HI, councilors
I missed the deadline to fill in the form, but here are some late thoughts:
I want everyone in my neighborhood, Belle Haven, to have access to locally produced and stored solar energy so that when the grid goes down we won’t be left without light, air conditioning, or whatever else we need that runs on electricity. This can be rooftop solar, highly-subsidized for those who can’t afford it any other way, or a community microgrid. The details are less important than the reliability of supply. It’s good to have cooling centers for heat waves, but some of the people most in danger of dying from the heat may be too sick to get to one. Every house should have what my household was able to secure years ago: Reliable solar.
This would also improve our ability to replace gas appliances with electric ones. I am all for that assuming that an adequate electric supply can be guaranteed. Otherwise everyone with an electric water heater and stove would be using cold water for as long as the grid went down and very few are likely to choose that. If the energy supply is secure, and people who can’t easily afford new appliances have help to get them, it will enhance both climate progress and equality.
I’m really happy for our new community center and pool to be open so there are recreational and educational facilities that we can get to on foot or by bike. We need bike paths that are safe from cars, here and all over the city. I don’t have a whole lot of hope for public transit in general post-covid, but we are the neighborhood that uses it most and we need frequent schedules and safe, sheltered bus stops.
Our air over here is still worse than in the rest of Menlo Park, so environmental goals should include decreasing traffic in every way possible on the roads that hem us in, and stopping any further building between us and the bay because such bulding interferes with our best source of fresh air. There has been more than enough building of every kind over here. Menlo Park needs to adopt a lasting principle of building in other areas of the city where there is capacity.
All the best
Nina Wouk
Belle Haven resident since 1986
