What are your top needs and priorities for an equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic? The San Mateo County Recovery Initiative started over a year ago and through input from community leaders, cities and institutions, millions of dollars were allocated to support food access, housing, child care, digital access, small businesses and more. A year and a half into the pandemic, we continue to experience more severe impacts on our communities of color and low-income communities. We want to make sure we are still prioritizing the right things to support those most impacted. 

Join for a virtual forum to share your priorities for an equitable recovery. 

• Monday, Oct. 25, 5–6:30 p.m. 
• Tuesday, Oct. 26, 5–6:30 p.m. 
• Wednesday, Oct. 27, 7–8:30 p.m. Spanish Language Forum 
• Tuesday, Nov. 2, 5–6:30 p.m. Chinese Language Forum 

Join via Zoom Meeting ID: 921-7912-9206. 

Dial by your location: +1 669-900-6833 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 921-7912-9206

Spanish and Chinese interpretation will be available for every forum, except for the Spanish and Chinese Language Forum which will include English interpretation. San Mateo County is more than happy to provide interpretation in any language and closed caption as needed to participate. Please share what you need to participate in full at least 72-hours before each forum at 415-271-3357.

If you are not able to make any of the forums, please share your feedback through a five-minute online survey: 

• English 
• Spanish 
• Chinese  
• Tagalog   
• Tongan   
• Samoan   
• Arabic  

To learn more, please visit the San Mateo County Equity website.

Menlo Park is a part of the South Bayside Waste Management Authority, better known as RethinkWaste, and the public agency recently announced its annual poster contest, which is open to students in grades 3–5 within its local service area. This year’s theme is Compost Champions, which encourages children to demonstrate how they compost their food scraps, dirty paper, and yard trimmings in an art form.

Contest guidelines:

• Participants must be in grades 3–5 in the RethinkWaste service area
• The poster should highlight why it is important to compost food scraps, dirty paper and yard trimmings
• The poster must be on standardized 8.5 x 11-inch white paper in landscape (horizontal) orientation
• All artwork must be original artwork, no copyrighted material, computer graphics or characters
• Artwork must be 2D and in any medium, such as paint, markers, color pencils or crayons

This year’s contest is only for individual students. The first place winner will have their poster displayed on local Recology trucks and the top 3 contest winners will be recognized at the RethinkWaste website and social media and receive amazing reusable items.

Submissions are due online by noon, Friday, October 29. Applications are now available on the poster contest webpage. Spanish-language contest guidelines are also available.

The Reimagine SamTrans project is an analysis of SamTrans’ bus system in San Mateo County, with the goal of proposing network changes to better the rider experience. Over the last year, SamTrans has proposed various route alternatives that aim to improve efficiency based on factors such as route coverage, frequency and regional connections. Community feedback helped SamTrans staff refine the options over summer 2021, with a preferred network proposal ready for review before deployment in summer 2022.

There are minor and major service changes proposed throughout San Mateo County, with proposed changes in South County that will affect Menlo Park riders. Routes with proposed changes include the 281, 286 and 296, and on school tripper routes such as the 80, 83 and 84.

SamTrans will be holding a virtual community meeting to share information and gather further feedback on the proposed changes for summer 2022. 

SamTrans South County meeting
Thursday, Oct. 21, 5:30–6:30 p.m.
Meeting link: https://bit.ly/reimaginesouthcounty
Call in phone number: 312-626-6799
Zoom Webinar ID: 858 7664 0032
Languages: English, Spanish, Mandarin and Tongan

For those that cannot attend the meeting, you may also submit feedback on the Reimagine SamTrans webpage. To submit feedback via the webpage, go to the South County webpage or school tripper webpage and scroll to the feedback window about halfway down the page.

For more information, please visit the Reimagine SamTrans website or call their customer service line at 800-660-4287.