of Burgess Park. Its silly to think that not putting their name on it will stop some other generous benefactor from contributing to our quality of life.
Honor the words of those who sold us this idea when they said they had no interest in having their name attached to it. Honor the outrage of residents who wanted their history attached to the name. There will still be a community center inside this new complex, that much has been made clear. It should still carry Onetta Harris name as she did nothing to cause its removal.
I think the complex should carry the Belle Haven neighborhood name. Having lived in many places, I appreciate when place names carry some hint about the location because for new residents it can be hard to know where all these places are and Belle Haven has a lot of pride in the neighborhood name.
Sorry its so long. Ive been ruminating on this for a while. I appreciate the time and effort you all put into making Menlo Park such a great place to live.
Jacqui Cebrian
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What Im reading/just finished (audio/print/ebook):
. [https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fci3.googleusercontent.com%2fmail-sig%2fAIorK4ywe8Duj_ZKPdXYiqlS6KdEo1XYYhO9o8YwjIv_BeYphe49PN6zdmafzOp2n47WAQbwfnbT_AU&c=E,1,ujM7wRyV7MSwgIM7bvOz7AJUTAzB28dUrs9Y2MdTQgwSN4NqSHP83nDKd3o9DKmuI_kiH6ZGi9C-vdAbVQH5tP0qeNKzU8SqwFurpYK_7f-iPPID99xHjMkFX5fp&typo=1] [A Work in Progress] [Good Different By Meg Eden Kuyatt Cover Image]
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