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Amid ongoing issues with other recreational programs, Menlo Park seniors have raised concerns about the senior center at the Belle Haven Community Center.
Hard-to-use chairs, tripping hazards, inaccessible restrooms and unclear emergency plans are some of the concerns listed in a petition that has garnered 200 signatures.
The senior center is open weekdays at the new community center and provides services to residents 60 years of age and older. Meta, then-Facebook, paid for the center, which replaced the Onetta Harris Community Center, located at the same space. The Harris Center previously had a separate building for seniors, but as part of the modernization, the senior center was put in the same building as the other services.
Seniors have said that the redesign did not take into account their needs.
“It makes us very sad that the seniors aren’t a priority in the new building at Belle Haven,” said one longtime resident, a disabled senior, who spoke through a translator at a council meeting.
“It just wasn’t designed for us,” he added at another meeting.
Seniors say that the chairs in the center are not accessible to people with disabilities, which has led to many of them tripping and falling on them. The furniture at the previous center was “carefully selected with accessibility in mind,” according to the petition.
Additionally, the bathrooms are not accessible and the doors are very heavy, according to one senior. Many seniors need staff assistance to open the doors, which they say is inconvenient and undignified.
Eduardo Hernandez, a Belle Haven resident for 25 years who organized the petition, said that he has concerns about the city’s safety plan.
“I was deeply concerned to learn that [a city employee had] misled us regarding the existence of a safety plan for the Belle Haven Community Campus. At the front desk, I was told that the safety cards were just printed today. When I reviewed them, they contained only maps of the building — no actual safety instructions or emergency procedures,” Hernandez wrote in an email to the city council. “I then went to the library on the second floor, where the librarian told me they were unaware of any safety plan and did not know what to do in the event of an emergency.”
When an alarm went off at the center, which some say happens frequently, Hernandez and another senior confirmed that city staff evacuated without informing the seniors what to do.
“When the alarm goes off, the young people know what to do and they take off running, but we seniors don’t know where to go. It’s a shame how we are being treated,” one senior told the city council.
“As a senior and instructor, there were serious and disturbing problems at the new community center since it opened,” said Patty Mayall, a former instructor at the center, in an email to this news organization. “There’s faulty and dangerous electrical and design issues, including no air conditioning on the hottest days and inaccessible doors, bathrooms, and seating. I honestly do not know how the design and furnishing decisions passed any ‘approvals’ for seniors or disabled people.”
This is not the first petition seniors have sent to the city council since the center opened nearly a year ago. In response to that petition, city staff and then-Mayor Cecilia Taylor met with seniors and listened to their concerns.
Following the meeting, the city produced a table summarizing the concerns and city staff’s response. “Instead of direct engagement, city leadership created this document, which was posted inside the building, but many seniors were unaware of it,” Hernandez said. “There has been a lack of clear communication since, and the seniors are still waiting for meaningful responses.”
After Hernandez sent the latest petition, city staff agreed to host another forum on Friday, May 9. However some seniors are concerned that the meeting may be “political lip service rather than real action,” Hernandez said. Hernandez also said seniors feel much of their concerns have been downplayed by city staff.
In response to seniors’ concerns at council meetings, Mayor Drew Combs said, “The council and staff are aware that there are transition pains and issues from the prior structure… that in some ways there have been some suboptimal design decisions. It’s not always the easiest thing to remediate…it will just take some time.”
City Council also held a council meeting at the center instead of at council chambers at the civic center near downtown.
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