From: Summer Abdel
To: _CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Ceasefire Now Resolution
Date: Monday, January 8, 2024 10:33:47 PM
I write to you as a concerned Palestinian American. I do not feel safe in this country where my elected President by executive order gives military weapons and funding to Israel to inflict a genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza. Euro-Med Human Rights has said that the amount of bombs Israel has dropped on Gaza is equivalent to two nuclear bombs.
I do not want my tax money to continue to destroy lives and entire livelihoods in Gaza.
I believe it is of the utmost importance that our most local governance can adopt a resolution that calls for the most simple thing we can call for in this moment: a ceasefire. I have close Jewish friends and we are working tirelessly together to call for a ceasefire. I believe what Israel is doing creates grounds for more antisemitism and more anti-Arab and Islamophobia to occur.
As my elected city counsel members, I hope you will take this all into consideration and call for a ceasefire, to reify that all life is precious, and that we here in Santa Rosa value peace and safety for all.
Thank you for your time,
Summer Abdel-Khaliq
From: Katrin Ciaffa
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Message for today"s city council meeting 1.9.24 Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2024 9:05:06 AM
Dear Members of the Santa Rosa City Council:
My name is Katrin Ciaffa and I am a resident of Santa Rosa’s District 4. I am writing to you today because the mounting death toll in Gaza is weighing heavily on me. Over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since the horrific October 7th attack on Israel, nearly half of them children. Most of the hostages are still not safe. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is beyond the pale. This sickening cycle of violence is never going to stop until a just, political solution is found. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians will be safe until then. It has to start with a permanent ceasefire. That will also allow for a safe return of all hostages.This is why I am asking you, the Santa Rosa City Council, to take a stand for human rights - and human life! -
by drafting a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire. I am aware that in your role, this would be a symbolic gesture, but it would mean a lot to constituents like me who are dismayed by the lack of compassion and responsiveness by our representatives in Washington DC and the US government. Mounting calls for a ceasefire are being willfully ignored, or worse, vetoed and punished. Instead we are sending more money and more weapons, causing more civilian deaths. The Santa Rosa City Council has the opportunity to speak up for human life and for lasting, just peace. I am calling on you to be brave and dissent from the status quo.
It is time for the City of Santa Rosa to pass a ceasefire resolution. If we continue to remain silent, we all have blood on our hands.
Respectfully,
Katrin Ciaffa
Santa Rosa CA 95404
From: Hale, Michael
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Cease Fire Resolution (Please Agenize) Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2024 11:14:39 AM
Dear Santa Rosa City Council Members,
My name is Michael Hale. I live at 41 W 7th St in Railroad Sq. I am a professor of English at Santa Rosa Junior College.
I respectfully ask that you place the ceasefire resolution on the next meeting agenda. I further ask that you meet with the group who drafted the resolution. Former students of mine are involved in the drafting of this resolution, so I feel a personal connection to this resolution as a professor who believes in the power of critical thinking, writing, and activism as essential democratic acts of civic engagement.
I am fully aware of the controversial nature of this issue. I am also fully aware that anti-Semitism does exist and is sadly a growing threat world-wide. This fact can exist along side the very real need for a cease fire in Gaza. To support a cease fire does not make one anti-Semitic in the same way that my activism against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq did not make me anti-American. To critique the decisions of a particular government, should not be conflated with the critique of a religion. In fact, the government of Israel and its recent choices, especially around their attempted overhaul of the Israeli judicial system, are considerably unpopular, even among conservative Israelis. Furthermore, countless Rabbis and religious official across the Jewish world have called for a cease fire. They rally around a slogan from the Holocaust: “Never Again,” but with the addition, “Never Again, Means Never Again for Anyone.” This is an admirable slogan that calls on victims of oppression to be in service to other victims of oppression. It also calls to the deepest and most profound aspects of the Jewish faith’s insistences on justice for all.
A world based upon revenge will only bring more revenge. I learned this most powerfully by watching the conflict between the gangs I grew up around in Los Angeles and the LAPD in the 80s/90s. The root cause of most violence in this world is oppression. My heart was changed by watching leaders like Father Greg Boyle at Homeboy Industries and others engage in meaningful restorative justice rather than militaristic violence and revenge as a way towards peace in my home city.
This is more true at the international level. The students I teach of SRJC are mainly between 17-21.
That means they have never known anything but the US being at war. Seeing the utter lack of meaningful results after a 20-plus year war in Afghanistan and later Iraq means that governmental leaders in the US need to take a more meaningful role in the world in promoting conflict resolution and restorative justice. Advocating for a cease fire in Gaza is an important first step in this process.
You might say, what could a resolution in Santa Rosa mean? I understand that feeling. However, when our federal institutions are gridlocked in petty factional fighting, resulting in in-action or meaningless action, then it falls on local officials to lead by example.
I call on you to place this cease fire resolution on a future agenda.
Sincerely,
Dr. Michael Hale, Ph.D.
English Department / Umoja Supported Professor
Santa Rosa Junior College
Office: 1655 Emeritus
From: Marsha Dupre
To: _CityCouncilListPublic; Christina Rivera; Robert Pittman; Supv. Chris Coursey; Supv. David A. Rabbitt; Supv. James Gore; Supv. Lynda Hopkins; Supv. Susan Gorin; Alton, Alan; Nutt, Jason; Jones, Jessica; Smith, Maraskeshia; Dunston, Daryel; Rogers, Chris; Alvarez, Eddie; Okrepkie, Jeff; Stapp, Mark; Rogers, Natalie; MacDonald, Dianna; Fleming, Victoria; City Clerk; Stricker, Teresa
Subject: [EXTERNAL] We call on our local elected officials to stand on the right side of history: ...
Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2024 4:12:28 PM
Dear Elected Officials:
I concur w/ this open letter:
We mourn the Palestinian people killed in Gaza just as we mourn the Israeli people killed on Oct. 7th. The amount of death and suffering is unbearable. We believe that passing a ceasefire resolution is one step that local leaders can take to lead with values of peace, justice, and embracing diversity here locally and to stand up against genocide globally.
We call on our local elected officials to stand on the right side of history: put humanity on the agenda and adopt a ceasefire resolution.
Thank You,
Marsha
Marsha Vas Dupre, Ph.D.
Former Santa Rosa City Council Vice Mayor, SRJC Trustee Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Subject: If interested, please sign An Open Letter to Petaluma, Cotati, and Santa Rosa City Councils
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf9xywjzHoYgliG0z2oO7RcPyeqVnmmI2YyMPSH13SW0pawbg/viewform
From: Janet Barocco
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Jennings Crossing/Comments from last night"s meeting 1/9/24 Date: Wednesday, January 10, 2024 2:55:23 PM
Attachments: Jennings Council Statement.docx
TO Santa Rosa City Council Members:
My name is Janet Barocco and I’ve lived on Jennings Avenue in Northwest Santa Rosa for 23 years, and in Sonoma County for 31 years. For 8 years I’ve been an advocate for building an at-grade rail crossing at Jennings Avenue.
In case you don’t know the history, there has been an informal pedestrian path over the tracks at Jennings for over a hundred years. Prior to 2016, people used the path to reach businesses, services and schools both west and east of the tracks. This crossing has been closed to cars for decades.
When SMART service began in 2016, the path was fenced off. A detour was put in place which rerouted residents on North Dutton Avenue and Guerneville Road, and then along a paved pathway, adding an additional quarter-mile, making the trip 20 to 30 minutes longer.
My neighbors and other supporters collected hundreds of signatures from our community, in favor of restoring our crossing. The plan was to build a safe, at- grade crossing similar to others along the rail line, with gates, flashing lights, and signage.
We organized a public hearing in our neighborhood with officials from Smart, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and the City. Thirty people spoke in favor of the crossing. Over 100 people attended that meeting, presided over by a San Francisco judge, who later walked the detour with us.
Subsequently, the CPUC approved the crossing. We were elated and hopeful.
That was 8 years ago, and, many meetings and hearings later, we are still waiting for our crossing.
Initially SMART was in favor of the crossing, but subsequently reneged on its agreement with the City of Santa Rosa. Over the years SMART’s reasons for opposing the crossing have seemed to change.
They say it’s too risky. Really? Why would a car-free path be riskier than heavily trafficked West College or Guerneville Road?
It is double tracked, they say. But so are the crossings at West College, Guerneville Road, and Railroad Square.
They say It needs to be indemnified. This is mystifying, as it is my understanding that several of the other crossings are not indemnified.
I have felt disappointed that the City seems to have lost interest in, and/or forgotten us in the Northwest, and the crossing that would re-unify our neighborhood. I would remind you that Jennings Crossing is part of the Jennings Bike Boulevard and HWY 101 bike bridge that is in the Santa Rosa General Plan.
Given intensifying climate chaos, I would think it desirable for Santa Rosa to be as pedestrian- and bike-friendly as possible. Why is it so difficult and taking so long to restore one safe, car-free path that is so obviously wanted by the community, that has the blessing of the CPUC, and that has funding?
Climate change is happening. Population is growing with more housing being built in Northwest Santa Rosa. We need this crossing now more than ever. The CPUC has assigned a March 1
st deadline for the City and SMART to move
forward with an agreement. Time is running out.
I urge you to put Jennings Crossing on the Council agenda as soon as possible.
And I invite any of you who would like to literally walk the path with me, to contact me and we’ll make a date.
Thank you.
Janet Barocco
Santa Rosa CA 95401
My name is Janet Barocco and I’ve lived on Jennings Avenue in Northwest Santa Rosa for 23 years, and in Sonoma County for 31 years. For 8 years I’ve been an advocate for building an at-grade rail crossing at Jennings Avenue.
In case you don’t know the history, there has been an informal pedestrian path over the tracks at Jennings for over a hundred years. Prior to 2016, people used the path to reach businesses, services and schools both west and east of the tracks. This crossing has been closed to cars for decades.
When SMART service began in 2016, the path was fenced off. A detour was put in place which rerouted residents onto North Duton Avenue and Guerneville Road, and then along a paved pathway, adding an addi�onal quarter-mile, making the trip 20 to 30 minutes longer.
My neighbors and other supporters collected hundreds of signatures from our community, in favor of restoring our crossing. The plan was to build a safe, at- grade crossing similar to others along the rail line, with gates, flashing lights, and signage.
We organized a public hearing in our neighborhood with officials from Smart, the California Public U�li�es Commission (CPUC), and the City. Thirty people spoke in favor of the crossing. Over 100 people atended that mee�ng, presided over by a San Francisco judge, who later walked the detour with us. We atended public hearings including Environmental Impact hearings, wrote leters to the City, to SMART, and the CPUC.
Subsequently, the CPUC approved the crossing. We were elated and hopeful.
That was 8 years ago, and, many mee�ngs and hearings later, we are s�ll wai�ng for our crossing.
Ini�ally SMART was in favor of the crossing, but subsequently renegged on its agreement with the City of Santa Rosa. Over the years SMART’s reasons for opposing the crossing have seemed to change.