Dear Councilmembers:
My name si Dan Abrams and we have owned a home herein Menlo Park since 2008.
I write to provide my support for the effort to“Save the Guild”, proposed by the nonprofit Peninsula Arts Guild.
I am an amateur musician and my wife and I are huge music fans (we are not movie people -- we have only been to The Guild once to
see a movie in our 10 years in Menlo). We have been members of SFJazz for many years and attend ~10 live concerts/year in SF. We
also attend concerts at the Mountain Winery in the summer and go on one trip per year out of state to see music (Telluride, New
Orleans, etc).
Since moving to Menlo Park, we have been very disappointed by the lack of live music options in the area. Most of the programming
at Bing is not for us, and the only option to see great jazz, blues, bluegrass, and rock, is to head up to SF. This is difficult
due to the long commute but this is an important part of our lives and we make the effort.
The prospect of having live music come to us in Menlo Park at The Guild is extremely exciting andIam asking that you make every
effort to review and approve of this project as a high Council priority in the very near term.
I also love the prospect of bringing other type of live performances to this venue.
My understanding is that Menlo Park is one of a small number of potential sites/communities for this exciting entertainment venue.
I would hate to see Menlo Park lose this incredible opportunity for lack of ability to conduct a timely review process.This may be
a "one and only opportunity" to capture this unique use for our community.
I am not particularly enthusiastic about a lot of the development going on in Menlo Park -- I do not enjoy shopping, and the new
hotels on El Camino are not of use to me in any way. This project, however would really have an impact for us, and would show us
that the City of Menlo Park is committed to a vision for the city that includes improving cultural interests for local residents.
Thank you for considering my opinions here, and I strongly encourage you to make every effort to approve this project in the very
near term.
Please feel free to email me if you have any additional questions or comments.
Best regards,
Dan Abrams
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Menlo Park, CA 94025
