Candidate for
Council Member; City of Menlo Park

Dear Menlo Park Neighbor: I have made the decision to run for Menlo Park City Council in the fall election. As some of you may know, I am a life long resident of Menlo Park with an active history of involvement with the city, the public schools, and the community.

My husband Sam and I have raised our children here, all who've attended local schools, and we've built and operate our own small business in town. I'm passionate about our city and I care about keeping it a great place to live.

During the ten years I've served on the planning commission, I've studied many of the key issues facing Menlo Park. From parking and traffic, to remodeling homes and attracting appropriate businesses, I've carefully weighed the views of all the parties involved, and ultimately done what I felt was right for the city.

Many believe Menlo Park has divided into two different political camps. I hope to be a bridge that brings both sides together for the greater good of our community. My goal would be to encourage common sense governance, consensus building and calm decision-making. Emphasis should be placed on the commonality we do all share while at the same time working to hear all perspectives where we do have differences.

I support a "Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan", which ensures that no traffic control change will be made unless there is a clear majority of support among the people living in those neighborhoods and that no traffic improvement be made to one neighborhood that negatively affects another neighborhood.

Rejuvenating the El Camino corridor in central downtown is also a priority for me. Currently we are losing our car dealerships, have many old buildings in need of repair, and we suffer from diffi cult parking and narrow sidewalks. We need to be proactive and creative in making positive changes in our central city by enhancing the pedestrian ambiance in our city core, protecting neighborhoods and our retail center from the adverse impacts of grade separations, and fostering a vibrant business climate.

We also need to start allocating adequate funds for infrastructure to revamp our roads and our storm drain system. With so many divisive issues in front of the City Council, these bread and butter issues haven't been given enough attention recently.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 321-7869 or e-mail me at loriesinnott@aol.com