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Menlo Park City Council is considering its budget for the 2021/2 fiscal year.   Thankfully, the budget is based on optimistic projections that take into account the high vaccination rates, declining Covid prevalence, and increasing economic activity. 

We are grateful that this year’s budget will enable the city to start to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. We urge that recovery not to simply return us to previous conditions, but to instead, focus on forward-looking priorities of climate, safety, health and equity.

The City Council has opportunities to restore services and recover from the impact of the pandemic with budget decisions that provide
* progress on transportation and climate
* reimagining public safety

* recovery for vulnerable community members

Community members will have a chance to weigh in on the city’s budget at several upcoming meetings including a community meeting on June 1, and Council meetings on June 8 and June 22.

If you have thoughts for City Council (after reading this blog), send a note to city.council@menlopark.org

The community meeting on June 1 from 5-8pm is a good time to ask questions of staff: https://www.menlopark.org/855/City-budget
Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/91271920424

If you have to choose one time to make spoken public comment to the City Council, join the June 8 City Council meeting (by Zoom/dial-in). The agenda and dial-in information is expected to be posted on Wednesday, June 3 and we will share it as well.

Read on for some overview information on the budget, and ideas for recommendations to refine the budget to support Menlo Together’s values. 

Budget overview

The City’s General Fund, where the City Council has the most spending discretion, represents about $58 million dollars.  If we are reading the city’s budget data correctly,  the city’s General Fund budget was about $70 million. However, this year the city made some accounting changes moving about $4 million into other funds, leaving $66 million for an apples to apples comparison to the pre-Covid General Fund. 

So the city’s revenue is projected to still be more than 10% down, but that may change based on the pace of economic recovery. .

https://stories.opengov.com/menlopark/published/6tQNllAoZ

The bulk of the city’s resources, over 60% are used for personnel pay and benefits. The largest share goes to police, followed by the library and community services, and public works (see chart.).  

For more information, check out the city’s budget website and this helpful presentation put together by Council Member Wolosin for her constituents and all city residents.

https://stories.opengov.com/menlopark/published/iwqNQF6Mb

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jAboQ9m4LQQ9s5UeplVC6eUWYEc31DA_FvaRdieBfx8/edit?usp=sharing

Progress on transportation and climate

The Public Works section of the budget notes that Covid recession cuts impacted a wide range of services including park maintenance, the heritage tree program, fleet maintenance, street maintenance, review of new development proposals, customer service, neighborhood traffic management, planned transportation projects, transportation demand management, and the holiday tree.

The staff recommends restoring 5 full time equivalent staff for the heritage tree program and maintenance, restoring staffing for neighborhood traffic management, and adding 1 full time equivalent to advance the Climate Action Plan.

The Climate Action Plan implementation is a top priority for City Council, and the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions is transportation.  The city has recently approved a Transportation Master Plan (TMP) that identifies numerous projects and programs that provide safe, convenient, and climate-friendly alternatives to driving.

In the Covid recovery budget, we urge the City to prioritize proactive measures to implement TMP projects and programs and advance the Climate Action Plan. 

Reimagining public safety

The City Council has identified reimagining public safety as a top priority for the city.

Meanwhile, the budget recommendation is to rehire 5 full time equivalent staff positions to the police force, before the process to assess and reimagine policing and public safety.

A recent analysis (see below) shows that there are substantial activities currently handled by Menlo Park Police for which other public strategies may be appropriate.  

We urge the City Council to hold off on substantial increases to staff levels while the city considers the most effective ways to use the budget to advance public health and safety.  We do support full staffing of the data functions that allow these reports and other information that will enable residents and the Council to assess how best to use funds and resources to improve public safety.

Data source: MPPD. Analysis source: SVDSA

Recovery for vulnerable community members

Menlo Park is receiving $6.53 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan.  

The draft budget recommends using this funding to increase city services before the city has full certainty about the pace of post-pandemic recovery of tax revenue. 

By comparison, we have observed that the City of Mountain View plans to use its American Rescue Plan funds for measures addressing the impacts of the pandemic on vulnerable residents and businesses, including rent relief, displacement prevention, homelessnes services and downtown revitalization.

We would encourage the city to take an approach similar to Mountain View with the ARP funds. 

On Tuesday, the Menlo Park City Council meeting agenda #K2 includes proposals to hire back two police officers for traffic enforcement.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, cities in the Bay Area and across the US, are exploring ways to provide traffic enforcement and safety improvements without armed police.  Berkeley has already approved such a measure, and similar measures have been under consideration in Oakland.

According to the article in The Appeal below, “Of all the functions that could be separated from the police department, one of the most significant would be the removal of traffic enforcement. Over 24 million people each year come into contact with police during a traffic stop, according to data from the Department of Justice. And traffic stops can be especially dangerous and discriminatory for people of color: Black drivers are 20 percent more likely to be stopped than white drivers, and as much as twice as likely to be searched, according to a study of 100 million traffic stops conducted by the Stanford Open Policing Project. And 11 percent of all fatal shootings by police in 2015 occurred during traffic stops, according to a Washington Post database of police killings.”

Prior to Covid, the staff reports notes that Menlo Park had relatively high collision rates, so the solutions we were using before Covid weren’t delivering safety.

Improving safety for people using roads is important, and there are many needs for which armed police are not the most effective or cost-effective strategy.

• To protect the safety of children going to school, crossing guards would be helpful
• To help children learn to bike and walk safety, education specialists would be helpful

And, in the long run, improving streets for safe driving speeds and safer walking and bicycling will have the greatest impact.

As the nation rethinks how best to provide public safety, Menlo Park should review investments in roadway safety beyond policing.

Here are some resources on the issue and other cities:

What Traffic Enforcement Without Police Could Look Like

Berkeley Policy for unarmed civilian traffic stops

Presentation to Oakland Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee on Reimagining Traffic Safety

In July 2020, Menlo Park adopted a new climate action plan (CAP) that included groundbreaking measures phasing out fossil fuel use throughout the city, and prioritizing racial justice. This was the boldest of any city in California, with a zero carbon target by 2030, through a combination of 90% greenhouse gas reductions and 10% carbon removal.

 

Although we are in the midst of a global pandemic and resulting economic turmoil, the impacts of climate change have not slowed. The climate crisis continues, and Menlo Park is uniquely vulnerable with residents in Belle Haven disproportionately impacted by significant flooding from sea level rise expected to worsen in the next few decades.  There is scientific consensus that if we want to avoid the very worst and irreversible impacts of climate change, we must dramatically reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 through rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented measures. 

The City of Menlo Park, aided by many experts on the Environmental Quality Commission, has stepped up as a climate leader. In 2019, Menlo Park adopted innovative all-electric, clean construction standards for new homes and buildings that at least a dozen other cities have since adopted, creating a movement for zero carbon development. The 2020 Climate Action Plan continues that leadership with four core strategies to dramatically reduce carbon pollution:

1. Phasing out Fossil Gas use in homes & buildings (through clean, zero emission heaters, water heaters and appliances as they are replaced), with a target of a 95% transition by 2030;
2. Supporting and advancing a transition to electric vehicles (EVs) with reduced gasoline sales, expanded EV charging, and City Fleet leadership;
3. Reducing traffic through measures making the City easier to navigate without a car, and increasing housing downtown; and
4. Eliminating the use of fossil fuels from municipal operations.

This Tuesday, March 23, the City of Menlo Park will hear an update on the Climate Action Plan, and consider 6 key measures. The staff report gives some options including halting some measures or reconsidering the CAP. Over the past year most City Council Members have been very supportive of climate action, so this new proposal is a disappointing turn that is out of step with city leadership. And the vast majority of residents in Menlo Park understand that climate change is happening, and most would like to see our city leaders take more action (according to Yale Climate Opinion Research).

Your voice matters! The City needs to hear from you that our Climate Plan can be done equitably, affordably, and to everyone’s benefit. It is so important to keep the CAP goal intact (Zero Carbon by 2030), maintain the core measures, and continue with the highest impact measure on building electrification (CAP Measure #1). As the world warms, now is not the time to get cold feet on climate action. Reducing our fossil fuel use is the most important thing Menlo Park can do to address the climate crisis. And you all know this can’t wait. 

Here is what a sample message to city council could look like: 

Dear Mayor Combs and City Council Members,

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to addressing the climate crisis. Adopting the Climate Action Plan (CAP) in July 2020 was a major milestone that cemented Menlo Park as a true leader. Please don’t let up on this important effort – we need all of the actions that were approved in the CAP to meet our 2030 target. The sooner we get started with equitable measures to reduce pollution across every community in Menlo Park, the more we will all benefit. In particular, Menlo Park’s leadership to phase out polluting fossil fuels from our homes and buildings is critical. 

I care about addressing the climate crisis because (please add something personal about your concern with wildfires & hazardous air quality from smoke, wanting to leave a livable world for grandchildren, or being personally impacted by fossil fuel pollution if you have asthma or another health condition). 

I support the recommendations of the Environmental Quality Commission and the Complete Streets Commission, and urge you to direct staff to continue working with these Commissions to implement the CAP with the appropriate sense of urgency that the Climate Crisis calls for.

Sincerely,

[Your Name & any affiliation you’d like to add] 

Emails should be sent by 4pm at the latest on Tuesday to city.council@menlopark.org

Thank you for considering it! Your voice means a lot to city leaders.

This is not an easy time to advance a bold climate goal and yet we must move forward and accelerate action. As many of you may be feeling the impacts of climate change already intensifying, with 2020 being the hottest on record and with the worst wildfire season, there is no time for delay. Where several decades ago, climate change was impacting the Arctic and more about polar bears than people, now we are all polar bears. 

At the Menlo Park City Council goal-setting meeting on March 9, Council Members refined their priorities for the coming year. 

The overall summary of top priorities included:

• Covid response and recovery, focusing on addressing inequities
• Meeting the state’s Housing Element requirement, with a robust scope to address housing affordability
• Implementing the city’s Climate Action Plan

Also, with regard to transportation, City Council maintained a priority to complete the bicycle / pedestrian undercrossing of the Caltrain tracks at Middle Avenue, paired with complete streets and traffic calming on Middle Avenue, providing safer trips for people of all ages across town to the Community Center, schools, and downtown.

The City Council’s direction for the upcoming year’s priorities closely resembled the items that Menlo Together identified from the beginning of the Council goal-setting process in January.  Thanks to everyone who has communicated with City Council in writing and in public comments.

See this blog post for more on the recent revelations about Covid disparities and how you can help

Other items

In response to resident feedback, the Council added exploration of rail quiet zones to the queue.  A summary of the resource / CIP implications is expected to come back on the 23rd.   Also, the request from a number of residents for a ban on gas leafblowers is being referred to the Environmental Quality Commission.

Summary and Next Steps

There will be an important milestone meeting on April 13, when City Council will identify top priorities and take action to adopt 2021 priorities and work plan. A summary of the meeting by city staff can be found here and the timeline for next steps are listed below. 

It will be important to continue to pay attention to the consequences of the priorities in the City’s Capital Improvement Plan and Budget. One item to watch out for is the potential impact of proposed additions to transportation priorities, including quiet zones, on the pre-existing CIP queue that had good projects for safety and climate, including important safety improvements in Belle Haven.

An eye-opening new investigative report from community organization Belle Haven Action uncovered stark disparities in rates of COVID-19 in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park, whose residents include a large majority of people of color who are more likely to be essential workers, mirroring COVID-19 disparities around the nation. The research revealed that Belle Haven residents, who account for 15.6% of the city’s population, have experienced 50.3% of Menlo Park’s total number of COVID-19 cases.

These disparities in the rates of COVID-19 across Menlo Park had been invisible for a year because the county only reported data by city until recently.  

Given the legacy of residential segregation and disinvestment in Menlo Park, and in many San Mateo County cities, it should have been an immediate priority to gather data by census tract.   Thankfully, we have the data now – and it’s clear why we needed it from the start.  Since the statistics for Belle Haven, in census tract 6117, were averaged together with the wealthier, whiter neighborhoods of Menlo Park, Belle Haven did not emerge as a hot spot. Yet the infection rate there is 14%, as compared to 2.7% in the rest of Menlo Park.  These impacts were not made clear until Belle Haven Action published its report.

Belle Haven Action recommended that to address the disparities, San Mateo County must use trusted messengers to bring the resources directly to the communities with the highest infection rates, which are communities of concern with high shares of households with minority or low-income status, seniors, and people who have limited English proficiency. Serving as known and trusted messengers, Belle Haven Action has set up testing sites and, most recently, a vaccination clinic in the community. To locate a testing and/or vaccination site in the Belle Haven community please visit: https://www.bellehavenaction.org/testing.html

In addition, Belle Haven and nearby communities of concern  in East Palo Alto and North Fair Oaks have been excluded from eligibility for COVID-19 vaccine prioritization targeted at communities of concern, on the basis of data is reported by city and zip code instead of finer-grained census tracts.

Demanding a City Council Priority

The Belle Haven Action report helped to strengthen advocacy by Belle Haven residents, supported by Menlo Together, for the City of Menlo Park to set COVID-19 response and recovery as a City Council priority.  The city can provide funding, resources, and communication assistance to connect Belle Haven residents to services provided by the county and state, by partnering with trusted neighborhood-based organizations and leaders. Local elected officials and trusted messengers must be at the table when planning testing and vaccinations in the communities of concern.

At a recent City Council discussion about priorities for the coming year, sharp questioning by Council Member Taylor revealed that the City had not previously identified a point person on staff to focus on COVID-19 response, and the perception of city senior staff was that because the County has primary responsibility for public health, the City does not have a major role to play.  The meeting is recorded here, and the discussion runs from 4:26 to 5:30 in the video. 

In response to Council Member Taylor questioning and resident demands, City Council demanded a higher priority for COVID-19 response by the city, with actions including:

• assigning a staff person focused on COVID-19 response
• listening for community needs
• providing a bridge between state/county programs and Menlo Park resident needs
• supporting community based organizations that are effective at communicating with residents in Belle Haven
• allocating new federal relief funds to address COVID-19 disparities
• supporting prioritization of vaccines for Belle Haven and neighboring communities in East Palo Alto and North Fair Oaks (see below). 

Demanding a fair share of vaccines and relief funds

Local residents have recently received the support of state legislators Josh Becker and Mark Berman in calling attention to the need to allocate COVID-19 resources by census tract, instead of zip code or city, to ensure that low-income communities of color in the Bay Area receive vaccine priority and a fair share of relief funding. This is especially important for communities in San Mateo County zip codes– with high incomes and good health indicators relative to the rest of the state– as they have not benefited from the state’s strategy to prioritize vaccine distribution to the lowest-income, highest-risk areas of California. 

The COVID-19 disparities echo the shocking but familiar stories of underinvestment and insufficient attention to low-income committees of color in our area and nationwide.  

Action Steps:

Here are some steps you can take to reinforce the hard work of our local leaders in revealing the inequities and demanding attention and resources to address them.

* Support Belle Haven Action with your volunteer time and/or donations

* Write the governor to support State allocation of COVID-19 resources by census tract  https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/ 

* Let Menlo Park City Council know by their priority-setting meeting on April 13 that you support the participation and leadership of local community-based organizations in communities of concern, especially as more resources from federal relief funds become available for COVID-19 response.  Send email to city.council@menlopark.org

Please join us by Zoom on Sunday, March 7 from 4:00 to 5:00pm for our first General Meeting. We will:

• Connect and hear briefly about Menlo Together’s accomplishments and how you can get involved.
• Hear a presentation from San Mateo County Health Equity leaders, Shireen Malekafzali and Belén Seara, on the Health Impacts of Housing, Environment, and Mobility. Q&A will follow. 
• Host optional post-meeting break-out groups to dive deeper into an upcoming activity of your choice.

Please extend this invitation to others who share our vision of a city that is integrated and diverse, multi-generational, and environmentally sustainable.

Covid-19 and the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and the countless other Black people killed by U.S. police have once again exposed the ongoing impact of America’s long history — and present-day patterns — of racist policies and actions. These events have inspired many Menlo Park residents to learn the truth — however uncomfortable — about our city’s past, and to build a more equitable future for all. Menlo Together’s The Color of Law: Local Edition workshops have met the moment by helping local residents face our history with honesty and by offering specific opportunities to act. 

Before the racial reckoning of 2020, Richard Rothstein’s book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America inspired Menlo Together to learn more about how residential segregation played out in Menlo Park. The Color of Law: Menlo Park Edition was the result of a deep dive into our local library archives. Over a hundred local residents attended this in-person workshop in 2019. In 2020, Menlo Together brought the experience to Zoom starting with Housing Leadership Council’s Housing Leadership Day and the Menlo Park City School District Speaker Series, followed by events for the Ladera DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Committee and the San Mateo Housing Department. In total, Menlo Together’s The Color of Law: Menlo Park Edition workshops have reached almost 350 residents, with more workshops on the way.

What is the draw?

For many, the workshop’s power is in its local specificity. “It was about Menlo Park, where I live,” according to one participant. “[In the past,] learning about segregation was not about my home…” For another attendee, the most impactful part of the workshop was learning “the local history, how Belle Haven and East Palo Alto became isolated,” and “how certain [white] Menlo Park neighborhoods fled Ravenswood [school district].”

Other participants cited the impact of the personal stories of Menlo Together members Pam D. Jones and Deadra Lampkin, and member emeritus Karen Camacho, who shared how residential segregation has impacted their families. These stories made real what might have been abstract concepts before the workshop; for one participant, they “made the book come alive.”

Combined with these stories, Menlo Together’s use of the interactive tools available in Zoom made the workshop feel intimate, even with a large number of participants on an online platform. One attendee “liked most of all how everyone was encouraged to participate,” and appreciated “how anxieties about doing so were well addressed” and another “was … thrilled to find so many folks nearby who are passionate about this.”

A call to action

The Color of Law: Menlo Park Edition is not just a history lesson, it is a call to action. “I really appreciated the ways in which the workshop provided opportunities for engagement by the participants,” one participant noted. Even “more eye opening was the more recent ways in which discrimination continues to impact people of color’s access to housing or pushes them out of  their neighborhoods when there is gentrification and displacement.”

How can you engage?

• Pull together a group and host a Color of Law workshop or attend our next public workshop.  
• Join – and invite others to join – the Menlo Together email list for timely information about when to make your voice heard in support of racial justice in housing, transportation and climate policies.
• If you live in a high opportunity neighborhood in Menlo Park with few or no affordable homes, tell our city council that you support affordable housing of all types (not just single-family homes) in your neighborhood.
• Sign up to engage in the upcoming Housing Element public process. The Housing Element is a state-mandated, eight-year plan to protect, preserve, and produce the housing our city will need in the coming years. Email Ken Chan at Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo to get involved and check out these excellent resources at the Campaign for Fair Housing Elements
• Sign our petition to demand data on police stops by race/ethnicity and neighborhood, here.

On Saturday, January 30, Menlo Park City Council had a Saturday work session focusing on goal setting for the coming year. 

City Council was generally supportive of the priorities that Menlo Together had encouraged:

• A robust Housing Element process to address opportunities to improve affordability and racial equity
• A broader initiative to support people and businesses to endure and recover from the impacts of Covid
• Continued focus on the Climate Action Plan, potentially including opportunities to improve walking, bicycling, and other alternatives to driving.

There were also a variety of other ideas that emerged from community members and Council members. Council will need to make important decisions to winnow the list of ideas that the city will focus on.

On February 23rd, City Council will return to the goal setting process to make decisions – this will be an important moment to steer the city’s priorities in a year that will have big challenges and opportunities for housing, transportation, sustainability and racial justice.

We will keep you posted on actions you can take to further these goals.

Read on for more background on what happened at the meeting. 

Housing Element. With regard to the Housing Element, which is a legal requirement to plan for housing for people of all income levels, council members including Wolosin and Nash supported the perspective of going beyond the minimal requirements to address needs for housing affordability and repairing the city’s legacy of segregation. Staff noted that the Housing Element this year has new requirements to affirmatively further fair housing will will create momentum for these goals.

Covid Recovery. With regard to considering restoring city services within a broader frame of supporting people and businesses with the impacts of Covid, Council Member Mueller was a strongest voice for a robust response; there was a lot of dialogue about how much and what functions the city might take on, such as participating in the county COVID recovery table and make sure our most vulnerable communities receive the resources they need, and requesting disaggregated data to illuminate the disparate impact of Covid in the Belle Haven neighborhood.

Climate Action Plan (CAP). With regard to concerns raised by Council and community members that the Climate Action Plan did not appear to be highlighted as a priority in the staff report, staff reframed their recommendation, considering the project to apply for a Safer Bay grant to protect the Ravenswood electrical substation as a major focus of climate action.  Several council members supported making sure that CAP implementation remains a priority including opportunities to focus on improving residents’ quality of life and reducing car traffic by improving alternatives to driving. This priority would also dovetail with the city’s Vision Zero policy to greatly reduce injuries and fatalities from traffic crashes.

There were a variety of other items that drew public comment and council discussion. 

• With regard to policing and public safety, there were multiple public comments in addition to Menlo Together and longtime community leader Pam Jones.  Staff commented that the new police chief starting this Spring would focus on community outreach on the issues.

• With regard to redistricting, which will use new US Census data to define the city council districts in Menlo Park, staff recommended early action in hiring a demographer since they will be in high demand.

• A number of community members were interested in banning gas leafblowers, which cause annoyance and pollution.  Council Member Mueller made a sensible recommendation to refer this item to the Environmental Quality Commission. While the EQC  had declined to take the item up in 2019, battery technology has made rapid progress even in the last few years so the electric alternatives to gas leafblowers may be more ready for broad rollout.

• A number of community members were interested in “quiet zones” – a policy initiative that the city would need to lead, to have Caltrain reduce horn noise.  This project would require the installation of four-quadrant gates, which prevent drivers from getting onto the tracks as the train approaches, at the intersections where the Caltrain tracks cross surface streets.  Atherton has already installed quiet zones and a Council Member from Atherton reported in the goal-setting session’s public comment on what that town had done.  Menlo Park Council and staff discussed how this item might be advanced with some more planning.

As date of the Feb 23 meeing approaches, a staff report will be published with more detail for the Council’s consideration of goal-setting decisions. We will keep you posted on helpful ways to support the goals of housing, sustainable transportation, environment and racial equity.

On Saturday, January 30, the Menlo Park City Council is holding a goal-setting workshop from 10am to 3pm. Read on for tips for encouraging City Council to strengthen goals for the coming year to make the city more equitable and sustainable.

The agenda is here. You can send your thoughts in advance by email to city.council@menlopark.org. And you can give public comment at the meeting. Public comment is slated to start around 10:25am, subject to change. You can dial in by zoom at Zoom.us/join with Meeting ID# 947 1320 5683 , or by phone at (669) 900-6833 Meeting ID# 947 1320 5683, press *9 to raise your hand to speak.

The coming fiscal year, from July 2021 through June 2022, will continue to be challenging and uncertain. Widespread vaccination will alleviate the health risks of Covid and the burden on people’s livelihoods, but the pace of vaccination and rise of new virus strains add uncertainty. Covid recovery will be an important theme. The City has urgent and important priorities to meet state legal requirements to plan for housing (called the Housing Element), and important goals to address climate change.

The city staff is starting the Council’s discussions with some good proposed priorities, including the 2022 Housing Element, rebuilding library and community services from service cuts driven by Covid, and the SAFER Bay Project, an opportunity to get federal grant funding to protect a power substation in the Belle Haven neighborhood from sea level rise.

Menlo Together has some recommendations for the City Council to enhance these good priorities:

The Housing Element is essential, as a legal requirement and as a process that can enable the city of Menlo Park to take steps to address housing unaffordability and the legacy of segregation. As part of this goal, the City Council should consider prioritizing related policies and programs to increase housing production, preserve affordable housing, and protect renters that do not strictly fall within the legally required scope of the Housing Element update.

The priority on “rebuilding library and community services” is important for a year in which we expect pandemic restrictions to lift.  We are very glad to see that the staff report highlights the need for assessment of “diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility in LCS department services and operations” as part of service restoration, and are eager to ensure that community outreach plays a big part in restoring services.  However, we believe this theme of rebuilding services should be reframed more broadly as “rebuilding city services to achieve an equitable COVID recovery,” allowing the city to consider a variety of recovery needs.

In advancing the Climate Action Plan, we strongly support  the strategies of building electrification and electric vehicle charging that have already been approved. However, the City Council should also consider prioritizing the city’s regular transportation planning in ways that reduce vehicle miles traveled.  For example, there will be opportunities coming forward in the existing program to advance a transportation management association that can help workers reduce car commuting, and there will be opportunities in the routine selection and design of bicycle and pedestrian projects,that can be oriented toward addressing our climate goals

Here is a copy of the comment letter that Menlo Together sent on January 12 regarding City Council goal-setting.

If you have some time, please share your thoughts with the City Council.

So many of the goals of Menlo Together – sustainable transportation, environment, housing affordability, equity – depend on having Caltrain service continue and improve over time.  

Measure RR on the November ballot will save Caltrain from being shut down, fund affordability and equity programs, reduce congestion, keep pollution out of the air, and enable Menlo Park and other cities to add housing near public transit where residents need to drive less. 

In addition to voting yourself, you can help with phone banking and text banking to reach voters.

There are online events to phone bank this weekend, including:
* Sunday, October 18, at 3pm with Silicon Valley Sunrise – click here to RSVP
* Sunday October 18 at 5pm with Mark Cordes, new CEO of San Francisco Transit Riders – click here to RSVP

Have more questions? Read on… 

Caltrain’s budget is in terrible shape because of the pandemic. Pre-Covid, Caltrain got most of its revenue from riders, but with most offices legally required to be closed, ridership has been steeply down. Caltrain’s public funding comes from its 3 county transit agency partners whose budgets are down because of the pandemic.  Without Measure RR, Caltrain faces a shutdown of 2.5 years or more!

Measure RR will prevent Caltrain from being shut down, and in the future will provide more frequent service at more times of the day, to relieve congestion and to make more kinds of trips convenient – you could go to San Mateo for dinner without having to look for parking.

Before Covid, Caltrain kept 4 lanes of cars off the highway and local roads. Congestion will be terrible if pandemic restrictions ease and Caltrain is still down.  

Our Climate Action Plans in Menlo Park and other cities depend on Caltrain to provide effective alternatives to driving. Pre-Covid, Caltrain removed 400 million driving miles per year from the roads. This would grow by about 240 million with improvements funded by Measure RR, removing 110 additional metric tons of carbon emissions each day.

Measure RR will fund implementation of new equity policies, including a 50% discount for low-income people, and better connections to local transit which more low-income people depend on to get to the train.

During the pandemic, Caltrain is supporting essential workers – about 50% of riders are travelling for jobs in health care, life sciences and government.  

Riders who have been required to stay home due to Covid plan to return – 70% of people who were regular riders before Covid plan to use Caltrain as much or more than before, according to Caltrain’s poll. 

Voters are voting early in record numbers, but about 80-90% haven’t voted yet. Many haven’t heard yet about Measure RR and how it will save Caltrain from shutdown, improve affordability and service, and save our region from congestion and pollution.  

So if you have an hour or two this weekend, click here to sign up to phone bank this weekend, or sign the pledge card to get connected with more ways to help.  

Voting is different this year so please make a plan to vote early by mail or at a dropoff site near you – check out smcvote.org for more info and to track your ballot.