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Some claim our downtown is suffering — and that the “cure” is to fill the parking lots with housing to create “foot traffic.” Indeed, this argument was used by city officials to justify adding the downtown plazas to the City’s housing plan.
But anyone who walks downtown can see the truth: restaurants are busy, sidewalks are lively, and the parking lots are full.
Even regional press has noticed the upswing. In May, the San Francisco Chronicle ran this headline about us: “Forget San Francisco. Restaurants see ‘huge opportunity’ in this quiet suburb.” This year alone, four new restaurants and bars are opening on Santa Cruz Avenue.
And residents are stepping up. The Downtown Menlo Fund (menlofund.org) is a nonprofit recently created by people who love Menlo Park. It’s bringing the community and resources together to improve our streetscapes, enhance public spaces, and support local businesses – proof that our community believes in its downtown and is investing in it.
Our downtown is rebounding. The question is whether City Hall will nurture this progress … or derail it.
The vacancies can be filled
Why do vacancies linger amid this recovery? A burdensome permitting process, overdue maintenance, and the looming threat of losing parking lots have all cast a cloud over the downtown — discouraging lease renewals and new ventures.
And there’s another factor: outdated zoning. City Hall still forbids anything but retail along the ground floor of Santa Cruz Avenue. As a result, neighborhood-serving businesses like fitness studios, art workshops, and wellness spaces are turned away.
Today’s thriving downtowns offer an array of services, not just retail and restaurants. Look at Los Altos: several years ago they faced the same vacancy problem. When they loosened zoning rules, storefronts filled, and their downtown came back to life. Menlo Park can do the same.
Convenience matters
People come to downtown Menlo Park because it’s welcoming and convenient: easy to reach, easy to park, easy to gather. The ability to run downtown for a quick errand or an impromptu meet-up is one reason Menlo Park is such a desirable place to live.
But convenient access isn’t just a luxury for residents – it’s essential for businesses. According to the 2022 Menlo Park Downtown Market Study, our 200 small businesses serve a trade area of 370,000 people within a 20-minute drive. If parking becomes difficult, those customers will simply go elsewhere. And when our businesses lose their customers, we will lose our businesses. The “foot traffic” from people living in the parking lots will do little to stop the exodus.
The people of Menlo Park understand all this. That’s why thousands signed the Citizens Initiative which would give residents a vote on how the plazas are used. Residents support affordable housing for teachers, service workers, and seniors. But they believe there are better locations that can meet the same housing goals without undermining the very amenities that residents and visitors depend on.
We need a solid foundation
To flourish, downtown Menlo Park needs basic care, not open-heart surgery. It’s time for the City to get back to fundamentals.
Here’s how:
1. Maintenance – Fix pavement, repair lighting, refresh signage, add wayfinding, and keep sidewalks clean.
2. Beautification – Add planters, shade, native landscaping, public art, and small amenities that make strolling pleasant.
3. Modernization – Update zoning and streamline permitting so entrepreneurs can bring a wider range of services to the community.
These simple, practical steps will greatly enhance the downtown experience and strengthen our local businesses. Stronger businesses will attract further investment, and our downtown will grow naturally from a solid economic foundation – not arbitrary state mandates.
Choose renewal, not revolution
Downtown Menlo Park is poised for renewal. But just as momentum is returning – new restaurants opening, community pride growing, and investments being made – the City is pushing a risky plan that could undermine that recovery.
We can have both the flourishing downtown we want, and the affordable housing we need. But we must be sensible about how we do it – because there’s a lot to lose.
Alex Beltramo lives in Menlo Park, volunteers with the Menlo Park Design District and Menlo Park Wine Walk, and is a proponent of the Save Downtown Menlo Citizens’ Initiative. He co-founded pogo.com with two friends from Menlo School, when daily “business meetings” meant walking up and down Santa Cruz Avenue with cups of Peet’s coffee.
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Great downtowns are built by people who care. Let’s work together to make our downtown a place we can all be proud of: thriving businesses, village charm, a place community is built. Join the momentum!
We need more housing in this town, so our young residents and returning college students can afford to stay. And yes… with more people living nearby there will be more foot traffic and more success for retail stores. Yes, we should have permitting reform in Menlo Park; yes we should have more kinds of services; none of that reduces the need for more housing. We need to build it.
Alex, you’re just plain wrong on so many fronts.
Downtown Menlo Park is not in decline; per reporting more credible than your biased opinion (the M-A Chronicle) downtown is rebounding and increasingly vibrant, and the proposed downtown housing is a critical part of meeting the city’s broader legal and policy obligations, not a narrow “downtown experiment.” In addition, downtown’s actual contribution to city revenues is substantially smaller than suggested in the opinion piece, which undermines the claim that any change to downtown is a uniquely existential financial risk.
Downtown is flourishing, not fading
Recent local reporting describes downtown Menlo Park as experiencing a “successful comeback,” with new restaurants, an active design district, and a growing calendar of community events that are drawing residents back and strengthening the area’s identity. The Downtown Menlo Fund and other community-led efforts have invested in beautification, events, and business support, which is the profile of a district on an upswing, not one in “malaise.”
Rather than a static or dying commercial strip, downtown has been adding new dining options and cultural programming, with places like Bar Loretta, Yeobo Darling, and Guild Theater events helping generate steady foot traffic. Framing downtown as fragile and on the brink of collapse ignores this post‑pandemic recovery and undercuts the work local volunteers and business owners are already doing to make the area more attractive and resilient.
Housing serves citywide obligations
The downtown housing proposal is not only about “helping downtown businesses”; it is a central way Menlo Park meets its roughly 3,000‑unit RHNA allocation by 2031 under state law. Concentrating a portion of that obligation on city‑owned, transit‑adjacent parking lots is a deliberate policy choice to place new homes where they support walkability, transit use, and climate goals, rather than pushing growth into outlying neighborhoods or parks.
Because the housing element is a citywide plan, downtown is being asked to absorb its fair share of units along with other identified sites, not to shoulder the entire burden. Alternative sites promoted by opponents are not guaranteed to be feasible or available at scale, and delaying or shifting downtown projects carries real legal and financial risks if the city falls short of its required production.
Downtown’s fiscal weight is overstated
Even critics of the parking‑lot projects acknowledge that downtown serves a trade area of many tens of thousands of potential customers, but trade area size is not the same thing as city revenue share. Menlo Park’s overall tax base includes significant contributions from other commercial areas and major employers, so downtown’s share of sales tax is closer to roughly one‑fifth of citywide sales tax, not the dominant pillar implied in the opinion piece.
If downtown generates around 20% of city sales tax, that makes it important but not irreplaceable, and it undercuts claims that modestly reconfiguring three city‑owned lots for mixed‑use housing would financially “cripple” Menlo Park. A realistic fiscal picture supports a balanced approach: protect small businesses with thoughtful design, phasing, and parking management, while still leveraging publicly owned land to meet housing, climate, and legal obligations instead of freezing downtown in place.
Why does the menlo fund website have all of these AI images of downtown Menlo Park? The stop signs and the cars in the pictures look all squiggly and weird. We’re the Menlo Park Design District after all, why is that website full of this AI garbage?
Also, is this the same group that put up all of those gaudy flags downtown? Couldn’t the color scheme at least have stayed consistent instead of all of the pinks, greens, blues and whatnot? A row of white and blue or white and pink flags would’ve looked nicer, but at least have them look consistent.
Is the author saying Menlo Park is thriving or that Menlo Park is dying because of the vacancies? And didn’t an art studio space just open on the ground floor of Santa Cruz Ave. a couple months ago? This whole article makes no sense and sounds like sour grapes. I’ve lived in Menlo Park for decades, I’ve barely seen anyone go into these rugs stores and that Color Me Mine sign on that empty storefront has been staring at me for at least 15 years.
No one is coming here for the parking lots and it’s an insult to us lifelong Menlo Park to say that’s the reason people visit our town. The success of that big Springline building right next to downtown probably led to demand for those new restaurants and bars in downtown Menlo Park and I think these new apartments the city is trying to build will bring even more exciting options for us.
Thanks to years-in-the-making additions like Springline, more businesses, especially restaurants, are finally realizing that Menlo Park is an untapped community ready for a comeback. And that resurgence isn’t because of the surface parking lots. If anything, as we (hopefully) continue this upswing, we’ll need modern parking structures to serve a more diverse community of patrons; people who are comfortable with and accustomed to parking garages, not just those who prefer a bygone model.
Let’s continue to encourage and support new businesses, while also recognizing that we’re in a period of transition. We may need to withstand several years of development, but the result will be a more vibrant downtown with a richer mix of businesses and housing, not just rug stores and restaurants.
When voters pass the proposal next November to build on the parking lots, I hope the good people involved with Save Downtown Menlo will see the value in supporting the progress our city needs. I hope they’ll be willing to loosen their long-held grip on the way things have always been and make room for others in our community.
If you think that the residents of low and very low income housing are going to do anything to help our downtown you are sadly mistaken. By definition they don’t have the disposable income to spend in our downtown. You won’t see them frequenting Left Bank, Camper or any of the other restaurants on Santa Cruz. I don’t frequent them and I have the income to do so. The folks in the proposed housing won’t.
It’s not a matter of letting go of how things have always been, it is being realistic. If you want to put market rate housing in the downtown at higher density with parking lots, go for it. Those folks will have the income to actually support the downtown businesses.