Menlo Park candidate says get rid of the red-light cameras

George Yang, candidate for Menlo Park City Council District 1
George Yang, candidate for Menlo Park City Council District 1

BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

George Yang, a council candidate for Menlo Park’s Belle Haven district, said the city needs to get rid of its red-light cameras.

“I think the red-light camera creates unnecessary opposition between citizens and the city,” the Sister City Commissioner told the Post yesterday (Aug. 27). “There are better ways to deter without having citizens angry at the city or feel that the city is making a buck off of them.”

Yang proposes that the city have “dummy” cameras at the intersections where people running red lights is an issue, such as at Bayfront Expressway and Willow Road. The cameras could deter people from running red lights but they wouldn’t snap a picture of drivers.

Where are the cameras?

Two of the city’s red-light cameras — one at Bayfront and Willow and another at Bayfront and Chilco Street — are in Yang’s district.

The city’s other two cameras are on El Camino Real at Ravenswood Avenue and Valparaiso Avenue.

Yang said the issue is a moral principle for him.

“The camera is a Big Brother solution that I cannot support,” Yang said.

Yang, 42, said he is running for council after speaking to neighbors, who urged him to do so in order to find solutions to traffic and help make the Belle Haven a safer and friendly neighborhood.

Yang said reducing congestion in his area would be his No. 1 focus if elected to council. To alleviate traffic, Yang wants to expand VTA’s light rail system from Moffett Field to Facebook, with a connection to Redwood City.

The light rail would then go across the Dumbarton bridge and stop in Fremont before going down to Santa Clara and Alviso.

Yang says he would try to get companies along the rail line — such as Facebook, Cisco and Google — to help pay for the project in a private-public partnership.

Yang also wants to offer free rides via partnerships with ride-share apps to senior citizens, allowing them run errands or socialize during noncommute hours.

Yang is running against unsuccessful candidate Cecilia Taylor and newcomer Mike Dunn in the Nov. 6 election for council District 1.

2 Comments

  1. “Yang is running against unsuccessful candidate Cecilia Taylor and newcomer Mike Dunn in the Nov. 6 election for council District 1.”

    Good grief, Daily Post. Cecilia Taylor, who last ran two years ago and came close to winning despite running a grassroots campaign against incumbents, probably deserves a tag other than “unsuccessful candidate.” For that matter, George Yang was once an unsuccessful candidate (for Assembly), as was Drew Combs.

    Perhaps you could come up with a different qualifier for Ms. Taylor. “Community leader” comes to mind.

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