Distrust, Anger Over Park to be Named After Police Officer in E. Palo Alto

Before an East Palo Alto commission approved a privately funded park named after a slain police officer, commissioners and East Palo Alto residents traded barbs with the officer's family in a night that was tinged with an us-versus-them theme.

A foundation that included the family of Rich May, who was killed on duty in 2006, proposed funding a $3 million soccer and ruby field complex at 1425 Bay Road behind St. Francis of Assisi Church.

The project was the subject of four meetings, where commissioners and residents said they feared the project would add more traffic to East Palo Alto. But members of the foundation - some from Menlo Park, Atherton, and Mountain View - said any further delays could jeopardize the fundraising effort. The tension boiled over at a meeting on November 22, when May's sister put the blame on the commission for the delays.

"I am confident that if it wasn't this redundant traffic survey, it would be something else," said Tami McMillan of Mountain View. "Anything to postpone the project and potentially [kill] it all together."

McMillan described her brother as someone who wanted to make a change in East Palo Alto - working in group homes and mentoring police explorers - but was "ruthlessly gunned down on Weeks Street by a young adult raised in this city."

"Small time politics are hurting the youth in this community," McMillan said. "It is these politics that are keeping it status quo. Well, status quo killed my brother."

"Listening to the overwhelming majority of this community, we are committed to helping change the status quo. Every time you postpone this gift to the community, you are killing my brother all over again."

That's when commission chairwoman Renee Glover Chantler jumped in: "I am going to go on the record that I have been at four hearings for this project and no one has ever said anything but the highest laudatory praise for your brother. I resent, having lived here for 30 years, having said at four hearings that I actually support this project but have concerns about it - to have you refer to our community as crap, our youth as thugs, and us having killed your brother again," said Chantler. "That is not the way to behave at a public hearing, but more importantly, it is not clearly the attitude of somebody who genuinely cares about it either. That's all I have to say."

Earlier in the night, Sharifa Wilson, a Ravenswood school board member, said the May Foundation was skirting the process by ignoring the need for a traffic study in advance of the project.

Wilson offered her theory: "The reason why the consultant can stand up and say there is no impact is because he doesn't live here. He doesn't even go to church here. He doesn't know of the impact."

During her comments, McMillan turned around to stare at the crowd when saying: "This time we come with over 1,500 voices from the community. And I just need to say, that I have ears in this community where some of you probably doubt that I have them."