From: Michelle Klimek
To: _CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Adequate funds must be allocated for safer streets.
Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 1:16:10 PM
Dear City Council Members,
I am writing to urge you to consider allocating adequate staff, time and resources towards constructing safe streets for pedestrians and cyclists. I believe that this is a crucial investment for our community's well-being, and it will provide significant benefits.
With safer streets, people will be more inclined to walk or cycle to work, school, or other destinations. This will promote a healthier lifestyle and can help reduce the incidence of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
More people walking or biking means fewer cars on the road, resulting in less traffic congestion and a more efficient transportation system.
Reducing the number of cars on the road also contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reduction in air pollution which is essential for addressing climate change.
Long-term payoff of less spending on road repairs. By investing in high-quality pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, we can ensure that our streets last longer, resulting in lower long-term costs for road maintenance and repair. This will help the city to save money in the long run.
When people can walk or bike safely, they have the freedom to move around their community and interact with others. This can help to build a stronger sense of community and promote social connections among residents.
I strongly urge you to change your lifestyle and attempt to walk or ride your bicycle to work tomorrow. It is scary out there. Please do something to change this.
Michelle Klimek
95409
From: Minona Heaviland
To: _CityCouncilListPublic; City Council Public Comments Cc: Elizabeth Ridlington
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Agenda Item 3: Budget Study Session: Day 2 Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 7:08:52 AM
Dear City Council--
I have a few questions and comments on the TPW and CIP budget.
First, is the City Council looking at this budget and thinking about spending through the lense of the Climate Emergency that was declared in 2020? Is the City making a serious effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
1) Slide 39 on TPW Programs: why is there not a TPW program for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure? Also, there is a line for Zero Waste but not for Vision Zero, the effort to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Is the City Planning to fund Vision Zero? I think the City has a couple projects planned to stripe bicycle lanes, and it would be really great to see the staff time and resources that are planned to be dedicated to bicycle network improvements, and where there might be opportunity to direct resources away from cars to support improvements to building out the bike network, and making streets safer for pedestrians. 2) Slide 57: stats on public infrastructure lists 1,134 lane miles, but how many miles of bike lanes or bike routes does the City maintain (class 1, 2, 3, &4)? how many of the existing bike routes are connected to each other? would it be possible for the City to record and report on miles of connected bike routes as a part of the budget hearings going forward? 3) Slide 71: the first mention of bicycles in the entire budget that I could find. It lists $1.2 million will be spent on bicycles as part of the CIP. What will this be spent on and how will it help to create safer more connected bike routes?
Please consider encouraging TPW to spend more of available resources on improving the safety and accessibility of bike routes to support mode shift away from cars to active transportation. This is important to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, and also would make Santa Rosa a more pleasant place to live or visit. Please refer to Bikeable
Santa Rosa vision for examples of what residents would like to see.
Also, more transparency and tracking of expenditures to improve bike routes, connections, and safety would be appreciated.
Best regards,
Minona Heaviland
Santa Rosa Resident
From: Frigyes Erdősi-Szűcs
To: City Council Public Comments
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Comments - CIP Budget
Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 4:35:29 PM
Dear City Council!
It fills me with pleasure to see bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure getting funded by the city.
This is because our city is heavily lacking in these infrastructures. It frightens me that I have to cross Link Lane if I want to walk somewhere, as apparently some streets still lack sidewalks on both sides! I'm hopeful that eventually the city will build a safe and complete pedestrian network in our lovely city!
While I am delighted to see these budget improvements, I'm also horrified by the amount of money proposed for "Street rehabilitation". That number is unsettling! And to see the city's proposal to increase the number of paved surfaces? It's truly scary. We waste millions of dollars on maintaining our existing roads, and the city plans to add even more roads and by that creating a positive feedback which will inflate upkeep costs the next year. Wider streets have also been shown to lead to more speeding and reckless driving, which would go against our city's
Vision Zero Implementation Plan. It has also been shown in many cities that increasing street capacity just leads to even more people driving, and even greater traffic and traffic jams.
For this reason, I'd be extremely delighted to see the city cut back on new car infrastructure, and instead focus on building safe, low-stress bicycle and pedestrian route networks.
Kind regards,
Frigyes Erdosi-Szucs
From: Jenny Bard
To: City Council Public Comments
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Proposed 2023-2024 Budget allocations Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 1:50:32 PM
Dear Mayor Rogers and City Council Members,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the city's proposed budget for 2023-2024. As you heard at the recent goal setting, residents would like to see increased focus on developing a network of protected bicycle infrastructure to make it safer to ride a bicycle in our city. As such, I am urging you to please increase the allocation in the proposed budget for bicycle infrastructure, and adequate staff time and resources, for both Transportation and Public Works and Capital Improvement Projects. At a minimum, the budget for bicycle spending should be tripled to help build out this network, which will help meet the city's climate, equity, health, Vision Zero and general plan goals.
Thank you for your time as you consider the budget for 2023-2024.
Jenny Bard
Santa Rosa
From: Graham Hunter
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Support for the Annexation of the Wright Neighborhood Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 11:27:36 AM
I am writing to express my support for the annexation of the Wright Neighborhood into the city of Santa Rosa (west of S. Wright road and south or Highway 12). As a property owner and resident of this neighborhood, I believe that annexation would benefit our community in a number of ways.
The first reason why I believe annexation is necessary is due to the noise issue that we are currently facing. As an unincorporated area of Sonoma County, we are not protected by a noise ordinance. This has led to frequent disturbances from our neighbors that have disrupted our peace and negatively impacted our quality of life. By joining the city of Santa Rosa, we would be covered by the city's noise ordinance, which would help to address this issue and improve our overall quality of life.
The second reason why I support annexation is due to the safety concerns in our community.
There are several properties that are effectively junkyards, located close to the Wright Charter School (run by the City of Santa Rosa), which poses a significant hazard for the children who walk to school everyday. These properties have no gates and are packed full of junk and equipment like abandoned cars, broken trampolines and other dangerous things likely to pique a child's interest. The lack of code enforcement in unincorporated Sonoma County has led to a lack of action in addressing this issue. However, if our neighborhood were to be annexed into the city of Santa Rosa, we would be covered by the city's code enforcement policies, which would help to increase the safety of our community, especially for our children.
Furthermore, annexation would provide us with access to a variety of city services and programs, including better infrastructure, better access to public transportation, and improved emergency response times. These services are critical for the growth and development of our community, and I believe that they will help us to become a more vibrant and connected neighborhood.
In conclusion, I strongly urge the City Council of Santa Rosa to consider annexing the Wright Neighborhood into the city. It is inside the "Sphere of influence" of Santa Rosa and very close to the Santa Rosa city limit. The noise issues and safety concerns that we face require immediate attention, and annexation would provide us with the necessary tools to address these issues and improve the quality of life for all residents in our community. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Graham and Susanna Hunter (+ two twin babies)
From: Virginia Reuter
To: City Council Public Comments
Subject: [EXTERNAL] TPW and CIP comment for City Council Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 2:22:41 PM
Hi!
It's important to me that the city allocate adequate staff time and resources to construct safe, connected bike infrastructure and other multimodal transportation options.
We can make Santa Rosa a better city by:
Building a complete, safe, low-stress bike network to support and enable citizens who don’t have access to, or don’t wish to rely on, a car.
Prioritizing planning and investments to enhance road safety, particularly for the most vulnerable street users, including following through on the City’s own Vision Zero Implementation Plan .
Reducing further investment in capacity for automobiles – we already have more lane miles and parking than we can afford to maintain, and additional investments will only undermine the city’s own fiscal, climate, and transportation mode shift goals.
Please keep this in mind when reviewing budget allocations.
Thank you!
________________________________________________________ Virginia Reuter
Santa Rosa, CA ::
From: Shauna Larsen
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Regarding Hotel Azura
Date: Saturday, May 6, 2023 8:59:36 AM
As a resident of the St. Rose Neighborhood, I want to voice my objection to the County’s proposed purchase of the Hotel Azura as a location to house the homeless. Hotel Azura is on the edge of our neighborhood with residents homes immediately north, south, and west of the property. Our neighborhood already has a concentration of homeless services in and around it.
In fact, we are most likely the neighborhood in the entire county that is the MOST impacted by homeless and homeless services. We have the Catholic Charities Family Center and their Homeless Drop-In Center embedded in our neighborhood and the Redwood Gospel Mission and the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen within ¼ mile of our neighborhood. In addition, for the first six months of this year the residents of the St. Rose Neighborhood could not walk from our side of the freeway to the west side of the freeway due to the encampments at Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Streets, and College Avenue that grew exponentially when the Joe Rodota Trail was cleared. These encampments just got cleared by our city, but historically will start to return by winter.
Santa Rosa covers 30 miles and there are over 35 cities in Sonoma County, ten of which have a population of 5,000 or more. I urge the county to understand our situation and look at other areas of Santa Rosa or other cities. We need you to consider all other options. Our small neighborhood is maxed out.
Sincerely,
Shauna Larsen
From: Nicholas Mallonee
To: City Council Public Comments
Subject: [EXTERNAL] TPW budget
Date: Monday, May 8, 2023 12:07:36 PM
Good afternoon,
In light of the upcoming budget allocations meeting, I would like to share some thoughts and requests. Riding a bike across town still feels like defying death instead of being a joyful alternative to driving. The increasingly inattentive drivers and fast, enormous vehicles that dominate our city streets terrorize everyone outside them. As I contend with them speeding close past me on Barham Avenue on my way to a segment of safe bike lane at the SMART path, I think about what could make things better. The bar for all bike infrastructure should be, would you let your 5 year old child ride there? Your mother? If the answer is no, the infrastructure is not safe or useful, it’s decorative. And safe infrastructure needs to be there for the whole trip. Being scared to death is not conducive to more riding, and right now our infrastructure only suits athletic thrill seeking adventurers. We need to take strong action on the climate emergency as well as the Vision Zero plan by empowering the citizenry that are hungry for alternatives to ride safely for transportation – their numbers and diversity are evident at any of the Taco Tuesday rides. As our fossil fuel supply peaks, and it becomes clear that we lack the vast energy and material resources to replace every car on the road with an EV, we need to plan for a future of a slower, safer, quieter and more connected and enjoyable city.
We could make our city more like the pleasant and walkable cities Americans love to visit in Europe.
Please consider allocating funds for protected bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure to the greatest extent possible.
Sincerely,
Nick Mallonee