On July 20th, a Friday, neighbor city Palo Alto closed University Avenue for a film and music promenade. The PA Daily called it "both boon and burden." Some restaurants and retailers had slow to no business from lunch through the afternoon, but by evening foot traffic numbered 3,500 people and restaurant seating overflowed the sidewalk out into the street.
The main complaint was traffic. There were no signs highlighting the event, no warning other than the queue of autos as one approached from El Camino. The Palo Alto situation is not directly analogous to Menlo Park's downtown; witness the success of the Connoisseurs' Marketplace the same weekend. Nevertheless, we can learn, and I'm prompted to offer an explanation for my proposal for altering Menlo Park traffic patterns. I'm not adamant about the details, but I have thought carefully about this!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Details of traffic diversion plan
I have to post this first so it will follow my preamble based on Palo Alto's recent University Avenue closure... (in progress)
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Menlo Park's going green - get the word out!
I visited the bi-weekly meeting of the MPGRCC last night. I'm still assimilating the information I received. Before I find a sub-committee that matches my passion for an alternate future, a couple of thoughts on publicity and marketing.
First, most citizens are on a tight time budget. No matter how sincerely concerned about green matters, or infused with civic pride and desirous of an elegant even artful future, one needs to know "how to find the handle." I'm reluctant to wade into an ongoing well-intentioned enterprise if it means studying reams of information, or devoting hours and hours to necessary minutiae. I know I'll become bored, drop the ball, disappoint others and myself if I fail my responsibility.
Nevertheless, I know that nothing good results from inaction and round table dreaming alone. I created this website hoping to use the blogosphere to leverage my dreams into action, finding others who share similar visions and magically reaching a "99th monkey" tipping point where one would then simply utter a Picard-like "make it so" to crystallize a new reality.
Well, it's easy enough to cobble a site through Blogspot.com, but if you build it, will they come? Actually, no -- not unless you publicize it -- and you better have something to offer. Even if I collected a list of wonderful comments, what would we have then? A place where one is put off by wading through reams of info and minutiae!
So, let me repeat my request for visual information. Send your sketch, your photo, anything graphic that represents your idea of civilized, gracious living in a traffic-free city center. Send by email to menlovision@yahoo.com. This site can be a place for visual shorthand, inspiration, a collection of confections.
But ultimately the rubber meets the road. Of course we now question whether we really need rubber, and what should the road be made of? And should we be even using the road as much as we do? In order to progress, we need to understand, study, propose feasible, attractive alternatives. I took home some great material from the MPGRCC, and I'll spend a few pleasant hours in my outdoor office, a table "made from recyclable materials" at Fremont Park, and I'll study the offerings. Because I'm an artist (a musician) and an engineer (ASDE, QA), and very protective of my time, I'll be seeking a different perspective for our local green renaissance.
A short digression, then to the point. I read the Palo Alto Daily almost daily. I watch PBS for a synopsis of world news, and enjoy the Charlie Rose interviews. But I wasn't aware of Menlo Park's green focus and openness to change until I picked up The Almanac June 20th issue and found the page 9 article describing a Menlo Park City Council "mega-meeting." The nugget I found in that article: council members were going to use public meetings as one of the tools for creating a process to revamp El Camino and the downtown!
This was the impetus for my present activity. I'm promoting my own love for a traffic-free centrum. (Well, I guess we never had a Roman occupation, perhaps choose another term...) But the picture is much broader. I now realize a pedestrian and bicycle friendly town center is a subset of our need to redefine the very conduct of everyday living. One may argue the degree of danger our present lifestyle represents, but the change to energy-efficient thoughtful interface with our environment presents an opportunity for greatness! And we need everyone's concern and involvement.
My new focus is to search for cost-effective, rational methods to ubiquitously make every resident, every visitor to Menlo Park understand and continuously increase their awareness of local progress toward our green future. Transcending politics, avoiding bureaucratic pronouncement, simply enjoying a new focus, adopting new methodologies, and making it easy, filled with joy! Information about our City Council's invitation for ideas, and knowing that a Green Ribbon Committee is meeting and encouraging participation, these are important ideas. And easy access to green methodologies, straight-forward motivational materials and a sense of community participation, also important. I'll be looking for elegant ways to leverage our efforts, for time is valuable and the clock is ticking. So tell everyone you know!
First, most citizens are on a tight time budget. No matter how sincerely concerned about green matters, or infused with civic pride and desirous of an elegant even artful future, one needs to know "how to find the handle." I'm reluctant to wade into an ongoing well-intentioned enterprise if it means studying reams of information, or devoting hours and hours to necessary minutiae. I know I'll become bored, drop the ball, disappoint others and myself if I fail my responsibility.
Nevertheless, I know that nothing good results from inaction and round table dreaming alone. I created this website hoping to use the blogosphere to leverage my dreams into action, finding others who share similar visions and magically reaching a "99th monkey" tipping point where one would then simply utter a Picard-like "make it so" to crystallize a new reality.
Well, it's easy enough to cobble a site through Blogspot.com, but if you build it, will they come? Actually, no -- not unless you publicize it -- and you better have something to offer. Even if I collected a list of wonderful comments, what would we have then? A place where one is put off by wading through reams of info and minutiae!
So, let me repeat my request for visual information. Send your sketch, your photo, anything graphic that represents your idea of civilized, gracious living in a traffic-free city center. Send by email to menlovision@yahoo.com. This site can be a place for visual shorthand, inspiration, a collection of confections.
But ultimately the rubber meets the road. Of course we now question whether we really need rubber, and what should the road be made of? And should we be even using the road as much as we do? In order to progress, we need to understand, study, propose feasible, attractive alternatives. I took home some great material from the MPGRCC, and I'll spend a few pleasant hours in my outdoor office, a table "made from recyclable materials" at Fremont Park, and I'll study the offerings. Because I'm an artist (a musician) and an engineer (ASDE, QA), and very protective of my time, I'll be seeking a different perspective for our local green renaissance.
A short digression, then to the point. I read the Palo Alto Daily almost daily. I watch PBS for a synopsis of world news, and enjoy the Charlie Rose interviews. But I wasn't aware of Menlo Park's green focus and openness to change until I picked up The Almanac June 20th issue and found the page 9 article describing a Menlo Park City Council "mega-meeting." The nugget I found in that article: council members were going to use public meetings as one of the tools for creating a process to revamp El Camino and the downtown!
This was the impetus for my present activity. I'm promoting my own love for a traffic-free centrum. (Well, I guess we never had a Roman occupation, perhaps choose another term...) But the picture is much broader. I now realize a pedestrian and bicycle friendly town center is a subset of our need to redefine the very conduct of everyday living. One may argue the degree of danger our present lifestyle represents, but the change to energy-efficient thoughtful interface with our environment presents an opportunity for greatness! And we need everyone's concern and involvement.
My new focus is to search for cost-effective, rational methods to ubiquitously make every resident, every visitor to Menlo Park understand and continuously increase their awareness of local progress toward our green future. Transcending politics, avoiding bureaucratic pronouncement, simply enjoying a new focus, adopting new methodologies, and making it easy, filled with joy! Information about our City Council's invitation for ideas, and knowing that a Green Ribbon Committee is meeting and encouraging participation, these are important ideas. And easy access to green methodologies, straight-forward motivational materials and a sense of community participation, also important. I'll be looking for elegant ways to leverage our efforts, for time is valuable and the clock is ticking. So tell everyone you know!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The vision thing -- send jpegs!
To me, the most important thing is the vision, and then one solves the problems to be encountered in the implementation. Difficulties should not be "stoppers." But it's best to consider the hurdles and how to cross them in advance. There may be new information, or a way around rather than through. (Sorry, Dr. Jung.)
When I look closely at my street plan it raises questions of public safety, ease of access, potential impact on merchants, cost versus benefit, need for increased parking, public transportation routes, and more if one keeps tuning the microscope.
I'd prefer to speak of the potential beauty, the effect of a gathering place for our whole community, the positive press one would engender by establishing a low cost, enlightened solution to an urban dilemma. By trade I'm a musician, an engineer. And I like to write, but through respect for the professionals, I can't call myself a writer.
I'm a great appreciator of graphic arts, sketching, painting, architectural design. I have little skill and thus not enough time to develop pictorial support for my vision of a possible Menlo Park pedestrian promenade. I welcome your vision. If you're graphically capable, send me a jpeg! menlovision@yahoo.com
When I look closely at my street plan it raises questions of public safety, ease of access, potential impact on merchants, cost versus benefit, need for increased parking, public transportation routes, and more if one keeps tuning the microscope.
I'd prefer to speak of the potential beauty, the effect of a gathering place for our whole community, the positive press one would engender by establishing a low cost, enlightened solution to an urban dilemma. By trade I'm a musician, an engineer. And I like to write, but through respect for the professionals, I can't call myself a writer.
I'm a great appreciator of graphic arts, sketching, painting, architectural design. I have little skill and thus not enough time to develop pictorial support for my vision of a possible Menlo Park pedestrian promenade. I welcome your vision. If you're graphically capable, send me a jpeg! menlovision@yahoo.com
Imagine -- no auto traffic on Santa Cruz Avenue!
I recently read in The Almanac that Menlo Park was seeking ideas for revamping El Camino and the downtown. Immediately I thought of the central plazas of cities I had visited in Europe. Here's a plan for traffic in Menlo Park, opening Santa Cruz Avenue to pedestrians and bicyclists.
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