When asked, Arrillaga expressed no interest in shifting the funds toward rebuilding the Belle Haven Library.Ībout 18 months later, in October 2018, the Portola Valley billionaire rescinded his offer, citing an undefined project scope, the public’s lack of support for a possible bond measure to help fund the new library and competing needs in the city.įollowing that fallout, the city hired Noll & Tam Architects to conduct an analysis of the uses and space needs for a new branch library in the Belle Haven neighborhood. In April 2017, news broke that local philanthropist John Arrillaga offered to donate up to $40 million toward the construction of a new library in downtown Menlo Park. In a survey conducted earlier this year, one respondent said that the library “looks and feels more like an elementary school library - it feels invasive to go in there,” according to a staff report.īuilding a new library facility in the Belle Haven neighborhood didn’t truly gain traction until 2017 when a plan to build a new downtown library sparked a fierce debate about where the city’s priorities stood. For example, during this past school year, the library was only open to the public after school got out at 3:15 on weekdays. The city has a longstanding agreement with the Ravenswood City School District to provide library services to the students because the school was built without a library.ĭue to its limited space and hours, the Belle Haven branch has been underutilized for years. The Belle Haven library branch, which is owned by the Ravenswood School District but operated by the city, was built in 1999 as an attached wing of the Belle Haven School on Ivy Drive. The city’s library system maintains two facilities - a 33,000-square-foot main library in the city’s downtown area and a 3,500-square-foot branch library in the Belle Haven neighborhood. The Menlo Park public library system serves as yet another example of the inequality that plagues the city, some residents have alleged. During the 2017-18 school year, less than a quarter of students in the district met or exceeded state test standards on statewide English and math exams, according to data from the California Department of Education. The Ravenswood School District - which students living in the Belle Haven neighborhood attend - is 81 percent Latino and more than 90 percent of students qualify for free and reduced lunch. “Belle Haven was annexed over 70 years ago, but physically you cannot tell,” Mayor Pro Tem Cecilia Taylor said at a council meeting earlier this month. The Belle Haven neighborhood, which is separated from the rest of the city by Highway 101, is comprised of nearly 80 percent black and Latino residents compared to 20 percent citywide, according to U.S. Some residents and council members have characterized the inaction as a product of the vast inequality and segregation within the city. Yet up until recently, their pleas had been mostly brushed aside to make room for other city projects. On Tuesday night, the Menlo Park City Council is expected to approve a $160,000 contract with Noll & Tam Architects to develop design options, identify potential sites and calculate preliminary cost estimates for a new state-of-the-art library in Belle Haven.įor nearly a decade, Belle Haven residents have been asking for improvements to the branch library in their neighborhood. After years of discussions with scant action, a plan to build a new library branch for residents in Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood is finally starting to move ahead.
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