City Council members, I am a long-term (30+ years) resident of Menlo Park, a law-abiding taxpayer, and a property owner. I feel compelled to insist that the laws and regulations that I am required to follow -- or face penalties and fines — be applied evenly across our city.
I am bitterly resentful that homeless vagrants are allowed to store shopping carts brimming with debris on our main street, Santa Cruz Avenue. This is a clear violation of our city’s ordinances, as well as an unsanitary and unsightly eyesore. These shopping carts, in themselves evidence of THEFT, occupy space in front of businesses such as Pharmaca on Santa Cruz Avenue and now bleed into the side streets as well.
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.
If I had baskets of trash and rubbish strewn in front of, or on, my property, I would be cited by the Fire Department and given a date by which the rubbish had to be removed, or face increasing fines. My husband had unidentified tenants on one of his rental properties (not in Menlo Park) dump trash and debris on his property and he faced just such a warning from that city. He had the trash removed promptly, at his own cost.
I insist that you, as the owner of the sidewalks in our commercial district, do us the residents the courtesy of treating city property with the same requirements and respect for cleanliness that you require of us as property owners. Give the “owners” of these shopping carts a notice that in 24 hours the rubbish in these shopping carts will be collected and placed in a dumpster, and the stolen shopping carts returned to their rightful retail owners.
I refuse to accept a double standard in this city, where law abiding and tax paying property and business owners are treated with strict regulations and fines, and the law-flouting indigent, who pay nothing, are allowed to do as they please. This is flagrant discrimination, if you want to use a term so popular today.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Mical Atz Brenzel
105 Garland Drive
Menlo Park
