[ By Date ] [ By Message ] [ By Subject ] [ By Author ]
Farewell to Spring
Over ten years ago, Menlo Park City Manager Jan Dolan promised that she would phase out the use of herbicides by the City. Despite annual appeals by various residents and council members, the assault on nature continues to this day. Within the past two weeks I again appealed to Public Works Director Kent Steffens to find an alternative to spraying roadsides, park strips and medians with herbicides. Why every year do we rob residents of the beauty of our brief winter and spring cycle of greenery? If the City has to send a vehicle out to spray toxins in February, why not wait and simply send a vehicle out to mow in May?
Yesterday, February 26, the decision was all too evident. The delightful roadside green on Sand Hill Road has once again been transformed into a scorched and poisoned reddish mess.
Please direct the City’s staff to explore alternatives to herbicides in public spaces. After more than a year of talk about Green Cities, Menlo Park appears to be paralyzed with reluctance to act on even the simplest and most obvious opportunities to go green.
Steve Schmidt
Former Mayor Menlo Park
Received on Wed Feb 27 12:10:00 2008
[ Home ] [ By Date ] [ By Message ] [ By Subject ] [ By Author ] [ 05/06 Archive ]
Email communications sent to the City Council are public records. This site is an archive of emails received by the City Council at its city.council@menlopark.org email address. The posting process is automated and can cause formatting issues when viewed from the website. File attachments sent to this address can be viewed as a link from the main message body. Please note the City Council is also copied on each correspondence. This site can be viewed by the public and sorted by subject, date, author or message thread. The email address of the sender is not disclosed for security purposes. It is the City's practice to remove SPAM (Unsolicited Bulk Email) email from the Council email log. If you believe your email has been removed in error, please contact the City at ccin.log@menlopark.org.