And your chest play up, second set.  Last day, one.  Grow somewhere new. You guys know that I love a good workout. I love to sweat. Every single day, I work out about six days a week, at least two hours on my yoga mat, doing Ashtanga Yoga, or doing a bar class. When one works out, their muscles break down. I tell my students here in Atlanta, I've been sore for about 17 years. And as we start to age, we start to have a harder time repairing those broken down muscles. Now, a few months ago, my friend Catherine Edwards introduced me to the product, Asiya. I had been offered sponsorships before, but I had always turned them down because the integrity of the company didn't align with my own integrity. But the more I studied about Asiya, the more I studied about the owners, the person who came up with the formula for Asiya, the more I liked this company. And then I started to try the product. So what is Asiya? Again, when you work out, when you rip your muscles apart, there has to be a rebuilding system. When that rebuild happens, that is when your body technically gets stronger. We have in our body something called Redox. Redox is this thing that helps. It's a signaling system between your cells. Now, when we are young, when we're kids, before we hit puberty, we have a lot of Redox. That's why children are young and healthy and they can fall out of trees and skin their knees and be fine and recover quickly. But as we get older, that Redox becomes less and less and less. So it doesn't really matter how healthy the cells are. And the cells cannot properly communicate with each other. This means that as we get older, we start to feel more body aches. We start to get wrinkles. We start to get saggy skin. We start to get gray hair. For men, this means that the hair starts to then fall out. Again, it's like having a cell phone. What's the good in having an iPhone? Like my iPhone, if there's no cell system to work it. The Asiya is the cellular system. Now, again, I'm a pretty healthy person. I work really hard on my health. So I wasn't expecting a huge difference with the Redox. However, the benefits that I've experienced over these last two months of being on Asiya have been unbelievable. I feel younger. I'm sleeping better. I feel like my quality of life is better. Even my hair, I've always had really thick hair. But now my hair is like gotten doubly thick and it's growing like crazy. I literally just got my hair cut like two weeks ago. And I am about to have to make another appointment to get it cut again because it is unbelievable how fast my hair is growing since taking this Redox system. My nails are growing faster. Even my boyfriend, my boyfriend who is in his early 50s is starting to thin out at the top of the hair as what happens to men. And even he is starting to notice his hair grow back, which is common. If you look at the stories from Asiya, so many men have grown their hair back simply by adding Redox back into their body. They're countless stories of people who've lowered their blood pressure, gotten off medications, cut their medications in half because their body is being supplied with the cellular system it needs to do what the body is supposed to do and that is heal itself. Now, basically what you do is when you get your Redox and you can hear it's a liquid, it's a liquid. This comes with a little shot glass, a two-ounce shot glass. Most people will take between four and eight ounces of Asiya a day. I take eight ounces a day because I'm obsessed with this product.  You can't overdose with this product. If you take too much, your body will just pee it out. Now, when you take the liquid, you're allowing the intelligence of your body to take the Redox where the body needs the Redox to go. I've told you guys before, I struggle heavily with arthritis. And in the past, I have taken medications for my arthritis but I do know that arthritis is caused by overthought. It's caused by anxiety. However, medication coming from my doctor only dealt with the issue of the arthritis, not the cause. But when I started taking the Asiya about three days into taking this, I noticed that I was a lot calmer. My anxiety had dissipated and I thought, how interesting is that? How interesting is that? My body knew that the source of the issue with my joints was coming from my own mind. So where did it send the Redox? To my mind. There's also a topical gel that I really like. So when you take the liquid, again, you're allowing your body its own intelligence to take the Redox where it is needed to help heal the body. But with the topical gel, you are able to put the gel where you want it put. I have been putting this on my legs for a while now. It has helped so much with the tightening of the skin, with cellulite, with varicose veins. It's also helped with the soreness of my legs. My legs get real sore from working out. I've been actually even putting this on my boobs, you guys. Now, again, I'm 40. I've never had children, so my boobs don't drop that much. But I've been kind of putting it on my boobs, too. And I tell you, my boyfriend really likes that. So this is a really awesome product. But despite the vanity, if you have a sore leg or a sore knee or a sore neck, you can put this on and direct the Redox into the area that is in pain or inflamed, and the Redox will help with that. I even use this when I'm on my period. When I get my cramps, I take some of the Redox and I put it topically over the area where my uterus is, and it helps. My boyfriend, again, has been putting the gel in his hair, which is helping his hair grow back. Right now, currently, if anybody knows my boyfriend, he has covered in tattoos. He has been getting tattoos since he was in his 20, and he right now currently is getting one of his tattoos touched up. And so when he comes home tonight, we're going to experiment with the gel to see if the gel heals the wound of the tattoo even faster. Now, we want everybody. I want everybody to have the best quality of life that you can have.  This ASEA is going to help you and help your body achieve the life that you weren't meant to live in happiness and peace and health and in harmony. If you would like more information on ASEA, then please text Bryce Info to<PHONE_NUMBER>. Again, that's Bryce Info to<PHONE_NUMBER>. If you're texting from another country, please make sure you put plus one.<PHONE_NUMBER>. And somebody will get back to you pretty quickly. You can ask any questions you like of the product. You can find out more information about the Redox system. The person on the other end of the line will walk you through every option available to you at this moment. They can even try to help you get the products at wholesale prices. So again, knowledge is power, knowledge protects, and knowledge is infinite, as I say all the time on this channel. If you want more information, please text Bryce Info to<PHONE_NUMBER>. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Esoteric Atlanta. Of course, my name is Bryce, and this video is a bit of a last-minute video. I wasn't planning on doing this, but we're going to have a little bit of a discussion, because I feel like people are still really confused between their body and their soul. And this is coming up because there are theories going around our community about this idea of bodies being resurrected, like loved ones coming back from the dead when our timeline flips, and I'm kind of over here going, oh, dear, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oops, like, no, that's not A, that's not a good thing. And B, that is not going to happen. And I realize, with people I'm talking to, that there's still a disconnect between the crux of this idea of a conscious evolution, of a great awakening of an ascension. People are still really confused by what the body is and what the soul is. That body, of course, I also mean the identity that your body carries. So this body that I occupy right now has a name, and that name is Bryce, and that is my experience right now as a soul, but it's not my eternal soul's name. It's not my forever experience. And I know if you've been joining us, I mean, we talk about this a lot on my channel, because as most of you guys are aware, my job off-camera is I'm the only female authorized teacher in the state of Georgia. And because of that, I've spent many years in India studying. I've had some of the best philosophy teachers out there. I'm very grateful to have spent 17 years working on this philosophy and through this theory. And I know a lot of people have been heavily in the church or other religions where, of course, that's all based off of mind control. And so I know it's really hard to kind of understand this. And so I kind of thought, let's start from the beginning again, because some of these, even these bigger philosophies that we talk about, especially on Enough is Enough, I can't say the name of that platform that holds that channel or I'll get booped, but I can't put the link, but it's on the T.E.L.Gramm channel. Enough is enough. We do a lot of talk about this idea of shadow work in the body and Prakriti, Parusha, Shiva, Shakti, and I'm still getting people that seem to be very, very confused.  So let's kind of go back to the beginning. And this is a huge, this is like the main crux of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is the 5,000-year-old text that we base all of our practice off in yoga.   What does that mean? So I and my illusion and my delusion in this body think that I am Bryce, but Bryce and my body are not eternal. They're mortal. They're Prakriti. They're the expression of the soul, the Shiva. They're the Shakti. Anything that is the Shakti or the Prakriti, there are two laws for Prakriti or Shakti. And that is that it has a birth, a life and a death, a beginning, a middle and end. And because it has this evolutionary cycle attached to it, that means the second law is that it's always in a state of changing and evolving. Doesn't matter if that piece of nature is going to live 80 years or 400 years, it's still in that constant state of change through the expression of the soul. So when the body dies, when we pass away, the body then ceases to be alive. It doesn't exist anymore. The identity of that body doesn't exist anymore. The identity of that body only exists in people's memories and thoughts. That's it. The soul that is occupying the body once the body passes away then leaves the body. So the soul then leaves the body and the soul goes on to the next experience. A new body or sometimes the soul from things I've read will take like a resting period before it takes a new incarnation, but it's no longer there in the body. That's why if you've done any studies with past lives, that's why you've been different sexes in past lives. I know I've spent most of my lives as a woman. That gets in the twin flame thing when you split souls. And even in that situation, guys, even with the twin flame thing where the soul's old enough or it splits into feminine and masculine, even if your twin who is out there is still stuck in a Sam-Scarc loop, that's okay. You have to keep pushing forward with your own understanding because you are having two individual experiences, even though you are the same soul, but that's a topic for a different day. We want to look at the basics now. Spirituality 101. Your soul is not your body. Your soul is not your identity of your body. Your body and your identity of your body is merely the expression of your soul in this existence. It's like I've used this expression before. It's like when you go to an amusement park, you have so many different rides at the amusement park. Every single ride is giving you a simulating a different experience for you. Some rides are peaceful like the boat rides. Some rides kick up your adrenaline. Some rides give you fear and you're choosing these experiences. No one's forcing you on the roller coaster. You're standing in line and choosing to have the experience that this roller coaster is going to give you in that moment. It's the same with your life, but that roller coaster ride, that experience is not who you are. It's just an experience. Who you are is the thing inside the cart strapped in experiencing the simulation. When we talk about shadow work, we're talking about diving into the unpleasant experiences. Remember karma is just cause and effect. That is all karma is. If you are alive, I've heard people say, oh, I don't have karma in this life. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. We all do. Karma doesn't label itself as good or bad. Your perception of that karma is what you label good or bad through your own traumas, reactive mind, all that kind of stuff, right? All karma is is cause and effect. Karma doesn't care about your feelings. It's just, it's the law. Every action, for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. That's karma. So, the fact that I drank water this morning, the karma of me drinking water this morning means that I peed before I came onto film.  I feel comfortable in my body, right? Now, the karma for me, if I eat food that doesn't sit well with my system, that effect, the karma is having a stomach ache. That's all karma is. It's action and reaction. And through that action and reaction, through opposing forces of our emotional attachment to that is where we get the friction. And friction is how we learn, right? If we're comfortable, we're not going to learn. When we get uncomfortable, that's how we learn. That's why you came into a mortal body and allows yourself to go through the veil of an amnesia so that you would forget that you are an eternal soul. So, we suffer because the thing we think is us. So, I suffer because in my illusion, I think I am Bryce. But Bryce will one day die. So, I'm constantly going up against fears and attachments because I'm trying to hold on to something that's not meant to be here forever. My teacher described it once as like trying to hold sand in your hand. You can't do it. You can try to hold on to that sand, but eventually, the sand is just going to fall through your fingers. You can't do it. So, we're suffering because we're holding on to something that is not permanent. But what is permanent? Your soul.   They're going to rise, you know, our loved ones who died five, ten years ago, a year ago, they're going to rise from the dead. No, they aren't. And God help us if they do because that's not a good thing. Let me explain. When we talk about in these old, ancient stories, well, first of all, we know Yeshua, the guy they call Jesus, was never crucified. So, that's a fake story. But if we look at Tammuz or all these other stories about something dying and coming back again, resurrecting, it's all metaphor. The resurrection is you remembering your soul. Your soul has nothing to do with literal death. You go through what they call an ego death and I'll explain a little bit more about that later on in this video because I've been through an ego death.  So, part of spirituality is seeing the truth through the illusion. And that truth has nothing to do with the outside world. That's why there are so many people in our community who think they're awake, who are actually still dead asleep because they have yet to see their own truth or their own illusion. Your own illusion is, again, that you think you're your identity when you're not.  It's like, you know, okay, we all have a wardrobe.  And they're all our clothes. We all buy clothes that we like, that are comfortable on us. They're kind of something that I like to wear, might not be something you like to wear in vice versa. So, our clothing, our jewelry, all that kind of stuff, our makeup, that's all an expression. It's an artistic expression of ourselves. But our clothes aren't who we are, right? We change outfits. At least I hope you're changing outfits every day. You know, then we wash them and we put them back on and when we get holes in them, they're old, they're ratty. We throw them out. We get more clothes. You know, and it's all just an expression. It's not who we are. It's just our expression of who we are, right? So, like, in the morning, I wake up. I have my pajamas on. And then I put my workout clothes on. I put my spandex and my sports bra on, right? It's something I'm putting an outfit on to experience the workout, right? That two hours of my mat. And then once I'm done, I take a shower and I put my other clothes on to film or do whatever I got to do that day for a different experience, right? So, the workout clothes are for one experience, to sweat, to push myself. And then my clothes I wear for the rest of the day are for a different experience for what I'm doing now, okay? Same thing with your life. This life is brice. I designed it, my soul designed it in a way for me to have certain experiences so that I would learn. My soul would know itself. Another life, there could be different experiences. Does that make sense? So, when a body dies, the soul leaves the body. If you've ever been to an open casket funeral and seen a loved one that is no longer, you can tell they're not there. No one's home. A dead body looks very different. Then a body with life in it, okay? So, once the soul leaves, that's what you're seeing. You're seeing the soul is gone. It's an empty vessel. So, if we were then to 10 years later resurrect the vessel, guess what? The soul's not there. So, that's literally the zombie apocalypse. And if there's an empty vessel walking around, best believe another entity or spirit can jump into it and use it, okay? So, once someone passes away, I want everybody to really understand this. Once somebody passes away, once you pass away, if you talk to people who have had near-death experiences, they say there's a light. The soul walks into the light and it goes about its next incarnation. It's done. My life is bright. Once I die, whether that's at the age of 80 or 400, who knows? It doesn't matter because time is relative. Once that happens, my soul's disregarding this body. It's done. The lessons are done. And believe it or not, your soul knew when it was going to be born. And it also knows when it's time to leave the body. The soul is the watcher. The soul is not emotionally invested into the emotions of the nervous system. It's just experiencing it. Yeah? It's just like when the ride at the amusement park is over, you're ready to get out and leave.  You know, like, on to the next one. So, when we resurrect a body and the soul's not there, then we have a huge problem on our hands. Everybody knows I love the Franchise American Horror Story. I know it's owned and done by the controllers, but you can learn a lot from watching. And they do this then actually in Season 3 in Coven. They resurrect a body. And it's brilliant the way they played it actually, because it's showing you the soul is no longer there. It's not the same thing as before the person passed away. Now, yes, and this is when it gets really hard, because, yes, we love our loved ones. Going through the grief of loss is one of the hardest things that you will go through as a human being. And I totally understand that. But I'm going to tell you that's part of why you came to Earth was to experience grief. That's the shadow work. So true love to truly love somebody or something is to not hold them in bondage. We can see this in relationships. If you're in a relationship, friendship, business relationship with someone that's like super controlling, that's not really love. Love is trust. And love is also allowing people to leave when it's time for them to leave, to let go. Ram Das always, you know, he talks a lot about death and his work and how death should be celebrated just like birth is, because it's just as important. Death is just as important as birth. It's a transition. I mean, the great illusion is that death is real and death really isn't real. It's just the body you're discarding. Okay, so if you are one of these people who is attached to this idea that your loved ones are going to like come back to life, that's not love. That is love. That is an attachment, masking itself as love. Yes, you love that person. But my question to you would be, what is that attachment? What is it you think you need from that person to be whole?  You're feeling the pain of loss because this is your work. You have to get uncomfortable and feel things in order to shift and change and develop wisdom and understanding. Pain is real and again, I'm going to remind you that's why your soul came to a human body was to have that friction to experience the illusion of death, to experience the illusion of separateness because it's all an illusion. That's all it is. And so that is something I would really encourage people to work on. You can be in a state of mourning and grief and missing the person that you lost. You absolutely, that is your love. But at the same time, while being in that place of grief, letting them go because that's their soul's journey. And by not wanting to let them go and Sri Swami Siddhi Tananda speaks about this in his commentaries of the Yoga Sutras anytime we have an attachment, whether it's to a person, whether it's to a religion, whether it's to an ideology or a job, it's an unhealthy attachment. That is where we have disconnected from God. So if you're feeling that, where is your disconnect from God or higher consciousness in that moment? Because God has a plan. Your soul has a plan. Your partners, your loved ones' souls have plans. And even though again, it's super painful to lose someone you love, but can you trust that God and that person's soul has a plan and that you are also going to be okay? Because you're not separate from God. You never were separate from God. Never. You've always been, you've always been a fractal of God. Now I went through, I told you guys I would touch on the ego depth. So the ego is the false sense of self. So that is when you are practicing yoga or doing any other true spiritual practice, that is what you are contending with. You are, it's the story I tell all the time of the Ramayana, right? It's you going up against yourself. So I'm going to reiterate this story. Cliff Notes version. If you want to read the Ramayana, I would absolutely suggest reading it. This is going to be a very shortened Cliff Notes version. So in the Ramayana, Ram is married to Sita, his beloved Sita. And there's this demon named Ravana. And Ravana is like the most brutal savage of all the demons. He is the demon who cannot be slain. He has 10 heads.  Like it's impossible. It's the most feared in the land. Anyway, Ravana comes and abducts Sita. And he takes Sita to Sri Lanka, the island off of the coast of India. And Ram is devastated. He's lost his beloved Sita. So he hires Hanuman. Hanuman, I've got Hanuman. Hanuman is, I feel like one of my guides. He comes up a lot. Here's Hanuman. Hanuman is one of my favorite characters in the Hindu pantheon of scripture. Hanuman is the monkey god.  And you'll see more if you read deeper into the Ramayana. He has all these like powers and abilities. He's the incarnation of Shiva. So one of the tri-heads of the Hindu religion. So he has all these like really cool abilities. And he forgets sometimes. Like he comes. He's like totally forgets that he can do these really cool things. And then he'll remember and then he'll like forget again. Totally human. And one of his famous lines in the Ramayana that hopefully I won't cry saying this. I usually get emotional. As Hanuman says, when I don't know who I am, I serve you. When I know who I am, I am you. When I don't know who I am, I serve you. When I know who I am, I am you. And so Ram hires Hanuman. Because Hanuman is like military. His day is Tuesday, which is also the day of Mars, which Mars is the planet of war. So he's like the military badass monkey who's kind of goofy too. And so Ram hires Hanuman to help him find Sita. So in this process of trying to find Sita, Hanuman realizes that she's in Sri Lanka. And he remembers all of a sudden that, oh crap, like I'm this badass. I have all these like mystical powers that I totally forgot. And he jumps part of his mystical powers. He's able to jump from the coast of India all the way over to Sri Lanka. Now his father is Vayu, or the wind. Vayu is wind breath, right? Breath. Vayus of the body, the pathway of body. God breathed life into man and man, stood up. It's that force of Pranayama, of this magical breath that leaves the eternal and the mortal together. So anyway, Hanuman finds Sita in the woods where she's held captive. And he's kind of like, you know, I could like kidnap her back and bring her back to Ram. But the same cycle is going to continue. If I were to do that, Ravana is just going to come kidnap Sita back and we're just going to continue. That's called a Samskara. We're just going to continue playing this game over and over and over again, like a hamster well. No one's got time for that. So Hanuman's like, I've actually got to figure out how to defeat Ravana. That's what I have to do. And I'm not going to tell the whole story of what happens, but he does end up defeating Ravana. And because he defeats Ravana, he's able to return Sita permanently back to Ram. Well, as I said many times, this is not really a story about a monkey god or a demon with ten heads. This is a story about you. Ram is God. Sita is your soul. Ravana, the ten-headed demon who cannot be slain is your ego. That's keeping your soul in trap because the ego thinks it's real. And the soul is not... The ego thinks tries to convince you the soul is the ego. Hanuman, that's your courage. It takes courage to go on the journey of spirituality because spirituality is not love and light. That's spiritual bypassing. True spirituality is darkness. It's ego death.  But who you really are is Sita. And because the ego is the fault-sense of self, because the ego is tied to the identity, then the ego itself is mortal.  And so the ego is going to do everything it can to hang on to the illusion that that's who you really are. But if you have courage and keep going up against that ego and keep challenging that ego, eventually the ego will die and you will be able to return your soul to alignment with God. Now this is obviously a philosophy and a theory that I've been working with for 17 years. And for many years before I had my ego death, I would think about this a lot. If I'm not Bryce, then who am I really? I'm not Bryce. Then who am I really? And in theory, that's easy to kind of comprehend, but in practice, that's a lot harder. Well, back in 2017, I went through about three months of crying nonstop. I went through this total dark night of the soul where I realized how real mortality was and that once I die, Bryce doesn't exist anymore. Gone, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Gone, never coming back again. And that reality was really hard. I, again, cried every day. I was probably one of the worst depressions I've ever been in, all because when I die, I'm going to go. It's never going to, I'm never going to be back again. That was because I've been working on accepting this theory and it finally viscerally. So at first it was understanding in my mind, but then all of a sudden through my practice, viscerally I started to really understand it within my nervous system, within the depths of my knowing that when I die, that's it. Bryce is not coming back again. But that's the great illusion too because Bryce has never really existed anyway. This is all a simulation for my soul to know itself, for your soul to know itself.  Who you are has nothing to do with flesh and bones.  And after three months of just non-stop mourning, I woke up one day and I'll never forget, I just all of a sudden felt a hundred pounds lighter. And I kind of had this new perspective, oh my God, if I got Bryce, then like who am I really? Like let's get to know the soul. Because the soul is that fractal of God. And I started to really enjoy life more. I found myself being able to actually love deeper and forgive easier and to really feel and experience things happening to me because I understood now, viscerally understood that this was all temporary anyway. And I planned it. My soul was like this is what's going to happen. This is the roller coaster ride we're going to go on in this life. And the next life, I don't know, maybe next life I'll do the bumper cars. We'll see. And my compassion and my empathy for other people became greater because the more that I recognized my soul, the more I saw other people's souls too. And that's why I keep telling people, I don't care who someone voted for. I don't care if they've got this or not because it's all a simulated experience. I see their soul and judging somebody else because of their experience is no different than me holding on to the falseness of my own experience. That's the resurrection.   So using the body with, you know, you can't neglect the body.  So you got to lean into those experiences but you have the knowledge that they're temporary. You need to take care of your body. Again, exercise, we've talked about this and I will include the yoga and shadow work playlist down in the description box. Exercise isn't about punishing your body. Exercise is about understanding your soul. Believe it or not. Because even though the body isn't really who you are, it's the Shakti of the soul, it's the experience of the soul. It's where the chakras lies, where the bundas lie. It's where all the vayus, the passageways of energy lie. And so for the experience here, you absolutely need to be exercising every single day as part of your spiritual practice. Nothing is going to pull up your shadow work more than when your ego is humbled. And exercise is what humbles the ego, right? We have mullabunda at the base in the perineum and in my bar classes, I squeeze a ball in between my legs. That triggers the pathway up my inner thigh into my perineum which is the root of mullabunda. Mullabunda again is part of the energetic experience because it's not in the body. But we can feel the sensation of it through the friction of the body. The bundas, even though it's a very deep, deep visceral feeling of burning sensation, it's actually connected to the breath, to pranayama. We have the chakra system. And the solar plexus, Manipura, which is right here. That's your power, right? The stronger your core gets, the more you're able to stand up straight and be alive in this experience. As Alan Watts said, the point of life is to be alive. Be alive because in being alive, that is when you start to really lean into the experiences of that life.  No, of course not. We go through death, loss, tragedy, heartbreak. That's all part of being alive, which is then in return giving you the knowledge to understand that your illusion is that you're a human being right now and that's it. But the truth is you're actually an eternal soul. And we see this illusion in things like religion where people yell at each other and tell each other that the other person's going to hell because they don't believe what that person believes. Well, that's coming from fear, which is coming from the ego. What it refers to the person doing the screaming and the judging is coming from a place of fear because they have an attachment to a false sense of identity, right?  The soul is eternal. The soul has been around for forever. I hope that makes sense. And I just really encourage because that's why I keep trying to tell you guys like the truth or community is the exact same as the normies. It's two sides of the same coin. It's two wings of the same bird. If you really want to wake up, you really want to join the Great Awakening. You got to leave both worlds behind. Be a seeker.  It means that you have the truth. None of us have the full truth. So we came to human. We came to human so that we can experience and learn and gain wisdom. We're seekers. We're seekers. Alright you guys. So I hope that makes sense. If you have any questions, please ask them down in the comment section below. This is your journey, these understandings. I can sit here and talk about this all day until I'm blue in the face but I can't understand it for you. You have to understand this for yourself. And it's easy to sit around and talk about a theory but then you put it in practice and it becomes a lot harder. So I encourage you to start that practice. Don't worry about what everybody else is doing. That's just a distraction. It's just an escapism. Worry about yourself. What's going on inside you? Where is your shadow work? Where is your friction? I hope that makes sense and I'll talk to you guys later. Bye.


Okay, so something that we have tried to do the entire time that Councilman Nuremberg has been in office is to create a Dialogue with the community District 8 how many of y'all have been to one of our district 8 dialogues we've had around the around the community great monthly event And so what we want to do is we want to create a conversation We want to create a dialogue So rather than you know just sort of doing an address what we wanted to do was bring the community in Get your concerns get your feedback Whatever that may be. So I just wanted to welcome you welcome you with that And now we have to thank a few folks who are here in the room today. We have with us our city manager Cheryl Scully Our police chief William McManus is here our city clerk Leticia Bassack a proud district 8 resident right there and Then we also wanted to thank all of the other representatives of different city departments You have any questions about any of your city services. They're here to help So let's just thank them for being here for being a part of this event This event was sponsored by a few partners here in district 8. So we need to thank USA a IBC Bank the Asian Chamber of Commerce and the Alamo area Chamber of Commerce. So let's give them a round of applause and Last but not least. I wanted to thank in case you all didn't know this is also being Webcast so that we can expand it to a greater access You know more people hopefully will be able to see this conversation that we're having here So we wanted to thank now cast SA for webcasting this out and for all the work that they do in San Antonio and Now I would like to welcome to the stage Bo Gilbert who is going to introduce our one of our speakers for today. So let's welcome into the stage Good afternoon and welcome. First of all, I'd like to thank Councilman Nirenberg. This is a great idea allowing you all to come here to express Your thoughts your questions and for him to not only hear from you But also to share his vision for the district So I think this is a wonderful idea and I appreciate the councilman for doing this. Thank you councilman. I Have the pleasure of introducing Cheryl Scully Cheryl Scully has been Serving the city manager of San Antonio since November of 2005 when she came to San Antonio bringing with her more than 30 years of Public management experience as city manager She is a chief executive officer of the municipal corporation of 11,300 employees an annual operating capital budget of 2.3 billion and a city population of 1.3 million residents San Antonio is actually the seventh largest city in the United States She has successfully balanced a city budget including lowering city property taxes Increasing financial reserves while substantially reducing waste at the same time. She increased police fire and emergency responders services under her financial leadership in 2008 the city's general obligation bond Rating was upgraded by standard and pours to a triple a a first for the city of San Antonio And if that wasn't enough since 2010 she has enabled the city to achieve a triple a rating from all three triple agencies and As an example, this is the only with I'm sorry one of the ten largest cities in the United States She is the only city to have a triple a rating from all three rating agencies. Thank you a Little bit about her experience prior to coming to San Antonio She spent 16 years in the city of Phoenix as an assistant manager assistant city manager and prior to that She was in Kalamazoo, Michigan where she was city manager for 15 years In addition to working for the city. She's also one who dedicates her time to charitable organizations She has participated in volunteer and city management organizations She served on the San Antonio United Way board and in fact, she was also the chair of the 2013 United Way She Served on a greater Phoenix Economic Council Board of Directors and the executive committee for ten years And is the life-trustee of the Her Museum and if that's not enough She has also led fundraising efforts for the education of single mothers Victims of domestic violence and research for autism When she's not serving the city as city manager She's also adjunct professor with the LBJ school for public affairs at the University of Texas in Austin She has taught graduate graduate studies and urban studies as well as mentoring our future leaders Our city manager earned a bachelor degree from Ball State University in a master of public administration from Western Michigan University She's also completed the program for senior executives in state and local government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Please join me in welcoming our incredible city manager Cheryl Scully Good afternoon It is great to be with you out here in district 8 and isn't this a fabulous facility Funded through our bond program my gosh, and so all of you we all voted for this great Project to be able to add these more than 300 acres to our park system and have this wonderful Glorious day to enjoy the park, but this ecology center is just phenomenal and I'm glad that there are so many people here this afternoon. I want to thank Councilman Niren Burke for inviting me to come out here I'll tell you he asked me to speak about city growth innovation Finance some of our bond projects all in a few minutes So I will be brief because I know you want to get to your table discussions And as was said we have a quite a few city staff here today that will help us if you have a question About a city point or issue in fact I'd like to ask all of our city staff our department directors and other staff who are here today to stand or wave We have some officers over here to my left that are also here. Please recognize them for being here this afternoon Public safety our planning development services department solid waste Capital construction Construction code enforcement a number of those key services are represented here this this afternoon So if you have some questions, we're happy to help you out Well, first let's just talk for a moment about the growth in the city because I know that is an issue for district 8 And it's very important to the council member as well We are now one of if not the fastest growing city in the country and with that comes a lot of challenges Increasing population more people to serve more calls for service and the need to do more in terms of our streets our parks Our libraries our health and human services public safety And so to address that we have to constantly be innovative But let's just look at what just some of the numbers as we're beginning this conversation this afternoon About dealing with some of the challenges of growth the 2010 census found 1.35 million Determined that within the city limits, and of course, we know there's 1.7 million in Bear County So we represent the majority the city has been growing by an estimated amount of 25,000 per year and a current population of already since that 2010 census of 1,425,000 Bear County is growing by 40,000 people per year So by 2024 or in 10 years from now the city's population is estimated to be 1.7 million people and our metropolitan planning organization Estimates that if the recent growth rates continue the city's population will surpass 2.4 million by 2040 so over 2 million people Job rates are commensurate with that population growth are expected So we know that that will present additional challenges to us as well with regard to our environment to Transportation to water, and I know the council member will talk about that a little bit later So lots of lots of issues so as a city organization and my Responsibility is to assemble a talented team that can deliver those services and bring best value to the dollar that you Pay for those services through your sales tax through your city property tax Through the rates that you pay for CPS energy since we own the energy company And they pay to the city a payment in lieu of taxes and a return on the shareholders Ownership and we as residents of the community are those shareholders And so the payment they make to the city is in response what they would be paying if they were a private company as is The case in most other cities so we use those revenues to bring you the best value And we try to do that constantly and we're always looking for ways that we can do it better over the past eight years We've actually reduced expense by more than 88 million We found new better creative ways to deliver different types of services using technology Streamlining up operations eliminating duplication Automating in some cases so we're constantly looking at ways and we have an innovations group That every year is studying different business operations of the city to determine how we can straighten those pipes that get kinks in them along The way because we add additional rules or requirements in the process not realizing that all of those compounded over time Create more bureaucracy and make it more difficult to deliver that service or make it more complicated for you to obtain the service as well So every year we're looking at different aspects of the organization and then going back through it again to see how can We reset do it a little bit better each and every year We're required by state law to maintain a balanced budget our budget is balanced today It's balanced when it's adopted by the council and we follow our city finances very carefully throughout the year I meet with our chief financial officer many of our department heads my budget director at least monthly I think they would probably tell you I meet with them weekly Which is often the case to keep track of our income and expense to make sure that we're properly Following the trends of our revenues as well as how we're managing our expenses to make sure that departments are staying within their budget And then adjusting our activities along the way to make sure that we are So when we hear about a triple-a bond rating and some of you may be thinking so what's the big deal about that? well Right now I want you to know that as the financial markets have more and more pressure and it gets more and more difficult to achieve a Triple-a bond rating. We are now at the top ten largest cities in the country, New York, Chicago, LA Houston Philadelphia Phoenix Among those top ten cities We're the only city to even have a triple-a rating and what that means is that it's a ten-point scale And we have the highest rating so we're able to achieve the lowest interest rates when we borrow money to pay for our capital improvements and When we as voters vote on that capital improvement program with all of those projects We then issue debt each year to pay for those and service that debt with our current city property tax rate Well, when we have of course a low interest rate, it's just like the mortgage on your home when you're paying less Then you have more disposable income So we try to keep those interest rates as very low as possible And let me just share a couple of numbers with you that we shared with the council this week If we were downgraded From a triple-a just two notches to a double-a minus a drop of three levels We would save it would cost us more than 38 to 44 million more just based on our current debt today So as councilman Nirenberg said gosh, that's the entire houseman road project some of you know that The drainage and road improvements in total cost 43 million dollars in our our bond program from 1604 all the way to I-10 our houseman road so we have in the bond program 43 million That wouldn't be able to be there because we'd be paying interest I just use it to give you a relative example of what that means to have a high bond rating So that you pay less interest pay less in interest costs So for the community what it means to us is making sure as managers and stewards of your public monies is To do the very best that we can to bring the best value to properly manage the finances and to present to our elected officials alternatives and options on how to go about Undertaking important projects now some of you know Because I see many of you in the audience who served on and attended many of our bond meetings with the citizen groups to develop The projects that were considered in the 07 bond program this park being one of them and then the 2012 bond program so in total From the total city perspective most of the money in our bond programs Is going for streets and drainage projects the most important things in terms of our infrastructure 337 million in street projects throughout the city 128 million in drainage projects and then we have another little over a 100 million in parks and libraries and we also have some public safety improvements three projects So the majority of our funding in terms of our bond programs going into streets and drainage Let me just get to mention a couple that are included for the 2012 bond program That are in district 8 UTS a boulevard. It's a 16 million dollar project And we're able to leverage some metropolitan planning organization money that flows to this region from the state Leverage our dollars to get more dollars through the MPO So this project will reconstruct the roadway from Babcock to Edward E. Menace And it expands from two lanes to four lanes and it will be completed in the summer of 2016 Hausman Road, we all are familiar with that We've team teamed up and asked the county to partner with us on that project because they were going to replace three bridges Just west of I-10 as part of their responsibilities So with their 18 million coupled with our 43 million. That's a total project of 61 million. That is a tough project and It'll be painful during construction But when it's completed it will construct Hausman from I-10 all the way to loop 1604 This will also help UTS a Albert's here this afternoon from UTS a you'll recall in the o7 bond project We partnered with UTS a on some of the sport facilities there to help the university and also make them Available for the community so Hausman will be the four lane roadway and it will also have a hike and bike trail bike lanes and Address the drainage issues along that corridor as well the project will be completed December of 2015 Now we are I've challenged our construction group and Rossi's here this afternoon from Transportation and capital improvements to keep two-way traffic maintained at all times so We're trying something new in the last couple of years where we are requiring our contractors to work six days a week Sun up till sundown if you drive by a project and you don't see a contractor out there working You give this guy a call I Do that, too I go through our construction projects often and I think we all don't mind if there's a lot of Construction and disruption as long as we see people working. It's when nobody's out there that we're like what the heck You know we're what's going on. This is an inconvenience for everyone. It's disruptive to business So we're trying to get our contractors into a mode where they're working constantly whenever they have The weather to do it which is most of the time until this winter We've had a little trouble this year and then with respect to fire station improvements. This area has had so much growth You know that we've had a number of successful projects our fire station 51 that's located on Beckwith Boulevard and that was a replace a replacement and when we build the new ones We try to build them larger than what we need today so that we can grow into them because our stations need to last 30 to 40 Some of our stations are 50 years old. So they have to last for a long time Station 37 located on Vance Jackson renovated as well completed a couple years ago Also station 34 that was renovated and completed a few years ago station 32 Then that project is slated for completion in 2016 and So we're constantly looking at and as you can see we have 51 fire stations throughout the community So we have to work to maintain those and ensure that they're properly sized for today's equipment and some of our older stations We actually park the equipment outside because today's modern Equipment doesn't fit in our old historic stations, which are great buildings But not servicing what we need for today. So as you can see there's so much going on within the city and We have many many challenges But we're here to work with our elected officials to ensure that we're executing on the policies that they adopt to help them with the options and alternatives that they can think through with you and With your input on how we best service the district and the entire city And so some of what you'll hear about in the upcoming months We're tackling a big policy issue right now with regard to legacy costs for both our Civilian as well as our uniform personnel. We're a big organization. We employ almost 12,000 people About 4,000 uniforms 7500 Civilian employees were a 2.3 billion dollar very diverse municipal corporation And so we have huge responsibilities as well as liabilities and we're constantly looking at ways that we can do things better and Our conversation about legacy and health care is not about taking anything away from Anyone who has accrued those benefits today. So anything that's accrued. We're not talking about removing that We're talking about how do we manage those costs in the future? And I know that the councilman has told me He's going to talk about that a little bit more later So as you as you hear about this and this does not affect in any way any line of duty in injuries So if someone is injured in providing their job, we're not talking about taking away any of that Benefit but rather general health care for individuals and families and going forward And what's the proper mix and how do we share in that expense? So you'll be hearing a lot more about that, but we're doing that with sensitivity. We highly respect We highly regard our public safety personnel. They put their lives on the line every each and every day We're grateful for their service and we appreciate all that they do and I've been in this business a long time and have worked side-by-side with public safety personnel for as you heard more than three decades and so I Understand what it means to have public safety that are dedicated to that service. I Attend their most joyous day when they graduate from the academies and are there with them But I also go to the hospital with the chief when someone's injured in the line of duty and have to meet with the families When heaven forbid someone is killed in the line of duty. Those are tough things to do So I know firsthand how difficult their jobs are we also together need to work on how do we provide something that is reasonable Comparable not out of line and also affordable and sustainable for us for the long term And that's the challenge and sometimes that's in conflict And yet we can work together to come up with a solution that makes sense for San Antonio So that's what we're trying to do. Well, I appreciate Councilman You're allowing me to be here this afternoon for inviting me and also to see a lot of Friendly faces that we've worked together on a number of projects over the years and in the past I'll look forward to hearing some of the conversation yet this afternoon Thank you for your attention and thank you for your participation today Let's give another round of applause for our wonderful city manager Cheryl Scullard Welcome again to our state of the district event You know district 8 residents always Surprised me. I was a little bit worried that we were gonna have you know empty chairs around the room and Here you are again We're on a Saturday night in the afternoon during the rodeo and we have over a hundred people here to talk about municipal government, so Thank y'all so much for coming out Now we are going to get the table discussion started But I wanted to go over a few things first You have Hello, you have sticky notes at your table and what those are for is to address individual concerns that you may have because we're Gonna try to keep the table conversations More district, you know focused on the whole district and so if you have concerns After we do the round table will break for a little bit and you can post all of your concerns right up there And so at your table you should have one table leader and one scribe And if you don't you can figure that out amongst yourselves right now in just a point one and what they're to do is to Guide the discussion Based on the prompts and questions that are written on the table and then the scribe is gonna write everything down So after the discussion Each topic is discussed by two tables and so we're gonna have Corresponding table leaders meet and you are gonna decide who's gonna report out to the group and you're gonna outline your priorities on the easel between your table and then we are gonna have a reporting out period To where we really outline our priorities as a district And then after that the councilman is going to give his address and at the end of the event or after the event we are Meeting at if you want to we're meeting at free-tail brewery around 645 and so That being said let's get the table discussion started some tables already have appointed table eaters and some might not and we will have staff roaming around if you have any questions and The city staff is also here to act as a resource in case you have any specific questions about public safety our infrastructure or anything else So thank y'all so much Okay, we are going to start the reporting out period at this time So everybody should have already picked someone who is going to speak just give us a quick rundown quick being the operative word of Just sort of very briefly the broad stroke priorities that your group came up with I think we've had some great discussions here today and just know and This is important Just know that none of this is going to be lost So any notes that you have any stickies that you write anything that's on these boards. We are going to save we're going to compile Nothing's lost. So if you have anything else that you want to contribute to the discussion You know feel free to do so Okay, so we are going to go ahead and start Right over here with the Quality quality of life group and if I don't move then it's okay. All right, so We are going to have reporting out here from dr. Yvonne cats Thank you have to go really fast. So listen up Libraries yes electronic access access to digitize all Documents that are in the library that would be for research and database purposes We need increased access to our libraries more scheduled events including children. We need to protect the books You know what age group that is from and we want to embrace Info science that is providing research, etc Greenway space. Yes affordable way to keep people healthy Find more sources for funding and you might we might have to look at going through the legislature to get some laws current laws changed or to Ask for some new laws park safety. Yes more people using cell phones to take pictures of those who are doing bad things so we would help the police out by taking those pictures and Helping them that way lighting improvements are needed. That was throughout all of our park discussion There could be a volunteer cadre of people to help keep park safe to go through with some type of a little identification Outfits on better communication for safety out to the community Through computers the internet TV PSA's etc Use digital safety solutions like a cell phone app That some young person in this room could develop before we leave here today To use on the cell phones as we're out in our parks Install emergency call phones out in all of our parks better security for parks that are open late at night Especially for the joggers and put those park more park police on bikes Wi-Fi. Yes Library beautification. Yes, but do zero scaping so that we don't have to water so much cut Do curbing and all of that and digital library? Yes But let the county build the digital libraries like they have on Pleasanton Road And we the city would continue to improve our current libraries. That's at the end excellent excellent and That was excellently swift from the Quality of life folks now we are going to have the smooth stylings of infrastructure. Oh And it's smooth. That's for sure Okay, so some of the things we talked about in infrastructure. How do you feel about managed lanes? Well, that's a it's a pretty fancy word for toll So our question on or our thoughts on managed lanes were Who controls it? How do we manage it? How can we keep those funds local? Whatever funds are generated if they're paid locally? Why can't we keep them locally? Okay, so that was one of the things that that we talked about there Next question thoroughfares having the most traffic congestion. What can we do about it? Worshbock Parkway we understand that Ron Nuremberg was able to get a study going on the Worshbock Parkway at the end right there So we really appreciate that that's going to give us a lot of good information even a road maintenance on even a road the Intersections along Decivala Pru houseman Those roads are are definitely a question mark and they can be difficult at times One suggestion that came up in here also was in regards to how can the city annex things sooner? So that you can control development and make sure that we're in front of traffic instead of behind traffic So that was an idea that came out Broadband everybody kind of looked at each other on this one. It said how the CPS have broadband well our question on it was We need more information But then the second question was does the city even use this broadband if it's just sitting there is the city buying services from AT&T or or time Warner or something like that when they've got their own broadband network So that's that's really the question that we had there Bridges and overpasses We really couldn't think of any that were of concern to us Existing bicycle lanes some are good some are bad. I think that's the best way you can put it One idea was how to control parking in bicycle lanes since there's no rules or regulations on vehicles parking in those bike lanes CPS and sauce we're going to go ahead and come How about it? Okay, we're going to go ahead How about if I stand right here? No Okay, how I will combine those two together to wrap this thing up All right CPS and sauce we thought overall service quality. We thought that they were good organizations There's some question about over staffing obviously the that was get a lot a lot of bad press about bonuses That was also a question that that came up. So we wanted to We wanted to have a little more transparency a little more understanding of what those things entailed how they developed those bonuses and a little more in the way of I guess you could say Customer input on those I think would be really good. So some more transparency. We'd like to also see saws Improve some of their customer outreach You know CPS has got a great website saws not so great You know, so I think those were some things that we talked about there. So that's a district 8 infrastructure Okay, now we are going to move right over here To our and again, you got to be a little bit smooth with this so public safety On public safety our first question was what metric should we use to measure? PD for We're good. We like the ones that we have it currently. We also thought that providing a percentage of a rest result conviction would be good to have as a metric as well as rate of recidivism and Lastly the civilian complaints again Unfounded or correct SA fire department Good good what we have and we added to measure Measuring safe behavior and recognizing the officers for safe behavior What do we think about? body cameras on Protects both the officers and the civilians. We like it Park safety Came up. We came up with maybe something like bells in the park So if you're in trouble, you can make it or some kind of a noisemaker as another idea Signs to remind joggers and people to Leave one earbud out and to remember to take their cell phone with them Increase bike police as they said And then some a mapping app through Google Maps so that you could have a map of the park while you're jogging or walking Panhandling what should the city do to address? Take them to Haven for Hope We've all all said that in Santa Monica, they have a voucher program that John told us about and You can roll your window down and give them a voucher which just they can only buy food and restaurant grocery Bus and bus and no alcohol or cigarettes or anything And then we also said that perhaps the person handing money to the panhandlers should get a ticket So that we're not enabling the panhandling and lastly what can the city do to prevent property crime? required developers to put more lights in the new subdivisions and perhaps the city to help with more lighting and Build up our Citizens on patrol incentivize neighborhoods to to build up that program and last If the city could provide cameras And and help with the security some neighborhoods pay for their own security Other neighborhoods may not be able to afford that and that would result in less police calls having to go out for crime That's public safety district 8 We do apologize about the mic situation, but of course we hope that it works when it's steadily right over there So now we're going to move on to the growth group growth and development, which I think we're all very interested in So I'm gonna hand this off Thank you Growth and development and district 8 we were posed with several topics The first of which was with regard to the aquifer protection solutions. We should explore We came up with better enforcement of those laws that are already in place In addition to stronger laws with regard to green space We also want Maybe that the city can Suggest user-friendly methods for development for example the lattice concrete parking so that the water does run off Public awareness campaign link the camp bullets mission to responsible growth and recharge zone and beyond so partner with the military because they've done a really good job already so the public awareness campaign to get the word out and Contributing zone regulations Moving on to Sorry our next topic is how can we improve code enforcement We came up with one primary suggestion of expanded hours Code enforcement works Monday through Friday 8 to 5 and a lot of times that code enforcement is needed to see the infraction on Possibly weekends or once the person who's causing that code enforcement in fractured infraction So maybe flex hours or weekend coverage and Moving on our third topic is is there a problem with high frequency rental in your neighborhood? I'm sorry. I'm going to move on because that's on the next page What what topic should we consider in the zoning process? Decisions should be based on quality of life Not only for the developer who's asking to be rezoned But also for the neighbors We should we are suggesting that they Look to expand the notification radius because it's really quite tight as it is and the neighbors are affected to a greater area And we're suggesting that the public be heard over the developers Okay, now I'm going to come back to is there a problem with high frequency rental in your neighborhood What we've learned sitting at our table one of our Participants was aware of a website called air B&B and It is a website that people can go online and find a room in a private residence to rent for a night So air B&B is out there folks and it's starting to happen single family homes in our communities are Investment properties and they're renting these to college students. So you've got a three-bedroom house Two people can be in each of those bedrooms. So you've got six college students that translates into six vehicles parked At that property as well as odd hours in and out all the time So we don't have any solutions for this, but we know that these things are happening Check out air B&B. We brought it up while we were sitting at the table. It's very interesting and Lastly should we explore incentivizing the use of existing vacant buildings? The short answer is yes Definitely Let's in court. Let's encourage more diverse types of business and jobs For example, let's bring in some highly skilled jobs Not only service industry, but if the land has a building on it, let's try to get it on Let's try and get it occupied rather than building something new Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And lastly, we are going to have our group who is dealing with the city budget I'm reporting for our table, which is table nine and then we also have table ten But I'm only recording on table nine we We discussed several subjects and we start out with the nod meeting that there's going to be a shortage the budget shortage is going to be in 2020 and So we came up with some ideas with about retirement programs and and and salaries and discuss things like Teacher salaries being so low and compared to a these pretend policemen or something and their salaries are so high and Like military salaries that have their retirement and they get discounts so then we moved along to water supplies and we're worried about the growth of the city and So we started going after that to the downtown area and how the downtown area has taken old buildings and putting them in and making it into a more savvy area and hopefully that will draw new people because we need to draw people from The college graduates just keep them here in San Antonio and have places like rack space who Is now bringing more people here and we have outstanding people graduating from Trinity University in places like that But they leave San Antonio. So we need to have that Drawing these people here to San Antonio then we got into needing that we needed more information on the budget and the percentage of what goes to where and the bond property We need bond projects. We didn't have enough information to really discuss that and We just got started talking about plastic bags and we did come up with an idea that we think there should be a commuter No, well a band Yeah, at the grocery store if you bring your own totes you get to go through a more fast service through there and so we would like that project to be looked at and Anyway, we ran out of time. We had a lot to discuss and we'll give you number 10 here For table number 10 we were talking about the city budget and the items that we keyed on which we feel are the most important items or first of all drainage and roads Talking about getting you know insufficient funds for example Prue Road and Lockheed Selma and Improving the roads in the medical center. There's a plan for Touching some of the roads with with Resurfacing and then there's a plan to redo some of these roads and the difference. I believe for retouching them was somewhere around 250,000 Maybe 500,000 per mile and Just from memory like 2.4 million per mile to redo them but we need to maybe wait a little longer and Redo more of the roads so that we have improved infrastructure One of the items that we looked at and that we would consider as far as the budget goes is in the future Preparing for council and mayor pay increases so that we can Match the rest of the country All the other cities that are already doing that in Texas Accessible public transportation right now too many of these lines are inconvenient and so people aren't using them and We're losing revenue possible revenue public pension program Minimum age and means testing and this was about someone hiring on at a late age and then being qualified for retirement and The the discussion was that perhaps that should be looked at a little more and maybe a little more commensurate with the time in service and and age Public libraries another area. There's some talk about Cutting funds for the libraries and this is an area that Several of us felt was very important to keep we have new libraries. We have nice facilities We need to keep them open perhaps longer hours, and we need to make sure that we're buddied budgeted for that Text dot maintenance reforms. There's some conversation about text dot turning over a lot of the Carrying maintenance for the roads to the city and we feel that that's not something that you know, we should Have to be responsible for since it's not just people in the city that are driving on these roads This is something that the state really needs to maintain and stay on top of thank you Thank you Okay, so that was a fantastic discussion again if you have any other notes that you wanted to share We have several district 8 staff members here if you're on district 8 staff raise your hand So if you want to share just bring that to anybody around the room And we will make sure that that is all compiled and they're reporting out for this session now We are going to begin We're going to begin the second portion of this which I'm sure everybody is very excited about so without much further ado I would like to Introduce mr. Eddie Alvarete from IBC Bank Well, thank you. Just wanted to say thank you for for being here today. It's a it's an important process and We're proud to be sponsors of today's event because this is Critical to the success of a community when people come together and express their issues and their concerns When I think of Ron Nuremberg, I think of three things leadership vision and dedication Leadership because leadership isn't defined by what you say, but by what you do And he has been showing that since the day that he took office He's shown that he's not afraid to roll up his sleeves and to tackle issues Not just the issues that you've been talking about streets and drainage and truck crime and traffic and transportation and infrastructure But the other issues too the ones that are tough the ones that are complex and Even the ones that are controversial And I think that's the sign of a true leader Vision because he's not just focused on today He is looking at economic development And he's a champion of job creation and what do we need to do to bring? Companies here that was just talked about good companies bringing high-paying jobs to this community to provide those Opportunity, but he's also looking at the long haul What does it mean that the two words that I've heard in the past hour here our growth and sustainability? So he's asking the tough questions About our electric grid about our 50-year water supply and how do we help maintain? the growth and sustainability over the long haul for this community He's asking not just why but why not and how and Where and when? Those are the types of questions that need to be asked on the city council Dedication because he's here today on a Saturday afternoon with all of you Giving of his personal time to do what it takes to get the job done This is a critical process It's an important process just like we had during essay 2020 Going around the community when the consultant said don't expect more than a thousand people and about 5,000 people across the city came out I'm reminded of a quote from place That says get involved in the governmental process or you shall be governed by those who do By being here today You are choosing to be masters of your own destiny and you're doing that under the leadership of councilman Nuremberg The one thing that I admire most about him is he listens more than he talks and That's what his job is here today He's here to hear what you think What you believe What you're worried about what keeps you up at night? What you're excited about what you think we should be doing more of what you think we should be doing less of Because the one thing Ron Nuremberg knows is that as a community we can't move forward unless we move together That's why I'm proud and honored to introduce to you our city councilman Ron Nuremberg. Wow. Thank you, Eddie Hopefully this will stay on when I'm talking. I also want to thank Eddie He's been a pillar in this community for a long long time It's real privileged to be introduced by him. I want to thank USAA of course Bo Gilbert and And also IBC Bank for sponsoring the event in our chambers as well It's a real privilege to be here in front of you Especially on a Saturday night I think Noah is actually trying to crack a joke there at the beginning when he said it's a rodeo day You're here Saturday evening. You could be doing other things yet. You're here talking about municipal government. So Really appreciate that so it is an honor to be here with you as your councilman and to tell you that district 8 is and will continue to be a Place where proud to call home a place where no matter your age your profession your politics or your religion You will find families and businesses like yours finding quality safety and prosperity on every measure from demographics to socio-economics District 8 is a microcosm of the city A place as diverse as can be found in Texas according to last census We are 43% Hispanic 42% Anglo 6% African-American 7% Asian We have areas of majority upper income and areas of majority lower income and all strata in between We have a place of worship for every religion practiced in San Antonio And we are growing twice as fast as the rest of the city nearly 34% since the last census In district 8 we have an opportunity to demonstrate that communities can come together Despite their challenges and differences. We can demonstrate that local government still works for everyone That as a community we thrive because of our diversity not in spite of it So this evening I want to thank you for joining your neighbors sharing your priorities and helping us set an agenda for 2014 Now we will need your help to make it happen Today I want to share with you how local government is working for you and how you can get involved But first I'd like to acknowledge my two toughest constituents my son Jonah and my wife Erica. I love you both It's a personal challenge for me to inspire the same passion and respect for public service in my son Jonah And though he doesn't quite understand the details of what we do He always aptly measures the success of my day by asking did you make our world better? In the last six months our team has been working around the clock to meet the standard set by past leaders of district 8 So I want to say thank you to my friend and former councilwoman Bonnie Connor for being here We've been doing the vital work of managing community issues when you have a pothole on your street a stray dog in your neighborhood Or graffiti on your property your city government is here to help My district office has a goal with no exceptions Return every call respond to every email and letter and treat every neighbor like your own And in district 8 every voice will be heard and every issue will be addressed The challenges we face in district art District 8 are not ours to face alone So my first responsibility as your councilman is to establish a capable and energetic team to respond to the specific and Varied needs of our community and I'm pleased to report that we've done just that So Alice Jackie TJ Eloi Kota hard joke Chris and Noah, please stand up and be recognized On behalf of my neighbors in this district I want to thank you for your service and these guys are working every day every weekday and every weekend to keep district 8 a great place to live in the work They are problem solvers and they were working tirelessly for you and together We're making we're working to make district 8 in our office more accessible present and relevant in our community Since the summer we've hosted a family picnic at body Connor Park the back-to-school event at Brandeis High School in a Holiday Party at the firefighters union hall we collected canned goods for the food bank during Thanksgiving And we donated toys to Elf Louise and we participated in charitable events to help bring disaster relief to the Philippines This summer we created the district 8 community Academy whose mission is proactive Constituent services if you can't come to our office our office will come to you We organize bought volunteer block walks to let neighbors know about the issues that we're addressing in the city And we're gathering teams for on-call graffiti abatement We're adding to our district 8 bandit sign brigade to remove the nuisance signs that bring down the appearance of our neighborhoods Through the district a cat district 8 community Academy my office listens Identifies challenges and solves issues together Today you've taken time to help organize priorities for our community And I hope soon you will take time to attend one of our monthly d8 dialogue town hall events or join me Join us on one of our citizen advisory councils that examine and advise my office on issues like energy policy job creation neighborhood safety and many others Boosting participation throughout the district however cannot happen without a corresponding commitment to increasing transparency So my office is leveraging technology to bring government closer to you through every media from public access To social media, and I'm excited to tell you that we're leading a charge with city staff to broadcast the Wednesday City Council B sessions for local government junkies Like Marianne For interested citizens or those who just want to see more of salon comm 7 sexiest man You're welcome Every resident should have access and input on how we balance growth while maintaining quality of light that we want and expect And as you know in district 8 that growth is rapidly unfolding This district is home to three fortune 500 companies a University in pursuit of tier one status the hub of our region's health care industry and world-class shopping districts like the Lackant area in the room We are an epicenter for economic development development in the city and as your councilman I will push strategies that drive job creation Including Conservative but effective use of incentives to bring businesses and retain existing ones here in our community Return on investment is what matters and that's why I'll push an agenda that prioritizes job training and workforce development small business opportunities and business incubators like that can be found here in the district and Biotech and medical research Job creation and workforce development is absolutely vital for our future here and throughout the city The challenge of growth is that often it is occurring faster than infrastructure can keep pace Balance comes at a higher and higher premium I've pushed for an approach in zoning planning and economic development that is pro growth But protects cost of living and quality of life This means making the right investments in infrastructure and working with businesses and residents to anticipate and to mitigate the impacts of new development balance achieves the outcomes our community needs and New jobs broad economic impact quality neighborhoods and respect for our natural resources This pertains to industrial commercial single-family and multi-family projects And it means we will work with businesses to achieve quality development Observing of the fact that private property carries inherent rights for the owner and Obligations to be a good neighbor in the community In every case we'll work with stakeholders to mitigate impacts including aesthetic safety environment and traffic and so far we've done exactly that on The top of everyone's list of growth issues to address in the city, however, and certainly here in district 8 is traffic If you spend any time on worst-bock days of all uprew housemen or most any other road that goes east-west in district 8 You know that traffic is a strike against us on this side of town Two years ago. I sought this office in part because I wanted to do something about our growing traffic problem and today I am Recently I was appointed to the Metropolitan Planning Organization where we work with officials in surrounding counties the city and the regional mobility Authority John Clamp is here and text out to secure federal and state funding for improving traffic across our region Just last month transportation officials joined together to announce investments in local road infrastructure that total 825 million dollars as A result we will be conducting a thorough study of the worst-bock corridor Which will soon take freeway traffic right into the heart of residential congestion around the medical center? I hope that solutions presented that in this study can be applied to other problem areas throughout our district hot spots Like crew road de Zavala Hebner in Babcock We will be constructing managed lanes on I-10 between 1604 and Ralph Fair Road these new lanes Will provide guaranteed Uncongested priority travel for mass transit and emergency vehicles Provide a revenue source for construction and maintenance and consumer choice for private commuters We were revising the infrastructure maintenance program to identify streets that have been mired and disrepair far too long And I'm collaborating with colleagues in neighboring districts to help improve intersections and traffic flow on streets that we share And I'm working with engineers at the city and in private practice to identify creative solutions to the most vexing Residential bottlenecks that slow down your commute to work The unfortunate reality, however, is that it will take bond size multi-million dollar projects to truly make significant progress for many of our district roadways and over the coming years as we look toward the next bond program for the city in 2017 I am asking you to help identify our region's most critical infrastructure needs that process needs to start today This will take collaboration among you in this room to help prioritize limited resources on seemingly unlimited infrastructure need throughout our district When we work together to set priorities it allows us to focus our efforts and resources to make effective long-lasting improvements rather than spreading resources too thin and ending up with a lot of change But not a lot of improvement A good model of how we think how we've done things right and differently than in the past is right here in district 8 The marquee project in the 2012 bond project is the roadway and drainage improvement on houseman road at a total cost of $62 million the houseman road project is a single largest voter approved roadway Improvement in city history. I want to thank my predecessor former councilman Reed Williams for demonstrating leadership on this and for being My guest at the groundbreaking in December Despite the enormity of the project houseman will be complete on a much shorter timeline than conventional construction And it will include roadway expansion dedicated turn lanes hiking bike trails and new utility and drainage infrastructure But with this one massive project We are making significant progress to address east-west connectivity throughout our district and if we do things right We can celebrate more groundbreaking is just like this one in the coming years It's important to note. However, that houseman road would never have gotten done without the approval of voters And were it not for the success of the city's financial management? We recently learned that not only is San Antonio the only big city in the country with a triple a rating from all three credit agent Rating agencies. It is the only top-ten city with a triple a rating from any agency This is not merely window dressing for our city For instance as a city manager said a two-notch decline in rating for San Antonio Would have increased borrowing costs by the same amount as the entire road construction of housemen We're not for San Antonio strong financial position a road like housemen would be remaining undone for years No bike lanes no bridges not one square inch of asphalt on one of the most congested roadways in the city However, this year we learned that new criteria by rating agencies have put San Antonio on notice And we must respond that is why in the coming year. I will be advocating for an increase in saving to reserve funds This is a starting place and with ever-stretched revenues It will likely mean additional tough choices during our budget talks this summer On my fifth day on this job Council met was council met and was told that San Antonio faced a thirty five million dollar shortfall in fiscal year 2014 we made some tough choices and we delayed others and we will face similar challenges in 2015 and though one-time fee increases and efficiency measures help ease the pain of poor service cuts They don't stop the bleeding of an overall structural budget deficit We must address the fact that despite cuts and services over the past several years Growth in revenues is not keeping pace with growth of expenses And as a community we must engage the difficult conversation of which core services We are willing to live without and which taxes and fees we are willing to pay One thing I learned in the fiscal year 14 budget process was the importance of performing how we fund social service agencies We currently have a pool of twenty two million dollars in the Department of Human Services that goes to roughly 60 delegate agencies Performing a host of services from homelessness prevention and transformation to age prevention Rather than offer a strategic direction for the city the current system encourages agencies to lobby council for funding It's demeaning to the agencies themselves and often results in duplication of services paid for by taxpayers in Response we are pursuing improvements to an anti lobbying policy that can add procedural integrity and efficiency to the process We are well on our way to achieving those goals and in addition I believe that we can examine how city-owned property properties are leased to third-party businesses and organizations There are good reasons to provide below market rate leases to quality organizations Especially those that provide important services to the public However, so-called dollar leases are revenue loss for the city at a time when residents are being asked to pay more for less And we should continue we should consider adjusting those dollar leases so that good organizations still save money for delivering good services But they are also paying a fair rent Fairness is an important concept and this will drive one of the most important conversations for the future of San Antonio's budget How to fund and deliver public safety in our community in the years to come Every year city manager Cheryl scholar prior reports to the council on the city's finances. We prioritize based on that fiscal reality Public safety is the first and most fundamental priority for the city and for most any governmental entity as such It takes up two-thirds of the city's budget in San Antonio Crime is decreased overall including violent crimes in district 8 and fire service has improved response times and flexibilities With additions to serve it with additions to serve northern reaches of district 8 a mobile command unit And specially trained firefighters who can respond quickly to crises including brush fires My office has worked with SAPD to identify hotspots for property crime Which is plague district 8 neighbors neighborhoods for years and we are working with SAPD to stop illegal street racing a dangerous crime That has taken the lives of too many young people here in district 8 I have also pushed for the continued enhancement of our safe department operations that buoy neighborhood quality of life This year we mourn the loss of Lauren bump who was murdered in one of our parks I want to thank the police department for acting quickly and for catching the suspect though This won't bring back Lauren. We will honor her memory by doing everything We can to deliver justice on this case and to work together to keep our park system safe for families to enjoy Our park system is the crown jewel of the city, especially here in district 8 And we cannot allow it to be held hostage by crime or by fear Park safety will be a high priority for my office in the coming year With two premier public safety departments. We must work together to keep them that way But it's time wears on old ways of funding public safety and honoring a commitment to our first responders have challenged the financial Well-being of these departments nationwide We have seen examples where unrealistic expectations and a refusal to work together have led to financial ruin of entire municipalities That won't happen in San Antonio because we won't let it happen in San Antonio So the city has undertaken an effort to address increasing strain on a budget caused by medical costs That are rising two to three times faster than growth of revenues Make no mistake public safety officers deserve to be treated with respect and pay to fair wage with benefits to match They put their lives on the line for us not for the pay or the benefits But because they are San Antonio's who care about their neighbors, too I believe that the first and best way to keep first responders safe is to make sure public safety departments are fully Staffed and fully equipped. We can't do that and meet our other core service obligations in the meantime without fiscal responsibility We must make sure expenditures in any department don't get out of balance with the other important services that make San Antonio livable such as libraries streets and parks as The public safety operations and benefits are collectively bargained again this year. It will be important to note our fiscal reality There is a structural budget deficit caused by rising costs that must be addressed Temperance and realism in those negotiations are vital for everyone In the end, I am confident that despite the temperature in the room. We will get this right as a community I was reminded of that when I saw the thousands of residents lining the streets to pay tribute to fallen officer Fallen police officer Bobby Decker as he was laid to rest early this year He was a 31 year old standout for this city and his heroism left behind young children in a grieving widow Yet our community is safer because of him Officer Deckard sacrifice should be honored by all of us and the four pillars of the department's vision Which Bobby upheld should prevail integrity respect compassion and fairness Our public safety mission is also advanced here in district 8 by one of the city's largest and most important assets the South Texas Medical Center and employs 26,000 workers and hosts more than 5 million patients annually All told the economic impact for San Antonio is some 30 billion dollars annually I want to thank our partners in the Medical Center, especially the San Antonio Medical Foundation Led by Jim Reid who was here earlier in the Medical Center Alliance led by Bill Balthrop I'm working with both of them as to revise the area's strategic plan So that infrastructure investments by the city aligned with the Medical Center real estate and economic development activity totaling in the billions over the next several years Collaboration at this level will help us to realize an enormous opportunity for continued job creation in this sector And while economic development the Medical Center is important ensuring that each employee patient and visitor travel safety is even more important Since this summer, we have directed resources to street sidewalk and site signage improvements We have dropped the speed limit throughout the Medical Center and we bolstered police presence to make sure drivers slow down In December, we broke ground on a six point six million dollar project They will improve Hamilton Wolf and Babcock and the council approved one million dollars for a project to improve the crosswalk and sidewalks at Merton mentor and worst part These projects leverage private funds and represent the quality collaboration that exists between the city and the Medical Center community And that will continue on my watch The Medical Center and Medical Industry centered here in district 8 is advanced further by worthy public and private investments in advanced technology Biosciences cancer therapy regenerative medicine and research The world will take notice of that in December as we as San Antonio host the 2014 world stem cell summit And I want to acknowledge the important efforts of Ann Stevens and Biomed SA who have worked to bring that conference here and raise the profile of medical and biosciences in San Antonio Our community of research and thought leaders in the medical community continues to grow and it is no coincidence that there's a corresponding growth in the corresponding growth of the University of Texas at San Antonio and its pursuit of tier one status already UTSA confers more degrees than any other University in South Texas and Tributes over one billion dollars to the local economy But like growth of the region in general UTSA's growth has been accompanied by some pains Including a changing landscape nearby some of our well-established neighborhoods on the front end My office will continue to work with landowners and builders to ensure new developments are high quality and address the aesthetic safety Traffic and environmental concerns. We all share and on the back end We are working with neighborhoods with SAPD area businesses and students themselves to ensure that the character and quality of life in These areas is maintained We are also meeting with UTSA officials to discuss their master plan for a university of this side size in proximity to Neighborhoods like these we need a student cultural zone around the university that helps provide a place for student friendly activities But also protects against the erosion of family friendly environment and adjacent neighborhoods and business corridors I'm ready to work on this and for the benefit of area residents and for the benefit of current and prospective students Encouraging good growth like this is what will make our city healthy in our economy strong However, we need more a more comprehensive discussion about the basic element of our economy and the one that can either support it support positive growth or hinder it water Recently the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank released a report that cited water scarcity as the biggest threat to the economy in San in Texas Water is and always will be an economic issue for San Antonio Our water supply comes from primarily from the Edwards aquifer a quick a quickly replenished unfiltered underground source of water that is regulated by local state and federal laws Yet with both projections of our region and persistent drought conditions the need to secure new supplies Protect current ones and diversify the system overall has never been greater It is clear that every action that we undertake at the city from building of transportation infrastructure To annexation to a push forward on higher density residential communities has an impact on the availability of water in our future Both for sustaining life and for state sustaining economic well-being This week. I filed a council Consideration request directing city staff to assemble report that compiles all of the policies procedures regulations and standards That impact or are impacted by water supply our ability to provide clean and abundance water for our future generations I look forward to the dialogue that we will have with the entire community on this issue And I'm hopeful that the result will be at this and future councils will be able to act at every level to enhance water Security it is an economic imperative The challenges for water supply and transportation Education job growth and so many others are daunting and in district 8 the challenges are especially acute However, my office is leading a charge to meet the demands of growth in San Antonio to secure the quality of life You've come to expect and help us build a San Antonio that we can be proud of Today, I'm asking you to take part in these conversations beyond this room Be a part of our offer set offices efforts to improve our district Help us push forward the agenda that we've built together The next two years will be turbulent at times controversial, but always moving forward We are working to save the largest bat colony on earth from encroaching development in the health country We are finding ways to prove provide more efficient services to refugees that are brought to this city and into the heart of our district We are working to ensure that the explosive growth in northwest San Antonio and throughout the city brings prosperity and bolsters quality of life We are working hard for you and for your family and while there will be debate you can count on me to always ask three basic questions Is it fair? Is it finance basically responsible and have we done our homework? I? Thank you for the privilege to serve you and represent our many neighbors here in district 8 so now let's get to work


Today I'm going to teach you about the layers of the earth. Our earth is made up of four layers The earth, the crust of the earth, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. I also explain to my students that the volcanoes that take place happens on the crust of the earth. I also explain the difference that we cannot eat crust of the earth like we can eat the crust of the bread. When the children set up the inner core, I show them that this is crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. The inner cores are very very hot substance that is red and that's why the inner core. I have cards to match my layers of the earth. So the children will take the earth card and they'll match it with earth. Then they match the crust. Beneath the crust, we have the mantle. And beneath the mantle, we have the outer core. Beneath the outer core, we have the inner core. So then I'd ask my children, so we start off with the earth. And what is that one? And the child will say the crust. I said, what is that? Mental. What is that one? Outer core and the inner core. Once they know the four layers of the earth, and for the older children that can read, they will now match the words. This one says inner core. That one is outer core. That one is the mantle, the crust of the earth and the earth. So now the children know about the four layers of the earth. We'll just go over it again. Our earth, the crust of the earth. The mantle, the outer core and the inner core. Thank you.