Good morning Raphael. If you would please check your audio and visual for me, that would be great Raphael when you have a moment if you would please check your there we go. Thank you Good morning Laptops being a little fussy, but Good morning. Why? And I believe I mentioned member Fleming won't be able to join this morning. Oh, I see Yeah and The Gustav Sun is interested in presenting next month Regarding their efforts on workshops that they're getting out there into the community On the general plan update wonderful, but sounds great. We will add that in I Think he's got like either 15 minute or 20 minute presentation Raphael morning How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you Just getting set up and then I'll mute out Okay, so sound check. Okay, photo check. Okay, perfect See you guys in a few minutes. See you in a few minutes. All right Good morning. Here it is. If you would please go ahead and test your audio and visual Good morning guys. Good morning. Hey Raphael. How are you? Morning sir. How are you? good Yeah, great work these past few days. No, I don't know about that is he but I Mean, I think the council did good work, but I had my foot in my mouth a couple times And I wanted to confirm that you received the email with the updated information this morning. I Did I have those updated notes right here? Perfect thing. Hey John. Good morning. Hey, how are you Jack? Good Good, I guess we're waiting on some presenters. Oh, right. No rush Looks like a pretty straightforward meeting We don't have any presentations today. She's gonna that's going to be providing free pop brief updates and so will The members in the DAO and grow a little square Sounds great. Okay, I guess it's now 832 and we have some presenters here So we'll just kind of get started and maybe jump around the agenda a little bit So why don't we call this meeting to order? I've got to read this statement here the downtown subcommittee will be conducting today's meeting in a virtual setting using zoom webinar Committee members and staff are participating from remote locations and or practicing appropriate social distancing Members of the public may view and listen to the meeting as noted on the city's website and as noted on the agenda Members of the public wishing to speak during item three public comment or during our public hearing items We'll be able to do so by utilizing the raise hand feature Or by pressing nine star nine on their phone They then will be given the ability to act to address the committee Okay, madam secretary. Can you take roll? Here member Sawyer here let the record reflect that member Fleming is unable to attend today Thank you Thank you Okay, it doesn't look like we're going to item two announcements and point of order Is this announcements for members of the committee to make or is or we just skipping to item three? We can actually go ahead and skip to item three as there are no announcements for today Okay, John any announcements? No, thanks. Okay Me neither So now move to item three public comments So this is a time when any person may address matters not listed on the agenda But which are within the subject matter of the jurisdiction The public may comment on agenda items when the item is called each speaker is allowed three minutes. Do we have anybody today? Participating in zoom who would like to speak We have no raise hands at this time nor do we have any voicemail or email comments for this meeting Okay, great. Thank you very much So moving on it's we're gonna I think it sounds like skip Historic railroad square association for now until Chris Wilson is able to join us if she's or is she on She is not on yet. So if we can go ahead to the downtown subcommittee, that would be wonderful Great, so we'll move to item 4.2 downtown action organization update from Cadence Hinkle Allison executive director Santa Rosa downtown district Thank you to your Tim. It's good morning member Sawyer. Thanks everyone. Nice to see you Raphael. I Just want to start of course by saying thank you to city staff Everyone just remains really amazing partners as we continue to support our downtown businesses that there feels like there's a little more light at the end of the tunnel now and so We're there's a long way to go but grateful for the support we've gotten to get us to this point and Hopefully just a little bit further and we'll see some of that normalcy. Everyone keeps talking about quick updates for downtown First new businesses last month grill Santa Rosa opened at the Plaza. They're on the B Street side Hopefully some of you have had the chance to check them out And then we are looking forward to Two new restaurants coming to the 500 block of 4th Street and a new Mediterranean restaurant on the 700 block The corner of D and 4th where Gerard's used to be These are all hoping for early summer openings. So fingers crossed there. It'll really create Really add to the vibrant atmosphere downtown to have three new restaurants. So excited for that Next couple items feel a bit like a broken record, but homelessness and crime her mean big problems for our business owners downtown We've got a number of business owners who are dealing with repeat Repeat break-ins and ongoing issues with people vandalizing storefronts and breaking doors and locks and damaging property Sergeant Wolf and his team of course have been great at responding, but we're still facing a lot of huge challenges around that Also recently have had some discussions around Aggressive driving and side shows which are causing concern for business owners and customers They feel like it's creating unsafe circumstances and there's not really any sense of control there This is kind of just come up. What's been an ongoing issue loud vehicles loud vehicles and aggressive driving But it's it seems like it's becoming worse So we'll be probably trying to talk with some city staff to figure out how we can maybe start to address that or alleviate that because it's a number of businesses that are Feeling the impacts of that And then finally our big issue of the day Are the parking incentives in the garages and we've talked about this with Kim and then she knows where the DAO stands I don't think she's able to be on today, but Everyone is very appreciative of the incentives being continued through June 30th, but our businesses are extremely worried about the last two quarters of the year Many have just been kind of hanging on for the last what are we 14 15 months at this point Hoping to get through The end of the year and the holiday season to determine what what their feasibility is for staying downtown And this really kind of is the maker break town And we need to see those parking incentives remain in place through the end of the year. They've been great at encouraging people to come downtown I don't know that it's changed parking behavior, but I think there's some work that could be done around that And I know you all received a memo from the DAO already on this But I'm really hoping we can count on council support to keep these incentives going for another six months. It's it's been a very Beneficial thing for our business owners. They want to see it remain They want to make it as easy as possible for our community to keep coming down and supporting them And so having free after five and free weekends and free first hour Has been a really nice thing for them to share and nice for them to you know, let them know that the city is offering this as Businesses are still trying to recover So a couple updates on our committees Um That are all actively trying to support different aspects of downtown right now Our ad hoc group. I think has has met with a couple of you working toward Supporting the county center moving downtown as well as the eifd So work is ongoing on that Our business development ad hoc committee has been meeting to try and figure out ways to support new businesses as they move downtown As well as recruit new businesses to the area So we're looking forward to creating a sales deck and kind of a process and procedure for Determining which businesses you'd like to see and and trying to engage them In moving downtown The design and improvement committee has been working on a variety of projects and I I think in the next Two weeks or so Let's say month just to be safe We should be planting some new trees downtown. We'll be removing the The dead trees along 4th street replacing them. Hopefully with Ginkgoes and crepe myrtles and then pruning the trees that are Still doing okay. So we should see Quite a bit of an update there Hopefully some added color And a little more dimension from the new tree types as well So we'll be working with business owners to let them know that that's Coming once we have it scheduled The parking committee I already touched on my main concern there, but You know, the parking committee will continue to reach out and be trying to work with council to get Those those incentives extended through the end of the year And then thanks to the community engagement committee. We are bringing back a 2021 version of open and out So we're currently raising funds for it now I'm doing doing pretty well So once we Reach our fundraising goal. This is our our plan is to do the following So we're going to host music three or four days a week That will hopefully include a student music showcase on sundays Which is being coordinated by julie montgomery from kindred. She's done a really great job of reaching out to local schools And music groups to offer opportunities for students to perform on courthouse square And then we'll be hosting live solo or I guess a couple double What those got to be a better word than double musicians duets, maybe clearly i'm not a musician on Throughout downtown as well. So we'll have music thursday friday and saturday We're looking to do movie nights on wednesdays in july. So we'll have those on courthouse square On the four wednesdays in july We've got I think two different already established markets coming in maker style markets with handmade goods and not food just retail We're also hoping to coordinate a wine tasting event And we've opened the square up for fitness classes on the weekend. So I'm going to have a variety of fitness classes. I think we've got yoga dance fencing A number of different things coming in. So hopefully that'll be a fun opportunity for folks to try something new We're also working on a summer vacation Scavenger hunt kind of a version of the egg hunt that we did we're going to partner with bayside church on that again and The 500 block which I've gotten a lot of questions about that that block of business owners has met again And they've decided they'd like to keep the block closed until september So we'd previously talked through that with city staff and now um, their goal is just to keep it closed until the permanent part of the policy goes into place, which I think council is going to be Discussing in the next couple months So it's a little bit longer of an extension, but they're excited to make their block kind of festive and engaging for summer kind of a block party feel there and then Add some fun activities in kind of a safer environment where there's not a mix of pedestrians and vehicles So that will be fun for them as well So that's what we have planned on the summer front Of course, I'm sure someone is going to ask about the asawa fountain So moving forward on that working through some questions we have to get the construction scheduled and Moving forward and then Also still trying to figure out the feasibility of a seasonal ice rink. So appreciate mark's help kind of answering some questions as we dive into the feasibility of Whether or not we can bring that downtown in november I think that is it for me any questions I Don any questions I do have a question I'm curious Candice if where What kind of cadence sorry I just my brain just doesn't work sometimes How much conversation has taken place around either A lack of lighting Let's what I'm talking about are the The break not I'm not sure what kind of activity is going on as far as these regular issues around certain businesses Whether or not the there is a lack of lighting And if there is no lack of lighting In that in those especially the ones that are being hit on a regular basis and goodness knows why that's happening But I'm wondering what kind of serious conversations have been taking place regarding A camera equipment, you know cameras have come a long way and other Urban centers have found them fairly effective in either dissuading Unfortunate behavior or capturing those that are the continue to be bad players Um and criminals actually so I'm curious lighting and and cameras What kind of conversations are taking place in those two arenas if you know? Yeah, um All of the places i'm aware of have at least security lighting Very easy to dismantle if you are so inclined um One of the places that's had the most issues actually has cameras and regularly provides footage to sergeant wolf or to to srpd not necessarily him specifically so, um I think it has helped identify Some of the people who are causing the problems, but I don't know that it has not been a deterrent clearly. So, um it's a We've we've That's that's kind of all I don't know how else to address that other than it it's helpful because you can start to figure out Possibly who's doing the crimes, but it hasn't deterred anyone from committing them Okay, oh maybe when we have a conversation with Sergeant wolf. Well, you know, I just it's it's it's very frustrating to me that this continues to to go on and I'm wondering If we are if we've had a real serious conversation about taking advantage of other of all of alternative security measures that may be necessary that we have not Thought necessary in the past and I'm not sure what that might look like But it's it it does give me pause when I especially with repeat offenders And you know just trying to come up with some kind of some kind of solution if there is one Uh, it's a very frustrating and disappointing and saddening to hear that this that this is going on but I I know what it feels like to come to the business in a morning and have a Clean up situation Or awakened in the middle of the night because an alarm is going off So anyway, and and that may be uh an issue as well as a conversation not to have in public but Which of these businesses are they are they properly alarmed? Do they are are their? proximity alarms In these businesses and if they keep getting hit um, it just seems like there might be A good conversation to have about whether or not we are able to take advantage of all the the security measures available to us So it's an open conversation that I am I would like to be able to Um, know if we are we're leaving anything out as far as our tools Yeah, it's it's a valid point. I think that um I can connect with sergeant wolf again and we can possibly talk through some strategies maybe find out what's what's um Working elsewhere. I think the the layout Can be a little bit challenging downtown lots of kind of corners and nooks and things but We can keep the conversations going and see if we can come up with any alternate measures or solutions to try Yeah, there there is a reality of the type of storefronts that were built Back in the 40s had alcoves that can be difficult to to to monitor Because they actually become places to hide so it's it can be it can be difficult, but If there's An opportunity to Uh, participate in that conversation would be more than happy to not not a requirement but you know, if there if there seems to be a Any any benefit of that I'd be more than happy to be a part of that conversation. I'm just I'm really Curious and sad at the same time Thank you. I'm sorry for the background Not at all All right, uh, thank you council member sloyer Um Kaden side a couple questions for you on the ice rink is the the city lending you the support you need you need on that I actually had the chance to talk with peter rumble Last wednesday and sounded like you were making some headway, but there may be some some sticking points where the city needs to provide assistance Yeah, mark has been um great. He's he's reached out and i've connected him with um our the technical person on the ice rink side And I think they're gonna keep talking through Just to make sure everyone's on the same page. So yeah, thank you Okay, great. Yeah, if you have any sticking points, I hope you'll bring that to this committee. I'm speaking for myself I definitely want to see that ice rink Up in uh, december. My wife's looking forward to it um The other the other thing I wanted to ask about is just to confirm so You're you're asking this committee and the council uh to consider extending the parking incentives until december 31st 2021 Yes We we normally um come to council with a request for um free holiday parking in the garages that's kind of in in line with with the same on the weekends and and Actually, I don't know if we've done after five before but on the weekends and That request would be coming pretty soon. Um, but given that everyone is still very much in recovery um the extended incentives through Uh through the summer months, especially while we're investing in bringing people downtown And then into the final quarter would be would make a big difference for our business owners Okay, um john i'm looking to you a little bit for guidance here You know or or rafael. What's the the best procedure as chair to kind of Uh, would we ask uh director nado to to bring information to this committee? Uh to hear about what those possibilities are Uh, yes, I mean that would be the normal step. Um, because I think time in this case is is on our side When were they scheduled to? Uh go away cadence My first Okay, so we we have um, well we've got next month We could we could bring it to the council earlier than that and what and what we need to hear is what is the impact To of course, what is the impact of it to the to the parking district? to get a real good picture of where they stand with their reserves and How that impacts them at the same time Being able to be really cognizant about the challenges that are that our businesses and Especially our restaurants have been facing the last number of months as we're all it's obvious to everyone So we could actually um in a report out To this meeting bring forward the Request From the dao regarding the continuation of that program Okay, so that's I I agree jonathan. It doesn't seem like it's that far off So during the next council meeting I'll remember to to do that report out and maybe ask direction from the mayor on what he wants to do Sounds good And I think cam will be on um, I mean she's unfortunately not able to join us today But she'll be on a call next month on from june 3rd. So she'll have some some feedback Okay, great. Yeah, maybe just in case rafael if we could ask her to maybe bring whatever information she has on hand That meeting as well. Yeah And we have we have talked about that with her. So I so I think she has Kind of started to delve into the impacts as well. She's she's so supportive of our businesses downtown. Um, so Not to say that she would support this but just that she she's very She understands what they're going through and and wants to Has been great to work with so That's that's really good to hear that makes me happy. Um, and I obviously I speaking for myself I wanted to help you and the businesses too But as jon said, it's just we got to Look at what the health of the parking department is to make sure um Okay, my last question uh is this kind of actually a question that you may want to hold over for sergeant wolf When he gets here, but it is speaking to the sideshow issue Uh, I was downtown a couple weeks ago eating at beer baron and just out of nowhere a car came and Did a couple of you know spins around the intersection right there on four street by exchange bank And it was really loud. It caused everybody to to stand up and you know kind of get concerned Um, and it was just generally disruptive and I don't know what it was but it bugged the heck out of me And the one of the questions I'll have for the sergeant is you know, what what are the legal consequences? Is that you know for for driving a car like that? Um, and what what more can be done? It's so i'm glad it's been brought up cadence because it's been something on my mind Uh, where I think that there needs to be some something some sort of uh Pursuing of sideshows because they seem to be coming up more and more And even though some of these guys seem pretty good pretty skilled at doing it at the very least it's disruptive And at the worst they lose control of their vehicle and hit somebody When they're doing it and I think that the council needs to to get ahead of what you know What could eventually be a bad accident? So I'll hold that for wolf when he gets here, but cadence. I just vocalize that because it's been on my mind too And and I've I've seen what you're talking about Yeah, thank you for sharing Um, okay. I I think now let's move to uh any members of the public wishing to speak on item 4.2 um Post do we have anybody wishing to speak on this item? We do. Um, this is Joel is calling in um resident 0897 I'm going to allow you to talk You'll be able to unmute yourself And if you could confirm that you're able to see the timer I am can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Good morning everybody. This is bernie schwarz. I have california luggage on four street And I just like to echo a little bit of what cadence was talking about with the parking We are very fragile. We're just starting to come out of this downtown We're getting new businesses that are coming downtown and we're going to need help for the next next six months all of us are very cognizant of Keeping the health of the parking district But we're only talking about another six months to get us, you know a hand up and get through the holidays There's another Upside to this which is that we're losing street parking for the parklets and none of us mind that You know the parklets have become where it was a desperate attempt to help the restaurants last year It's now a desirable choice for patrons to sit outside So we all like the atmosphere that the parklets are providing and are willing to sacrifice the street parking Which makes the garages even more important to institute visitor behavior So they know exactly where to park and promoting these incentives through the next six months And promoting the garages is going to help us out Forever, so i'm really hoping that the council will come around this We know that kim's projections are not going to be bright But we're only talking about getting us through the holidays and giving us a lego. Thank you Thank you bernie. Thank you bernie Do we have any others wishing to speak on this item? We have no additional hand raised hands at this time Any recorded or email comments? No, thank you Okay, i'll bring it back to the subcommittee. Councilmember soya or any final questions or comments. No, thank you None for me either. So let's move to item back to item 4.1 It's to receive an update from chris wilson executive director of historic railroad square association Welcome chris Yeah, and actually sorry chair tibbet I have an update regarding the rebel square association and then chris will follow up with the rest And uh, good morning again chair tibbet's councilmember soya. Great to see you great to see you or here Everybody on the call Good to hear from you bernie and great report by cadence She always has some amazing things that are going on downtown and if you have been downtown recently There's a lot of activity. It's good to see everybody finally coming out and We are looking forward to people in our community continuing to get vaccinated and also continue to use uh, safe practices such as face Covering and such so, uh, my report is is brief. I just have a couple of updates related to the rebel square Area and those are actually I had the opportunity to speak to some of the hotel operators including general managers and including the new general manager for the Hyatt Mario Lopez who is joining us from walnut creek. He's very excited and delighted to be here in san rosa But according to the past three weekends, uh, all of these five hotels that are in the immediate downtown area Including rebel square have been at 80 capacity. So They are looking forward to those numbers increasing as restrictions continue to uh to change uh, regarding, um Depot park, um, I I am on the on that committee and we will be revisiting the uh somewhat of a I guess maybe we can call it a rebelization of depot park with very little funding Uh, but I have invited Jen Santos and Tara Thompson to be at the next board meeting and make a presentation about the, um About the depot park project. So we're looking forward to that and that would also include lighting tree trimming and some art an art display, uh in the park. So, um Yes, and regarding hotel e, uh, sorry, I left that out They're also doing seem to be doing pretty well Um, and then uh in late March, we have the groundbreaking of the uh, Pullman loss We have been looking forward to that project. So that will provide 74, uh units Um, and that is located at 701 Wilson street between eight and nine streets. So Um, these will be market rate, uh, apartments Uh, but just further down the street, uh, they're also putting up another complex Which is that in flats and that's uh specifically for uh, low-income housing And lastly, we are having a meeting with, uh Martin Hamilton at 4 p.m. Today regarding the Arlene Francis Center Uh, he's ready to reopen and uh, he's looking forward to some ideas he has Had some experience that with vandalism recently And uh graffiti. So we'll he will be addressing that or talking about that and then together we'll bring that to the To the to the border as well as the committees that I'm involved in to see if we can find solutions and lastly regarding the side shows, uh You know, we're getting calls almost every day in the rosin area so, uh, that is becoming that has become somewhat of a trend and You know, eventually we need to go to stop to it, but it's very challenging for uh business owners as well as centers of bd to To to get there when when the shows are happening So the recommendations are being made that, you know, try to take photographs if If you are, you know, uh close enough Uh of the license plates and then they'll see what they can do after that, but uh, hopefully sardine wolf Can share some more information related to the this uh crazy trend and and I do agree with you chair tibet It's uh is very disruptive. So Anyway, I'll turn it over to chris and thank you Thank you, mr. Rivera Thank you. Thank you rafael. You you took part of my report. So that's great. Thank you. I apologize. You're being late this morning Little technical difficulties here So good morning chair tibets and councilmember soya I do want to acknowledge the work of sergeant wolf and some of our city staff for helping clear out the fifth and sixth three underpasses I need to tell you that the general manager and owner of the ac hotel ac hotel They're both really grateful for the work and and support and cleaning up that area That's near the hotel. So they wanted to make sure that you knew that too. That was very appreciated. It looks so much better And um tagging on some of caden's report, you know, we continue to to focus on those efforts for the Keeping the campers at bay watching for even that note that first tent It's a problem down there We did send a letter to some of you should have received a letter from the association We're very anxious to get together with A number of you and jonathan and in parties appropriate parties to really Focus on discussing ways of collaborating collaborating coming up with strategies to help with the with the homeless issue down there in our area We need to prevent those encampments from even getting started in the first place. So We are reaching out to our merchants also and enlisting everyone to be hyper vigilant for notifying Officials when you see a first-hand or have any kind of an issue down there because With the weather nice and people out It's very disturbing and it's definitely impacting business to have Some of the trash and litter that's um and worse that's being Left. Um, there's some real issues at the Um depot park with with trash and worse ours our nighttime security now that we have every night patrolling the reports of of people sleeping In doorways people sleeping behind depot park All around the area seems to be increasing I'm hoping that because we are You know, someone's there every single night that that will start diminishing but It's it's definitely it's an ongoing problem so That's that's the downside much of what cabins is experiencing downtown Um on a brighter note the the radio we are doing these co-op Radio ads that are going to be running. We've got seven merchants participating through the end of october in weekly Radio ads promoting the area down there We're exploring Ideas and starting to try to plan get some ideas for activities and some fun events to be happening in railroad square to to bring people people down So that's positive we're Looking forward to the parklet meeting. Thank you for including us cadence and the parklet meeting on the 18th There are mixed feelings about those. It's it's wonderful having people outdoors A lot of people are just so used to now eating outdoors But there there is some There are some mixed feelings among the merchants because of the the parking impact that happens because of those so i'm sure that's something that that Will be discussing more Um, let's see. What else is there? Um Um We are seeing more people out visiting and dining and the restaurants are busy Um, there's a new coffee cafe opening in the spot where Flying goat coffee was they should be opening probably within the next week or so so Where the western hotel is so that's that's exciting Want to also just remind you that our board meets the third thursday of every month at nine o'clock per zoom through zoom And hopefully in june, we're going to start being able to to be meeting in person And really looking forward to having my first board meeting with the railroad square board In person since i haven't been able to do that since i took this position And that is about it. So Really appreciate the support like saying cleaning the encampments. That's been our main focus is trying to clean up the area down there So, thank you Thanks chris Uh council member soire any questions? No questions. Just just a comment can you know good work chris? You know, I know that's on ongoing challenges and you are you know rising to the occasion Wherever you can and so, you know, good luck and keep up keep up the good work and and uh We will you know the the council is Has been is and will continue to be Uh supportive of the downtown and aware of your challenges and doing our best I've given our limited resources to try to mitigate the the difficulties and support the successes I appreciate that. We all do. Thank you so much Thanks john. All right, let's go to move to public comment on item 4.1 Uh, madam host we have any members of the public wishing to speak We do Gigi i'm going to you on allow you to unmute And if you could please confirm that you are able to see the timer that would be wonderful. Thank you Yes, I see the timer. My name is gig. I doubt I live downtown in the burbank gardens neighborhood Also, uh closure for public here. I uh, I'm also On staff with city it media. So but I'm talking at home on my own behalf right now mostly on on behalf of the burbank gardens neighborhood and the juliard park neighborhood because um, if you've, um, looked at, uh, juliard park or um burbank gardens itself or anywhere on the avenue you don't see any encampments Not that we haven't had people come in here with tents But because when we see them We go and talk to them And tell them there's no camping here. Of course, they're not sometimes they're cooperative Sometimes they're not sometimes they curse you out. Sometimes they're aggressive But the more neighbors not police officers just people unarmed unauthority No, just saying hey, I live here. There's no camping here You know, can you move on or whatever? It doesn't always work right away But then when another woman comes and another man comes and another neighbor comes and we say look, I'm sorry. There's no camping here We can't do this They eventually move on and that's why we have no encampments here at least not this moment So when you I heard you say, um, you know that the merchants and the people in railroad square are paying attention to this And as soon as they you know trying to prevent it before it happens, which is the best way As soon as you see a tent going up or if you see someone with a cart and they're tent ready to go up Just talk to them. Just say, hey, you know, I realize your life's tough and so on whatever but there's no camping here and um because if you just call the police or call the city then it goes through all the processes and You know, I know the police do a great job and so on when they when they can when they want to They don't always want to and they can't always just get there immediately and so on and so You there you go again, you know under the sixth street. There's camps again And it's just it's a chronic problem and it's never going to go away as far as we know So what I'm saying is For the merchants and the residents and anybody who's concerned about that.   That's clear, but that's a risky area, but we've kept it clear. Thank you Thanks gig. Good timing. Appreciate the the comments Any other members of the public wishing to speak? We have no additional raised hands at this time Okay, thank you. We'll we'll bring it back to the subcommittee. Uh council members. So I already have any Final questions or comments And I don't either All right. Well, thank you so much. Uh, mr. Rivera and miss wilson We'll now move on to item 4.3 the update from sergeant jonathan wolf Yes, hello, um, and I apologize in advance if there's any interruptions i'm uh, i'm on here from yolanda avenue right now Um, so if I have to mute quickly and briefly I apologize in advance um So a couple things one I actually want to uh Apologize to the downtown corridor, uh, both railroad square and the east side We have been extremely tied up with camp management and therefore been downtown less than we normally would be And this is probably going to continue for a little bit. Um, we have a number of camps ranging from You know 15 to 40 people throughout town right now that we're trying to do the best we can with um That being said when we have been able to focus on downtown we've been working extensively with Certain businesses that seem to have the most issues macy's at the plaza being one of those and, uh They've had issues with campers theft vandalism's attempted break-ins and that kind of leads into What councilman soyer was saying about the cameras as well as what cadence was saying which is um Well, we reviewed we got we got some of the camera and we actually identified At least one suspect and built a criminal case, which is great because there's going to be some accountability in there However, he was Each incident seems isolated. It doesn't seem to be the same individual coming back So to what cadence said as far as it being a deterrent it isn't necessarily a deterrent um We were able to move things through into the criminal justice process and you know the da will hopefully prosecute for the vandalism Um, but cameras don't necessarily prevent anything um I think I will need to meet with probably cadence and anyone else who wants to about some of those things But at this point the most effective measures tend to be engineering measures um kind of hardening the structure if you will Are putting up barriers that prevent people from access in certain areas things like that But I'd be happy to follow up with that offline at a certain point um One of the camps downtown we're dealing with it's some Residual issues from the underpasses going on on morgan street and that neighborhood had been severely impacted And I actually believe some of the issues at the mall and possibly throughout the rest of downtown are related to that camp um As I explained we're on yolanda today, but our next focus will be on morgan street specifically moving into uh next week And to touch on the sidecar issue that got brought up So um the side shows I should say those have been ongoing in santa rosa for a while We had groups coming from the bay area um oakland uh People from oakland in the bay area coming up here target on santa rosa avenue was one of the main sites they did it and The issues are different when they're planned versus spontaneous when they were planned and we're able to start monitoring and tracking it Figuring out patterns. We were able to put together some operations some highly difficult, but um long term ones that really got some Appropriate consequences at the end Even when we weren't able to deal with it in the moment We were actually showing up and because of the way the law is structured even if people left after doing it We were towing their cars two weeks afterwards from other cities like sacramento or the bay area And as far as being a deterrent, I think that really Was one of the strongest ones because what has showed them is you may come do this But we're showing up. We have and lost sight of this um To rough what rafael was saying. I know last night. We experienced some serious sight show issues as well as collisions over in roseland Um, it was extremely difficult to get to they had over 600 people just surrounding one intersection And as police were responding they were having bottles thrown at them trying to get to where the collision had occurred um And they were stopping the police cars and shaking them and you know some of the kind of stuff you would see on television So, um, that might be its own issue Uh, as far as individual like councilman tidbits was saying Where your downtown someone shows up and does something I'd assume spontaneous That is a bit more difficult things like video getting the plate that definitely would help us and we may be able to follow up with that um But it is a lot more difficult when it's spontaneous and that I think is the bulk of uh What I have to say are there any questions Thanks sergeant, uh councilmember sorrier No, I I don't really have any questions. I'm I I'm just um on a ongoing basis the the security issue downtown does like I mentioned earlier continues to vex me um The side shows, you know, that's clearly a dangerous situation When we I think for the most part we've just been lucky The two vehicles that were injured and last in yesterday's Uh side shows, you know Getting having a vehicle get damaged is is the least of it um having uh, of course, there's always the the perpetrator and then the victim Uh, and that is that is sad and I and I was and disappointed to hear that there was um An effort to keep the police at bay in the performance of their duty But these are issues that as it perhaps as time goes on we we build that trust that is all important And they understand the the value of you know why they're there and what what their intention is Hopefully that that kind of behavior will will lessen as far as downtown and the cameras. Um, I am Although the aclu Would probably disagree My attitude toward cameras is if you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to hide from the camera So well, what do you know? Why not, you know, where we can use them and where they may be a deterrent? great, um the making the hardening the the the surfaces or hardening the the Storefronts it does give me concern that we start looking like some of the larger cities with gates in front of all the the entrances but Perhaps that's the direction that we are in which we are moving I would I would hope that we might be able to wait to do that For you know For some of these programs at least for the homeless now that we don't know for a fact that it is the unhoused that are that are performing these These acts of vandalism, etc But I you know, I as much as I hate to see gates and and hardened doors Come you know start to appear in the in the in the stores downtown That may be a maybe our our solution to diminish some of the the Bad behavior that's that's that's occurring so I'm just you know ready to consider anything and continue having the conversation about the security for the for the for the merchants down there because that's it's um it's a tough call to to like I said before arrive at your store in the morning and see that you uh Not only have a delay in the ability of your opening your business, but also the expense of dealing with whatever damage has been done um during the vandalism so um I'm uh Well at this point open to to any any any reasonable alternatives to doing nothing And the council member I I definitely I'll go ahead sergeant So I was just going to say in regard to cameras, um There are other benefits as well. Um one example was uh downtown regular He he was homeless But it was really mental health concerns And we weren't observing enough of the behaviors to deal with it on a longer term basis We actually used cameras from some of the businesses along four street that showed some of those behaviors That ultimately he was actually um conserving and was doing quite well now But like the cameras helped with that and it helped resolve an issue downtown and it helped him um Stabilize and get to a better place also Yeah, john to your knowledge Was it a was it the use of a camera that helped identify him or was and did he was he able When when lucid was he able to uh suggest that the cameras actually um Kind of altered his behavior or are you aware of that? Possibility he was so disassociated. I don't think he When he was off medication, I believe he was so unaware of what was happening. He wouldn't have recognized cameras there Were there or not? um I mean it was to the extent he eat anything or just urinate wherever he was or things like that and you know We might see it we might even place them on a hold, but it wasn't normally enough on its own But when we were able to show a repeated um Pattern that had significant frequency. We were able to get a lot more done with that with our mental health support Yeah, I appreciate that and when I said doing nothing I that's Nothing additional to what we're already doing is just to clarify because I know That the police department is doing everything that they can given their limited resources And the dao is as well and uh, they're there may be a time when the dao Which is the obvious body to approach first? um, and the merchants realize there is a once you start to add up the The costs of Not putting in cameras potentially you know It might it might actually start to sound like a cheap alternative to To not doing it and uh, it would take a the cooperation of all of our merchants We'd have to decide where to work where the camera should be placed the quality the the quality of the video, etc but um, it seems to work very very well in london and uh in the uk and Even though we are not london, um, the the the the the efficacy Of of cameras and the advertisement or the notification of the to the community that they are um In that they are being observed with um with cameras to protect the safety of the merchants and the and the and the The customers They may be more willing to accept what some consider an invasion of their privacy so It's it's a conversation that we that that probably needs to be had at some point But um, I'm not sure that's the only the only solution the hardening of course does help But there is a visual effect to that hardening that is concerning to me Absolutely, councilmember And that was going to be some of my questions and comments as well sergeant was kind of what's what's the efficacy of the camera Particularly as it pertains to homeless people if we capture certain You know transgressions are you are are you even going to be able to prosecute because we know that You know the da's office won't prosecute everything and Also, what we do choose to to prosecute typically results Correct me if i'm wrong and a booking in the jail But they are just let right out the door the same day after the booking occurs really all we've done is We haven't stopped the behavior from continuing. We just you know burden the homeless person with a fine They can't pay and you know that further precludes their ability to kind of get out of homelessness down the road But if there are ways if you do think so i'm open to continuing the conversation as well I really want to hear from the daos on on this and is this something that's going to help them but Um, definitely from you sergeant about okay, is is this an added benefit? And does that benefit our way the cost to the city? Um, are we going to cost share with the dao? I mean, I think these are some of the things that come to my mind about how he had set something up I don't have a problem with spending one-time money on on cameras But I am concerned about who's managing the servers and the it of all that stuff And and how does that work and what are the costs associated with it? Um, but definitely whatever we can do to To kind of keep things clean and inviting for for people and come downtown And I think I've misunderstood uh originally I believe we're talking in the context of just individual businesses increasing their camera potential if we're discussing Something more like has brought up england or actually even just what we have in the courthouse square, which is a very good system In that context it would become more of a deterrent absolutely Um, you know, and it is even with individual businesses if it happens to be the same individual doing it repeatedly Then it would be but we did see great results From courthouse square if it was just known that the city actually had cameras that could be monitored that were going 24 seven Like courthouse square Denav reputation that area gets Absolutely becomes a deterrent. Um, the the courthouse square ones. I can't sing their praises highly enough Well, that's good to know I mean just just on that same note and through the chair I was I was um considering both options And that's why I mentioned the aclu minute um, if an individual business owner wants to put a camera facing the street and Photographing their their customers as they walk through the front door or behavior that's outside their front door Um, I'm not sure that the the aclu would would have anything to say about that. It's private property. They have they have no Um, as far as I'm as far as I know No expectation of privacy when you walk into somebody's business But um, when we start talking about putting cameras throughout the downtown, which I am in favor of exactly because For the reason you just mentioned john about about the behavior changes when people know that they're being observed um, I am I I don't have a problem with that With with that. Um, what I consider a minor bruise to their to their privacy Uh in on fourth street So if that if that's the kind of conversation that we need where we might need to move And then then perhaps it's a conversation we need to have with the dao and the community um, because you know once that that cost effectiveness Um, is I think once once identified I think that the people may um warm to the to the need For that kind of observation. So I'm open to anything that that might help Create the the atmosphere that we're looking for in our downtown. Thank you Thanks john and I think in in the spirit of continuing the conversation I want to throw out a couple of ideas here Maybe for our next meeting if we could we could have an open conversation with with cadence and chris Um, and kind of see I don't know if cadence and chris if you can do information gathering with your membership about What what benefit this could bring if we were to pursue it? Um, and then uh, mr. Rivera, I don't want to burden your time too much I know you're busy, but if there's a way to maybe reach out to eric mchenry or whomever is kind of in charge of The it's aspect of it and just get a general What would a rough estimate of it be in terms of time and money? To run this that might be a good place to start the conversation I don't know john. Do you have any objections to to going that direction? No, I think it'd be a great idea and we can also and being able to put it on on the agenda for a You know a good Thorough conversation would be would be important. I mean under public safety and we can easily talk about it but Having it as an agenda item would probably raise some attentions by merchants that that That it doesn't currently have so i'm i'm very much interested in In hearing that pluses and minuses of moving forward With a program like that and I think eric would be the perfect person We're to start that conversation because this will not be without its costs And and I mean if the cameras mean nothing if you don't look at the at the at the footage Although one could wait until and something occurs and then knowing that we have the cameras then we could you know do the the appropriate observation of that of that that footage To help maybe deal with the perpetrator. So I think a broad conversation is a great idea Okay Thank you council member And thank you. Mr. Rivera or or are you busy these days? Feel free to let us know if we need to table this I definitely I'll have time to look into it Thank you Sergeant my question for you is back to the sideshows and this is this will be my last one and i'll wrap it up but what can you tell me what level of Kind of crime can be applied to somebody who's doing a sideshow What what what does that mean like is it a an infraction? Is it a misdemeanor? What what kind of legal consequences come with it both in terms of is there a court proceeding? Or is there just a general fine? And any information you could share there helps because what i'm what i'm thinking of is I definitely think that taking action against it would be a deterrent Although it's it's not lost on me that our department is currently under staff and overworked And doing these large operations stings might not be the most efficient approach although if they're effective Maybe we need to apply some time to doing them but my the idea that I had was Just put it put the the onus or opportunity on the public To kind of capture these acts like you were saying get photos of license plates and turn them in But I want to apply a financial incentive to that and I don't know if there are legal Things that would protect against that. I don't know but essentially a reward For turning it into the police because then all of a sudden If i'm driving my car into roseland to go get some attention to spin it around I'm I'm now not worried about you showing up in time because i'm pretty confident that if I go do it quickly I'm going to beat the cops and get out of there But if I know that every person that is watching me one of them could get $500 a thousand dollars for sending in my license plate All of a sudden they become the person that I don't want To see me do that action, but yet I think the purpose of a side show is to get everybody to see you Um, so let's turn those eyes into into the police and I think it would help you do that job I don't know if that's possible, but I would love to pursue a policy that does this So it's uh, it's generally a misdemeanor. There are certain criteria It depends on at what point you're actually calling it a side show they're driving action specifically determinant I don't want to get into the weeds. Let's just say The vast majority of the time it's it's a misdemeanor um So it is something that we can follow through with Uh, as far as consequences, um, I think it varies and it'll definitely depend on which da is in office And how they're handling it at that point clearly um Or it may even be resolved in traffic court depending on the level of it As far as the rewards, I I'm not super well versed in the circumstances under which we can or can't But that's something that I could look into and figure out. Um I I do like the idea of You know, if everybody was on the lookout and there was an incentive to report it um You know, it would be interesting to see how that worked. I It's it's an idea We can drop it, but I think it's worth trying I would support that Okay, well great. Um, if you don't mind, yeah, reach out uh to your colleagues and figure out what you can I'll reach out to the city attorney and figure out what I can in terms of Uh, with the legality Galities around doing something like this would be and and obviously too. I think the best structure program would be something that In the fine process, I don't know what the city of santa rosa is able to recover or if that just Which jurisdiction collects it? But being able to hopefully recover, uh, you know finds which then help fund, you know, the reward So it's not, you know coming out of the department's budget or the general fund or wherever or at least it's not overly burdened But I I appreciate the feedback on that. Let's continue that conversation as well if we can mr. Rivera um And uh, I want to thank cadence for for bringing that up uh, let's go to uh member, uh, excuse me public comment on this item 4.3 Madam host do we have anyone wishing to speak? Have no raise hands at this time Any recorded emails or voicemails? We do not Okay, sergeant wolf. Thanks for your time. Good luck out there on yolanda Um, let's move to item 4.4 maintenance of courthouse square update tinsen again parks crew superintendent Good morning. Uh, good morning, uh chair person tibets and councilmember soire, um We've been really busy in the parks department with the downtown Work that needs to be done down there We have made the greenway our priority as far as graffiti and the lights trying to keep that lit for safety this past month our crew spent over 120 hours doing weekly checks on graffiti as well as doing a more extensive cleaning of the bigger Areas that they found during the weekly inspections So that's been unfortunately taken a lot of our time trying to get to some other projects in the downtown area, but That's been a priority for us along with the the lighting working with the electrical department and doing light repairs That's one of those things that as soon as you get some lights fixed on there are working We have others go out or other problems Problem with vandal vandals Doing damage to the lights as well as I think some of the The age of the lights as well. So it's a combination of those two items. That's for the lights We're spending spent some quite a little bit of time at fremont park Trying to get that cleaned up from last year's home it homeless encampment We are still dealing with electrical problems out there They a lot of damage happened during the the camp and so Trying to rebuild the system from scratch basically Has caused of course problems with the lights as well as the irrigation out there We have taken steps to To try to do some watering manually Just turning on the valve manually or setting up some sort of temporary power source for our irrigation So Hopefully we can keep that going Better yet if we can get the electrical stuff set back up there and get things running again That would definitely help us out in that arena Don't know if everyone noticed yet, but the the fences came down for the the bollard project at courthouse square so That project went really well So if you haven't been down there to see that it looks really good We were able to help out the contractor With completing that job possibly two weeks early than planned We had some of the pavers from the the original construction In ours and our supply and so we were able to help them out By providing those pavers so they were not waiting to receive those apparently there There was a backlog on those pavers and so they were not going to get them when they were needed so Luckily, we had two pallets of those pavers On hand So we were able to jump in and help them out to get that completed sooner than than what they thought they could so That was really great that that happened Had to I took a walk down four streets there last week and I like to thank the streets plus crew As far as keeping that clean I it was very quiet It was I think it was eight thirty nine o'clock in the morning and you know people were still just waking up a little bit but The the birds were chirping and the streets were clean and people were We're happy and it was it looked really good down there. So streets plus. I know you guys are working hard So I greatly appreciate your help and support on those areas that we can't get to As as quickly as we could wish we could We had a just as a information we had a meeting here earlier this week with the Water department's water efficiency team As everyone knows The conditions and the possibility of drought that we're we're going to be experiencing moving forward here We've talked about some of our watering practices inside of Our parks department and how we can be efficient with our water usage There's definitely things that we can do internally as far as our management of our turf Keeping the turf a little bit longer The the help shade the the ground cover Is another thing that we're going to try of course watching for leaks Oversprays all those things as far as to help out the water situation within the city So we're going to do what we can to help out that That the that water usage The hope is like right now is that it's a voluntary Reduction of our water use So we're going to again just be really efficient with our water Look for those things that we can repair and Hopefully hope for the best It's so early in the season to be talking about Our shortage of water and it's a little bit scary Last time we went through this in the city We turned out the water and things turned blonde And it was really hard as far as a maintenance to get those actual fields back The way they should be and that and they're not the way they should be When you lose turf you introduce other Noxious weeds into the system because you don't have that ground cover You don't have those that healthy turf and so then you get a lot of perennial weeds Broadleafs growing in your turf and then it doesn't look as nice so Unfortunately, that's that's one of the downsides of turning off the water So we're going to be really watching that move going forward through all our parks It's great to hear about depot park and the the plans there And I have to apologize about the trees I know we talked about hopefully being able to get in there and do some pruning With the weather like it has been the dry conditions and I mean the lack of rain the warm weather weeds across the city and just the thick we're just We're just behind on every aspect of park maintenance. I mean It was everything was quiet then all of a sudden the weeds grew or the grass grew and We're out there trying to catch up all the all across the city So a lot of these projects that we were hoping that we would have more time to deal with It just didn't didn't come as planned. So dealing with that I think that's all I have if anybody has any questions Thank you, mr. Finnegan, uh councilmember slayer to any questions No questions just um, thank you for everything you're you're Doing and then you're attempting to do so. Um, it's it is going to be a tough year on everybody and you know I share your pain. Um, we appreciate the effort. Thanks tim Thank you. Yeah, I want to say thanks as well tim and I also Appreciate, you know the triage that you're doing and as much as I'd like to see those trees get trimmed as well and pruned I think it's it's for a fire safety perspective Definitely important that we get those weeds and and things. I know that a lot of my constituents are reaching out asking me to Put them in touch with with your department to to do that kind of abatement work. So thanks a lot Um, let's move now to public comment on item 4.4 maintenance of courthouse square. Would any members of the public like to speak? Yes, we do have one right now. Uh, jake hypo You should be able to uh speak now and if you would confirm that you were able to see the timer that would be great Okay, thank you. I'm just uh wanting to say thank you for To the parks department for cleaning up the graffiti on the prince memorial greenway Um, graffiti cleanup is very important. It's a very effective crime prevention and you know changes the atmosphere and the mood So good job. It's it's very important and very much appreciated. Um I I do all the graffiti cleanup here on the avenue and it's it's it definitely makes a big difference So anyway, thank you very much for doing that That's all I have to say Thanks gig And we have no additional hands raised at this time Any recorded voicemails or emails? No, um, we don't have any Okay, we'll bring it back to the subcommittee council member soy. Oh, yep. I just had a Small comment. Uh, thank you, um Tim for that great report. I I Just want to thank you for acknowledging the streets bless crew. Uh, they're very dedicated There's only I think four of them, uh at the current time And uh, I see them throughout korea square and uh, they always have a smile on their faces and they're um, they're very diligent and I really like the interaction that they provide to the Sometimes the homeless homeless folks that are hanging around as well as the other members of the public And uh, thank you for also mentioning the uh following project. Uh, that was Loan overdue. So I'm glad the uh the outcome was uh, I mean they look pretty good. Um, and the grass is also looking pretty nice Thanks, mr. Rivera. All right, uh, john you have any final comments Okay, I don't either. Thank you. Mr. Finn again. We'll now move on to item 4.5 permitted events in public art update from Tara Thompson arts and culture manager Hello chair tippets and member Sawyer and everyone on the call I am here to provide a brief update about special event permits in the downtown as well as public art projects in the downtown Um, I don't have any major updates. Um regarding special event permits Since last month as most events and special event permits continue to be suspended Um, due to the restrictions in the tier system for gatherings Um, we also are waiting on additional guidance about public gatherings. Um, Which would really apply more to the types of permitted events that we see downtown However, new guidance just did come out. Um this week about from the state about sporting events community sporting events And this would apply to organize community Endurance and running walking events such as runs walks marathons triathlons So we are working with local event organizers to pass along that guidance and discuss how those events can resume in san rosa given that new guidance For the public art program um as cadence mentioned briefly the asawa panels And the fountain construction is still a major major project that we're working on And I wanted to provide this committee with a brief update regarding the actual work We're doing on the panels themselves to get them ready for re-installation um, we have run into somewhat of a concerning issue that the original Glass reinforced concrete material that the original panels Were made out of is rapidly deteriorating They had deteriorated to quite an extent being installed in the square for many years But now that they've been in storage, we are able to see how that's actually affecting their structural integrity And even with the support, it's a steel support structure. There may still be ongoing issues with their maintenance and a very limited lifespan for those original panels So there's an interest in now looking at other options Including casting the panels in a more permanent material such as bronze and installing those panels onto the fountain We are working with asawa's family and their foundation and our conservators and a local foundry on all of these issues And we'll be bringing forward options And recommendations for moving forward In the meantime, we are committed to working with The downtown action organization with the huford trail corporation on the actual construction of the fountain to make sure that that can move forward given the Uncertainty about the actual artwork to be reinstalled. So We we are in constant conversations about that and are committed to making sure that that project can move forward And and preserving the art as best we can For the fifth street parking garage project, which we had an open call for artists Earlier this spring Has now identified three finalists through a selection process who are now going to be invited to submit design proposals And there will be opportunities for the public to view those proposals and provide input over the next couple months starting in june And the final installation is expected to be completed by early next year I don't have any major major updates for the imagine art and courthouse square project We are still working on getting Out the word to the community That they can help us select the words and phrases for the finished piece And so we expect the outreach to begin By the end of this month I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you Thanks tara councilmember soror. Do you have any questions? I do. Um, thanks jack. Um, tara. Is there a Has there been a conversation regarding the isawa panels? about the Unfortunate possibility of decommissioning that work Uh, no, we have not considered that as an option at this point the to be honest the cost for installing the original panels versus bronze panels is If you consider like 10 years worth of anticipated maintenance for each is almost identical and so The Given that we are we are going to be making a recommendation soon To to move forward with one of those options. I just think that given our Responsibility to preserve that artwork and to work with the family on making sure that that artwork is Is viewable by the public is something that that we've been focusing on rather than Um, moving away From keeping that artwork accessible to the public So that that is not something we have discussed at this point Okay, well, I appreciate that and I appreciate the conversation with the family as well because At the end of the day, they would have a great deal of influence and in um in the conversation around preserving That work and unfortunately, it is not the only Important piece of artwork that was made out of an unfortunate material That did not stand the test of time Even the sistine chapel has its challenges. So Of course it's been around a lot longer than the ozawa fountain panels But I'm glad that you're having that you are having those ongoing conversations I look forward to an update as time goes on. I know bronze is very expensive, but it is also something that would be certainly Outlive me so It's a you know, I can I can picture the piece actually in bronze and I would I think that it would be An improvement to the to the ability to see the detail in the work because the Color of the material that was originally used did not lend itself to much visual detail So I I'm I'm hoping that that is a a good solution and one that is affordable I know that the the bronze can be very expensive But um, you know kind of depends on how thick it is. So I wish you all the best in your in your research and working with the family and look forward to the to the Reinstallation of those panels. Thanks. Tara. Thank you Thanks councilmember Sawyer. All right. We'll move to public comment on item 4.5 Are there any members of the public wishing to speak? We have no response at this time And no voicemail or pre-recorded messages. That's correct Okay, great. Well, I want to thank everybody for their participation today And we'll adjourn the meeting until next month


We have, as a species, long suffered the results of a civilization with foundations for understandings built upon outdated belief systems, and a funded academic institution in which one is rewarded for repetition rather than that of pioneering a theory which could shine a light upon the oldest, most controversial corners of human civilization. Where did we come from? How old is human civilization? These are questions which we have not only witnessed being ignored by the majority of mainstream academia, but have also shown, through what we believe, is overwhelming evidence to prove that this same entity, entrusted with the accurate account of human history, has not only concealed a reality which threatens many mainstream belief systems, but also the modern, attested theory of evolution as a whole. Entire chapters of human history, and also, more than likely, entire branch-off subspecies of giant humanoid remains removed from the history books, concealed within kilometers of hidden artifacts, hidden away, withheld from the masses, often in favor of profitable avenues, born out of stability of understandings which powerful institutions grown out of which, in turn, protect their own survival rather than that of the allowance of furthering the understandings of the common man. There is not only strong evidence still to be found all over the planet of past, highly advanced civilizations which displayed capabilities far beyond that of any civilization within the permitted timelines of investigations, but prove the tremendous age of some of these ancient ruins. These relics, far from mere ruins, are in reality more accurately described as the fossilized remains of human activities that do not just stretch a few hundred thousand years into the ancient past, but due to the time needed to develop such features are indicative of a civilization nearly or possibly over a million years in age. The great stones within the Western Wall, for example, are not only far in excess of any weights, the already studied permitted ancient ancestors within known history were capable of moving, or indeed using as building blocks. But fortunately, this site still possesses ancient wooden stakes, presumably once used within the method of construction, which regardless of the fact that the method is still an enigma to modern understandings, the wood in contrast to stone relics can indicate an age as to when this foundation was undertaken, petrified, fossilized, now stone blocks of what was once wood, that are unquestionably of an incredible age, support our argument of this far spanning currently dismissed chapter of ancient human civilization, which if embraced by mainstream science would not only prove this past beyond doubt, but would in turn threaten many currently highly profitable and as such extremely powerful and in turn influential belief systems and the institutions which have grown up around them in regards to ancient human origins and development. Fossilized tree roots can also be found upon the megalithic blocks of Gornia shoria. Many other sites, like that of the inexplicable ancient temples of Petra, in some of the less publicized areas of the site, display immense erosion regardless of the site's relatively sheltered location. It seems that many of these oldest of sites not only often lay below several feet of sediment, which due to the funded and as such same rhetoric within geological studies forbids said sites to even be recognized as that of the past work of intelligent man. Due to this immense age, any human remains that may have been left by these ancient builders would have long turned to dust or have been fossilized at the site. Concealed upon their discovery or like any site which gains notoriety within mainstream media, secretly revisited and ransacked of any evidence of this incredible age. We believe that possibly the only remaining traces of these past ancestors can now only be found within the most obscure and curious of places, like that of the Altamuraman, for example. A rare fossil, apparently of the genus Lamo, discovered in 1993 in the Karst Sinkhole in the Lama Lunga Cave near the city of Altamura within Italy, that thanks to its location and the near impossible feat it would be to remove him, has been left in situ for the world to see, and thanks to where he fortunately lay, has been slowly growing ever since his death. He is quite possibly of an immense age and died an incredibly long time ago, and has, instead of slowly decaying away, fading away like the world which he once lived within, has continued to be preserved in the calcite that has grown around him. Remarkably well preserved but embedded in stalagmites and covered in a thick layer of calcite, the fine was left in situ in order to avoid damage. Research during the following 20 years has been based mainly upon documented on-site observations. Consequently, experts have conveniently remained reluctant to agree on a conclusive age, and have thus never arrived at a mainstream consensus on the species it belonged to. In a 2015 paper published in the Journal of Human Evolution, it was announced that the Fossa was apparently a Neanderthal, and dating of the calcite has revealed that the bones are possibly older than 187,000 years old. How old is human civilization? Where do we come from? These questions persist, and as such, so do our endeavors of exposing the truth regarding the reality of these remarkable relics of a now forgotten history. Relics which we find highly compelling. Since the rediscovery of what is unquestionably the most puzzling, astounding, and enigmatic sight on Earth, the great pyramids and the sphinx of Giza, we have been led to believe that what could be described as an astonishingly accurate yet somewhat vandalistic later edition was once put there by a caliph named Al-Mama. Now popularly known by its coin title, Al-Maman's Forced Entrance, this title, although argued as his work, has a pretty compelling tale attached to its possible original purpose. When one actually looks into what an incredible achievement this tunnel once was, it becomes apparent that it was cleverly bored by an ancient people, far more advanced than a 9th century caliph. Additionally, possible hypotheses have been put forth as to its origins by individuals who may have known of entrances into the pyramid. We in the modern world have either lost knowledge of or have been prevented from knowing about their existence. Hinged doorways made of stone perfectly counterbalance to allow an average sized man to open and close them. Doorways along the structure's north face that, when closed, becomes seemingly indistinguishable from its surroundings. Are there still secret entrances along the pyramid's northern side? Quote, the Great Pyramid, a little way up on one side, has a stone that may be taken out, which being raised up, there is a sloping passage to the foundations. Written by Strabo in Pyramids and Temples of Giza, Flinders Petrie. Yet regardless of these additional, highly compelling investigative leads put forward in addition to an explanation for the tunnel's existence, its remarkable accuracy remains a tough thing for supporters of academia's tale of events to explain. As author Ralph Ellis puts it, quote, the main problem with the classical explanation was that Maman's tunnel is rather too accurate for comfort. It tracks into the pyramid in a direct line for the all-important junction between the descending and ascending passageways. It is often cited that Maman had to turn the tunnel sharp left to discover the original passageways, a fact that Ralph had in the back of his mind when they first visited the Great Pyramid. But he ambled down the forced tunnel, rather mystified, because the left turn, cited in the literature, could not be found. Having backtracked the tunnel and to try again, that left turn seemed to be no more than a slight widening of the tunnel. In fact, the digging was almost right on target, end quote. For how does one know where one is when deep within the passages of such an incredibly huge ancient structure? Secondly, if instead argued as having been started from without, the same problem has to be solved. For how did one know how to create the initial angle? Although it is now the most used entrance and although it has been drawn upon countless plans, to draw an existing tunnel's precise line of descent is far more easier than to have created said precise angle in the first place. And within the Great Pyramid is the remaining half of what has often been used to create a compelling possible explanation for this tunnel's original purpose. Known as the sarcophagus of Kufu, an anomalous object found within the pyramid, an artifact we have covered in the past. No one can explain how this giant stone object came to be within the pyramid. It would not have fit through the existing entrance tunnels. However, at some time in the pyramid's life, someone smashed into this stone box, took its past contents and the sarcophagus lid, an object that would also have not fit round the turns of the existing tunnel system. Yet would have fit through the force tunnel, and due to the vandalistic nature of the tunnel itself, could be argued that this damage to the sarcophagi was inflicted by the same group of individuals who built the tunnel, one used to extract the so-called sarcophagus's lid. Is this the real past purpose of the tunnel? And if created by a caliph in the 9th century, how did he tunnel so accurately on target, and additionally, where is this lid now? Is this tunnel, like the many different layers of casing stones indicate, built by a later, yet also lost civilization, one who flourished far before even the ancient Egyptians? We find the evidence to suggest such, highly compelling. Many of the most astonishing feats of ancient engineering are often avoided by historians, with many historical research materials absent their existence, due to their unexplainable origins. The reason for this should be obvious, for when one gazes upon such relics, instantly struck with wonder. A curiosity as to how something of such incredible size or skill could have been created by the individuals these sites are often claimed as the work of. This is one of the main theses of the channel, for not only are these sites largely ignored and thus overlooked regardless of being historically important structures. Clear yet suppressed evidence that a civilization far more capable than any currently recorded within permitted timelines once flourished on earth. Relics with a very different origin and indeed history. We believe that such structures were instead rediscovered by the many academically claimed builders, and this is often argued as being supported by empirical archaeological evidence. However, the archaeology merely proves inhabitation, not construction. With a record of construction never found within any of these academically claimed cultures surviving records, merely having re-inhabited such structures for strategic motivations. And in doing so, left their own archaeological footprint, subsequently concealing an unknown aspect of human history, one which came to an abrupt end and one such site largely unknown by the greater world, is known as the Herodium. What makes this structure so incredible is not the small arrangement of stone structures within the center of the build, but the earthwork itself, the entire site's footprint, and indeed the volume of earth utilized in the making of this ancient earthwork was of gigantic proportions. A seemingly pyramid-sized volume of earth used in the building of what can only be described as a respectively sized hill made by the hands of ancient man. Once one inspects this site from the air, its huge size becomes apparent, and the incredible feat this once was, an undertaking, if in fact constructed with primitive tools, would have been a task of unimaginable hardship. Thousands of tons of earth were at some point quarried and then transported to this spot, subsequently creating an incredible well-sheltered inhabitation with an intimidating incline on all sides. Many similar earthworks can be found throughout the United Kingdom, with the biggest pyramid in Europe known as Silbury Hill. Mysteriously made completely of chalk, yet this little mentioned site dwarfs Silbury Hill by some measure. The question is, how old is Herodium? Who made it? How did they accomplish such a feat? It is undoubtedly highly compelling.  A vast collection of astonishingly well-preserved, incredibly ingenious, complex-designed ancient settlements. Infrastructure, irrigation, agricultural designs with countless others. Often incorporated or accomplished through the creation of precisely executed purpose-built structures with incredible features to accomplish built-in functions of astonishing ancient contraptions. Contraptions modern man has not only learned about through the building of these sites, but thanks to the brilliant condition of much of ancient Peru, the work of the as forementioned polygonal civilization, one of four lost civilizations which we have personally identified here on the channel in prior videos, feats of engineering which enabled us to use identified methods and signature stonework to ultimately verify the work of separate civilizations. Which due to modern belief systems and the profit and control this provides to those who profit from said societal infrastructures is actively hidden by a mainstream academia's morally destitute funding structure. Yet, regardless, these sites eventually deciphered and understood by modern studies. Moray, for example, is an ancient ruin that displays the levels of advanced knowledge that the builders once possessed. These steppe-like designs are also found at Ole Te Tumbo among others, although appearing as the steps of giants were in reality used to acclimatize different plant species, often types of crops, herbs, and food producers to a different altitude to where they were native, allowing this ancient civilization to take food producing plant types high into the mountains. These extraordinary ancient builds, studied by countless talented individuals for many years, have now been decoded and understood in depth, in particular the infrastructure, and the fact that it is unquestionably far too advanced to be publicly claimed as the work of the Incans. Thus, this has culminated in the academic world being forced to not only admit this, but do so in such a way that anyone who continues to press the issue soon realizes it is not only a confession in regards to their awareness of past now lost once highly advanced ancient civilizations, but is a broad categorization of said ruins as pre-Incan. And just like the incredible network of water channels previously covered, which connect many ancient settlements which allowed water to be pumped from places of abundance to places of drought, providing precious water supplies to countless ancient sites, the Yachtails are yet another collection of incredible ancient structures which you are unlikely to hear about in mainstream historical studies. Yachtails came in many shapes and sizes. These incredible builds were once enormous freezers, not only used to create ice and cooler climates, but to store it during the hotter times of the year. These miraculous inventions, from spiral designs, wind tower designs, and ingenious vent placement designs, all assured that cool air would continuously flow into vast underground portions of the structures. This either created ice or allowed ice to be stored and kept in a frozen state for an impressively long time. Refrigeration and the benefits of such were unquestionably understood by the builders of these structures. Yet modern utilization of the same methods of food storage, that being refrigeration via modern technologies, is only a very recent development, with much of the world until the turn of the century still salting meats. The question then is, how did this ancient civilization know about the benefits of cool storage? How did they understand how to build these structures? Where did such ideas and ultimate utilizations originate from? Was this knowledge possessed by an even older lost civilization? One in which the members responsible for the Yakchels were once members of? Yakchels, ancient refrigerators, are undoubtedly an incredible aspect of Peru's ancient relics, relics which we find highly compelling. We have in the past covered a number of the impressive stone age relics that can be found all over the globe. Enormous stone menhirs, henges, and dolmens, nearly all of which have been attributed to our distant Neolithic ancestors. Enormous ancient earthworks, many built with such precision that regardless of the fact that sites like Newgrange, for example, is not only covered in thousands of tons of earth, but also possesses stones used to form its long passageway entrance far into the hundreds of tons, were so accurately placed that the site's entrance, along with many similar sites, are perfectly aligned with the winter solstice, and due to the fact that much of these sites are buried under such enormous volumes of earth, the true size, and indeed undertaking these once were, is still largely unknown and academically underestimated. It seems that for some as yet unknown reason, this supposedly primitive age within the development of the modern man were not only obsessed with solar, planetary, and satellite precisions, but were able to create such monuments with such huge erosion-resistant stone megaliths so precisely plotted within the local geography that they display an extraordinarily detailed level of astronomical knowledge. Many said alignments perfectly depicting orbits so complex that we, the modern man, have only very recently learned ourselves, which has in turn allowed us to understand the coded messages and chart the near-perfect precision behind the motivation of many of the most impressive neolithic sites. Furthermore, not only do many of their sites across Europe display a tremendously in-depth knowledge of the cosmos, in particular our own solar system. But additionally, dolmens, undoubtedly the second most recognizable and abundant of neolithic remnants still dotting the planet, left by people of this enigmatic age, displays the same as yet unexplained ability to quarry, lift, and precisely place stones many tons in weight atop one another, seemingly with ease. These stones display a feat that to this day, regardless of the countless individuals and intellects which have mulled over their existence, have yet to have their placements logically explained by anyone. As such, they remain one of the defining features among countless ruins across the globe that, due to their incorporation into said sites, allows one to identify their presence as the product of lost knowledge and thus lost civilization. Ergo, we feel they are surviving fragments of evidence left by a far more capable, far more advanced, and thus far older civilization, one now lost to history or possibly the work of a remnant of a civilization once capable of much more. Due to the primitive nature of many of the neolithic sites and the stone finishes, they may have been moved and lifted with this lost knowledge, yet they all lack the signature tool marks or finishes of more detailed ruins such as Balbeck or Giza. This observation suggests to us that the neolithic people, although possibly accurately placed chronologically within antiquity, were in reality a surviving remnant of a far older civilization, one which was capable of lifting, building, and most importantly, refining such stones. A crucial detail neolithic ruins lack. It seems these technologies, rather than the lifting techniques utilized by the ancients, became lost and were not within the arsenal of, in our opinion, their possible surviving predecessors, the Neoliths, who regardless of such, still possessed exquisite astronomical knowledge. Many of these sites are rarely explained, they are often simply attributed to a group without any further explanation. And the Evora megaliths are no exception. Claimed to have been the work of humble farmers some 6,000 years ago. These enormous multi-ton stones, which make up a number of sites within a small corner of Portugal, are to us clearly neolithic megaliths. They not only display complex solar alignments with solstices, a neolithic trademark. But two suggest that said stones were somehow sourced, quarried, transported many miles, and ultimately placed in such precise alignments by humble farmers. Stones displaying such a detailed awareness of the solar system and weighing such gigantic weights, we find preposterous. Not only were the weights of these stones far in excess of what the said people were capable of working or lifting. But to suggest so, we feel is clear evidence of conspiracy, a concerted effort to hide a huge chunk of our own history, and indeed what these ancient people were trying to tell all of us, from us all. The question is, why would funders of said institutes want to hide these particular truths? What is the motivation for them to hide such information? Who built the hinges of the Evora megaliths? When did they build them? And perhaps, most importantly, what were these ancient people attempting to tell us? Perhaps one day we will find out. They are, undoubtedly, highly compelling. There are many aspects of history that remain unexplained, many aspects of ancient history that are often overlooked. The mission of our channel is to challenge these views, to encourage critical thinking, for the subjects often at hand require our viewer to, like us, distinguish between that which has and can be explained, and that which is often dismissed or claimed as the work of a civilization simply incapable of such feats. Much of ancient history remains unexplained. This is due to the fact that academia has already attested to knowing nearly all in regards to our past. And as such, anything which does not support this narrative, a narrative of ape to man and as a species having only successfully achieved a level of societal advancement only once, having developed after the last ice age and never before. Anything contradicting this tale of events is either left out of the history books or claimed as the work of a group far too primitive to have completed such impressive ancient structures. Although much of history is ignored and as such successfully obscured from mainstream discussions, the physical evidence remains and is far more difficult if near impossible to keep hidden. It may be easy for academics to ignore such sites, avoiding having to ever explain their origins, but these often enormous stone relics remain for all to see. And if when apply some effort into researching such curious areas of history, as do we, they will not only witness this mass conspiracy to avoid any discussion or popularization of such exhibits, but will inevitably come to similar conclusions as we have in regards to their inexplicable design, the incredible feats these structures once were, and the advancement that their creators must have attained to have ever completed said sites. However, not only ancient ruins are areas of history that remain unexplained, there also exists events documented within permitted history that remain equally as perplexing and seemingly impossible to logically explain, with the Nan King incident being one such mysterious case. On December 9, 1939, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, a battalion of Chinese soldiers was assigned to a two-mile stretch of foothills as reinforcements in the area of Nan King. The commander of the battalion, Colonel Li Fuxian, was ordered to prevent the Japanese from getting out of the nearby city. However, several hours after these orders were given, the majority of this battalion, some 3,000 Chinese soldiers, simply vanished without a trace. What makes this disappearance all the more enigmatic is the fact that to this day, no one has been able to explain where they went, no remains have ever been found, no evidence of them having abandoned the war, nothing. They simply vanished without a trace. There were simply no signs of them ever found, the remaining soldiers who escaped this fate, a group who were guarding a nearby bridge, later reported that there was no evidence of any battle having taken place, something these individuals placed so close to the disappearance would have heard, and the soldiers' guns were all found stacked beside their cooking fires. The question is, what happened to this 3,000 strong group of soldiers? How could they simply vanish without a trace? It remains the most perplexing case of disappearance known to history, and as such, regardless of this event being relatively recent, is undoubtedly highly compelling.