Um, well, thanks everybody for coming.

We'll we'll see if we can figure that out.

Um listening sessions before, and um this is really an opportunity for you all to share with the council what you're thinking, what's important to you right now, and what you think that the city as it prepares its next budget should be thinking about and prioritizing over the next year plus.

Um couple of things that you should know.

Uh, the council will not be talking tonight, they will not be we will not be responding, and part of that is the Brown Act that we follow.

Um there's no item agendized tonight other than hearing from you, so we can't have discussions.

So, really, this is a chance for the council to listen and to take note of what they're hearing, and um and our staff are here taking notes, and all of this will be collected along with some other things that I'll share tonight into a report that will inform and be part of our priority setting session in March.

So, okay.

Um, a little bit of housekeeping here.

Uh, here's today's agenda.

So I've I've shared a little bit about the priority and setting process, I'll share a little bit more.

We'll talk about other ways you can provide feedback, and we would hope you'd be ambassadors to your neighbors and friends to make sure they know how they can also participate if they're not here tonight.

Uh we'll just introduce our council, talk about some of the goals of this evening.

Uh, we'll very quickly cover some guidelines for a productive and respectful session and uh and then we'll jump into your comments.

So uh we are we have scheduled two priority setting sessions.

That doesn't mean we can't add more if if need be.

And um, and then, of course, that all culminates in our priority setting session.

So tonight's session is the first of the listening sessions, and then on Sunday, we have a listening session here at 2 p.m.

And that will be provided in Spanish.

Anyone is welcome, and we will provide translation and interpretation into English, but it's an opportunity for our monolingual Spanish speaking community and those that are just more comfortable speaking Spanish to share their thoughts and feelings as well.

And then on Saturday, March 14th, we will hold our priority setting session with the council.

There will be opportunities to provide additional feedback, but that's really the working session where the council really digs in and talks about the issues and um starts planning our priorities for the next uh fiscal year.

Another way that people can provide feedback is through our online uh survey.

If you go to our website at happenbay.gov slash listening sessions, uh you can submit your feedback there, or you can also send an email to communications at happenbay.gov.

And all of those will be collected through Tuesday, March 10th, which just gives us enough time to compile this into the report and ready for our priority setting session.

All right, very quickly.

I want to introduce our city council.

Um to my right is councilmember Robert Brownstone, and then we have Mayor Debbie Reddock, Vice Mayor Deborah Penrose, Councilmember Patrick Johnson, and Councilmember Paul Nagingast.

And I'd encourage you to go to our website.

If you don't know what district you're in, we we have uh district based elections, and so each of these council members represents a district of the city.

And if you go to our website and uh on the main page, there's a a little box that says which district am I in, and you can click on it and put in your address and look at the map, or you can go to the city council web page and you can look at it there.

And uh if you have concerns or ideas you want to share outside of this process, uh these are very engaged council members and they want to hear from you and you can contact them directly.

So our goals for tonight uh we want to hear what matters most to you and our community.

We want to learn about the needs, challenges, and ideas that the city should be thinking about for improvement, whether it's services or programs, or or ways to better serve the community, and we really want to gather your input, which will guide the city council priorities for the fiscal year 2627 budget.

Um some examples, and and by no means is this an exhaustive list, but things that have been prioritized in the past include housing, public safety, transportation and mobility, circulation, and community services.

That might be social services, libraries, recreation services, though types, those types of things but again if you have other things that don't fit into these categories you're welcome to share them and uh we're we're happy to hear anything from you tonight uh as far as guidelines for a productive session uh the most important thing is just be respectful and kind of each other um you know we we might have different opinions and it's okay and it's good to listen to those other opinions please speak from your own experiences not from hearsay or or things that are you know buzzing in the communities talk about what you know and what you've experienced um I have next door to tell me what's buzzing in the community so um and then please if you can keep your comments brief unlike a normal city council meeting there's no speaker cards um and there's no timer but we do want to make sure everybody who wants to speak has the opportunity to speak and that nobody's kind of hoarding the time and so I may cut you off if you're if you're going long but looking at this group I think we'll we'll have a good respectful um evening I would ask when it's your turn to speak or when you want to speak just raise your hand and these uh handsome gentlemen in the back are gonna be running the mics and they'll bring a microphone to you before you make your comment if you wouldn't mind just sharing your name so we can include it in the minutes for this meeting that would be greatly appreciated.

Madam Mayor I don't know if you have anything else you want to add before we get started.

If you feel you haven't had enough time tonight go online and submit your comments or or email one or more of us.

We're really interested in what you have to say.

Hi.

Alright well with that we're gonna open up this listening session.

So anybody that's interested in speaking please raise your hand and we'll we'll send a mic your way I want to talk about housing it's really important to me and the community I hesitate to call it affordable housing because housing is no longer affordable in this area unfortunately.

Okay there's a lot of sentiment that says measure D is outdated.

I disagree I think we should keep it I think it's original purpose of making sure that our infrastructure did not was not overwhelmed with single family housing is a good thing.

If you wanted to change that that's okay but for the most part I don't think we should mess with measure D.

I think it's really important that we encourage as much affordable housing as possible starting with 555 Kelly that is a project that we have advocated for for a long time we need to get our retired and senior farm workers the respect and housing that they need this project has gone on long enough and uh we need to get it done the project uh the affordable housing project on on Metzger I think it's nominally on Main Street but it's uh basically on Metzger that uh that you just approved the um measured the allocations uh for the next two years.

I think that should be encouraged.

That sounds like a something that it's in the right place and it will give uh an opportunity for lower income people to to stay in the city.

Uh so that that's also useful.

Um there was I was personally disappointed that rent stabilization was not approved.

But the one part of that program that really makes sense to keep is to have uh legal aid society still available to people who are being unjustly treated either because of the rents are too high or they're unjustly evicted.

Um that doesn't cost us much and um we we should keep that part uh of the uh uh tenant protections in place um what else uh oh uh there was some talk about how well if we're not gonna have rent control we can at least uh help tenants with uh uh subsidies and uh I guess as a secondary thing it's okay but if you're really serious about that you should give a million dollars to Coast Side Hope.

They're the ones who distribute the money who know when uh people are in need of rental assistance and just uh you know give them the 20 grand or whatever is a drop in the bucket and it's not gonna make much of a difference um yeah I I think those is some of my concerns about housing and I I hope we uh uh take them seriously thank you.

Thank you.

I think um right here in the green sweater.

And again please state your name when you make your comments so we can record that.

I'm Anne Morrie and I'm here to talk about swimming.

Um we had to cancel the swimming program last summer because the district had impossible insurance requirements they've revised the insurance requirements so the swimming lessons are a go.

So that's great news.

The next pro uh focus is to get the pool open for the community.

The pool sits up there people pay to heat it people pay to have water people pay to have the chemicals in it and it just sits there.

So it should be open to the public.

So maybe it four hours a week Fridays and Sundays or something uh so people can use it.

It used to be open a lot of people have come to me and said how come the pool's not open it used to be open.

That's a good question.

My nonprofit which is called Coastide Aquatic Center, we're willing to provide lifeguards, we're willing to pay the district their fee um we're doing coastside gives and people give money there to get the pool open.

So money's not the problem.

It's just and we'll have insurance anyhow for the swim lessons.

So there's no reason that pool shouldn't be open and it's it's always a battle.

So um I'm here to s you know you talk about recreation, recreation services programs that affect daily life swimming is involved in all those.

So I know you can't make miracles happen but and I don't know if you do this if you ever write letters to the school district uh showing your support for a swimming program that would be very helpful.

So trying to get the pool open for the community this summer and any help any of you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Waltz wants to share tonight.

Great.

One two three okay uh my name is Paul Gregoria I'm a proud resident of district four with uh represented by our mayor.

I I'm here because uh I had a flashback today to the last time I appeared in or one of the last times I appeared at the person the council meeting to warn the council about the shoddy security on the uh uh flock uh uh designed license plate reader system uh uh the problems being that outside access to the database is much too easy uh and if uh anyone in the law enforcement community makes a request to access the database, it's granted.

And today I was listening to uh TV saying that uh ICE and uh the border patrol have now got hundreds of millions of dollars to put together a huge database.

Uh on all American citizens, particularly the ones that might be brave enough to appear in person at a demonstration or to protest uh President Trump's operation.

And I said to myself, well, uh I don't I don't think it's a good idea at this point.

Uh now I think the costs of running the uh license plate research system in half Moon Bay probably outweigh its benefits uh to the community.

Now I'm I'm aged out of uh knowledge about the program.

So I've made a quick visit to the web and find out and found out that there are uh I think oh 15 or 20 lawsuits now by different cities, including San Francisco and Oakland, for example, against Flock and against the system, the way it's operated, particularly the looseness of access to the data and the long period of time that many cities uh had contracts written to have their data kept uh on file before it being deleted.

I'm out of touch with the terms and conditions of the contract that Hafoon Bay has, but I intend to educate myself in that regard, and I would caution the council members.

Um it's one small uh step that we could take to uh make our position uh vis-a vis uh the awful kinds of transgressions being carried out by ICE and s uh and border protection um less impactful upon our people.

I would encourage you to also find out what's going on.

I'll bring what I find out uh to uh I guess a public comment for the first time in years at a council meeting.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you, Paul.

Who else would like to share something tonight?

Nancy Fontana.

Um I'm I'm very pleased that I went to the uh discussion on Measure D.

I didn't have a big understanding of it.

Uh and and I got a better understanding also of the ADUs and the problems people were facing with that process.

Um I I'm not a candidate for to be putting an AD, so I wasn't really on my radar very much.

Um one of the things they took out of that though that was really important was the um because measure D was put in place to give the city a chance to develop the infrastructure to support the housing city hope to do.

Um I I kind of would like to know how that's gone.

Um, you know, have we done a lot?

I mean, I care people say we need two thousand units.

Are we close to having the infrastructure that would support that?

I have no idea, and I know it involves more than the city.

There's the water, there's the uh the sewer, which of course is the city, but other agents.

So I I think that would be important to have something an update on that.

For this for this for the public to know how that's going.

And then if it's not up to what you had hoped, I think then that should become a priority.

I too am concerned about housing.

I think it's terrible how much the rents are and and the cost of housing.

And I feel badly for people.

Um I didn't I don't like the city's approach on the stabilization.

Um I think it could do a better approach.

Um, of course, you want to uh consider tenants and try to help them get through a process that they're not familiar with or that sort of thing.

And of course, but I think you could also instead of penalizing landlords, unless they're bad ones, incentivize them.

And uh there's a lot of decent people that are providing housing in Half Moon Bay.

Uh I'll give you an example.

We owned a little property in Idaho.

This is like years.

Well, we still have but years ago, this that we had a guy well uh I don't know, he was poor.

The house was old.

Um, because we weren't there, we put the rent really low because we didn't want to have to worry about running up there if something tried to make it where even though he didn't have much, he could maybe get by and fix something or do something.

The state of the state of Idaho, which I think is a rather conservative state, had a program.

We knew nothing about it, but we were contacted, and if we agreed not to increase the rent for I can't remember how many years, maybe five, um, that they would go in and they were they would do um some upgrades to make his utilities less costly.

They replaced a couple of windows, they did caulking, they did some insulation, replaced some siding, and made the house more comfortable for him.

Didn't cost us a penny.

We weren't planning to have the rent anyhow, so it was a it was a plus for us, but it was a plus for him.

Though those are the types of incentives that I think this, you know, could be explored, not just for the city, but uh at the state level, that it would trickle down to the cities.

If a city could show that they're have a large population uh ratio that is below a certain that the funding could go to that city for those types of things that would incentivize landlords to keep their properties at at a rate that's more reasonable.

Um people that have had their properties at a reasonable rate for a long time.

I I think maybe if they have to go and do some repairs, they should get a reduced, re have a re and and the city's fee schedule, housings went things way related to housing went way up.

I think they should get a reduced like permit fee and that sort of thing.

That incentivizes them to keep up their units.

There's a lot of creative stuff you could do.

I don't know all the answers, obviously, and I don't know funding and everything, but I think a much more positive approach would be much better.

Um let's see.

And then oh, on the security things, I'm not real up on that, but that is should be of great concern on any kind, any type of program the city starts, whether it's the cameras, the rent registration.

I I don't know.

I I if there's a service that really looks into these companies that could do b like a consultant and say, you know, evaluate them and the program to to protect the security.

I think that's important, although I don't understand at all.

Uh hmm.

Oh, and the pool.

I hope it opens.

You know, we moved my moved to El Granado when I was six years old.

I had been swimming in San Francisco since I was two, and I couldn't go swimming anywhere because I wasn't tall enough when I was six, and I knew how to swim.

And uh they didn't have a pool over here when I was in high school, people that would move here, they couldn't get over how many kids here didn't know how to swim, and they had this huge ocean out here, and a lot of them didn't know how to swim.

So it's really a a valuable thing to have and and to make available to the general public.

So okay, that's it, I think.

Thank you.

Let's let's go uh here first, and then thank you.

Good evening, and thank you so much for holding this listening session.

My name is Amber Stowe.

I am a resident of Half Moon Bay.

My family also owns the paper crane on Main Street, and the business is our business has been open for over 40 years now.

We've been able to see a lot of changes on Main Street and in the business community in that amount of time.

A lot of ebbs and flows, and right now we're in a pretty wonderful flow that has been going since a lot of people discovered Half Moon Bay during the pandemic.

And we have many people who come and many visitors to our town.

But of that, we are also starting to see interest from outside where there are large corporations who are thinking about potentially opening businesses in the downtown corridor.

Now I do realize that we would never be able to do anything, nor should we ever do anything like keep all chain businesses out of Half Moon Bay.

That wouldn't be equitable at all.

But to protect the small businesses that are homegrown within our community, we could perhaps consider this year a formula business ordinance, which would protect the smaller businesses on Main Street.

I think it's a good secondary component to the really great piece of legislation that was passed last year, which was the downtown vitality ordinance, and this would be somewhat of a second part to it, because if we see chain stores come in to Half Moon Bay, there's a very good chance that the rents for everyone on Main Street would skyrocket because those chains would be able to support that kind of a rent in ways that small businesses would not be able to.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's go to Sandy here.

Good evening, Council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight.

My name is Sandy Winter and I'm here as the executive director of Senior Coastiders, the only organization on the coastside solely focused on serving older adults.

As I prepared for tonight, I look back at comments I've shared at past listening sessions.

In 2021, I urge the city to ensure that Half Moon Bay become an age-friendly community, one that supports people of all ages by optimizing health, participation, and security throughout the lifespan.

Since then, the city has continued to advance this work through updated age-friendly priorities, housing and transportation planning, health care access advocacy, and support for community-based organizations like senior co-siders through the community services financial assistance funding.

These actions demonstrate a growing recognition that aging belongs in policy conversations across departments, not just in one program or plan.

As we look ahead to the next budget year, I urge the city to continue building on this progress by keeping older adults top of mind across all decisions.

The coastside's older adult population is growing, and many residents are aging in place in a region with limited transportation options, rising housing costs, and gaps in healthcare access.

Increasing numbers of older adults are experiencing food insecurity, social isolation, housing instability, digital exclusion, and challenges preparing for emergencies made more frequent by climate change.

Caregivers, often older adults themselves are under increasing strain, and too many residents lack reliable access to the internet, culturally responsive services, or timely medical care.

Safety net services like meals, transportation, care coordination, and opportunities for social connection help address these needs before they become emergencies.

These services are not optional, they are core community infrastructure.

They reduce pressure on emergency services and hospitals, support family caregivers, and allow older adults to remain engaged contributors to the community that they helped build.

To sustain this work, we need stable ongoing investment, especially as costs rise and as we work to fairly compensate frontline staff who provide these essential services.

Unlike many senior centers across San Mateo County, senior coasters is not a city department.

We rely on grant and donor funding to deliver safety net supports.

Investing in aging services is fiscally responsible, preventive, and aligned with Half Main Bay's value of equity, sustainability, and community well-being.

I encourage the city to continue prioritizing stable funding and an age in all policies approach so that older adults on the coast side can age with dignity, independence, and security.

Thank you for listening and for your commitment to a community that works for residents of all ages.

I know we have some attendees online.

Maggie, does anybody have their hand raised right now to speak?

Nobody has their hand raised, but if any online speakers would like to speak at this time, could you please raise your hand?

Okay.

Harvey, I think you wanted to share some more.

I've been under the radar, but I brought it up before, and I think it's important.

Have discussed the lawsuit that the city has uh worked on against the other two agencies in SAM, the uh sewer agency mid-coastide.

Uh I think that instead of all the uh antagonism and bad feelings and more importantly, lack of proper uh consideration of sewer and water services.

We should investigate again, having a single special district on the coastside that would uh be independent of the individual uh agencies, uh Ontara Water and Sewer, uh Granada Community Services, Half Room Bay City Council, and incorporate water, the CCWD, because they're really related to each other in many ways.

And if we want to really protect the environment and stop this squabbling that has only engendered real bad feelings and very little else, we need to investigate forming that special single special district.

People call it consolidation.

It's not really consolidation, it's a single special district whose purpose is to make the coastside a safer and more environmentally friendly place.

It would have district elections so that all the areas in the coastside would be represented.

It would have its own source of tax income instead of relying on the individual agencies.

It just seems like a a an uh ideal's time has come.

So I would urge the council to consider working ahead with a single special district for sewer and water services on the coastside.

Thanks.

Is there anybody who hasn't had a chance to speak yet that has something they want to share with us tonight, either in the room or online.

I just wanted to make another plug for anyone online if you would like to make public comment or share anything with our council tonight if you could please raise your hand we'd be happy to allow that to happen right now.

Is there anyone who's already shared that would like to share something else Nancy.

I plan to see I had planned to say this and skipped it.

I would also like to see the city focus on areas of city responsibility.

It I it's really hard and difficult I believe to get caught up in uh items that really aren't the city's area of responsibility and uh for example let's say mental health services either I'm sure there's others that's all I can think of right now.

The city the taxpayers of the city already pay through their county taxes for the mental health services provided by the county of San Mateo.

If it's felt that those aren't adequate I I believe I don't know how much outreach has been made to the county to provide something more over here or uh occasionally or or what has been done to maybe take advantage of what the people are already paying for and rather than the city taking on extra extra areas and not focus on the things that you're really responsible for.

I think that's happened a few times it might be C minor but it adds up and then and then we end up in a we end up we're not getting the infrastructure done.

Unfortunately sometimes city it's a little boring because you're doing infrastructure stuff.

When you can do parks parks and recreation that's nice and that's part of the city's responsibility but it's it's it's uh city stuff can get a little drab I guess or make you not feel that you're doing something that's you know a human service type of thing when you're thinking about sewer but you really are even though it doesn't seem like it so I hope I I'm not making much sense but thank you.

Our interpreters have asked if you can really make sure that mic is close to your mouth so that they can hear you and and interpret that for those listening online and in the room we've got Paul here ready to absolutely it was catalyzed by listening to another that's that's part of this is listening to each other and and and sharing yeah.

I just want to underline the importance of medically related transportation.

We're well known to be a healthcare desert here on the coastide and we my wife and I experienced this directly recently we started off uh trying to work uh with an organization called Got Wheels a county funded federally assisted program that cooperates with the yellow cab company to for elders to uh allow uh medical trips to where most of the specialist services are located, i.e.

over the coastside or the hill, I'm sorry, and up and down the coastside.

Uh I believe that most of the transportation related services either don't serve the whole coast side or don't allow you to go over the hill if you don't live in East Palo Alto.

Uh and we were just thrilled with the service door to door you know pick you up at your house, take you to the physician or lab office that you need to visit um and bring you back for a very reasonable price uh because it was offset by the county and the feds.

Well the Fed support under Trump disappeared because he just cut it out and the county couldn't afford to in uh apparently to support it.

Uh so it was radically truncated from fifteen trips per month to one and for those of you who understand how difficult it is to reach special services particularly if you have limitations like I had for the last few months vision I couldn't drive and my wife also has a vision problem and can't drive.

I so I would recommend that the council look strongly at trying to help out perhaps by putting in a good word to the to the county and trying to advocate to get more county funding for this critical function uh or uh perhaps uh working with other organizations who can uh uh achieve something like this which is not a van pool service but just utilizes existing taxi services to provide the same kind of function.

I think um I see some pencils moving and that makes me feel good.

Put that on your agenda if you can thank you.

Evelyn what's on your mind.

Thank you so much.

Um I really don't have anything that I want to articulate tonight um but I'm sure I will in the next few weeks I'm sorry.

Let me reframe the question.

So have you heard things tonight from other attendees that make sense to you and that you could support.

Sorry, uh have I had things that that other people have brought up tonight that you think makes sense and that you could support at least getting on the list for council consideration.

Uh one hundred percent.

So I think um what Sandy talked about this growing senior uh population and supporting the needs of that I think I feel like I'm fast getting into that category and I see a lot of evidence of it around me with um people you know it's uh I live right opposite the senior coast siders.

I interact with a lot of those people I under I do notice that some of them who've been scammed have come to me so they you know I've been able to help them firsthand and understand what it means to not have that digital literacy.

Um I also I'm see quite often being involved in near accidents and I see that sort of thing so I I get that you know it's an imperative I'm not sure how that translates into council action.

I think the topic that most motivates me is the topic of housing mainly because I feel like it's been very polarizing in our community.

And I think that's the part that I find hardest.

It's not the question so much of um should we have it, but rather the I feel like more than ever I'm sort of seeing such a divide, not just a divide, I feel like it is a polarization.

I'm sort of seeing a lot of resentment towards uh from some of the workers on our street when they were working on there, they indicated that they felt very strongly that they had worked very hard to have what they have and why is it that free things are being given out to people?

And I thought that that was an interesting take on things, and I feel like I'm not pro or against anything, but I do feel like what I am noticing that I don't like is the polarization that's occurring around it.

So I'm sorry, it's not very actionable what I said, Debbie.

Oh, it's important and we're gonna record that.

And then the only other thing now that you've got me on a roll, I sometimes wonder whether in terms of defining what constitutes low income and what constitutes poor, have we come along with those sort of definitions or a set of core beliefs that are anchored alongs race, and have we come up with some racial stereotypes around that?

And in doing so, are we doing certain groups of disservice?

For example, if there is a core belief that all people who are Hispanic or many of them are poor, have we erased a middle class amongst them when we know that so many of them are also not saying that um a lot of the people who fall within that ethnic group do not serve in those lower income bands and do not and who, you know, may be um challenged with wages that may not be sufficient, but there's also a growing number of them who I think uh, you know, falling into that middle class and are we doing them an injustice by that sort of inadvertent and unconscious stereotyping that might be occurring in these discussions?

Yeah, I mean I think there's a staff answer to that, but we do know that if you make less than a hundred and forty thousand dollars a year for a family of four, you are low income.

You don't hit the middle class until you're up around a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year for a family of four.

So there so there's a substantial segment of our community that falls into low income, seniors or people who have lived here a long time and maybe you bought a house when it was really cheap, but they don't have the sort of cash or other kinds of assets that high tech people who have who've moved in here, right?

So there there are metrics for that.

Um, and we could certainly have a you know discussion about that, you know, at a future meeting when we talk about housing.

Um, the housing element has a lot of information about it, I think.

So you could also go online and check the most recent copy of the housing element that has a discussion about what is very low, what is low, you know, what is middle, that sort of thing.

But you know, what I've heard of people complain about, well if we have affordable housing, there'll be low income people here.

It's like, well, you're talking about our teachers you know, and firemen and you know me.

Other seniors.

So there is a sort of a general misunderstanding of the public about those sorts of issues.

So I'm glad you raised it and thank you.

We should have a discussion about that and uh elucidate, you know, what are standard metrics and what does that mean for our community, who falls into those sorts of categories?

So that's that's an important discussion to have, I think.

Thank you for being so open to that.

Yeah.

Um how about this couple in the back here?

I haven't heard from you yet.

Is there something you've heard tonight that you could get behind or I don't?

Sorry.

I'll just talk without the mic.

Um, I think involved in the Yeah, we can't online.

And we we're having a hard time up here too, so please.

I'm just being very very loud.

So I I'm Dave Alkinson.

Uh my wife and I, Pam, we're both uh graduates of uh right in your mouth, right right up here.

All right, we're both graduates of the the net program here in town.

We've we've met some of you uh when you're on the Calto have had some good conversations.

Um you know, uh my I said I don't know I don't know about housing.

I don't know much about ADUs.

We know there were a couple of the neighborhoods we have off of spindrift.

My big concern is traffic.

I I hate to say it, but it's it seems like a minor issue.

I commute to San Jose two to three days a a week.

Um I have different shifts at my job.

There I occasionally have to be in San Jose at seven in the morning, sometimes at ten and bur and rarely in the evening.

No matter what time of work I go, I'm stuck in traffic.

Some of it is just the traffic for the for the dump, the truck traffic is horrible.

They have these giant tankers, they seem to go shifts.

One comes one way and one goes the other way, like every hour.

If you get stuck behind it, you're going twelve miles an hour.

I mean this is this is teeny stuff.

I mean, this is not like big issues, it's just you know me commuting.

Um I'll drive all the way from San Jose in rush hour, uh, traffic by Stanford.

The only place I can guarantee I'll have traffic is by the zipper in town.

It's just like it's nuts it's nuts there and I know they're working to increase it.

Um I know on the weekends the the motorcyclists on the road are crazy.

I had an accident three years ago, they told my car, there were two motorcycles going at fifty miles an hour.

I'm turning into spin drift, it was clear and they were in the bike lane and one went by and the second one I didn't see, I ran into.

I hit him, he went flying, he had a broken collarbone, totaled my car.

It wasn't my fault, so I was good.

But you know, you go up up the hill, there are you know, the crazy motorcycles yesterday, he's passing people on the curve.

I mean, that's normal.

Um it's the red lights in town.

And and I I will say I am guilty of running yellow lights because they are they are long and slow.

But I think we came back from um Cupertino this afternoon and there were seven cars that ran the light over by the high school, you know, when you're making the turn on the main street.

I mean, this is simple.

This is this is not as important.

And some of it is other agencies beyond beyond the town, but um they've right.

The the challenges of traffic.

It it it is something when you do have a smooth ride back on two eighty or one oh one and then you come down onto Route One and you're blocked.

It's difficult.

I there's like one more this is like this is silly.

This is minor minor stuff.

It's not minor minor stuff.

Not minor.

Um, it's a quality of life.

You know, spindrift in that area, the road's narrow.

So there are not enough parking spaces, hard to leave on the street for cars.

So what happens is people park on the corners.

They you know, they you have trucks on the co they you can't see around them.

I've almost you know it's like silly, I mean, almost have accidents because of the truck because of the car traffic because the cars are parked on the corners of some of these places and all maybe it just needs like a uh red paint on those corners to say don't park that.

But as I said, you already the housing stuff, the issues of poverty and stuff, these are these I understand as major issues.

I I deal with traffic, Pam deals with traffic, but that that's an issue for us and and that's about it.

And why do you think um thanks.

Um I noticed that we all have these cave the K bar around all the corners now coming from downtown up through up north and I understand this is probably a CalTrans project, but I I'm sure the town has been engaged in some way with it.

Um just a while the trap while the construction is ongoing, if when they set these things up they can make sure that they're not creating more problems for people exiting the roads onto Route 1, it would be very helpful.

As David mentioned, we come out of spin drift and normally cars can go southbound and then turn into into spin drift.

But now if you're on spin drift wanting to turn left, you can't see those cars that are coming at you to turn.

And that's that's a real that's kind of scary um just because the the the K bar is so you know is high enough and the street is low enough that you can't really see the difference.

I think that's important and I think we should follow up on that.

A check check out those intersections with those.

Thank you.

But that's it as the main reason well the main reason I'm sorry.

The main reason I'm just curious because I don't I get out of the community and I don't know the issues outside of my small world and that's one reason why we can't just well that's okay.

We want to hear about your issues.

So that's it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Good that's what that was the plan.

So um when Amber spoke about the ordinance before that supports local um retail or legends on um I have to say that it gives me great pleasure going down Main Street not to find any chain stores.

I personally do not like shopping at malls but when I have friends who come from out of town they love going down Main Street.

And I think there is something that's so wonderful about the range of retailers on Main Street that they're um they unique.

It feels like a small town and I think that's something worth celebrating and keeping and um amber I love the cranes.

I spent hours in there and way too much money and so it's doing what it should do.

And I do hope we do preserve that because I do think it's quintessential to half Moon Bay.

Thank you for that.

I think we're you know we're getting ahead of steam here so let's keep it going.

Who else?

Add to your list.

We need a big list here.

If there are any online speakers who would like to address the council please raise your hand at this time.

I see we have six attendees so don't be shy we want to hear from you.

Please raise your hand and we would love to hear what you have to say.

We want to know about your issues.

Amber I almost fear my my name's Amber Stowe again um I I almost fear that I'm going a little outside my wheelhouse but I really do agree with what you had to say about uh traffic on 92 um it's always been a major concern.

I basically plan my life about around when there's going to be traffic on 92 and when there's not going to be traffic and you know especially speaking to the point where you have seniors who are trying to go over the hill to get health care, any of us who are trying to go over the hill to get health care, I have to plan all of my appointments around when those um traffic times are happening um something that causes a lot of issues are is um all of the cars or excuse me all the major trucks that are heading toward the dump and I'm not sure if this is possible because I know that there's a major obvious overlap with Caltrans.

But there is a timed sensor light at Crystal Springs so that when someone is turning off of Kenyatta they are protected and they can turn left or they can turn right and it temporarily stops traffic and then cars can go again.

Is there any way to explore something like that at the entrance to the dump so that trucks can turn and go on their merry way and it doesn't stop traffic or none of us have to worry about um a truck jack knifing there which happens frequently uh because they're trying to make it before any of the cars come toward them um or anyone getting broadsided as they're trying to drive along that road well I think we can certainly look at that it would take coordination with like CHP and Caltrans and the county um but yeah any issues like that are they're important to know about and to explore for sure and you know one thing that um Robert Brownstone as mayor previously and um several of us before that there's been an effort nationally to allow much bigger trucks you know really big tanker trucks you know double the size of what they are now you know to like save money and of course it would be terrible for the roads it would be terrible for congestion so we've been you know every year writing letters as part of this national effort to tamp that down and our elected uh congressmen have been you know very helpful in that respect and so we've developed a really good relationship with the national no bigger trucks organization um to at least stave off worse scenarios on highway ninety two that's one thing we've been doing small but I think important.

Yeah but we could look at that.

Yeah.

Nancy you got more cooking there.

I can tell the enjoy seeing the seasons change and uh notice what was going on with nature quite frankly.

I mean I paid attention to the road but but you know we do have a season even though they say we don't get changing of trees and I focus on the beauty of the drive and that made it easier but I have to say since I've retired almost every day it seems like I look at my phone and there's an accident on ninety two it's cra it's crazy.

Um I don't I have to one thing that made a big difference for my commute and actually it benefited a little shop in Main Street because I could not stop and get coffee anywhere.

I that the traffic I live right in Arlena Park the par uh it on if something happened on ninety two this wasn't the case but most days the longest part of my commute was getting from Filbert through the Cunha school traffic on to ninety-two and getting through Main Street after that it it went pretty smoothly once they improved the road and had the the passing lanes and then usually maybe the first week when CSM opened that was a problem and when the first week when I worked on 20th Avenue so when Sarah High School opened that could be a problem.

But I was able when they reconfigured the um Main Street and 92 intersection it made it so much better.

I stopped at the co well it's now Cafe Soci Society was McAfee's and I could get a l a coffee every day before I went to work.

I couldn't do that before because I couldn't take the chance that something else would happen on the road.

So and I was in a real panic one time when I was on a jury I because between Half Moon Bay and Redwood City the places that there something could go wrong I was just panicky that I would be late for a court you know so I mean it's everywhere the traffic problem but I don't know.

My daughter lives in Tahoe they put in a roundabout at a problem intersection.

I don't know how that's working because I don't a lot of people get are confused in roundabouts I think especially complicated ones so maybe a few simple roundabouts would instead of lights or something might help.

So not a 92 though.

One of the best things we did over the years um for traffic was the free right turn lane going um westbound uh on to North Main Street before everybody had to stop and it was really backing up.

But no, you can get in that lane and just make a nice right turn most of the time.

That was uh one of the best single best moves we've ever made relating to traffic.

I sorry, I'm gonna talk about ninety two again.

Um I one thing that I do worry about is that as we're talking about traffic, uh people are going to think that the best solution to that is going to be adding more lanes to certain roads, and as someone who grew up in Los Angeles, I assure you that's a terrible idea.

Um I when I go home to my hometown of Thousand Oaks, um they have expanded the freeways there.

Uh they have expanded some of the major strodes and boulevards through town, and you can't get anywhere any faster.

All that does is really add an extra lane of congested traffic, and I know that we are a car-based culture.

That is just how we have been constructed as a society.

Um, but I'm wondering if there's any way to decentivize taking cars to Half Moon Bay, especially on the weekend with visitors, and perhaps more incentivize taking public transportation.

Is there any way that we could work with SAM trans?

Um I know that that's a big ask and uh possibly very difficult to do, but something to possibly consider so that we don't have that possibility happen where people think that the only solution is gonna be more lanes of asphalt.

Maybe an aerial tramp.

I had to bring that up.

Yeah.

You're right.

You know, um it it's pretty much transportation wisdom now that adding lanes does not help congestion.

Um there was uh an EIR done on the widening of I-5 between La Jolla and Oceanside in San Diego County, and the EIR said that when the project they're gonna widen it from ten to eighteen lanes, and that when it was done it would be exactly as congested as it was at the time, you know.

So you're right, we have to look at alternatives, whether it's you know, using technology at intersections to speed people through and to meter it appropriately, um, you know, passing lanes, shoulder widening to allow for emergencies, you know.

It's still gonna be, you know, trouble, but the there could be maybe some improvements made, but they're gonna be tweaks, and then getting people to get out of their cars altogether.

If we could get ride plus to go over the hill instead of up and down highway one, you know, that might help.

Something that gets people to kill train.

Um, but yeah.

I do think the tweaks are a good idea though, because like I said, the one at that intersection made a difference.

And maybe if if the tweaks make day-to-day life easier for your co-siders, then on the weekends they might kind of say, Okay, here they come.

We'll just plan our weekend this way, and you know, and and be more um less anxious about it, I guess you would say.

Um trying to think another big improvement, uh, I don't know.

It took a long time for them to think of it, was right at one and Kelly.

And all they had to do, it used to be you either went you went straight and had to turn left and the pedestrians were walking, and so people that were turning left were blocking, you know, were sitting there and people weren't going through, and they changed the light, so it wasn't they didn't add a big lane.

They just changed the configuration of the light, and it made a huge difference at that location.

So those are some of the things that can be looked at, although there aren't that many lights in town, so I guess we can't fix the whole problem with lights, so thank you.

Um on the topic of safety, um I we it seems now we have a lot of oversized vehicles that park on Main Street.

Um, and I don't know how many accidents we've had or not had, but it looks like it's an accident waiting to happen, uh, with oversized utility trucks um parking and people trying to drive through.

Just I personally avoid Main Street after nine o'clock on most weekdays and even on weekends too, just for that very reason.

So that could perhaps be a consideration in safety plans for for Main Street going forward.

Thank you.

I think that's part of the downtown plan.

Um I do think we have to be careful though because we have sort still sort of a working downtown.

You know, we have feeding fuel and some other businesses, and so um we want to handle it in a way that doesn't look like gentrification.

You know, get your pickup truck off of Main Street, you know, carry your your um your your hay, you know down the street to your truck or whatever.

So I I want us to be careful of that because we want to be a welcoming community, right?

So we have to handle it, I think sensitively and maintain some of that, you know, working downtown feeling that involves pickup trucks typically, but I know the pickup trucks have gotten longer and longer, which is a problem.

Um speaking speaking of safety with parking, I think am I if I'm talking too much, just let me know.

Um I keep thinking of things when people others talk.

Um, I really don't like the straight-in parking spaces.

I understand that you probably fit in an extra space and parking's a premium thing, but I do think they're dangerous because and I'm not even talking about big trucks, just people most a lot of people drive SUVs, not even the big ones, but the h the rear end of these vehicles are higher than what a stand uh a car used to be with a a trunk.

And when the space is angled, you can when you're approaching, you can actually see better if there's someone coming out.

And one time I was driving um on the street.

This is terrible.

I've lived here forever.

I can't never remember names of streets, but um, right past the the Catholic church where all the straight-in spaces are and there was a couple with a little child going to this big truck.

It happen it did happen to be a big there were big vehicles there.

I don't know if the truck was theirs.

But I spotted the little girl before they got went off the sidewalk.

And I slowed way down.

I have I wasn't going that fast, but I slowed down because I I knew I couldn't see and if she had darted out, I wouldn't a car could be going slow and not have a chance to react if a small child came out or or a short person came out between some of those vehicles.

Whereas if it's angled, you can see them.

You have you have a greater vision, I think uh visibility I would say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think we have at least one speaker online now.

Uh yes, I did see Kirsten had her hand raised.

So I just want to speak.

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me okay?

I believe Zoom can hear you.

Okay.

I believe that we can hear you in the room.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

I just wanted to say that the audio tonight is incredibly bad, very, very hard to hear anybody on the panel or in the audience.

So just wanted to confirm that.

Um try to the phone, try it via computer that's something maybe to fix for one of the next meetings.

Could you repeat that?

We uh yeah, ironically could not hear you at the beginning.

Yes, so the audio is extremely low.

It's almost impossible to hear the panel uh and very few people in the audience tonight.

So maybe something to um test next time.

Um appreciate the st the listening session.

Um it's just incredibly hard to follow without the captions.

Thank you for that.

Is that it?

Okay.

Anyone else?

Here or online.

Okay.

All right.

It sounds like that's it for tonight.

Um again, I'm sure you might think of other things.

So feel free to add those comments uh online or in emails to staff or council members.

You know, we we we will set priorities.

I think it's at a meeting on March 14th.

So, you know, we're open to taking feedback from now until then.

That's about a little over six weeks.

So you know let us know what's on your mind.

No issue too small.

Okay.

Would any council members like to add anything this evening?

No.

Add to the list of things to talk about.

I think you guys did a great job.

I wish there was more people.

So get out there and tell people to show up with the next ones so we can get more feedback and let's try to get this audio thing figured out so that people can hear us.

Oh, and here I am not talking to the mic, sorry about that.

Um no, I think it's great.

I took a lot of notes and it's really good because feedback's how we get it to get us to talk about it.

And I'm gonna be going to spin drift, and I'm gonna take a left and I'm gonna take a right because I want to see how that fit.

No, I'm serious, that's what I'm gonna do.

Let's see.

Oh, it's just I actually had to call the sheriff's department this morning because I couldn't see to get out of the road.

I had to be that I had to be at the high school.

And I couldn't see, I had a mistake because they didn't end up rectifying it.

I mean, but I think we all have that problem with all these barriers that are up and all these function, and I mean, we're gonna put sometimes you have to do something, I guess.

And then Evelyn and Paul who just left talked about security.

I think that's something.

Nancy, you brought it up too, and Amber brought it up.

So I think that's a good thing that we need to kind of look into.

We've all been worried about this and where it could go and where our data breaches can happen.

Um the other one was be the parking.

I think that's another thing.

So Nancy, I'm gonna go do some parking in town and look and see if there's blind spots.

So all these little things are great little things.

You got it.

Oh, it's the whole world changes.

Right.

And you brought that up too.

I made notes about the blind spots is what I got out of it.

Yeah, a lot of blind spots.

No, or do you have a uh I'll ask a detailed question.

Are you in a car or a truck?

Because I have a truck, so I need to be in like my small car then so I can get the same feel.

Okay.

But I mean, do you mean a big trunk one?

Um, there's like an intersection of visiting spinning, every night, somebody on the other people who are trusted part there.

We have people who big parts, little parts, and you just we just can't see, and I don't go out into the other neighborhoods at night that much, but I know I don't I only know my little corner roads on that.

So I've got Mizen and Spindrift and okay, perfect.

I really appreciate it.

And then Amber, I really appreciate what you brought up about the big stores or big box stores.

I do believe that's a problem, and I know that you are working on some things, and I appreciate everything you have done for us.

And I think you're on to something that I really want to do, and I think everybody here wants to preserve what we have and the uniqueness of our town and the uniqueness of our shopping because that's what brings people here.

Cause if I go I don't want to go over the hill, I want to stay here and get some unique things and gift them to people, and they they really appreciate that.

And so when it's from our town, it means it means a lot more.

Yeah, I want to thank everybody that did show and you've heard from some of us that please spread the word to your neighbors you know um you can contact any one of us at any time you know this is always evolving.

This is my second year having these listening sessions.

There's things I haven't heard about.

I usually are pretty good staying in touch in my district by the way I'm in district three which is Arlita Park and most I'll say Sorraine well some other areas but it's good to hear as a former public works director hearing some of the concerns of parking and driving th those are always concerns that sometimes they're easy to address and sometimes not but it's good to hear what's on your mind no matter how big or how small you think it is it's important to you then it's important to us.

So thank those of you online I think that's something we're gonna have more the is online with our meetings so we hope that's another way to get engaged.

We're only as good as you allow us to be and what I mean by that your feedback is really important to us.

And it's good to hear um hear from you and hopefully we march together as we um just very first part of our budget process is getting our priorities in thank you.

Yeah I just want to say that um I don't know how many years we've had these listening sessions.

Seven years.

So seven years ago I suggested the idea of listening sessions.

Um I think that they're critical.

I'm sorry we didn't have very many people come out tonight.

But I think that it's not the number of people that come out everybody here has something worthwhile saying.

And we've heard you loud and clear because of the Brown Act we really shouldn't be having discussions.

I'm I'm I'm a little bit concerned about what's been going on because we're not allowed to talk about issues with more than one other council person before c if an issue is going to be coming before council.

And some of these things are pertinent are are going to be coming before so I haven't said anything up till now but um let's keep it up.

Let's let's keep up the the um input.

Everything that you say is something that's s somebody on council will hear and follow up on may not be able to cure the problem or fix the problem but we do care.

And unless we hear it from you, we're not gonna know that there's a problem with Spindriff and highway one.

It's not gonna happen.

So thank you.

Always great to hear from the people this is democracy.

And um yeah a lot of these issues it's okay if they keep coming up 'cause a lot of times people haven't tuned in for a while.

So yeah for a long time people kept saying yeah let's just add some extra lanes.

First of all the cost was like a million dollars per inch you know in terms of highway from Caltrans.

And every study shows if you add extra lanes it simply brings the congestion once you hit downtown at a greater speed and to a greater extent.

So um but you know over the years I think all the traffic it the culture changes you know sometimes to adapt.

And in all the years that I was commuting down a Silicon Valley.

Well, first of all, if it's raining, my tip to you is in your minds, light a couple of candles.

And I found that that often helped me 'cause you can never predict what the heck's going on with trees falling down, etc.

But it was also interesting 'cause I know a lot of my meetings were uh remote and people kinda got used to people being delayed for all kinds of reasons.

Everyone's calling in, you know, to uh to a meeting remotely.

Um a lot more of that was going on.

But I think living in Half Moon Bay, you know, traffic is um it's always going to be an issue, especially in the summer on hot days and people coming over wanting to get to the water, and um, so you know, there's no perfect solutions.

Well, people, can you incentivize people taking public transportation?

I don't know.

I think COVID put a lot of fear in folks, you know.

I don't know how many people have fully gotten over that, sitting in a place, you know, where you don't know folks.

Some people might have masks, some don't.

And a lot of people got back into uh driving their own cars.

Right pooling might be you know work for some folks.

We have tried a number of things and publicize them through commute.org, etc.

for folks, and um but we haven't found the perfect combination to incentivize people changing their behaviors.

They like their cars, they like their privacy, they like being able to control what music is playing in their automobile.

If they're gonna be driving for an hour, hour and a half.

So um, so yeah, it's a critical issue, and um, but I was glad to hear some of the ideas that came up this evening.

I heard you're loud and clear, and hopefully we'll have more people participate next time around.

All right.

Well, thank you, council, and thank you, um, community for coming out and um it was really cool to see how a few comments started to get your minds thinking and there was sharing of ideas and building on each other's ideas, and that's an important part of this as well.

So we really appreciate that.

And um just a reminder, we have another listening session this Sunday at 2 p.m.

here at the TED Adcock.

Uh, it will be in Spanish, but if uh if you don't speak Spanish, that's okay.

You can still come, put on a set of headphones, and our our friends from on point will uh will uh translate into English for us, and uh and you can still share your comments and and your feedback, and then uh we will have our list our priority setting session on uh March 14th, which is a Saturday afternoon.

And uh, you know, if you're interested, you know, keep an eye on on the website, sign up for our newsletters.

Uh we may add additional opportunities for feedback, and uh you want to make sure you're informed of that.

And again, you can go to our website, half moon bay.gov slash listening sessions or communications at halfmoonbay.gov and submit your feedback there as well.

And uh we'll uh be publishing a report of all these meetings uh before we get to the priority settings.

So uh drive safe, drive careful, light a few candles in your mind, and have a great evening, and uh we'll see you at the next one.

Thank you.