Let's call this meeting to order because the city has scheduled a meeting for Amanda at 8 30.

Oh, which I will be late too.

Um, if you could take the role, please.

Okay.

Um, yes, uh, committee member.

I'm here.

Foreman.

Keith is not here.

Katz, uh Stephanie Lynn, not here, David Lynn, absent, Malera, no, shake, yeah, Vice Chair Baird, and Chair Kasperzak.

And here.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Oh, the zoom was wrong.

Let me email her really quick.

Uh, okay.

But yeah, you can proceed with minutes.

I'll email them on this one.

All right.

So um item number three on the agenda is approval of the minutes, and the minutes for September 2nd have been submitted.

Uh is there a motion to accept by Chamil.

Seconded by Peter Katz.

Um, is there any comment from the public?

Not anyone on view.

Okay.

In which case, all in paper say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

All right, the motion carries.

Unanimously.

Thank you.

Emailing not as well.

Okay.

Hi, Marina.

Moving on to item.

Oh, um.

Yeah, item four is upcoming agenda topics.

You can see from the agenda.

Uh, a long list of things that are sort of on the list.

Uh-huh.

See.

And if um, so that's there.

And any comment, but no questions, or we can't really discuss anything that's there.

But um, okay.

And moving on to item number five, oral communications from the public.

Anyone new online yet?

Nope.

Oh, hold on.

And these uh no.

Okay.

Uh having nobody online and nobody in the audience.

Um, there's no oral communications.

We will move on to item number 6.1, downtown development update.

And we don't have the community development person here yet.

So yeah, let's change down.

We'll we'll move back to them.

I'm my message Vincent.

I know.

Did they change or say I didn't see any new stuff?

So Yeah, I don't think we've had much in the way of updates.

Yeah.

But yeah, I'll just message him.

If there's nothing, they don't have to come down.

Okay.

So I I did run into um Diana Pancoli and that uh townhouse development uh next to the post office that was stuck in PGD limo.

She told me last week that she signed off on it.

Oh great, great.

Okay, don't know what happened.

And then she says public works needs to do a few other things.

So at least it's all right.

Thank you.

Um, 6.2, Castro Street update.

Okay, that's me.

And I am here to present.

Okay.

Um, here that's all righty.

Okay, first things first.

Hi, good thing, morning.

Um, as you know, the city is recruiting applicants for appointments to the board at Library Close Free, Environmental Planning, Park and Rec, Downtown, Performing Arts, and Senior Advisory Committees.

Just to note to you all that EPC applications are due October 8th, and all other applications are due October 15th.

Thank you to you all who have um submitted applications.

Um, and amend it.

Has there been an update from the city attorney or the clerk's office?

Okay.

You read my mind or I read your mind.

Um, boom.

There we go.

So uh the member eligibility um has been updated, so you can see here all committee members shall be Mountain View residents except as provided in policy section 12 below, and I copy policy section below below.

Downtown committee, not required to be residents of the city of Mountain View, but must meet the other eligibility requirements.

So, new it was coming.

So we should tell um, so uh so you do it, you know, as you know, for the downtown committee, we have positions for property business owner, business representative, we have representatives from various um entities and then community members at large.

So obviously the community member at large would need to be a resident, but if you are a downtown property owner or business related, you do not need to be in Mount View, which is good because that helps to broaden our pool.

Um, okay, I noted this, and just uh this was new to me.

I was not aware of this policy.

So I'm making you all aware as well.

Um in the past, we've handled absences that if you just let me know, it's considered excused.

Um turns out that is not the current policy.

Uh so just so you're for your all of awareness, um, kind of excused absences are either um you're ill on leave for family for birth or adoption of a child, bereavement, or um, this is it wasn't a adopt a meeting um of the adopted schedule.

So turns out there are far less um yeah, reasons.

So again, I was not aware of that.

I've been operating under my prior assumption and holding you all to that standard.

Um, but uh now that we're aware, unfortunately.

So vacation is an excuse.

Per the policy, unfortunately, yes.

Um, no, the impact of this is minimal, except when it comes to possible reappointment.

I mean, that's and I think that's a that's an important thing.

There is a thing is if you miss three or have three unexcused absences in a row.

There's uh like grounds for yeah, I'll I can look at that a little further, but yes, you're absolutely right.

You know, nothing's really gonna happen.

You know, if it's on occasion you miss a meeting, um, it's just double.

Yeah, I will say when um people go for reappointment, I'm asked to provide the attendee record and council considers that, but they can choose to weigh that however they choose.

So um, anyway, just making you all aware is like I said, this was new information to me.

Um, just noting Oktoberfest is this uh weekend.

This weekend, it's really happening.

It's really happening.

Um, I'll be there on Saturday.

Wait, what?

Oh no, slap, slap says Peter.

Um so encourage you all to go, it should be a good time.

Um, and can I just say just a reminder?

Because and I'm trying to read this into the record for anybody who's actually watching, but yeah, please.

Um, you know, the location has moved, and so that's important.

Um yeah, it's not going to be up by Steins, it's going to be down here, right?

There um in the 500 block.

So which way we face it'll be a there.

There we are.

And the sidewalk's gonna be fixed by then.

Uh the sidewalk uh should be fixed by then.

So uh scaffolding will still be up in front of Pfizer, but is church going to be closed, shut down?

Oh no.

Are any streets going to be shut down?

No.

No cross streets.

It's just Castro.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

And we talked about this uh last week or last meeting that I wanted to provide an additional update.

So as we discussed uh last meeting, the city is um in the midst of this strategic communications project.

As I as you can see from the map to the right, there are uh it's which is mapping out construction projects that will happen in the nearish term, um, downtown, and there are quite a few.

And so, in response to that, we've brought on a um communications team to help us develop uh some a downtown brand, some toolkits, um, you know, for how we communicate about construction projects, um, and then provide ongoing support.

So, perfect example is this curb project that public works um has was working on, and they tagged me in and I was able to put together press releases and emails to all the neighboring businesses.

I reached out um to, you know, anyone within a certain radius that might be impacted.

We did noticing to the public, we did social media, um, I printed out signs on the A-frames that instead of just saying sidewalk close, it says, you know, we're making downtown accessible for all.

Like this is get more information, you know, scan this QR code.

So really trying to create some messaging around impacts that might happen so that people don't have a negative experience.

Um, so those are the kind of things that we're trying to institutionalize and create some structure around.

As I noted last week is or last month as well, you know, we have a couple of objectives.

Again, it's around awareness about project timelines.

Lot 12 affordable housing project is a perfect example.

We want to mitigate impacts by giving people a heads up, and if they come across some impact like lot 12 will be closed, but hey, there's parking right there kind of information so that people feel that it's not overly impacting them.

We want to build excitement for long-term projects.

So again, the LaTeIn project, this is really great.

We're gonna have affordable housing, um, more people and foot traffic in our downtown, um, and then just promoting the downtown in general.

So this is an opportunity as we're talking about all the stuff happening in downtown to not just say construction projects, but hey, also we've got great businesses, um, come shop, dine, eat, play, have fun um in our downtown, because the construction is only a small part of what's happening down here.

Um you said about the construction what is happening in there.

Can we put temporary signs in there that parking or is the parking available?

So that's exactly what we're gonna want to do.

Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right, Jamil.

And so, like we're gonna be closing down the parking lot here pretty soon, like Q1.

And so I want to start putting a frames in there now so that the people who are using that parking are starting to have an awareness, a heads up months in advance.

Hey, this parking lot's going away, but don't you worry, there's parking here, there's parking here.

Um lot 12.

So they're starting construction.

Um, we're anticipating Q1, the site will no longer be available to the public.

I don't know how soon construction will start, but it will it will be updates on the 236 castro.

Um we'll maybe tag Vincent in when he does his update.

236 Castro, just sort of put that bug in your ear from when we come back around to you.

Um, okay, so as yeah.

Um so um as construction on lot 12 happens.

Um this group has had a number of conversations in terms of um what we can do instead of having you know ugly green fencing.

Um, you know, is there signage, historical pictures?

Are there other things that that uh could be used?

Are those being investigated and funded?

Yeah, as part of this project, um, we've asked Miller Maxfield, our consultant, to design some construction fencing.

Um it's pretty expensive to put up, so and because there's gonna be housing.

Yeah, and as it's a quite a bit of frontage, you know, we're gonna be prioritizing probably the cross streets since there's you know, that's that'll be um where most of the people will be passing, you know, since the it faces the back building.

And so we've got limited funds, but we're gonna add some construction fencing, some positive messaging, you know, where we can.

Yeah.

I just think that, you know, this is our really our first opportunity to look at fencing in a different way.

Because there is gonna be much more construction on that, especially as we start doing the pen mall or whatever.

So it's kind of a test case in some ways.

So even if we do it small, um, I think it's I want to encourage us to look at that.

Yeah, I 100% agree.

Um, I I think especially as these projects are up for months and months and year plus, um, we've seen standard for months.

Yeah, and that's what we want to talk about is how we can standardize it, support private developers in doing it.

Um, but we've seen, you know, in other places, was it in Colorado uh Fourth Street when they had their very big impactful project, you know, they had this bright colorful fencing uh and and it really makes a difference in how people interact with projects like this.

With people, you can see what's happening.

Yeah, you know, um some developers sometimes put up time-lapse cameras that you can, you know, can look at.

So we'll we'll be coordinating with uh the the affordable housing developer to see what resources they're bringing and then what the city can bring.

But this is again just an example, um, as you can see.

Whoops.

We didn't temporary signs like these.

Mm-hmm.

You know, yeah.

And I have a laminator, so watch out.

I laminate signs and put them wherever I want.

Um but uh so the big update really for this is that we have developed a brand, uh downtown MV in motion, um, which you can see sort of reflects the fun nature of our decorative street treatment.

And really, this is just a home, you know, an umbrella for city communication.

We want we want to have a fun way to talk about everything that's happening in downtown, but also what's coming forward, you know, this this arrow pointing to all the exciting investment that'll take place.

So again, this is uh brand that we'll use for city communication, um, and really I think uh evokes a real sense of movement and action and fun in the downtown.

When I saw this brand, I'm thinking of the people playing cornhole or dancing um to music in the plaza to dining outside to walking downtown to kids playing.

So we're hoping to bring that fun energy and visuals um in as we talk about the construction project.

So you'll start seeing this more.

I think something about the those treatment.

So I saw talked to the gentleman who was cleaning the treatment on one block on the second block.

So he told me that uh yesterday I cleaned first block.

So I walked up there and it's already the markings on there.

So is there any after the treatment?

Like when you clean your uh three, you know, or you put some kind of coating on top of it.

A sealer or something.

Yeah, it's a really great question.

It's um because of our sort of environmental restrictions, we can't use like any chemical products, so we're just power washing the street with really hot water, um, is what we're laminated.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, and you know, we we the city and the committees who voted on this um selected that you know that paint type to be because it was both within our budget and also had a certain level of longevity.

We didn't do sort of the next level, which would have been, you know, like the really thick um paint that we paint street lines with.

So we made some decisions when we decided to do this project, and so it, you know, we're finding that it's just getting beat up more than we anticipated.

So we're working to find more cleaning cleaning opportunities, but you're absolutely right.

It's it shocked all of us how quickly it got dirty, like within hours.

You have to understand you're attracting more people downtown.

There's people walking more.

The kids literally walk on the lines, you know.

They try to know.

And people are spilling things, yeah.

So um your point is well taken, and we are looking into what we can do if we can bring additional cleanings, but then committee members can take turns cleaning together.

Yeah, we'll hand out little scrub brushes.

I was saying we should take your shoes off before you go.

We can rent little slips.

Um, so those are all my updates.

All right, thank you.

Cool.

So let's backtrack to downtown development update.

Um didn't look like there were any, but uh good morning everyone, everyone.

There aren't too many updates like you mentioned.

Um just a few that I can call out in terms of the items are uh item number 16, uh, which is 312 cat.

Um that was recently approved by the planning division on September 204, and that's just a uh front facade uh modification and minor addition.

Um the existing basing um building on the 300 block that used to be the previous um plastics location.

Oh, finally.

Yeah, so that one was recently approved, they're in the process of um submitting building permits, and that will be under review shortly, and then uh once that is approved, then that's instruction will be good.

But right now there's we know if there's a tenant, yes.

So the uh tenant is uh VLux, they are a window tree.

Yes, it's uh it's a uh, it's a like a skylight.

I have that home.

Oh window, it's like a window, skylight.

Um they're like a Danish company, I believe.

Yeah, we want to have a showroom, which is kind of cool.

It's really cool like that.

So this is anticipated to be their uh flagship showroom.

Oh, big deal.

Who needs an Apple store?

So uh yeah, changes are coming to that uh location.

Um but yeah, right now they're still in the process of building permit review.

And um, so don't have a timeline yet necessarily, but um they're in the process of that.

And then the other item is item number 22, which is 682 Villa.

That was approved.

That was an administrative permit approved for some minor facade.

And just refresh to the existing building.

We'll run Villa Street.

But aside from that, I know someone mentioned uh 236 cash show.

So I did check online.

It looks like the building permits were recently uh completed.

So they should, I think they're in the final payment stage and should be able to pull those fairly soon.

Um but right now it's uh they haven't completed everything yet, but um it seems like they're in that nearing the end of um being able to pull their permits and then uh can not continue with the destruction process.

Great.

Um that was all the items that I had up for the updates with any question.

Not here.

There's a building on uh Bryant and Dana, the brown big brown building.

Or is big four for lease sign on their 26000 card v.

Yeah, there was a security company there or something like that at one time.

No, I was going to be behind Monte Carlo, the one yeah, behind Magic Carlo.

Beautiful new brick, uh the old one.

Oh, yeah.

TikTok, it used to be the old garage.

Yeah, yeah, TikTok.

Yeah, well, do some follow-up.

I'm not familiar.

I was that the 300 rides.

I should have seen that.

Oh, I'm I'm looking to see.

Oh, okay.

Hold on.

It's kind of cross diagonal from the Adobe.

Let me see.

I'll share my screen and see if this is that one I'm curious about what's going on there.

Are you talking about this one?

Yeah, that's uh no, no, no, across from that one, right?

No, no, that's that's the one.

That's the one this one here.

That's the one open because you see the site.

Yeah, um, uh the last thing I recall was the the one that um they had a permit to uh do like some facade upgrades.

Um they were installing some new um like I believe like stone paneling and uh facade modifications, but I'm not aware of any tenant um that is um going into that space, so uh but but I believe they're pretty close to be complete with the facade uh updates on this one.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Super, thank you.

All right, then let's see, where are we?

Moving on then to new business.

Um, are you gonna get a Super Bowl?

World, let's get into it.

Thank you, Vincent.

I hear the president is taking it away from California.

We'll have to operate on a certain understanding.

Okay, so as you know, we have two big events that are coming to our region in 2026, and cities up and down the peninsula here and across the region are thinking about how we can activate.

So a couple of just scheduling pieces to orient you to.

So uh Super Bowl is February 8th.

Um, but there is a whole heap of things that are happening up till the week before.

Um so there will be activities that are taking place um sort of in the lead up.

The World Cup uh is a month-ish long um event, and there will be 104 matches that are happening across North America.

So there are um games that'll be played Canada, the US, and Mexico, which is good because that means all the games will be at reasonable times, versus like I have to wake up at two in the morning to watch my team.

So it it works well for us.

Specifically in the Bay Area.

You can see they're Croatia, so yeah, power posts.

And you can see uh just here the Bay Area hosted matches.

So these are the matches that will be, you know, played locally.

Um but they're I think pretty early in the oh yeah, you can see they're pretty early in the early early early, thank you, early elimination games.

Um I've just pulled this just to kind of orient you to what the opportunity is and why so many cities are working hard to figure out how we activate.

So there is really a huge anticipated economic benefit to come to the Bay Area in terms of you know people coming to the region to spend money, but also just in activating and engaging the population that is here around teams that are playing.

And it's kind of hard to see, but uh I just highlighted, which I thought was interesting, but 59% of them aren't expected to speak English, and 68% may not have a credit card.

So there's some interesting um layers of how we're gonna support, you know, uh visitors that might be coming into town as we we need to be prepared for maybe cash-based systems um and to have multilingual signage and uh information.

So we need a money exchange.

Yeah, there you go.

Do a pop-up, pop-up cart.

So um, as we're the city is thinking about activation, we have a couple of goals.

So, one, we do want to do some boosting of the local economy.

We want to figure out how we can, you know, support and amplify what businesses, restaurants, hotels, retailers doing.

We want to bring increased foot traffic.

Um we do want to enhance some community engagement through some city-sponsored events um and activations, and we just want to generally elevate Mountain View's profile with, you know, really strategic marketing and really positioning ourselves as a key and fun destination.

And the Bay Area Host Committee, so this is the organization that is doing the coordination across the bay to bring the games forward, have put together this playbook.

And so this is supposed to be a tool, as you can see for small business owners and community organizations on how they can activate properly, um, and I'll explain what that means around NFL and FIFA um events and within compliance of those.

So um, you know, there's well, I'll just jump to it.

So for example, uh the wording you use.

You can't say world, you can't say World Cup, you can't say Super Bowl.

But if you're promoting watch parties at your at your business, you can say come watch the big game.

Um so they're like you know, subtle um language, yeah, language uh the specific language that you need to use so that you aren't um impeding on trademark.

Uh you also can even use a little registered trademark thing.

Right.

Nope.

Um, and you can't even, you know, use any of the graphics.

You can't show a picture of you know logos, any of that.

And and um I know Super Bowl in particular has people out there roaming the streets um and and that cities have gotten in trouble in the past.

So we'll be helping uh businesses to get this information out so they know how they can promote things that are happening.

Um yeah, and so you can see um information about broadcasting rights.

So Super Bowl, um, you can't do large-scale watch parties.

Uh, the Super Bowl NFL does not give permission for cities, for example, to license and show put a big screen up in the park.

Um Super Bowl does not want that.

But if you are a business and you have an existing TV and you want to show the game there, uh you can host watch parties.

And so again, you can see the difference of some of the example locum, some of the examples of what can and can't be done just with graphics.

And then FIFA does have um restrict, you know, requirements for large scale public screening.

So they do allow large-scale watch parties, but you have to pay to show those games.

Um, again, if it's a smaller scale, you're in your restaurant, you know, Stein's has an existing screen.

They can show that, and they just you know can use their normal um provider uh, you know, whether it's like Fox Sports or any of your commercial TV packages, it's just these larger scale events where I think it's a thousand or more.

You need to start paying FIFA and obtaining a license.

So, yeah, so a couple of things.

Uh, one, the city is thinking about how we're going to bring some activation, how we're gonna do some placemaking, um, but hoping to just have a little bit of input today around business-led activations.

Um, would be curious from some of our business uh business people here, you know, what you're thinking about in terms of kind of activations, and then to the larger committee around, and obviously, Peter, you've got a lot of input here, but things that we can be considering, ways that we can support.

In my mind, things that I'm thinking about is having a you know form that can be filled out.

You tell us what you're gonna do, and we'll put you on, you know, a web page with a map that shows all the different activations is one idea.

But we'd love to hear from the committee around your thoughts on this and how we can really promote not just downtown but the broader business community.

You have a um, all the uh brackets.

Could you have uh uh bracket thing that the further that you predict oh like a community bracket?

Oh, it wouldn't be gambling, it would fine.

Okay.

Some sort of a yeah, sort of like they do a today show for everything under the sun.

Right, right.

And and this might be a fun idea for businesses.

So that's why I was thinking, yeah.

Um, and you know, other cities are encouraging businesses to have like themed cocktails around players and teams and you know, just bringing ideas forward.

Um, do we have any sense of I mean, I'm trying to think during the last Super Bowl or the last big game or when World Cup was here in the 80s, you know.

Um, how many people were here?

I mean, why are people going to come to Mountain View?

And so the things to draw them here.

I mean, I would think if people are staying like at any of the hotels, you know, so I mean, do are we getting any sense of what hotel usage?

Um, not of not of yet.

Um, we'll certainly, you know, the hotels we'll want to engage with.

We want to engage with some of the, you know, larger activities.

I mean, Peter's had a great idea of like what what beyond the games can we do?

How can we create packages where yeah, watch the game and then like come play some games, right?

Sean, you know, if there are ways that we can connect like complimentary activities um to end point businesses.

If you think about it, there's only what 60,000 seats inside of you know, Levi Stadium.

So people are coming into town who aren't going to watch the game in Levi Stadium.

And so the question is, what do they and the game is three and a half hours?

Well, 17 if you put it in traffic, but you know, it's you know, what else are you going to be doing for the week?

And we've actually been talking with some of the other cities too about putting together um like a guidebook that talks about, you know, hey, are you staying in Cupertino?

Well, here's some cool things you can do.

You're staying in Mountain View, here's some other things that could go going on.

Um, what what the idea here is that there are things that are evergreen, like you know, Shoreline Park is not going anywhere, right?

But then there's things that could be themed or could be you know specific to the event or you know, something.

Um, you know, and I talked about, you know, having a soccer ball kicking contest down Castro or something.

I mean, there's there's you know all sorts of things that could be done that are themed.

And so being able to put together that kind of guidebook where it's like it doesn't making sure that that the South Bay is seen as a cool place to hang, just like San Francisco's a cool place to hang, because San Francisco gets all the love, it's all the attention.

So um, yeah, those are some things that are being.

Anecdotally, in the for the last Super Bowl, like we have a few um small rental properties, and we were really expecting to see like a big increase in the pricing of those, you know, like Stanford graduation weekend, our properties book out months in advance.

The pricing is a lot higher.

And the last Super Wow Bowl was a bust.

We did not there was no increase in price.

It did not seem like there was a lot of demand.

Um, and I know the city at that time was really concerned that there was gonna be that was right around the time that um the when all the signs went up on the streets, like you can't park here for Levi's Stadium games because they the city has been expecting this flood of people parking here and taking the train to the stadium, which really has not materialized.

So I think, but I think that's kind of a good angle of like avoid the hassle, you know, park in Mountain View, then come back here for a few drinks afterward.

If you like park and stay, like people don't want to be driving drunk, but like positioning it as like a hub, an easy like transport hub to the game and with places to stay and hang out afterward.

Um, because whatever happened last time was not, there wasn't it at least that we saw as you know, I mean, it's not like we have an empire of rentals, but a couple rentals really didn't.

Most people still stay in San Francisco.

That's the hub.

But you know, people want to come to San Francisco.

They don't want to come to Santa Clara.

I was gonna say my Airbnb is already 50% full for February.

Oh yeah.

Well, maybe better.

And I know like, you know, I think we're the only real transfer point for public transportation from San Francisco to Levi Stadium.

So the train doesn't go to Levi Stadium, but light rail does.

So Marina, I'm curious.

Sorry, um, you know, are you guys thinking about any sort of activation?

Watch parties.

In February?

Oh, I I mean I was thinking more about the definitely FIFA for FIFA.

I'm not sure about football.

Yeah.

Yes, I mean, and I just think when I want to think about the Super Bowl, I just I want to sit at home with some wings.

I remember last time we gave uh Stevens our patio.

Oh, cool.

Okay, so they asked if they could sure something as well.

I know because they get a like showing.

But um FIFA for sure, not sure about football.

It's like the Sean, what are you thinking?

We hadn't planned anything.

Um, if you were there wasn't a huge overlet without clientele and like super sports fans.

I'm not sure.

Um I think in just in general, um I love the straight soccer idea, even if we just had little goals up somewhere and some soccer bowls.

Um scavenger hunts are pretty popular.

So if like you could click a couple of businesses and they put up a flag.

I mean, I'm sure everyone wants the footwork once you're also wants them to be Germany or USA, maybe not as many people want Qatar, but if you're a Qatari and you have the manager, and there's a business that's got your flag, you can take a selfie, that might be.

I like the idea of like an adopt a country.

Yeah, I'm totally doing Croatia.

And uh I'm already investing in two jerseys.

So yeah, there'll be popular ones and not popular ones, but if that happens to be your country, we can do like an official like blind draw.

Okay, that's a really fun idea.

And would you be interested in adopting a country?

We'll take guitar.

Opening match.

Yeah.

Okay.

Sorry, and I other thoughts.

I don't remember.

I I was just gonna say, I mean, it seems strange, but the visitors I get, I mean, I'm not from here, we get a lot of visitors, they all want to see the Google World headquarters.

Yes.

Like, everybody wants to tour it.

So, like, you know, go check out the grounds.

So you could stay here, check out Google Worlds.

That's an interesting one.

Okay.

Okay, great.

So it's called Google World.

I remember uh what Ann was saying.

The parking, we tried uh walk with Tiffany, there were size in their park here, but nothing panned out, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

But I was thinking it'd be it is it would be more than one day, but a week or something.

How many days total?

Uh for well, cut it's like a month.

Yeah, it's a month.

But if it's only two weeks, two weeks.

Two, three weeks.

No, I was just thinking about that.

Maybe we can have like games, uh big game, then day one, day two, day three.

You know, I know a different theme.

Yeah, that's the one thing about you know, FIFA, it's really spread out, it's just stuff that's in the Bay Area.

And of course, you don't know where whose teams will be here.

So, and you know, we'll want to be aware of again as we get farther along what teams, what local populations, you know, and connections we might have.

Um, so more to come.

I just wanted to sort of start teeing this up.

Um, you know, we're gonna be working very closely with the chamber around business activation and engagement.

There's a hand up.

Oh, Marisol has okay, one second.

Um, and uh we'll be further developing the business activation on the city side.

We're still figuring out what we can do to activate and do placemaking, so more to come on that.

Um, yes, please.

Um, again, I don't I watch them more than I play them, but you know, I'm thinking, you know, like Marina was saying that, you know, her Airbnb is almost booked for February.

And in a lot of the things that I've done this year, I've tried to make like big weekends out of it.

So let's say it's the Super Bowl, you know.

Like, like what if we were to have like a community football game, and that's one day that isn't the same day as the Super Bowl, and then you know, you have information on how to get to the game, where you can stay, or where you can watch it.

Um, but make the game like the community game like a destination thing, um, and have things like that.

I'm assuming it's probably too late or the train has left to do something that correlates actually um I don't know how to say it, like partnering with actual FIFA or the actual NFL to have it branded, but something that we can do on a community base and still have it, you know, like making helping them make an itinerary to visit Mountain View or to visit this side of the bay um if they're gonna stay here and then enjoy the game on Sunday elsewhere.

Um so why don't we have the city council members versus um some of the committee members of different committees and commissions playing too winning?

Something like that, or like I mean, if you know, we're talking about FIFA and it you know, you claim you claim a country, you know, like you're out there playing, I don't know, for your country.

Again, I don't I do not play myself, so um, I don't really know how that would look like, but you know, something that you know people can sign up for and be a part of um and not necessarily just go to watch it, but can engage with it directly.

Yeah, thank you, Marisol.

The location's not ideal, but like you could do it because people are interested in the Google headquarters.

You could do like a punt pass kick at um the Google field down there.

Um just that it might bring people out just to check it out, but then you've got people out there and not downtown, which is which is where you want them.

So I think that's a big soccer.

Well, okay, so my big my pet project is I want to paint one of the ball a couple of the ballards of yes, I'm trying, guys.

Um, that isn't a commitment, but that's do it in my personal pet project.

I think you over guys, the local school kids, the color inspectors, no, no, but I'm saying if you have to pay them, and it's not a good okay.

I'm just telling you, it's really hard to draw soccer ball.

So we have you know, we'd have to get someone to really like engineer it out.

Um anyway, but in the middle of the knit bomber, you can like you know, like knit the thing and then they go and knit bomber.

You got like a knit fun.

Yeah, I mean, you can do it, that's not like the worst.

Like yeah, real thick yarn.

Anyway, thank you for this initial feedback.

This is gonna be an ongoing this is gonna be an ongoing agenda item.

So we'll bring it up, bring it back as city activations continue and as um the chamber in economic development, yeah.

We want to be careful to not put things in the downtown that can break things, yeah.

Right.

Yeah, so anyway, so can we get like signage near the station?

Like on around the time because then people know like we grab a drink over here on the way in or out or something.

Yeah, we're thinking a lot about how we can activate this the station because there's gonna be a lot of people coming in.

Um, and just one other note, this item will come to you uh probably later this year, maybe December.

But we are moving obviously the farmers market and um so there will be the farmers market on lots four and eight during the Super Bowl.

So, because obviously the train station will be available.

So, we can the historical association give a special tours for tours for the big game.

Yeah, I she's a good creation fans are uh okay.

Thank you.

And I just need to find so we had our public input with Marisol.

Um 7.2 art and wine festival.

Yay, brief sol.

Sorry, my my computer's frozen, Marisol, you have to talk for a second.

Oh we had a great time, everybody.

Fantastic.

Um I don't know if you were there.

If you were there, you know, and if you missed it, I'm sorry.

Um but um overall, I mean, overall it went really well.

We had a new wine tasting experience.

I don't know if any of you were able to experience it that you were there.

We had um a variety of wineries come down um from the Bay Area and they donated their wine and we were able to provide you know an elevated experience outside of the regular concession booths that we um traditionally host so that was really fun um we created a good flow and good buzz around the event um we had a over 400 artisan vendors there which was super exciting and a wide variety of food um the restaurant patios for our downtown businesses were also really packed so they were pleased um we did see a little bit of a fewer attendance this year but we still had a very good crowd um and the chamber did see a little bit less of a net profit of it but um we're still in really good standing um and then I believe we do have some other things to to work through with the city due to some changes that we were impacted with but yeah.

I don't know if you want to take it up well Marina has a comment but I just want to say one thing and and that is that the first bullet here is really really important here.

You know we've been doing the art and wine festival for 53 years um and and I've been involved with it for the last six and it really was the smoothest from behind the scenes and you know Jamelia there Mike you there I mean many of the people here you who contributed you know I think you all said that it's like wow we we kind of have it down and I I think we you know lost some momentum when the when COVID happened and then we also had um a complete turnover in staff and so we lost a lot of the institutional knowledge inside the chamber and all but um you know kudos to to Modisol and and to the team she put together because um I really felt that this was um operationally um really super well done including um adding in this new feature which was the uh the wine tasting experience and and I just want to thank you and I just want to add about the wine tasting experience you know this was one where we had you know 10 uh different wineries you know having sips so as I like to say it if you wanted to sip rather than guzzle you go to this section.

And and everybody who went there and everybody who participated I mean the wineries too were all saying wow this is really cool we will do this again and so yes there's learnings yes there's things we would do differently that happens anytime you do anything but um but again just really really pleased with uh with the operation side of that how'd the restaurants have participated too have you gotten any reports from them on yeah so it's been sporadic um but we've seen anywhere from from about zero to 18% increase in sales.

I didn't hear from anyone except for East West Books saying that uh sales were were not increased during that day um and again I think the visual was was extremely good in terms of the patios being filled up do we have any idea whether restaurants that were included as like food vendors did better than other restaurants.

That I don't know.

Yeah that's a local thing in it Marisol do you have any comment on that one?

We did not have any restaurants that were also food vendors.

So that wouldn't well but we had some that were marked on the map.

Yeah local discovery for the local discoveries yeah so um I haven't checked in with them on their sales they were really pleased um the local discoveries are um some of our in-kind sponsors because they do provide us with food during the event um and usually usually they are on board because they do get good traffic and get good promo from the event so I don't know sort of quick um regarding the attendance right did do you have any data to compare it with other art and wine festivals or just Mountain View was also down so you have like you see a trend yeah in fact I will add to that list um there's about five or six different uh festivals that are in the area all of them um were experiencing anywhere from a 15 to 30 percent uh drop.

And attendees, it kind of correlates because that's my industry, right?

Alcohol um it correlates with our kind of a lower um revenues.

Um my question to you is have you guys looked into the changing habits or lifestyles about drinking wine in the future, right?

Because the new so to speak sobriety, right?

They don't drink.

I'm gonna probably have to do you know, art and bulbust.

Honestly, uh that's I mean, it it's a super good point, and yes, we have been looking at that.

And alcoholic.

Well, we have non-not actually non-alcoholic beer for the first time, and we'll actually have non-alcoholic beer at at uh Oktoberfest as well.

But yeah, no, this is a big, you know, pay attention to this, you know, we need to look at this going forward.

And something, I mean, that might align with this or or might just be unrelated, but um, uh have you ever looked into doing like a juried art fair?

Because in the and what brings it up for me is that you know, when you when you've been to a bunch of these, like it's the it tends to be like a very much the same vendors um at all of them and very much and year over year at the same place.

And it's still it's fun to go down and walk around and maybe have a few drinks.

But um, I was talking to a group of friends who were debating are we gonna go or not?

And one of the one of them or a couple of them were saying, Well, we go to the Kings Mountain one because it's a juried one, so you have like different um exhibitors and you have and it might be interesting if you're if you're also doing this sort of like wine tasting instead of wine guzzling.

Um I don't and if I don't know why attendance is dropping, but it it may be that there's sort of like fatigue, art and wine fatigue is not a lot of citizens.

Yeah, because ours is more of a craft craft, wine festival and suppose an art and wine festival.

Right.

So is there is there a you know, would that draw a different crowd who's not maybe as interested in drinking, but um is more interested in the art.

I don't know.

So, right?

Like something like that.

Marisol, are you trying to talk?

Yes, I'm I'm so sorry.

I just I just wanted to hear it again.

You said a a juried art.

What would that what was that?

Sorry, I just didn't understand.

Yeah, I mean, obviously it would be a little harder to administer, but where um you have to be selected to put up a booth.

You don't just um you don't just pay money and and set up a booth.

You're you have to submit like a portfolio of work and then like the arts, the arts and part, I don't know what the arts and culture commit committee would select or somebody would select, like, oh, these are the vendors that we want to set up their art there.

It's like the um a la carte or not the alignment, the uh art in the park that Los Altos Rotary does.

Their artists are all selected and they all you know, like they all have a prize and stuff like that, but it's really it's about fine art and jewelry, there's not any crafty sort of stuff, and it's not really about the beer, you can get beer and wine there, but yeah, it's and I I'm from um Michigan, and so uh Ann Arbor Michigan has a juried art fair that like draws, I mean, from around the region, like it's it's like tens of thousands of people come to the city for art fair every summer.

You know, maybe we don't want that, but we may or may not want that.

But anyways, it's just something to think about.

I don't know what the trade-offs are there in terms of Pamela, you had.

So my I had two questions.

One is why do we think there's a drop in attendance?

I think we've kind of parsed that out.

Um the 50,000 K in less revenue.

How what does that affect and uh what a per what kind of a percentage of um your salary?

Oh, I get a salary.

Um so um it the the drop in attendance, yes.

We've been we've been talking about you know different things.

Although, you know, when you're talking about 190,000, 150,000 or whatever, I mean 150,000 people downtown isn't really noticeable necessarily except to the discerning eye.

It still feels full, it still feels vibrant and all of that.

And so I just want to make sure that you know, and we're not going, oh my gosh, the sky is falling kind of thing.

It's not it's not that, but yes, we look at that, and then that then that's important.

And some of the causes, you know, are not I mean, there is a you know a little bit of fair fatigue, I think that's going on.

I think it may have to do with, you know, how do we spruce things up a bit, you know, make sure that it's vibrant.

It's one of the reasons why we did the uh the wine tasting area was to like let's try something new.

And and and in all honesty, getting back to one of the things that Ann said is that you know, the notion notion of having a juried art fair, I think is fabulous.

I think you know, we should we should you know always look at different ways of attracting an art crowd.

420 vendors is hard to curate.

Yeah, you know, and so you know, there is a there's there's a there's a size thing, but maybe that's a separate thing that we do at some point, or maybe you know we just choose one or two that are spotlighted in some way that we make sure that there's one or two names of fine art.

Yeah just like we have the wine guzzling we have the fine art you know kind of thing yeah I mean there there's there's things that we can do to do that.

And I think that every year we look at what is our floor plan what is our offering and have we introduced something new or have we are we augmenting something that we do because yeah we want to keep it fresh.

And I will say that you know in terms of the survey that we do with you know other festivals and all that you know our art and wine festival still comes out as top not just in I want to go there but there's more happening here is what we always hear.

You know you're not just doing XY and and Z.

So love hearing these these kind of ideas and and to Pam's point about you know um what well there was two parts of your question one oh it's about 50 the 50k so um the 50k actually is is one of the last bullets I was going to talk about which is um some of the challenges that we had with the city um that there are ways that we you know there's wiggle room I guess is what we're saying and so you know I the chamber's not going away anywhere soon but uh um you know we have had to look at some of the other things that we do and where we cut costs and things like that.

Um I'll now go back to that bullet that that said that uh we had some challenges it had to do mostly with um blocking of the streets and where the water barriers go and who puts up the water barriers and when they get filled and how they get filled this is an operation and you know obviously the chamber is super super cognizant of the safety aspect and so we work very closely with fire and with police and with the streets uh committees so that you know we make sure that they're in the right place and so on we have this big group meeting where we all talk about it and we all you know say this is what we've decided and this is how we go forward.

That's all great in planning then comes execution and um there were some some challenges internally for the city in terms of communication and uh the people who were on the street did not have the latest minutes from um the month and a half before and so there was some confusion and so on and so what ended up happening was we weren't able to activate parts of the street that we would have normally activated and that not only affects of course revenue there on the street but it also affects all of the artists that are down at that block.

We had a number of artists saying how come there wasn't more music down here why wasn't there uh you know uh like Gabby's dollhouse is a big attraction two years ago why wasn't there something like that or whatever it's kind of like well um you know we couldn't quite do that and so we are working closely with all of the above agencies and with the city to try and figure out you know what what's the right formula going forward and how do we communicate better um so I just want to tack on to the the food thing I think the food thing among the younger crowd is like a big deal.

If you get like my my parents came just for the lobster rolls like they were like I follow them on social media.

And then like they wait in the line for like an hour.

So I feel like if you get those like hot trendy people carrying those pineapple you know whatever they were carrying on the street but like those are the vendors I feel like a lot of it's like generic you're like okay but if you get those like hot trendy people that come and set up their truck I feel like we'll bring in more people.

Yeah and Marisol does a really nice job about that.

I mean we have you know the ones you must have them or you won't have a festival kind of thing or or your parents won't be coming you know we we definitely have those but we also try to mix in you know new ones from time to time and um the chamber makes nothing on any of that.

Yeah yeah yeah they do they pay it up yeah pineapple we don't get a very popular taking yes very very like it'll be colorful unicorn bagels you know this is like whatever it is um the other day I went um a friend of mine actually uh opened up a pizza truck such good pizza, like the personal size.

I mean, quick pizza and that's and it's in the trunk.

Yeah, and then I saw that yeah you quick all this in such a small thing.

And he's like, Oh, yeah, no problem.

Like we they have a whole setup.

And he can like, I was like, how many pizzas a day?

He's like, about 200 pizzas a day.

Like, you know, amazing pizza.

He brought us all, you know, we brought us all pizzas the other day.

I'm not, you know, it was advertising.

You know, we benefited for sure.

And I was impressed.

I got to say, and I'm picky.

I'm a picky eater.

So I'll get it.

But Amanda has a meeting she has to get these.

I know.

I got over it.

So you might need to quickly say, like, I thought as an attendee, I went and I thought it was great.

And um it did feel very smooth.

And it um in some ways the crowd looked it can be too crowded too.

And it was not this year.

It was like the perfect amount of crowd that it felt really lively and fun, but not like where you're shuffling along and you can barely move.

So, anyways, I don't want my previous comments to be construed as a criticism.

I think I thought it was a great event.

Okay, so uh thank you, Peter and Marisol for a great, great weekend and good luck this coming weekend.

Don't forget, and I need to talk to you, Marisol about training.

All right, item 7.3.

Um, maybe calendar of meetings.

Yes, thank you.

So um every at every December meeting, we approve a calendar for the upcoming count, you know, our calendar of meetings for the upcoming year.

Um, and so I wanted to start this discussion early so there would be some time.

Um I would like to propose that we well, I'll I'll tell you what our current meeting cadence is.

So typically, um, because we meet the first Tuesday of the month, we don't meet in January because that would be during everyone's holidays, and then to match the council um council closure, we we don't meet in July and August.

So we typically have meetings on these months.

Um I've stepped into the economic vitality manager role.

I'm thinking about staff capacity, and I'm also just thinking about how we can best use all of you and your time.

And um my feeling and recommendation is that we have less meetings, but media meetings.

Um, and so would like to propose that we modify and meet uh one, two, six times a year.

Um, I there will be the stretch April, May, June.

We have quite a few items that have to come before this committee, the annual um business improvement area, the parking management district, all of that happens in this May June um timeline.

So we'd meet in February, we'd have a stretch, we go on summer break, and then we'd have two meetings in the fall.

Um so bringing this forward for your consideration.

Uh a modified schedule for next year.

We could try it out and go back to something else, or if you're feeling if you do feel that you'd like to continue to have the same number of meetings, we can do that as well.

So, and are there any restrictions on your ability to call a special meeting?

I mean, if we needed one, yeah, you could you could have one.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um it's at the purview of the chair and vice chair to agree that uh a meeting um uh that we need a meeting and and then of course, you know, it's at people of uh people's availability.

So there is the other thing where we hold the meetings and then you know, we we calendar the meetings and then we cancel them, you know, is another option, and we kind of, you know, just to be really strategic um around that, or we set this count.

So there's a number of ways to kind of get at it.

Um, which months did you?

Oh, there they are right there.

Yeah, sorry, the the additional ones in red.

Um, thoughts on a modified um meeting calendar for the coming year.

Are we deciding this today?

Or is it because this is just for feedback?

I'll have to bring the official calendar back as a separate agenda item, and that'll come in December.

Everybody says it's a terrible idea.

She'd probably.

Right.

Then I'll bring the, I'll bring back the this schedule.

One thing that's not clear from this is that um, you know, if you look at the aggregated amount of stuff that we discuss and and all of that, do we need to, if we're cutting out meetings, increase the amount of time some of these meetings, like have two hour meetings instead of hour and a half?

That's yeah, and I I don't know that we have a firm stop to the meeting.

Um, I think we try and generally cap it at an hour and a half.

Council meetings, they go to when they go.

Yeah, so but I hear what you're saying, you know.

If we just sort of all agree, you know, these meetings could go to two hours.

Cause I know people have jobs they have to get to, they have other commitments.

Um, you know, I will say the visual arts committee is another committee um in our in our department division, um, and they go as long as they go.

Um so to your point, it could be we go to less meetings and maybe plan on two hours.

Although maybe it, you know, you guys are pretty good about getting through agenda items, so it may not go that long.

But yeah, it's a good point.

And I think it's also possible, especially like today for the development.

You know, I mean, there could be a report and that you don't have to actually have staff come in, especially if it's really like there's really nothing happening, you know, and and not you know, just a couple of paragraphs of explaining what's going on instead of sending out just the list or a cover a cover memo with the list could be sufficient.

You know, in my question.

Downtown, I mean, neighborhood, we always need to know development update, you know, but that's good.

Summary, yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I think the last thing we want is staff spending time on coming up with uh ways to fill time in one of these meetings rather than working on things that are more productive.

So um, if staff feels this would be helpful, then I've I support it.

I support it.

Especially since we're here to help Amanda, vice versa.

I appreciate that.

And we are hoping to get more staff on, but you know, um, thank you for that point, and because there is a lot that goes into before and then after this meeting, there's a lot that I have to do to put the minutes together and get the, you know, there's just it's just a lot.

Um so I appreciate that.

And I certainly also want to be cognizant of your time.

Um, and and again, like I said, have less meetings but meteor meetings, so that you can really there are big items for you to engage in and provide input on.

Um, so it feels like a good use of your time as well.

Yeah.

Is oh sorry, is there a reason that we do no July and no August, like two months back to back skipped?

Is that generally quieter or we want to just do alternating?

Good point.

City council takes a break in July and August.

Um, and so that's why we we've historically, oops, sorry, mirrored that.

Um, every committee and commission does something.

It's also meant to provide staff the ability to actually take some vacation in the summer.

Let them close up and get restarted on stuff.

So also the fiscal year ends in June, which I suspect is related to it is it ends June 30th, right?

Yeah.

So July is pretty crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a good it's a good point.

And I don't know if other committees take different cadences.

No, everybody's off and okay.

Yeah, and I will say May June, April, May, June.

Um, yeah, we have stuff that comes before you got that has to come before you at each of those months.

So it would be sort of like a weird little pre-summer stretch that we would do.

All right, well, um, I'm generally hearing consensus around uh modified schedule for this upcoming year.

So I'll I'll bring that agenda of that item before you in December for approval.

And reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Sounds good.

Um, anything you want to say on that?

Is that a member of the public?

Not a member of public.

She's a member of the movement.

No.

Oh, that's right.

She's a member of the meeting.

I am a member, thank you.

A real.

That's right.

Excuse me, right?

That's right.

I still see her doing this.

Exactly.

I have one of the meetings.

Um moving on to item number eight, then committee staff comments, questions, blah, blah, blah.

So we did the Mountain View Historical Association did a walking tour of September 27.

We had 13 people participating.

And so that was exciting, they have a lot of bodies.

Anything that's uh Marina.

I just want to thank everybody for the uh amazing event that we threw it together, especially Marisol.

I know you worked around.

It's on the paper.

Yeah, it was fine.

Which one?

The one at the business owner's one, right?

So the cool.

Yes.

That was good.

Yeah.

So I wanted to tell the committee about the 50th anniversary of Mount Navy mediation program.

We'll be here in City Hall on October 16th at 56 and 8.

Yeah.

Go on by 50th anniversary of mount TV mediation program.

Yeah, the mediation program, right?

Oh, interesting.

50th anniversary, 50 years.

And stuff.

Yeah.

Um, so just going, you had mentioned for the lot 12, the A frames you're gonna put up.

I think you're gonna freak people out because of the farmer's market.

Like if you see an A frame there and people can be like, is there gonna be messaging to the farmer?

Okay, like you put that thing out.

There's two more.

Good point.

Yeah.

I'm like, there I got you.

It will be chaos.

That's always what I'm thinking.

What are people gonna freak out the most about?

Like they're gonna see him be like this, what's going away?

What's happening to the market?

Yeah.

Great point.

See, we're moving.

Yeah.

Well, I just wanted to tag on to what Marina said because Marina is off-selling it a bit because um not only was the event on Thursday hosted at Monte Carlo, but her dad fed a multitude.

Oh, yeah.

So I had so many people coming in.

Is he cooked for 500 people?

I kid you saying, I went home with leftovers.

Stop cooking.

And he's like, well, they said 200.

I mean, they're not and he was afraid that everybody's gonna go home hungry.

We can't cook it.

I'm not gonna be cool.

That was so good though.

Yeah.

So I so again, huge, huge thank you to the entire family.

And um, I also just want to stress too that we we did a lot of post-interviewing of people who were there and things like that.

And the whole idea was to really have um, you know, a mixture in the crowd of about a third from the general public, about a third of small business people, and about a third from the city, and everybody stepped up.

I mean, there really were that kind of mix.

And I had a number of people say, Oh, I was able to talk to the head of blah blah blah, or um, I finally met Marina, or I finally met, you know, some some of these people and all that, which was exactly the vibe that we were after.

Um, we did get some people saying, you know, that was really a great event.

It felt like a party and all that, but there was some good stuff presented, but you could have been harder hitting.

You know, you could have had some other issues that were brought up and really talk about some of the hard things that need to happen down that.

I said, excellent point next time, but let's talk about that.

I didn't ask the question.

You opened it up for questions.

Well, yes, and and one of the things that we were careful about in the questioning was that we wanted to be focused on the businesses, and so we wanted the questions to be really for the business panel.

If we didn't want it to be just like, okay, we're gonna city that city that city that's an type of thing.

There's no no question that we could maybe do something along those lines.

Again, I just wanted to say that that uh, you know, great, great thank you.

For to to uh Marina and and the and the businesses that uh participated, and uh we will do more of this.

Oh, great.

Thank you.

Seeing nothing else, we will uh stand adjourned at uh nine oh seven.

We are only thirty-seven minutes late for your meeting.

Yeah, they knew I would be late, so that's okay.