Here’s an excellent Game Changers Silicon Valley interview providing you a quick a glimpse of my policies:
Vote Yes on Measure V. It’s the right decision for Menlo Park’s future and returns the future of your neighborhoods to the will of the People.
Don’t be fooled by the fancy developer-funded campaign opposing Measure V. Menlo Park residents should vote “Yes on Measure V” for the future of our families and to reclaim our neighborhoods’ self-determination.
The nexus between Sacramento and local politicians with real estate developers is real: This is the nexus that has hijacked the will of the people in what appears to be a Great California Land Grab, driven primarily by greed and unopposed by local government. California’s legislators - working in cahoots with land developers - have pushed dense housing into local neighborhoods without any forethought of the necessary infrastructure that will be needed. Menlo Park residents cannot do nothing, while your City Council is upzoning parcels in low-density residential neighborhoods without any plan for supporting infrastructure. This will jeopardize the very future of your city.
Measure V ensures the will of The People prevails: The people of Menlo Park should hold the final say over development in their neighborhoods; not career politicians or wealthy developers getting even richer at your expense.
Measure V is a pragmatic plan: It allows you and your neighbors to preserve and protect the great neighborhoods and communities you know and love, while making common sense, consensus-based decisions on future development.
Measure V will help you avoid an unfunded infrastructure gap that will ultimately fall upon the taxpayers, and result in sky high taxes: Shoehorning high-density development into residential neighborhoods ignores real capacities of schools, roads, parking, sewer, electrical and water supply, and will force patchwork infrastructure growth which will need to be funded by residents, not developers. An infrastructure tax increase should not fall upon the citizens as an afterthought.
Measure V will stop the corrupting big money influence on Menlo Park’s future: Follow the money - do NOT let developers impose their will upon your city via Sacramento and local politicians. Measure V encourages thoughtful planned growth that prevents developers from having a free reign. It’s no surprise that large developers have donated over a hundred thousand dollars to the campaign against us trying to defeat Measure V, and that number may double by election day.
Measure V prevents Menlo Park City Council from being pressured into state mandates, by rubber stamping the rezoning of single family neighborhoods into high-density development that will destroy Menlo Park’s neighborhoods forever.
Measure V calls out the myth of high-density housing being affordable housing: We need a plan to create true affordable housing - not a Trojan Horse plan that will increase developer profits. Most developers are interested in profits, not dropping the price of housing. More housing does nothing to address institutional racism if you are only building luxury apartments or multi million dollar homes with a few token affordable housing units. Menlo Park needs a better plan than this!
Vote Yes on Measure V for your family’s future and Menlo Park’s future.
- Rishi Kumar, United States Representative, California’s District 16 Candidate