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Wonman Lee, 44, thinks that District 1 has a bright future. Tech company Snowflake moved its headquarters into the district, which encompasses the Belle Haven and Bayfront neighborhoods, Belle Haven Elementary School recently completed renovations and the city opened a new community center in 2024.
But with all of those changes, some things remain the same: Belle Haven does not have a full-service grocery store, a pharmacy or a commercial center.
“I want not just my family but all families in Belle Haven to be able to walk on a weekend, for example, to a breakfast place, order a plate of waffles and enjoy their time,” Lee, one of two candidates for the District 1 seat on the Menlo Park City Council, told The Almanac. “We literally cannot do that right now.”
Lee currently serves on the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee, where he saw how heated discussions can get when it was deciding whether to name the new Belle Haven Community Campus after late community activist Onetta Harris.
“Those meetings were focused on such a narrow issue — what to name the facility — instead of talking about what services we’re going to provide,” Lee said. “I feel like that marred what was something great, and a lot of those meetings turned very nasty.”
Professionally, Lee is a software engineer at educational technology company Learneo, which owns tools like CliffsNotes and Course Hero. Lee said his philosophy aligns with parts of the New York Times bestselling book “Abundance” by Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein.
He wants the city to remove red tape preventing housing from being built and work to spur development, especially in areas near transit. He said that by encouraging more housing development, the city can help drive rents down in an area notorious for the high cost of living.
If elected, Lee said one of his main priorities would be to attract a full-service grocery store and commercial core to Belle Haven.
“As I’ve been speaking with residents, I’ve seen that there’s this feeling that our district has been on the short end of the stick,” Lee said.
Lee said this feeling has been amplified since Meta announced it was pausing plans for Willow Village, its massive mixed-use development proposal in District 1 that was set to bring amenities like a grocery store, bank and pharmacy to Belle Haven, which has been classified as a food desert by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
As part of his effort to attract development, Lee wants the city to thoroughly review what went wrong with Willow Village and what it can do going forward to attract a similar development.
Across the city, Lee said he supports development and wants to target places near public transit. With these new developments and additional residents, Lee hopes the city can use a growing tax base to fund things like expanding the city’s gymnastics and aquatics programs.
Lee has been endorsed by Councilmembers Jeff Schmidt and Jennifer Wise, the San Mateo County Democratic Party, both AFSCME Council 57 and SEIU Local 521 (which represent most non-swarn Menlo Park employees), State senator Josh Becker and Assemblymember Marc Berman. SEIU also endorsed Lee’s opponent.
Read more about Lee’s candidacy here, see his answers to The Almanac’s candidate survey here and visit Lee’s campaign site here.
