City Council Members and Senior Staff.
I was just wondering these past few days WHY Menlo Park decided to put sidewalks across town whereas Atherton and other places did not.
I wasn't surprised to see today's Almanac article in my inbox that neighbors are having to sue the city to keep their "rural" feel.
I TOTALLY get why sidewalks were attractive IN THE PAST... but in the present, WE NEED NATURE!!!
How about a compromise: INSTEAD of installing sidewalks, put up cones that pedestrians can walk safely within along side of road. I understand that not having sidewalks also helps with stormwater runoff. As for bicycles, people can choose to either have tires with tread (and thus ride within the cones if no asphalt there), or ride on the road with road tires.
PLEASE stop "cement-izing" our city. I GET that that was what was wanted in the past, but the city needs to be able to LOOK forward and realize that times are changing. WE NEED NATURE... we need to walk IN NATURE (i.e. with dirt/tanbark/softness under our feet).
I realize that asphalt was proposed and while it is NOT NATURE, I believe it si BETTER than these steep sidewalks. TRY IT -- take a walk along an Atherton road without sidewalks and notice that you may feel better than if you walk along a sidewalk. UNTIL I started walking my daughter to and from Laurel school along Oak Grove for childcare this year, and until I started walking along the path on Alma next to the train track, I would have agreed that sidewalks were better. BUT now I know better!!!! PLEASE try it -- YES, safety is a concern... as a mom with a small child, I DO want my child to be safe, but at least on Oak Grove east of Middlefield, we can walk along in nature and I prefer that walk MUCH better to the one North on Laurel to Encinal School from Oak Grove.
ON THAT NOTE...
PLEASE RECONSIDER cutting down the trees and "improving" the nature path with an Overpass along the Alma Train tracks (east side of tracks).
I GET that this project was proposed years ago (from what I understand), but we need the council to THINK FORWARD. Our community, like so many others, is in dire need of addressing its mental health issues (such as stress, depression, work-aholism, etc.). PLEASE... THINK about our children... how awesome that nature path is. PLEASE keep it as our only downtown nature walk place (at least that I know of). PLEASE do not build a bridge for COMMUTERs to buzz through our nature path.
I fear that the Council is failing to keep in mind and prioritize the residents that live here over the workers that commute here and businesses that profit from people commuting here.
ALTERNATIVELY (#!),
create a pedestrian/only bridge.
ALTERNATIVE #2,
if you insist on continuing with a bicycle bridge that is going to damage the lovely strip of nature so many people enjoy running along, PLEASE create a NEW strip of nature on the Bridge and continue it up Middle Avenue, connecting it with Nealon Park.
Walkers, joggers, runners, and CHILDREN need paths in nature connecting our streets, NOT CEMENT highways for biccylists to "run us off the road" as cars already do.
PLEASE, think AHEAD, to the future. I LOVE going out of my way to walk the nature path on Alma (on the east side of train tracks) and looping back around to Safeway for groceries, and then back home to Noel Drive. I am NOT a huge fan of walking along El Camino. PLEASE continue a nature trail there either in front of or behind the new construction.
PLEASE don't let "safety" ruin nature. If anything is "safe, " it is putting PEDESTRIANS first, BICYCLISTS second, and CARS third. STOP creating "highways" which ARE dangerous for pedestrians. PLEASE provide us with nature to walk in and heal... particularly during these Covid times and after. Given the dramatic rise in population that is still on its way, PLEASE consider the need for nature even more... and PLEASE consider it given the tiny-sized living spaces you are allowing to be built. PEOPLE need NATURE. We NEED to slow down. WE NEED to FEEL SAFE in nature.
...and please CONNECT our parks with nature trails and ask Atherton to unlock its southern gate to Holbrook-Palmer park. (I have tried.) WE NEED trails in nature to get exercise. What is more essential than that?
Thank you,
Kim Novello
MP resident for 16+ years
