I am a long time Menlo Park resident who moved from a 5th floor downtown Palo Alto mixed use building. Downtown MP was much smaller then (over 700 businesses in downtown Palo Alto) and it is even sleepier now with a growing number of closed / empty storefronts. Its sad to see "for lease" signs on small shops backed by half-empty asphalt lots cracked by roots winding up to an occasional lonely tree.
We should learn from our neighboring cities examples. Both Palo Alto and Redwood City have built affordable housing downtown without an increase in crime rates -- despite some fears at the time (crime has gone down since Alma housing went up).
Since the Great Recession, similarly sized downtowns in Los Altos, San Carlos and Burlingame all have surpassed Menlo Parks because they built UP their "critical mass" downtowns with more residents, more dining and more entertainment options that Amazon, Door Dash and NetFlix cannot kill.
My wife and I favor building housing on the downtown lots with optimised parking for local business employees, new residents-to-be and more specialty retail + service customers.
WE can build this.
-Paul Roberts
West Menlo
