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Ideas for tackling Alpine Inn parking problem
Thank you Malea Martin for the excellent work highlighting the parking problem
relating to the success of the Alpine Inn (“Despite Alpine Inn’s efforts, overflow parking problems persist,” Aug. 11). Especially the equivocation by town and county folks who are “studying the situation.”
For the Town of Portola Valley and San Mateo County to allow seating in the numbers of Alpine Inn attendance and not provide parking inside that jurisdiction is irresponsible. The town and county could create parking along Alpine Road and/or
on the existing soccer field. The parking problem has clearly affected access to the soccer field, so why keep it? Reducing the seating allowed to match the available parking would be less popular, but should be the operating logic deployed in this case until the parking is provided in Portola Valley. “Pave paradise and put up a parking lot.”
Santa Clara County should render the spaces along Arastradero Road non-parkable by placing signage and ticketing. Possibly the placement of bullards would
suffice. Arastradero Road is inadequate for bicycle, pedestrian, equestrian and
vehicular traffic once you leave Arastradero Road immediately adjacent to
Page Mill Road, and approach the Enid Pearson preserve. If parking is to be provided along Arastradero, it should be secondary to a widening of the road, establishing bike lanes and general public safety. Secondarily should be tax revenue for the Town of Portola Valley and San Mateo County.
The City of Palo Alto and Stanford University own most of the property along Arastradero Road. The Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Department is responsible for the historic mismanagement of that roadway. For example, the washout between the Stanford Fish ladder and the bridge at the county line was allowed to fester for over four years before we almost lost the north side lane in front of the bridge. The shoulder failed and is now a thing of the past with 500 pound boulders being the best that county Roads and Airports could come up with.
Arastradero Road was inadequate for the traffic it carried before the recent success
of the Alpine Inn. Now, because Santa Clara County can’t manage itself, the Town
of Portola Valley and San Mateo County should not allow a worsening of the situation by ignoring the impact of their actions.
Mike Houlihan
Alpine Road, Portola Valley
An unpleasant exchange with Portola Valley dog owners group
As a Hispanic dog owner, I thought it would be fun to get out of Redwood City and take my rescue lab Cruz to a park in a country setting. Cruz and I went to the Town Center park in Portola Valley and, to my surprise, there were 10 to 15 dogs off-leash with their owners gathered in a group. I immediately let Cruz off his leash and not a minute later, I was rudely confronted by an elderly man who said that this was a private group and dogs had to be on leash in the park.
He said he was a former mayor and councilman and that his group was for residents only. Now, two things come to my mind right away. Everyone in the group was white, and how did he know I wasn’t a resident?
I spoke with a sympathetic person sitting on a park bench who told me this group meets regularly at the Town Center and at the two public schools in town. I also noticed that the people driving by in pickup trucks with tools in the back look like me, but not the people in this “private dog park” group.
I see on the town website that they have a Race and Equity Committee. I guess that exists to make sure they have enough brown workers to mow their lawns.
Perhaps it’s time for a group of brown dog owners to form our own off-leash dog group in Portola Valley, since the town park and schools are open to private dog groups.
If we’re good enough to mow their lawns, we’re good enough to use their parks.
Oscar Martinez
Fourth Avenue, Redwood City
Menlo Park sends Citibank’s ‘jarring’ branch remodel back to drawing boardMarch 24, 2026 2:58 pm
Oscar, don’t know if you recorded anything but I would make an official complaint to that PV committee and to the San Mateo County race and equity committee/board. Time to put the old boys in their place.