Campaign Kickoff Event to STOP the Menlo Park Anti-Housing Initiative

Over 100 people enthusiastically holding campaign signs that say "STOP the Menlo Park Anti-Housing Initiative" — Photo Credit: ProBonoPhoto, Ed Ebert

More than 100 people filled Fremont Park last Wednesday to launch the campaign to STOP the Menlo Park Anti-Housing Initiative!

Enjoying burritos from Mama Coco Restaurant, interactive stations hosted by local organizations, and speeches from residents and elected leaders, the crowd learned about the intersection of housing, environmental justice, and democracy in the effort to build hundreds of new affordable homes in downtown Menlo Park.

The event opened with Gia Pham of Housing Choices, who shared stories of folks with disabilities that illustrated the crucial role of affordable homes in allowing them to live independently in their community. Over 100 adults with intellectual disabilities currently live with aging parents in Menlo Park.

Next, Katherine Dumont shared her story as a lifelong renter and how local opposition to new apartments feels personal and fuels her commitment to this fight.

Redwood City Mayor Elmer Martínez Saballos and Burlingame City Council Member Michael Brownrigg inspired the crowd with examples of affordable homes that are transforming their downtowns into thriving spaces.

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Read on for more about the event

At the “Who Needs an Affordable Home” station, attendees learned about who might live in the new affordable homes downtown and reflected on who in their own lives might need an affordable place to live.

The “Housing Justice” station explored the history of housing segregation, housing scarcity, and environmental injustice in our country and right here in Menlo Park.

At the Safe Routes station, attendees learned why stopping the Anti-Housing Initiative is important to improving bike and pedestrian safety downtown and throughout Menlo Park.

Leaders from The League of Women Voters and The ACLU of Northern California talked with folks about why they oppose the initiative, not only because of the need to build new affordable homes, but also because it threatens our democratic processes and our community’s civil rights.

Youth United for Community Action hosted a station called “The Future is Us.” People shaping tomorrow’s policies must listen to tomorrow’s residents. And those residents want affordable housing.

The crowd fueled up on delicious burritos from Mama Coco Restaurant, served with Menlo Park’s zero-waste party packs (available to borrow for free!).

Local leaders like Menlo Park Mayor Betsy Nash, Vice Mayor Jennifer Wise (accompanied by second dog, Brewster), Councilmember Drew Combs, and District Director Alex Kobayashi from Senator Josh Becker’s office also joined the crowd.

Huge thanks to the incredible volunteers and professional interpreters who made this event possible! Our activators and ambassadors guided attendees through the event and connected them to the campaign. Others registered guests and checked out audio devices. And so many more behind the scenes! Our wonderful interpreters, Sol Barreto and Liliana Herrera, ensured language justice was at the heart of this event.

Thanks to ProBonoPhoto.org and photographer Ed Ebert for the beautiful photos. Check out the full gallery here.

Your support is vital to keep this momentum going through November, when we will VOTE NO on the anti-housing initiative.

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JOIN US to fight for Housing and Transit this November!

STOP the Menlo Park Anti-Housing Initiative!

Menlo Together is part of a broad and growing coalition working to say NO to a city ballot measure that would BLOCK the city’s plans to use three public parking lots to improve public parking, increase bike and pedestrian safety and build hundreds of new affordable homes in downtown Menlo Park.

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Photo credit: ProBonoPhoto, Ed Ebert

Save Public Transit! Join the Connect Bay Area campaign

A vibrant Downtown Menlo Park depends on sustainable public transit! Help pass the Connect Bay Area Transit Measure this November.

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Spotlight: Kirsten

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.

Community Chat: The WHO WHAT WHY of Affordable Homes Downtown

Menlo Together, Housing Leadership Council,
The League of Women Voters, Pro Bono Photos
Feb 25th at Feldman’s Books

Feldman’s Books was packed on the evening of Feb 25th with people who gathered to learn and discuss WHY the city is proposing to improve parking and build hundreds of affordable homes on three downtown parking lots, WHO might live there, and WHAT is being proposed.

Menlo Together, Housing Leadership Council, and the League of Women Voters organized and hosted the event, with photography support by Pro Bono Photo. We are grateful to Housing Choices client and self-advocate, Noemi Perdomo, former Jefferson City School Board Trustee and director of the REACH Coalition Kalimah Salahuddin, Environmental Justice leader Marlene Santoyo, and Toddle Preschool owner Heather Hopkins who generously shared personal stories to illustrate why affordable housing is important to them.

Karen Grove presented the work of many to illustrate the harsh reality of WHY every jurisdiction must build more homes, more affordable homes, and especially more homes that are affordable to people who earn the lowest incomes. Some illustrative take-aways:

As the population has grown over the last few decades, construction home starts have significantly declined.
Home prices have doubled in the past two decades
Rents have increased by $1000/month in the past 10 years.
For people who already earn the least, wages have stagnated or declined.

We reviewed where we are in the process to develop the new homes, and looked at highlights of the three proposals the city received last December.

Next Steps:

In March, at a date to be determined, the city will host a public open house where community members will be able to see visuals and meet the developers of all three proposals. At a subsequent city council meeting, developers will present their proposals and answer council’s questions.

Who is Your Why?

We shared with each other “who is our why” – who in our lives motivates us to care about this issue? And we heard,

“me!”
“my 6 year old who wants to be a teacher”
“Kai and Eva”
“my sister”…

Who is YOUR why?

Please join us to support the completion of these new homes so we can welcome our new neighbors!

Sign this petition to show your support for new affordable homes downtown

Join the League of Women Voters!
Support public transit, which is an essential component of sustainable, affordable communities.
Join the team to defeat the November 2026 ballot measure that would block the new homes!

Check out the slide deck, and more photos (by probonophoto.org).

Spotlight: Patrick & Jackie

By Patrick Ye

Scientists in their 30s
Living in Linfield Oaks with their two kids (2 years and 4 months)
Renting a 2 bedroom apartment for ~$3500/month

How long have you lived in Menlo Park?
We’ve called Menlo Park our home just more than 3 years now, and it’s where we had both of our kids!

Favorite local establishment / institution / thing to do?
Going to the Willows Market. We love taking our kids there on our neighborhood walks and exploring all the aisles.

What do you love about living in Menlo Park?
We love how walkable everything is, which is super convenient with kids: the library, playgrounds, pool, downtown Palo Alto and Menlo Park, Stanford Shopping Center, the Little Free Libraries, and the Linfield Oaks neighborhood in general. We are also both biking distance to each of our workplaces; a short commute was very important to us so we can spend more time with each other and our kids.

Why do you support more housing in Menlo Park?
Menlo Park is such an amazing place to live and we wish more lovely people could choose to live here. Young families such as ourselves have much to benefit from living here, but also all parts of society like seniors, veterans, and ambitious young professionals figuring out their careers in the Bay Area.

Do you know anybody that would live in Menlo Park but couldn’t?
We would love for each of our parents to retire here and be a regular part of their grandkids’ lives, but it doesn’t make sense financially to retire in Menlo Park or anywhere else nearby.

If you could save $1000 / month on housing, how would that change your life?
As we think about growing our family, having an extra $1000 per month could help pay for quality child care, especially as we both progress in our careers. It could also help us save for our kids to go to college; supporting our kids to get a good education is very important for us. College is expensive, but that amount of savings would really add up!

Menlo Park has goals to build more housing. Where would be a good place for more housing?
Honestly, there is such a dire need for more housing that anywhere in Menlo Park would be helpful. But building more housing in desirable, walkable and bike-able places, such as near Caltrain, near Stanford campus, near parks, and near downtown, would make the most sense. For example, the planned addition of housing on the SRI campus and potential housing projects in downtown Menlo Park are both in highly convenient locations for new residents.

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?
Downtown Menlo Park is a great place for more housing, being especially close to restaurants, shops, and Caltrain. Having more people living in the downtown district could also help boost local businesses and bring new energy.

Specifically building housing on surface parking lots sounds like a no-brainer. The parking lots sit on extra prime real estate; redeveloping those lots while maintaining the parking would be a much better use of that space! While the construction could be inconvenient in the short-term, ultimately it would be a very worthwhile long-term investment in the downtown area.

What are the biggest challenges to adding more housing in Menlo Park, and what solutions are you most excited about exploring?
Maybe some residents are worried about how things would change if there were more people in their neighborhood, like more traffic and more noise. While thinking of the downsides can be a knee-jerk reaction, one solution could be prompting people to reflect on the benefits of more housing, such as appreciating all the wonderful people who could be our neighbors and contribute to our community. Such reflection could help people better evaluate how more housing would affect the greater society as a whole.

Support affordable homes downtown

Do you want to join hundreds of community members in support of affordable homes downtown? If you haven’t done so yet, sign this petition!

We’ll let City Council know you care, and we will follow up with more actions you can take to welcome teachers, caregivers, small business owners and public servants into the heart of downtown.

City Council takes next step toward affordable homes downtown

On Tuesday, June 3, Menlo Park city council gave direction to take the next step toward building hundreds of new affordable homes downtown. The council voted to invite proposals from Alliant, MidPen, Presidio Bay, Related/Alta, Eden and PATH. Council asked for updates to the Request for Proposals, and added questions about property management designed to assess the quality and stability of experience for future residents, and questions about labor practices. And they added a call for one for one replacement of public parking.

At the meeting, supporters of affordable housing were a majority, including people who gave public comment and who quietly lifted signs supporting affordable homes downtown. The presence, comments, and letters in advance of the meeting showed that many Menlo Park residents and neighbors want to welcome teachers, caregivers, small business owners and public servants into the heart of downtown.

The story has press coverage in the local Almanac: Supporters and opponents weigh in on Menlo Park parking lot ballot measure, in the regional Mercury News: Menlo Park moves forward on turning parking lots into housing, and on KCBS television news.

If you want to add your name to the petition in support of new affordable homes downtown, and haven’t yet done so, you can add your name here!

Making Affordable Housing Happen – Event Recap

On Sunday, May 4th, 40 community members participated with Menlo Together and friends from Housing Leadership Council at Neighborhood Pizza Guy & Cafe Zoe for pizza and to talk about the importance of affordable housing.

Together, we uncovered the history of housing segregation in Menlo Park and saw how it still fuels the shortage of quality, affordable homes today.

People played a game that shook up our assumptions about who in our community benefits from affordable housing.

The group learned how land, money, and political will are the key players in ‘Making Affordable Homes Happen in Menlo Park.

“You Don’t Have to Be an Expert to Get Involved” — Frankie Enzler

And the group heard from residents who’ve gotten involved to speak up for affordable homes.

We’d also like to give a special shout-out to the Bay Area’s own, Afred Twu! Their artwork helped everyone visualize what an integrated and diverse, multi-generational, and environmentally sustainable Menlo Park can look like by showing that there are many great places for affordable homes in our city.

Click here to check out more photos from the event.

May 4th Event – Making Affordable Homes Happen in Menlo Park

As we celebrate Affordable Housing Month, let’s come together as neighbors to envision a bold future where everyone in our community has an affordable and welcoming place to call home.

Join us for an engaging discussions hosted by Menlo Together and the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County. Enjoy delicious pizza while learning about the importance of affordable housing and how you can play a role in bringing it to fruition.

RSVP: https://bit.ly/May4-Homes

When: May 4th
Where: Neighborhood Pizza Guy & Cafe Zoe (1929 Menalto Ave, Menlo Park, CA 94025)
Time: 1-2:30 pm

Let’s unite to create a vibrant community that ensures everyone has access to affordable housing. We look forward to seeing you there!

RSVP: https://bit.ly/May4-Homes

March 5: Housing Commission to consider 800 new homes with 31% affordable

The Parkline/SRI proposal is coming before the Menlo Park Housing Commission on Wednesday, March 5 at 6:30pm. The proposal includes 800 new homes, including a diversity of housing options, within walking distance of public transit, parks, great public schools, and downtown.

The Housing Commission will consider the Below Market Rate (BMR) housing agreement in the proposal. Here is the staff report.

Here is a summary of the proposal as it relates to new affordable homes.

For context, the 64 acre SRI campus is currently closed to the public and is 100% office and R&D space. The proposal consolidates office and R&D space and frees up land for publicly accessible bike and walking paths, small-scale retail, open space, and 800 new homes.

The proposal exceeds the city’s requirements for affordable homes by providing 15% inclusionary low-income affordable rentals AND donating 1.6 acres to a nonprofit housing partner who will develop 154 new affordable homes for lower-income households potentially including some with special housing needs.

The new homes are a mix of rental apartments, attached and detached townhomes, including

97 homes affordable to households earning up to 80% of area median incomes, evenly dispersed throughout the market rate homes
154 homes affordable to households earning up to 60% of area median income integrated into the site, in a standalone building constructed and managed by a nonprofit housing developer.

Menlo Together supports the proposal.

To share your comments:

Send an email to every Housing Commissioner, Housing Manager Tim Wong, and City Council liaison Jeff Schmidt using this letter-writing tool.
Attend the Housing Commission meeting in person or virtually and make a public comment.

When: Wednesday, March 5 at 6:30pm
In-person:
Arrillaga Recreation Center Oak Room
700 Alma St., Menlo Park, CA 94025

Or particpate remotely:
By Zoom
By: Phone: (669) 900-6833
Meeting ID# 865 4847 4804
Press *9 to raise hand to speak