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Former Menlo Park mayor and two-term councilman Steve Schmidt has been coy about whether or not he’ll run for City Council this year, but has finally decided to sit this round out. “It’s just not the right time,” he said. “I will take another look in two years.”
He declined to cite specific factors influencing his decision, saying, “The lines are not as clear in defining who’s who in this year’s election. I’d rather wait.”
Mr. Schmidt served on the council from 1994 to 2002.
Without further comment on the upcoming elections, Mr. Schmidt changed topics. “It’s too nice a day to be inside, but I don’t have a choice.” He recently broke his hip after tumbling from a bicycle and expects to spend the summer recuperating.
The candidate filing period opens July 12. Three terms expire this year — Mayor Rich Cline’s, Vice Mayor John Boyle’s, and Councilman Heyward Robinson’s.
Joan Lane, trailblazing volunteer and Stanford’s go-to for ‘sticky problems,' dies at 97March 25, 2026 3:23 pm
Good decision Steve.
You must have noticed that over the years you’ve made too many enemies from your prior supporters to stand even a chance of getting elected.
I was wondering why I had not seen you riding around. I sure hope you are feeling better Steve. See you around the neighborhood.
So, here’s a guy that has spent a countless amount of volunteer time, trying to improve our town, and Frugal Boy has to make a comment like that. Unreal. You may not approve of everything that Steve has worked on, or had opinions about, but give the guy a break! How ’bout if you run for something Frugal Boy? I’m sure you’d be a “positive” influence on all of our issues!
Schmidt hasn’t been spending his time on improving our town, only the part of it that personally interests him. He made a lot of enemies in Linfield Oaks when he insisted that his multi-million-dollar bike tunnel should take precedence over everyone’s objections. He was one of the council members — unfortunately, not the only one — who would always ignore residents’ input at public meetings.
I was at a private meeting in 2006 when he was looking for support for re-election. Someone asked him if there was anything that he had done during his two terms that he would have done differently. His response: “not a thing!”
We do not need that kind of “I’m perfect because I say so” attitude in government. He’s been threatening to move away for years. Maybe it’s time he did so.
Well, from my living room in my beautiful home on Laurel in a development that this guy fought for, I say bring him back. I hear from the old timers that he went to the mat for the building of these wonderful homes across from the Civic Center and in the linfield neighborhood.
and to those who said these were tenement houses, you better check the sale prices in our neighborhood.
Hope you’re feeling better Steve
To “A Fan”
Are you you living in those units with 10′ between houses? If so, you’ll love it when there are three/four floor apartments right next door. Lots of neighbors/noise/traffic.
So, I guess Frugal didn’t get what he wanted, so he feels the right to trash someone on the blog, nice! For the record the bike tunnel IS, and hopefully WILL BE a great addition to the city. Kids need exercise and more direct access on their way to Hillview, it would be a great alternative and much safer. It would also give families the chance to ride east/west on bikes without the congestion of crossing the tracks and other clogged intersections. You have my vote Steve, sorry Frugal is still stuck in the 1960’s, ’cause to him/her “change is bad, berry, berry, bad….” Still trying to figure out what homes, besides apartment building are adjacent to the proposed bike tunnel?? Nimby’s go home!
Steve’s bike tunnel made no sense for kids going to Hillview because it would force a child either to ride down El Camino (great!) or Cambridge, a very tricky street for a young cyclist to navigate. Seriously, you think one tunnel would make the difference between kids getting exercise and not? Wow.
By the way, plurals are not created with apostrophes! (as you would spell it, apostrophe’s)
A Fan, glad you like your home, because many of your neighbors have complained about the shoddy construction (now evident after a decade). We have friends who live there, and “ghetto,” not “tenement” is the word that actually comes to mind whenever I drive down those teeny streets with the houses packed together. The Classics housing prices are depressed compared to the rest of Linfield Oaks, where people have actual yards, but that’s not a knock on Steve.
It is a knock on Steve that he didn’t think in terms of the big picture. That site would have been ideal for the new basketball gym. Instead, we’re losing a big chunk of green space at Burgess because he and others lacked the foresight to plan for the community.
The numero uno Slocumite, he dismissed West Menlo residential streets suffering from cut through traffic when he rolled over for Stanford Management on the Sand Hill widening. No protection for West Menlo residential streets, but all protection for Palo Alto, no opening to Alma, 12 signals on SH, no 4 lanes to ECR from Arborteum. And wait till the massive Hospital Complex just exacerbates our ECR gridlock. Thanks to Steve’s lack of foresight.
He champions Bohannon’s upzoning windfall, High Speed Rail, Higher Density.
8 years on the council and we’re worse off.
Break a leg and get off to the back side of the Sierras.
Gibboney’s pal Steve needs a new forum.
Echo, Echo.
I Echo, Echo. I Echo, Echo. I Echo, Echo.
Frugal, Frugal, Frugal……..perhaps at some point you’ll volunteer your time, or run for an elective office in this town of naysayers and obstructionists. Every time someone wants to improve this town, you and all of your friends start screaming about green areas, and nimby type garbage. I guess it really stinks that the new gym, primarily being paid for by private funds, took up a cement parking lot, and YES some green area that no one used. And, good God, if we had a new bike tunnel, that may actually screwup one of the vacant lots on el camino, we wouldn’t want THAT to happen! Please stay in your basement pumping out more negative statements on your computer about people that actually want to help MP improve upon it’s current early 70’s look, we wouldn’t want you to scare the citizens!
Re the back yards at Classic…. A realtor once told me he was embarrassed to list one of those houses where one could actually see four neighbors (postage stamp sized) back yards from an upstairs window.
So much for high density.
Who voted to approve that project?
Arnold,
You don’t mean “build em big and worry about the consequences later Gail?” (Bohannan supporter)
Arnold: On what issues is Slocum a progressive? While responding, remember that talk is cheap.
Steve Schmidt was not devoted to our cause and you saw what happened to him. Let that be a warning to all council candidates if you are not fully dedicated to our cause then you too could suffer the same fate. We are not fooling around. Think twice before you mess with us or otherwise you are in for a world of hurt.
The same “fate”? Schmidt served 2 terms. He did not run for a third term, just as Chuck Kinney and Paul Collacchi didn’t. Gail Slocum only ran for one term, just like Mary Jo Borak. He was supported by the unions. He worked to save the jobs for the child care employees, the shuttle bus coordinator and the pool employees. Who ever “Union Supporter” is, he or she is ignorant. Serving on the council is not a life sentence. 8 years of listening to a bunch of hysterical babies is enough for anyone.
Times have changed. The unions need to fix their problem. Get proactive and stop your bellyaching. The sacred cow is showing some serious flaws.
Nice threat, Union Supporter. Do you really think your “old school” union-style, threatening language is going to help your cause?
You’re alienating more and more people by the moment. Prepare for your wake up call in November.
Yo Hank. Gail to the left of Hugo Chavez? And “Liberal,” you’re trying to make us believe that the woman who is energetically supporting a multi-millionaire’s multi-million-dollar development project is against capitalism? Where do you guys come up with this nonsense? And do you really expect anyone to take you seriously? What silly children you are.
Dear naïve Joan,
Does anyone think for one nanosecond that Gail cares about the Bohannon project. It is all about the zero net carbon emissions that she can tout that she negotiated with Bohannon.
Yes sometimes even Gail is put in the position of conflicting goals. But at the end of the day is is all about having that additional fluff on her CV that overcame the traffic concerns which Paul Collacchi poignantly highlighted.
Yes liberals I commiserate with you on your sense of betrayal. But as Gail said during the measure T campaign “It’s just politics Bob”.
Dear Wondering,
Ms. Slocum is the capo di tutti capi for the left wing movement in Menlo Park and Mr. Collacchi is her consigliere. Mr. Collacchi is Ms. Slocum’s advisor. He does not control her nor does Ms. Slocum fear retribution from Mr. Collachi for promoting a project he opposes.
On rare occasions they have their differences but they do represent a united front for the Menlo Park leftist movement.
All these weird, personal attacks do is take attention away from the real issues facing Menlo Park.