Council Members,
I encourage you to think about how to solve the problem of creating new housing without destroying our already challenged downtown. The elimination of parking will undoubtedly deter people from coming to downtown Menlo Park and accelerate the decline that we have witnessed for the past 25 years.
Clearly, there is a group of loud, passionate supporters of the legally dubious scheme of declaring the parking lots "surplus" and then handing it over to developers who, thanks to the overreach of our state government, will repeat the failures of "urban renewal" from the 1950s and 1960s which were spectacular in their unintended consequences that contributed to failing schools, crime and urban decay.
It is this supportive group that "threatens" the council with legal action should you balk at ushering this ill-conceived "plan" into action. Please be aware that there is an even larger group of citizens who have become energized by the lack of any competent process who will oppose the imposition of a progressive agenda with such a clear disregard for their interests.
The irony is that the incompetence and casualness displayed by public officials both at the state and local levels in the ongoing conflagration in LA will be firmly in mind as the council meets on Tuesday. The fires will still be burning and the public trust will be at low ebb.
