PRIORITIES FOR 2009

Priorities for 2009

Like the Palo Alto City Council, we strive to be more effective by focusing our efforts. Therefore, for 2009,
we developed key areas of concentration based on input from Midtown residents. They include:

Preserving Neighborhood Quality
Communications/Liaison to Neighborhood
School Redistricting
Emergency Preparedness/Block Coordinators
Traffic
Additional areas include the History of Midtown, Completion of Greer Park, Art in Midtown and environment-oriented Green Teams.

Emergency Preparedness
(Chair: Annette Ashton)
Our focus on Safety and Community Building will start by encouraging Midtown residents to attend PANDA and Red Cross training, establishing block coordinators, and organizing several blocks to be independent in case of an emergency.

Traffic
(Chair, Pam Radin)
Areas of focus include the shopping areas, traffic on Oregon and in the neighborhoods, traffic impacts from new development, the High Speed Rail project, VTA bus routes and pedestrian and bicycle safety.
Traffic Reports

Building Community
(Chair, Jill Matzke)
The Midtown Residents Association is focusing on "building community" and communicating with residents. Many of the standing committees will emphasize aspects of building community -- Membership, Welcome New Residents, the Midtown History Book, and the School Liaison committees. MRA will work to connect everyone to Midtown who wants to participate, at whatever their level of interest. We will expand our electronic coverage of the neighborhood in both enews and on the MRA website, and further build our communication on key city issues and emergency preparation.

Completion of Greer Park
(Chair, Annette Ashton)
We will work hard to get this last corner of this park developed. The January Parks and Recreation Commission recommended the formation of a task force to study “what is the community need for this corner of the park” and find a way to fund it.

Midtown Center

Our focus will be to see that all Midtown shopping areas, Middlefield businesses as well as Alma Plaza, conform to the MRA Goals of Neighborhood Serving Retail which are: Local Scale, Pedestrian/Bicycle/Vehicle Safety, and Retail Variety/Convenience.

History of Midtown
(Chair, Sheri Furman)
Places are just dots on the map, spots down the street, until we connect them with people who bring them to life and give them significance. In our series on notable people in the MRA News, we connect these people to the places we pass every day and show how our neighborhood has evolved.
See Midtown History.

Return to the
MRA Home Page

	Emergency Preparedness (Chair: Annette Ashton) Our focus on Safety and Community Building will start by encouraging Midtown residents to attend PANDA and Red Cross training, establishing block coordinators, and organizing several blocks to be independent in case of an emergency.

	Traffic (Chair, Pam Radin) Areas of focus include the shopping areas, traffic on Oregon and in the neighborhoods, traffic impacts from new development, the High Speed Rail project, VTA bus routes and pedestrian and bicycle safety. Traffic Reports

	Completion of Greer Park (Chair, Annette Ashton) We will work hard to get this last corner of this park developed. The January Parks and Recreation Commission recommended the formation of a task force to study “what is the community need for this corner of the park” and find a way to fund it.

	Midtown Center Our focus will be to see that all Midtown shopping areas, Middlefield businesses as well as Alma Plaza, conform to the MRA Goals of Neighborhood Serving Retail which are: Local Scale, Pedestrian/Bicycle/Vehicle Safety, and Retail Variety/Convenience.

	History of Midtown (Chair, Sheri Furman) Places are just dots on the map, spots down the street, until we connect them with people who bring them to life and give them significance. In our series on notable people in the MRA News, we connect these people to the places we pass every day and show how our neighborhood has evolved. See Midtown History.