Greetings friends,

It's time to dust off your keyboards, and get some letters going to Council and the City. Ramona Bishop has mobilized her students and parents to send in 200 form letters to City Council members, so if you want them to hear a different point of view, it's time to speak up by either calling, sending in email, and/or speaking at Council. Part of why the Planning Commission voted to approve the Elite permit was that Bishop literally bussed in kids and parents to fill the Council chambers. Yes, it's political theater time. Sadly, Bishop is framing this as either downtown or nothing, but with the number of vacant schools in Vallejo, there's no reason we cannot revitalize downtown AND have a new school. Here are some ideas:

* Vallejo has One Downtown, but Many Vacant Schools. This is a key concept.*

-- Yes to a school, not that location. There are 2 if not 3 vacant school campuses to choose from.

-- Why do we have to choose between revitalizing downtown vs having a new school? Locate a school on a school campus, it's better for everyone.

-- The office building does not provide the outdoor space and exercise area students need. Also, the inside space allowed per student is less than half what the CA Department of Education recommends (20 sq ft/student, vs 45 sq ft/student.

* The Downtown Specific Plan is still the plan of record, and is also referenced in the General Plan 2040. The City of Vallejo says they plan to update the Downtown Specific Plan, but they haven't yet. Also, we would make more progress if the City merely *invested in implementing the plan* vs redoing it. Did the plan fail, or did the City of Vallejo fail to execute the plan? If the City enforced the vacant building ordinances, we'd have a difference downtown.
-- The Planning Department and the Planning Commission do not have the authority to override the Downtown Specific Plan or the General Plan 2040. They are supposed to evaluate projects according to the land uses and zoning codes allowed by those plans.
-- Both the Downtown Specific Plan and the General Plan 2040 reflect hundreds of hours of community input. 
----The Downtown Specific Plan was developed by a 50-member planning group over the course of a year. 
----The General Plan 2040 was a 3-year, multi-million project that entailed more than 30 community workshops, and was led by a 16-member General Plan Working Group. Much thought and community effort went into these plans. To revise them would require community input and review.

*  City of Vallejo completely ignored the Downtown Specific Plan, which specifically says that schools are not allowed in the Georgia St Corridor. This is a breach of public trust, a dereliction of duty. See enclosed chart.

Dereliction -- the shameful failure to fulfill one's obligations.

*  The Downtown Specific Plan calls out that area to be an Arts & Entertainment District, with ground-level retail & commercial, upper-level residential.

*  The vision for downtown is a lively area 24/7, one that draws visitors from the waterfront into town. A school will freeze activity. Further, high school students do not have the disposable income to patronize shops and restaurants. 70% of Elite's students qualify for free lunches.

* Restaurants and bars could be limited by requirement for 600-foot buffer zone. Existing businesses might not keep their alcohol license when they sell.

* Vallejo will soon have 3 new sources of tourism in town:  the Yoche Dehe cafe & visitor center on the waterfront; the Connolly Corridor hotel, shops & restaurants on Mare Island; and the berthing of 4 historic ships from the Hyde St Pier on Mare Island. In short, on the cusp of having new sources of visitors and tourists, we might deal downtown a death blow. This is called snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, a classic Vallejo faux pas.

*  Some have said that Berkeley High School creates a lively downtown in Berkeley, but they overlook that UC Berkeley is the true driving force there, with 45,000 students, 23,000 staff, and 2,600 faculty. That's more than 70,000 people with way higher incomes than we have in Vallejo. In comparison, between Touro and Cal Maritime, Vallejo has 2,300 college students, and at the Vallejo campus for Solano College, a total of eight classrooms.

LETTERS TO COUNCIL AND THE CITY NEEDED!

PLEASE send a note with your views, feel free to use this update in your email, call the council, and attend the City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 23rd. Meeting starts at 7pm, but I encourage you to show up at 6pm if you want to speak and get a seat.

1) EMAILS FOR REACHING MAYOR & CITY COUNCIL:
Convenient block of emails to copy & paste into your email program:

Mike.Malone@cityofvallejo.net, Robert.McConnell@cityofvallejo.net,
Rozzana.Verder-Aliga@cityofvallejo.net, JR.Matulac@cityofvallejo.net,
Mina.Diaz@cityofvallejo.net, Charles.Palmares@cityofvallejo.net,

Peter.Bregenzer@cityofvallejo.net, Tina.Arriola@cityofvallejo.net

2) PHONE NUMBERS TO REACH CITY LEADERS:
City Manager, Mike Malone (707) 648-4576
Mayor Robert McConnell (707) 648-4377
Vice Mayor, Mina Loera-Diaz, District 3, CC, (707) 649-7716
Rozzana Verder-Aliga, District 1, CC (707) 648-4134
Jr. Matulac, District 2, City Council Member, (707) 648-4132
Charles Palmares, District 4, City Council Member, (707) 648-4133
Peter Bregenzer, District 5, City Council Member, (707) 648-4131
Tina Arriola, District 6, City Council Member, (707) 649-7711
CC= City Council Member

*************ONLY ONE DOWNTOWN, BUT MANY VACANT SCHOOLS!*******