rd good evening good evening my name is april welsh i've been in the community since 84 i was drawn by ucsc raised my daughter here um i do have um a lot of attachment to the environment of santa cruz and what what i was drawn to in terms of living here and i'm also i know that you guys are in a very difficult situation in terms of trying to meet the needs of our community definitely for more employment um for affordable housing for more housing my question is like who is all this housing for i mean my question also is like would any of you want to live there i wouldn't i mean i've lived in a three bedroom house rented rented to students done everything i could to create a beautiful environment for my amazing 24 year old and um these are not beautiful environments for people people need space i mean i think the density model is fallacy you know and i and i know i work with all the low income people through the county i'm an energy specialist for pg and e and um there's tons of areas there's even like apartment buildings that really should be torn down and rebuilt you know it's like why are we doing this in this particular area in this model where it's just going to block out the sun and create not a beautiful environment you know we're a tourist town where you know people are drawn here for the beauty of this environment and this is not a beautiful project you guys it's not i'm really really sad that you would even consider it for a community i think there's just so many other options i think it's i think you're blindsided and also i do have a question too about the number um the number of units i think our city is a way over zealous about that i'm curious to know what watsonville what what are they having to build there how many units is watsonville having to do and isn't there some way for us to be able to debunk what the state is um requiring or requesting for us in terms of the amount of units so and i'm frankly i'm in jeopardy of how many to leave sam and cruise because i just you know it's just gotten so crazy in terms of for affordability it makes me really sad so thanks for listening thank you for participating we appreciate it miss bush one more time hi can you hear me yes we can excellent thank you good evening mayor kealy and fellow council members my name is anthony of skew so and i'm a business agent for the heat and frost insulators local 16 i apologize in advance if uh if my comments are going to sound as i've already i've been echoed by other people but i'm going to speak anyways um here speak in favor of the project tonight is it will bring much needed opportunity to the city of santa cruise santa cruise has a high demand for affordable housing due to the decreasing size of the middle class if this project is built with the possible community benefits agreement it will create these opportunities for local santa cruise residents with community benefits such as local hire our union is ready to hire new santa cruise apprentices that will benefit from a six-figure income paid health care and a guaranteed pension these new apprentices will be trained for free and complete their programs with zero debt these are jobs that do not require any college experience furthermore after this project is completed our union will continue to provide them with work throughout the rest of their careers since these apprentices will be residents of santa cruise they will spend their hard-earned money locally which will boost economic activity if this project is approved and a community benefits agreement is not used your community will get a project built by the lowest bidder with the least skilled and trained workforce available from contractors outside the geographical area any money is earned on this project will benefit outside communities and place the integrity of the project at risk construction workers take pride in building projects in their own community we build with integrity to make sure our excellent work is on display for decades to come we all like to drive by a project and point out to the other people in the car hey look i built that please think about moving forward with this project and give serious consideration of how to best serve your community beginning with the construction phase thank you for your time thank you very much for your participation good evening good evening thank you i have something to share with if you'd give that to the clerk she'll be glad to distribute that thank you i'm going to do this i'm going to start the clock over right because you you handed something out i don't want to count that against your time so go ahead thank you um council and mayor kealy for allowing me six minutes to represent the stop the skyscrapers you would called in and asked for that mid dance i recall i had emailed yes so will i be able to i guess i'll keep track up there okay okay all right first of all thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of a group of citizens that have associated around the phrase stop the skyscrapers appreciate the opportunity to talk here my name is susan monheit and i've recently moved back to santa cruz i graduated from ucse in 86 and i've moved back after a 30 year career in environmental protection water regulation water rights uh this group was formed by neighbors talking to neighbors when i learned about the project the density and the height being proposed originally 22 stories and then reduced to 22 i started talking to my neighbors and nobody seemed to know about what was going on or the scale of what was going on um and when they found out about it they were the stressed appalled very very concerned okay there are many concerns about the project this massive and of this density um although in an eir traffic congestion does not legally have to be analyzed the people who live here know it is will be a reality and would request that that be be analyzed as part of the eir so our core a few um core members of the of the group reached out to mayor then uh candidate mayor kealy to discuss our concerns and share an initiative we drafted to try to give people of this town more of a voice to be recognized whether the group decides to move forward with an initial a ballot initiative will largely depend on whether we feel the voices are being heard and and our considerations being taken into consideration so fred did listen and he has taken action which is number 24 on today's agenda and um i would like just like to applaud new council member newson and and and mayor kealy for hearing us and and taking action moving us in the direction of lower and and uh confined density or specified density that the group wants and in general i would say the group you know is not unified we all have different opinions and for part of the group there is not enough specificity in how many 12 story buildings or where they would be located to uh in amour uh support at this time those things need to be better identified and and should be analyzed as an alternative project in the eir with some more specificity so we know what's talking about there is a big concern here that too many 12 story buildings or not enough space between them will create dense dark canyons of microclimate that is cold and dank and not a place where anybody wants to be i have asked that i have i have passed out um a couple of photographs i'd like to refer to this is from yan gel's book cities for people and as we are going you know going to be building a new city or a new downtown that is a foregone conclusion i really want to empower this council to create a vision that is livable that is desirable for our town and not follow a developer's vision that is designed around maximizing profit in order to fund an arena that nobody wants to pay for so um there are two photographs there one shows some perspective of a town um where massive buildings were built behind it and it's out of scale and out of step the second shows that above five stories people begin to lose connection with what's going on on the ground and they lose connection with community with each other um so i really want to invite this council to create a vision that will be inviting that will maintain a destination location that we currently are and that will create a vibrant economy that is sustainable um when i think of where i want to travel it would be to a place that has ambience and sunshine and that is what i want to create here um and to that end i would like to make an invitation to this city council that Laura Lee who actually owns this book but i would like to give it to the mayor to Mayor Keely and the council with an invitation to flip through it and look at the concepts from this dutch person author and and engage in some conversations with people about creating something that's vibrant and unique that people will want to come to and in just saying we're creating the $1.6 million development here thank you for your time and consideration thank you very much uh in in so far as thank you in so far as many of us don't we have policies of not receiving gifts your gift is to the city correct uh yes it's to the city for everyone we do not have to uh that won't be a gift to us as individuals thank you thank you for your testimony someone else on online here would this be ryan correct good evening sir good evening council uh this is ryan meckel i'm calling in on behalf of myself and santa cruz imbi in support of the staff recommendation and the original plan for 1800 units uh if we want to build a city where people can actually live and build a city where people can live sustainably this plan is a portion of it helps to achieve that i like earlier people said and like staff said this is a play for people want to live right in downtown and if people are living downtown they may not have to own cars they could bike to work they could take the bus to work they could walk to work it's where a lot of the jobs are and it's where the housing should be as well in addition if we reduce the number of units in this area it's going to make it more difficult to achieve a certified housing element because those units are going to have to go somewhere else in the city and as i'm sure you're all familiar with people are not exactly thrilled to have units anywhere in the city you're going to have opposition no matter where you go so i hope you'll stick with the original plan and with the staff's recommendation on this project thank you thank you for your testimony thanks for calling in good evening good evening council and mayor my name is chris sagers i'm a long-term resident of santa cruz and i think people get lost in this house this concept of housing for people um it's it's needed however um there are reasons why high rise sky rises kill the ability high rises separate people from the street activity is best spewed from the street from people you lose contact with people inside a high rise scale is not human scale high rises radically reduce chance encounters and propic equity it reduces chance encounters creating livable cities and connection with people high rises are vertical sprawl taking up too much space and it's inefficient high rises equal gentrification and inequality increases profits for developers expensive the taller you go buildings tend to be luxury units for global investors anything about five to six levels you're looking at global investors that are paying for those extra floors and it's not going to be available to working-class construction workers please people etc number six it's not eco and green they use twice as much energy as mid-rise buildings you're looking at cooling air pumps water pumps that are required to cool and heat the upper floors it's not good for our health deprise people of neighborhood spaces and activities they encourage people to stay inside and imprison people the other problem with skyscrapers pollution more materials increased carbon footprint and substantially interfere with climate causes the taller buildings create heat islands it is trapped between the street and upper floors especially if you're going to have multiple high-rise buildings creates a valley effect creates winds winds hit the taller buildings go down on the on the ground um i'm just second here sure and the buildings totally um take over on the presence of people on the on the street again their energy coefficients and um yeah that's about all I have and I oppose this um height limit amendment thank you thank you for your testimony thank you miss bush someone else online yes we do we have a handful of people yeah mr. sepperman good evening hi good evening um my name is ellie sepperman and i'm here on behalf of the housing action coalition calling in strong support of the staff recommendation I generally work in zana clara and san matel counties but after hearing the attempts to limit density downtown I wanted to offer a regional perspective regionally as we all know we are in a housing crisis and cities throughout the bay are responding by increasing height limits and adding more adequate housing especially downtown and near transit and often the best way to do that is to increase density um and uh Santa Cruz should not be an exception to this rule it is important that we do not limit ourselves in terms of density and um if I have any caveats to the staff recommendation it would be to increase the density that is proposed it was said earlier tonight that you should consider how you want to be remembered and the way you ought to be remembered is a city that encourages all residents to be successful and the best way to do that is to support the staff recommendation thank you so much thank you miss sepperman appreciate your calling in good evening sir good evening council uh my name is bill kemp uh i'm a downtown business owner a dta board member and an architect who has practiced locally for 27 years I encourage the city council to support the downtown expansion area plan eir as it was approved last year the south of laurel district is the best area of the city to rezone it will easily accommodate increased residential density as required by the state housing element cycle and help to expand the city's commercial core the community has rejected growth outside of downtown the corridors plan went nowhere the circle church development was hotly debated large-scale residential development in the downtown benefits everyone more people living downtown creates more customers for local businesses and restaurants they will drive less and energize the streetscape also having the santa cruz warriors here is a privilege and a point of pride they deserve a downtown venue we all can be proud of in eir is a study it's not an ordinance we should study the maximum density possible for this area the planning department did the hard work and outreach to create the parameters for the consultants to review those findings should be analyzed and used to inform the ordinances that will guide the future zoning the largest building volume should be considered most of the current buildings proposed and under construction contain micro units because the financing favors them we need more residential volume so there can be a mix of units that are larger and more appealing we desperately need affordable housing raising the threshold to 20 was the right thing to do but affordable units are incredibly expensive to build i have a 100 affordable local project where each sro sized unit will cost 400 000 to build state density bonus law is the only option to make these high density projects pencil out and be attractive to developers i don't see a way to adjust this law that won't be challenged in court i care deeply about downtown i spend most of my time here i'm invested in it a year ago i moved my office from the outskirts to above pacific avenue i want to live here too i look forward to nice apartments and condos with amenities that will entice me and my friends out of their large empty nests and live a more sustainable and walkable life downtown i'm not concerned about relatively tall buildings downtown when i go to a new city i search out the tallest observation deck to get an overview if there was a place downtown where i could see over beach hill to the ocean i think that would be awesome a varied skyline should be explored throughout downtown not only in this area it is becoming more uniform as each new building is added in closing i i'd just like to say that i'm excited for the future of downtown i'm glad this plan is being presented and reviewed it's an opportunity for progress the locals i talk to downtown want this big big thank you thank you sir miss bush mr misler hi can you hear me good evening yes we can yeah i i think i just wanted to speak to the conflict that we keep running up against here between wanting to serve housing as a commodity versus housing as something people need and live want to live in obviously when we're talking about you know i want you guys to build as tall as you need to build and i need to hold the dialectic obviously here that the reason you're building 80 percent market rate even though that's clearly not what we need and 20 affordable is because that's what the market is demanding of you and investors are leaning into these kinds of demands even though rents have gone up year after year after year somehow they can only still afford 20 percent it just doesn't make any sense there's no way that overheads have increased the same amount as rents over the past 10 years rents have gone up like over a hundred percent so we need to be real about what the numbers we're talking about are and like what we're actually doing when we're like building housing and what goals we're trying to achieve i think if we want to be if we want to hold a better balance we can start to think about maybe building housing that starts out a little bit subsidized but then we give um every single person a section eight voucher for instance until the developer gets some overheads paid off and then you basically set it at a lower rent permanently after that right so you can do things to take care of the upfront overhead over time you don't have to have a bunch of money up front but the fact that we're not even thinking about it this way we're just sort of accepting the idea that developers just need to make a ton of money no matter what and 20 percent is always what pencils out for developers i mean it's like you remember plane tickets used to not cost that much and the problem was diesel was too expensive like what was it 15 years ago then when diesel got less expensive the plane ticket price didn't change that's the situation we're in right this the market is not based on overheads it's based on speculation and so you guys need to understand that and treat it that way and make up systems that sort of operate to counter that problem because otherwise you're not actually helping address people's needs you're just chasing an unsustainable situation that's really just driven by the speculative nature of the profit makers and so i hope that was clear about what i'm talking about i think i don't give a shit about height limits excuse my language but i do care about whether you're thinking about these things in a way that's actually thank you for calling in thank you for your testimony mr murphy good evening good evening everyone um my name is chris murphy president of sanacruz warriors well i just want to first by start out saying hopefully everybody had a great holiday season enjoyed some time with their loved ones and is finding a way to stay dry and safe right now as many you know the sanacruz warriors are celebrating our 10th anniversary season in here since our arrival in 2012 the relationship we've enjoyed with the community with the city and all of its constituents has been nothing short of amazing we've had a lot of success together both on the court and off as well as in the community with the almost 2000 community events we've participated in since arriving we hope to be a part of the fabric of sanacruz for a long time to come we believe this proposal moves us closer to the dream of building an arena in sanacruz we want to make it very clear that we desire broad-scale community support to build a new arena a building which is required in order for us to stay here and call sanacruz home into the future in that context we embrace mayor kealy and council member new sims efforts to find common ground in respect to the overall height density and affordability in relation to the downtown area south of laurel street we recognize that the housing needs of sanacruz are far greater than building a new arena downtown is of importance we especially embrace all efforts to bring meaningful affordable housing to our community that said we're committed to working out the details of the south of laurel downtown expansion plan in a way that meets the city's planning goals the needs of the community the needs of the warriors and to create a viable economic model that facilitates the building of a new arena so that the c-dubs can call sanacruz home decades into the future i want to thank mayor kealy all the city council members and all the city staff for the hard work and effort that's going forth to make this dream a reality thank you have a great night and go warriors thank you mr murphy someone else on the phone good evening we can hear you all right good evening mayor and council members i'm on pomegranate and the downtown plan extension process began some time ago the public was led to believe the south of laurel new development and gentrification process to be comparable to the downtown plan i miss leading this is turned out to be on june 14th of this year the council approved 170 and 150 quick buildings to be analyzed the ir process overriding staff's original proposal of 180 and 220 foot projects now the city led by mayor kealy is attempting to tone down the pending outrage to this overdevelopment proposal a similar outrage and backlash occurred in the history year in the late 1960s when the council approved lighthouse fields for hilton hotel conference center the current staff report pushes back on their team's attempt to ameliorate the fallout from the publicly impalatable height condensing plan currently proposed the staff report puts forward 12 story buildings throughout the area the six plus story building the only known as the taco bell project at laurel pacific fields way out of scale well stories nearly doubles the height of uh and buildings it can't be looked they're not found anywhere in the plan areas proposed in the current staff report unlimited 12 story developments instead of 150 to 170 foot buildings is outrageous and appears to be a given way to real estate and development interest this is almost worse than a few 150 to 170 foot buildings 12 story and taller buildings should remain in san jose and santa clara valley and not mushroom out in san jose try to imagine the process underway and ask yourself if staff's vision is the santa cruse you have come to know and love staff has said the city has no choice but to continue to build massive developments in order to comply with the rena requirements i say hogwash there is major statewide pushback to rena and the city of san jose must join in as well as leave to not only question the validity of the numbers but to roll back the excessive state mandates the eir should be analyzing the project area with 1600 maximum units an accurate project description is required under cqa the downtown plan extension should plan for no more than 1600 units near kealy and county member newson have set forth keep the height density and setbacks the same as the downtown plan keep our local coastal plan intact simply the downtown plan extension should be in line with the downtown plan nothing more at a minimum mayor kealy should be supported in the temple the rest control over the planning process from staff the decision today we have lasting implications and i thank you for calling in we appreciate it good evening good evening my name is kathy haver and i have lived in uh san jose since uh 1969 um and i would just like to bring up a couple of items that i believe have not been addressed first of all the streets that you're planning to build these buildings on have ancient infrastructure the pipes underneath those streets are probably more than a hundred years old i wonder if the city is planning to replace all of that infrastructure if they're not they will have to do that are you thinking about that also the streets are not particularly wide and they're going to have to be expanded to four lanes which was going to do away with all of the parking on the sides of those streets now are you requiring that these huge apartment buildings provide at least a half a space per unit the people that come into xana cruise to live in these buildings it's not going to be local people that live there there's going to be new people that live there they are coming with cars are you making provision for these facts these actualities through its realities or are you just living on cloud nine with all these buildings you're planning to build and my other another consideration is we've heard from the labor union representatives when i drive by the behemoth that they're building on the corner of laurel and front i don't see any trucks with xana cruise construction company names on them i see construction companies from all over central california but i don't see xana cruise construction companies there i don't think there's any way the city can build into these contracts with these contractors anything about union labor my ex-husband was a union member for 40 years most of the construction projects in xana cruise were not union all of the residential projects were never union this is not a strong union town i don't think you can build into these private contracts anything about hiring union labor it will not be built with union labor i doubt it will be built with local labor um the other thing is you are not representing the people who elected you to office you're representing developers from outside of xana cruise and people who would like to move into xana cruise for one reason or another you are not representing the people who elected you and that my my time is up thank you so much for being here thank you for your testimony we've got someone online who's calling in and we can now hear you good evening i apologize this is jesse bristow it's once the builders again um my internet connection was a little spotted uh given the recent weather so um i i don't know where i left off on my last call but um i just wanted to reiterate that um we we encourage uh city council to move forward with staff recommendation of the 1800 units mainly because um making sure we can allocate all those those rena numbers and achieve this cycle um making sure that the city um isn't penalized by the state further where you get certain projects such as 831 water street that was the consensus project because of sd 35 because the city did not meet um the rena numbers and i'll just speak a little bit to um you know some of the concerns and questions about the eir and you know green spaces and articulation and similar to a previous comment earlier you know staff needs to understand the entirety of the build out the highest maximum and then furthermore as the downtown expansion plan those design guidelines are implemented there can be green spaces there can be step backs you know someone spoke to hey this isn't going to be human scale well you can have a building built to four or five stories and then have the remaining stories be stepped back so there's certain articulation and design standards that can be implemented afterwards so um really in a nutshell we need transit oriented development so people walk people invest in um our downtown you know right now we're on a borderline recession um and some would argue that we're in a recession right now and honestly the thing to do is to plan during that recession and to come out on top and ready to have that type of investment where people want to live people want to work and people want to invest in that in the city of Santa Cruz so um thank you for your time and really appreciate um everything you guys are going over tonight thank you thank you for calling back in appreciate your forbearance with us on that thank you so much mr reyes good evening council members my name is chris reyes i work for and at the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk a place i've worked almost every year of my life since i was 14 years old i'm not very close to 14 anymore so it's been quite some time uh we are unabashedly proud to be part of the team that helped bring the warriors to Santa Cruz and we're very proud to be part of the team that's trying to keep the warriors in Santa Cruz and find ways to build affordable housing for our workforce and community members in Santa Cruz and so what's before you tonight is a good and proper calibration of what was done before and i encourage you to continue this ball forward i suspect that as time unfolds there'll be many iterations of this many changes many amendments many opportunities for community engagement on this project and all that it entails and so this is one step in that direction so it's it feels very appropriate and proper as a lifelong community member i want to also speak to the importance of this project and what it represents you know we have this cycle in Santa Cruz that goes back 40 years where uh some elected officials who drape themselves in uh being advocates for affordable housing find ways to vote against almost every affordable housing project that comes before this body i've seen it over and over and over again and we need you to be the council that breaks that cycle because there are real consequences from those actions multiple generations of Santa Cruz residents can't afford to live here they can't afford to buy homes here and the state is so fed up with that that they're basically mandating that we build this kind of housing and so we need to be good partners in that and find a way to end that cycle of generations of Santa Cruz residents kids that graduate from Santa Cruz High Soquel High Harbor High who can't afford to live here it's been going on for far too long and we need you to be the council that says we're going to find creative ways to end that cycle because it's not healthy for our community to have generations of people that can't afford to live here and that have to leave and it speaks to our values as a community that we haven't solved it yet and so we need to find a way to solve that and this type of projects are a good step in that direction so I urge passage thank you Mr. Reyes thank you very much Ms. Bush someone else online um yes we have currently seven more people okay let's go to one Ms. Martin we can hear you can you hear me yes we can yes we can okay my name is Laura Lee and I'm delighted that you're welcoming the book Cities for People it's a wonderful easy read that really highlights forward thinking planning for productive and engaging cities my concern about the plan is a couple of issues is one it's a time of crisis we're in drought flooding emergency services are overwhelmed and thinking of building on the levee an arena and all these tall buildings seems like a backward-looking model for cities more forward-looking cities are more engaged in connecting communities and having people want to stay in places building where people have to sit in traffic for hours to get here and then go to a box and be in a box and then go to another box and then get back in their car is backwards thinking I think we have to I hope that you will engage in the conversation that Susan Monheit requested that the community has more input in forward-thinking materials forward-thinking designs which embrace beauty highlighting the beauty of our town and social and environmental justice these ideas are being broadened out throughout the country there are a lot of resources of other communities addressing affordable housing but are not being forced by developers who are in it for profit to drive the process we're asking that our community speak directly with you to engage in better more welcoming housing than high rises and congestion and traffic we have to address emergency services climate change drought and traffic as a part of building our community and I have faith that you are good people I've met you I believe you are good people and I hope that the book cities for people will shine a new perspective on another kind of conversation thank you thank you very much Miss Shendl Decker good evening hello again everybody um so first I want to um express my solidarity for the people who have spoken from the central labor council and the building trades that um that a community benefit that's agreement is something that's really important to them about this project and from what I heard and learned from them when campaigning was that we actually really need a project labor agreement or ordinance that covers the entire city um you know it's not just about this one zone or this one project but the entire city having a standard set for wages benefits healthcare encouraging local workers to have those trucks in the the building yards that are more local and not from hours away also to have more oversight so that there's not wage theft and abuse of subcontractors so that's one thing I just want to mention um I'm hearing a lot in this discussion and it shouldn't be any surprise but it's just echoes of the same conversations we've been having other people have brought it up there's this kind of built-in tension between labor affordable housing needs and environmental issues and um I do think that we we just have to compromise when the conversation gets ramped up with judgment about what's right the right and wrong way to do it and you know I hear it from people on all sides of the community you know we're gonna get us ourselves into another pickle with ballot initiatives and people just yelling at each other and hundreds of thousands of dollars just wasted on advertisements that nobody wants so you know I would like to encourage everybody on all sides from all perspectives to just really like keep the humanity in in this that we're all trying our well most of us are trying our best um you know given that we live in this system of neoliberalism for 40 years like yeah this is where like Reggie talked about you know it's not because people are nimbies who hate others coming into their neighborhood they hate they don't hate affordable housing projects but we we also don't want to see simply exploitation and over building to line the pockets millions of dollars over years and years being taken out of our community that's not what people want either so um and then I was surprised that only one other person brought up um the catastrophic flooding that we're experiencing right now and how high the water got to the top of the levee and putting like a billion dollars of big buildings into a flood zone and I'm done I was just getting started sorry okay sorry it's just um I'll write a letter to the editor to flesh it out more but it's just it's a lot of investment and we are in a crisis we you all voted this this afternoon to approve um like a grant application to study climate induced flooding from the river but then you want to build in that very floodplain where it hasn't been fully studied so I just like I'd like to just like maybe pause on the project thank you thank you very much thank you someone else calling in Ms. Lewis you are up wonderful um hello council members my name is Portia I am a community member and uh employee at housing matters here in town um I do not support the amendment to the proposal and I urge the council to support the original proposal I feel like I've heard a few strawman fallacies presented throughout um a lot of the other comments um supporting this project will not lead to the demise of Santa Cruz beautiful green spaces it will or our tourism economy or um will it turn Santa Cruz into an unappealing place to live as we know a lot of people want to live here um when I moved to Santa Cruz from Berkeley I was shocked with how unwalkable expensive and disconnected Santa Cruz feels um as a recent graduate from UC Berkeley I studied climate change and potential solutions to um reducing our environmental impact increasing the density of our buildings creating more walkable neighborhoods that are connected to commercial spaces and to transit support local jobs Santa Cruz's local economy it reduces the need for commuters to drive in um and these are all solutions to reducing emissions and but preserving our green spaces and reducing our environmental impact um higher density buildings more walkable neighborhoods reduce urban sprawl and if there's more housing maybe rents will be less inflated as a former former speaker asked who this housing is even for well as I mentioned I work at housing matters a nonprofit that works with people experiencing homelessness here in Santa Cruz County I specifically work with families primarily single mothers and their children who are experiencing homelessness um the majority of these families grew up in Santa Cruz or in the surrounding towns I can personally tell you that this this housing is for human beings who need a place to live um and because there is little affordable housing the majority of these families and as noted by other speakers recent graduate and generations of Santa Cruz members um relocate to the surrounding areas such as San Jose Salinas and Watsonville which are uh less attractive places to live as mentioned by the people who really enjoy living in Santa Cruz um and it's also really safe here uh and I've attended other city council meetings where I have not heard people advocating for the empty home tax as one solution to increasing the amount of housing I also did not hear uh people fighting against the giant hotel that's being built downtown um so again I'm in support of the original proposal and it birds the city council to support the original proposal I do want to add an additional comment that I do think we can think innovatively about what this housing looks like I urge I urge the council and planners to look into resident cooperative housing developments where people share common spaces and resources which would further reduce the environmental impact and increase um of the density thank you so much for your time thank you very much anyone else with us this evening in chambers who would like to make comments on this item seen and hearing none miss bush how many other folks do we have six okay and uh elizabeth you are up good evening mayor kealy and santa cruz the council members elizabeth madrigals speaking on behalf of the modernary modernary bay economic partnership and as a resident of santa cruz and that supports moving forward with the downtown expansion plan expeditiously and we urge the city to continue studying the 1800 units that have been evaluated in the eir since 2017 and that has been actively tracking and supporting efforts related to the downtown expansion plan especially those that create significant new housing opportunities the expansion area creates a unique opportunity to plan for more much needed housing and one of the most sustainable sites in our region for growth given its close proximity to jobs transportation and other key resources the identified area for expansion of the boundary of the downtown plan incorporates a development scenario that could potentially include 1800 housing units which would greatly assist the city in re in reaching its increased six cycle rena targets of 3700 units by 2030 it is critical that we take advantage of this expansion by adding more housing in this prime downtown location thank you all for your leadership in addressing this pivotal opportunity to provide more housing and other key resources to the community thank you very much appreciate your testimony is bush who is next mr kelly good evening sir hey thank you so much for having me and thank you uh mayor and council and staff um so i just want to put into context a few things that are kind of down the down the pipeline beyond just this housing like i mean i don't know if i have to tell you that there's homelessness um there's high rents there's overcrowding when people have to live many people to to to smaller and smaller places because there just aren't enough homes and long commutes whether those commutes are from coming up into sander in the valley down into the city to work or if it's coming from blottsomville monorail county further out to come and work the jobs that are in the city of santa cruz but leaving those aside which i think are actually much there's a much greater need than the current rena number is and so these 3700 homes we have to build arena of which a large portion could come through this downtown plan extension you're still gonna have to meet but i think other other calls have pointed out that if you if you don't pursue large during this one you're gonna have to do it somewhere else and i think what's important to kind of keep in mind as we go through the housing element process is you have to show that you're gonna realistically add capacity to other sections of the city which is great it helps us to affirmably further per housing right means we can put more housing near or to other jobs on the west side um closer to campus um and i think it's just in order to both finish our housing element and be able to get the pro housing designation but we we need to be able to show good faith effort in pursuing that and not just because we care about numbers on a page and we want to know keep keep the wheels turning but because we want homes for people right you know we we are currently producing less homes than we graduate from our high schools we we are currently having trouble hiring people to come and work essential jobs within the city we are having trouble hiring enough people recruiting and retaining people to work in our schools like just ignoring the rest of the the rest of the jobs that are available and what and what people really need here there's a lot of untapped potential and and where we have not chosen to lead and say we need to solve this problem we need to solve it now so that's all i want to leave you with you get to make a decision on it and it really just means are you going to have to make more bigger decisions later or do you make a big decision tonight thank you thank you mr kelly miss bush miss falkner good evening thank you so much mayor and council uh we must ensure we house those people who work in service to our community our nurses police janitors bus drivers teachers and others who do not earn the high tech wages that have been a big part of our housing increase of price if we are to address our environmental crisis we must grow our housing with easy access to robust public transportation if we were to have a thriving vibrant community as we grow our housing upwards we must include in all of these developments community spaces that encourage people to connect with their neighbors the street life other kids and visitors within the community we need to ensure there's a strong interaction between the people in the tall buildings and the street life and ensure integration of young people and elders people with disabilities people from a variety of income levels as well the united states has a long history of growing tall projects that fail to thrive because city governments and developers fail to create beautiful environmentally smart community connecting urban designs i support more housing infill and upwards development but we must look at urban design plans that serve to improve people's lives and invigorate our community connectivity we must also include urban forests and community gardens encourage safe active and public transportation to decrease our terrible impact on the environment primarily due to an automobile centric country jane jacob's was an important role model influenced wise development principles which stress that our community must have a foundational role in how our community has grown and developed how we choose to develop our community in downtown should entice anyone to come and visit and want to stay it is critical that we invest in safe walkable bikeable streets traffic violence has skyrocketed over 70 percent over the past decade and additional 30 percent in just the past year or so we can either prioritize speed of cars or safety of our most vulnerable people in our community walking and biking on our streets so i do urge the city council through these developments to work with the dutch bike embassy the community traffic safety coalition ecology action and the rtc to ensure that our community further as our community further grows santa cruz implements the best safe streets infrastructure available finally as we remove the homes of the people who live in this area to make way for new housing structures we must offer current residents comparable or better residential accommodations at comparable rents so that this growth does not result in inequity for the current members of our community living there we must prevent new development units from becoming empty second homes or money-making vacation homes for the one percenters ideally i think mid rise four to eight stories is far more reasonable in terms of creating naturally interconnected integrated communities that invite all of us to walk sip coffee talk together meet new people encourage our kids to bike and play with friends thank you for your time thank you very much miss bush mr davis hello can you hear me good evening sir good evening um i'm a downtown business owner here in santa cruz and just a couple hours ago i was talking with one of our senior managers um a key individual within our business about tonight's meeting and she said i want to show you something she took out her phone and she pulled up zillo and she showed me that there is exactly one apartment listed on zillo for rent in santa cruz that is a two bedroom like the two bedroom she currently occupies that is less expensive than the apartment she currently occupies one listing and she said this is the problem there is not enough housing if i want to move i have one option to pay less than what i'm currently paying and it just put it all in perspective for me she's you know a lot of us who have housing we don't realize just how challenging it is we don't go to try to get the the one listing and show up with a crowd of other people that are competing for that same spot and i just want to encourage all of you not to limit the potential for the housing um in this area that that's being looked at um you know i i have feelings about height um i can see both sides of that but where i think it's really important is that that we not put a cap on what can be studied for the the south allura rural area because there are just so many people in our community that that need a place to live that's all thank you very much thank you mr davis thanks for calling in mr shonefeld good evening good evening mayor and council um my name is raffa son of the feldin because it's popular to talk about our credentials speaking this evening i grew up in santa cruise i've lived i'm a homeowner and i've lived in santa cruise for over 30 years um i just first i wanted to say that i support the staff recommendation for this evening to continue with this project without changing the eir i think it's really important to make sure that we are uh uh moving forward in the most expeditious and cost effective manner and that's that's proceeding without changing the eir um earlier this evening someone mentioned that they uh there would be community outrage for tall buildings you know uh i i support tall buildings i i i like having tall buildings in my community and makes them a more walkable place to live especially in the south of laurel area where hopefully we'll be connecting within walking distance to light rail at depot park you know that's uh the the rail trail plan is a really popular thing that the vast majority of folks in our county voted on and if we want to support uh you know trail rail projects we're going to have to have people who use the rail the rail projects um and and that means having having folks who live within walking distance to the rail corridor um i can't imagine a better place to put more housing than downtown santa cruise um rena is coming uh lots of folks this evening have mentioned the over 3700 units that we have to plan for and and it's it's always complicated and challenging to agree on where we need to build housing in our community but one place we can agree on is that it needs to be downtown uh that's why i support as much housing as we can politically feasibly build downtown um you know someone else mentioned that uh that you know we're going back to this outrage thing uh i support tall buildings but you know what i am outraged about i'm outraged that at my high school reunion this summer the majority of folks who can afford to remain in santa cruise who are my classmates are either doctors or lawyers or inherited their homes we don't have uh uh housing for for folks with working class jobs uh like uh construction workers or or or frankly the folks who who work downtown and we need that in our community uh you know we need to have to reduce the commutes that that are working class neighbors in watsonville are having to come into the city we can do that with light rail we can also do that with more housing downtown um that's that's really all i wanted to say tonight um i support the staff recommendation it's the right thing to do we don't need to change course at this point thank you miss bush we have one more and they weren't unmuting themselves so we'll try again okay the phone number and there we go there we go we can hear you welcome thank you very much it's jillian greensight speaking um i think the main um topic is uh whether to accept um mayor kealy and council member newson's amendment so i just like to say it straight up that i feel that council should support that amendment i think it was an attempt to respond to some of the concerns of the community at what is put it mildly a dramatic difference in uh heights in our town uh which is still a town in many ways uh but since people have so i would um i urge you to support that uh it's going in the right direction although my preference would be three and four stories but we're not talking about that now about preferences i would like to just comment on um some issues other people have brought up mr rays talked about uh he he was aware of many councils i maybe he just said councils but councils who had voted against affordable housing and that you would set a new standard of voting for affordable housing well i've been involved in local politics in santa cruz for 40 years and uh i can't recall a council voting against affordable housing i think that's just um a statement that is inaccurate and sets up a sort of an attitude um or maybe he could state which councils that has been um i don't recall that i think councils have really supported affordable housing next point is about the jobs and housing and none of us can be against such things especially affordable housing on opinions and preferences it has to be based on science and there is research that is done by um out of san francisco i'll just wait till the mayor is able to focus thank you market rate houses um and 80 percent of this whether it's of 1600 or 1800 is market rate then that creates the image of affordable units so when people say oh this will provide housing for our local low income people you're creating a whole new surge of low income service workers that are not going to be housed or the current ones won't be housed so you need to look at that and lastly since time's running out the rena numbers are driving a lot of this there are cities that are suing over rena numbers because they've been shown to be inaccurate become one of those cities so we're not beholden to these uh inaccurate numbers thank you thank you miss anyone else no matters back before the council i'll recognize council member newson for a motion i make a motion to accept the report i'll second that we are going to let me be sure that we're clear on this so what you've just done is moved the second part which is item 24.2 to accept the report and consider the information we will then following that we will see if there is motion on 24.1 but we will take up 24.2 there's motion a second is there debate or discussion you look like you want to tell me something sir i i believe the intent was to move the recommended action for 24.1 well then that should have been the motion is that your motion that's your motion okay with the second yes it is matters back the uh there's a motion a second under debate and discussion miss newson would you like to open on your motion you know we've heard a good bit of community feedback tonight i will say that you know i believe the support this plan that that we are put forward is a good faith effort to try to address some of the concerns that are in the community while also working towards building more housing building for more affordable housing thank you for the debate or discussion miss conantar johnson thank you um thank you mayor keely and council member newson for bringing this forward and as council member newson mentioned earlier this was the direction we were we would be heading so i'm glad that you were bringing it here so we can memorialize it and find this middle ground that is more acceptable to some members of the community um i also want to thank those who showed up here tonight and those who called um to express um your thoughts on on how we should move forward as we do need to grow as a community and i want to thank the staff there were some comments that were made tonight that were bothersome to me towards staff i think staff has done an incredible job of balancing what has been put before us by the state the rena numbers didn't appear out of nowhere they were they've gone through a process they were vetted the numbers may not be what we as a community are ready for or want to see but that's what's before us and i really want to commend staff for doing your best in um bringing forward to us um your recommendations of how we can achieve those numbers um just a couple of other comments um and and i will be supporting this motion i think this is a good way forward um we heard a lot of folks talk about um climate change and what we're seeing in our recent floods um this is climate response we've heard some people speak to this best practices are to are to create walkable communities get folks out of cars and um and have people live work and play in one area this is a very specific climate response that has been implemented throughout the world and throughout this this country so um i see this as a step towards our community being responsible while maintaining the integrity of why we're all here right we're here because this is a unique and special community we want to preserve that now how we do it is has to be we have to consider um very thoughtfully what's before us we have to consider thoughtfully the direction that we are mandated to go whether we're where we'd like to or not um and um the steps that will get us there so i'm kind of rambling it's been a long night but um i believe what you have put forward and what you've brought as a middle ground is climate response and it is providing housing so i'll i'll be happy to support this when we come to a vote thank you councilmember brown thank you mayor thank you to all of the members of the community who have spoken to us tonight written letters been here for these conversations ongoing uh i appreciate hearing from you all and um and i heard a lot of things tonight that um i've i'm familiar with uh the arguments and many of which i share um i thought i would make a few comments about why i am supporting this uh given that i am uh perhaps one of those council members who mr reyes might be referring to who votes against a housing project i um i am a big supporter of affordable housing and one of the things that i have really tried to champion during my time my six years on the council is to increase the affordable housing stock as we continue to bring have projects come forward that are market rate projects we can't stop those um we have some say in the how they are constituted um and less so with new state law has been mentioned um but we have an opportunity here to actually um create a framework for including additional affordable housing units um yes 20 percent of uh you know a total number of units in this area is uh means that 80 percent are you know unaffordable um and that some of those affordable units aren't really affordable to very low income people but the more that we can do to leverage those opportunities um i believe the better off we will be within the context of this bigger market context that does entail gentrification and displacement so i'm really supportive of this in large part because of the 20 percent uh inclusionary goal and the idea that that is going to be something that is um that is um inclusive of the density bonus units um you all have heard me talk about this uh over and over and over um this is a really big difference between the initial proposal um that the council um approved i believe um in that regard if just for that alone this is a huge difference so um you know and i won't say repeat all of the concerns about um you know the the future and you know what kind of vision do we have i think miss uh monheit said um you should plan your vision right it's not entirely my vision but it's a vision that i can get on board with under the circumstances with all of the competing needs interests and laws that have um uh created the the current realm of possibility so um thank you for letting me hold forth a bit thank you council member let me ask if there are other comments by council members a couple of comment mr butler thank you for the staff report on this and for the previous consultations on this i think what it does what your staff report does in conjunction with council member newson and my agenda item is that it lucidates the following concept which is that we are sort of kind of in control of our own destiny if we were sitting here 10 years ago we'd be having an entirely different conversation and i think where you stand depends on where you sit knowing the state legislature pretty well that where they said they believe rightly or wrongly that some communities at some times far too many for their liking the legislature's liking and the governor's liking have said no so many times that in their way of thinking it forced the state's hand on reaching beyond what they had customarily reached to california is a home rule state it's less so today than it was three years ago and it's less three years ago than it was eight years before that you're helping me with something aren't you thank you i appreciate that whatever it was you just did i'm sure it was marvelous and and i think that we can be fairly critical in a fair manner critical of what the state has done in certain regards of one of those is that in his uh in his first years governor for the third time governor brown was facing a very significant deficit in the state's general fund billions and billions of dollars and he realized at that moment that it was impossible for him to prosecute any other part of his agenda and the legislatures if all they were dealing with was the deficit and go on a going forward basis and so what the governor did and and and i understand why even though i don't like what he did he swept off everything he possibly could that was impinging on the state's general fund and part of that was to sweep 1.7 billion dollars off the table of redevelopment funding available to local governments in part to be able to build the affordable housing that both local communities wanted and the state of california wanted when the state got into multi billion dollar surpluses we do know that there was no conversation in sacramento about remember when we took that 1.7 away from local governments maybe when we've got a 50 60 90 billion dollar surplus maybe we ought to sweep that back off the table over to them or you know what we'll do we'll give them a successor agency in some form or fashion that'll do the same thing they didn't either of those things and then in my opinion blame the victim for not getting enough housing built so i can have my issues with them but where you stand depends on where you sit from where they sit that makes sense and when i sat there that makes sense but that was 20 years ago and that wasn't part of the conversation then but when i sit here now what occurs to me is that there's no less of an imperative to build housing in general and affordable housing particularly and so it occurs to me that given how much authority has not been ceded to the state government but how much authority has been taken by the state government this was not something we asked them to do we didn't ask them to take away our land use authorities or to turn us from a home rule state into a state government controlled land use state we didn't ask for that but we are where we are with this and i do think that that i believe that it was all very positively motivated when this council the previous council actually and this city government made the initial proposal on what to do south of laurel i think that was a very well motivated set of decisions i think what we found out in the ensuing roughly 12 months is that that doesn't have purchase in the community it's just not going to fly in the community it's too much it's too tall wasn't enough affordable housing and so on not because this council wanted it to be that way or the previous council wanted it to be that way just out turned out and so i think that having a reset at this point i've said this to some of you privately there's a consumer product and i have no idea what it is used for it is called head and shoulders shampoo i have no idea what this product is used for but i do know that that company had the really smart idea of branding their product with the following slogan you don't get a second chance to make a first impression i don't think that first impression work very well out there in the community frankly i think we contrary to that advertising slogan do have a second chance to make a first impression and tonight this council action will help us do that this is the beginning of a second start it builds upon the good work that the city has already done what they directed staff to do with regard to the environmental impact report and the california environmental quality act very important first steps but by doing quite a bit more than simply course correcting by having a second chance at that first impression i think we are much more likely to get where we want to go now what you've done mr butler i believe is said without any ambiguity at all that the state is more in charge of what we do than they've ever been in the history of the state of california and that if we want to have their goodwill in dealing with us going forward we can say that what we want to have is 12 stories 20 percent cumulatively affordable housing and uh some number of units and you and i don't have the same idea but i think you're right on what we should be studying in terms of the units i would like it to be capted 16 i understand your argument why it should be 18 and i'm going to vote of that but i do think that the second opportunity we were not going to have a third one or a fourth one to do this but this is the first step in that resetting of what we are managing towards and i think what you have done is given us a clear eyed report that says if you reset this at 12 stories 20 percent cumulatively in 16 to 1800 housing units there are in fact ways to manage towards that the shortest distance between two points may not be a straight line on this in fact it is unlikely to be a straight line on this for those three objectives but there are paths to be able to get there understanding that we are in a weakened position relative to the state but we are not powerless here we still have considerable land use authority i want to thank the folks who testified here tonight in person the folks who were on the phone thank my colleagues for their good work on this mr butler mr huffaker thank you both you've been quite helpful mr kandadi very helpful in figuring out the multiple reddings of multiple needles that got us here tonight thank you for that let me ask if there are further comments i want to make very clear that we are voting on what i think we are voting on sir the motion that was made was uh corrected to be item 24.1 correct sir that is correct the recommended action so we are going to have two actions tonight we'll do this then there's going to be a motion to accept the staff report on this separate and apart that is correct seen in here hearing no further debate or discussion the clerk will call the roll councilmember newson hi brown hi what can i um councilmember brunner has disqualified herself councilmember calentary johnson hi vice mayor golder hi and maricule hi hi chair will entertain a motion on the subsequent item on our agenda item 24.2 i make a motion to accept 24.2 is there a second all second motion by councilmember newson second by councilmember Watkins is there a debate or discussion seen in hearing none excuse me i'm sorry yes please comment thank you just want to make sure um when we do the eir and the 1800 units will we do a comparison between the 1600 and 1800 thank you councilmember calentary johnson yes i would anticipate that we have an alternative that evaluates um not to the same level of detail but to a level of specificity that would allow us to understand the differences between the impact studied at 1800 units versus those that we would see at 1600 thank you for the comments for the discussion clerk will call the roll councilmember newson hi brown hi Watkins hi councilmember brunner has recused herself calentary johnson hi vice mayor golder hi and maricule hi the motion carries in so ordered let me ask if there's further business to come before the council this evening seen and hearing none motion to adjourn is in order mr golder moves miss Watkins second this body stands in recess until january 17th 2023


Pepsi Cola, P-E-P-S-I, that's your smartest cola by Pepsi Cola presents counterspy parting counters by calling Washington especially appointed to investigate and combat the enemies of our country both at home and tonight the case of the murdering messenger another counterspy report to the American people brought to you each Tuesday and Thursday by Pepsi Cola that's right you heard what they said to full glasses of sparkling Pepsi from one big 12 ounce bottle you're getting an extra glass full and what a delicious glass full the most refreshing delightful cola that ever tickled your taste you can't top Pepsi's tangy flavor and that big big bottle saves you money goes twice as far Pepsi's America's big big favorite and America's biggest cola value so why take less when Pepsi is best whenever you reach for refreshment remember why take less when Pepsi is best and now to counterspy in espionage the penalty for mistakes is death every member of the guilty spiring is doomed by its faraway superiors yet the sentence is rarely carried out by direct means the watch words are concealment and mystery in the city of Detroit a small branch library stands in a quiet side street one morning a young man with eyes alert entered the building and went to the main reading room excuse me miss yes sir I want to turn this book in Julius Caesar's commentaries and the original Latin yes quite a student mr. Argyle Caesar was quite a boy are you taking out another book no I'm leaving Detroit very soon good bye and thanks a lot goodbye mr. Argyle I beg your pardon yes sir I was looking on the shelves for Julius Caesar's commentaries but it doesn't seem to be there no it's right here our only copy was just returned a moment ago do you want to take it out yes please here's my library card Harry J Peters from Peter his counterspy field office Detroit to David Harding Washington have just received coded report from counterspy George Argyle operating undercover inside foreign spiring in United States code used alternate word and line transposition what are your orders I'm flying Detroit immediately the Harding this is the original message our guy left to me in the library book disguised as a letter home thanks still addresses me is Aunt Bessie here's the decoded transcript Aunt Bessie thanks junior dear mr. Harding trouble ahead last night the only man in the spy ring I ever saw was killed in a car smash out on Woodward Avenue a fake accident there was an accident even a man was killed what's more I've been ordered to leave my job in the turbojet factory here and go to Memphis Tennessee I think the superiors of the spy ring now realize that someone has fed them nothing but false information for a year I don't believe they know I was the one but evidently all members of the ring are to be moved around fine I don't like that either Peters we still don't know who the other members of the ring are it may be getting dangerous want to pull our guy out and lose three years of our work and preparation still I don't want our guy to be left entirely alone in Memphis this Aunt Bessie worried definitely our girl adds here that he'll be at the hotel Lee Peters brush up on your southern accent you're going to be there too mr. Argonne yes I'm the hotel fire inspector oh come in good to see you Peters any news Argonne I got this postcard today in the Southern Beauty Tourist Bureau Memphis guided tours of historic Southland see monuments and battlegrounds of the war between the states special feature visit the High Mountain Caves you'll notice that last one is circled in red ink the High Mountain Caves and notice here in the schedule of tours yes another circle of red ink around the date Thursday 5 p.m. obviously that's when my next contact with the spireings to be made look on down I'd better join the group too I think that'll be too risky Peters those tourist groups aren't very large whoever the contact is will take a good look at everybody well how are you to be recognized my name is known to the ring I'll simply give it when I buy my ticket for the tour then I'll just wait and see what happens now folks we're pretty near finished our tour famous High Mountain Cave seen a beauty with select types like my kind of scary to a one more little demonstration before we step outside again into our lovely southern evening this here underground river we've been following from one of these caves to another ends right here you see in a deep well a chasm leave me tell you the fella that falls down here ain't never come up see this rock I'm gonna drop it down now you have to listen hard here the splash ready there she goes well that was that now if you'll be so good as to step to the exit there the bus will return us to Memphis and to your hotel it's here's one two three four five six seven excuse me folks wait out there just a minute one of our members seem to be missing here I'll locate it I'll be right out hey mister good heavens my friend you've been stabbed guide get me to a doctor quick but the night don't pull it out but I must otherwise how can I finish you off for good that's right mr. Harding and was my fault I should have gone right with our guy no matter what he said all members of the tour have been questioned except the guide he's disappeared so he must have been the murderer but they there's one way to make sure let me take our guy's place first to squib in the papers that our guy was only wounded second I'll enter a hospital under his name all right let him Dave that's exactly what we want you said mr.  Argyle when I read in the papers of the attempt on your life in the high mountain cave so I came straight here to the hospital I'm surprised if I may say so to find you alive receiving visitors it was only a flesh wound mr. forgive me mr. Argyle my name is Anthony Blix BLIX the tri-state travel agency the reason I was so anxious to see you was to give you this your river steamship ticket from Memphis to New Orleans the one you ordered through our office oh yes yes of course the boat leaves on Tuesday mr. Argyle there would you be able to travel I think so if I take it easy I'm delighted will I be seeing you again mr. Blix the world is growing so small mr. Argyle I wouldn't be at all surprised oh by the way we were unable to get you a cabin entirely to yourself I'm sorry to say you'll have a cabin mate goodbye to Aunt Bessie from nephew Argyle first contact me to Anthony Blix of tri-state travel agency Memphis next contact may be somebody on riverboat to New Orleans thank you Stuart put my suitcase down here then you may go I beg your pardon good morning what are you doing in this cabin my ticket says I was booked in here why you lying down are you ill I'm recovering from an accident ridiculous there was nothing ridiculous about it I mean you're being booked into this cabin when I was booked in here too obviously a mistake obviously I'll have myself move right now no no no it's easier for me you're halfway settled already I'll ring for the steward buttons right here thank you I'm sorry mr. Argyle I'm sorry I was angry my name is Valerie Arden are you going to stay in New Orleans after we get there that's hard to say how about you I live in New Orleans mr. Argyle even though I'm English it's not girl I have your next instructions yes on reaching New Orleans you'll see a man named Avery L Clark River Road number 821 yeah tell him I sent you and say that you're applying to the job he has opened in Los Angeles clear clear there's a steward just a minute Stuart well mr. Argyle I do hope your fever's better it was a knife born a knife but gracious if I had to kill anyone I'd use poison or a gun wouldn't you knives so well so uncertain aren't there to Aunt Bessie from nephew Argyle boat contact made by one Valerie Arden next contact in New Orleans Avery L Clark 821 River Road man Bessie on arriving New Orleans regent given room 484 I will be there with Lieutenant Fabian of New Orleans police see you tonight nice to know you Peters or Argyle which is it Peters will be safe for Lieutenant Fabian in this hotel room anyway any news mr. Harding well I've ordered a complete checkup on that man blicks back in Memphis Peters I expect to report very soon about Valerie Arden Peters she really lives here in New Orleans runs a high-toned gift shop about Avery L Clark all we know is that he's in the sugar business well Dave Valerie Arden said I'm to talk to Clark about going to Los Angeles well I think that's just talk Peters I'm pretty sure now that every member of this spiring is marked for death by its own employers abroad Clark may try to kill you I'll have to take that chance Dave Peters did either blicks or the woman act like they suspected you're not the real Arger no Lieutenant but the guy who murdered our guy in the caves would know I'm not the right man well that's the big risk Peters the blicks and the girl have somehow been warned by the murderer are just leading you on now when you to see Clark the longer I wait the bigger the risk I think I'll go right now 821 River Road well what is it what is it well don't stand there on the porch gaping I'm sorry may I ask who you are I'm Mr. Clark's housekeeper come from Oklahoma and I don't like New Orleans and I don't like the riff it comes to see Mr. Clark see him you want to see a guest yes my name's our girl well come in young man but don't expect me to announce you is in the living room you can go right in and out yourself all right thank you and tell him not to ring for drinks because I got the bacon to do Mr. Clark yes my name's Argyle come in I met a Valerie Arden on the boat from Memphis she says you need a man for a job in Los Angeles now I got somebody's trying to wipe us out tried to get you a Memphis didn't they you see first you now me you you know who's trying it what individual no but death for everybody that's a high command's wave punishing failures look at that double window behind me one pain is broken three bullets did it ten minutes ago those three bullets are now in my back what yeah you need a doctor that's no use I'm going to die whether you're my friend or my enemy Argyle never sit with your back to a window you better get out of here you'll be caught for my mark Clark say Mr. Clark about the bacon I got to say you what's the matter with him he's dead he was murdered murder he's all blood you murdered him you're a rap you murdered him no I didn't listen I want you to call the police me if you didn't kill him why don't you call him where are you going getting out of here get now you're murdering a friend but you won't get away with murder I'm calling the police and I'm talking from the whole stuff you're murdering a friend hey you what you're under arrest buddy there was a murder you under arrest are you the police yeah me and my friend here come on where we got a car come on snapping I'd like to see your credentials credentials papers to prove your police sure hey banks sure what do you call them credentials as a credentials buddy come on Bing we're taking this your guy for a ride back to counters by in just a moment but first pepsicola hits a spot two full glasses that's a lot lots more value lots more zest why take less when Pepsi's best more and more among fellows and girls among mothers and dads you hear that sane and sensible question why take less when Pepsi's best no budget no allowance ever had a better friend than tangy sparkling pepsicola because one big 12 ounce Pepsi bottle gives you two delicious drinks that's twice as much tangy taste twice as much delicious Pepsi to go just twice as far that's why more and more families say why take less when Pepsi's best yes families like yours and mine families all over America they're all saying why take less when Pepsi is best pepsicola so delicious and each bottle makes two drinks it is certainly the cola for the purchaser who thinks everybody's drinking Pepsi just compare it with the rest so much more and so much finer why take less when Pepsi's best today tomorrow always get America's biggest cola value take home a carton of six big big Pepsi bottles insist on Pepsi at the store and say Pepsi at the fountain say Pepsi at the stand say Pepsi whenever you reach for refreshment remember why take less when Pepsi's best and now back to counter spy it is late night on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain outside New Orleans a house with all blind shut stands secluded behind a grove of cypress trees and inside the lonely house well mr. Argyle I must say you took a long time to recover your senses oh this Valerie on you the one who hit me on the head good gracious no mr. Argyle that was Bing for your information we're in my house and both Bing and George are in the very next room that's interesting brought along some brandy I thought you might need it how about you oh I don't need a drink I haven't committed a murder meaning Clark who did it you me you know better than that your men must have been watching Clark's housekeeper said you did it so you grabbed her too you work fast I couldn't afford to have a screeching all over New Orleans neither could I until I was sure her screeching was useful useful you're a counter spy aren't you mr. Argyle if I were a counter spy I wouldn't have shot Clark out of arrest him wouldn't I Clark told me somebody was trying to wipe all of us out is that you crazy not anymore he's dead but it's a wild idea that's really fantastic who's next blix you saw blix and Memphis didn't you in the hospital yes but you were in Memphis too you could have arranged my little nighting you could have shot Clark tonight mr. Argyle I think I will have some brandy with pleasure thank you you're really scared aren't you so I guess it's not you who's trying to wipe us out it's blix mr. Argyle why couldn't you be the one sent out from the home office to get rid of us all if I were why would I have stabbed myself back in that Tennessee cave wounds can be faked wherever you knifed yeah in the side right there oh it's very tricky at me that I've made sure you were knifed yes haven't you it knocks out your theory of my being the official killer but not of your being a counter spy maybe you could fool blix alone or me alone but not the two of us together suppose we settle that now tonight how blix is way up in Memphis oh no he arrived here in New Orleans this morning and in a few minutes he can be here we can find out whether he murdered Clark and whether or not your account is by I shall phone him mr. Argyle meantime have another drink hearty speaking go ahead let's hear lieutenant we saw Peter's come out of Clark's house fat man grabbed him and took him away in a car did you follow oh we lost him on a tear at the house found Clark shot no but I'm on my way to your headquarters with a report on blix from Memphis he was the one who abducted the real guide in the caves took his place and murdered Argyle they didn't catch him in Memphis lieutenant he's probably here in New Orleans right now and he's the one who knows that Peter's is a plant we've got to find him and stay close to him or Peter's won't live out the night how exquisite you look as always hello blix waiting for you and mr.  Argyle I wasn't aware that mr.  Argyle as much as I trust you and how much is that if Argyle is to be trusted then who tried to kill him who murdered Clark blix have you been sent here to get rid of us all I heard a car outside for your men in the front room why don't ask them about the car please trust me go and see very well listen Argyle don't waste a second both our lives dependent I know you're not really Argyle I've known since I saw you in the hospital in Memphis I realized then that my game was up so I sent you along to meet Valoran Clark purposely as evidence of my good will you are a counter spy aren't you what if I were I'm ready to tell you everything you want to know about this spy group in exchange for your letting me go free so you're the man sent out to wipe out this group the information the real Argyle sinners turned out all wrong all of us are supposed to pay for that you don't add up blix if you've been betraying your own friends by exposing Valerie Arden and Clark to me why did you murder Clark a shrewd question stronger or whatever your real name is frankly I thought it best at the last moment to make myself look good both to my own people at home and do you whatever happened I'd have a good story to tell smart boy now if you're really a counter spy let me go free I can save us both from this woman those two plug-angles if not I'll have to kill you now did you really hear a car outside of course not what's your answer I'm sure I hear a car maybe two you're evading my question mr. Argyle that means that you're not a counter spy as I see I've made a mistake that's easily corrected with a gun drop your gun blix the house is around it drop it blix got it mr. Harding sorry that was so close Peter all right now how about the woman Lieutenant Fabian these men are out front they've already got her and her two gunmen and here we've got the murderer of Argyle and of Clark haven't we Mr. Harding you mistake me I just made an important offer to this gentleman here a full report blix I'll make you an offer you give us that full report and we'll see that it reaches the government that employed you they wanted this ring wiped out now you can report complete success with some help from the counter spies when your friends drop in be generous but be thrifty to serve plenty of delicious Pepsi Cola Pepsi's big 12 ounce bottle gives you not just one sparkling glass full but to get a carton of six and serve 12 delicious drinks yes Pepsi is America's biggest cola value you get twice the tangy taste twice the refreshment twice the Pepsi so why take less when Pepsi is best whenever you reach for refreshment remember Pepsi cola hits a spot truthful glasses that's a lot lot more value a lot more yes why take less when Pepsi's best tune in every Tuesday and Thursday same time same station to counter spy listen next Tuesday for the exciting counter spy case of a cold-blooded professor the secret seller that hid the mysterious inventions of a calculating killer the dark patches on the square film that indicated the suspect would visit a certain type of store and the hit-and-run victim who used a leg hook and kick to catch the carrier of vitriolic acid off God that's next Tuesday's counter spy make sure to tune in to case of a cold-blooded killer on counter spy tonight's counter spy program originated in New York was directed by William M. Sweets and featured Don McLaughlin and Mantell Kramer with music by Jesse Crawford counter spy is a Phillips H. Lord production for Pepsi cola enjoy some Pepsi ice-cold tonight