I can not say this upsets me, the last thing we needed was another building with his name on it. Maybe the City Council will give up the idea of rebuilding the downtown library and instead focus on building a real library in Belle Haven.

Here is what I do not understand, it is simple, when someone offers you a gift, you say thank you. Name or no name on a building, this is a generous offer that Arrilliga has decided to give. There is so much gridlock in the council, nothing gets done. Everything is postponed, they are all so political and scared. We are the only downtown on the peninsula that has 3 rugs stores, 3 donation stores and no real vibrancy or forward thinking into making things great. I do not blame Mr. Arrilliga and understand why he is done with this. Wake up Menlo Park, the whole area has changed. But we look like the downtown of 1975. When you are willing to donate 60 million, then you can donate it anywhere you want. For now, say thank you

Arrillaga offered 20 million. Taxpayers would have had to kick in 20 to 30 million additional dollars.

" The city briefly considered building a new child care center to replace the current Menlo Children's Center as part of the project, but the idea was opposed by a number of parents."

Good to see something that could've helped a large number of families be stopped because it was opposed by a "number" of parents.

Today, Menlo Park administration is in disarray.

Son: "Look dad! I'm buying a new car, with almost half of it paid for by a rich friend of mine!"

Dad: "Where will you get the other half of the money? You don't have that much cash in your bank account. And you already have a reasonably attractive, functional car, already."

Son: "I'm getting a loan. I have to jump on that generous offer! And my current car needs a tuneup, which is such a BORING way to spend money! I'd rather have a new car."

Dad: "Wait...so, you'll take on debt with interest, to acquire something even though you already owned a nice, functionally equivalent version. I understand the appeal of acquiring something at almost half-price, but you'd be acquiring something you don't need and are taking on debt and interest in the process. Not a good deal for you, despite the generous offer."

Son: "But...but...SHINY!!!!"

Dad: "Sigh..."



Days later...

Son: "My friend rescinded his offer because I was taking too long. I'm disappointed!"

Dad: "Consider yourself lucky."

MP Citizens,
I disagree, when someone offers you something with strings attached you do not have to take it and say thank you. In this case we didn't need a new library, we don't need to spend 20-30 million of taxpayer money on something that is not needed. If he wanted to give something useful he would fund the library in Belle Haven but I guess that is not as prestigious. I hope the Council decides to spend money on that instead.

Train Fan could not have put it in simpler, easy to understand terms. Thank you Train Fan.

Thankfully Menlo Park has avoided a tremendous waste of money and time, although naturally that's despite the efforts of the City Council.

Perhaps a plaque should be erected to thank Mr. Arrillaga for having saved Menlo Park and its taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary expense for the library. It was very generous him to withdraw and we should offer him something nice in exchange.

Folks in Palo Alto are still celebrating the demise of his giant 27 University plan to build huge office towers he would donate to Stanford and an unnecessary theater.

In fact, Arrillaga could go to cities all over, offer to donate part of the costs for unwanted projects, and then get a monument to him erected each time he yanks the money away. This would cost him next to nothing and create many grateful communities.

Just saying ...

My grandchildren live in Menlo Park and were so looking forward to a new library. The present one is very old and inadequate. If you polled the young families who use the library, they would use it more often if it was larger and more up to date. Most other cities are rebuilding their libraries and Menlo Park is the only one that wants to continue the antiquarian ways. Good grief---you all missed an amazing gift because of pride and envy.

" Good grief---you all missed an amazing gift because of pride and envy."

No, they missed it because of an ingrained inability to make decisions.

East Palo Alto is looking for funding for a new library. I am sure we would be happy to take $20 Million for a new library. Would love to have an Arrillaga center in EPA!

What we missed building was an unneeded and very expensive, to tax payers, monument to the Arrillaga family. We have enough of those. If they had wanted to do something nice for the community they would have made the offer for the Belle Haven library.

Absolutely nothing was preventing the "philanthropist and billionaire" from donating the money to the City for the library. That is if he really wanted to donate the money, no strings attached. He's a business man first who wanted to make a "deal" - which in the past included exemptions on his Menlo Park development projects. In fact Arrillaga could have donated the $20 million to the city to be used for Library services, if he felt that was a good philanthropic cause. But that's not his priority. Instead he took his $20 Million "gift" back because the City wouldn't meet his demands this time. Good riddance to the trojan horse.

Really lame that Mr. Arrillaga does not want his name associated with the Belle Haven Library

To everyone judging Arrillaga. Any of you ready to ready to put your money where your mouth is?

No takers? That's what I thought.

I don't understand this:
"My grandchildren live in Menlo Park and were so looking forward to a new library. The present one is very old and inadequate. "
I don't see the MP library the same way you do. It has computers, wifi, the same book search system other libraries use. I've never been unable to find space at a table. MP schools have libraries too. Were you hoping for a snack/coffee bar?
You could always invite them to use your Atherton library.

Stu, it's not the administration, it's the council. Peter is right and there is an ingrained inability to make tough decisions by the council, been this way for YEARS. They are too busy peddling pet projects, traveling to other countries or riding on Facebook's coattails.

It's a great lesson for kids to learn that function over debt can be the very best, most economically fiscal, decision for an individual, a family, or a town. Even when it isn't the sexiest option. I'm glad it's not happening, though it was nice of the Arrillagas to offer and there seems no need to be mean. This town, in my opinion, should get back to focusing on how to keep its lower-salaried workers around by providing some housing they can afford. A restaurant worker, a garbage person, fireperson or police officer, or even a librarian or teacher, who aren't exhausted from either a long commute or late nights worrying about bills, might also appeal to people's grandchildren--perhaps even to their deepest values.

The fact is that there wasn't much public support for this project. Yes, the council did not act on it, but part of that is likely because of the lack of public support. There was more support for the Belle Haven Library, but that's not what the donation was for. It was for a specific project in a specific timeline and there wasn't enough enthusiasm for it, mainly given the amount of money that would still need to be fronted after Arrillaga's donation was factored in.

Even looking at the comments here, the most popular opinion seems to be that a new library wasn't needed. So there's really not much surprise here.

Mr. Arillaga was willing to donate up to $40 million, according to the Mercury News.

It would be more accurate to say that “over 61 percent” of the residents wanted this library. I don’t parse this as “wasn’t much public support” or “only 61%” or “nothing to see here, move on”. But somehow the city council managed to dither, delay, append, and dilute, and also violate the Brown act, to fritter away $40 million that we’ll never see again. Mr. Arillaga is under no obligation to explain his motivations, but the council has also probably spoiled any possibility of future philanthropy. I thought they were elected to represent the 61% not the 39%. I hope the upcoming election brings a wind of change.

It's hardly a "gift" when we have to cough up $20 million the get the "gift".

I can do without that kind of "gift".

Perhaps Mr. Arrillaga doesn’t want to force us to accept his largesse, and wants to only build libraries where people value them. I thought Menlo Park was such a community. At least, 61% of it values libraries, according to the poll. I don’t really get why this causes us to pre-emptively bail out when we’re just 5% away.

We are going to have to build a new library eventually. We had a chance to get $40 million off the price. So perhaps in 2028, we will have to foot the entire bill of $80 million.

I see a very simply story here. From the start, we were given the terms of Mr. Arrillaga’s offer. They included acting quickly. The city council acted slowly. And then Kirsten Keith violated the Brown act, due to which Bill McClure advised us to delay the library even further. I personally feel Mr. Arrillaga has been treated rather shabbily, and thus withdrew his offer. Ms. Keith has put the final nail in the coffin, through her reckless law flouting. Am I demonizing someone I've never met... these are simply the facts.

I further don’t understand the animosity towards someone who has offered our community a chance to save $40 million. We already accepted a Recreation Center and a Gymnastics Center from Mr. Arrillaga. Do the negative commenters avoid using those facilities? Perhaps he simply wanted to see the completed result in his lifetime, but with the current city council, who take it upon themselves to represent the 39% and not the 61%, I wonder if I will see a new library Menlo Park can be proud of in my lifetime!

"Perhaps Mr. Arrillaga doesn’t want to force us to accept his largesse, and wants to only build libraries where people value them"

If that were true he would have offered to pay for a library in Belle Haven where they have been asking for one for years and would truly value it, but he did not. What he offered Menlo Park as a portion of the cost of a new down town library to bear his name. It would cost the tax payers another 20 million to get that built. Happy he withdrew his offer and I do not feel bad for him in the least. He has done well enough from his development projects in Menlo Park that no one should feel bad for him.

It continues to astound, and disappoint, me that so many from our town can disrespect the generosity here. Yes, he is a businessman and there may be considerations associated with a donation ( as a suspect there often are in the broader philanthropy world), but he made a very generous offer. At a minimum, folks should express their appreciation for the offer, which could have gone to a lot of towns, I suspect. Recall the “controversy” around the new gym? It was then and is now a huge asset for MP. Even if the underlying deals might have been different, they both represented offers that few can, or will, make. The regular cynicism we see often in this forum is one of the reasons MP is struggling to move forward in the way many would like. After a while, a reputation develops which discourages interest and investment from those willing to bet on our future.

"We meed a NEW library." said no one. (be honest)

One less thing for our overly worked, understaffed city to deal with. One less thing for our current/future counsel to take credit for. One less, "let's build housing above... insert any new building here ..."

I thank Mr,. Arrillaga for the offer and for withdrawing this from consideration.

For those upset somehow about not getting a shiny new library, please put forth your own dollars, I am sure MP city counsel would welcome your donation.

Let’s remember that our rec center was a Measure T project, an omnibus plan of rec projects throughout the city, including the pool and rec center.
Bonds and funds released in three tranches. We are taxed to repay those bonds every year.
I have asked the city multiple times for an accounting of how each tranche was spent. With no response.

Arrillaga came in a bit late to the party on the rec center. While his name is on it, residents’ money is in it as well, without our names.