Huh? Rich Cline says the growth in office developments is a "hell of a lot to swallow for a small town." Mr. Cline has approved or will approve Bohannon, Facebook. Sobrato, Stanford and Greenheart all of which adds 3,400,000 square feet of office buildings to Menlo Park.

Mr. Cline worries that the Facebook office developments will turn Menlo Park into a "company town." His surprise at such a turn out is the very reason Mr. Cline should not have run for a third term. It is too late for our Mayor to now be surprised.

He, Council Members Keith, Ohtaki, Carlton and Mueller created this situation with the help of their appointed Planning Commission Members. Time will be the test. The crawling commute traffic will get worse and the small neighborhoods adjacent to the arterial streets that lead to 280, 101 and the Dumbarton Bridge will lose their tranquility.

Belle Haven residents will see more evictions.

Then the city will be forced to build dense housing projects to catch up to the office approvals.. The School Board will croak due to the increase in school population. The big fear of crowded classrooms will bubble up. Parents will be turned away when trying to register their children for soccer due to the shortage playing fields.

But, that's O.K. Our Mayor warned us. Only problem, the light bulb went off in his head too late.

Good Grief!

Good grief is right!
Cline's comments are the height of irony and obliviousness about his and the council's own role in causing this dependency on one company. Just think: 25 years ago SUN Microsystems and Raychem were around; then GM was coming, and Tyco replaced Raychem, then Facebook replaced them all because Cline said ok. What might happen over the next 25 years?

The tipping point of traffic congestion is imminent. The Council have been warned but keep approving huge projects anyway. It seems too much to hope that they would postpone approving more growth (the general plan upzoning, greenheart's station 1300, and stanford's middle plaza) until the transportation infrastructure plans are in place.

The consequences fall squarely in Cline's and the council's laps because the decisions happened on their watch.

How about requiring sports fields be built on the rooftops of these massive developments? With artificial turf and adequate fencing, seems this should be doable.