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From: <br />Meghan 0"Leary <br />To: <br />GRP -City Council <br />Subject: <br />Agenda #8.B. <br />Date: <br />Saturday, October 24, 2020 4:43:13 PM <br />Hi, as a long time resident of Redwood City, I definitely do not, under any circumstances, <br />want retail stores selling pot in Redwood city. I don't know who you surveyed this summer <br />about this matter, but I didn't respond to any survey and I am 100% against it. Many cities up <br />and down the peninsula have decided not to allow retail pot dispensaries because, as good as <br />they might be for revenues, they are terrible for neighborhoods and property values and kids. <br />There are plenty of ways to get marijuana online. We do not need retail stores selling <br />marijuana. There's no amount of tax revenue that would justify ruining our neighborhoods by <br />allowing these types of businesses near our schools and our homes. Would you promote strip <br />clubs or bars in residential neighborhoods? How is this any different? One of the few things <br />opening the shops will do is increase the risk that our kids will have easier access to pot than <br />ever before. <br />Redwood City has come so far in the last several decades with the revitalization of downtown. <br />Why on earth would we want to drag it down by promoting dangerous, cash -only businesses <br />that will attract people for the worst possible reasons, and create additional risk for our kids. <br />And don't get me started on the decline in the safety of our neighborhoods that these <br />businesses will cause. I imagine you're aware of the pot dispensaries are frequent targets of <br />robbery because they deal in cash only (oh, and drugs). <br />I see from a recent newspaper article that the city is looking at a variety of criteria including <br />whether the businesses are "compatible" with the neighborhoods in which they are proposed. <br />Is that where the city decides that Mount Carmel is too nice to have a pot dispensary but North <br />fair Oaks is fine because there are more renters and people with less economic power there? I <br />can tell you right now that no pot dispensary is compatible with any residential neighborhood. <br />And no homeowner in her right mind would want that kind of establishment in the <br />neighborhood. <br />Please do not do this to our city. We deserve better. <br />Thank you. <br />Meghan O'Leary <br />