AgdaPkt 2019-11-04 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

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Neighbors & 1 are adamant that we are bringing a demand to you for much more opportunity to voice our concerns & have them heard and considered and replied to. Many of us are finding the scheduled times for our personal input at meetings held by the city, to be extremely limiting. They are not at feasible hours, do not allow enough time for comments to be aired, and are certainly not offered at frequent enough intervals prior to projects. 1 don't like the words "tokenism" and "cronyism" but they are definitely flitting through my mind after seeing all that's been going on in Redwood City with development. I came here about 12 years ago from 30+ years in the South Bay to get away from urban sprawl, as one of my reasons. I immediately visited Schaberg Library looking for a copy of the City Plan. It was out of date & incomplete but even so, I saw that there were loopholes about many things with regard to any future development. Coincidentally, all hell began to break loose in development projects just after that. I'm not at all against progress and buildings and increased revenue and adding to our population. But I am so sad to see the way it's been done here. Frankly, things are kind of a mess and it looks to get worse for quite awhile before getting better (if better is possible now?). So far, it seems that only certain "players" swing weight on the city's "action plan" and that there are obvious factors of greed and speed. I don't see real honest team work here ... and I question the ethics about that. Redwood City has an ignored negative morale issue stemming from all the wild development. Many residents are disillusioned, disappointed, frustrated, and in some cases quite bitter, about not having their fair and square opportunities to be players and swing weight in the city's action plan too. It's not about speed and greed for them. It's about getting the best of all possible scenarios in our community out of what developer wares are being flashed at us. Something's been wrong about the process as it exists. We have to change it for the better. I would rather be celebrating but I'm grieving about what's happened to Redwood City. I want to shop here, not San Carlos/Menlo Park, etc. I want to park easily so I can do that! I've lived in and traveled to countless places around the world and really hope to remain right here in Redwood City. Redwood City is so charming, sweet, friendly, well -located, decent and still fairly safe, but it's suffering from the negative impact of poor communication about development. The concern is to insure Redwood City fosters a collective voice to successfully address detrimental effects of lopsided development, past present and future. The goal of our collective voice is to prevent such lopsidedness from hindering what optimal community development really is. We have a voice. Margaret J. Marshall M.Ed. Stafford Park/Mt. Carmel Margaret Marshall M.Ed. A California Credentialed Teacher website: www.MargaretMarshall.work 2