Arts and Culture Commission - Regular Meeting

Hi. Welcome everybody to the last Parks and Recreation Commission meeting in 2025. On December 4, I declared this meeting open. Alright. The first order of business is the roll call. Are you going to do the roll call?

Commissioner Kumarappa?

Here.

Commissioner Srikin? Not Commissioner Stanik?

Not here.

Vice chair Bono?

Yes.

Chair Swamy?

Yes.

All present with commissioner Srikin absent and commissioner Stanik absent.

Copy. So

next, we have the ceremonial matters and presentations. So the first topic is Parks and Recreation Department Sports and Fitness Division, and we're going to get a presentation from them. The city staff is going to give us a presentation.

I start with introducing myself. Excellent. And also letting you know that Zoom chose 7PM to kick me out of the meeting. So I'm trying to get back in so I can share my screen and get into the presentation. And, of course, that's also when Microsoft chose that moment to update my Outlook. So as that's happening, I guess I'm getting back in. I will introduce myself. I am Alex Corvulus. I am the recreation manager overseeing the sports and fitness division. I have been officially in that position since August.

Prior to that, I was was filling the position in acting role since February. Prior to that, I have been a recreation coordinator for the last twelve years or so here with Tina, both in the seniors, which those of you that have been on admission now and then might recommend for me from.

Yes. That's a long time. Great.

Yeah. So we're getting close. I'm almost there. I will start with just telling you a little bit about what the sports and fitness division covers before I get this presentation open. I oversee the Cupertino Sports Center, which I hope you're all familiar with.

That is a gym and tennis center. All the athletic fields Recording in progress. Okay. I am back in. All of the athletic fields, youth and adult sports and fitness programs, like things like Zumba here at Quinlan or, you know, the soccer games. Soccer games would be under athletic fields, but soccer classes Yeah. Would be under youth and adult sports and fitness. Alright. So now that I am truly an, gonna go ahead and share my screen. Alright.

It's a horrible time for Zoom to kick me out. Really, it was just

It's okay. It happened Monday on city council as well.

Mhmm.

That is true. You know, while you are fixing that Yeah. Do you mind if we flip the order and we can go and

Oh. Approve it? I'm waiting to get I I do actually have it right now. Alright.

Because you needed time, I didn't want you to feel

Thank you. I appreciate it. But it's going full screen.

Yep. I'm

sorry. I know it's not January 23. It's December 4.

That is fine.

That should be correct in your packet.

No. That no worries. It's fine.

Go ahead.

And we did just touch on these things here. The major topics I'll be talking about are softball, athletic fields, youth and adult sports and fitness programs, and our sports center participation. Alright. So softball, you'll notice we have two pretty different sets of data here. We contracted starting with our spring season in 2025, contracted out our softball program, and that has been going really, really well.

As you can see, it's we've been able to add a whole another season. We've now been able to add a fourth night, serving a lot more people. Been going really well. It's also roughly a $14,000 increase in revenue now that we've contracted out. Athletic fields.

So permit hours in 2024, we permitted out 7,408 and a half hours in 2024, and six thousand eighteen hours up through q three. So up through yep. September 30. I make sure I did that math right. September 30.

That's roughly on par with last year, though year to year comparisons are not super useful because if you have a year with a ton of rain, 2023, for example, it poured. Fields were closed for a huge amount of time. So that doesn't show up in permitted hours because we don't we don't charge the groups for hours where we've closed the fields.

What about twenty twenty three, 2022? You have those data?

I not in front of me right now. Okay. So we permit out fields at six parks and nine school sites. The parks are Creekside, Jolliman, Hoover, Library Field, Monte Vista Recreation Center, and Wilson. The schools are Collins, Eaton, Fria, Garden Gate, Hyde, Kennedy, Lincoln, Ragnar, and Stevens Creek.

If you've ever wondered why we see these school fields on the photos around you, that would be why. And we have 16 user groups, and out there, we have soccer, baseball, softball, cricket, and volleyball mostly. Once in a while, we'll get, like, a one off group that wants to host some kind of tournament for some other sport. Like, I'm I'm not still not clear on what RoundNet is, but it is a sport, and they permitted with us this year as well, but just for one tournament. So for adult so speaking about youth and adult sports and fitness.

For adult fitness classes last year, we had 1,308 participants. This year Year to date, we have 1,336. That's a 5.7% increase year to date. We've offered a 131 class sessions of 11 different classes. So balanced core and more, core strength Pilates, Kapha and restorative yoga, line dance one, two, and three, strength and flow Pilates, Vinyasa yoga, Vivaja fitness dance, Yogilates, and Zoom.

For youth fitness and dance classes, we saw about a 25% increase with a little over 1,100 participants in 2024 and just under 1,400 in 2025. We did see a little bit of of a drop in youth fitness and dance camps, but that can partially be attributed to a a contractor that we're no longer working with this year. Oh. So considering that drop, it's actually an increase overall. There were 425 different classes and camps offered.

And, actually, my next slide has a fairly comprehensive list of all the different things we've offered. Tons of gymnastics programs. Gymnastics runs, not counting their camps, runs probably about 80 classes ish a quarter. Dance, we have ballet, hip hop, princess pre ballet, Elsa and Anna, Frozen dance camp, which still how old is that movie now? And it is.

That is a popular camp. And then the Princess Dance Camp. We added archery this year, which I was particularly excited about. We

the answer? Archery, where where do we have it?

Archery. MacCon. MacCon. Yeah.

What was the enrollment?

The enrollment for archery specifically, it's been going really well. I don't think I don't think ever since they started, I've canceled maybe one class for low enrollment. That's it. One or two, and that is highly unusual. What really helped was there would the instructor already had a pretty good following and said, hey. Come take my classes in Cupertino. They came. So it's really, really excellent. And that's a pretty unique program for us to offer. Alright.

So in that same vein, there's a lifetime activities, classes, and camps. Year to date, they are almost dead on exactly the same as last year. It is a point 1% increase year to date. They offer tennis, badminton, table tennis, pickleball, basketball, chess, and private lessons for tennis. And then for adult classes, they offer tennis, pickleball, and private badminton and tennis lessons.

All of their programs happen at the sports center. And so, of course, because I'm showing you these numbers here, those were obviously not included in those other youth sports.

How much do charge for private lessons for tennis?

You know, I don't know that off the top of my head. I'd have to look it up, but it's it's easy to find. I could find out.

Sure. I'll just find the new at the top of the head.

So for the sports center, we're currently on track to exceed member check ins for 2025 over 2024. We had 117,562 in 2024. And as of mid November when I ran these numbers, it was one eleven four sixty four. Active members, we've had an 11.5% increase. We now have almost 1,900 members.

Unique members, we have about a 10% increase. And when I when I say unique members so somebody might, like, they're a college kid to come home for the summer, and they'll they'll get a monthly membership a couple of times over the summer, but they're not an active member right now. We still like to look at that and see how many people we have coming in total. Or, for example, for our you just said you were in India for two months. We have plenty of other members who are out of the country for large portions of time, and so they'll have monthly memberships and just only while they're here.

And so, you know, we wanna capture them as well. Tennis participation, this is as in number of reservations. It's again, it's pretty much dead on the same as last year. Last year, we had 28,882 tennis reservations. This year, as of mid November, we had 25,656.

And how are the reservations? Are they able to book it for x number of hours, or how does it work, and what's the cost?

Yes. Each member gets a maximum so for members, there is no cost. It's part of your membership. Each member gets a maximum of one point five hours of playtime per day. So if the four of us if I book a reservation for us, that is each of us, that's our one point five hours for the day. We can't also Claudia can't book for us and then

I understand.

So if you book for the four of us

Uh-huh.

So the sum total, we all can pay play play is one and a half hours or one and a half times four?

One and a half hours per person, but it doesn't matter whether you play on a port under your name or under my name.

Or the Yeah. That's the max. Okay.

The ninety ninety minute max. Excellent. Mhmm. Okay. Alright.

About twenty two minutes each.

Yeah. Yeah. Better be fast. What

do you mean twenty

is it? Oh, he he was making a joke. Oh, it's a joke. Sorry.

Bye bye. Because you're on your own. Because we're getting recorded. I just don't want someone to think that that's actually what we've So

fitness class participation, also growing 11.1% up year to date. We offer over 20 fitness classes per week. Wow. We offer over a thousand in the year. And that's even with what felt like the apocalypse of Zumba. We had multiple Zumba instructors all injured or sick or out of the country all at the same time, and I thought the world was gonna end. But we made it happen. We we we made Zumba happen. We still had over a thousand this year. So, like, you see here well, you know what?

I'll show our December fitness schedule flyer next. So you see we have classes seven days a week, all kinds of different things. Everything from circuit training to restorative flow yoga, TRX, strength training, body sculpting, zoom Zuma, as I mentioned. Dynamic stretch and balance, which that one's fairly new. I think we started it last month, and it's doing well.

It picked up pretty fast right from the get go. Alright. Personal training session. That's a very proud member we have up there. We're up 50% this year in personal training, and we were up something like 50% last year too. Personal training is going through the roof.

I mean, don't know what the cost is again off the top of the heads?

Yes. It is we just changed the prices. Here. Actually, I'm gonna show it to you on the next slide. One session is $80, so I'll go back in just a second. So one session is $80, 5 sessions is $3.75, and 10 sessions is 700. So

And it's a one hour each?

One hour each. And so it's a little bit of a discount if you buy more sessions. Yeah. We just started selling semi private and small group training as well. Those are going pretty well. I'm finding that semi private training has been pretty popular with, like like, maybe a couple of teens that are friends. Like, their parents will come send them up, and they'll do personal training together, which is cool. But here, let me go let me go back to what I was talking about, and then I'll come back to that. Like I said, huge growth since the pandemic. We increased to five trainers, but just recently, actually, back down to four.

One of them is no longer in the area, but we will we are hoping to be back up to at least five again soon.

And what is the trainers get paid?

It's specific to each trainer, and it has to do with their certifications and all kinds of different things. But they are paid on an hourly basis, if that's the question. What used to be the team center back before the pandemic is now our personal training studio. We did a bunch of renovations down there, and it looks fantastic. We have I have even more photos a little bit further in to this.

It helps alleviate crowding in the gym because when we had a lot of personal trainers, we had a lot of people wanting personal training appointments, and we didn't have a ton of personal training space. We've been able to work it out now such that there's not so much conflict in different trainers trying to schedule appointments and trying to fit in who is using the personal training room when because it's large enough to accommodate multiple clients at the same time now. It's definitely quieter and more comfortable for clients to be working in the personal training space as opposed to in the middle of the gym with everybody else and everything else going on. And like I mentioned before, we're now offering semi private training. So we have Grace, Rachel, Jim, and Tom.

Tom is fairly new to us, but not new to personal training. He has been really popular. Rachel has been with us since she was 16, I think. She started working the front desk at the sports center and just loved everything that happens there and decided to become a personal trainer, and now she works for us as on contract as personal trainer. Grace and Jim have both been with us for a long time as well.

I think Jim's been with us for eight years, I wanna say. And Grace has gotta be somewhere in the same neighborhood because I've been working with her for a really, really long time. Alright. Here you see our membership fees as well. This this is our trifle flyer for personal training, so forgive the formatting here. This is what it looks like. But so you can see our membership fees there. They're pretty self explanatory. Specialty classes. So we just started them in fall twenty twenty five, so I don't really have a lot to report on stats for you.

They're generally groups of four to 10 people, and they're more focused and specialized. We have a list of classes there, but I also, again, have the flyer for you. So barbell boot camp, bodybuilding one zero one, strength and agility, specifically for 13 to 16 year olds, as I said, we're getting more interest from younger people wanting to get into more specialized fitness things. Okay. Brain and body boost, burn and sculpt slim down, running clinic.

Tom's a competitive runner, so that's Tom runs that one. Uh-huh. Athletic performance training and morning. Alright. And that I think I said everything I wanted to say to you. That was all I have for you.

Thank you very much for the presentation, Alex. Any questions?

Yeah. I do want to.

Yes? I don't

see the bell.

No. There's no bell. You just think break the hand. Good. Commissioner Kumarapan, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I think a couple of them. First, number one, I think people try to get into site and that the center wanted to provide that it attracts and people is their personal training is going through the group, as you said, 50%. That's awesome. So thank you for you and the staff and giving that one. Because even though there are all other personal, twenty four hour fitness, all of them are around

Yes.

But still people come here with this one because I think that's what it takes speaks volume of volumes of our whole the staff is that's awesome. That's great. And I have only few questions. On the pickleball side, I know it used to be there, but is it, like, a two crowd or no for pickleball training? We gotta do one that pickleball is becoming so Yeah. Amazon every year. Perfect. Would you handle the records?

We're we're doing fine right now. I mean, they're busy, but they're not they're not overwhelming. We do I can't remember which day it is, but we have an evening that we have We reserve the courts for drop in pickleball as opposed to members can reserve the pickleball courts as well. Same way you reserve the tennis court.

Okay. That's great. And the other one is that on the youth side, you said sorry. The fitness side, one thirty one class session. So I think one three zero eight, you said, and now it's one three three. So it's not the camp, but the classes on it. So how do you use it like the same classes plus you add on or do you swap classes? Oh, so yeah. How I get

the number one thirty one?

Yeah. The reason I asked is maybe I'll give you the context. Because when whenever I do remember last time when I was at that commission. But community member gave the feedback on what kind of classes they wanted to bring it in. Mhmm. And then based on the survey, then we augment it or we refresh it or we swap it kind of. Right? Mhmm. So I'm trying to understand these classes from the last year 2024 to 2025. How many of those in general classes are swapped out? And then based on the community feedback, we added new classes.

When classes are doing well and our adult fitness classes are doing well, we don't tend to swap them out if if if it's already going well. Now, for example, which was it? Strength and flow Pilates. That's what it was. There was a particular session of Yogilates that was just not getting traction for some reason.

And you you never know exactly what's gonna work at some what time. Something that it works great for a certain it might get great on enrollment on Wednesdays at 10AM. But for some reason, on Thursdays at 11AM, the same teacher, it's the same class, you just, for whatever reason, like, absolutely cannot get people. We have that kind of situation with one of the Yogilates classes. It was the same teacher.

I knew she was popular. I knew people liked her. But for whatever reason, that time slot was just not working. And so we just worked on switching up what exactly the offering was, and we did start to see that builds up even though it was the same time slot. We didn't move for time slot. We changed what

Don't delay that.

Which sometimes you it's the opposite tactic. Sometimes you switch the time slot and not the class. But based on her availability, we were trying to make the time slot work. Going well. It's only been a couple of quarters of the new couple yeah. Couple of quarters of the new class, and it's

It's all going bloody.

Yeah. It's it started off a little bit better than where Yogilates was when we discontinued it.

Okay.

The last question I have, I'll just refresh it up. So, yeah, I remember last year, the the the instructors or the trainers or Zoom board trainer or lot of them were, like, they're coming there and after some six months or something and then non availability of those teachers kind of say that they move out and whatnot. Do we have the same problem now with any of these instructors continually for the whole year or they come and go?

I I don't know. I want if I

do remember that last year, I think one of those things was brought up.

I wonder if that was maybe in a different division because that's not an issue that we've been having.

Okay. So all the instructors will work on in there voluntarily or whatever they come. I think this was specifically about some instructor coming voluntarily and then and then I can bring them up. So

Yeah. I haven't had any issues

Okay.

With I mean, there's always gonna be a little bit of turnover, but Not very much. But not for

Ready to train sessions you don't have?

No. No. No. No. Okay. No. So for like I said, for example, there is one finger. No longer. That's just the way that happens sometimes. But no. Generally, they stick around. Like I said, Grace and Jim and Rachel have been with us for a really long time.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Appreciate

it. Yeah.

That's all.

Thank you, commissioner Kumarapan. Hi, vice chair, Thank you. First and foremost, thank you again for the presentation. I was writing notes. I think those numbers, like commissioner Kumar have been mentioned, it's kind of impressing knowing that our area is fully booked with offices and companies that does Zumba and yoga and this and that. And I understand that we're talking youth age, this and that, and that's great. I think it's wonderful. That's great. I don't know if this matters or not, but it would be nice for anyone listening to find out where they can find, where they can register for those. And, would like to ask you, does it matter in this case whether they're a Cupertino resident or not?

Because, obviously, we're trying to get. But if it matters, do we have I saw the pricing, but is there a differentiation between Yes. Prioritized Cupertino resident, or does it does it not matter? That kind of feedback so that would be great for the one listening.

Yeah. For sure. So number one, all of those programs that you saw that take registration and talk about separate from the membership programs that take registration, like the specialty classes and all the youth and adult sports and fitness, those come out in our quarterly brochure that I'm sure you're all familiar with. And right on the front, it has the registration dates. Residents get a one week Priority. Yeah. Priority. They get a one week jump on nonresidents, number one. And number two, nonresident prices are 20% higher than resident prices.

Thank you.

And you register for all those things at reg,thenumber4rec.org. Number one. Number two, if you are looking at this presentation and you saw those lovely QR codes, if you scan the QR code, you can register.

Thank you, Sully. Okay.

Excellent. You know, actually, I have to reiterate what my colleagues here have said. This is pretty impressive. I've there are so many fitness agencies that are really, like, $10 a month if you happen to catch it on in December and continue. And this is, like, more than twice that, four times almost the cost. And we have certainly we are showing an impressive growth year over year. Is there a set amount doing what is the capacity? What can we accommodate, and what is the capacity of total number of memberships that we have?

You know, I don't I would have to look into whether or not we've ever had a set capacity. Uh-huh. Because of the nature of the sports center and because of when you think about the hours that are open on weekdays, we're open from 8AM to 10PM. Weekends, we're open from eight to eight. And so people coming to use the gym are not gonna be there the entirety of those. Right? And so that's a little bit harder to peg as far as capacity. And we still have open tennis courts

I think mostly. You guys can because it in the gym, it should say that these many people max out.

Oh, is that what you meant? That's what I meant. Oh, yeah. I could look that up for you. Right.

And because just if there is a lot of because of in the gym, sometimes, you know, in very peak hours, you have to actually wait. There are so many people. So there is a way to calculate the capacity.

Sure. I thought you meant the overall, like, what's the membership number? The capacity of the building, absolutely. Let's find that out.

And based on that, is there a I mean, are we maxing out? Because, I mean, that's not an issue, but just a curiosity in terms of if it is are we hitting 50% capacity, 80%? Are we at 90%? Or at some point, what point Yeah. We need to turn people down? But looks like we haven't even

Mm-mm.

We are not turning anyone down per se.

No. And and we've never we never even come close to

the capacity of the building. But I

That would be a good problem to have.

Yeah. A good to have, really. And the $80 an hour that you have isn't for first time fairness, while there are there's an overall arching, as you said, difference in their backgrounds and their certifications, it seems like that eighty hours is just a flat fee

Mhmm.

Irrespective of their certifications?

It is now. There was one trainer Okay. That was the one that is no longer in the area that didn't have as many certifications, and they were a lower price. It was same price for many years, and then we were trying to bring more trainers on. And not everybody needs a trainer that knows everything in the world about fitness. Correct. But at this point, the

I'm talking about the pricing. So if he's No.

No. No.

It's not it is variable based on the certifications. Is that right?

It can be. At the moment, it's not because everyone's at a very similar level.

Okay. And what do they how much should we make out of it? Out of $80, what do we keep as It's different

per trainer because they make a per hour fee. And so different trainers make different amounts based on their certifications, their number of years of experience, their number of years contracting with us. There's a lot of different variables.

And what is the range?

The lowest one shouldn't be any lower. I think the lowest one is 49. I think the highest one is in the low sixties. We just redid their contract, so I'd have to look at what that exact number is.

That's very helpful.

Overall, it seems like we have one on one private lessons for tennis only, but not the other sports, or is that also something that

we Padletten.

Padletten, but not table tennis, pickleball, and all that. None of them. None of the ones the ones we are offering. What is what goes into the decision as to which sports we are open to offering personal to personal coaching private coaching?

That would be an excellent thing for me to ask more questions of Lifetime about because they are the contractor that provides those sports for the sports center. They do have a lot of agency over what is offered.

Who is the contractor that we have contracted this

Life Plan.

Life Plan.

Life Plan. Have they are they doing it for everybody, all the other cities, or is it exclusive to Cupertino?

They they I mean, we we were their first one. We were their first contract. They've been with us for a long time, but Cupertino, Sunnydale, Santa Clara, Walnut Creek, Pleasanton, San Francisco, I think that's all of them.

Wow. That's good for them.

So pretty.

Excellent. Thank you. That's all. Yeah. It was a very good presentation. It's such a heartening thing to see that our sports and fitness is doing extremely well.

Yes. I definitely have to shout out

Doing some strength to strength here.

Colleen Farris, if you ever stop in the sports center, Colleen Farris has been working here for twenty five years.

Okay. She

is the Pardon Paris. That oversees the programming at sports center. Awesome. She is fantastic.

Very good. Thank you again, Alex, Alex.

Should we have to go to public comment real quick?

Absolutely. Let's do the public comments.

Okay. It looks like we have no speakers on Zoom. Do we have any speakers on this item?

On this item.

On this item? No. Okay.

Alright. So we I think they're here to speak on another thing, but we are going in tandem, so that comes a little bit later. Let me thank you for an excellent presentation again from on behalf of the entire commission. I think the next order of business is approval of minutes for the 11/06/2025 Parks and Recreation Commission meeting minutes. Will you be calling that out, or do you want me to call that?

The vote? Yeah. Can we go to public comment first? Sure. Okay. We have no hands raised on same chair. Okay. And we're ready for a vote. Commissioner Kumarapan?

I'll abstain. I was absent.

Oh, sorry. We need a motion in a second. Yes.

And I'd like to make a motion to approve the November 6 Parks and Commission meetings. And even though you were not absent, you can still read them and still approve so that we can pass those minutes. Okay. The the binder is right there

if you wanna know, mate. Yeah. I know. We wanna approve that.

Oh, we need it for them, actually. Three people need to approve an FB. Am I correct? Yes. Yes. So I second the motion. Okay.

I haven't read it. So

So should we take a few minutes, or do we defer it to the next meeting if we don't have a quorum to approve? What is the what is the protocol?

If we don't have a quorum to approve, we would have to defer it to the next meeting. We can do the deferment because because

I haven't read it, so I

don't wanna just But you can Ab abstain is I love saying. That you do not agree with what was done in the past. So you may still try

I think we need three yeses. Yeah.

We need three yeses. So that means doubling your workload next time because it's right there in the binder.

I think he might need a moment. Yeah. He's Okay. Yeah.

I just I will get my two words.

So Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. But, yeah, I love staying with him.

So let's defer the approval to the next meeting. Okay. Sounds good. So I think we have some

actually,

here's the thing. Actually, I in this approval, in this agenda item, the next item shows up as postponements, but you did talk about public comments. So were you talking about public comments with regards to what Alex presented?

Yes. Yes. Exactly right.

Yeah.

So I think we have other oral communications that's coming a little bit later. So let's go with the next part, which is postponements. Do we have any postponements?

We have no postponements, Chair. Excellent. So let's go to the audio communications. Okay. So we have two speakers in person and no speakers on Zoom. Our first speaker is Sreedha Mishra.

I'm sorry. Can you hear me? You're ready. Yourself? Please come join here at the check. Yes.

Oh, just

sit here. Or

You can stand or sit.

You can stand, sit, do whatever makes you comfortable.

Okay. Okay. I'm gonna go ahead and start the timer. You have three minutes.

Hi. I'm Sheena Misra, a freshman here at Monte Vista High School. And today, I'm gonna be talking about the positive impacts native plants have on Cupertino. I remember when I was in third grade at element at LP Collins Elementary School, and my third grade teacher had taken me to the local school garden. The amount of wildlife I saw on that tiny piece of land was remarkable.

In the corner, I saw the snowflake plant. As I further examined it, I saw these tiny little monarch eggs and this caterpillar that was eating. Not the eggs, the actual weed. And this experience is what made me the nature loving person I am today. But I however, I was saddened when I realized that this was not the reality of the whole Cupertino, but we can make a change to this.

By growing native plants like the noteweed, this can increase the biodiversity Cupertino has, further supporting the natural ecosystem that we have here. More wildlife will come. Gray foxes will strut through the meadows, and monarchs will flutter through the winds. And this is only a small aspect of what is to come. Using the native flora not only helps support our local fauna, but also enriches the beauty Cupertino will have.

And by making Cupertino more beautiful, this can increase the amount of people coming from outside to Cupertino. Now people won't only be coming to look at the famous apple circle, they'll also come to Cupertino to look at the beautiful sit streets and the local parts. And this, whatever I just talked about, was the local, was the physical, aspect of these native plants. There's also a whole science scientific advantage of planting these organisms. They help fight against the ongoing war of climate change.

Vincent Van Gogh once said, great things are done by a series of small things brought together. In this scenario, native plants may seem small in the grand scheme of things, but they are a great step to further improve Cupertino to emit less carbon. Then and by taking the step, this can also influence other cities to do the same. Thank you for listening. Thank you.

You're very welcome. Thank you.

Okay. Our next speaker is Arnavi Arnavi Kaver. Okay. Hi. I'm Arnavi. I'm a senior at Monte Vista High School. And growing up in Cupertino, some

of my most prominent childhood memories actually came from me going on walks in my local nature preserve and blackberry farm with my family. And while doing so, I was really able to see the abundance of bees pollinating flowers, and I could also see monarch butterflies that were laying their eggs on milkweed plants. And the reason why so many of us are actually able to enjoy these aspects of nature is partly because of native plants themselves. And a benefit of native plants that you might not know about is that they actually help us drastically reduce the amount of pesticides we're using. And this is because they've been in the area for so long that they've naturally just developed these defense mechanisms that help them repel pests on their own.

And they also attract certain insects that will literally kill pests like aphids and ladybugs. And just with pesticides in general, when we're spraying so much of them on nonnative plants, a lot of those chemicals are actually being carried into our local bodies of water, such as the Stevens Creek. So if we can replace those and have more native plants, which are literally using less of these pesticides because they're making their own, we have less chemicals that are being used, and our waters can be a little bit thinner. And another benefit with them being so well adapted to our city is that they'll help us use less water. So according to Palscape, native plant gardens can help reduce water usage from about 60 to 80% in comparison to traditional landscaping.

And this is huge because living in California, we all know that this is such a drought prone area. And so being able to have more of these native plants, we're using less water, and we can work towards our water. So thank you so much. And that's why I think we should have more aid. Thank Thank

you very much. We appreciate this.

Yeah. Great.

Lovely presentations.

Both

of Great info. Thank you. We

have no more comments in person and no comments on Zoom share.

Yes. But, I mean, can we actually discuss very briefly? Because this is a topic we had discussed in this commission, and we had an extensive discussion around that. And we have additional information that's coming from the community where we were also proposing that we should promote native plants and prevent non native plants from taking over Cupertino and make that as part of the policy, if you will.

Because the item is not on the agenda, we No.

We had already done that. It's just a comment that we have already asked. We have already discussed this in the past. And these comments, what I'm saying is kindly attached to that recommendation Okay. Is my proposal that it's not like we are adding a new agenda item, but this has been something we have discussed. And we have passed a particular recommendation, and we are I think it was shared to the city council members, if I'm not mistaken. But I'd certainly love to attach these oral communications to that because it seems so relevant. Okay. That's all.

Okay. I can talk to clerk's office and staff about

Absolutely.

Thank you. Absolutely.

More a recommendation than anything else. Thank you again. Take care. Alright. Then we have do we have we don't have any other oral communications, do we? No. Let's move to the old next item, which is old business. Do we have any old business?

We have no old business, chair. Alright. New business. Do we have any new business? Yes. We have the senior services subcommittee update.

Excellent. So we are going to do that as the next item. So the this is going to be in two parts. One part is going to be today, and the next part is going to be the next meeting. The reason for that is one of the subcommittee members had some personal emergency family issues, so we have decided to break it down into two things.

And I think it might be well worth having that discussion about the findings. And today, I'm going to give you some of the findings of the senior citizens subcommittee update. So we actually had a survey some time ago, and we had excellent results from that. And some of the things that we saw in that survey needed some follow-up rich feedback from the community members, and that meant that was able to speak to some of the senior citizens. I actually really focused on the super senior citizens rather than the fifty to sixty five, which still very many of them are

Very young.

Yeah.

Yeah. They're all still working, and they're still very much it's it seemed much easier to figure out what was what were some of the issues for the other community members. So for example, in the survey, what we found is housing, independent living, employment were key issues. And mobility was generally seen to be okay, but about one fifth of the people had issues with mobility. And so, again, I'm assuming it's a senior citizens, not super senior citizens, not 50 year olds who have issues with walking.

House housing and cost of living were, again, two issues as well as employment opportunities for the older citizens. I'm just giving a brief overview as to why I focused on these because the survey clearly said that over ninety percent of the respondents did not give a positive score to the survey item availability of affordable quality housing in the community. So just about 10% were you know, gave it a yes that we we do. 35% of older residents in the city reported experiencing housing needs. So it's talking about cost of living.

91% did not rate it as good or excellent, And twenty percent of the older adults reported financial challenges, and fifteen percent of the citizens said they needed employment and the quality of employment opportunities as well as a variety, more than a quarter of them to one fifth of them said it's not good. An opportunity to build work skills, only one fifth said it's excellent or good. So things are not that great for the senior citizens within our community. But most of all, the sense of community, what some of these things maybe we cannot tackle, but some of the things we can. What are the low hanging fruit?

Sense of community. Only less than half of them felt that there was a sense of community they felt was excellent or good. And neighborliness neighborliness, again, less than half said it was positive. And 63% said that community was open and accepting, and 56 said that the community valued them. So that's a substantial number of people.

So this is where we can actually really help make a difference by exploring ideas about what we can potentially do. So when I spoke to some of the people, there's a huge sense of disconnect because they feel this is not the Cupertino we came into. Either people are have passed on or they have moved away from the area, and they feel that they are just living in an island within a vast community of humanity and completely disconnected. So especially, for example, I spoke to a couple that was that's been in this their house for the last fifty five years, And they said that all the people in the neighborhood, they are new. They're so busy with their own lives.

They don't have the time to say hello. The only communication he has is when he goes out, he has this neighbor who wails at him. So there's a deep sense of loneliness, deep sense of disconnect, which is very unfortunate. But one thing that he had he he said was during COVID, some people came and said, let's do the grocery shopping for you because you are older and you have more chances of contracting it when the vaccinations have not come out yet. And he said he felt it's it's the it is as social psychological research says extensively, it is the connections of the weak link that makes people feel really good about themselves, the quality of their lives, and how they perceive the world around them.

And it is very unfortunate that the older they get and with all the new sets of people that are coming, particularly the technology industry, and in past fifty or sixty years, when they have been here, they were not all computer scientists or computer engineer or software or hardware. Many of them are also in the blue collar or the teaching or a whole bunch of other professions, and those people cannot afford housing now. But these people are who's who are not moving out are not moving out because they feel that their house is familiar. At least their home is familiar. They've raised their children there.

But it's the memories that's on that they are holding on to, which is particularly sad. So one of the things we explore for example, one person said, I raised my family here. My children went to school, and I've lived in this house forever. If I leave this place, then I will have nothing connecting me to the past, which is very sad. And another one is, I remember when this community was new, there were orchards close by.

All that has been replaced and more seems to be changing because there's so much construction happening. There used to be a huge sense of community. I used to know all my neighbors, and I felt that they were like my family, and now everything was different. Another person and Cupertino at one point used to be seen as a very safe place. They came to Cupertino because it was considered to be a safe place.

But here, we regularly hear of burglaries. And even though my house was not burglarized, I feel that the community is Mhmm. Safe, and I feel I'm living in a cardboard box because I'm afraid to leave home. I have no idea somebody can kick through the door and come in. In addition to not having community, I feel fearful because the only person I can call is 911, which is incredibly sad.

Everyone is talking about AI. Everyone is talking about crypto, and I don't understand either of them. While I feel that there may be some good, I also don't have any clue. Everyone tells me everything's going to change, So I don't have a community and something is changing. I just feel lost. Okay? So I said, what? And I feel left behind. So while there may be possibilities, I'm not a technology person. There are a couple of people that actually don't even use emails or the the mobile phones.

They like the punch buttons. Really, it's different. They're smart people. They're educated people. But technology, as we all know, it it just brings a new understanding about the world around us, and it is incredibly saddening to hear that. And then I said, what's the time when you felt connected in this state of disconnect? It always came back to someone knocked at the door and said, what can I do for you? And I was so happy to be able to talk to someone who cared. And so as I said, yes, I understand that a lot of people my age are dying or they are moving to retirement communities. I am fine.

I don't intend to do that, but I've lost all my friends. And and, you know, one of the biggest reasons for grief is loss of friendship. And it is being invisible, which is also very sound. So I said, what would you like? Would you like to have maybe youngsters who can come and work with you and talk to you or do something?

And they said, yes. I would love that because I have so much love to give. When they say that they are all much older. So there is such a yearning to kind of open their doors and just have a chat on a regular basis. So I think we we will come back with a set of concrete recommendations going forward, but it seems like there's such a win win because high school students are struggling to find opportunities for volunteering because they need it for their for their college applications.

And instead of going to a hospital where they're standing and saying, oh, you know, a cardiology is here and internal medicine is there, it is very while while it's good that they're getting the hours, they're not really making connections. But here, there's an opportunity of win win because when we give, we also receive and we learn a lot from them because there's so much wisdom that people have to impart. And we have to when we talk to people that are not like us, we actually fundamentally grow as human beings. So this is not seen as words, but this is well well done research, academic research that talks about why heterogeneity. People should not just be sticking to their own kind, their own age groups, their own socioeconomic backgrounds.

But really, the more you are opening yourselves up, the more people grow. It's such a win win situation. Of course, what are the challenges? We see challenges as background checks. We see challenges as something that maybe, you know, potential for abuse.

But there has got to be a way around it where we can see what are the circumstances, what are the background checks, who pays for it, will the senior citizens pay, it's not really expensive. And will the will the the schools, high schools, for example, or community colleges close by, will they take some kind of, you you know, know, yeah, some kind of an initiative to help? And this this is a small thing. As a city, if we just create these programs, what a what a transformative experience and change we bring to the older community and benefit the younger groups too, because I think a lot of school students are growing up very individual, very individually. Their own act their activities, their families, the sense of community really helps them feel more secure.

And the mere fact that you're doing something for somebody, and it's not heavy lifting, just the mere act of talking and communicating and regularly visiting, even if it is fifteen minutes a week, would make a truckload of a difference and create some lifelong relationships.

Sure. Or maybe is it okay if I add something? So I have for the part two Yes. What Sherry said. I think I've worked on some of the projects like what it is. I will I'll chat with you offline and we can work together.

Yes.

And especially since you touched on AI, I was doing a lot of work on AI. Right now, I'm doing it. So in India, when I was sitting there at home, that's what I was doing a lot of things. So a lot of good programs which we can connect the teams and and not just teams, but even adults with these senior citizens to really bring it to them, to bring in. Otherwise, a is one way it's good. At the same time, they can get fall into those traps. Put the phones and lot of things are like as you know, many things are there. How do we really bring them aware of AI? They don't wanna be expert on it, but they need to know distinguish between AI and the real. Correct. At least we have to coach them. So I do have some programs already designed. I have lot of things on it, so I will work

with that in part two. Yeah. The next meeting, we will most definitely have some more concrete

Yeah.

We will not have a full flesh because the city and the council have to think about it, how they will facilitate such a program.

And We'll do the recommendations.

We will do the recommendations as all we can.

Based on that senior center. Okay?

Absolutely. Yes, commissioner. Thank you. Vice chair. I for me, I wrote two things of your presentation, mobility and longing for connection.

Yes. Mhmm.

And I found I found that that if Indeed can join in those that are siloed Yes. Then and bring them to the mix even through vocational schools or anything that we can do, but also through nonprofit and make them a little bit more active, Indeed, that would be great. So congratulations for that. Looking forward to the number two.

Yeah. Absolutely. And we would strongly recommend that if you all have different ideas, additional ideas, because the more we bring in and think about it and discuss it, the better

it is. Is. It

is. Because all great ideas don't come with just one or two. Heterogeneity of input is always the best

way forward. And it's kinda sad, like you said, to hear a mobility issue can stop, but, yeah, we are surrounded by so many companies that does even offer free transportation. Now the question is, do they have Lyft? Do they have this? Do they and make it available for

them.

That's right. And then awareness. Yes.

And we are fast coming to a state where, like in Japan, there are very few the the older people outweigh the younger community so much that they are actually bringing in robots or robotogs or all of these things into their lives, which is in a way a little sad because nothing beats human connectivity. And we are still in a community, and human being human really is making those connections.

Great.

Yeah. Being able to go out and being just saying hello to someone in the park is great, but some people don't have the mobility to get out. So can we actually do this, facilitate, and make it a super win win? Help the students get into some of the top notch colleges or better colleges with greater number of volunteer hours where they get some good benefits, but, really, the benefits are not just in a good school. It really is an intangible benefit to themselves.

In a it makes them better people. In fact, whenever we have volunteered, I I I'm sure you have seen that, we really benefit a lot more than what we have given to anyone else. So when someone thanks me for it, I just feel embarrassed. I said, you know, you have no idea how much I got out of it. Even going to a food bank and bagging it, it's just it gives you a high that you're helping someone. So I think that is something that's a win win, and it's not just something

part two definitely will come up with More More recommended Yes. Actionable

Absolutely. So we just this is a maybe some of them will be repeated, but we'll put it in a presentation so that the recommendation goes in a concrete way to the city council members. That's all I have for now.

Okay. And then can we just go to public comment real quick?

Yes, please.

Alright. Looks like we have no hands raised on Zoom chair. Alright.

So

the next one is staff reports.

Excellent. I didn't get kicked out of Zoom this time.

It's important. Do you have any staff reports?

Yes. Yes. I'm pulling it up. Okay. Just it thinks for a minute.

Monday. Here we go. Look at that. The right date and everything.

That's

fine. Alright. So now I have for you the liaison's update. I have two slides for this topic. The photovoltaic, or for short and for easy pronunciation, PV project.

The systems design and installation construction will begin on December 8, both here at the Clemens Community Center in the OBS Parking lot and Cupertino Sports Center. We can see the map for the Sports Center there. From December 8 through December 24, construction fencing will be installed in the Alves Parking lot and the Cupertino Sports Center parking lots in the designated areas shown on the maps in the presentation. During this period, parking will not be available in the fenced locations. If work is completed ahead of schedule, the affected parking areas will be reopened as soon as possible.

Additional parking impacts are anticipated in February or March in these locations, and this city will provide updated information once those states are confirmed. Construction activity will also take place on the roof of community hall temporarily affecting seven adjacent parking spaces. The dates for that area are not yet confirmed, and the city will post upcoming closures in that area when we have better information. In addition to this presentation, if the public would like to take a look at these maps or any additional project updates, you can go to superkino.gov/cip. And there is a link for the photovoltaic systems design and installation.

And those maps are. Cupertino Cafe, a favorite of our teams, is coming up Saturday, December 13, three to 8PM at Community Hall. And then we have our holiday events, tree lighting tomorrow, Friday, December 5, 6PM at Quinlan. Hope that's already on your calendar. And breakfast with Santa is Saturday, December 6, 08:30 to 11:15AM at Quinlan.

For breakfast with Santa, there are three seating times available, and preregistration is required for all attendees except for children under two years old. And we're not done. More holiday events. Santa visits to your home, Friday through Sunday, December, five to 08:30PM. And signing Santa is Saturday, December 13, 10AM to noon at Quinlan.

For Santa visits, visits are fifteen minutes in length and take place outside your home. For signing Santa, deaf this is specifically geared towards deaf and hard of hearing children along with their families. They are invited to spend time with Santa who understands sign language. You can visit cupertino.gov/holidayevents for more information on those. And now for the senior center holiday events.

The holiday sing along is Monday, December 15 at 01:30PM, and seeing seasons greetings cookie box pickup is Friday, December 19, 02:30 to 04:30PM. The holiday sing along is exactly what it sounds like. And the greetings cookie box is quantities are limited for that, and registration and purchase is required, you can register for your cookie box at reg4rec.org.

Okay.

And once we're done with all those fun events, many city offices and facilities will be closed. The Cleveland Community Center will be closed from Wednesday, December 24 to Friday, January 9, which encompasses both the citywide holiday closure and maintenance week for Quinlan. The Cupertino Senior Center will be closed from Monday, December 22 to Thursday, January 1. The sports center will be closed exclusively on December and January 1. It will be open the days in between those.

Blackberry Farm Golf Course will only be closed on December. It is open on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Your regular meeting is canceled on Thursday, January 1, and your next regular meeting will be Thursday, February 5. And when I say yours, I'm referring to the Parks and Recreation Commission. And that That's

what I have. Have a special meeting or something.

As this is what's on schedule right now. Correct. Yes. And that was all.

Okay. Excellent. That's great. Thank you very much.

I can't believe that's not even all of them. That's just the things that are happening between now. And Some of it some of it's already happened.

Yes.

Right. That is right. Thank

you again.

I a quick question.

Yes. Please go ahead.

For the signing with the Santa, is it to if I have to come and just see it, is do I need to register it as a commissioner? Or As

a commissioner, I don't think so. Right?

I don't think so. Just because

I'm not a partisan, but I just wanna see that.

So I can't imagine that you would need to. I've I've been happy to double check.

I have to sign up only if you sit

on Santa's lap.

No. I think you win.

It's a lovely event if you haven't.

Yeah. That's a four. Yeah. Wanted to because I've been once or twice, and I

It it would be lovely. Mean, it's very sweet.

Yeah. It's a really sweet event. It's much low key. It's not millions of children clamoring for Santa. It's children who need that quieter environment or can't interact with normal Santa.

Is it a Santa? Someone who is a Santa?

That's correct.

Well, Santa's Santa.

I know my name.

Let's be clear. Yeah. But his stand in is actually somebody that works in our finance department.

Oh, how lovely.

He is deaf and is fluent in sign language. Yeah.

Awesome. Awesome. That is amazing.

Yeah. I'll be there around thirty.

Oh, that is lovely. Really looking forward to a whole bunch of these things.

Yes.

So do we have any other staff reports, or is that it?

No. Everything.

Okay. Any commission reports? So future agenda setting, does anyone else have any future agenda items? So I have a request from the the mayor for a future agenda item, which is why I was considering if there needs to be a special meeting or not. We'll talk if possible.

Otherwise, we'll do it in February. She said that there was some kind of a notification that Liang Chao, the mayor, our esteemed mayor had, which was, do we have a map for trails? And she said, is there something you guys in the parks and recreation can take it up? And that could be a future agenda item. And she also forwarded for reference in Sunnyvale, they have ADA accessible trails, free walk maps, public art tours, and civic you know, and walking tour maps that provide detailed instructions for easy family friendly adventures, such as for for us, it would be maybe a you know, the museum and a whole bunch of other things that we have.

For Sunnyvale, for example, they have downtown and Murphy Park, Fair Oaks neighborhood, Grape Box, Cover Up. For us, it could be Main Street or a bunch of other things. So that is her recommendation, and I think that's something to consider. I think it's pretty good that we to have a comprehensive trace set of trace as a map would be good.

May I say something? Please. I unfortunately, in Cupertino, even on the hospitality industry that I'm in, no one is generating maps any But we have the opportunity Correct. To bring all the businesses, all the everyone to want to participate and issue those Yes. Those, which would be great for the entire city. And that goes hand in hand with the economic development. Absolutely.

And at the very least, you can do it online and give them that link to do that. But I think Covitino development will be so much fun because they have so many trees.

We do. There'll be a future agenda item.

Yes. Absolutely. She has asked that the Parks and Recreation Commission consider this as an agenda item, and I think we are on all in violent agreement with that.

Okay. That sounds good. So how exactly would you like me to word that for the future agenda? Word that as a recommendation to create

Okay. Slash generate. Slash generate slash create or or consolidate because there may be some. We need to bring it all together. You know, basically, trails Cupertino Trails are specifically any accessible whether they are accessible to ADA or nonaccessible to ADA, just to let people know, any dream walk map or public art tour or just all the city highlight tours. City Because many people don't know there's a museum. They would come and they would know.

I agree. Everything's all about awareness.

Yes. It is about awareness and consolidation. Right? You have all of the maps and things to do about Puppetina together. This definitely comes in our purview.

Okay. So I have create a map referencing whether or not trains are accessible to ADA, and then I apologize. What was the last part?

Not just ADA. I said maps. And then full stop.

Not sure regarding all trails.

Highlight whether that which trails are Mhmm. ADA friendly and non ADA because not everyone needs ADA, and they can still go to the other trails. And also other places, any outdoor places for visiting.

Okay.

And walking tours, walking tour maps that provide detailed instructions for easy family friendly adventures and enabling people to do self guided tour, including public art tour. So we just put something together that says everything in terms of trails and activities and

how those stuff the BlackBerry phone or the other part, they do have those QR code, you can follow everything I love three d

thing. So we can link that my friend has. It's made us all believe in that. Thank you. If patient comes up with QR code, you can be sure of that. Thank you. Vice chair. Excellent.

And we don't need a second because that was presented by the chair. So I have that in here for future agenda.

That's awesome. Thank you very much.

And the last word of the year.

I don't have the last.

Agendament. Yes. So if no one has any other future agenda items, I would call the meeting to a close and adjourn the 12/04/2025 Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to an end. Happy New Year, everybody.