Everyone wants more housing, until it shows up in their own backyard. This development looks upscale and likely to attract the professionals everyone wants to populate Menlo Park. It will certainly be an upgrade from the rundown trash that occupies the space right now. But who knows, maybe someone will be nostalgic for gunshots, crime, and gangs.

for me it's not about when it shows up in my backyard ...it's that no one is honest about the increased traffic it will create. traffic in east menlo and east palo alto is already atrocious...and going to get worse as sobrato is slated to start new buildings on university avenue in a few months. (i have seen the traffic impact report on that project and it's a joke.)

this proposed development will put another 1000 cars on the road (as i presume most units will have two adult occupants, each with their own vehicle).

and it surely doesn't help when palo alto's mayor pretends there are no traffic problems in palo alto...clearly she has never been on east bound universtiy avenue between 3 and 7 p.m.

so they say there was an EIR for the whole area and MENLO PARK approved it all, and that this probably fits within that. Hard to believe! And why does this have to be so dense! Why so grey and horrible? Why just packing in houses like sardines?

Does anybody really want this project other than the developers?

Dear Dr.Black,

Do you have any idea what this area is now? It is industrial. It has no gunshots or gangs. Try again.

I would like to know the City Council's position on how much is too much growth? Menlo Park is suffering from overcrowding and it is dramatically and directly decreasing the quality of life. The Council's solution is add hundreds more housing units and that somehow, this will magically clear up all this overcrowding. What am I missing?

So my question is, since the Council rubber stamps every development project that comes before them, how much is too much? If I'm a developer, can I get approval for adding 200 housing units, 800 housing units, 4,500 housing units. Where does this stop?

I'm serious. What is the Council's vision for this City, because I've been asking around and so far, I have not found a single neighbor who is in favor of this increased densification. In fact, nearly all are opposed. So whose interest are the Council members representing????

*If* people work where they live, this could reduce traffic at peak times. If they can attract Facebook and other business park employees to live here, it could take pressure off of Willow Road, Marsh, and the Dumbarton Bridge at peak times. That's an important *if*.

Have any studies been done on the people who live at 777 Hamilton and Anton Menlo? Where do those people work? If, on average, they work where they live - this should be OK. If they don't, this is misconceived.