Dear City Council Members,
Thank you for all of the thoughtful work you do on behalf of our city. Your public service is greatly appreciated.
On Tuesdaynight you will be discussing the priorities to be included in the 2018 Council Work Plan in anticipation of your goal
setting meeting to be held onJanuary 29th. One year ago you included the Willows Neighborhood Complete Streets Study (which
includes the Laurel Safe Routes to School Study) and the initiation of a Citywide Safe Routes to School Program in your 2017
goals. Parents for Safe Routes strongly encourages you to maintain these two priorities at the top of your list. Given the
continued challenges that kids face daily trying to get to school safely, it is critical that these projects move forward in a
timely manner.
In addition to the continued focus on the above-mentioned priorities, we would also like to see the City prioritize the
Middlefield Road and Linfield Drive Crosswalk Improvements. This past summer, the Menlo Park Fire District generously offered to
fund 50% of a much-needed safety improvement at this crossing location. Rather than pushing for the project at that time and
likely upending other approved projects, Parents for Safe Routes honored the City's prioritization process and decided to wait
until the appropriate time to lobby for this improvement. That time is now. Please do not forget the over 70 people who signed a
petition to the Fire Board back in June, the 10 who wrote personal letters to the Fire Chief and the handful who spoke up at the
Fire Board meeting. The Almanac article about this project is here
https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2017/06/22/menlo-park-fire-district-offers-175k-for-special-crossing-lights
[https://parents4saferoutes.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c899a2dfbc95a19599c39872&id=baf80d3e9a&e=6c4cd02207]and the
presentation we made, including many public comments, to the Fire Board can be found here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQP_q_YrkC8&t=1075s
[https://parents4saferoutes.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c899a2dfbc95a19599c39872&id=94c3d2b20c&e=6c4cd02207]. I'm happy to
provide additional information on this topic if desired.
We would also encourage you to leave room in your Work Plan for smaller infrastructure improvements. Whether it's a simple
crosswalk or patch of missing sidewalk, it is critical that enough staff capacity exists to address relative "low hanging fruit"
issues. Perhaps "Increasing Staff Capacity" should be one of your priorities. It's the little things that can often have the
greatest impact on our quality of life.
In general, as you move forward with your prioritization process, please ask yourselves, what can we do to make life safer and
better for those most vulnerable in our community? While many items are "nice to have", given our unprecedented traffic safety
issues, please give top priority to kids, that simply want to get to school safely.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Diane McGrath
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