Community and Economic Development Subcommittee

Call this meeting of the Community Economic Development Subcommittee together at 5:01. First item, public comment on non agenda items. I dont see anyone from the public here. we'll move on to item number two. The Marina referral incentive for removal I’ll handed over to Olivia Ortega to walk us through that. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss a few of the items in the agenda today Mayor Banales and Vice Mayor Killings how are you guys doing and City Manager Garrett So the incentive program is a pilot program that we would like to introduce just to generate more marketing efforts to discuss the availability of slips that we have for the Pittsburg Marina. So the reason for the project programs is just incentivize members to refer other boaters to Pittsburg Marina as their home port. Nobody else knows other boaters, but those that do have those as a pilot marketing strategy plan. The goal is to partner with support and other boaters in the community to raise awareness of current vacancies and attract customers. The Marina Referral Incentive Pilot program publishes The Yachtsman magazine and the Pittsburg Marina Current newsletters to attract the target audience. Other marinas that have implemented similar incidents have drawn discussions with new or current boat owners or in the market to dock their vessels. Further research into search incentive programs will result in the discovery at the Marina meetings and marina surrounding attractions. Similar incentive programs have been adopted by other marina, such as Berkely Marina and whenever they learn that boater refers a friend to Marina, each individual in their case receives a $250 off of their next month's dockage fee, which is equal to about $200, a drop on the spur of the referral. It is similar to what I am proposing, which is that within three months of the person being referred to the marina, the person that referred it will get the $200 off its benefits. So the proposed program details no additional staff classes required information submittal. The applicant must complete the Pittsburg Marina Mooring Agreement application and provide all that necessary documentation to qualify the boat to dock at Pittsburg. Marina. Provide the first and last name of the individual who referred them to Pittsburg. Marina. Current Pittsburg Marina Members may also contact the Harbor office to notify us of the individual that they are referring to is by Marina. So the description is credit only to Pittsburgh. Only those current members can receive the referral credit. The referral must stay at this marina for three consecutive months to receive $200 referral credit. There is no monetary value to the referral credit. There are no limitations in the number of the referral credits. The credit will be available as often as the current member refers an applicant to stay in Pittsburgh Marina for three months or more. Pittsburgh Marina Boater referring must have an account in good standing to receive the $200 credit on their account. All members who have stayed three consecutive months are qualified to participate. The 200 credit will be reflected in the members account on the first day of the fourth month to keep a record of the referral payment. It will be reflected in the Marina Ledger 5000 referral on 212203 associated with the advertising and promotion group code. As this is the pilot program, the Marina staff recommends reporting back to the Community Economic Development Subcommittee every year to discuss the census results for the Marina's revenue growth and vacancy rates. Speaking of rates, what is our, you know, our occupancy, our current occupancies, only 62%. So we usually cover it in the last decade or so, between 70 or 70 and 80% for there's a lot of reasons why it goes down. But Olivia came up with this program, one, because she's seen it elsewhere and seen it successful and to word of mouth being a very, very powerful way of marina information getting around the building community, this kind of dollars off for referring your friend and getting your friend to come be a fellow boater here is kind of right up the alley. Seems like it would be pretty effective. But at the same time and you guys are it's very common for people to sit in Pittsburgh has a marina. And what a beautiful marina. Oh, it's a gem of the city. So kind of encouraging people to encourage others to get here, we think would help bring those vacancy rates down. So we're just requesting feedback from the subcommittee on the proposed guidelines that the Marina referral Incentive program and feedback will be noted and considered for corporations in the program, which we would like to launch. I'll just first, so we're open for any suggestion of feedback for you. My first question was the vacancy rate. So appreciate that. Do we know if all the other local marinas, neighboring waters are dealing with the same type of vacancy rates? I guess most of what we see in any type of trend or we haven't done anything ourselves about why our vacancy rates are looking as. Everybody knows the cost of living townhomes has gone up nationally. So the boating she's been affected by that. So the individual doesn't have disposable income. There's there's not that many places have disposable income. There will be people that want to slip these for a boat and those that do have disposable income in their luxury items, such as a yacht. We'll know other individuals with yachts as well. And that's going to target people that were trying to travel. But they are all at the marina, are experiencing a lot of laws and regulation changes in our Delta waterway, the species target species, striped bass and sturgeon. And at the moment they are Department of Fish and Wildlife has shut down sturgeon and identifying sturgeon as a species. So we're really down to one species. Also discouraging a lot of voters to be fishermen to get their boat out. Not only that, but also the cost of fuel is gone up. So our industries are affected by not just spring learning, but throughout the nineties and zero. Typical terms of I guess the are birds, the Marine and there are certain demographic diversity like a remote stream from Pittsburgh. And are those people come from Solano County other areas that are getting worse at our marina. Is it simply just people who like to fish in their corner share more about people more? So do we have like that type of breakdown or the type of voters that are utilizing government there over the Bay Area when we do have the fishing derby make the registry spreads through Casco Balbi and as a cheaper so Sacramento seems to have to be I wouldn't say a majority less time take a look at the list was maybe two years ago but the majority was not from Pittsburgh. But there are it's more like 20% from Pittsburgh, 25% from the Antioch area. And then they get Walnut Creek out of the country, San Francisco. Yeah, Danville, more inland locations that don't have more of themselves than what we asked America. And you would say, well, we're going to be marketing incentive programs if there is anything that provides insight. As far as what we're targeting, folks, I'm not necessarily advocating for this, but it caught my eye was like 100 Delta Transit bus the other day, and it was for any operator. I was like, okay, Al, no effective of me. I have a boat. So I'm I'm sort of doing it. But nevertheless, it caught my eye I got rid of or something like that. So going back to Germany, the incentive program, I don't have an issue with it at all. It is laid out and it's just the way I got to low hanging fruit or trying to, you know, adjust the vacancies that we have. Like that is definitely held only to those that are currently in good standing. So I appreciate that detail as well. But overall, I'm supportive of incentive program and really supportive overall what we can do to try to raise the rates and address the vacancies because so this is going to be a $200 credit. Is it against fees or is it almost sort paper? So the most lucrative of the $208 from us, so significant in terms of the 204 or one. So do we do we haven't anticipated I mean, I know it's hard because you don't know how many people are going to take advantage, but is there like a cap or if we had a cap rules, you know, stop the program, or is it program that it's not going to be too popular? We we haven't suggested exactly There hasn't been in your feedback where cap would be taken into consideration. But like you said, it's difficult to predict how successful or just program will be. Pilot program. There's other incentive programs that have been developed out there that you may have heard of. For example, we went one month, you get one month free. There's another incentive program. But, you know, I don't know which one will be more popular than the other. So just trying to see how this is going to play out first and then requiring three months stay, you lose 200 that you gain by it, and then that hopefully more. What we could certainly do is set a sort of, you know, one year duration, which we're coming back to. And so for me to say this is working or it will improve the needle, but we can also bring it back center vacancy rates or occupancy rates to possibly its 75%, whichever was between 70 and 80. And then quickly come and say, you know, it's working now, do we think it's cost effective beyond us? And certainly the feedback and the subcommittee on it's been people will be ecstatic if it's been six months and suddenly we're seeing an influx that would really do both time and percentage In another thing, that would be the folks that got referred and how long are they staying past? Three months and that's another one. And maybe better are to come report back quarterly just because seasonal the you know, if I'm only interested in funding, I'm only going to bring my boat and take advantage of that in the winter season and you know several are being recommended to report some influx of changes in occupancy because of being for that. I have some want to jump into that next one. So the next item is also a marina item department boating the waterways, pump out grant, providing sewage, pump out facilities. The marina significantly, significantly reduces the harmful effects of discharging sewage from boats into the water, either from portable toilets or those pads from the City Council. On November 21, 2022, adopted the resolution number 20 2-14125 to authorize the city manager to execute a grant agreement between the City of Pittsburgh and the Department of Swimming and Waterways, which is known as DPW. Therefore, an application for funding to replace an 18 year old pump out was submitted on May 20th, 2024, and a grant was fully executed for the work city of Pittsburgh Municipal Marina Pump out installation Grant. So the total project cost for the replacement and installation is to 3105 and $0.30. The match is 75%, so $7,526.38 would really be the cost to replace the 18 year old pump out. So the general is there general lifespan about 12 years. But also with this pump out, we've encountered some several maintenance issues already with the switches, the motor. So it really is good that we're having one new motor. They're building it right now. And so a newer model is not only just going to replace the motor, but it's also going to replace the two station that's right there on the fuel dock. And so exciting for them to be part of those costs about especially maintenance costs and people really look for that service here. It's very sizable because it's right there, but if you will, docks only just to get fuel and on you have your sometimes so when it's passed to them. So it's a lot of the learning that they provide to the voters the questions, comments, resolutions on the award and working orders and repairs service and expense. But this marks one of the marinas. I mean, waterfront didn't help with this grant at all. So this was led and spearheaded and written and obtained all by Marina staff, which is Chairman Gordon, Congratulations and as always, impact for ourselves on that because we get an incredible amount of grants. It's amazing to. All right, Sarah, I don't know or some of the presentations were pretty. All right. So while things matter out, this is not all the presentations, but I started. So the city is going to be a co applicant along with Contra Costa County, for a focus on California. The Governor's Office of Planning and Research Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Programs, Adaptation planning grants and the development of the Contra Costa Resilient Shoreline Plan. What's the important piece here? The Dr. Costa Resilient Shoreline Plan aims to organize and coordinate local shoreline resilience plans for 4x4 Resilience Project visioning, and then foster lots of community engagement and develop partnerships in the path forward for developing coastal and climate resilience. So why are we a CO applicant? Traffic and status increases Pittsburgh's ability to weave and prioritize Pittsburgh's specific projects and priorities into the plan so that we can serve our most impacted communities and continue to combat the the impacts of brownfields on our waterfront. I think it was also great timing and we just updated our general plan and our adopted our first sustainability plan. So in alignment with both of those as well as our state lands, rented lands status, we can prioritize projects that where I feel like the list doesn't end or from infrastructure like our breakwaters that goes beyond the marina. The marina itself docks, sheds creeks in areas where sea level rise would cause overflows, land grabs. But also, as I mentioned, the brownfield industrial sites that we do and don't know would be able to get some thought around resiliency there at the wharf. And I say wharf, but could mean works depending on how things shake out. So so with that we can plan and assess our vulnerability in all of those areas for strategize and scope the actions and then come forward with a way to take actions. Having this kind of plan in place will really help us with funding requests. Whether they come from grant applications that we submit or earmarks that we request through different offices. So it's good to have these kinds of assessments in place. And as organized by a strategic plan. So the contract guys actually already submitted the application in June. They are going to announce grant winners. And this grant is a maximum of 650,000 or just a planning grant in summer. I'm going to guess September because they are focusing on starting the two year grant term by January 1st of 25, usually takes about four or four agencies to take a look at the applications received and give awards. So we look forward to hearing something this summer whether that not we're going to I just want to add that we did have in 2023 January two storms. We had a lot of issues with the black box. So we had great programs about this. Yeah, and I really appreciate you bringing that up. Actually, I have some order of magnitude cost estimates for not only what some of these fixes for Watershed Docks like and all that stuff would cost, but just the assessments, conditions, assessment. So in 2022, we prepared conditions, assessments of the breakwaters, the shed and the energy industrial work. And each of those cost us about 85,000. Just to assess that for project deflection. No, no, to fix them range. I mean, the breakwaters in 20 $22 10.6 million to address just the marina breakwaters, sheds and docks. They split out sheds and docks. So this seemed a little bit more manageable but cool. And we are not in need of a full marina revamp at all. But in the hypothetical situation where we would be 80 million, cruel 80 million, and then updating the wharf, the energy wharf, and we talked about different modules for use, whether it's the open space module would be about 6.7 million. That would just be remediation and removal of nonfunctional pieces all the way through kind of a commercial recreational use where you've got the Santa monica Pier idea, 42 million fall in 20 $22. So think that was a large grain of salt. But yeah, I to bring that up and I see that other jurisdictions are interested in partnerships so are they also all co applicants or they're looking in the future to really use that like I can get that information. I'm not sure what each where each one landed on the status there, but I can ask you as just a side comment, but that was a lot of millions of dollars or if we can somehow plan whatever is a separate bond like that and build in funding and just say, Right, but I can't. Robert, you have a we have different I think your clients do like that. Yeah. So if we don't already entertain yes we set aside the original sort of pay off in our Did you and I are looking at other ways to finance potentially one of the points with the day like development without paying in to at least maintain that word because it appears to me that we're can utilize the programs as much as possible, the ones that allow you to spend funding on other people's property right. Otherwise, any questions on the very long title of grant are some. Now we're ready for the show. We had our annual Green Footprint Festival in June and it was a smash. We had 130 attendees. That's the highest number of venues we've had since COVID or we had a shutdown annual event for three years. We stopped, we had 19 vendors and some new ones. We had one seed face painting for the first time. We had a petting zoo as well, and those were we were trying to get people drawn in because telling them, we're going to teach you about sustainability isn't always the draw. But we were excited to welcome to New Attractions, essentially, and the Clinica was a new participant. Let's see who else was new? We had the electric bus from Pittsburgh Unified and actually the the driver and the mechanic of the bus reached out and said that it was a highlight of his year. And every day he's under the bus. It's hot, it's uncomfortable. He's fixing it and just spending the day watching the kids climb on the bus and all that kind of stuff was really exciting for him. So we were excited and we had busy with a juggler. It was a new guy. This year. I don't know if you've ever gotten to see Ruxin juggling, but it's basically a juggling act where he works in sustainability tidbits and all that kind of stuff. And it's going, is the crowd going And the kids really love. There's a petting zoo. So I wanted to give a special thanks to Parks and Public Works. They were at the same time as the festival. They were fixing the carousel and the train and they did a really good job communicating with us. And I wanted to give a shout out as well to Anthony and Zula in Environmental services for completely changing the site from the day before because the vessel wasn't done. But so it was great and we look forward to next year. And any other questions about the that I know is summertime. So school's out or is something that the school district helps promote I guess prior to or too they're pretty busy at this time. So this is Pittsburgh's Earth Day celebration. We have a dog birthday celebration in April for a long time that it's getting the vendors and getting the other volunteers. They're out there already are committed to other events or throwing their own events this year. The event actually happens on the same day as graduation, We said or before there is a release. It always happens the day after the last day of school kind of gives parents something to do with their kids that are no longer in daycare for whatever reason or out of school. We definitely did have a roundtable with Matt Belasco to talk about better scheduling or kind of avoiding graduation next year. And we got to find the conclusion that June is a good month. People are looking for something for their kids to do. And maybe next year. It's not the day after the last day of school, though. This coming year it will be a Friday, which is kind of exciting. But we will keep that on our assessment list as we go to schedule. And no other questions, we will move on, baby. Sara olivia to item number six, and I'm going to hand it over to Robert Ferrara to talk about the Chamber of Commerce, the contract for this coming school. Thank you, John, for some. Thank you. It's one of the few things the business over there has that's evolved over time. All right. Being the mayor and Vice Mayor Parker, loan manager, I'm here to present on the post school services for the Chamber VIP contract for fiscal year 145. So just a quick overview back nearly seventies City created a business improvement district or theatrical short and the purpose was to fund activities that promote the promotes the city's retail trade activities and public events. Funds are funded through an additional tax levied on a business license and annual business license renewals. The Chamber has long received funds to conduct VIP activities and to help us achieve the goals of the city, which are highlighted here in the next slide. So straight from our business School Code Order states for the proposed use of the ADR and they are for decoration of any public place in the area. Promotion of public events which are to take place on or in the area. Just one day when the code describes the area, we're talking about all city limits, furnishing and music in any public place in the area, and the general promotion of retail trade activity, street area. And the reason why I wanted to show you this is in thinking about writing the scope of work for this agreement, the goal was to create a scope that seeks to achieve the purpose and the objectives of this. And considering how the Chamber can help us make those goals, they've done so for years and years now and we staff, we continue to believe that the Chamber remains a good partner in helping us achieve our goals. With that said, next slide, please. But these are the four proposed activities we asked the chamber to conduct in this year's bid contract. The memo goes into more specific detail as to what we're asking the members. This will be located in the contract where it is first house activity and also what deliverables we are seeking for each of these tasks, starting with the first one social media outreach and promotion. So we're asking this task that the chamber utilizing social media accounts to promote the public events, retail activity and businesses within the VIP area and other political speak, we expect on the percentage level rate of one post per week at a minimum, and to also achieve a growth in our social media following overall in-person networking events, we believe the Chamber can be a great catalyst to facilitate in-person events that are geared to help with forum, to promote networking fan relationships, and promote the businesses within the area. C will participate in these events, provide updates on city activities. While they're primarily oriented towards business, these events will be open to the public to attend and other deliverables. We are expectation is that the chamber coordinated plan coordinated that hosts a minimum of one networking event per quarter e-commerce guidance and assistance. So in terms of promoting retail trade activity, at least the, you know, really the next step beyond the physical limitations and what really can take any sort of business to the next level is having a great online presence and being well versed in e commerce. And in this agreement, I will I am proposing that the chamber helps us in becoming themselves subject matter experts in helping other businesses enhance their e commerce capabilities. So some of the tasks we ask them to become to learn more about the subject, become subject matter efforts, and in return help businesses enhance their e commerce capabilities, we ask them to reach out to a minimum of ten businesses, specifically targeting businesses who are looking to expand their e commerce presence and to all support networking for relationships with the various e-commerce platforms with wholesalers, distributors and anybody else and the like. In terms of being professional in the online e-commerce network. And then lastly, one, and we're also very familiar gravitating events. We ask them to cook according to the philosophy of attending events at the request of businesses within the area, they'll be responsible for all types of activity. Speech event along with the promotion of these events shall be open to the public and free of charge for businesses and to attendees. And we don't have no set minimum of attending events, but it's our expectation that they promote this service to any business. And as a city, we're willing to help them to let them know, hey, this new business is looked and so know reach out to them and see if they're interested in advertising then. So this is the proposal that will work for the chamber going to this fiscal year. The contract of Round Springs, the same as it was the previous year of $30,000 to help them with achieving this task. And I turn it over to the two subcommittee for any questions, comments or feedback. Appreciate it. Appreciate the background. You may have been a year ago that we were looking at essentially about how to remap the idea in terms of this focus on necessarily the contract with the chamber, but just overall in terms of the building program, that's something that the chamber that we were still engaging with that I was looking at and I guess once again looking at the background of this broad declaration and promotion of public events, it was like this really what the I guess focus of the big idea is that we want it to be. So I thought that for me it was this ongoing conversation. Yeah. And then two, if we did want to change the scope of the would be idea, that's something that has to be voter approved is going through. It's pretty broad in the municipal code, which is refreshing. And it certainly goes from what landscaping improvements and so on the likes of other components. But we have used the idea for this for design, for marketing. So there was a lot of focus on not just as I look at these for an address, more like events and music, like, okay, but outside of that, looking at the scope, I am very appreciative of the e commerce focus. I think that we've seen that need in terms of the online presence for the local businesses, which are mobile platforms. As far as selling, I know the chamber is a small organization, so in terms of the deliverables, not not being too stringent there, but I would say reaching out to ten businesses, Is there just a we gave you a flier, we sent an email that said, you know, e commerce or is this something substantive? Some businesses went through some type of webinar training introduction to e commerce. I believe it's the latter. And we can tie that up a little bit more. I think that we as you mentioned, the chamber is a small transition, but I think we have a lot of faith that the Chamber CEO is not one to just add a flier. So very much I'm sure that that will be something that we can work with them to specify with more clarity. And then what the in-person networking is, is in addition to regular chamber mixers or is this that can count towards I think that we would be happy to allow them to count. Those are what we have here when we say we want them to be open to the public. I don't think we anticipate just having public coming off the street, but we would like to encourage them to allow non chamber members to either register or attend. I believe it helps the chamber to maybe see and promote some of their offerings, but also to allow more businesses to come in. So we're not just focused on the chamber members, we're focused with any business within the area. But I would be wary, frankly, of requiring or even having too many events. I don't think there are mixers that have been as frequent as they would have liked. So if they want to count their mixers for these and meet our specifications, you know it's it's open subcommittees recommendation, it's not the council's approval. But I think staff recommendation would be to a lot of know no argument and definitely it wasn't we were just open and that's definitely fine as open with the social media. I'm fine there I guess if there is a possibility to add, I know we did it last year. We talked about it when there's a certain business week or month that, you know, really highlighting businesses. I thought that was very successful when we did it. And if there was an opportunity there, maybe coordinate that and maybe have that in there, or if we feel that we can continue to do it. But just. Yeah, no, I'm sorry. No, no, I just thought of that concept and that idea as far as a great way to highlight local businesses. And you had brought that up back in May. And I think that that's really something that we need to do. Unfortunately, just like the Chamber, we struggle over bandwidth. And so I think that this is an opportunity to work with the chamber to utilize a little bit more of their time and some they need to do to work with them. But I think that we'll still be very involved in those so we can sort of help regulate, but they can assist us with either identifying businesses, coordinating the pictures in the calendar and stuff like that so we can make it public. So if they do, yeah. So just looking at the sort of dollar amount, I mean, it's like 30,000, right? So I guess is this the best way to utilize 30,000 to achieve our economic development goals? I don't have an answer. I was just asking the maybe Merritt and I got a little bit closer to what the vice mayor had asked when his initial comments a couple of years ago. The chamber did bring refocusing and unfortunately with their small organization and just lack of time and our lack of time, I think it's something that has been significantly longer than we had anticipated last year. We were able to do kind of an audit. And actually what that led to is also going to find a significant balance within our visit that we're now utilizing. That funding also is used to support the seafood festival. So I definitely think that that is a but also a long term ask for perhaps something to work on this next year. Is this directly tied into our economic development strategic plan? Perhaps. Obviously, I don't nothing here is a specific program or implementation measure of our economic development strategic plan, which eventually would be us implementing our economic goals, in my estimation, with the chamber's savvy and what they're doing. I think that as we go through this next year, we work on some of these things. We need to do a better job of identifying exactly what those strategic planning goals are and asking them to choose which goals they might be able to meet to better implement our economic development goals. If that's something you want us to investigate a little bit more before we bring this contract forward, to be more than happy to do it. I guess I just want to voice their concerns that, you know, the chamber does only have, you know, two two employees, one of those part time employees. So we want to make sure that this is something that's manageable and that we are supporting the chamber as we have. And that's the council. Yeah. I mean, I guess I'm just looking at the next item right in your office on improvements and that's a very tangible outcome. And so $30,000 can make a dent there as well. And so I'm just trying to balance like, you know, are we just saying let's just essentially give the money to the chamber for what they're already doing, right? Or are we actually moving the needle when it comes to investing these dollars towards something that that we can see a difference right. And I guess the question is really what is the direction of the chamber like? What are they hoping to accomplish? And if they're down to very few staff, like where where we going? Right. And is it the right decision to invest the 30,000 there or do we move it to somewhere else? And it doesn't have to be in this contract, but it's something we should keep in mind. I mean, I know. Yeah, it's probably not the best time to do it right at the line, but starting that conversation back up would be good, just to understand. Okay, where are we headed? What's the point of the chamber? And is this the best way to use it? The 3000? Or should we do it for sort of for events or these subsidies? Right. That's another great program that we've seen a lot of return on. So I just think we have a lot of opportunity cost that's on the table. Thank you for that, Mayor. I would like to propose then is before we bring this to council, perhaps including something in here with Robert working, with the chamber to prepare a report to answer those questions about working the subcommittee throughout the coming fiscal year to identify a little bit more. What's the function of the chamber is going to be with the city and what type of programs we want them to implement before we enter into a contract or a subsequent fiscal year. That is something that the subcommittee would like to see. You know, something I appreciated Robert and Sean doing even the parts of downtown where the idea, you know, looking at public areas is certainly we've heard about about once we one but finding out it doesn't always have to be downtown but maybe along railroads on the southern. Are there other types of small specialized landscaping efforts that I think make a big difference just driving down? You see them at least in the downtown one. That's just a nice look. Can you add a few more or, you know, and how do we work in a third party contractor just goes through and maintains them. You know that is one. How much was up? 10,000 or 13, I think. Or that's for the putting them in and the plots several trees landscaping around the ironworker statue. Yeah. So speaking about maybe working with the subcommittee, you know what maybe we have 25,000 because we have a 100 220,000 a year roughly. And you identify the site certainly as a very tangible as you said, maybe there's some specific landscaping we want to get, you know, between Leland Downs somewhere, our road and we try and do just sections. But again, over time that will be adding a much more robust return for the business community. Then, you know, some of the activity that we could have done is not, I think, what you laid out or is out of this conversation there since most of that this fiscal year, in my mind, I thought that that's what the revamping of the the idea that we were kind of refocusing towards that. So I'll have any quarrels as it was shared or is where we are right now and for about 30,000 would really look at overall with the building And then once again I think it's already been shared a source of relationship with the chamber to assert that they are making the highest and best use of it is always with the conversation. And so that was sort of done this year, sir. And thank you, man. We will definitely do that. The other side of Robert, I'll start sharing on this. Yeah, I'll go ahead and get into seven economic development updates, starting with our first item discussed in the memo without being able to sample the land grant program. As we close out this fiscal year from the launch of the program February 1st to June 30th, we approved a total of eight applications for a grand total of $72,800 in grant funds to fund or possibly a little over $83,000. And those were recent. And then you can see the three listed here that had been approved, one is 372 or what avenue or Fellows Barbershop. They're looking to add a mural and at two sides to the exterior of their building. The other is the 646 and seven Cumberland Avenue. By the 19 group, they're looking at an awning and solar powered exterior lighting to enhance security at the building. And then the other one is document market. At 94th Street, they're looking to add a new awning to paint the front wall and entryway and buy portable planter boxes that would be stored indoors at night with approval of these grant applications. We see believe if there's anything that neighbor is involved, a review by planning anything administrative design we would like, they'll be stipulate that as a condition as are receiving their descriptions. So depending on the scope of the project, each one of these we're required to begin planning or building our what I need to go through those little safeties one by one. So I had something I wanted to provide for you. And I was going to ask, as you were set about the review. So there's the mural after being signed off or not assuming in terms of what the mural will be, or is there any input in terms of. Correct. It has to go through. There is not here on this list, but we had talked about in the film about the receipts downtown and that showed a nice design concept or something that there's sophistication. Yes. Is there to that? Are they still wanted to process or. So so they've been awarded the grant and we are still working to find contractors to do that. It's just really hard to find contractors right now. But yeah, we they still are going to do something along those lines. Once we find somebody who can take that job on. I do want to add a couple of things and the first in regard to the mural, we do have a mural program. This is not part of that per se, but in talking with Bellows, this is really what they wanted to do. And so we think this is a great way to still facilitate the mural program and public art. And it is definitely a facade improvement. So just to clarify, that's kind of why this is separate and it's also not on here. But I did want to talk briefly about an item that's going to become available to council this coming Monday, which is a facade improvement grant for their hotel rooms to update the new building. That is not really part of this program. That's in a grant of significantly more money. There's a few reasons for that. We really started the negotiation with what we can do to enhance the living area building prior to robbery, but starting here and bringing on the facade improvement programs. But also that building presents a lot of opportunity, one of them being the entry into what we've sort of identified as an area that can become our future arts district. You've got the water on the building or on the other side or really the canvas general store that is looking absolutely wonderful with a lot of investment, I believe, from the city decades ago. And this building really needs some TLC. Also, as part of this grant program, these awardees are required to provide a match. So if they just want to have a budget of $10,000, they can in the case of their hotel and began the negotiation, they actually brought forward a proposal that was about at 150, a little bit more. So we're providing really only about half of that to enhance a much larger building through a much greater design. And $10,000 in assistance probably isn't going to cover the cost of painting that building. And we really think that this is a great opportunity to enhance our assembly. Subsequently, we've also begun to talk about the future of the bookstore, and I think that there's a really great opportunity that somebody's going to come in and they're going to take over that space and having a new facade, a new focus on a prominent corner is really going to help make that building and that area incredibly successful. So I just want everybody happy to answer any more questions about why that's not part of this and why we chose to address that separately. And those are the main factors in choosing to go that route and make it part of this House that we pay for is being paid out of that state fund balance that we have with the ABC going back several years from not extending all the contractual work or contractual dollars and the things that we do have. So that's how we do this now, don't we appreciate that. And so for me, I know that is a conversation I want to work with the city manager on that item so that will understand why it's not included in this particular program. With our chat with the archive is $2,000 for this one. And so that's understand, I think my larger context is that as we're making our case for the economic development, that as you laid out, that we're making sure that we can be consistent with that. So if the next person comes and says a while, like an $80,000 dollars from the city to improve my building, we lay out some factors that we can point to as we know now know is operative. Also is also one the city. But just if there is a way that we can kind of lay out to help us as guidelines and we'll do that. Understood. Thank you for that sort of what we will do is look at different options that we could potentially memorialize that and provide it not necessarily as a guaranteed option, but something that if somebody wants to submit a proposal, that we can actually have some way of bringing it forward to you. Also, we have a discussion because we're pretty excited about it. So I do want to put that out there and I will consider it on Monday. But for all the factors that you laid out, that entry point for folks who are at Job or Square or their coverage or the old general downtown area, and for all of the goals that we have to where we have downtown and collected summary of which cited about what that would be. So looking forward to it right. Any other comments on that? Besides before we move on? Seems like our on to the next section regarding wayfinding signage. So recall that earlier. So when we present the subcommittee with a proposed map identifying ideal sites to post a final solution in anticipation of installing temporary signage across the city prior to our Our Town Mayors conference prior. So this report states that prior to the conference we were able to implement what was our color phase points section, which is really the top 20 areas that are key entry points that we want to in right away with signage. We installed 22 temporary signs prior to the June six, meaning that you can notice the signs point to different landmarks across city after conference. We did have to take down 12 so that we can avoid damage to decorative poles. But our engineering team went back and they certainly looked at this areas and they identified locations where they could be a better result. So they're on reinstalling those 12 as permanent signs starting this week as well. Close to John Samuelsen met them and public works and contractor that we hired for you know working so diligently to get these signs up. In terms of a longer term, we that document of consulting worked on identifying locations we talked about and keeping that. But in terms of a longer term strategy, what we're looking to do more with baseline insurance consult already did that legwork in identifying specific locations. So we're going to keep that document for a long term, but we're ready to do even more decorative changes in the future. So that's all I have on that's and that's the question that's definitely noticed the signs and that's really helpful. I think one of the conversations that were everywhere around was also on the western part of the city, the San Marcos area. Like the awareness that we have a marina and getting to the marina and maybe I've visited, but I didn't see any of that area as I got off the highway or Marco coming off that excellent San Marcos making that right. And we learned as I went all the way down the road, I didn't see anything saying Marina, everything was lost Madonnas, and then got to City Hall and just wanted to do that. I know if I missed it or if that was still one of the focuses of the wave signage is folks in the San Marcos area really that is about Pittsburgh Marina. We we had a court that we will we will get those. I remember that distinctly. So we will get those fixed about stuff. And then I like I like the green and then I didn't I didn't know because when you ask residents it was they were blue answers. So I don't know if that was a was recommended. You know, do they have to be consistent with state. I end up so no issue it just wanted to read so you know I perhaps care a little too much about esthetics and so I wanted it to look a certain way. But in speaking with traffic engineers, you know, significantly more than I do, they said now during the need to have orange letters. So they can safely be read at that. The speeds folks are going to be traveling down to certain roadways. Green is generally the color that we would use for this type of design. And so, you know, this is maybe not the most esthetic version, but it is the safest and easiest to read. And once it was there, I bet they were nice. You know that's I thing it definitely upgrade from the faded green of other roads and there are still a lot of there's still a lot of those that need to come down but that's yeah and again we'll definitely make sure we revisit which items we are directing folks to to work. So I'm glad you brought that. I wasn't part of that conversation, but when I saw the sign, that's like right at the end of my street and it's all lost boundaries. And that's an opportunity to, you know, Old Town or even an upgrade like that. So I'm glad to have as part of the conversation, we will see what sizes we have and try to the down here quickly. Any other concessions on this one? All right. We are approaching service, so we'll move pretty quickly. So we have a couple more items later. Go ahead. Yeah. So in the next section, no, I have access to real estate market thanks to our subscription rollercoaster. So every quarter I'm happy to provide a snapshot as to what our seats real estate market looks like as compared to our region and also the Greater East Bay region. So you can see those seats, see the tables on the on the memo, the three, there's 311 for the retail market and one for the industrial market and one for the office market reduction required to cover years 2024 Figures for the second report, East County refers to Pittsburgh area locally the Brentwood and unincorporated areas all the way from Bay Point to Discovery Bay. And then the East Bay market is defined as you know, Oakland, Fremont, Pleasanton, Livermore, Dublin, San Remo, Walnut creek, Concord, all of those Algiers average and yeah, yeah. All those areas we identify as the East bay. So just a few things, a couple things to note. You know, obviously looking at the market asking rent our area and in all three markets remains relatively affordable compared to in part of the East county market and much more affordable to the Greater East Bay market. Uh, vacancy rates in both the retail and industrial markets are so similar or on par with East County. Um, and so things to note on our office, our office market, one that is a little bit unique and certainly are not, we have a very small office market, as you can see by the inventory that's available. So in turn we have a very we actually have a very low vacancy rate, which is actually a really nice thing. When you look at the greater office market situation, you look at the East Bay right now, it's at 14.3% and here it is zero. During COVID, a lot of the office market vacancy rate has gone up exponentially due to people not meeting as much space and hybrid remote working. So, you know, this is something of note to point out that while we do have a small office market, you know, we're not seeing the same rate vacancy rates as we are with other markets. Box question on. So yeah. And then last thing to point out is that we now have a new available properties web page where the data listings are at and updated in real time. So any members of politics interested in looking in properties for sale or at least in our community, they can see this site and learn more about it. And that's the city or email. And uh, you know, this memo is for Chicago or slash business for slash available dash properties. There are. Thank you all. And we're all right. On to item number eight. I do have three things that I wanted to provide the subcommittee updates on. The first is staff has been working with we are automotive. We are automotive is located at 6x1 and that's the business that you probably heard about is, you know, right as mandated recently change are there that outfits all the police and public safety vehicles they vehicles from really all over the region but pretty much everything that gets outfitted and cost cost and all the accounting goes through we are so it's a great business and we love having them there. Frankly, the level of public safety cars that are in the market on orders, it it helps. Unfortunately, they are looking to move, but we have been able to keep them in this building. So they're actually expanding their business and become successful in that, but then in a much larger space. So they're going to be moving out to so no one will pass. So great news that we've got a business in Pittsburgh that's been successful enough that they're staying here, but finding a bigger space. Madam ninth Street Code Enforcement, vice Mayor, something that we brought up at a previous meeting. Mayor This is one of our goals from fiscal year 2324. We wanted do a code for our up now the High street, which is often about service and just have a lot of buildings that were dilapidated and had some unpermitted construction. We tried the honey approach. We had some success. Now it's time to bring the hammer. So just a heads up that we will be going forward and actually signing this folks, because we have provided nurses a violation. We've give them giving them over three months to do what needs to be done. We've been in contact with them during this time so things aren't getting done. So the next step is to actually bring on administrative citations and require that they come in. We don't think that there's anything that's going to require a red tagging or any of that, but we may need to provide some corroboration whether and the last but not least, one other goal that actually goes back a couple of years that we've been continually working on is how we can increase actual in unit inspections. As part of our residential inspection program. We have consistently been increasing the actual needed inspections. But what we are actually going to be doing, which is why it didn't occur to us earlier, I have no idea. As rental units gets any kind of permit for either a water heater replacement or reroof kitchen remodel, bathroom remodel, or any work that needs to be done. We're going to use those opportunities to also require inspections as part of the rental inspection program. If they haven't had an inspection within a certain period of time. So it's a great way we already doing work on or inspecting work on rental properties to really have to think strategically. So those are the only updates I have. Are there any updates from a survey I seen on the literature trends? Your assumption was.