|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Shannon Fischer
As a local public school worker, a renter who loves Menlo Park, and someone who supports more affordable housing, I am voting Yes on Measure P, and I want to share why.
Measure P has one major goal: to put decisions about our city’s public downtown parking lots in the hands of voters. It is not a measure for or against affordable housing. It is about the right of the people who live in and love Menlo Park to decide what happens to our downtown.
The push to remove downtown parking has been driven by the City Council, which was prepared to move forward on Nov.19, 2024. I have followed this issue closely since then. Back in 2024, the city pushed ahead with its plan to use our downtown parking lots for housing despite community objections from residents and business owners, and I’m grateful that a citizens’ initiative put Measure P on the ballot so voters can decide.
Our small businesses are worried. These are the owners whose livelihoods will be directly affected, in both the short and long term.
Access matters
As people age, or as life happens, easy access to local businesses matters more and more. Shoppers would have to use a multi-level garage with still-limited parking. And the financing isn’t there. A city-commissioned analysis presented in September found funding gaps of roughly $19 million to $45 million across the three developer proposals, with replacement parking alone estimated at $30 million to $54 million! It doesn’t work!
Parking and traffic congestion are already a challenge. The proposed 450-plus units will bring more cars downtown and onto major streets like Santa Cruz, Valparaiso and Ravenswood avenues, which are already congested. Furthermore, none of the developer proposals include one guaranteed parking space for each residential unit. These new residents will have to rely on public parking, the same spaces the rest of us depend on to reach downtown shops and services. Living near the train station doesn’t mean people won’t own cars. Then where do shoppers park?
We also have no plan yet for which schools will absorb more children or how our first responders will serve a denser downtown.
‘But it will revive downtown’
A housing project is not a revival plan. I recently learned that a prime cause of the vacancies was that the city was insisting that only retail and restaurants be allowed on Santa Cruz Avenue — no fitness, health or community services. Fortunately, the zoning was loosened a few months ago, and I’ve heard that lots of new businesses are getting ready to move in. New businesses will bring more people — people who will need to park. Downtown Menlo Fund is working to bring vibrance to downtown with scheduled events like Fourth Fridays.
This can’t be undone
Once this public land is handed over to developers, we don’t get it back.
There are alternatives
Opponents claim no alternatives exist. That is not true, and Measure P gives us time to develop them. City Council candidate Laura Melahn has proposed an amended Housing Element that meets our housing goals without hurting downtown businesses or changing the character of our community (teammenlopark.com/amendment).
Why this matters to me
Yes, I am a full-time renter. Yes, I work in our local schools. I care about this because I love Menlo Park: our tree-lined streets, our quaint downtown without big-box stores, the friendly small-town feel, and neighbors who look out for each other.
When a decision will permanently change the face of Menlo Park, voters should have the final say. Measure P is not anti-housing. It is pro-Menlo Park, pro-small business, and pro-living in a city with an accessible, safe downtown.
On November 3, let’s stand up for democracy, save downtown Menlo Park and then come together as a city to choose viable solutions for housing. I’m voting Yes on P.
Shannon Fischer works as a substitute para-education aide in public schools and is an eight-year resident of Menlo Park.
