Menlo Park council accepts Arrillaga offer to help rebuild main library in Civic Center

Gee, can Facebook donate $25-50 million for a library in Belle Haven?

With $8 Billion in quarterly revenue and over $3 Billion in profit last quarter, surely they can build a library. They wouldn't even notice the cost in their statement, and can write off most of it anyway.

Come on city council... happy to have FB here, but it's time for more community contributions in schools, libraries, fire, housing, etc.

Facebook has been and will, I believe, continue to be a strong supporter of the Fire District.

I'm glad Mr. Arrillaga continues to do positive and very specific projects in the area (MP, PA, SU).

Unlike the wasteful, bone-headed stuff that SMC Supervisors Pine and Horsley are doing by having the county sue energy providers for the "crime" of providing legal commodities.

The MidPen housing in the 1300 block of Willow would not require any Belle Haven resident to cross Willow Road to reach it. However the space that might have been made available was small by library standards - 7000 sq ft - and far from most of the places that people in the neighborhood congregate. The street that would have to be crossed to reach the 1300 block of Willow is Newbridge, which is heavily trafficked at certain times of day and can sometimes be hazardous to cross.

BTW it isn't Facebook's job to provide public facilities in Belle Haven. We are part of Menlo Park, not of Facebook.

It really appears to me that Mr. Arrillaga is buying the city council. Let's look at how it played out:
1. The city is contemplating a choice between expanding the main library or building a new branch to serve Belle Haven.
2. Mr. Arrillaga isn't interested in Belle Haven (for some reason), so proactively offers an unspecified amount of money to make the city council do what he wants.
3. Blinded by money, the council votes to do things Arrillaga's way.
In what way does this resemble democracy? What it resembles, unfortunately, is our broken national political system, post Citizens United. Big money gets its way, and voters can only watch.
Basically, Mr. Arrillaga is forcing the city to spend $20 million on HIS choice of project. Does that leave anything on the table for Belle Haven? Would this vote have gone through if Belle Haven had any representation on the council? I am beginning to think that Menlo Park needs district-based council elections, as a check on this kind of city-center-centrism.
Personally, when I heard about the plan for library expansion, I was only in favor if it involved expanding the collections. I thought community meeting space could be found in other places — it is not the main function of a library. And I definitely was not in favor of the "Cadillac" option. Upon consideration, I felt the needs of Belle Haven for a branch library were more compelling. There is no reason community meetings couldn't be held in Belle Haven, for that matter. Well, maybe Facebook traffic...

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