10-25-2011 CC RPT 13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Date: 10 -25 -11 Item No.: 13 From: Karen Doris Wright, 4167 Central Avenue, Riverside, CA October 20, 2011 sent by email To: Riverside Development Committee, Riverside City Council, Riverside City Clerk (for Karen Doris Wright's WRITTEN COMMENTS FOR PUBLIC RECORD for Both the DEVELOPMENT Committee on ITEM 2 and for Item 3 public comments, and also for public comments at the evening Oct 25 City Council meeting ), twodoPkd @yahoo.com SUBJECT: KAREN WRIGHT IS AGAINST COMMERICAL DEVELOPMENT of any part of the 125 acre former Riverside Golf Club site at 1011 N. Orange, which includes properties A, B, and C; NO commercial development should be made adjacent to REID Park. Instead the City needs to maintain this area as Riverside has very limited open space for the existing population of around 300,000 now which is expected to more than double. It is ignorant and short sighted to want to build out over one of the few remaining areas for a diversity of uses for that spaces which is essentially all open space which could include a variety of outdoor uses including sports, natural habitat and open areas, public garden and RIVERSIDE LACKS a single open area to have larger outdoor public events, and this could be the location for that. Also BEFORE ANY SUCH PARK IS FUNDED the CITY OF RIVERSIDE should also put up the entire amount necessary to expand inter Riverside public transit so that it provides adequate transportation around riverside along the major corridors from early morning to late nights so ALL RIVERSIDE CITIZENS, may benefit from public transit, reduce pollution, improve health, and MOST IMPORTANTLY HAVE ACCESS TO city parks, public venues, meeting locations including to this park. The City's practice and pattern of spending monies and public parks, facilities, programs YET DENYING MANY CITIZENS A SAY ABOUT OR ACCESS TO THESE PARKS, FACILITIES, VENUES, PROGRAMS MUST END. .Most MAJOR Cities provide adequate public transportation services so citizens can get around town 7 days a week from early hours of the morning till midnight and thru to 1 or 2 am. RIVERSIDE CITY COUNCIL has INTENTIONALLY NOT provided this service, in my opinion, because the Council does not want "those people" to be able to access all parts of the City or travel downtown. Some of the City Council members have denigrated people /citizens who ride the buses, and the City Council shut down a weekly event on the downtown mall because it did not want THOSE people in THEIR DOWNTOWN as those PEOPLE were not the type of people the City Council planned to have in and around its downtown area. BEFORE SPENDING A PENNY ON The 125 acres for PUBLIC USES such as Soccar fields, the CITY NEEDS FIND and PROVIDE FUNDING NEEDED TO RTA to provide adequate transit service for all of Riverside including to the various sports /park /gardens /open space/ that this 125 acres should be used for. The CITY COUNCIL needs to redirect its focus from SPECIAL INTERESTS /DEVELOPERS /CONTRACTORS and put its focus on WHAT CITIZENS NEED including this BASIC PUBLIC TRANSIT, which by the way is what RIVERSIDE NEEDS to stimulate its econom. Currently a significant number of Riverside residents could not access this park due to lack of intercity public transportation including early morning and late evening transportation. A significant percentage of Riverside citizens have, up to this point, BEEN DENIED ACCESS BY the City of Riverside to many of the park and other facilities and venues funded by the Riverside Renaissance including access from early morning through to late evening and even till 1 or 2 am in the mornings. The City Council, instead of providing basic necessary bus service for its citizens has instead funded and or has voted to pay for frivolous projects and what amount to backroom deals. A glaring deal that the Development Committee approved and which is currently pending before coming to City Council is like promising a half million dollars and two properties and a historic building on the very valuable and heavilv trafficked section of Central Avenue near the PLAZA which I believe to be worth around a million dollars TO