This meeting of the Redwood City Council on January 23, 2023, at 6:00 PM began with recognition of the Lunar New Year and somber reflections on recent mass shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay. The council then conducted a consent calendar, celebrated student achievements in water conservation and adult high school graduation, held a public hearing on a 130-unit housing project at 1330 El Camino Real, received an informational update on a proposed 108-unit extremely low-income supportive housing project at 1580 Maple, approved annual appointments, and heard reports including a storm recovery update.
Well, good evening and welcome to our council meeting of January twenty-third, twenty twenty-three. It's great to see a full chamber. I think it's been years since we've seen a chamber like this. So thank you for joining us this evening. I'm Jeff Gene, the mayor of Redwood City, and it's great to see everyone tonight. Uh also wanted to take uh the moment to say Gonghey Fat Choice, Sun named Fi Look, happy Lunar New Year. And there's several lunar new year celebrations planned already for this past weekend and the next two weekends that hopefully many of you can can take up, you know, time to participate in. As a reminder, we are holding meetings tonight in a hybrid format with both in-person and virtual participation for council meet council members and the public. Items will be taken in the order they are listed on the agenda. With our hybrid meeting format, the public comment procedures are as follows. In-person speakers will be called first in the order in which speaker cards were turned into the city clerk. The city clerk is over here to my right. Speaker cards are located at the back table in the council chambers and must be turned into the city clerk at the day. City Clerk, could you please take the roll? Certainly. Councilmember Aguirre. Councilmember Howard. Here. Thank you, Councilmember, for leading us in the pledge. I know tonight's a celebratory event, but I need to take a moment to recognize the events that just not only happened this weekend, but even as recently as this afternoon in Half Moon Bay. You know, Saturday was the eve of the lunar new year, the year of the rabbit. The lunar new year is probably the most important holiday in the Asian community. It's a time of family, friends, food celebration, and hopes for the new year. In the city of Monterey Park, a community where nearly two-thirds of the community is of Asian descent. They're wrapping up Saturday's Lunar New Year's celebrations. For the seniors in the community, ballroom dancing is a major part of the social life. Socializing with friends, exercising, being out for a fun evening. This is who they are. This is how they celebrate. On Saturday evening, the weekly routine for many, and the welcoming of the new year was shattered by a person with a gun, who now has killed 11 individuals and injured nine others, and has devastated a closed-knit community. The tragedy could not have been worse, could have been worse if it were not for bystanders who disarmed this individual as he went to another ballroom dance club with ill intentions. Another community is seeking answers and is asking why. Why us? Why here? We need to work together to find answers to gun violence in our communities. As we subsend our support and strength to Monterey Park, and I sent an email to the mayor this afternoon. We need to move beyond thoughts and prayers and condolences. Yes, we send those to our elected colleagues and to the residents of Monterey Park. But we need to learn to stand together and say enough. This violence must stop. Too many families, friends, and communities have had their lives impacted forever. And just on our way here, we heard about the shootings in Half Moon Bay, with at least four that were killed. As we take a moment in our hearts to seek solace for those affected by the tragedy in Monterey Park, I hope, I really, really hope that together we can find a path forward to peace in our cities across the country. And it's going to take all of us working together to find that path. This is just so saddening and so angering, but we need to find a better way. I'm very hopeful that the year of the rabbit can show us the path to peace. Thank you, Council. Thank you for letting me say a few words this evening. As we turn now to the celebratory part of our agenda, I'd like to turn to item 4A to the recognition of winners of the annual water conservation poster contests by the City of Redwood City's public working. Let me get my notes here, correct ones.