Dear City Council, I support a a trial pedestrian zone in Downtown Menlo Park as recommended by Councilmembers Mueller and Nash. (Agenda item E2 for the May 12 City Council meeting.) Allowing restaurants to use their designated off street parking spaces, off the sidewalk, to conduct business and serve food and drink to customers sounds like a great idea and will help mitigate the loss of space in commercial establishments due to social distancing. Allowing more space for social distancing as we recover from COVID-19 is critical. Closure of some streets may even make downtown more vibrant—this may or may not lead to making some of these street closures permanent, but that is not a decision that needs to be made now. John Donald Concord Dr. Received on Tue May 12 2020 - 13:39:46 PDT