Plans for major changes in Flood Park worry neighbors

Dear Ms Phillips, you moved across the street from a park that had been there well before you. Kids and adults playing sports are common in parks. deal with it. Your comment about "other kids" than live in our neighborhood is repugnant. 1) it is a county park open to all. 2) Maybe some kids in your neighborhood might actually use a dirt bike track.

This is so typical of MP NIMBYS, my god we are talking about a PARK not a FACTORY. Parks actually improve home values, not the other way around.

The issue of whistles, noise, and parking is valid. The park was never intended to be a sports complex. Other than baseball and swimming, it was intended to be a picnic area.

The residents who purchased homes near the park operated on the assumption it would remain relatively quiet.

There's nothing wrong with developing the park, but it does not have include soccer fields in the middle of a neighborhood. If local clubs are seeking sports fields, the city should lease its school fields during those times the fields are not is use.

"The residents who purchased homes near the park operated on the assumption it would remain relatively quiet."

Oh, puhleeeeeeeeze....

I'll also resist Al Franken's line on 'assume' (for Uma's sake...)

Also: all the school fields ARE used. And we went through all the NIMBY fights for field use at those schools: Menlo, MA, SHP, etc.. Don't pull an Atherton.

It is incredibly disturbing that a small group of selfish residents are able to weigh in so heavily on projects that are so important to a young, vibrant community. The improvements sound wonderful and would turn a park that looks old, tired and useless into a real draw for kids and families. Menlo Park needs to move forward on this important resource.

The comments related to the "other types of kids" and soccer fields is disgusting and is not a core belief of those who have been here for decades. Those people should be ashamed of themselves. Complaining about whistles, while living right behind one of the Bay's busiest freeways shows the OP's true colors. Continually, the short-sidedness of my MP community is the reason Menlo Park has lost its beautiful nature. Locals have fought expansion efforts, like that of Willow St., and as a direct result, now we live in a giant parking lot. We need to stop giving the boisterous minority the power to prevent necessary change or we are all doomed.

I have lived adjacent to Flood Park for 29 years. We love this park. Many of the new ideas in the the Preferred Plan presented last December are very nice, but the full-size lacrosse/soccer field in the northeast part of the park was a very recent addition and a surprise. Most of the people living adjacent to the east side of the park are not opposed to having a soccer field in the park, but Flood Park is very big with space to have the field farther inside the park than 30 ft. from back yards. The soccer field will be (should be) used almost daily. There will be shouting and ref's whistles are designed to be heard the 300ft. length of the field. Most local ballparks do not have houses right alongside the fields. Again, we do not oppose having a soccer field, but we request that it be located farther within the park. . .Regarding the quoted negative comment about the pump track and kids who would use it, that is NOT the opinion of our family nor of many (probably most) of my neighbors.