By Patrick Ye
Welcome to our spotlight series on Menlo Park residents highlighting how housing affects their lives! We hope that each spotlight reveals a little piece of Menlo Park, and compiled together, can give us a broader idea of how housing affects our entire community.
Lecturer at Stanford, teaching undergraduates about civil governance and critical thinking
Living near Nealon Park with her husband, 1 year old, and their dog
Renting a 2 bedroom apartment for $3450 / month
What brought you to Menlo Park, and how long have you lived here?
We came here because of the proximity to Stanford, where I currently work. I’ve lived here for 3 years now.
Favorite local establishment / institution / thing to do?
I love Stanza – they have the best Italian food. I also love Mademoiselle Collete.
What do you love about living in Menlo Park?
There’s so much to love about living in Menlo Park: the infrastructure for families (playgrounds, events/activities at the library), being so walkable, the proximity to Stanford campus, the weather (it’s better than Berkeley). The neighborhood is beautiful, and the people are very friendly too.
Why do you support more housing in Menlo Park?
Housing, combined with daycare, makes the cost of living here prohibitively high! More housing in Menlo Park could help keep housing costs in check, and maybe even lower them.
More housing could also invigorate downtown and also strengthen our community. Imagine the unique and impactful businesses and community organizations that we could have if more people lived here.
Do you know anybody that would live in Menlo Park but couldn’t?
Absolutely! I know several Stanford postdocs and co-lecturers that had to live farther away from campus, such as in Hayward and Fremont, because of the cost of housing. The cost of housing is giving us all a nervous breakdown.
What do you wish could be better about your current housing situation?
My personal housing situation is great, except that I could never move: the rent is manageable, the place allows dogs, and the location is perfect. There aren’t many places like this, so I feel locked in; hopefully nothing happens where I have to move, knock on wood.
If you could save $1000 / month on housing, how would that change your life?
Between rent and daycare, saving an extra $1000 per month on rent would mean getting some money to go into savings instead of ending at essentially 0. We would love to save for the baby’s college. It would be nice to save for a house, but that is so far outside the line of our finances there’s no point in dreaming about that!
Menlo Park has goals to build more housing. Where would be a good place for more housing?
The proposed housing on the downtown parking lots is actually a very good place for more housing, being next to grocery stores and close to many amenities. Being in such a central location would make living there so walkable for those residents.
I’m sure there are other places in Menlo Park to build more housing, and the city should follow through on those opportunities, but I would say building housing in downtown is a special opportunity.
The city has proposed building more housing in downtown Menlo Park on city-owned surface parking lots – what benefits and/or drawbacks do you see?
The cons: there would be construction for a while, and change is hard. But the pros: there would be more customers for local businesses, the downtown would be more vibrant, and there would be more potential for new businesses.
What are the biggest challenges to adding more housing in Menlo Park, and what solutions are you most excited about exploring?
I see several obstacles for more housing: zoning regulations, construction could be loud and annoying, and people might complain about buildings being too tall. Maybe asking people how they feel and having a dialogue could help our community align on housing and what we want Menlo Park to look like several years from now.