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From:Barbara Jakoby To:publiccomment Subject:City council meeting Date:Friday, July 18, 2025 4:32:40 PM [You don't often get email from barbara.jakoby@gmail.com. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] Dear RWC council members, First I wanted to thank you for all your efforts keeping/making RWC a beautiful place to live in. Thank you also for giving me/the community the opportunity to share ideas and concerns. I want to address three issues which I strongly believe, are important. 1. Cleanliness and safety of our streets downtown and neighborhoods I have noticed that certain streets are very dirty and have a terrible appearance. Woodside Road for example is an eye sore since many years and it’s getting worse each year. There has got some work done which is great (bike lane!, fixing potholes!…). Good improvement there. However, what’s going on with all the trash on the side of the road?? It’s especially noticeable going towards 101. I don’t understand why this is even an issue. Why do people throw their trash literally out of their windows? I personally have never seen any cleaning services who try to keep up with this. I feel ashamed driving there when we have guests visit from outside of our town. It’s our all home and everyone should be responsible for keeping it clean. Is littering really enforced or are these signs just there as a little reminder? Who is in charge of this and are they really doing enough? And I am not just talking about the trash that might be from the homeless population. I have seen drivers in expensive cars throwing trash out of their windows many times! Parts oft downtowns walkways are very dirty and even sticky, especially in front of some restaurants. Theater Way is one example. The whole street looks terrible with the gum and dirt on the ground. This might be worth changing and should be an easy, inexpensive task to do - water and soap. Shouldn’t the restaurants, businesses be in charge of this? Maybe they area. 2. Camping along the roads This is another issue that needs to be controlled better. I feel for everyone who has no choice but living in a tent (if even!) on a busy road, surrounded by trash and exposed to the elements and probably also danger. I see the effort made by putting big boulders on open grass areas. I don’t think that it looks great with all the weeds growing in between, but the boulders certainly do their job, keeping campers out. Maybe the city could improve the appearance of the “boulder fields” that would bring more color in our city and that doesn’t look like halfway done. Maybe this could be a fun project for school classes or artists (sculptures, murals, community gardens)? I have seen garden centers that rent spaces like this, to beautify them and with this advertise for their businesses. I just visited Europe this summer (and many summers before) and I admire how creative (and clean!!) some of the cities solve these issues that we are facing. I truly hope that there will be efforts made to help the homeless population and not just keeping them out of RWC. Maybe the city does already. I don’t know enough about this topic to have an opinion on it. 3. The appearance of the “REDWOOD CITY” sign on El Camino The idea of the sign is beautiful but it for sure needs an upgrade - new paint, nice flowers or whatever is there already, just better taken care off. It’s the welcome sign for our city and certainly gives a first impression of how proud we are of our community. These are just some ideas and shouldn’t be seen as criticism. I can imagine that it’s impossible to make it right for everyone and that money is tide too. My family and I live here since 23 years and we have seen the efforts and improvements over the years. Downtown is so inviting with all the dining options, benches along the way, new businesses. I absolutely enjoy the “no car zone” in parts of downtown and wish that there even would be more of