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Dear Menlo Park City Council Members,
I am writing to request that you not include the Willows Area Wide Traffic Study on the priority list of city projects.
I will refrain from reiterating the cost that has already been applied to past studies -- the first time, in the early '90s, only to have the neighborhood request removal of the resulting calming installed. I'm sure that you are already aware of the background details.
To be sure, it is hard to suggest that any of us who live in the Willows do not want as safe a neighborhood as possible for ourselves, our children and as a whole. My overriding concern is that those of us who have lived in the Willows for a while have been through the "traffic study" process before -- twice. Both times, the underlying agenda that dominated the actual activity has been more divisive than was claimed at the outset -- dividing the neighborhood into Menlo Park vs. EPA -- even if it did not begin with that way.
As an example, I participated, along with many neighbors, in the planning and data collection process for the 2002 Willows traffic study. And one of the aspects that was at issue was how "cut-through traffic" would be determined/calculated. The City of Menlo Park agreed that the streets within the EPA portions of the Willows neighborhood would NOT be considered as "cut-through" traffic when considering the results of the study. Nonetheless, a vocal minority of the Willow's neighborhood calculated the "cut-through" traffic from the data from that study, separating out the EPA portions of the Willows neighborhood, and they continue to use that exaggerated form of the data to gain support for their traffic proposals.
Additionally, my understanding from attendees within the task force that occurred this past year in the Willows (the goal of which was to look at how addressing traffic issues could reduce crime) is that, yet again, the proposal to close streets at East O'Keefe at the border of EPA/Menlo Park was raised. This time, however, a proposal was added to consider closing Chester and Willow (which would be horrific for those residents who would have the traffic concentrated then on their streets).
As a resident of the Willows who lives on East O'Keefe just beyond Menalto (though I have a Menlo Park mailing address I reside in EPA), I feel as if I live with an ongoing assault of these efforts to impede and/or close the Willows' neighborhood streets from the residents living within the EPA borders of the neighborhood. It feels to me like a pit-bull that will not release its grip! If anything, this ongoing battle detracts from my quality of life much more than the traffic on the streets impacts me as a resident.
Additionally, the City of Menlo Park has also been through this effort twice before in our neighborhood, and has spent money, time and resources. I encourage you not to go down this same road again.
Sincerely,
Julie Forbes
165 East O'Keefe #7
Menlo Park
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