City Council - Regular Meeting

Hi there. My name is Bel Moore and I'm with PG& and I I know that you were all expecting Sarah Ul. Unfortunately, she is ill and was not able to attend. So, I'm going to pinch hit. Um on behalf of P Genie, I'd like to welcome everyone. It's an honor to actually support the state of the city and uh Walnut Creek. Uh PG& um has worked uh many years with the city of Walnut Creek. We enjoy uh working with our elected uh officials and also our city manager and uh providing these services and reliability to the community that uh you all have uh hopefully experienced. And um with that, I do want to introduce uh Nicole uh Hankton, who is our interim CEO and president for the Walnut Creek Chamber. You did great. You did great. Good morning, everyone. Is it still morning? Yes. Thank you for coming. Um, I would like to thank you for supporting us at the future of Walnut Creek. And right away, jumping right in, I'm going to acknowledge our sponsors that signed up and decided to support us in this event. So, we've got F&M Bank. Some applause, please. Awesome. PG Kaiser Permanente, DHLA Law Group, Visit Walnut Creek, John Mirho.

Okay, I just want to also this is our premier investor circle. These are the companies that support us throughout the year. So, please give them a round of applause for supporting the chamber all year round. Okay, I'm going to go into uh All right, recognizing our city officials. Kevin Wilk, our mayor, of course. Matt Francois, mayor prom, Cindy Darling, Cindy Silva, and Dr. Craig Deini. All right. Okay, we're back on track. Now, we'll go through our elected officials. And we've got uh representing Congress, Congressman Mark Donier. We've got Janessa Oral.

Nice. Representing District Director, Senator Tim Grayson. We've got Alejandra Sanchez. Representing Assembly Member Rebecca Bower Cayenne or RBK. We've got Shereice Count and the chief of staff for Supervisor Ken Carlson. We've got Lisa Chow. And from one of our neighboring communities, we've got Carlin Oberinger from Conquered City Council. All right. And recognizing our past chairs, we've got Linda Rhyck Coberg in the house. Awesome. And Angela Ashley. And I would love for our board of directors of the chamber to just stand. Anyone that's here, please. Awesome. Thank you. Right. I'm going to this is a official city meeting so I'm going to turn it over to Mayor Wilk for public comment and to start the meeting. Thanks Nicole. Uh so I now bring this meeting to order and if we have anybody here that need that would like to make public comment please step forward. Okay seeing no public comment we will end the public comment portion. Let me just say if any of you have been to a city council meeting, you know what the 10-minute preamble that we have to say every time we have public comment. So, it's uh it's nice to be able to not have that. And I'll turn it back over to Nicole. The meeting is now in order.

Okay. Now, we're going to have a fireside chat with our mayor. And filling in for our current board chair, Caitlyn Sly, who is in Washington, DC this week for the State of the Union, is Angela Ashley, who is our incoming chair. So, Mayor Wilk, and Angela, will you please make your way to the stage? Well, this is nice. Yeah. So, we've known each other a while, Kevin. This is like sitting down for lunch with a more people in the room, right? These are the same questions we always ask each other over lunch.

Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you for doing this. We're happy to have you here. Um, I think like right off the top, I'd love to find out about your role. Um, tell me about being mayor, what you like about being mayor. Yeah. So, a mayor, for those who don't know, there's really three things that differentiate being a mayor from being on the city council. The first is that you set the agenda with the city manager. Uh you run the city council meetings and then when the media wants a quote or there's there's something that's happening in the news and they want to be able to interview somebody, typically it's the mayor that is the voice of the city. So, those are the really the the top three differentiators, but we're invited to all sorts of different events. Uh we're invited to everything from ribbon cutings to celebrations, openings. Uh it's been said that I'd go to the opening of a drawer. Um and uh that's probably true. I I like to be able to celebrate those accomplishments. Just yesterday we had the 30-year anniversary of Buttercup Grill. 30 years right on Ignacio.

That's awesome. And u

yeah I mean we all know how difficult it is to run businesses and 80% of new restaurants fail in the first year and 90% in two years. So the fact they've been around for 30 years 38 years because eight years was next to Marriott prior to that. So it's it's terrific. And also for those of you that may have seen well I've got a social media presence but the city really has done a great job in being able to beef up their social media presence. Unfortunately, we just don't have the type of traditional media that covers our cities locally anymore. So, it's really up to cities to be able to promote what's going on. And so, we started in January, I uh now record these mayor's minutes. So, with the ADD that's now happened throughout the country, people just don't have time for four minute to five minute videos anymore. So we've got these 60 90 second short bursts of video that that's about well 60 or to 90 seconds or so of just typically three topics. One on city issues, one on a a business topic or business business item and then something about the arts and we release these every week or two. So they're on all the city social media sites. That's Facebook and Instagram and now Tik Tok as well. And then I'll put them on my sites too. And so we've seen amazing response on these now.

That's fascinating. That's great. Yeah, I do like the updates. I like the city manager update and I always find them really interesting. Um, and great idea about the mayor minute. That's good. Do you have And you've gotten good feedback on that. They really have been. Just to give you an example, uh, just because by the very nature of them, we typically would have done mayor's updates once a month at the beginning of the month and they again be four to five minutes and we were down to about 2500 views in in that month. And the first time that we started pushing these out in January, the very first one, we had 5,000 views in three days. Wow. And we're seeing that now with each of the releases. So, it's really been exponentially uh improved in terms of view viewership.

That's great. And I do think that minute matters because when people are busy or doing whatever they're doing during their day, committing a minute is very different than committing five or 10. Yeah. Um and I for those that don't know, the mayor role is a rotating role, right? On the city council.

Correct. We don't have a directly elected mayor here. Most cities in California that are under 100,000 people, not all, but but most, you typically elect the city council and from the city council, they will then elect or select the next mayor. Now, it's often done on a rotational basis. We have that here. In some cases, they actually do take just separate votes every single year, and it sometimes might be on who got the most votes and other times just on the prediliction of the council itself. Uh, we are currently in our 19 cities in the county, five have directly elected mayors. Um, but again, most of the smaller cities don't.

That's interesting. Okay, great. So, I'm, you know, going to go off script a little bit and ask you, give me, I asked you what you like about being mayor. Now, I'm going to ask you, give me an example of something that maybe isn't your favorite thing about being mayor.

Well, for good or for bad, we get more credit than we probably deserve for things that are going well in the city, uh, mayor and council. We also probably get more blame for things that aren't going well in the in the city. So, it all evens out, I guess. But the thing that's most challenging for me, and it's a great question. I'm going to ask my fellow colleagues uh when I get the chance. For me, the biggest challenge is that when we have a contentious issue, uh could be controversial. That's at the city council. And there are pretty much equal people on both sides. Whichever way we vote, half the room is going to be upset about it. approving or or disapproving and sometimes the room is filled with people that are advocates for something that we as a council know that that might either be not legally allowed or there was reasons that we would go in the other direction. So having those conversations at the dis where we're deliberating there in front of everybody else and we're hearing what people say the the biggest challenge is if we have a 100 people and 95 or 96 are speaking in favor or against something and then we speak out on the opposing view of that taking the larger city into account. That's that's challenging.

Yeah. And it Right. So, it's not that I don't like it, it's just really challenging and that's that's the hardest part of the job for me. Yeah. Also probably looks like you're going against the grain at the time. Um, not listening to your residents. Yeah, exactly. Um, so, you know, we live in a city with a lot of people who are very passionate about the future of the city and the state of the city. And I know that there's a strong interest in economic development. Um, I also know we're the city is embarking on taking another look at the general plan and doing an update. What are some of the big focuses on economic development?

So, so economic development is absolutely one of our core priorities on this and we want to welcome new business much as the chamber does. We want to welcome the new businesses. We also want to continue to support those current businesses, of course, help grow sales, and we've got about 5,200 businesses right now in the city, just just over that amount. So, uh there's a lot to take into account. In terms of restaurants, we've got 10 restaurants now that are downtown that have outdoor public or private outdoor dining. And if we think back to five years when I was mayor in 2021, there really outdoor dining may have been the only silver lining of the entire pandemic that Walnut Creek did a great job in being able to really allow these places to have outdoor dining. And then through a v um coming back from the emergency measures that we had and doing some construction uh and infrastructure work downtown, a lot of those outdoor dining places had to be torn down. Now they're coming back. So we have 10. And in fact, the city council just a few months ago approved a grant of $10,000 for any restaurant that builds an outdoor dining facility. So we've seen more since then. We extended that through the end of March. And so if you have a favorite restaurant that you think can do outdoor dining, let them know about the grant and let's get that going.

That's fascinating. I love the outdoor dining. I I also do want to mention that our economic development team has done an outstanding job. Our economic development manager is Mike Neman. So right over here, I think somewhere. Hey, Mike. And so many people I'm going to give Mike a little shout out here. There are so many businesses that I'll talk to who will tell me without me even asking, "By the way, Mike is doing a great job. He gets out and meets the businesses and uh and that really helps our overall economic development strategy."

Well, that's great. Yeah, Mike's doing a great job. How would you see say that all of that feeds into the economic vitality that that helps the chamber? I mean, chamber's made up of businesses. You know, it's important that we stay uh vibrant and grow. How would you say that economic vitality helps? I mean our our economy is strong and we are well we have a well- educated affluent uh residential uh base here o uh any or I should say that we have 73% of our adult residents have a four-year degree or higher um there we continue to really concentrate on our core areas of industries that includes hospitality and u healthcare care, retail, professional and tech jobs, auto sales. So, we continue to focus on that. And um and again, retail, retail and dining are growing and they're doing really well to the extent that we only have 3% vacancy in the city citywide. That is substantially below the state average. Now, that can look like a dichotomy at times because people will come into downtown maybe from outside the area and they'll see in the and they'll see some vacancies and unfortunately within that 3% we have some high-profile vacancies that are downtown in some very prominent areas. Unfortunately, many of those are owned by one landlord and we would I would love to see one of my personal priorities is what can we do and in fact I just talked about this with one of my meetings yesterday. What can we do to help put pop-ups in there or to make it look like something is going on? Broadway Plaza does a great job in that when there's a vacancy before somebody moves in. We've got to figure out a way to do that more in the city so it doesn't just look like a vacant building, but it looks like something else is there. So, but that's just that's within that 3% vacancy rate. So, it may look higher to people, but 3% is

is phenomenal. I go to conferences across the state, across the country. I was just at the US Conference of Mayors and I was at uh Sacramento for our Cal City Cities Mayors and Leaders Conference Summit about a month ago.

People throughout California know Walnut Creek and they'll say, "Kevin, you guys are doing just a a great job there. How working with your city manager and you just have a terrific downtown. People know Walnut Creek and as Cindy Silva says, we punch above our weight with 70,000 population here. That's really pretty amazing that that many people do know Walnut Creek." Um, unfortunately we do have a challenge with office vacancy rates. That's a little over 20% right now. A lot of that started during COVID. U my own kids, uh, when they got jobs right out of college, it was right co was like front and center and they were hired in many cases. You never have to come in the office or just come in the office one day a week,

right? So this has been a challenge now in these companies trying to get people to come in now three, four, maybe five days a week. Our daughter is uh now has to go back in the office three days a week. Our son now four days a week which he lives in Southern California. That can be a challenge. So we're seeing that reflected in our office vacancy space here. This is going to change. I don't know how long it will take to change but I do have confidence that that vacancy rate will come down. But it has been a challenge and uh you know the Bay Area for those who don't know has been the slowest metro area in the country to recover from COVID precoid numbers of people back in the office

office space off to come back in the office to to it is the slowest in the country and that also is reflected in our transportation BART is just about a little over 50% of riders partership to pre-COVID numbers. Every other public transportation agency in the country other than in the Bay Area has come back to pre-COVID numbers. And so this is also a challenge because we certainly don't want to lose our public transit. But we have to depend upon those large employers and those tech companies to make sure that people are coming back in the office. That'll help Walnut Creek's office phase two.

Wow. I did not know that about the Bay Area and the 20. You know, I think that 3% like you were saying is pretty visible when you're down there. Unfortunately, it's pro there's prominent spots. Um, but I love the idea about the pop-up. And we have actually Broadway Plaza over there at that table. So, you can just mosy on over there and ask them about their pop-up. Oh, we talk about it. Um, what are some of the key developments projects in the city?

So, we have some great developments that are coming in. Uh Toyota's going to be building a 80,000 square foot uh twostory building focusing of course on uh vehicle sales and um and service. F&M Bank, one of the sponsors here, 5700 square foot freestanding bank building with a driveth through uh drive up or drive through, I'm not sure how they ATM that's in the Target lot uh in in the corner there. Uh, we then have one of the favorites that I'm often asked about and I'm sure that Shelley and Tracy from Broadway Plaza are asked about. RH or Restoration Hardware is going to go in where Neiman Marcus has been vacant now. 30 thou 30,000 square foot construction will go on there. Now, the Neiman Marcus building that uh many of us were working on to help allow that to be able to come in, that's going down. That building will no longer exist. and uh and RH is going to be building a new building. So, that's that's exciting to see. Uh there is a proposed development which we expect to continue to go through. Uh that Porsche is building a threestory uh uh uh dealership at the former Mass on North Main Street. So, that'll of course focus on sales and on uh and on service. So, that's on the commercial side of development. And of course residential side also has development uh that needs that are happening and those came from the reena numbers that the state mandated. So Walnut Creek is responsible for ensuring that we have 5800 uh or I should say land and zoning available for 5800 homes front doors. So a lot of that's going to be multif family housing. Of course we have had our housing element that was approved. Uh so we have done a uh this resoning but the city doesn't build the city only makes it available to be built. for

private developers. So this is something that we continue to work with and and talk to developers on what we talked before about one of the biggest challenges probably the biggest challenges and uh where we have both sides of people coming in or maybe waited on one side people coming in the council is when it comes to development

and because this is in my backyard whether it's no or yes in my backyard that's to be determined. Uh but we have a almost everybody that came here probably saw the civic crossing that's on Civic and Ignacio where you've got 93 affordable uh housing units that are going in there. There is Espironza Place with 42 units that uh are uh sponsored by Habitat for Humanity. And there's a variety of projects both big and small that are making their way through the process now and that'll eventually get to planning andor city council. Interesting. Well, since you're talking about residential and we're in Shadelland's, do you mind elaborating a little bit on the builder's remedy project that's out here?

So, so those who don't know, of course, Shadlands has historically been a business district and and there's still undergoing a bit of a metamorphosis now to vitality and business and recreational. In fact, we just had a a great uh tour, several of us, of the sports mall in the Copa Center. And thank you, Charlie, for that tour and uh and Jared for organizing that. So, the builder's remedy for those who don't know, I'll just give a quick synopsis. If a city didn't make its housing element in time, and there's discussions that are continuing to go on about this, then a a project can be proposed with very little city involvement. Basically, what the state has said, and Walner Creek, by the way, has done a great job in housing over the years. I hear about it from our congressman, Donier, from our state senators. Walnut Creek has always done a really good job about this. Uh but they it allows the state to essentially say you can't say no anymore if you don't approve these projects and don't approve the housing that's needed. We're just saying yes for you. And so now we have a builder's remedy project. It's called Mitchell Town Homes. It's making its way through the process. It just uh went to the planning commission

and this will be 422 units or uh homes not affordable housing just uh market rate that are in the shadelins that are proposed. So much more on that that will be uh that will be certainly covered mayor's minutes and median whatever that'll be covered. Okay. Thank you. We have a new chief of police. We do. Yeah. Do you mind expanding on that? telling us a little bit about him.

Absolutely. So, Ryan Hibbs, who over here in the corner, our new our new chief of police, uh we we conducted a nationwide search and we Ryan was the clearcut person that the city realized this is really the best fit. And uh he's been in law enforcement for 24 years. He lasts 16 years in Walnut Creek and he was captain for the last few years. And Ryan, well, I should say Chief Hibs as I will now be referring to you.

Uh he was my go-to person downtown when there were downtown issues. If I business owners know me and uh some of the nighttime spots, they'll let me know, hey, we had an issue over the weekend or there's something going on. C. Then Captain Hibbs was my go-to person at the Walnut Creek PD. So, he knows downtown and he's focused on it and he's and with with his promotion now into chief, it opened up down the line eight other promotions within our police department, lieutenants, captains, uh, corporals and sergeants. In fact, Captain Holly Connors just promoted to uh, captain from lieutenant. So,

that's exciting. Um, so, so it's terrific. And along with that, crime is down. And I want to be, I want to make sure everybody gets these accurate numbers because one of the challenges has been for the police department, for really anybody in local government. It seems like there's way more crime now than there's ever been before. And we can thank social media for that. Uh, I even have this conversation with my mother. If you go on to next door, it seems like there's a crime every Oh my gosh, I can't believe the amount of uh garage door uh people that stole from the garage. And what I say is that this always happened. You just didn't know if somebody had their car burglarized or something stolen out of the garage 5 miles away. You knew if your next door neighbored or maybe something on the street. So, social media has really made it look like there's just we're in a rampant crime wave. And the truth of the matter is that Walnut Creek is 20% lower in crime uh that happened in 2025 from 2024. So down 20% in that year. And that includes property as well as violent crime.

So we're doing great. That is

and Walnut Creek is known as a safe city. For those of you who have businesses here, for those of you that have been from outside Walnut Creek to come into Walnut Creek, you know how safe Walnut Creek is. And I'll give you a quick little story. Um couple of years ago there was uh there were a lot of these uh robberies that were happening of cars on Hegenburgger and 98th Street coming out of Oakland airport. In fact, even our in-laws, she was stopped at a a stoplight broad daylight and somebody rushed out from the bushes uh broke the pastor window, stole her purse. This is our gateway to the East Bay. I mean, this is how people get to Wallen Creek from outside the area. So, I called a city council member in Oakland that I knew and I said, "How can this how can this go on? How can you not protect the the first thing people see when they come into the Oakland airport and the last thing they see when they leave? And she said, "Kevin, I shop in Walner Creek because it's safe."

Somebody lived in Oakland her whole life and and was a council member. So, Walner Creek does have this reputation. It's imperative that we keep this reputation and uh the chief and Walner Creek PD have that direction from the city council.

That's great. That's great. You know, next door I think can be misleading, too, because every the way the headline comes up, it sounds like it's right outside. You know, I woke up this morning, it said mountain lion, and I'm like, "Oh my god, where?" But it wasn't anywhere near me. You know, it's like, uh, you have to really like dig deep. So, um, talking about that and the crime rate drop, can you tell us a little bit about the license plate readers? I know this was in the news a while ago. I know it's, you know, controversial. in the news this morning as well actually when I when I when I turned that on too. U so automated license plate readers we have 31 in the city.

They're a great law enforcement tool because it's able to communicate uh with other with our agencies to let us know if there's a stolen vehicle that comes into our city. And so we're able to locate stolen vehicles. We're able to help identify suspects and it really is a a great tool to efficiently move cases forward. Now that said, there has been some things in the news about them working with the federal government. Some of these license plate or LPR companies working with the federal government. That is not the case with us. Our LPRs stay local. We do not work with federal government. So, people can be assured of that. Yeah. Um, give you an example of how well these can work. Uh last October, just uh a few weeks after we uh implemented enhanced LPRs, there was a real time notification that came to our officers that there was a stolen motorcycle that was in town. They caught it on the roadway and then when they pulled him over was able to apprehend the suspect that had then been uh he had a stolen vehicle and a controlled substance. So, it's keeping Walnut Creek residents and visitors and businesses safe and uh and and again, it's a key tool. There's a lot of tools that can be used, but LPRs, I find, are one of the most successful of them. What I was surprised about on the news today is I think it was Mountain View that was decided not to do them or to turn them off. You can actually flip switches so that you aren't sharing that with federal government. So, I'm not sure why they didn't do that, but anyway, we don't.

Good. Good to know. Good to know. Okay. You know, one thing I do like social media for locally is that you will get in your feed if you're getting the updates from the city, you'll get an update from I think it's the police department that tells you when criminals are apprehended. And so that's for me very comforting. I like reading those. So I'm going to switch over and talk a little bit about I have one question about ICE. Uh because it's topical. I know it, you know, it has people a little bit on edge. It's obviously a very controversial subject, but just bringing it down to the city level, um I know there have been some protests in Walnut Creek against ICE. What is the police department's policy on ICE?

So, and this is tough and this is not what a lot of people want to hear, but the truth is that your local police departments, there's not a lot that we can do. We're not going to um we're not going to impede ICE being able to serve something. We're not going to u interfere. we're not going to assist either, but that if ICE is there to serve a warrant, you know, we we're again, we're not going to be able to interfere or assist. If ICE comes to a resident's door, they can call our police department and essentially they may be able to confirm that that is in fact ICE at their door. So, the resident

the resident or or the business. I mean, that's about as much as really our police department's able to do. I would encourage businesses to have an ICE enforcement action plan just in case and and maybe designate one or two people that are managers in your businesses that can u that if ICE does come they can be a liazison between the business and ICE just so that you're prepared for for any eventuality on this and employees can be informed that they can say I'm I'm sorry you do not have permission to enter here. They'll have to talk to my employer. And employees should know that.

Okay. Uh more on that later. Let's talk about Measure O and its impact on city operations. I mean, Measure O passed. Uh it was a really big deal to get it passed. Now the funds are being implemented. Tell us um give us the good news. Yeah. Well, it is and it's great news actually. U Measure O being passed. And I should say I met with a uh a campaign consultant back when Measure O was uh was being proposed who said to me directly, you're not going to be able to pass that in the middle of this recession. You're not going to be able to.

And all of you, everybody in this room and the measure O committee and the council that got behind it, but the the businesses and the residents that passed this for a variety of reasons, amazing. I think it was 65%. So what are we doing with the money? Well, Heather Farm is getting the lion share. We've We can talk a little bit more about that in a minute. U I want to focus on some of the other things first. Uh we hired five new police officers that are patrolling downtown. Also a 911 dispatcher as well as a crime anal crime analyst. So those are things in the police department. We have funded lighting at Ty Valley uh and at Heather Farm. Actually, we have now synthetic turf fields there. We've got we've invested into downtown. We've invested into uh the libraries now have longer library hours. We've funded crossing guards. Uh we have also helped to support the lesser center with additional staffing that can help with marketing. We have a sustainability a new uh role for sustainability analyst that is now able to help with our sustainability action plan. There's a lot going on with measure O funds and that's all great news and and with Heather Farm and I we'll touch on on that. So that's the biggest area and these were pool the pools the community center they'd been over 50 years probably closer to 60 years in service. They've done a great job over those generations but they've outlived their usefulness and and their useful life. And so this is really now the opportunity that uh we can now build these for the next generations. We just ground had the groundbreaking last week. These two pools are state-of-the-art. They are going to for competitive, for recreational, for swim lessons. Uh my kids took their swim lessons there. And

the community center is going to be great for events and weddings. And we're going to see this completed, by the way, by the end of next year. So, it's exciting to see. I am not good in the middle of construction, whether it's a remodel at home or anything going on. I hate being in the middle of it. I I want to avoid it and go to the other side of the house. And I kind of feel like that a little bit when things are going on, you know, publicly as well. Trust me, this is going to be great. The designs are going to be terrific and everybody's going to be thrilled with it. But in the meantime, yes, a 100 trees came down that made room for it, but we're replanting 200 trees. So we we'll have to look at this in the uh in the larger view after everything's completed.

Yeah, that activity center is something the center that's going in. It's beautiful. I saw the rendering. It's absolutely stunning. Um and good to hear on the crime the dispatcher and the analyst. That's exciting because I know a big concern was safety under me. So that's exciting.

Um okay, so how about how does Walnut Creek prepare for emergencies? So, we do have an emer emergency plan and we have our our teams that are responding to it in a variety of ways and training for this as well. But, of course, earthquakes and lands landslides and floods and fires, they can happen at any time. So, we want to make sure that we're prepared best that we can. We also encourage our residents to also prepare and have a personal u uh preparedness disaster kit for example. Something else that you can do, and if you haven't already, and you can tell people about this, is you can get updates on your phone by texting WC alert one word to 888777. And you get updates of what's going on, emergency updates. It can be something like Ignacia Valley Road is closed because of a crash or because of a power line went across or Ignacia Valley Road is back open. Those are important. For any of us that live down here, we know how important those alerts are. But this is great for anybody for any kind of city alerts. WC alert all one word to 888777 and uh and this is a way that people can help to prepare themselves as well.

Okay. And earthquakes and all of that.

And by the way, quick shout out to our public works department on this. During the storms of the last month, we saw in the news in the in the Bay Area all these regions that were hit by floods on the roads and flooding in different areas. You didn't hear about that in Walnut Creek because our public works team under the director Rich Payne has done a phenomenal job in preparing when we see this is coming down the line and making sure that this the sewer areas that places are prepared and cleaned up beforehand. And so we haven't seen these kind of problems in Walnut Creek in the last several years when there has been these issues all over the region. that is in huge part to public works and they are truly the unsung heroes of what makes Walnut Creek Walnut Creek and a great place to be and work and say, "Oh my gosh, when you're watching the news and Dan Ashley is giving the news report saying, "Oh my gosh, that's terrible that's happening in Marin County." It's not happening here. Yeah.

So,

yeah. So, I've got a couple questions. Um, one is what is the long-term vision for the city? So long term really is to ensure Walnikree continues to be a great place to live, to work, to visit, to play and recreate and really to make it the most the the best opportunity to be able to bring in business and have have things so that people can live without having to be on the road so much. When I when my family first moved actually to Lafayette, I went to high school in Walnut Creek and you went to San Francisco or San Jose. That was really the only place in town. You could come to Walnut Creek and for those that have been here around long enough, I'd ride my bike and go to the Army Navy Surplus Store or GMCO or Simons, but there wasn't a ton, right? There were some restaurants, certainly not the wealth that we have now of over 200 restaurants, right? So, Walnut Creek is not a bedroom community anymore. Walnut Creek is this place. It is a small urban area. We have a wide footprint. We're attracting from 10, 15 miles in many cases. Original Joe's coming in has just even increased that footprint, I think. and uh and so people don't have to necessarily commute an hour, hour and a half away. They can stay and do everything here as well. We've got the premier and I'm not just saying this because I'm I'm mayor city council. We have the premier art center in the county and and for my money in the entire East Bay.

So that's that's huge. So all these things we can do here. A and again this huge shout out to the staff that does this or the vision that Walnut Creek has had from council members, mayors going back 30, 40, 50 years that have set the vision for we are right now. We want to be able to project that into the future so that our kids and grandchildren down the line can also enjoy what Walnut Creek is, which is still urban, a suburban area, and then a rural area as you get out to some of the outlying areas like to uh Castle Rock and those kind of places.

Yeah, we are so fortunate. We have everything, shopping, open space, all of it. So lucky. I think the mixed juice has helped that. I I found that when I go downtown, I'm always surprised at the mixed demographic that's down there now. And I think I've mentioned this to the city manager. It's really exciting to see young people, old people, you know, children down there on a Saturday or a Sunday. That's that's different than before. You know, it it completely is. And when I when I was in high school, we all went to Sun Valley Mall on the weekends. That's where it was happening. Yeah.

And Broadway Plaza, it's like there was a little bookstore or some uh there it was Capwells, Pennies. you just didn't necessarily go to Broadway Plaza to meet people and hang out with you. It was Sun Valley Mall. I give talks every year now and uh often with Mayor Pro Matt Fransaw will go to Los Lobas to their government classes and I've asked this question who here goes to Sun Valley Mall on the weekends.

Now these are all seniors and they all drive and not one raises their hand. They all go to Broadway Plaza. That's the change that has happened and I confirmed today because I did not want to be fact checked later. So, thank you, Shel and Tracy. That Broadway Plaza of the Maichrich Group of Companies is the number one mall in the entire Maichrich suite of all of their malls does the the most business out of those 33 uh different malls. And I hear that Walnut Creek, just this is off off the cuff. Yesterday, we had a business watch meeting and I was talking to the Chick-fil-A owner there. Then he has the downtown location and a location in the Willows. And he told me that for a while there for about a year the Chick-fil-A in Walnut Creek was the number one Chick-fil-A in the country in sales. Oh my goodness. In the That's why the line was going down Main Street. Right.

Main. Yes. So, I mean, it moves fast. But now, if those of you that live in the woodlands, don't throw that around a lot because we have that was one of the more challenging meetings that we had when all the woodlands came out to oppose the Chick-fil-A going in into the Citrus Center. But since I live near there and I've driven around there, there is not traffic problems that I Well, knock on wood. I've not seen traffic problems around the uh the Chick-fil-A that's there. But Broadway Plaza has done an amazing job in bringing so many variety of different businesses and uh you know kudos to the management there and yes it's a diverse it is and keeping it um occupied. Absolutely. You know you really don't see vacancies. They do an amazing job of that and where there are vacancies you can't tell. Right. That's the idea.

We need to work on that one. Good job. What partnerships does the city of Walnut Creek have with safety net nonprofits and at those types of organizations? Read that. Wait, say that again. What partnerships does the city of Walnut Creek have with safety net and nonprofit organizations? Well, we have lots of partnerships with nonprofit organizations. So, everything from the I would leave something out here, but obviously the Trinity Center is one as an example in dealing with homelessness.

The police department is very involved with a lot of the nonprofits that we want to make sure that people feel safe. U I think that's what the question is referring to. could be the health safety net and that would be a little bit different. But for example, we have a homeless outreach team that works with the different homeless. They they help direct the services to the core core services at the county, the Trinity Center. The Trinity Center also has the winter shelter nights at the Armory that goes through November through April 15th this year. And we really try to just help them the best that we can. And I've had I've been on ride alongs with our homeless outreach team and it's just eye opening because they know the homeless people, many of the homeless people that are there. They they know the places that they go. We don't have encampments and they're constantly helping to give them different services. So, it's uh it's just impressive of what we're able to do to to help them. And uh you know it's not it's not against the law to be homeless. Uh but also we want to make sure that there aren't encampments and there is not vagrancy and so u along with that our police department will also work um with code enforcement and with business as well so they know their options. But when it comes to health and safety we want to make sure that the police department is engaged with our nonprofits too.

I hope that answered the question. There's a followup. Um but I wanted Oh great. Yeah. No. Well, I can clarifies it, but I also want to say that the chamber did a panel um I think it was a year and a half ago on homelessness and it was amazing because they they had all these different organizations there represented and just to hear the how they work together and synchronize and they all know each other and the compassion it was really um it was eye opening really enlightening.

Yeah. Well, thank you because I I I agree. I think that is that is key. And for those of you who are now wondering, well, I wonder how many homeless there are in Walnut Creek. U it's hard to tell. It's a pretty transient population, no pun intended. U but we have on a count that the that the county does every year. Last year's count was about 50. So, of course, we get calls if somebody sees one person that's homeless on Main Street, you know, we got a call on that one. For those that are familiar with Berkeley and Oakland and San Francisco and some other cities, I mean 50 is truly a drop in the bucket, but we don't ignore it because if you ignore the services that we can provide and the direction then homeless population is going to grow. So, we want to be able to mitigate it the best we can.

Okay, great. Uh, the follow-up question is, "What is Walnut Creek doing to ensure the largest growing segment of the population can age in place?" Did this come from Debbie? I I think so. I was thinking that, too. Choice in aging. Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking that, too.

Right. Well, I think as many of us actually hit into that what would be considered that echelon. And my mother is 88 years old, lives close by. And so we're seeing the need for this and and I will have a shout out to to Debbie that after my father died, I my mother needed extra help and Debbie was just thank you so much and being able to help connect me. There are these resources that we are are so fortunate to have and of course we have the senior center here. Uh Mount Diablo Village is something that has recently sprung up which really is helping to uh congregate or I should aggregate bring seniors together different types of different activities. Ellen Osmanson uh leads that and uh in fact there's even something an event that's going on this evening and so it's bringing seniors together that may not be as connected with what's happening in the city but it's really important to continue to have those kind of of discussions and be able to have that population taken care of and it's one you know we we talk about that there's not enough housing because in many cases people are staying in their homes longer we're encouraging ADUs I have actually found out found some uh seniors that are then moving to the ADUs and let their kids have the main house. But it's it is a challenge and so we need to make sure that we continue to have those conversations with our staff and be able to help support that community of people that are aging because we want them to be able to age in place if at all possible. And if they can't necessarily age in place or they need a little bit of extra assistance that there are those places that are secure, that are that are safe and that are reliable, that we can count on to take care of our parents. Um, it's a challenge. It's uh I'm doing everything I can to keep my mother in her home right now and I can see that it's becoming more and more challenging each and every month or two.

Good question. So, uh, how is the city coordinated with transit agencies like BART to increase local and regional mobility? Uh, so I'm on the board of county connection and that is a feeder, one of the feeder systems that goes into BART. Uh, so we want to be able to in we're at about um, now I am going to be fact checked by the county connection folks. Look, we're like 75 80% of what we were pre-COVID numbers. 85

85. Okay. So, we're continue to increase along the way. Thank you, Bill. And uh we want to ensure that people still feel comfortable and safe, public safety and health safety in in public transit for these for these feeder systems. But in terms of BART itself, if BART evaporates or diminishes service, it impacts our local transit agencies as well. I mean, this is this is a one:1 net ratio on this. We need to make sure that BART survives, that our public transit uh survives on a a local basis as well. A lot of these people can't afford cars. Uh they rely on uh on county connection to get to work, to go to the hospital, to get their social security checks. There's a variety of things that our local transit agencies are really needed for. And so we we also have the uh uh the one uh one ride program that allows people that have disabilities to be able to rather than transferring from one system to another go all the way from the point they're picked up to the point that they're dropped off. So all these things collectively go into what makes our public transit agencies as valuable as they are. And just to give you an idea, imagine as you're as you are driving down the freeway and sometimes you may see people that are on BART or BART train goes by and you see that it's packed there. Imagine if BART or public transit didn't exist. All those people right on the roads. So whether or not people take BART or the bus, we don't have them. They're on the roads and our own commute times and our own times of anticipating going down valley road and and getting down from a nation from here to downtown in five minutes. I know. I know.

But let's say it's let's say it's 10 minutes. It may be 20 minutes. Yeah. That's the kind of thing that we're looking at now.

Yeah. Um I have two more questions. What can we do to be increasingly more competitive and to bring new business to the city? Uh yeah, so Walnut Creek's not the only game in town anymore. And probably 20 years ago, I think we had that kind of thought. Well, we're Walnut Creek. People can they they happy in Walnut Creek. Of course, now that we've seen the veranda, the Willows has expanded now. Uh the city center in San Ramon. So there's all these uh cities that are highly competitive. Lafayette is doing more as well now. So, we need to make sure that u and we're doing I we are doing a phenomenal job under Erica Vanderbrren's directorship of of of our permitting and planning process right now to help to ease permitting but we don't have a concier service between our economic development team and being able to help shepherd through and people being able to get resources from the city website of how to start a business of getting a business license of different financial uh assist financial incentives that there may be as well and helping to make the permitting process less less friction and we're I'm sure that you know if if we started here and the goal is to be here we're somewhere around here right now so more can be done but we're doing a great job where we are right now and we we still know that being in Walnut Creek is a premier pl place to be we also know that it's not the only place to be

right Right. Um, so this is a chamber event. So let me ask, how can the city and the chamber work best together to continue to bring business downtown to bring, you know, businesses to the, like you said, the uh businesses that need brick and mortar, but there may be office space, you know, to motivate them to be here and stay.

Yeah. So a lot of the same goals there. We we want to bring business. We want to take care of the vacancies. We want to be able to grow current business as well. And so the relationship that we've had has been phenomenal being uh partners in events like this and other events that are throughout uh throughout the year. U the city we have our senior management. So city manager Dan Buckshy, assistant city manager will often be at the board meetings, the monthly board meetings. I think always I can't remember a meeting they have been at. We have a liazison with our city council that has somebody there. this year it's council member Sydney Darling that uh is there. So we have these continued collaboration efforts to ensure that communication is at a premium and and I got to say this and and a shout out to the people that work with the chamber and the city at some of those conferences that I go to where I meet different chamber presidents and I meet different city managers and uh and mayors. A lot of cities don't have great relationships with their chamber of commerce. I was shocked. In fact, what do you mean you're how can you be adversarial? how can you not work together? You have the same objectives and and they were trying to figure out I don't know what was going on there with the direction of it. But Walnut Creek, from what I've heard, I mean, we are in the top echelon of that kind of collaboration and uh and so being able to work together when the chamber is talking to a company that may be coming in town or when the city is talking to a company that might be exploring what uh places they could be in Walnut Creek, working together collaboratively, bringing in our economic development manager or bringing in somebody from the chamber. if it's a big enough company, maybe bringing in the mayor, doesn't have to be me as mayor, it could be any of our mayor, any mayor, the mayor next year. Uh, but having that kind of discussion and showing that we are here, we're serious about wanting you to come in here. Uh, that's important. And so that to bring RH in that doesn't happen by accident. That starts with Mason

Richri. And there's connections with Walnut Creek downtown and the chamber of commerce and city management and and city officials and and council. All of this is important. So I think that collaboration I was a I was in marketing. My I my background is an internet marketing director and and executive and it's all about communication. I started in sales. It was all about communication. Nothing has changed in working collaboratively between the chamber and council and uh and city collaboration and so communication and making sure that we're able to have the best foot forward for any of these kind of businesses that want to come here and want to stay here that needs to continue.

Great. Thank you. Well, listen, I want to thank you for doing this very informative and thank you all for listening and

thanks So, uh, good afternoon everyone. I'm Tyler Heden, SVP and area manager for Kaiser Permanente, the Diablo service area here. I'm really pleased to be here today. This is my first event with Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce and I want to thank the chamber for the warm welcome and for bringing together so many leaders who care deeply about the future of this community. So at Kaiser Perente, we are proud not only to be a major employer in the East Bay, but also a longstanding community partner. We believe that thriving communities, strong local economies, and good health go hand in hand. Events like today's focused on collaboration, innovation, and what's next for Walnut Creek are exactly where the conversations should happen. One of those places where that future is really taking shape is the Shadellands, a district that continues to evolve as a hub for business, healthcare, and innovation in our region. So, it is my pleasure to introduce Angela Ashley, who will share an update on what what's happening there. Please join me in welcoming once again Angela Ashley. Oh my gosh, you guys are going to be so sick of me after today. Okay. Well, thank you. So, I was filling in for Caitlyn Sly, who went to DC, and that's why I was uh interviewing Mayor Wilk. Now, I'm putting on my Shadelyn's hat. Uh, as Heather said, I'm presently the chair of the chamber ped, and that stands for property-based improvement district. That committee was organized in 2014

for five years by vote of the property owners in the district and its plan was then renewed in 2019 for 10 years by over overwhelming majority. Uh the mission is to use the property owner assessed taxes to to the betterment and improvement of the district. And so the property owners sit on the committee. they get a voice in what happens there and uh uh they're part of the direction for the improvements. The PBID was formed when there was no organized group, no CCNRs, no guideline for improvements, no consistency or even communication among the businesses and property owners in Shadellands. The area where the orchards was or is was completely flat. Nothing was there. The district was falling into disrepair and vacancies were rising. Now we have a thriving district which organically has seen the rise in healthc care and wellness, sports and sports related wellness, schools, an animal shelter, and a vibrant shopping area with many, many amenities. To show you a little more about what Shadelins does and all that it has, let's see if I can do this. We have a video. HEAT UP

HERE. SO GREAT. So that video was from Calvin Young from Creative Mint. Thank you. A little shout out. Um, as you can see from the video, there are many different types of businesses with vast areas of diversity. And I thought one of the best ways to talk about that was to ask people from the committee itself. So I asked four of them to give me information about their different businesses. I have two medical bass and Kaiser, the sports mall and Joybound. So the first one is Bass Medical. And our representative is Todd Vakaro, marketing and business developer. Um, BASS has grown quite a bit. It's added a clinical research department and they now provide our community and their patients with opportunities for various clinical trials in cancer. 18 clinical trials have started thus far and it's growing. 11 active trials, five closed to enrollment and two in startup phase. They also have something called expand and grow specialties. They currently have 45 different specialties that provide high quality care to patients. And I just love that slide because it looks like a Barbie house. You'd never know it's an MRI machine. Uh for example, obesity and lifestyle, which is now available and BAS is adding into more locations. Sleep apnea treatment, which is available and expanding. And they address dementia. BASS has added

new dementia treatments and early detection centers. They're also changing. They've dedicated the Bass Cancer Center to now say the Gregory Roads Cancer Center at BMG. It offers medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and breast surgeons. The cancer team in addition to treating cancer is also providing non-cancer innovative care such as lowd dose radiation therapy which uses a tiny amount of targeted radiation to reduce things like joint pain and inflammation caused by osteoarthritis. It's quick, painless, and requires no surgery and no recovery time. I found that pretty fascinating. Next we have Kaiser. Our representative that gave us the information is Mike Maddox, operations director and site director. They refer to this site as Kaiser Permanente Park Shadelands. And under their statement, they deliver strong care experience starts with listening to its patients. This year through January 28th, more than 1,650 patients who visited Park Shadlin's medical offices shared their feedback. Overall, their rating was very high, particularly regarding listening, communication, shared decision-making, and compassion. For example, on January 28th, 54 patients rated their visit a perfect 10 out of 10. Okay, this is my favorite slide. strolling through the colon. Uh prevention and cancer screening is a cornerstone at Kaiser because early detection saves lives. At Park Shadelins, the teams work on timely screening for cancers such as breast,

colarctyl, and cervical cancer. When cancer is detected early, the integrated care model allows patients to move quickly into coordinated treatment and improved outcomes. They also look for creative ways like this to make prevention approachable. One example is the strolling through the colon educational event which uses hands-on learning to raise awareness about colurectal cancer screening in a memorable way. They have community partnerships. Kaiser Park Shadlands is proud to be an active partner in the Shadellands and Walnut Creek communities. In 20125, its staff supported local nonprofits through food, toy, backpack, and maternity clothing drives benefiting organizations like Monument Crisis Center, Bayer Crisis Center, and Shelter, Inc., and participating in efforts to bring encouragement to hospitalized children. And I like that there is I always love cross-pollination in shadelins. They also emphasize in whole person health through partnerships with organizations such as canine companions, valley humane, and joybound people and pets. Therapy dogs regularly visit the site supporting emotional well-being for patients and staff alike. Next, we have the sports mall. We all love the sports mall. It's a huge draw. Uh, our representative on the committee is Charlie Campbell, Copa Innovative Labs managing director. Um, most people know about all the sports at the sports mall, including uh, swimming, gymnastics, taekwond do, baseball, and of course the basketball, the fieldhouse. But Charlie said there's one thing missing, and

that's golf. and that brought in Smash Smashbox Golf. It's an indoor golf studio with a simulated driving bay. The bay is open 24/7. It's self-service so you can go on your way home from work or to work or after you put the kids down or anytime. The in this slide you see the range and on the right side is the data tracker. You can book the bay online. You receive a code, you let yourself in. You can use the simulator to compete with friends on over 250 courses. Or you can practice your swing using a tour level ball and club data. And you receive information so you can track your progress. Pretty cool. You can go after this lunch if you want. It's right over there. Next, we have joybound people and pets. I love ending with animals. It's such a feel-good way to end. Um, I'll kick this one off with a slide about what's coming. They have a brand new 14,000 ft boarding and daycare. And this is the rendering for the facility. It will not only have boarding and daycare, but vet behavioral clinic, expanded public training programs, and then uh the boarding will include dogs and cats. It will increase the capacity to support families, offering not only behavioral but training support for pets, those that are friendly with other pets. And they also will have a behavioralist that will help if you have a pet that doesn't socialize well, which is the first time I've ever heard of that. Those people are usually housebound and it's difficult to travel because they have nowhere to take their pet. The facility will have amenities for pets, offer a lot of joyful activities,

and provide expanded crisis boarding for medical housing or personal emergencies. The next thing I want to talk about I think is pretty revolutionary for our region. Uh I think it's critical given what's happened in the recent years. Joybound is now a hub for natural disasters regarding pets and owners. It works in coordination with other agencies to address pets, animals, and care during times of crisis. Pretty phenomenal. So, some other information and stats. Joybound provides Contraosta residents with vital veterinary services, spaying and neutering, over 3,000 dogs and cats, expanded support and training services like emotional support animals, facility and therapy animals, and psychiatric service animals. In 2011, Joybound's program began supporting veterans, but today it's expanded to include providing help for first responders and trauma survivors with psychiatric service animals. Pretty amazing. So, Joybound, like the other businesses, are part of what makes Shadell's great. It's a vibrant hub. It's a destination and it offers so many amenities. It's a place where you can look for wellness, you can look for support or have some fun. So, thank you for your time. Really appreciate you listening. That was a great update of what's going on at the Shade Lens. And thanks for your leadership, Angela. Really, really appreciate it. So, uh, next we'll turn our attention to the heart of our city, downtown Walnut Creek.

Downtown plays a critical role in the economic vitality and identity of Walnut Creek, and its continued success is essential to attracting businesses, visitors, and residents alike. At Kaiser Permanente, we recognize how important vibrant downtowns are to community health and connection. Places where people live, work, gather, and shall I say, thrive, too. Right. Uh it's my pleasure to introduce the person helping to guide that vision forward. Tracy Deland is the chair of the board for Walnut Creek Downtown. So, please join me in welcoming Tracy. Hello. How's everybody? Good. You still there? I know we've been drinking iced tea and water for an hour. We're probably like has to go to the bathroom and now you got to listen to another speech. So, um I will uh do the best I can with this. Let me let me figure this out first though. Ah, it did. Ah. Okay. Let's start here. Okay. So, um, first thing on my notes is say name. Hello. I am Tracy Deine. I am a Walnut Creek. Um, I as I am also the president of the Walnut Creek downtown. They call me Madame President because I I make them Yeah, I make them say that. I actually voted it in. I don't think that was a legit vote, but we did vote on that one one board meeting. Um, uh, my day job, I'm also the senior marketing manager of Broadway Plaza. Uh, I've been there for 26 years. Um, I like to, although I love my time at Broadway Plaza, I kind of think of it as dog years. So, I did the math today. I've been at Broadway Plaza for 182 years. I've been I'm a rookie on the Walner Creek Downtown Board. I've only been on that one for 140 years. And this weekend is my birthday and I'm turning 364.

So, I can see you all thinking that's 29. Um, but anyway, so I'm excited here to talk to you about uh what's happening for the future of the Walnut Creek downtown. Um, first tell you a little bit about who we are. Um, I know it looks like we're a bunch of supermodels. Um, which we are, but that was not by design. That was a coincidence. Um, Walnut Creek Downtown is actually in two boards. The Walnut Creek Downtown Association. Um, I'm president of that one. I'm the five I'm the I'm a 501c6. That's so much numbers. nonprofit and we're the official business improvement district of of downtown Walnut Creek. Um we're here to serve businesses and property owners focused on strengthening vitality, visibility, and the overall downtown experience. In 2024, we also became a 501c3. Um that is our um foundation, the community partnership for the Walnut Creek downtown. Um that board was support that organization was um created to support artistic, cultural, and public programming that enhances downtown for businesses, residents, and visitors. Um sorry, I'm very nervous. I haven't given a speech in a really long time, and I've realized yes. Yes. Um I I was just going to say, um you know, I don't need to be liked, but if you guys could pretend to love and adore me for the next like seven minutes, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you. Um, a little bit about our Lawn Lake Creek downtown organization. These are these four women plus five. Lena was at a different supermodel photo shoot the day this picture was taken. Um, they do everything. They are the hardest working staff members you could ever want, imagine. Um, they're diligent. They're dependable. Uh, in a recent focus group, somebody called them scrappy, and I that's a positive thing. They're like just golden retrievers. Uh, that just bring the downtown a lot of good. Don't pet them, please. That's a HR thing. That'd be very strange. Um, is anybody from the Walnut Creek downtown boards

here? And if you are, you don't stand up at disco point. Jazz hands there. Okay. Like like two of you. Thank you. Okay. Um, I'm here. I'm on the board. Okay. So, what are we working on? Uh, right now we're very excited. We're working on our vision plan. Um, we've been working on this for a couple of years now, and we're about to release the final draft. Uh the vision plan will establish a clear and coordinated framework for the downtown for the next three to five years. Um we're focused on creating a I'm going to put more vibrant walkable active downtown year round. That's 365 days a year. We emphasize connectivity, placemaking, brand elevation, and partnership alignment. Um and it's driven by priorities, accountability, and a measurable outcome. Uh some of the priorities we're working with are beautifification, marketing, advocacy, community partnerships, and events. Um you know, a lot of people start these kind of plans with a blank canvas, but we're Walnut Creek, so we're already amazing. So, um you can just imagine what the vision will look like. So, stay tuned. Coming to theaters near you, grab your popcorn. Um we're excited to release that very, very soon. Okay. It's very hard to read notes. Read the screen. Check. Yeah. Okay. Um, another thing we're working on is an entertainment zone. And we're very excited about this. You probably a lot of places, not a lot, but some of the Bay Area cities that have entertainment zones include San Francisco, um, Oakland, San Jose. You might have heard about them. Um, we're excited. We're partnering with the city of Walnut Creek to establish our entertainment zone. The zone will be designed designated. Let me start over. The zone will be a designated area allowing to go alcoholic beverages per p purchased from participating downtown businesses during Walnut Creek program events. Um guests may enjoy these beverages in approved outdoor areas or zones and um this will activate the downtown corridor, increase

business revenue, stimulate broader economic activity. I wrote this, you'd think I could say it better. Ensure equitable benefits and strengthen Walnut Creek's identity as a vibrant central hub, cultural hub. Um, we're very excited. Um, now our uh entertainment zone will be event-based. So when we have our events such as our Locust Street Festival, um, that will be uh that would be an event zone. And what this uh a big uh plus of this is it pushes people actually into the businesses during an event downtown. They can take their alcoholic beverage, purchase it there, and then walk around downtown. Now, I have to stress this is an entertainment zone for events. Don't be going down Walnut Creek on a random Wednesday carrying your open container. I'm pretty sure you'll be arrested. Um, I've wanted to do that on Black Friday at Broadway Plaza, but yeah, no go. We We appreciate your brazeness, but don't do it. Okay, we backtracked. Okay. Uh, Kevin Will kind of stole my thunder on this one. I caught you there. uh outdoor dining structures. We're incredibly excited about this. Um and I just want to sh make a shout out to the city uh for helping us with the um outdoor dining program. Uh the city council approved $100,000 in grants in 2025 to assist restaurants with outdoor dining pods. That's what the the kids are calling them these days. Um and as Kevin me mentioned that that that extension is now you can still not nominate, you can still apply by March 31st. That's a Tuesday. So, if you're procrastinating, you have all Monday to do it. Um, but you know, the down to downtown dining, outdoor dining. Okay, take a deep breath. The structures are great. These are some of the ones that are open. I know Model Bakery is working on one right now. If you have a restaurant, this is a great opportunity for you. I suggest you take advantage of it. And the city's partnership in this has been incredible. All right. What page? Okay. Um, what was also mentioned today was the business watch program. This is a great

partnership between the Walnut Creek Downtown, the Walnut Creek Police Department, the Walner Creek Downtown, and the Walnut Creek Chamber. It's a free program strengthening collaboration between businesses and law enforcement. It provides safety resources, crime prevention strategies, and direct communication. Supports a safe and welcoming downtown environment. If this meeting was a week ago, you would have been at the first meeting yesterday. But um I heard it was a great meeting and I just suggest you keep um keep watch for new dates coming because this is such a great program and something very important to the downtown. Some of the fun stuff, what's new in Walnut Creek? This is not everything that's new in Walnut Creek, but this would kind of hit the tail end of uh 2025. Some of our new retailers and restaurants, Cali Crap upstairs, Herman Miller, Hollister & Company, Mango. I want to give a big shout out to our baby, Original Joe's, at Broadway Plaza. It was a very long pregnancy. Kind of did a lot of damage to the Earth Canal, but once that sucker shot out, it's like sprinkles and confetti everywhere. Um, okay, that was kind of gross. Sorry. And it's like after birth, so let's have a conversation about that. Um, so we're very excited. Stereo41 open, square pie guys open, and tifa chocolate and gelato. All some of my favorite things. Um, so that's what's opened at the end of last year. Let's see what some of the things to come this year. Um, there are some of the things. These are not all the things coming in 2025, but these are the things we can announce. Not all of these things are coming in 2020. Now I sound like Tweety Bird. 2025. Uh, 2026. Hi. We've got a new year here. Oceanana Fishbar will take over the old yach club. They'll be, I believe, opening next year. RH Gallery will be taking over. Nea Marcus, as mentioned before, that will be opening eventually. Um, and here are some of the other things that are opening. I think Italian food and ramen will be to Walnut Creek with a Walnut Creek with what athleisure wear is to Broadway Plaza. I

mean, every other store we have there is athleisure wear. If you leave without getting leggings, something's wrong. But anyway, so a lot of exciting things to come. Oh, and um I know North Italia, speaking of Italian food, is opening next month. So, they look great. We're excited about that. I'm half Italian. I love Italian food. My waistline doesn't, but when you're 384 years old, who cares, right? Okay. Some of our events, we're very uh Walner Creek downtown is known for our events. Uh we have a lot of exciting events coming this year. You know, a lot of our events, I meant to say this during the entertainment zone part, but a lot of our events are alcohol. there's an alcohol component to it. I feel like our motto should be like Walnut Creek downtown, home to the two drink minimum. Um, we do have some of those events, but not all of them. In fact, we have a great event coming up on March 1st, which is this Sunday, called Momentum. Um, it is like a winewalk without the wine. Yeah. Okay. You all look real excited, but no, it's a great wellness event. There's it's it's so much it's going to be a lot of fun. It's first year, so it's the inaugural year. Um, I think it's going to be a lot of fun. A lot of stores are participating. I heard there are fabulous swag bags involved. There are hydration stations, things to do. The presenting sponsor is the Ballet School of Performing Arts. Shout out to Jenny Perry over there. She's great. She's actually madam vice president or vice madam president. Yeah. Anyway, she's uh my vice president. I love her. They do a great job. Um these uh but yes, we've got the Lucas Street Festival coming back. We've got Oktoberfest, Unccorked, um which is the actual winewalk. Um you'll notice we do a lot of partnerships with Broadway Plaza. So shout out to Broadway Plaza events. Um and uh yeah, so a lot of fun things to come. But remember moment, if you leave with nothing else today, Momentum, go get your tickets. Momentum. I was supposed they were paying me to say that, but I I I wanted to. I think that was it. Hold on. I can't Okay, I'm g I'm going to go get a drink after

this. Okay. So, anyway, on behalf of the Walnut Creek downtown, we just want to say momentum is building, partnerships are strengthening, downtown is evolving, and the future of WA Creek downtown is already in motion. We're really excited for this year to come. We're excited to work with all of you. We appreciate all your partnership, and we just uh look forward to continuing on this great path that we're on. Thank you. Good, good job, Tracy. I don't know how to follow that pregnancy analogy, but I will give it a shot. Uh, thank you again to our event sponsors and having confidence in the chamber, F&M Bank, PG& Visit Walnut Creek, Kaiser Permanente, DHA Law Group, and John Mir Health. Thank you once again for making this possible. I just want to run through of course more events. So, next week is next Tuesday is the East Bay Women's Conference. For those of you that have been coming for years and years, uh please join us again this year. We're having a new twist. We're having a health hall. There's going to be some amazing health care providers along that hall. They're providing some interactive education for different areas of health. So, please come. We also have a She-Shed boutique where you can do a little shopping and of course Bedford Gallery is there and I will be your MC this year. Yeah. So, come out and support. I need the good energy. We have a civic affairs forum coming up on March 24th. It's a very interesting topic. It's uh what to do as a small business owner if you are encountering ICE. So, we've got two speakers. We're having a dialogue on this event. Uh we will put up information on that on our chamber

website in the next few days. So check back with us. Art and wine once again coming up first weekend in June, June 6th and 7th. Please join us. It's at Civic Park again this year. And then before all of that, we have the state of the chamber and tourism update in this room again. So come back for lunch on uh April 23rd. Another thing, our leadership program is coming up. So, you should register now. Uh leadership contraosta, the new class starts in August. It's a great program. You get to rub elbows with other emerging leaders in the county. And um it's about nine months, right, Linda? Yeah. So, please, we're taking applications now. Visit our website. And just one last thing, the chamber is 100 years old this year. Don't we look amazing? I think we look amazing. So, we will be having an event honoring our 100 years. Stay close attention to our uh social media. We'll be posting some little teasers. And again, thank you for coming and great to see you all.