1 Xavier Mota
From: Elizabeth Lutz <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 8, 2023 5:55 PM
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: 19th street #5 C council meeting 5/11/23
EXTERNAL
Please consider full funding for the infrastructure for 19th street community garden activity and wellness center.
It potentially allows a divided neighborhood a common ground to cultivate connection. It’s invaluable for the City to invest in community open spaces.
Thank you
Elizabeth Lutz
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
From: Council Mailbox
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: Fw: Agenda Item 5C 19th Street Parcel Development Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 2:24:48 PM
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 8, 2023 1:38 PM
To: Council Mailbox <[email protected]>
Subject: Agenda Item 5C 19th Street Parcel Development
EXTERNAL
Dear Council Members,
I am writing in support of agenda item 5C, the proposal to develop the 19th Street Parcel with the ultimate plan to create a communal garden.
More Santa Monica communal gardens will address the very real issue of food insecurity, will help ameliorate the impact of climate change, and will help create a community of resilient and self sustaining citizens
Please vote to approve agenda item 5c
Tim Bowler
Santa Monica Resident
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
From: martha bardach
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: RE Meeting on May 9th - Item # 5 C - - Annual Goals and Objectives AP-20 - Use of CDBG Funds for 19th Street Urban AG project
Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 2:25:19 PM
EXTERNAL
Dear City Council Members,
I am writing to endorse the use of CDBG funds to develop the city-owned property on 19th Street north of Pico Blvd. and Santa Monica College.
It is a site very well situated for active and dedicated community engagement and benefit within the Pico Neighborhood. Bravo. What a boon this would be.
I am a dedicate volunteer at Ishihara Learning Garden, the fully communal garden within the Santa Monica Community Garden system. Ishihara serves the community beyond the scope ever imagined when it was planned and built. There is a vital corps of volunteers who regularly work to produce edibles for the Pico neighbors. It is a place sought out by parents and toddlers, pre-schools, senior citizens, academics, and neighbors as well as passers-by.
In its 6+ years of existence, Ishihara has become a beloved site for the community.
The 19th Street property can be this and more given the size of the city lot. That means more and more locally grown organic food, more community activities, more coming together in open and healthy space, more education about healthy eating and exercise, and more! Please don’t miss this opportunity for Santa Monica to lead the region in providing for your constituents with all these incredible benefits.
Thank you for your time.
Respectfully,
MarthaBardach
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RE Meeting agenda item:
Goal Name
1. Expand/Improve Public Infrastructure/Facilities19th Street Parcel Development - Phase I:
Originally purchased using CDBG and General Funds in FY 2019-20, the 2018 19th Street parcel must now be developed into a beneficial community resource informed by engagement with Pico Neighborhood residents within the service area. Phase I development will include grading and preparing the land for general accessibility before installing a communal garden space in a future Phase II.
The City used a mix of CDBG and General Funds to purchase the 2018 19th Street parcel from the ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
Housing Fund in FY 2019-20, s in order to develop the space into a community benefit. Once fully developed, the space will provide a valuable amenity to the surrounding Pico Neighborhood community, informed by feedback from City commissioners and community members. With the space currently fenced and inaccessible, Phase I development will focus first on activities required to safely open the space for public access before developing and integrating the community garden aspect in a future Phase II.
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martha bardach
310/454-2443/h
310/874-3929/c
[email protected]
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
From: Tara Barauskas
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: Support for Item 5C - funding for 19th Street Garden Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 1:06:14 PM
Importance: High
EXTERNAL
Dear Mayor Davis and City Councilmembers,
I’m writing to express our strong support for the 19th Street Garden project being contemplated in item 5C. We have been working closely with many Pico community stakeholders, and having a community garden has been an issue over the years that the community members have expressed enthusiasm for. At Community Corp, we have seen gardens as truly transformative – they provide not only fresh organic food access, but gardens build community, as well as connection with the land. So much wellbeing is cultivated by gardens, and this would be a very welcome amenity for the Pico residents to further build wellbeing and community. We see possibilities for synergy with our 1819 Pico affordable housing, marketplace and café being right around the corner as well. We hope that this space can be not only a space for gardens, but education, events and community programs, and restoration.
We strongly encourage you to approve this funding so this garden project can come to fruition.
Thank you!
Tara
Tara Barauskas, LEED AP
Executive Director
Community Corporation of Santa Monica
1423 2nd Street, Suite B
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 394-8487 ext. 133
[email protected]
www.communitycorp.org
I acknowledge with respect and gratitude the Tongva, Kizh, and Chumash Peoples on whose traditional territory I live and work.
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
From: Cris Gutierrez
To: councilmtgitems; Gleam Davis; Lana Negrete; Oscar de la Torre; Phil Brock; Caroline Torosis; Jesse Zwick; Christine Parra
Subject: Re: Agenda Item 5C: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Date: Tuesday, May 9, 2023 6:53:53 AM
EXTERNAL
Dear Mayor Davis and City Council Members:
As the Santa Monica Community Gardens Advisory Committee Chairperson, I write to share that the advisory committee has gone on record to support the staff carrying out the decisions of the Recreation and Parks Commission and the Office of Sustainability and Environment to extend the Community Gardens program as urban agriculture by cultivating the City’s 19th Street property (just north of Pico) to be a community farm for the Pico Neighborhood. It is exciting to have the Council approve the proposal regarding the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds being used to serve the Pico Neighborhood with a communal opportunity to grow healthy organic foods and to be avid stewards of habitat and residents’ well-being. My personal enthusiasm for this project grows daily.
After several years of commissioners and staff working hard to bring this idea forward, now made possible with the CDBG proposal, there can be another site to bring joy where tons of produce can be grown and distributed freely to neighbors, following the best practices and community engagement at the Ishihara Park Learning Garden. Our City’s exemplary sustainability and climate leadership will be enhanced with this endeavor.
I urge the Council to support the approval of the Proposed 2023-24 Annual CDBG and HOME Action Plan.
With gratitude,
Ms. Cris Gutierrez
Santa Monica Community Gardens Advisory Committee Chairperson ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
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May 9, 2023
May 9, 2023
Re: Agenda Item 5C
Dear Mayor Davis and City Council Members and staff
As co-chairs of the SaMo Safe Streets Alliance and as community gardeners ourselves, we fully support the Council’s approval of the Proposed 2023-24 Annual CDBG and HOME Action Plan. We believe using CDBG funds to begin creating a 19th street community–communal–farm is beyond wonderful. We are very pleased to see staff has sought to develop a plan to begin the process of getting a budget for infrastructure in place.
Admittedly, initial community meetings have only begun. We anticipate genuine community engagement will enable full participation for meeting residents' needs, including translation support and timely opportunities to discuss the project’s features, design, and ways to keep the farm benefiting and engaging far beyond today and onto future generations.
Honestly, the idea of a local community farm could help bring to life even more opportunities that the Pico Neighborhood families have long envisioned to stimulate a local community and economy. The communal farm clearly helps implement the goals of the recently updated City Sustainability Plan and the City's Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.
Santa Monica’s Community Gardens program has enthused so many residents just like us, and now the CDBG plan is an opportunity to seed an understanding of how we all can contribute to a 21st century vision of urban agriculture integrated with housing for habitat, community health and wellbeing.
Turning the City’s 19th Street property into a community farm for the Pico Neighborhood to cultivate together offers many benefits, including:
• Securing a source of local organic foods;
• Supporting community-building and regenerative farming practices;
• Providing open-space for communal and environmental stewardship; • Sequestering carbon with community composting;
• Fulfilling and broadening the local organic materials recycling requirement; • Reducing heat island effects; and so much more.
Supporting the farm are popular transit routes, the Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway and the new Protected Bike Lanes and Pedestrian Amenities on 17th Street. The upgraded street design and bus access complement a community fabric of active living for multigenerational families and residents.
But perhaps most important, serving the Pico Neighborhood with a farm leads to empowering them with the knowledge and craft of growing foods and plantings that will be enjoyed by the community's multiracial and multiethnic cultures and develops sustainable and healthier habits.
What an efficient and enlivening means of carrying out the City’s priorities of “Sustainability and Community Connection” and ”Racial Justice, Equity and Social Diversity!” We welcome and embrace the Council approving the Proposed 2023-24 CDBG and HOME Action plan.
Sincerely,
Cynthia Rose Cris Gutierrez
Co-Chair, Santa Monica Safe Street Alliance Co-Chair, Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance Director, Santa Monica Spoke
SaMoSafeStreets.org
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
Public Comment from Bruce A. Wessel to Santa Monica City Council on May 9, 2023 Agenda Item 3.D., Closed Session Conference with Legal Counsel on Pico Neighborhood AssociaƟon v. City of Santa Monica, pending in California Supreme Court
IntroducƟon
The Pico Neighborhood AssociaƟon v. City of Santa Monica case has been pending in the California Supreme Court for two years and a decision in the case is expected in the coming months. There does not appear to be a good reason to have a closed-door/secret meeƟng about the case. If there are updates on the case, they should be made public.
I filed an amicus brief in the case and have followed it closely. I have lived and voted in Santa Monica for over thirty years. I’d like to express these thoughts on the case as we all await the California Supreme Court’s decision.
What’s at stake -- the current system compared to the proposed system Our current at-large system with seven seats and four-year terms gives voters more voƟng opportuniƟes than the system proposed by the plainƟffs in the liƟgaƟon—a single-member district system with seven seats and four-year terms.
Santa Monica’s current voƟng system gives me and every Santa Monica voter seven votes in every four-year period, and the right to vote every two years, and the right to vote for all seven posiƟons on the Council.
A single-member district system with four-year terms would give each voter only one vote in every four-year period, a vote for only one posiƟon on the Council, and a right to vote every four years instead of every two.
Compared to our current system, the proposed system would reduce each voter’s right to vote by 86 percent. This would be a dramaƟc and unwelcome reducƟon in our voƟng rights.
The proposed system would make Santa Monica more like Los Angeles In Santa Monica’s voƟng system, every Council member represents the whole city.
The proposed system copies the City of Los Angeles system by creaƟng singleITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
member districts. Demonstrated problems with the current Los Angeles system include the process for drawing district lines, the potenƟal for parts of the city to be piƩed against other parts of the city, and the allocaƟon of resources and burdens equally for each district rather than with a citywide perspecƟve.
The case has statewide importance
California AƩorney General Rob Bonta filed an amicus brief in the case because of its statewide importance. The case is being monitored by hundreds of lawyers in California and will be studied by lawyers in California and naƟonwide for decades.
The AƩorney General’s brief explains: “Courts have had few occasions to interpret the California VoƟng Rights Act’s language. This case presents the first opportunity for the Supreme Court to interpret this important statute and its ‘vote diluƟon’ standard.”
The Supreme Court jusƟces have been working on their decision in the case for months if not years. They have spent a substanƟal amount of Ɵme considering the issues and will provide all California ciƟes with important guidance.
ITEM.5.C.
May 9, 2023
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May 9, 2023