LETTERS LETTERS (April 06, 2005)

Charrette a charade for grade separations?

Editor:

On April 9, the City of Menlo Park is publicizing a design charrette for the area around the Caltrain depot that, according to the city's Website, is being held to:

"Inform and stimulate community dialogue focused on transforming this area into an inviting and vibrant extension of downtown Menlo Park."

However, if you read the third community update from Mayor Mickie Winkler you read:

"Tentative arrangements: There will be four teams, each dealing with a different approach to grade separations."

So what is the real purpose of this charrette?

The original idea of holding a charrette came from former City Council member Chuck Kinney. His idea was to study the west side of El Camino North to see what could be done. This area appears to me to be a candidate for redevelopment, while the charrette area is at best only marginally a candidate.

Mayor Winkler's motives seem quite clear. In my view, this will be a vehicle to push grade separations in our city. In the weeks following the charrette, I expect there will be press releases exclaiming what great ideas were presented and how much Menlo Park will benefit from the information gathered.

The council has already spent $200,000 for an initial study of grade separations and in the next budget is looking to spend another $200,000 for even further study. All this has been done in spite of the fact that what little comment has been gathered from residents and property owners so far has been mainly against grade separations.

Morris Brown, Stone Pine Lane, Menlo Park

Concern about facts of sprinkler opponents

Editor:

In the important discussion regarding the value of residential fire sprinklers the fire district board and its professional staff have put well documented facts on the table, including census reports, fire dispatch records and published reports by expert bodies.

The two Menlo Park people who are opposed to residential sprinklers claim to be armed with reports and statistics from "various sources," but they have never documented those sources or submitted their sources to public scrutiny. I urge them to submit their source documents to the elected bodies that represent the people whom they are attempting to mislead by their claims that fire sprinklers are not cost effective or that the cost of a life saved is "hundreds of millions of dollars."

For example, there are 2,505 homes in Atherton and all of them could be retrofitted (the most expensive alternative and one not even included in the ordinance recommended by the fire district) with fire sprinklers for far less than $50 million. Do the opponents contend that the Christmas Eve fire death did not occur or that there will not be even one such fire death in the future?

There is one death for every 147 residential fires -- and that death is preventable with residential fire sprinklers. Individuals age 65-74 are 1.8 times more likely to die in a fire than the general population, while those adults age 85 or older are 4.6 times more likely to suffer fire-related deaths. And Atherton has twice the percentage of residents above the age of 65 (20.2 percent) as either the Bay Area or the nation.

Public debate on important issues requires facts, not fiction.

Peter Carpenter, Larch Drive, Atherton

Peter Carpenter is a board member of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District.

Good crosswalk would help Menlo resident

Editor:

I would like to recommend that the cities of Menlo Park and Atherton put together a task force to review the safety of our crosswalks, particularly in the area between El Camino Real and Middlefield Road.

This recommendation is based on recent discussions by the Menlo Park City Council, letters by other residents, and my own observations.

I live on Mills, between Oak Grove and Glenwood, and when I want to cross Oak Grove to get to the train station or downtown, I have two crosswalk options which do not have lights or stops for traffic. Most cars speed on by without stopping. I'm lucky on the days I don't have to run across in the crosswalk. It's a bit scary - I never know who will realize I'm in a crosswalk and who will not. My neighbors with strollers, blind neighbors, and elderly neighbors who routinely take that same path likely share these concerns.

Before moving to Menlo Park, I lived in downtown Palo Alto and downtown San Francisco and I must say that I feel more frightened trying to cross the street here than I did in either of those places. Something needs to be done before a pedestrian is hit and is severely injured or killed.

Sarah Granger Mills Street, Menlo Park

Treat council members with dignity

Editor:

I was disappointed in the lack of civility in Pat White's response to Andy Cohen's comments regarding traffic downtown.

His snide comments were unwarranted. Menlo Park is fortunate to have someone of Andy Cohen's caliber willing to serve the public good and he, along with all other members of the city council, deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Let us express our disagreement with each other politely.

Further, while I recognize that Menlo Park needs its sales tax dollars, I do not want El Camino Real to expand to three lanes nor do I want to see excessive traffic downtown on any given day/time. (I also think there would be more parking if more employees of the local businesses parked outside of the downtown area.)

Instead, I think the city should explore more creative ways of increasing visitors during current "slow times" such as Sunday afternoon. For example, if more stores/shops were open right after Menlo Park Presbyterian's church services, I think sales revenue would increase.

Speaking from a marketing background and as one who participated on two committees during the June 2003 city/business/resident initiative to explore Menlo Park's problems and how to fix them, there is a lot more that could be done -- in a joint business/city effort -- that would achieve the desired results without sacrificing the small town atmosphere that so many of us in Menlo Park love. Lynne Bramlett

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