You may have been following a recent conversation on Nextdoor related to closing Santa Cruz Ave to vehicle traffic and creating a pedestrian way along a section of the road (likely between Doyle and the northern junction of University dr with SC). I wanted to write with my strong support for this idea. I lived on Lincoln Rd. in Miami beach for a short time and loved the environment that the closed street creates. Additional models for streets like this can be found throughout europe, where they create a natural energy in the downtown area. A closed street like this would also set Menlo Park apart from nearby neighboring cities as a potential destination and make our retail space more desirable. As the discussion noted, the recent pandemic provides an acute need for this kind of measure as it would allow for more outdoor space for the businesses along SC Avenue to allow shopping and eating with safe social distancing. Indeed, a measure like this may be critical during this time to keep our businesses alive. I would strongly urge the city council to adopt a measure to allow this moving forward. Christopher Pfaff 38 Willow Rd. Menlo Park, CA 415-786-6236 Received on Wed May 06 2020 - 12:32:49 PDT
