" . . . a plan to turn California Avenue's disorganized pedestrian mall into a cohesive, bike-friendly and vibrant gathering space for community activities?"

I question bikes & pedestrians moving together in a relatively short stretch designed for community activities. I definitely support safe biking in the city. When living 30 miles west of Boston, I have biked to and from the city, did the Boston Marathon route by bike (NOT on Marathon day) and had to bike back to my car in Hopkinton, biked into New Hampshire a few times, and since moving to Palo Alto and able to track my mileage accurately, without leaving Palo Alto and the cities that abut it, I have biked the miles of going from Canada to Mexico, Santa Monica to Boston, circumnavigated coastal England from London back to London, a figure 8 through Ireland, and a real-time trip through Holland. (Yes, it took years and I saw a lot of MP, Los Altos. ) But bikes and pedestrians do not mix well. I hope the plan allows for safe biking TO and FROM Cal Ave but not ON Cal Ave.

Cal Ave desperately needs an overhaul. But, the article is misleading. The $250k is for consultants to develop a plan, not to actually implement a plan. Is the 7 month timeline also just to develop the plan, and not to actually implement it? Hey, it’s only been 3 years since this started. One of the best things the City could do now is to be friendlier to the farmers market on Sunday instead of continuing to change and co strict its space. That is the biggest draw to the street.

Looking at the PACC meeting last night on TV the discussion on University Upgrade was disorganized and pointless. The marketing projections concerning Cal Ave sound so glorious but what we are looking at now is a third world bazaar that has few useful stores and many closed stores. And the city has some need to pay people to do this to us.
I envision many "consultants" running into City Hall with all types of "ideas" that will cost us to implement. And the Bike Coalition selling their concept of the world.
We have enough bike lanes now - we do not need to spin the world on bike lanes. We do not need to coat the city with green paint on the streets. We need to restore the street to it's original intent with parking for cars in front of the shops. The original city planners knew what they were doing and we do not need to spend money trying to make us into a third world junk heap.