Mission

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Welcome

Menlo Park residents deserve an inviting Downtown – far superior to what exists now,  a place that better serves our entire community, reflects our shared values, and is a source of civic pride. This will not, and cannot, happen unless (a) residents along with Downtown business owners insist our city government fully supports this objective and (b) city councils fully engage our community, by becoming truly responsive to our ideas, and enabling us to actively contribute to all aspects of visioning, planning and implementing for a New Downtown for Menlo Park. 

Reimagine Menlo Park is designed to help our community accomplish this mission. It is a place to share ideas, develop proposals, organize actions, and inform and lobby city council members, etc. I will support this mission with my Creating A More Vibrant Menlo Park blog on The Almanac Online and create an independent advisory team that can guide and mobilize residents and local businesses. Changing Downtown will be difficult and take a sustained community effort because Menlo Park city councils have historically ignored it. But it is doable.

An Emerging Downtown Resurgence Is Already Underway

Recently Downtown has been enjoying a small surge in new consumer retail and restaurant investments.

  • New specialty businesses have opened on Santa Cruz Avenue – Le Vant Desserts (2024), Loretta bar (2025)
  • Two currently under construction will open in 2025 – Cafe Vivant, Clark’s Seafood
  • A Korean restaurant is planning to open at former location of Gala Bistro
  • A developer is planning to consolidate three small shop locations on Chestnut
  • Luminaire opened in 2022
  • The 360 Fitness Superstore opened in 2020

But Downtown Badly Trails Neighboring Cities

Like many small U.S. cities, Downtown has suffered from more than a decade of severe economic pressures from online shopping and the pandemic.  But unlike neighboring Peninsula cities –  Palo Alto, San Carlos, Redwood City, Mountain View, and Burlingame, neither our city nor our community have made improving the vibrancy and economic vitality of our central retail district a high priority. The physical evidence of City neglect in Downtown is undeniable. Streets, sidewalks, crosswalks and parking lots are stained, dirty, cracked and crumbling. The street landscaping is depressing. Collection bins often overflow with trash. And the popular small plaza on the 600 block of Santa Cruz is poorly furnished, strewn with dozens of unparked bikes, and protected from passing traffic by ugly street barriers. All these problems need to be addressed, but just improving civic infrastructure is not enough. The City must also adopt a strong pro-Downtown attitude towards its residents and businesses.

For example,

  • Repair, replace and better maintain basic public infrastructure.
  • Create a business-friendly resources and processes that improve the City’s competitiveness in attracting new businesses and keeping existing ones
  • Support our community with a City vision for a New Downtown and invest in high-priority projects.

Planned Opportunities

Reimagine Menlo Park intends to create new opportunities for our community to share perspectives, discuss ideas, and organize its efforts. Here are a few examples of what are being considered:

  • Online community forum
  • A regular community newsletter
  • Online community surveys
  • Community-contributed content, e.g., guest opinions, analyses, 

I always welcome community feedback and volunteers who can help our community create a New Downtown.

Dana Hendrickson

Editor & Publisher
danahendrickson2009@gmail.com

Short Bio

My family feels extremely fortunate to have lived here for more than thirty-five years. After retiring from executive roles at computer, communications and network security companies, I turned my attention to national and local community service.

  • I co-founded Elevate Art Menlo Park, a nonprofit that is now building a unique public art walk in Downtown Menlo Park.
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  • I founded Rebuild Hope, a national non-profit that for a decade provided financial counseling and aid to severely disabled U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraqi and Afghanistan who waited for more than a year for their merited, service-connected disability compensation. 
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  •  I helped build multi-family housing on the Peninsula with Habitat for Humanity for five years.
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  • Since 2018, I have published Creating a More Vibrant Menlo Park, a community advocacy blog on the Almanac Online website.
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  • I have evaluated the trade-offs associated with several large Menlo Park civic projects including the El Camino Corridor Study, El Camino bike lanes, and Caltrain grade separations.