From: Robert Neff
To: Council, City
Subject: Downtown Streetscape Dec. 9
Date: Monday, December 2, 2024 11:36:49 PM
Honorable City Council Members,
I support the staff proposal for wide sidewalks described in the Downtown Streetscape proposal (Item 9 on Dec. 9.). I think this will make downtown attractive for those walking to shop or dine from their bike park, car park, or bus stop. I hope you will vote to advance the staff recommendation.
I also strongly support a plan for parking meters in prime downtown parking areas, to encourage short term use and higher turnover of the available parking spaces, especially on University Ave, and also on the most convenient parking locations, like the surface lots. It would be terrific to have frequent turnover of parking spaces serving those who are only going to use them for 15-30 minutes, while those who are planning to stay downtown more than an hour may either pay a higher price, or park for free in the parking garages.
I too look forward to recommendations from the upcoming bike plan. I hope it will identify ways to make biking into destinations in downtown comfortable for all kinds of cyclists. The brief description of cycling access here, suggesting using Lytton or Hamilton, requires an overhaul of those streets if they are to be attractive and comfortable bikeways at all times of day.
As far as recognizing Palo Alto as the Birthplace of Silicon Valley, there is a lot of technology history here, going back at least to Eadweard Muybridge, in 1878. Perhaps staff should pull together a citizen committee to figure out what to include, and how to connect it to locations downtown. Dr. Thomas Lee, at Stanford, would be a good person to help with this. The technology related state historical markers are another good reference for seeing some of the invention that happened here. https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21522
Thank you for your service to our city of Palo Alto.
Robert Neff
On Emerson, near Loma Verde
(My company moved away, so now my inventing is in Santa Clara.) [email protected]