AgdaPkt 2019-10-14 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

CLK-Pamela Aguilar Yom: Pamela Estes <pkelaw@gmail.com> -,ent: Monday, October 14, 2019 4:44 PM To: GRP -City Council Subject: Comments to Council re: Retail Task Force Agenda Item 8A Dear Council: On Friday, I was notified by Alex K. that this item was on tonight's agenda. I planned to attend tonight and speak, but am scheduled to be "on call" for Rape Trauma Services (I recently became a Sexual Assault Counselor) and have just been called to the hospital so I probably can't make it to tonight's council meeting. Below are my prepared remarks which I hope you will take into consideration. Good evening Mayor Bain and Council members: I am Pamela Estes. I'm a 17 -year resident of Redwood City. I've taken an active interest in downtown and have served on several downtown retail task force efforts since 2012. I don't run a retail or other business downtown. I don't own property downtown. I'm not in the real estate business. I'm not a developer. My interest in downtown is simply that of a resident who wants to see it become a vibrant and inviting place for everyone to enjoy. Mayor Bain invited me to participate in the most recent retail task force. I was grateful to be included and cepted the invitation. I attended 5 of the 6 task force meetings. The whole point of a task force is to bring people together from diverse positions and points of view to facilitate the development of common ideas and'shared problem -solving. All the members being present, sharing ideas and opinions, having discussions and even disagreements help to develop shared solutions and compromises. The last task force meeting took place on October 30, 2018. We haven't met in almost a year. The task force meetings concluded with a document titled the Task Force's Vision Statement, Guiding Principles and Policy Recommendations. Everything in the document was discussed by members of the task force at task force meetings. This document is the culmination of our collective thoughts. It's an agreed upon compromise document. In part, the document included a policy recommendation that "the City should consider limiting banks on key corners..." As I said before, each of these items were topics of discussion by the task force members. I even recall that one or more members suggested prohibiting a bank on any downtown corner. This policy recommendation was the result of a discussion, compromise and a process, and represents the compromise the task force could live with. On January 28, 2019, Leslie Parks took the policy recommendations and wrote a staff report that was presented to council and the staff report included this policy recommendation. a is my understanding through the grapevine that a number of individuals on the task force no longer support a policy recommendation limiting banks on key corners. I didn't hear any opposition to this recommendation