Question for District 3 candidates
I am concerned about traffic patterns in central Menlo Park. My little street of Hoover Street is a cut-through path during commute hours. Speeding cars make it dangerous for bicyclists and pedestrians. How can we make traffic flow in a safer manner? Would it be possible to make Hoover a one-way street from Oak Grove to Valparaiso Avenue? I have spoken to the fire Station 6 and they told me it would not hinder their access.
The intersection at Oak Grove Avenue and Laurel Street is also very dangerous. There seems to be great confusion on the usage of the bike lane. The bike lane seems to double as a right-turn lane (even in the solid green part). I have witnessed many near misses when a bicyclist is in the lane and a car turns right or when a car is making a right turn and another car cuts into the bike lane to also make a right turn. I realize that the traffic laws are confusing, however, this situation is dangerous.
Sandra Bardas
Hoover Street, Menlo Park
Dangerous police behavior
On Tuesday, Aug. 4, around 1 p.m., I drove out of my driveway on Mount Vernon Lane to see, directly in front of me, three or four police officers — one of whom held in his right hand, pointing at waist level in front of him toward the end of the lane, a handgun. There was nothing unusual to be seen down the road. I was shocked and asked what was going on. There was a report of someone in a backyard. (A potential burglar? A pool person on the wrong day? A workman at the wrong house? A mentally ill confused person?)
Sadly, I was too taken aback by these troops to think of taking a photo. I carried on down around the bend on the lane, to be confronted by several more police officers, one of whom was carrying a rifle of a sort one might see in an Arnold Schwarzenegger film. I could not believe my eyes! I stopped the car and accosted the policeman, informing him that even if the person they were looking for was a burglar, shooting him was not appropriate.
What sort of a society are we living in, where a call to the police elicits a response like the one I witnessed? I am an old lady. If I had been a young man in a hurry, perhaps going for a run, would I have been shot, or had a gun pointed at me and ordered to lie down? Did the caller to the police report that a gang war had begun on Mount Vernon Lane? (Editor's note: Atherton police responded to a report of trespassing on Mount Vernon Lane shortly before 1 p.m. on Aug. 4, according to the department's online bulletin.)
Have the members of the Town Council read the protocol document of the Atherton police force? If the response to this incident was according to protocol, I suggest it is time for a review and rewrite. I also suggest that it is time to take an inventory of the equipment available to and used by the Atherton police. We are not in a war zone, and both the cost and use of equipment seen by me on Aug. 4 is totally inappropriate for a suburban town police force.
Sylvia Hughes
Mount Vernon Lane, Atherton
Concerns about distance learning
I am a high schooler in the Bay Area. Last school year because of coronavirus most students were forced to learn from home, and this (coming) year schools are going to have to do it again. I am worried that the quality of distance learning will be subpar this school year.
Last school year, several things that were on the syllabus were never assigned due to bad planning by the schools and teachers. I would only be in contact with the teacher of a specific class for around 30 to 60 minutes per week. Ninety percent of the time I would log on by 9 a.m. only to finish the daily work by 9:45 (a.m.), then have free time until a Zoom meeting hours later. There was never any contact with other students and no collaboration. I believe that distance learning failed because the teachers do not know how to teach from home.
I am worried that they still don't know how to teach from home and that the teaching will fail to cover the wanted material. At the very least we need the teacher to take a more hands-on learning method instead of just assigning something and checking up on the students for 30 minutes. At the very least, we need online lectures, either live or recorded, as a way to impart the knowledge on the students instead of having them read it in the textbook. Group projects would be a useful addition to get students more invested in learning and would also give us more interaction with our classmates.
Devlin Murphy
First Class Scout, Troop 64
Oak Forest Court, Portola Valley
Peter Carpenter endorsement
I'd like to strongly endorse Peter Carpenter's candidacy for the Menlo Park Fire Protection District board. I know Peter as a fine, upstanding member of the Menlo Park community and as an active volunteer with Park Forest Plus Prepare. A simple look at his biography makes clear that he has extensive experience with public issues, including years with the fire board. Such citizen experience is exactly what we need for an important public agency. We value Peter's contributions as a neighbor, (and) you will value his addition to the fire board.
Fred Rose
Forest Lane, Menlo Park
Portola Valley pedestrian safety
I'd like to raise awareness on the issue of pedestrian and cyclist safety. We live in a beautiful little town with wonderful trails, but getting to them as a pedestrian or cyclist is dangerous.
A pedestrian or cyclist who approaches a crosswalk might be hit by a car because of poor visibility or inattentive drivers. One problem is drivers don't have any way other than seeing the people to determine if someone is crossing the road. This is a problem because those crossing could be bowled over by an oncoming car, like a family friend almost was. Also my dad, Scott Murphy, was driving to work, and someone in front of him was turning onto a street and he clipped a cyclist crossing the road, threw the child off the bike, and broke the back wheel. He didn't notice that the person was in front of him until he hit the bike. To solve this problem we could add lights to help people realize someone is crossing, like we have at Woodside Priory School.
Another problem is some of the bike lanes are too small to bike in or nonexistent. Since there are cars racing up and down Los Trancos Canyon Road all the time and there are no bike lanes, it is unsafe to ride there. Bad bike lanes put pedestrians on sidewalks in danger of bikes hitting them when bikes don't use the bike lanes.
Our quaint little town is a wonderful place to enjoy a walk or ride. It could be safer. This is why I think we should put some money into fixing our town's crosswalks and bike lanes.
Griffin Murphy
Oak Forest Court, Portola Valley
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Letters to the editor: Police behavior, concerns about distance learning, question for Menlo Park candidates - The Almanac Online
"behavior" - Google News
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