From: Nancy Kawakita
To: Council, City; ParkRec Commission; Administrative Services; O"Kane, Kristen Subject: May 13th City Council review of the CIP re: Pardee Park restroom Date: Monday, May 13, 2024 1:01:41 AM
Some people who received this message don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.
There is an overdue need for a restroom at Pardee Park. We would like the City to change their outreach process so users of Pardee have input on the restroom. We would like the City Council to have the final decision after the outreach is completed. The decision should be to maximize the public benefit vs. some local residents’ pushback.
1) Pardee Park has become a very popular city park visited by community members near and across town. There are weekly AYSO and other youth and adult soccer games, ~70 Community Gardeners, Demonstration Garden volunteers with ~400 visits and daily dog walkers and joggers, summer campers and children and caregivers at 2 playgrounds.
2) These park users should be part of the City Services Outreach process.
These people will benefit from a restroom. It is not the exclusive input of the residents in the neighborhood to determine if there is a restroom. Pardee Park is not a neighborhood exclusive park.
3) Address the human need of public toilets or face the current consequences.
There have been cases where community gardeners had to give up their plots because there were no toilets. It is difficult to garden in the sun, try to hydrate and ignore your bodily functions.
Thank you for listening to our concerns.
Please amend the CIP to prioritize Pardee Park’s restroom and have the final decision after the Outreach process in case we have the same outcome as the last 20 years.
The benefit of the community members who use the park far exceed those who might be harmed by installing a restroom. Please compare the arguments for installing a restroom to the arguments opposed. I think the arguments for installing a restroom are much more compelling.
Thank you.
Nancy Kawakita
Volunteer at the Demonstration Garden
From: Penny Proctor
To: Council, City; ParkRec Commission; City Mgr; Parks; Administrative Services Subject: Eleanor Pardee restroom outreach should include park users in addition to neighbors Date: Sunday, May 12, 2024 7:57:02 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.
Dear Members of the City Council, Finance Committee, Parks and Recreation Commission, and City Staff,
I was grateful and encouraged by the thoughtful discussion of a possible restroom for Eleanor Pardee Park at last Tuesday’s Finance Committee meeting! Thank you council members Burt,
Veenker, and Lauing!
Please ensure that the planned community outreach this fall includes the park users (many come from across town,) as well as the park’s close neighbors.
I really appreciate Councilmember Burt saying this should be a City Council decision, not a Staff decision.
Several of the bathrooms going in are additional bathrooms - Rinconada, Mitchell, and Cubberley, when Pardee, a nearly 10 acre, very popular, park, has no bathroom, and people use the bushes.
One of our community gardeners shared with me that he just turned 86, and is a bladder cancer survivor. He has to bring a container, and discretely urinate in his car frequently while gardening. He has an apartment with no balcony, and loves his garden plot.
He, and most of the 72 other community gardeners, put in many extra hours weeding, and planting roses, wildflowers, and plants for butterflies, hummingbirds and other birds; berries, squash, and cherry tomatoes, outside the fences to make the garden pleasant for visitors. Most of us are old, and no bathroom is a problem.
I remember well the discouraging community meeting 15-20 years ago about a possible bathroom. Many neighbors probably feel differently, but those in attendance then were vehemently opposed, saying the park was too crowded, overused, and being prematurely worn out. They said a bathroom would allow visitors from across town to comfortably stay longer, making the park more crowded. And they were very concerned that “people from San Jose” would come if there were a restroom. (Surely there are many nice parks in San Jose that its residents prefer?) They said they were very concerned about crime.
A police officer had data from several other parks that had recently added bathrooms, comparing before and after crime data. As I recall, there was no significant difference.
Please prioritize a bathroom for Eleanor Pardee Park! We need it! Thank you for your hard work serving Palo Alto!
Sincerely,
Penny Proctor
On May 5, 2024, at 10:04, Penny Proctor <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Members of the City Council, Finance Committee, Parks and Recreation Committee, and City Staff;
Please add Eleanor Pardee Park to the list of parks in line to get a restroom in the next 5 years. We really need one!
Eleanor is Palo Alto’s second largest neighborhood park, and is enjoyed by large numbers of individuals and groups. The field has kids soccer and other games, and the large picnic area has many birthday parties and other groups. There are two busy children’s play areas.
I have been a community gardener for 36 years. It is Palo Alto’s second largest community garden, after Rinconada, which is near the library bathrooms. We have 94 plots, and 63% of the gardeners are over 60. Some have young children.
Many of us come from across town to garden. One of our handicapped gardeners gave up her plot of 27 years, that she loved, because she could no longer manage with no bathroom. Another gardener, with a medical issue, built a tiny tent in her plot for privacy to use her camping toilet. Otherwise she could not garden. She lived in an apartment, and adored her garden.
The Master Gardeners come from all over Palo Alto and surrounding cities to volunteer for hours every week. Their free classes for the public are attended by people from a wide area. They would like to have school programs, but cannot, because a bathroom is required.
As part of our community garden workdays maintaining the area outside the fences, near our gardens, we weed and pick up trash. There is frequently toilet paper and human solid waste. Most unhealthy!
I was a toddler when my mother, Helen Norman Proctor, designed the park. She wanted to include a restroom then, but was told no.
With lots of children and old people, many large picnic parties, and large numbers of people coming to the park from across town for hours, Eleanor Pardee Park desperately needs a bathroom!
Thank you for all the work you do to keep Palo Alto a wonderful place to live.
Sincerely,
Penny Proctor
From: KRISTINA P SMITH
To: Council, City; ParkRec Commission; City Mgr; Parks; Administrative Services Cc: Sharon Erickson; Penny Proctor
Subject: Restrooms for Eleanor Pardee Park
Date: Sunday, May 12, 2024 1:13:11 PM
Some people who received this message don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.
Dear City Councilmembers, Finance, and city staff,
I am a 45-year resident of Palo Alto, and a 35-year plot holder at Eleanor Gardens. Regarding the issue of public restrooms for Eleanor Pardee Park and environs, I sincerely hope that you vote to approve funding for and installation of restrooms as soon as possible. It's puzzling to me why it's taken so long for this to transpire. Palo Alto is an affluent community. Providing something as basic as toilets for the many people who use Eleanor Pardee Park, and the adjacent community and
demonstration gardens, seems like a no-brainer. People are participating in sports, picnics, graduation parties, birthday parties, walking, enjoying the surroundings, etc., etc., all without the benefit of a really important amenity: public toilets. Seems unfriendly, unwelcoming, and just plain uncivilized.
Sincerely,
Kristina P. Smith
1144 Cedar Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
From: Denise P
To: Council, City
Subject: Restroom at Pardee Park
Date: Sunday, May 12, 2024 11:28:13 AM
Some people who received this message don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.
Dear Council,
I am writing in support of installing a restroom at Pardee Park.
I was a resident of Palo Alto for 35 years, and lived on Addison Avenue near Eleanor Pardee Park. My children played sports at Eleanor Pardee Park; we had their birthday parties there. I never understood why there was no restroom there; there is plenty of space, and kids need a restroom.
I am currently a volunteer for Master Gardeners, and I work at the Palo Alto Demonstration Garden (PADG) several times per month. A restroom is desperately needed here! I have had to leave my stint at PADG and drive to the Palo Alto Art Center to use the restroom. We often have classes at PADG, and there is no restroom for people to use. I was working there on Friday, April 26, when a couple of women who were on the Gamble Garden tour came by, looking for a restroom. They wondered why a large public park did not have a restroom.
I hope you can prioritize installing a restroom at Eleanor Pardee Park.
Thank you,
Denise Pitsch
From: Rosalie Shepherd
To: Council, City
Subject: Pardee Park restroom
Date: Saturday, May 11, 2024 12:45:47 PM
Some people who received this message don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.
Dear City Councilmembers, Finance, and city staff,
The FY2025 proposed capital and operating budgets include installation of at least four new restrooms in city parks. However, Eleanor Pardee Park, one of the city's largest neighborhood parks, is not on the list. We are requesting the Finance Committee and City Council prioritize installation of a restroom at Eleanor Pardee Park.
Eleanor Pardee Park is the second largest residential park in Palo Alto with hundreds of visitors, including children at the two playgrounds, adult and youth soccer players, tai chi groups, dog walkers, volunteers in the demonstration garden, and community gardeners.
A restroom was planned when the park was dedicated and proposed again in the last decade. We have been told that the reason Pardee was not included in the current capital improvement plan was because some neighbors fear that the restroom would be "a magnet for unwelcome behavior." In February 2024 a resident dissenter wrote restrooms attract "drug dealers", "unsavory characters" and "young adults from outside our area".
Other restrooms in Palo Alto Parks have been added without these concerns. Eleanor Pardee Park qualifies under Policy 2.E, Programs 2.E.2 as a suitable site. It is a high usage park, and it needs a restroom.
As a Master Gardener at Pardee Park for 20 years, there have been numerous occasions
when I have been asked to teach a class of elementary students the basics of gardening and how to start a school garden. When it was pointed out that there were no restrooms on the property, there was no way to set up any kind of program with school children. If we had a bathroom, it would make a big difference in how many children and families would come to the demonstration garden to participate in the teaching part of our mission.
Please take action to prioritize funding for this restroom.
Sincerely,
Rosalie Shepherd
Master Gardener
From: Kat Snyder
To: Council, City
Subject: Utilities staffing in the budget
Date: Saturday, May 11, 2024 11:54:59 AM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.
Dear Finance Committee and other Council Members,
I was super pleased to see the reporting on services being brought back in the newest budget, particularly the libraries. I also am happy to hear talks about adding a bathroom at Pardee Park. I live nearby and would go there more often if that were the case.
I know you're getting a million requests for how to use the budget, and I am no different :-) In August, the staff at BAAQMD will start drafting a recommendation on whether and how to proceed with their recent ruling that the sale of all gas water heaters cease in 2027 and that of gas furnaces in 2029. A strong showing from our city can support keeping the decision on schedule. For that reason, I would like to request the addition of a simple rebate program for Heat Pump HVACs in this coming year's budget. Utilities estimates that the HPWH rebate program (NOT the full-service program) takes 0.25 full-time staff members. So, I would like to request at least 0.25 FTE be added to Utilities expressly for a Heat Pump HVAC rebate program. Adding this to the budget would give a timely signal to BAAQMD staff that we are on board with their phase-out program.
Thanks, and good luck with the budget!
~Kat Snyder
350 SV Palo Alto