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https://n2v.almanacnews.com/square/print/2007/06/20/woodland-ave-safety-issue----sidewalks-needed

Town Square

Woodland Ave safety issue -- sidewalks needed

Original post made by OBSERVING, Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park, on Jun 20, 2007

At the Council meeting of June 19,2007, a very compelling case was made for getting the City to fund a project to install sidewalks and perhaps more speed bumps along a stretch of Woodland Ave. The safety of many young children in the area seems to be the main driving force for this need.

The group gathered 49 signatures from all the homes along this part of Woodland, which was 100% of all the homes in that area.

Ok, there is indeed a need. The City behind the scenes was made aware of the situation; the estimate of $200,000 for the project was already in hand from interim City Manger Kent Steffens.

Let me propose that rather than just gathering 49 signatures, each of the homeowners pay $2000.00 which would amount to about $100,000 or about 1/2 of the cost of the project. After all, they all bought homes in the area knowing there were no sidewalks; they are looking for an improvement to the neighborhood, but should they not be willing to pay for say 1/2 the cost of this improvement?

If you happen to be in an area which did not have sewer service and the city improves to providing that service, generally an assessment district will be setup and each homeowner would be required to pay an assessment for that service. This seems fair, and I would think it would likewise be fair in the case of new sidewalks as well.


Comments

Posted by also concerned
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jun 21, 2007 at 8:45 am

I believe there is a problem in that area, and also a huge problem along Santa Cruz where there are many more children and us older people walking in the street with cars barreling by at high speeds. I deeply hope the city will not delay fixing the problems along major streets.

One problem the city can do that is relatively inexpensive - regularly remind people to trim bushes and trees that make visibility difficult and pedestrian and bike travel quite unsafe. This includes downtown intersections and around the library parking lot.

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Posted by AlsoObserving
a resident of Menlo Park: Sharon Heights
on Jun 21, 2007 at 11:24 pm

If you really want to be fair, Observing, then the city needs to go back to everyone else out there who has a "free" sidewalk in front of their house and ask for 1/2 the original cost of that installation.

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Posted by What is fair
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jun 22, 2007 at 7:31 am

We had to pay when our sidewalk was replaced. I thought that homeowners were responsible for maintaining their sidewalks.

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Posted by Pedestrian
a resident of Menlo Park: South of Seminary/Vintage Oaks
on Jun 22, 2007 at 12:01 pm

Safety is important.

I thought projects like this had to go through a cycle of prioritation along with other projects in the annual Capital Imnprovement Projects of the council. We had to wait 2 years to get through this for improvements in our neighborhood.

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