 Council. So, and it doesn't. It speaks to the council goals, but it doesn't. I don't believe it mentions. Recommendations. To the full council reporting back, but not recommend. So I think some place that just needs to have the recommendations policy recommendations. To give us the, the, to kind of complete the circle, if you will. I can add that to the last sentence. Yeah. And so it's all, otherwise I see it is really wrapping around the, the purpose of the subcommittee. That's the only piece that I think was there was a gap. My only question about including Roseland is, you know, obviously it's viewed as one of our economic engines that we have for the city, the city of Roseland. I mean, we cover in economic development all the time. And so for downtown, I know that there are a lot of issues that are very specific to downtown. Is this only because there are issues that are very specific. To Roseland that aren't captured somewhere else in the city's subcommittees. I mean, honestly. You know, There's a fluidity between economic development and downtown. So I'm not wed to having Roseland in there. The one thing like so thinking about, you know, potential future items like EIFD, like sometimes what we do downtown, we also consider there. We're looking to the enhanced infrastructure finance district, for example, is a consideration. The other is we're looking to do a community benefit districts there. You know, I was looking for what we could certainly capture it in the economic development subcommittee. Do you have a preference? I think my preference is to capture it in economic development, mostly because. There are other areas such as the scenarios of marketplace or Montgomery village. Or other specific parts of the city that are both the economic side and also have their own specific items that they might want to talk about downtown to me has always been an emphasis on. From a council priority perspective. Of trying to grow our downtown up, right? And so I don't want to lose sight of sort of that or the special nature of our downtown. And railroad square has obviously always been attached to that as well. So I don't want to get into that. To me, the most important part about this, the subcommittee is the. Facilitate discussion and feedback on programs and partnerships that bolster downtown vibrancy. That to me is where the real value of this subcommittee comes in as the partnerships with the folks who are actually doing the work downtown. So I just don't want to. Accidentally diminish that by. You know, I don't want to get into that. But to your point, you know, we kind of go to south of highway 12, but there's also a whole lot of economic development and what not that we want to do the rest of Santa Rosa Avenue down. So I'm open to it, but just asking some questions about it. How about this? How about we just keep it without Rosalind for now and really, because I think. I think we can make it. It's underdevelopment right now. You know, there's well, one of the things we're finding out with the, you know, with the enhanced infrastructure finance district discussions is that it's a little bit behind so that if we have. Considerations for both, it's almost two different discussions. So for that reason, I think maybe it is premature then to, to consider it. Sort of a second downtown or. I agree with that. I mean, I don't know if it was the spirit in which it was, it was written, but we rarely, if ever can omit a conversation around Rosalind when we're talking about downtown for a number of reasons. And our commitment to Rosalind is, is very, very clear. Are the council considerations and conversations at the dais. So I think that in the spirit of not diluting the concept of the downtown subcommittee and there are other areas and you mentioned the mayor that are important to have in a conversation, but not necessarily under this banner. So I think for the time being going back to, or not being having that specificity around Rosalind does make sense and is in the spirit of fairness to the other commercial districts in Santa Rosa. So I think we let's, let's keep it, keep the intention pretty clear about the downtown core. Okay. And then so some of the things that I was thinking about where we were originally talking about in the economic development subcommittee. So it was moving that, I mean, we can still, as long as this agenda is, we can do it on both, on both agendas, but moving the enhanced infrastructure, the the the discussion, you know, timeline, general update, et cetera, to this committee, we've got the interim downtown park demand fee policy, but not just that one. I mean, that one feels like because it's a downtown specific thing. We couldn't get it on this agenda today. But it's specific to downtown, but was part of some of our overall development packet, which I think in this, this one. And we've got a downtown development incentives generally. So we've had the parks program, the fees structure was part of that, but we have other timeline and general update considerations. And some of those are city wide, right? But, but they are most effectively applied in the downtown. I mean, there's an interest in doing a parking district, like a multi-year strategy. And I don't know if that's still relevant, given some of the changes that are happening. Or, you know, I think that they just went to parking this or just went to council. But is there a need for sort of a more in depth look at what that strategy is in the health of the, of the district downtown office mitigation incentive policy and program development. Like the kinds of, the kinds of businesses that we want to attract what we're doing, because we're developing a program right now in partnership with the chamber and the downtown action organization to do very specific business development or business recruiting. So I think it would be helpful to come here. These are who we're looking at, you know, what help we might need from you guys. And then also, um, partnership, um, developments, you know, we have obviously we're partners with, um, where we're squaring downtown, uh, gross gross association downtown action organization, and what other opportunities exist to do, um, uh, any new potential programs or, um, you know, like, uh, I think about other places where, you know, sometimes they have private, um, partnerships in public spaces, like in the square. I don't know what that might look like. Um, but generally also downtown parks and public space considerations, I think beyond parklets is another kind of topic that we're thinking about, um, related to, to the new purpose. And so it's more exploratory. And then the other thing is we're looking to move the, what used to be sort of those common updates, like we would get public safety, we would get, um, you know, the associations, we would get, um, parking, move those, some of those to written, um, you know, sort of written communications so that you'd get something on it and then we can go more, it'll give us more time to go more in depth than some of these, um, more policy level things. I think that that sounds good, John. I agree. You know, and the downtown subcommittee, I mean, clearly it's, it has been an evolution. And as it should be, the downtown's evolving, um, the subcommittees evolving, um, and I think the recommendations and the discussions that you, that you highlighted, right? So our, um, we'll, you're kind of right on and, and it will continue to change as the, as the downtown does. So that I, I think right now, I think you're, you're, um, um, your recommendations are clear. And, uh, and I agree with them. Yeah. You know, something that's interesting. I was just thinking about this, like sometimes it takes staff a while to put together a full report, but what had been also effective in the economic development subcommittee is sort of, um, picking up a topic and then, um, before staff comes with too much information or like is, um, you know, develops the, the presentation too much is actually developing the issues or like understanding if, if what the issues are with the subcommittee. So, um, I just want to put that out there that, um, I think unlike with council where we go with the full report, what's been helpful is, um, exploring the, the topics before we get, before staff does a full presentation of all the issues. Um, so some of them might be a little less baked before, so that we can make sure that we're going in the right direction. I think that's your work right on. I mean, the, the, the history of the economic development subcommittee, um, has that element to it where we hash out the, the, and actually write down to, is this really an economic issue or is it, is it something else? And does it, does it need to live in economic development? We've had those kinds of conversations and also being, um, aware of how certain policies that the council may, um, discuss, um, kind of informing the council and educating the council on the economic impacts of a, of a, of a, an issue or a policy that they didn't even realize had an economic development, um, uh, effect. So I know I've certainly, uh, experienced that myself. And, and so it's, it's, I'm not worth removing the rose on the piece and the downtown subcommittee. I'm not worried at all. It's going to, is going to dilute, um, our conversations around economic development city-wide. So, um, which is really, that's our, that is our responsibility. And when we, it's not just about the downtown, this is, uh, this committee is and should be. Um, so I, I really appreciate the direction it's moving. I agree. I think the ability to triage policy is the main function and the main, uh, utility for our subcommittees. Yeah. Yeah. And I had to say, and then I'll just move on because I think we're good on this is, um, as a staff person, like the thing, like what I'm hoping to do always is to get as close as possible back to like that ad hoc thing when we were, uh, in the, um, you know, in declared emergencies, the ability to identify new opportunities and then pursue them. Um, uh, is what was just amazingly helpful in, um, in pushing our programs for it. Okay. So, um, that's good. I'll take out, um, Roseland, um, I'll add the policy recommendations to council. Um, and, um, I think we're good to go on that. Um, the second thing for new business is, um, the just reports from the community benefit districts. So really fast. Let's see if we have any public for 3.1. I forgot about that. It's all good. We'll start with Eric. Are we able to get Eric to unmute? Apologies. I was, I was on mute. Um, it'll take just one moment. I apologize for the delay. It's all good. We're having funny technical issues today. Yes. Um, Mr. Frazier, you have been given permission to speak. If you would confirm your ability to see the screen. Uh, you may proceed. Mr. Frazier. Okay. Here we go. Oh, wonderful. Thank you very much. And, um, happy to join you this morning. I hope everybody had a great 4th of July. This is an interesting item to come on the agenda today. Uh, and I do have some comments, of course. So first of all, of course, you know me as being active. On some issues that are currently in front of the council. And so understanding the, uh, work of a subcommittee or an ad hoc committee is actually very important. Um, and it, of course, creates this real illusion that we're detecting. When you say that the subcommittees and ad hoc committees are a way to triage policy. Because that certainly didn't happen in the issue. That's before us a summer. Um, when it comes to the Rosalind, uh, there's no question that the Rosalind and the Southwest districts require a subcommittee. When you read the housing element, that's before us. Whether you guys want to realize it or not. All the action is in the Southwest part of the city. Over the past nine years, there's been an over 300% increase in overcrowded and severely overcrowded living. This isn't due to the fire. Part of it is due to the Rosalind annexation. But if you have the more than annexation coming up, thus all these issues, the economic development, the housing issues absolutely demand their own subcommittee. The fact that you're not doing that is really weird, quite frankly. When it comes down to this committee, I absolutely agree with Reyes. This assessment assessment that you need printed reports. I mean, you can make the, some of these reports of what's going on in downtown or economic subcommittee, some of these metric reports certainly can be done in writing and spread throughout all the different subcommittees or other organizations that are interested. One of the problems I see in the dynamics between the downtown subcommittee and some of these other partnerships are that I don't think you guys are really getting the memo about how important it is for the city to combat corruption. And so when you guys are just willing to give other powerful groups dominion over the public purse as well as public decision-making, that's a recipe for disaster. And you guys should be wise to that now. The fact that you're not is also very disconcerting, I might add. Oh, let's see. Is there anything else? The interplay between this committee and the economic subcommittee meeting, again, is not really well fitted. These aren't supposed to be malleable type things. These are things. So that's a good point. I don't think it's supposed to be malleable type things. These are things so that the outside public can understand what the business of the city is and how you're protecting us or not. These aren't political football fields or shouldn't be. But thank you. Thank you for entertaining my comments today. Thank you, Mr. Frazier. Okay. I don't see any other hands. Let's go ahead and bring it back. So I'm going to move on to the next item. Sure. So, um, actually is this one, I'm just going to hand over to, um, cadence and. At Hinkle, Alanson from the downtown action organization and to, uh, Chris Wilson. So, um, We eventually, this will be part of the written reports, but I didn't have it together in time to do that today. for it verbally as well. So should we start Eileen with Cadence? And yeah, there we go, Chris and Cadence. Good morning, everybody. It is nice to see you all again. I think it's probably been about three or four months since I last reported, but I just wanna say that I am very excited for the direction the committee is headed in and looking forward to being a part of that. I'm sure I'm gonna forget quite a bit as I go through what's been happening downtown, but I definitely wanna start by acknowledging Gabe and Marisa for their help with getting the permanent parklet program together. We are really excited to see that moving forward. We have at least one business that's already in the process. So hopefully we have a few more that join in. The fact that the fees were reduced to as little as possible is a huge help. So I know the construction costs are gonna be an issue and a challenge for a lot of our businesses, but really hoping we can get these as many of these as possible moving forward. I also wanna thank Chad and Alan for talking with us as we kind of work through the new garage parking incentives. I am thrilled not to be coming back to you every year now for free holiday weekend parking. I'm glad that is something that we've got kind of set in stone now. And I think having the first hour free will be a really helpful way to push people to the garages, remind them that it's an inexpensive place to park where they cannot get a parking ticket and really help streamline the messaging around parking downtown. Because as we know, there's a lot of confusion in general about where to park, when is it free, what the charge is. So everything we can do to simplify that message is huge. A few other updates for our downtown businesses who are definitely getting positive feedback around the events that are happening on the square, which is really nice to hear. I've got a lot of young families coming out and we're gonna be trying to kind of do some informal surveying moving forward to find out who's coming down, how they found out about it and kind of their relationship with Living and San Rosa, are they new? Have they been here for a while? Have they attended events in the past? Just to give us a sense of kind of who we're reaching and impacting through what we're doing. New businesses have a feeling there's more than this, but right now it's the only one on my mind, but Loro, DeNapoli finally opened in the old Lavera space. Highly encourage everyone to check that out. It's excellent pizza and we're thrilled to have them in downtown, really, really nice group of people who are running that, so definitely worth visiting. On a less positive note, our downtown homeless population has been growing steadily. Our team continues to engage with them on a daily basis and capital charities comes out once a week for a walkthrough and then meets with us once a week to kind of talk through the engagements and strategies, but we're just seeing a big increase in both the number of people who are living downtown or residing here during the day and then also the amount of stuff that is located downtown. So we have quite a few people who kind of choose to leave their belongings in the square with the expectation that they will remain there for as long as it takes them to come back and it's three or four carts worth of stuff per person. So it's a big challenge and we're trying to work with those folks to remind them that there is no expectation that your stuff will remain in place if you leave it unattended. So we're trying to make sure they stay with their stuff but we've been getting a lot of really negative feedback about certain areas of the square as they kind of remain highly populated and have a very, very visible impression of homelessness, which is a challenge. We work every week to try to get everyone as many resources as possible but we tend to have a pretty service resistant crowd downtown. On the kind of design and improvement side, big thanks to James for finally getting three of the benches on the square replaced. I'm looking at them right now from my window and they look great. I mean, even from this far away, you can just tell that it's a big improvement. I'm really hoping that the rest of the benches will get replaced soon. It's a pretty stark contrast and the beaten up and broken ones that are still there just kind of add to some of the dirtiness that's been growing in the square. Especially as we're kind of limiting pressure washing with the drought, I think having clean furniture or undamaged furniture makes a big impact. Also really grateful to be seeing some brighter lighting coming into Comstock and Jeju. Those areas traditionally kind of attract negative behavior and have been kind of negative, pretty negative points or areas downtown. Comstock and Jeju are both really heavily trafficked areas for people parking and coming downtown. So a lot of people walk through Jeju to get to businesses on 4th Street. A lot of people walk through Comstock when they're parking in the D Street garage. And again, those are areas that we just get a lot of feedback around open drug use, high amounts of litter, the trash cans are almost impossible to keep closed and clean. So appreciate definitely seeing some better lighting there that will hopefully help make the area feel a little bit safer. Our design improvement committee is working on a couple projects, putting together a proposal for planting in courthouse square under the trees and also wayfinding signage. So for the wayfinding, really taking a multifaceted approach to that, focusing on pedestrian level, signage and major points of interest as well as having mapping and an online component. So when they get easy for people to kind of scan and see where they're standing and see what's around them rather than putting in more signage around that. Events on the square, touched on this a little bit already, but we are definitely into the busy event season. We've got at least two or if not three events every week that we're helping to manage, chamber is helping to manage. But we also lost one really good recurring event because of the ongoing issues with the homeless population. They just felt like it wasn't the right fit for them because they had people complaining and talking about feeling unsafe with the amount of homeless people who are on the square and kind of how they're choosing to engage with the event or be around the kids activities, which made people feel a little bit cautious. And then we are also starting to plan for a fall fun fest and winter lights already. So we'll share more details on that soon, but we're moving forward with a synthetic rink hoping to have some type of market component there and looking forward to kind of improving on last year's experience a bit to make it more festive and fun and welcoming to everybody. I think I touched on parking and parklets already, but again, just grateful to all the city staff who put in a lot of work to get us to the place where we are today and to counsel for supporting those efforts. I really appreciate the communication that we have with city staff and the back and forth relationship. I think it's very clear to me that staff wanna do everything they can to support our small businesses downtown. And that's really, really great to be a part of. Other things that our committees and board are focusing on, Raisa mentioned, but we're starting to focus on or putting together a program for business attraction development. So our goal is to kind of end that project with physical collateral and an online website that will really highlight the opportunities downtown, upcoming developments, business friendly policies and opportunities for new businesses and developers. So excited to get that off the ground and looking forward to working with the city and some of our business owners to get that going. I also wanna thank Raisa and her team for moving forward the EIFD discussion. It's been moving quickly and importantly so, I mean, it's really critical that this get expedited. So very grateful for how fast that's been going and wanna make sure that as an organization we're supporting that in every way possible. Also have had quite a few discussions recently about improving some of the processes and policies just to make it easier for new businesses to get up and running and then also easier for existing businesses to do necessary upgrades and improvements and that's very helpful. I think we've kind of been seeing some of the same consistent challenges and anything we can do to just make it easier right now while we're kind of in this difficult economic spot as a downtown, it's just really helpful to see that happening. And then the last thing to mention is that we have ended our contract with Street Plus. We are now working with a company called Next Street. They're from the Bay Area and are really focused on data and analytics and staff development. So we're excited to be partnering with them. It's really great to kind of see the difference between how the two companies operate. They did keep on two of our staff. So we've got some continuity here as well. It's not all new people which is really helpful for the area and for our business owners to kind of see some of the same faces around. But the focus is really the same. They're gonna be working on cleaning, on sanitation and maintenance and engaging with the homeless population just to kind of support our downtown business and property owners. So they can be reached at the same phone number as always and we'll be passing around more information. All our business owners are aware but we'll be sending out more information in the mail to our property owners as well. I know I said that was the last thing but I do wanna also just recognize in response because they've been a great partner recently. We've made quite a few phone calls to them when we have kind of escalated issues down here. And generally we see a pretty quick response from them which has been really helpful. So really glad to see that up and running and expanding and it has been a really nice resource for us as the downtown action organization and for our business and property owners. And I will leave it there unless there's any questions. All right, John. No questions, great report. Thanks, Cadence. My question, Cadence, is what event did we lose? The local roots makers market. So they've been here, I think they had four, they were doing the monthly market and so they've canceled their last three, July, August and September, yeah. Okay, thank you. Let's go ahead and go to public comment then. Certainly, just one moment while I pull up the screen. Mr. Frasier, you have been given permission to speak and if you would go ahead and just confirm your ability to see the screen, that would be wonderful. Yes, thank you very much. I can see the screen and appreciate you and appreciate that you're allowing me to use another three minutes or less of your precious time. I really do appreciate that. For this report, I do wanna give you some feedback from our networks. I'm talking on behalf of the Greater Cherry Street Neighborhood Association. The events are great. Boy, neighbors are really buzzing about how incredible the Wednesday night market was and can't wait to return and participate. Just the other day, there's also like a huge cultural event from Mexico that was really, really interesting to see. It's unfortunate to lose the craft fair because when I walked through it really was quite vibrant from the crafters but not many attendees. And it's unfortunate if the disturbances are chasing people away. One also problem is that we're seeing a lot more dog waste and we've attributed it to the hotels that are accepting pets and not educating their guests to clean up after these pets. We'll definitely see an increase in the participation of neighborhoods because downtown parking continues to be a hot issue. I don't think all the issues were really solved by what the downtown action organization came forward with. And this is another example, sort of like a dichotomy of how things should fit together. You guys are really ignoring the neighborhoods and especially when there's an overlap with the parking district. Chad and I and some of our neighbors had a meeting about this last week. And so you can expect continued activism and articulation about the negative issues. Overall, the downtown polls incredibly low. People hate the downtown. They hate the dirt. They hate the vacancies. They hate the parking problems. And people that live close to the downtown are now starting to appreciate it more. But it's such a high hurdle to jump just because you guys seem to always sort of shoot yourself in the foot. Also noted in the housing element is that there appears to be about 20,000 people that are unaccounted for in the housing. Now, if they don't have housing, they become homeless or they come in to the severe overcrowded conditions. I mean, I don't understand why there really isn't the planning that projects this type of impact. I wanted to note that Jeju Way, when you walk through it about the parklets now, if you're just trying to walk down Jeju Way on your way to the post office, it's blocked by some planters you can't get through. And so if you're walking a dog, your choice is only to turn left and walk your dog through the Russian River or turn right and walk your dog through the Chinese restaurant. This is ridiculous planning. You guys aren't really looking at the routes again, sort of shooting yourself in the foot. Where's the Asawa Fountain? And I also know where you spent more time on parklets than you did on STRs. And that's really quite unfortunate. Thank you, Mr. Frazier. All right, I don't see any other hands. I'll go ahead and bring it back. John, anything additional to add? No, thanks, Mayor. Okay, let's go on to item 4.1. Before we do, we have an update from Chris Wilson as well. Oh, my apologies. Go ahead, Chris. Yeah. I wish he's there. Thank you. Good morning, everyone can hear me? Yeah. Great, great. I do appreciate the direction that's being taken for this meeting. I think it'll be more efficient and it'll be great to have the printouts of everything, so I appreciate your efforts in that. I guess I will start kind of echoing some of Caden's report. We're seeing too an increase of vagrants, especially during the day, sleeping in Depot Park and leaving items in the park. We have called, I've called in response in a number of time and actually called Sergeant Ludkey also with issues down there. It's a lot more people sleeping everywhere throughout the district down there. So it's a real concern because of the hotels and trying to promote our restaurants and give a welcome feeling to our visitors. So not a new scenario, but just wanted to echo some of the issues that we're having down there too with the graffiti and the vandalism that goes along with that. Moving on to more upbeat things. I'm happy to report that I'm now located. The visitor center's open downtown, really happy with that. And thank the Chamber of Commerce for giving me a little office space down there. So it makes it a lot easier. I'm down there present with the merchants and seeing what's going on. So I am in the visitor center. So it's open and running. It's nice to see people coming in and getting information as the visitor center should be doing. So I wanna also echo Caden's remarks regarding the Parklet program. Right now we have a couple of our restaurants are looking at going ahead. I really appreciate the city's efforts in keeping the costs down for the restaurants of business owners because that was a huge piece. And I think we're all looking forward to seeing those Parklets looking more uniform and more conducive with the areas. Let's see a couple of things that way finding pedestrian signage that we've been working on for quite some time. It's been a dream of the board for many years. Want to acknowledge Rob Sprinkle and Gabe Osborne who's helped us a lot with helping to move that along as far as approving the locations of the polls. We're now down to the phase of collecting artwork and getting to the sign maker and looking at probably by August, September that we'll start, we'll be seeing the first phase of the signage being placed. Ultimately there will be nine polls throughout the district. We may be adding one. So the first phase should be by September if not sooner and then we'll move on. We've got about 35 of our merchants who are participating so far. So it has been met with really great response. I've been meeting with James Castro and also with Jen Santos looking at replacing the sign in Depot Park that's been vandalized and looking very bad for a very long time. We're looking at a new design that more matches some of the new design work that the city's, her department is doing for overall for some of our city parks but also trying to make it keep a historical element since we are a historic district incorporating the train or making it look appropriate for our area. And some months ago I mentioned to you I was excited I was asking for a doggie station in Depot Park and we now have a doggie station in Depot Park because that has been an issue. So we have that. James Castro has been really great to work with very communicative and all the city staff it's been really nice to have communications going back and forth and having the support from so many of you. Let's see our good things. We have the summer second Sunday music strolls starting this coming Sunday. So the second Sunday of every month through October we'll be doing our music strolls again where we have busker type music along the streets and also in Depot Park with some entertainment either the bubble people hoping to partner with chops again as we did last year. The city will be participating with their water program and the hydration station for October one and looking at also hoping to get six street playhouse but partnering with some of the nonprofits down there. I think as far as new business Ken will be opening soon where the Jack and Tony's was that we opening and then the princess boutique who opened her bridal shop some months ago is now opening a children's shop across the street. So that's looking forward to that getting all some of our empty spaces. We really have very few empty spaces left. There's a new business opening. I don't have a date and actually don't have a name. It's a retail place on 3rd Street which will bring more traffic down there too or more interest down there on to 3rd Street where sole desire is and next to that having a new retail spot. So I think that's all I have. Any questions or comments? I don't have any questions. I do just want to say how nice it was to be back out there for the music festival a couple of weeks ago. That brought a smile to my face and I know it was well attended as well. John. No questions, it's a comment. It's really great to hear Chris and Caden's that the staff is working so well with the downtown organizations. That has not always been the case for one reason or another but well in part because we didn't have any specific downtown organizations to work with. And I think this shows the value and also really appreciate the ability of staff to be facilitators and being helpful and working with the organizations finding ways to expedite and streamline. So really appreciate the mentioning those Chris and Caden's both. Sounds like good news to me. Thank you. Let's go and go to public comment then and see if there's any comment. Yes, we do have a comment from Mr. Frazier. One moment while I pull up the screen and Mr. Frazier you have been given permission to speak if you could confirm your ability to see the screen please. Yes, thank you very much. I appreciate that. And I appreciate that report. The railroad square area is looking beautiful and it only has a few vacancies. That's true. And perhaps you might want to help the downtown side of the equation, the courthouse square side of the equation. And it sort of begs the question about what additional plans are taking place for East West movement between the two areas. More can be done there to remove obstacles around the parking lots, install sidewalks, even though that's mall territory. More must be done to unite those two sections in town. I'm a bit offended when people say that there are not other organizations that need to be included in these discussions. Neighborhood organizations, community groups have been, the neighborhood groups have been a principal part of participation in the city. And they work differently because they typically don't have budgets. They don't have a lot of money. It's not like the power of the city coming at you with all of their money. Instead, you have to work hard to be sure that the voices in the neighborhood groups are included in these meetings, especially on the subcommittee meeting. A couple of things that weren't noted seems like the scooter program started off on a really good foot. I see a lot of people enjoying the scooters and it doesn't seem to be creating much of a clutter or public safety issue. I do note that right there in the park by the visitor center, you know those monkey puzzle trees are cultural gift or jewel, I should say. And the monkey puzzle tree in the downtown Courthouse Square also won. I know it was misidentified during the rush to do the reunification, but those monkey puzzle trees are incredibly important. And more attention needs to be brought forward to our biodiversity that's in the downtown area. And we'll probably be doing that through the neighborhood groups as we're getting more companies to work with the neighborhood groups to do things like sidewalk repair. But the city just seems not to be able to care about or really do anything. It's really quite sad. The visitor center, I'm glad that that reopened. Hopefully they're gonna be getting on top of their accounting so that they no longer have to pull huge fraud in front of the public, as well as the advertisers that participate in the visitor center. I know that Rumble still says that 60,000 visitors pre-COVID go through that visitor center when only about 6,000 did. But hopefully just for the sake of good business and transparency and good government, you'll have some better accounting for that visitor center. Thank you very much. My time is up. Thank you, Mr. Frazier. All right, I'll bring it back. Anything else, John? No, for me. Thanks, Mayor. You know what? I just want to say for the record because we didn't have it listed on there just to confirm that was Cadence, Executive Director of the Downtown Action Organization and Chris Wilson, Executive Director of the Robert Square Association just for the record. Great. All right, we're gonna keep moving through our agenda, Reisa. Yeah, so here's where we were gonna have written reports, but like I said, I didn't get it together in time to give staff enough advanced warning. We did add the special event update, but we have Tara Thompson available if there's any questions or to give just an overview of that. But first I want to start with Chad Hedge, the parking district manager, because he has a small report. And then in the future, we will provide these reports and writing with staff available to answer questions if you have it unless you prefer to just have a quick overview. Again, this is something that we're trying to figure out with the agenda, what your preference might be. I think just having it on there so that we know or can say what we'd like to dive a little bit deeper into would be helpful. Okay, so just to have them continue to be written. And then the same thing with the association reports, the Downtown Action Organization and Robert Square, those will be written and then they'll be available. We can also just highlight pressing things if we need. Okay, so Chad, do you want to start then with the parking report? Yes, yeah, I can do that. Morning Mayor Rogers, Council Member Sawyer, Raisa. I hope everybody's doing well. The last few months have been a little busy with parking at July 1st. We just went back to our pre-COVID rates and hours. Parking itself, we've done a lot of outreach. I've had a lot of meetings with cadence businesses throughout the community, made new flyers. We have an article in the press Democrat. So a big push of ours is to make sure that we're speaking to anybody and everybody. There's no surprises. We're here to answer questions. And I feel like that's working out fairly well. So that's what we've been doing lately. As far as parking itself, our numbers, you know, our transactions, the number of folks coming downtown, it's been mentioned. The numbers are going up. Our garages are being used more. You can walk through downtown or railroad square. You see the streets are used up a lot more. So it seems like everything's coming back and we're looking pretty good for this summer. And we're here. We're here if anybody has any questions or concerns. John, any questions? No questions. Just sounds like good news. Thank you. Yeah, good work. Thank you both. And then Tara, do you want to give an overview of the events? Sure. So the attached list is just the same list that I normally provide updated as of the end of June or June 22nd. It shows the issued permit to the Metro Chamber. What it does not include is the attached list of activities that fall under that blanket permit. So that can be sent out after this meeting if needed. Because as Kate, it's mentioned they have several things going on each week throughout the summer that fall under that that are not listed under the city issued permits. So this list is only the permits that the city is issuing for events that are downtown and includes street closures and all the activities that fall just within Cornell Square fall under the Chamber of Commerce's blanket permit. So I just wanted to clarify that. Otherwise happy to answer any questions. John. No questions from me. Thanks for the report. No, let's go ahead and go to public comment then. We have just one moment. Mr. Frazier has a comment. Mr. Frazier, I'll be sharing the screen in just one moment. And if you would confirm your ability to see the screen. Yes, thank you very much. Karen, I'm glad that you joined this meeting. As you know, we met last week with another member of our neighborhood. And their concerns were representing approximately a hundred or so people on one of our neighborhood group lists, Google groups. And so some of the issues that we discussed with parking including downtown parking and really the residential parking program is an extension of the downtown parking area, if you will. Those two are very intertwined. The concerns that were brought forward to me and then I helped amplify them with a meeting with you had to do with changes to the residential parking program that eroded people's sense of trust with government and people's privacy in that now the requirements are for cars to be registered and guests of people, residents to be disclosed through the parking platform. It gives rise to a lot of questions we have about how data that's collected through various applications of the government controls is being resold behind our backs or accessed without permission or opens up security problems or privacy problems. This was not a primary concern for me. This was a concern of my neighbors. But as I started to pick up and look at that issue especially when I applied to like the stuff that you've done to short-term rentals I can only find a policy in Eastern Europe where guests of short-term rentals have to report their guests to the government even when they're hosting on site. And so you guys don't really realize how far you've stepped towards the sort of totalitarian control by not really including the voices of the people thinking that you know best what's on their behalf and going forward with that. It's really quite disgusting. Other issues with the parking do have to do with the structures and the interface with the neighborhoods. But we know that the structures are only placed by the neighborhoods in a couple of different areas. So it's sort of a subgroup of overall the parking issues. Some of the other parking issues had to do with the number of permits that are not in the flexibility of parking. Neighbors are seeing a lot of empty spaces on the street by their houses but yet they're forced into this like really dictatorial parking structure that the parking division made these changes without input of the residents. And that's not good. And I don't necessarily appreciate also the tone, Chad, when we step forward and say, oh, well you can just get rid of the parking. And that's not it either. You have to have conversation, you have to have growth. One last thought, is it too much to ask for the gentlemen that participate in these meetings to remove their hats? Thank you very much. I appreciate your time today. Okay, I'm ready for the next item, which is department reports. And I have a couple of them, if that's okay with you. Two, four. Sounds good. So quickly, we are going to be starting the facade improvement surveys for the facade improvement program. That's the ARPA one, ARPA funded program. And we're looking at facade improvements, not tenant improvements because of the difficulties of the tenant improvement program and the timing of the funds. And that links over to just, if you haven't done it yet, going to Roseland and seeing the murals of part of the mural project, it is there amazing. And what we're excited about with the facade improvement program is that we have a mural component to it as well. So we're looking to add to the existing murals and Tara and Rafael are managing that program. Also, if you are out there, Matote opens as well. So that's official and just doing really well, I think at this point, I think he's incredibly relieved to have that open. Something else to report, Chris Wilson mentioned this, Visit Santa Rosa, the Visitor Center is open again. So starting tomorrow, they'll be open seven days a week, Sunday through Thursday, 10 to two, and then Wednesday through Saturday, nine to five. So that space is active again. Another department update is the Planning Division, won the California American Planners Association Award of Excellence for the Downtown Stationery specific plan, so that's a big deal and a nice commendation for them. In the future, we're gonna check with Jessica Jones to see if it's okay to add a downtown planning report as well, so that would be another addition to the written reports with staff available for comments if she's okay with doing that. It will give us an update on development in the downtown. And that's all for department reports. And that's some really great accommodations there for the team. We're happy to hear that. John? No questions, congratulations. Thanks, Risa. Sure. Okay, let's go to public comment. We have no hands raised at this time. Okay. So future agenda planning is the last thing on the agenda and looking at, just sort of going down the list of things that I had mentioned earlier. What I'm thinking for August is an update on the enhanced infrastructure finance districts because we'll have the RFP for the request for proposals for some of the reports that we need to do in advance of that. We'll have that ready and we can probably give an update on that. The other thing I was thinking about if we're ready and this is, we need to check with Cadence on this one as well, is the downtown office mitigation and sense of policy program development. So we're working on, we can give you an update on what we're working on for recruitment and what that'll look like and see if we're on the right track for that. But I wanted to see if you guys had anything. Oh, and the other thing is, if staff is ready and I need to double check on this, the interim downtown park demand fee policy. So that does expire in 2023. So we wanted to bring it up at some point in this year, but I don't know if they'll be ready to speak on it as of August, if not August and September, but I wanted to see if there's anything else that you guys wanted as well. John. Just a question, Ray said the park demand fee for the downtown, could you clarify exactly because I think I know what that is that I didn't know that it was referred to in those terms? I'm not sure if it is exactly those terms. That's how I'm using it. So what that is is part of our up downtown, sort of our downtown development incentive program. And what that does is it takes park demand fees for development specifically in the downtown stationary specific plan map area, takes the demand fees for parks and reinvests them in the downtown. So instead of going into the sort of fund for general park uses, it goes specifically for that. So that, for example, is how we were able to get the fountain funded, the Asawa fountain. And then it doesn't, I believe, and we can double check this, doesn't have to go specifically to a park like it doesn't have to go to Fremont Park or Juilliard Park, but to public spaces and used to enhance public spaces. I appreciate that because it was when I learned about that, how it's kind of the rules on how those funds are used without a full blown plan on how to use those funds. There may be other parks and other uses outside of the downtown, with a focus on the downtown. So, and I'm not even sure if it's coming up, I thought it was permanent. I didn't know that there was a timeline on that element. So I'm glad to hear that there will be a conversation around that, because I think it's important to tie the need with a focus on the downtown. But there may be, if there are other ways to use those funds in where there are distinct needs in other parks or areas in the city, if it's possible to do that based on the kind of restrictions of how those funds are used, I would wanna be able to have that conversation. So I appreciate that there will be an opportunity to speak to that funding. Thank you. Sure. Yeah, and then I think for me, I think that there's just a couple of things that I know that are in the works, like for example, we have the, I'm not quite sure what we're calling it, but the dashboard maybe of development projects that I know we're working on, the intersectionality between that and what we're doing with downtown, I think is important just to have as a resource for people when we have our conversations about downtown. We obviously hear a lot about the fountain. It'd be great to have a kind of a running timeline or updating folks frequently about when the fountain will be back in. I think there's just a lot of things that are kind of in progress that I don't know how we capture it in this meeting, but we get pretty consistent questions from folks and it'd be helpful to kind of have some way of updating them more frequently if there's a... Okay, you know what I forgot on my department report? I can give you an update on the fountain. So truly we needed the engineering and they had to re-engineer the panels before we could even get a timeline for the fountain construction because it was predicated on that. So I believe this week we are getting or maybe last week we got the engineering report. I think it's this week. And so that will then, I think by the time August comes around but we'll certainly before the August meeting we'll be able to give you a construction timeline update because once we have that piece from the panels is when we could do that. Perfect. Yeah. Okay, let's go ahead and go to public comment. All right. Mr. Frazier, you have been given permission to speak if you would confirm your ability to see the screen please. Yes, thank you very much. Eric Frazier, Greater Cherry Street. So we'd like to see that this committee is the place where the neighborhoods can come with their concerns especially those neighborhoods that are immediately adjacent to the downtown area. That seems perfectly appropriate especially when we're talking about parking. And we'd also wanna see that this is the subcommittee where we can hash out some of these parking problems that we're having. I know that our meeting which had last week appeared to be fruitful and that we're expecting some follow up but I don't think we got to all the issues that the neighbors were expressing frustration over. And there again is this huge interaction between the downtown neighbors and the businesses that are downtown. I know everybody likes to think that the people that go to the businesses are all tourists or whatever. I know you guys are all caught up in your tourist mentality. But most of the business comes from people that live here. I know when we step into a restaurant the chances are we're counted as a tourist in your economic development numbers but be that as it may. The business stems from the residents to a huge degree like 80%, 90%. I don't know, Pat might have more information or maybe not but at any rate this committee should be the place where we can focus and vocalize these concerns and have some business taken care of. If it's not, I guess we'll have to advocate and agitate for where we do find that. That would be very unfortunate. When it comes to the Sawa Fountain I think everybody's really in a state of depression not only because city leaders just have this potential I mean this continued capacity just to ignore reality but we're really hopeful that the Sawa Fountain panels were not damaged beyond repair. It seems like the last plan was to recast them. Anybody who knows art knows that when you recast something you lose a degree of detail perhaps a huge degree of detail. So who knows what's coming out of this process? I guess at the end of the day just as long as it has Mr. Futrell's name on it that's what's important. It's really quite sad to see but just the same we're hoping that there's going to be progress now so that the neighborhoods can be in liven. It was great news about that parks funding we look forward to seeing how that can help neighborhoods revitalize their little corners and thank you again. And I hope everybody has a great week until next time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Frazier. Okay, with that I don't think we have anything else, right Reisa? All right, see you later. Bye gentlemen.