Charlotte City Council. We're glad to have everyone participating and those of you that are watching us online. Thank you very much for taking an interest in what we're doing. Councilmember Bram Charlotte City Council District 3 Good evening and go gator's Victoria Watson City Council at large. Good evening. We want to make you all councilmember at large Tark McCarrie from the most powerful district At drinks district seven welcome room district to Mark's Jones City manager high-liles mayor Dante Anderson mayor pro-tim district one Dimple Ajmer the most powerful city as an at large member I Y'all know Tarkner only be like Tark McCarty dishes. He might leave us now. Marjorie Molina District 5. Good evening, Renee Johnson District 4. Anthony Fought's interim city attorney. Ariel Smith, lead city clerk. Okay, thank you very much for the introductions. This is the meeting that we have as we dive into deeper problems and situations that we believe that are important to the community. And the count of all of the council members participate in what I would call the smaller groups where we would have committee forums and discussions and then this point that we come in and learn what everyone else is spoken about and what we're moving forward to do. So today I know that we have a number of people that are here that want to have presentations later on, but why don't we go ahead and start with some easier ones? How about mobility, Mr. Driggs? One of those easy ones. Okay, so we had two topics today. And the big event is everybody got these. So the community area plan drafts are out. In committee today we heard some explanations about how this works in practice. It was part two of staff presentations. I think people are having individual meetings as well. So I would just emphasize you must read this, right? We have to know as members of council what's in here. We're trying to inform the public. We're trying to get them on board, but they will not read this book. People in the general public will read this book if it lands on their doorstep for the most part. They're depending on us. So I just encourage you to look at it, understand it. There are a lot of issues discussed about how it becomes effective, the process through which we roll these considerations into our land use decisions. But it's going to come back, you're going to be hearing about it. So just encourage you to look at that. The other thing that we heard about today was the Strategic Energy Action Plan. And this is a draft as well that has come out and update to our plan. A lot of good things in here. Big emphasis on greenhouse gases. I think we need to also pay attention to water and waste and trees. But this is a good plan and we should all again be able to explain it to anybody that wants to know what Charlotte is doing about environments. So I just recommend these reports and Madam Mayor, that's all I have to say. All right. Are there any questions from Ms. Johnson? It's not a question. just want to add, that I mentioned during the committee meeting that we want to be very intentional. Mr. Jones about ensuring that we get community feedback. We know at the beginning of the community area plans, there was less than 1% of the residents of the city that were engaged. So I just want to be just be very clear, be intentional, about being transparent. Mr. Diggs mentioned that the city council members rolled in that, and we do have a role to communicate with our residents. But the city definitely has more resources than us as council members. So we just ask that we utilize all the resources and make sure that we're getting this information out to the public because it does affect them And we know we've all heard from residents that you know, they don't know what's happening until it actually Impacts them so we really want to be just proactive about that. Thank you All right. Thank you very much any other comments. Okay, Miss Melina, thank you Madam Mayor and actually I'll just add to that there was some small discussion and Mr. Graham brought it up about updating the public on the transportation tax. And it wasn't a part of our agenda but it was one of those things where just kind of ending the meeting because there's some conversation around where we are with that and mr. Drake's did give an update on where we are And I don't I don't want to try to you know mistake his work and do it. I'll just go you're right You're right. I should have mentioned that if you don't mind. I'll just sort of I think it be a correct What we discussed earlier so mr. Graham did point out rightly that that we need to be talking about our big mobility plan at every opportunity because there's a lot going on right now, including the legislation that's pending in Raleigh that's being worked on there. A portion of it in the Senate, some of it in the House. We are hopeful in their current session, they will approve legislation that allows us to conduct a referendum in November if the Board of County Commissioners approves the referendum. And that would be for a one cent sales tax to fund a $20 billion mobility plan. A huge investment distributed among real projects, plus projects and road projects that will be our response basically to people who say to us, what are you doing about traffic? And in all of our zoning means we are. This is huge. This is what we're doing about traffic. So an update of the actual plan, the so-called 2030 plan that we've all been seeing, is also in the works as expected out in May. And that will give people a good basis to decide whether or not they think funding this sales tax is in the best interest of the public. At the end of the day, it will be a public decision whether the tax is implemented. So that's the status of that. And I think there's no breaking news as such, but I think it's a good idea, as Mr. suggested for us to remind people that every opportunity that this is going on and we are going to be going out to the public. We hope later this year to say we'll you support the plan. Thank you for bringing that up. And you say. All right. Any other comments? Okay. Hearing none, I understand that there was a really easy task today and it's from our housing safety and community committee Indeed indeed no not at all simple They make it look simple our staff is amazing at it We got a chance to cover today in our Committee meeting a lot of the innovation work that's going on. So you all know that last year the resident supported us in a housing $100 million housing bond and we're busy about the implementation. Just to remind you out of that $100 million, we decided to invest in the following categories. Rental housing production, home ownership, rental housing preservation, supportive housing and shelter, housing rehab and emergency repair, Housing Rehab, and Emergency Repair Innovation Pilot Fund, Site Acquisition, and Administration and Evaluation. And so with those, each one of those categories, there's actually an implementation plan of work that is either ongoing or work that is planned in response to each one of those items. In particular, we dug into the Innovation Pilot Fund and talked a little bit about how we would prioritize that work. We learned more about the city's land development strategies. Not only will we be continuing to do the things that most folks are probably familiar with, as it relates to city-owned land and RFPs, but we've also been moving something like a developer, and that's been interesting as well and exploring not only mixed use, but mixed. What was the term ACM Heath where we've got housing and fire stations together? Not mixed purpose, that's it, mixed purpose. So some interesting work there. Also, I'm excited about this because you know I'm a data geek. This idea of implementing a housing policy simulator so that we can start to really map out and understand the impact of our policies on the ground. And I think that'll be extremely powerful so we continue as a city to lead the way in those efforts as well. So much more to come, but today we got a chance to give feedback on some of the things that stuck out to us, what we were interested in. And so I'll yield some of ice chair if there's anything else you'd like to mention in regards to the discussion today. You covered it well, Madam Chair. Are there any questions for the housing group? Ms. Anderson? Thank you, Madam Mayor. More so just a statement because I sat through the meeting. But, love this idea of the housing simulator coming out of Berkeley University. But just thinking about, you know, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte receiving its R1 status and being able to leverage them and employ them into a lot of the activities. It would be interesting when they, when we do do the simulation to have UNC Charlotte be a part of it So that they could hopefully be able to sustain future things that we might be interested in here locally rather than going out to export the the expertise So I I do think I've had some conversations with the expertise. Bill, not yours. So I do think I've had some conversations with the chancellor and she really has said we have the talent out here to do this work and anything that we are looking at we should probably try to inquire more often is this something that the university would like to help us do and accomplish. So thanks for that comment. Any other questions, Ms. Johnson? Thank you. Speaking of the university, we do want to congratulate them on the R1 status. But we are going to be working with UNC Charlotte Urban Institute to implement an evaluation plan. That was one thing that was presented during the meeting. So we are recognizing and utilizing the talent we had here in the city. And then one of the questions I ask, and I hope we can get this information back. We talk about 30 and 50 and 60% AMI. What do those numbers mean? So I ask the question, what is the AMI that we're talking about? And what is the rent amount when we talk about 30, 50, and or excuse me, 50, 60, and 70? And Ms. Mayfield looked that up and I believe the project that we were talking about, the rent is going to be $1271, $1271 at 50% AMI. And that's a lot of money still for a lot of people. We talk about the working class and not just 30% individuals at the airport. And anyone making under $45,000, we need to think about that as we're looking at 50% AMI. So $1,200 is still a lot of money and we can't forget that. It sounds more affordable based on the comfortable amount or rate right now, but $1200 is still not affordable to a lot of people. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Ms. Mayfield? I just want to make sure all of Councillor Knows, that was a part of the conversation today where staff made a recommendation regarding a pilot of a loan product, basically a much lower interest loan. So it's a pilot opportunity for a current development that we have, but it's the community impact revolving loan fund. And the benefits, if Council chooses to move forward, it's the fact that one, it will give us an additional 10 years on affordability for these ranges, too. It will give this developer the ability to utilize the loan funds at a much lower interest rate. And we will receive those funds back because you're going to repay your loan versus the grant model that we have. My colleague, I think what she shared was definitely a conversation that we had, but I just want to make sure everybody was on the same page for why we were having a conversation on housing prices. It's looking at if we want to support the pilot of utilizing this low interest and the funds will come through our home. Not through our housing trust fund. So it's a separate line item but that is a discussion I will start it. Thank you for that discussion. I appreciate I'm sure all of us understanding that. All right, so I also thought that there was a great committee meeting on the housing safety, oh, I'm sorry, for the BGIR committee meeting. I think it was a very simple discussion about financial partners. Thank you Madam Mayor. I wish I could say it was simple. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, try that one. You said it, not me. Well, let me start by recognizing our committee members starting with Council Member Brown, Council Member Mayfield, Council Member Mitchell and Vice Chair, Council Member Bokari. So today we had four topics and we covered it all within one hour and 45 minutes of great job committee members. First, we got an update on Matic Interlocal. I'm sure you all got a memo from Chief Johnson. So he joined us provided an update on the status of developing an interlocal agreement with Matic. As you all know, we were supposed to get some sort of contract from Matic this week, but that has not happened. So there is a concern from Farachief Johnson. They'll continue to work with them to address, to negotiate. But at the end of the day, we did provide that he might have to take some hard line approach here. And we have to make sure that we continue to support him. As you all know, the town of Hunsville have canceled their contract with Maddick. I'm not saying we are going to do that, but we will continue to negotiate with Maddick to ensure that when someone calls 911, they are getting services on time within the standards that we have said we will follow. So I'm hopeful that there will be some sort of finalized agreement, but Chief Johnson will continue to update us. So that's on Matic. The second topic we had was aviation budget. As you all know, there is significant growth at the airport. We are seeing where leadership is focusing on operational resiliency, leveraging technology and innovation. And we are seeing $30 million increase in operating expenses, but at the same time, we are seeing increase in revenue. As you all know, it's an enterprise fund. So they're gonna continue to do full cost recovery even with the parking. So there was some discussion about parking. We'll get more information on the benchmarking data that was requested by committee members. And Haley also provide us an update on the staffs that the staff is taking to ensure that there is passenger safety always at the top. As you all know, there is innovation, there is a debate between passenger safety and continuing growth, especially in what we had seen over Washington, DC airport, media, air collision. So Haley is going to provide more update, but there have been several infrastructure investments that have been made to ensure passenger safety at all times. So that's one aviation. Third item we have was the CATS budget. As you all know, under Kegel's leadership, there have been significant stability that's been made to the organization from passenger safety to capital investments to address various concerns to really addressing the vacancy rate and also addressing ghost bus rides. So a lot of our committee members applauded his leadership. He did also share with us that we'll- address in Ghost Bus Rites. So a lot of our committee members applauded his leadership. He did also share with us there will be no fair increases. However, there is a fair study that is going to happen. And at the end of it, there will be discussion of if there is any fair impact. There are several capital investments that are being planned to increase additional measure to advance safety of our passenger as well as our employees. Or our- So that's on cats. Last but not the least, we have financial partners funding policy review. I know you all gave us a homework last time in our budget workshops. So we provided additional feedback to staff around making sure that we are focusing on the value approach, value based, and also we are looking at gaps. If there are any organizations that are really addressing gaps that are there, we got to make sure we continue to work with them as financial partners. But then also there are opportunities for us to have organizations like T Charlotte to have a line item in the budget rather than going through financial partners process. Also committee provided and updated on the ranking. So as you all know, there was a scoring done by staff. I did share my concerns that when we do score our financial partners, there is a perception out there that we are scoring them based on their services. And we will be working on that. But today, we did not get an opportunity to work on the policy, but certainly that's something that will come back. But right now I think we provided our feedback on financial partners. So I guess when the manager proposes his budget, he'll incorporate that feedback for our financial partners. Let me see. So committee members, if I missed anything, feel free to chime in. Overall, I think we all agree that it's going to be tough decision for us. There is a finite amount of money and we have over $8.2 million in funding requests. So there will be tough decisions that we'll have to make. So I'm looking forward to manager's recommendations based on criteria and the input that our committee provided. So that's all I have. Thank you Madam Mayor. I have Mr. Bakari and then followed by Mayor Pro Tem. Mr Bacari. I just want to follow up on one of the comments I made in committee on that first topic relating to medic and what fire chief Johnson is trying to navigate. This should be on all of our radars. I know I've talked to many of you. It is on your radar and it is critical. I think the punch line here is critical, unaddressed issues are not like fine line. They don't get better with age. And right now, it's sitting out there and despite the chief's valiant efforts to solve this, he has been unable to do so. So my encouragement to him and all of us is, it needs to crystal clear. This needs to get resolved and it needs to get resolved in a timeline by which we don't jeopardize safety for medic services and things that happen in the public and we're in the middle of our budget cycle of which we need to understand these implications. So I think we've put I I think the pressure today, out there of hearing the updates and letting everyone know how critical that all is. But I think there's a time where we need to continue to encourage behind the scenes the chief to take a hard line here and say we're not going to let this just unaddressed anymore and then be prepared as a council to support that together. However, it may materialize because it's unbelievable we can't get this solved. It's a top priority for us, and everyone else that has a touch point needs to be a top priority for. All right, Mayor Proton. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to underscore Mr. Cagel's performance as interim CEO of Cats. I was reminded in a discussion earlier in the committee, just the tone and tenure of the topic around Cats in performance on time, service, ghosts, buses, etc. It was very different about a year and a half ago. And there was a small group that was stood up to address this directly and intergovernmentally. And where we are, as it relates to that moment and time about a year and a half ago, is vastly different. And I just want to lift up in the spirit of Councilmember Mitchell saying, you know, we got to celebrate the good things, the wins as well. I just want to lift up his performance and the performance of cats in the wake of our overall mobility, strategic mobility discussion and the expansion thereof. Thank you, Madam Mayor. All right. All right, Mr. Graham. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to underscore the comments that my colleague, Secretary, I mean council member, Bokhari said in reference to the importance of the issue that we're dealing with and ask the question, when does it bubble up from the director's level, the chief level, the medic level, to the management level in terms of having some of those conversations? As it. So thank you, Council Member Graham. I would say at this point, until the news last week of delay, it had been more or less at the level of the directors. So I hope that the discussion today allows them to have a bit more urgency in trying to get this resolved. All right. Any other comments? All right. Hearing no more additional comments, that is completing the Council Committee discussions. Thank you for all of the effort that you put in. And most of these activities or comments that you're having will give us a lot more success as we move forward in this next budget year. So thank you very much for what you're doing. And so with that, I think the next thing that we're going to review is the Jobs and ED Committee meeting and I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Graham. Thank you, Madam Mayor. We had a great meeting today. We had the opportunity to receive the annual updates provided by the city's municipal service district agencies. That would include Charlotte Center City partners where I serve as a board member, self-park community partners. I'm not sure if Council Member Carter is a board member, but certainly he was there before the MST in terms of providing some. You've been doing reviews. It's to be safe. Make in the case, right? And then the third was University City Partners, where Councilmember Johnson is a board member. They presented their annual report. They're doing some tremendous work in the community and I don't want to take their and they're going to be a little bit more authentic way by Povadi, my update. They're doing some tremendous work in the community. And I don't want to take their thunder away by Pavari, my update. They're here today. Adam Rue with South Park Community Partners, Keith Stanley with University City Partners as well as Michael Smith with Charlotte Sinistery Partners to make their own case and share the good news. This was what information purposes only, but out of the meaning came two news worthy items that you will probably be reading about tonight in the newspapers and tomorrow one being a $21 million public private partnership. That's been announced today by South Park Community Partners that they want us to consider that he will be here to talk more about that, as well as a tax increase, a millage increase for the Minimumsable Service District and Charlotte Sinner City Partners that Michael Smith will be here to talk about in addition to their annual update. And Keith will talk about certainly what's happening in University City. You've heard on two or three occasions about the get work coming out of University of North Carolina Charlotte and their research status being upgrade, as well as all the tremendous work that he's doing over there. And I will highlight, I'm almost certain councilmember Johnson will also highlight some of the challenges that they have in terms of state roads and coal issues that we're working hand in glove with Weed of City and University partners to address some of these ongoing issues. So they are here today to make the presentations. I will allow them to do that. One in particular is the millage increase that has to be included in our budget. Mr. Managers, I understand it and so I'm pretty sure at some time the manager will chime in too and make sure that the council members understand how that works as we move forward. So, would that to start with Charleston and City partners? Thank you. Thank you. Madam Mayor, members of Council, manager Jones, pleasure to be back with you to give an update. I'll move quickly through the update and then get into a conversation about a new initiative that we're launching called the Uptown Vibrancy Collaborative. If you're not aware, Charlotte Shout is going on right now. This is 17 days of art, music, food and ideas. It is virtually free of the public thanks to the partnership that we enjoy with you, the city. There are 200 events. There are hundreds of artists that get paid. Anything that we do in production, we do not take any fee for this is money that goes straight to the artists. We mix in a couple of international but 90% is local. Please come out and enjoy. We we are, we're a 47 year old partner of the city of Charlotte. We're proud of that partnership. We're organized as a C3. Our mission is all about being a, our center city being a welcoming, equitable, economically vibrant, culturally rich, and beloved place for all. We are values based. We are all about doing everything that we do with passion, innovation, tenacity and excellence. This is our service district and it is uptown, midtown and south end. We've got an incredible board. We're fortunate to have such a great group that cares so deeply about our mission. As far as how we put together our budget and our program of work, we listen intently and we listen a lot of different ways. We have a great board that provides us traditional governments on program of work and on budget. But we use uptown Small Business Association advisory committees. We do primary research. We work very closely with our neighborhood associations, all of which to help us shape our work. And our work fits into economic development. We've really had a great year considering the headwinds that every downtown is facing right now. We've got a pipeline of 5.4 billion of new investment. UNC Charlotte opened the CoLab this year. This is a center for entrepreneurship. It is a difference maker for the students that go there and for the aspiring entrepreneurs of our community to have a mission-based place. You watch the difference it's going to make. It's going to become cornerstone to what makes our city great. We've got 10,000 apartments in the pipeline in the center city. that matters on a Fortability because we have to fix the supply demand problem with 117 people a day moving to our region we have to keep building housing and our center city has been celebrated as a central business district and it is transforming into a central activity district, where it's more than just work. It's hospitality, it's a destination, it's a great neighborhood, and it's a campus, particularly for UNC Charlotte, but also for J.C.S.U. for Johnson and Wales. I'm sorry. Yes, thank you. So anyway, we're excited about the way our center city is responding. If you'll take a look at this next snapshot, we love this graphic. What's in blue is what was built in this immediate, completing economic cycle. And what is in purple is what has been announced to be groundbreaking by 26. What is in green is under construction. Great places create the context for tomorrow's vibrancy. That is all about assemblages. We have 10 massive assemblages within our center city that are ready for the next economic cycle. This is just identifying three. We do our work in economic development and in community development. We use long-term planning and near-term planning. Right now we're operating under our partnership that created the 2040 vision plan, which is a 20 year vision that we renew every 10 years. There's also great aspirations within the South End vision plan. Our South End is the hottest sub market in the Southeast. Continues to serve us so well-drawing talent, growing jobs, and investment. We're also this image that you're seeing here is the rendering for Call Park, which is planned to open on June 18. Regarding public safety, we did some great work this year in partnership with the city of Charlotte. One being our public safety working group that has your chief of police serving on it, our DA, our head district judge. Sean serves on that one with us as does Anthony at the city, excuse me, at the county. and then a variety of business leaders. We've used affinity groups to be able to inform that work. The other piece I would draw your attention to just for a second highlight is our ambassador program. So the gentleman you see here in this picture in the orange and blue is one of our safety ambassadors. We completely re-imagined the program about a year ago. And every ambassador now is a card carrying private security professional. We raised their pay from the mid to high teens to the low 20s. And these are great jobs. And we've got a really talented team that we're proud of the work that they're doing. And look forward to what's next. Marketing communications is also part of the way we serve. There'll be more about that in the Uptown Vibrancy Collaborative. From a programming standpoint, it's small programs, but it's the large ones. It's the 17 days of shout. It's the Novant Health Thanksgiving Eve Parade with regard to mobility. We stand ready to work with the City of Charlotte as you guys advance our aspirations for mobility expansion. The work on the Gateway Station, the Rail Trail Pedestrian Bridge, which should begin construction shortly, the addition of a new stop in the south end and all our work on the rail trail. I move through that quickly at the request of Allison. So now if we jump in to something we're really excited about. In the years that I've been in this role, I've never had a period where there's been better alignment by our major employers in wanting to support center city, specifically uptown. Now that comes out of concern. This came from the CELC, which is right now shared by Jean Woods. Jean appointed Bill Rogers and Lynn Good to co-chair an initiative called the Uptown Vibrancy Collaborative. They asked us to staff it and step one was defining the challenges. And those challenges are public safety, extraordinary experiences, perception issues, vibrancy. When you hear vibrancy, think the vintage office challenge that we have on older office buildings, and then a renewal of public infrastructure. So step one was, let's go out and let's raise some private money. Let's have private money move first and let's surge what we're trying to do with this program. And this group of companies made commitments for two years, a million dollars a year, we're just shy of goal. But we're proud to have this group as a part of it. And what we asked of them was three things. We asked for them to commit to the investment, number one, to advocate for this initiative and then to own your block. And the own your block concept is really as simple as it sounds. The idea is please commit to taking your private security curb to curb. This was a humicall idea that worked really well in the 80s. They also, we also asked of them, please take the beauty and cleanliness responsibility for your block and then lastly, programming a couple times a month. This is incrementalism. We think if every major employer and every property owner on those 11 blocks of trion street and a few of trade, take responsibility for the experience that every guest has on their block, we're going to have an extraordinary experience through the way it comes together. And analogy was made to the storefront, the storekeeper, who every morning comes in its sunset, sprays down the stoop, and sweeps it off, and the kind of experience that their guests have. So the $2 million was intended to be private money and to surge the initiative. But what we would like to do is we feel like we have a challenge right now in downtowns that need additional resources to be able to meet the day and meet the challenge. Private money came first, but then they asked, we want to sustain this effort going forward. And we'd like to find a way to make it so that we're not constantly raising money. So their ask, which came to you as an ask from our executive committee, was to raise the millage in MSDs two and three. And if you look on this map, what it shows you is, this was decades ago, this map was drawn with MSD's two and three. And it was intentionally created this way to carve out the single family homes, so that the single family homes would not be asked to fund some initiatives. And these initiatives we we feel, are much better funded by commercial property owners. I've had conversations with 35 to 40 large property owners and major employers. This is what they would like us to be doing. We have not had any opposition. There are eight condo associations that are captured in MSDs, two and three, and we have invited their leadership over and had a conversation with them sharing this information what we plan to do, and we have support from all of them. We're beginning a process with the city to continue to seek more feedback to make sure that everybody is aware of this. The model that we're using is we would like to raise a half million dollars a year from MSD-3 and a half from MSD-2, the increase is 0.0082 per hundred dollars of value. And to make that real, the average value of the condos in those eight buildings is $465,000. So it would increase their millage by $38 a year. If it's a $100 million building it would be an increase of $8200 a year. The beauty of your center city is it has incredible tax value so therefore a small millage creates significant resources. An extra million dollars for us to focus primarily on marketing and on programming. Our aspiration is to have 52 weeks of year of programming and to have resources also to lean in on solutions for vintage office and around public safety. I know I moved through a lot of information, but I hope that's helpful. And I am glad to answer any questions. Other any questions? Yes, Ms. Edmira? Yes, thank you Madam Mayor. Mr. Smith, thank you for your leadership in bringing programs to uptown. We were at Charlotte, Charlotte yesterday, and I saw many families on Sunday night in uptown going to Levine Arts Avenue first war. So it's really bringing families to uptown on weekends, even wait days because this is two weeks long festival or even more. So I appreciate how you're using some of this MSD dollars to bring distraction to uptown. I like the strategy behind own your block. It's very powerful when it's done in collaboration, where we bring that vibrancy back to uptown, not just on weekends, but even on weekdays, and also address underlying issue, which is the public safety. And I hear that, I hear about that from many residents, not just those who live in uptown but those are all that are visiting for games or events like Charlotte Shout. So I look forward to supporting that and really addressing safety. We have to do everything in our power to invest in our uptown. We got to make sure it is safe for people and for families. So the programs that you're doing, it might be small programs, but really they are making large impact. Because our goal is to bring traction on in evenings,, back to uptown so that it's continued to be the driving part of our community. That's all I have. Thank you, Madam Mayor. All right. Ms. Johnson. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you, Mr. Smith, for the presentation. I wanted some more information about the programming, the goal for the 52 weeks of programming. What type of programming? And is the part of the goal to increase tourism downtown? So thank you. We think programming is kind of urban magic that if you provide programming, it creates a greater comfort in the space. It does often provide employment. It creates a safer environment because the safest places are populated and active and highly programmed. They're not expensive. I mean, it is some will involve music. Some will involve pop-up retail. Some can involve food. You know, we run the Food Truck Program uptown, and we run the Kiosk Program along Trion Street. And then we also operate the incubator, which is the market at seventh street. So we have this deep bench of relationships, of aspiring entrepreneurs. And we think that all of them will be great partners. There are some examples of programming that's going on right now. Duke Energy has done a lot of jazz on Wednesdays at lunch. Truist does fifth street live on their plaza, which has been really popular. It's kind of like the old live after five that was done for so many years. Anyway, great partners along fifth street that have brought that in with live music. Okay. And do we have information or or estimate or numbers of the the amount of tourism uptown? How much the economic driver the tourism brings in or the do we have any of those numbers? We do. So, if you use open table as a source, we're now about 5% above where we were pre-pandemic. And last year, we had 330 days of professional sports in uptown. It's amazing the way we're being transformed. We have owners right now that want to use Bank of America Stadium, you know, 60, 70 times a year. We've got an owner of the Spectrum Center that wants to use at 150 times a year. And what's so amazing about that is, it's always the end one. It's always the plus of coming early to get a meal, staying later to get a drink, pairing it with some shopping. And all of this is sales per square foot and it all ends up in growth of jobs. And it ends up in an uptown that is safer and more highly programmed and aminitized. Okay, so I guess are there graphs or something where you're capturing tourism dollars for uptown? So we'd be glad to give you some data on what's going on with tourism in uptown. That'll be information we'll be able to get some of that through a great data tracking tool that we have but we'll also talk to our friends at the CRVA. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for the presentation. Absolutely. All right. Miss Fwa, Lieutenant. You go ahead. Okay, well somebody. Somebody started. Thank you. I've got a couple of questions. I know that I was able to share several of mine with you last week. So I look forward to some of the follow up to those. I'm curious. Some of these? Yes, those. I'm curious to about just the numbers and how it works. And I think that was what I was trying to convey last week in regards to the current MSD budget and what the operations split out is. I know that you started with safety that has been one very significant area that's going to challenge uptown. So I would like to understand exactly how we're investing in that. So I'll dig deeper into this piece. But if you could speak just briefly to that, can you go back to this slide? If you can speak just briefly to your plan for safety beyond, I know you talked about the security offers and the increase. Are there any other items there that would sit within the MSD, not from the private partners that speak directly to safety? Yeah, so our ambassador program, which is right now a million dollars a year, is our, it's a third party called Block by Block which provides these security ambassadors. It's there's 16 of them. Our plan was always to want to take it to scale once we were proud of the service being provided and now I wish so much they were all in here with us. They are an incredible group that is so dedicated to service. And we've got great data on the interactions they've had, the services they've provided. But it probably needs to be 35 to 40 to really have the impact that we're seeking to have and we're in conversations with partners about how do we, how do we double that size? How do we make it into a $2 million program? And so is there a forecasted percentage of this new revenue that would be needed to expand to 35 to 40? And so what is, I'm just trying to get a sense of what we get when it comes to safety for this increase in military. So within the program, the part that we're trying to surge now and through the summer and through these next two years is really about programming, which we think plays a role in public safety, and also in the storytelling, retaking the narrative. There will be a small portion of this that goes to the Ambassador Program, but the plan for the Ambassador Program is to bring other partners in to be able to double it in size. That's not what this request is for. Thank you, Ambassador. Mr. Mayor, part of the question. Okay. Okay. I'm not going to double this. That's not what the request is for. We'll continue conversations. Great. Okay. When I think about core services for the city, safety stations, one of the major ones. And so I appreciate the proposal and certainly can understand how you got there. It's just important to me that if we are putting additional public dollars on an ongoing basis towards something, it's important to me that it's tied to our core services, especially in light of some of the conversation around, yes, we know that increased visitors can improve safety tertiary early, but really to me, that feels like more of a tourism tie, which is also a good thing. But it just gives me a little bit of pause. I want to make sure that we are investing in the core. The plan from the beginning when we introduced the ambassador program in 2018 was for the ratepayers in uptown to pay for half of it and for the other half to really be hospitality funded because I think you're right. I think it is about the experience that our guests are having and so we're having conversations with hospitality related partners about how do we stand something like this up where it becomes a 35 to 40 ambassador scale program and I think in order to have the super impact that we think we can have through the ambassadors, that's what it's going to take. Yeah, thank you. I'd like to spend a little bit more time on this. And I understand there are a lot of different partners and a lot of different sources of funds. I just wonder if there's an opportunity to streamline and make sure that we are getting what on the public side is For me one of the most important issues. I don't want us kind of breaking off private public on every single piece And then we end up piece milling it all together, but I'm sure you're on top of that. Thank you. Okay Mayor pro-10. Thank you Madam Mayor and Couple things on this ambassador program Which I think think is a very good program. I know university city partners, you're starting yours. But if the city manager were here, I would pose this question to him around, how can we stand up to Ms. Watlington's point, a program that we see is effective, but in areas of the city that A, need it, but B, do not, are not homes to an MSD. Right? Because I think there's an extension of public safety, of visibility, and we could be, we can manage the intensity and area of, areas of focus of a broader ambassador program. So, I'd like to have a broader discussion about the ambassador program. However, one of the questions I wanted to ask you around the safety program, the vibrancy program that you're effectively funding through the increased millage and the work that's going on with their home for all. And also I know that the county has agreed to provide 24 hour safety, security in certain parks, the majority of them are uptown, right, first ward, I believe, remere beard, et cetera. But making sure that there's the coordinated effort between what you're doing, what home for all is doing, and the increased security in parks. I want to make sure that we're not being repetitive but being supplemental and the amount of support and security being provided. You have my commitment on that. I'll remind you guys that the Home for All project was one that we stood up and staffed. It was eventually adopted by the county commission. We stay very closely involved. And my commitment is that we will not duplicate and we will look for all of those to be moving together. And yes, on July 1st, Mecklenburg County is going to have armed private safety in all of our uptown parks, which we think is a game changer. Yeah, I agree. I just want to make sure, you know, myself and a couple other council members met with CMPD Metro Division to talk about public safety, the numbers, and they're doing a great job. However, one of their biggest hurdles, if you will, is being able to interface with the unhoused population, having a place for them to go and be safe and secure. And so that's why that intersection with the home for all is important. The other piece that I want to make sure that we are covering, especially for you for Center City is, you know, the third ward, third ward neighborhood organization has just become revitalized and they're under leadership of former council member Austin. I went to that meeting and I know that be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able in the planning of it. And I know that third ward now will be organized, but first ward is another one where a lot of activities occur there in first ward and hopefully more and fourth ward in second ward as well. So just leaning into the ward leadership would be very, very helpful as you move forward to planning. Thank you Madam Mayor. All right. Thank you. I think Ms. Mayfield, I'm sorry, I didn't see you in the hand. Of course. Thank you Madam Mayor. Thank you for the presentation, Mr. Smith. Can you go back to your budget breakdown? Yes. The cease, what is, Senator City, okay, what is CCCP's see center city partners what is CCC's? P. Charlotte center. Okay. It didn't catch it at the first point 20% that what the CCC P Paul CT. Yes so that is our community trust that is a related entity that's organized as a C3 and That is a separate corporation that is part of our body of work and it's where we do Charlotte shout It's where we do the parade. It's where we do the small business innovation fund. So the community events and festivals come out of your trust? That's correct. So 20% of the trust and then you also go out and seek additional funds for the trust. What we try to do each year is bring in seven to ten million dollars of additional private money to match the MSD dollars to do our body of work. and we do that through three corporations. There's the Center City Partners, which is most of what you just heard about. And then the two related entities, are the community trust and the market at seventh street. Those both have their own boards of directors and their own tax status as C3s. And the beauty of setting up C3s is then you're able to get foundation money into them, whether that's private foundation or corporate. It's just a great, it's a great tool for us to get private money into public priorities. So, good. Okay. That helps. I was just wondering what, just wanted to have an understanding of what the PCT. So I wasn't aware that CINNACity Partners had a trust. So thank you for the explanation. You're welcome. Thank you. Any additional questions for Mr. Smith? Just want to close it out before we bring up Adam. In my other great job in terms of articulating the goals, the vision for Cinnus City partners. One of the things he really didn't touch on a lot is there's a lot of interaction between Cinnus City partners and residents. He talked a lot about the business relationships, but they do have a very, very hands-on approach of working with individuals who actually live in Uptown, Charlotte for a second, third, all the awards. So I don't want you to leave without saying that for sure. And then secondly, Senator City of Portland has spent a great convener of the District Attorney's Office, CMPD and other stakeholders in terms of making sure again that from a public safety perspective, that all these voices are being heard and are being coordinated in addition to CMPD, but the private police with all the major corporations working uptown. So there is a lot of collaboration, a lot of coordination with a lot of entities, all based out of Charlotte Senator City partners that he didn't highlight. But I just thought that as a board member, I need to really express that because my first concern obviously is opt-out Charlotte, which I along with Miss Anderson The residents of town Charlotte right that's first and foremost and certainly the corporations and their importance speaks for itself So thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you Yes, mr. Smith hang. Ms. Watlington has one additional question for you. This one's quick. The question that may feel as put me back on here. Can you go back to your part chart? Yes. Just so I understand. So the community trust is a separate entity but related for events. And you've got programming events over here for 15%. And then I saw another set of the, okay, I see programs projects place making for $2 million, $1 million for events, and then $2.6 for the community trust, which is also events. It's events, it's the McCall Park. It's the Small Business Innovation Fund where we grant money to small businesses. In fact, rounds five and six are in partnership with the city that's ARPA dollars. That's been a really, really effective tool. Okay, offline is fine. I'd just like to see a little bit more, so I can understand the difference between those buckets and how those are fine. Thank you. Love the dig deep. Appreciate it. Okay, Ms. Johnson's gonna bring us home with the final question. I'm sorry, last question. How many staff members do you all have? How many what? How many staff members do you have? 25. 25. Okay, I just want to lift up one of the more Quinn. I want to thank you. Yeah, you do a great job. Thank you. I think you should all give her a hand. 25. 25. Okay. I just want to lift up one of the more. More Quinn. I want to thank you. Yeah. You do a great job. Thank you. I think you should all give her a hand. It's a pleasure working with all of you both. But I really want to thank more for all of her health throughout the year. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Just recognized as one of the 40 over 40 here in Charlotte. Miss Moore Quinn. Okay, are we ready for South Park? Yeah. Come on up. All right, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Smith. And again, Adam, if you can give us the cliff note version and then get to the meat of the presentation, I'll be helpful. Thank you. Well, unfortunately, my team chose an early exit, so I'm just happy it's not Duke. Go heels. Good evening, everybody. I will peel through the annual report quickly so we can get to the Symphony Park portion. But just want to quickly remind you that South Park Community Partners serves MSD-6, which council established almost exactly three years ago and comprises one square mile in the commercial core of South Park. Our mission is to lead South Park's advancement by driving economic vitality, creating memorable experiences and ensuring an extraordinary quality of life. much like our peer organizations and university city and center city, we do that through a range of activities. I won't list them all, but similar to our friends marketing programming, economic development, place making. All of that is in recognition that South Park is an economic engine for the Charlotte region, particularly our visitor economy. And it's our team's job to create a nurture a place where people and businesses want to be. As many of you know last year, we launched our South Park Forward 2035 Vision Plan. This is a blueprint led by the community to guide South Park's evolution, to help shape South Park from a collection of disconnected destinations into a more complete place. That vision plan and the 64 projects in it inform our annual program of work and budget. And the community's vision is for a more walkable energetic South Park where people connect and business is thrive One of the vision plans catalyst projects is completing the South Park loop This is a three mile urban trail a project that originated with the neighborhoods and with city staff to really Make South Park a more walkable destination We've partnered with the city and with the private sector over the last year to install loop furniture and wayfinding signage. As well as to work on place making, public art, free community events, and activating underutilized green spaces. As we work to find a dedicated funding source to finish the remainder of the loop that is yet unbuilt. One of the things we're most excited about and most proud of is the South Park Skipper, our free micro transit program which we launched in mid-November. This was a key recommendation of the vision plan. It was a top priority across stakeholder groups. I hope you've had a chance to come take a ride. It is within the MSD, it's app-based, but we also have a bilingual dispatch line if people prefer or need to book by phone. This service again free to use to the public. It's part of our commitment to making South Park welcoming and accessible and to have low barriers of entry so that we can use this program as a test case and as a lab for innovation so we can learn from it and hopefully inspire more mobility innovation both in South Park and across our community. After four and a half months, we're pleased with the progress we've made, nearly 16,000 rides by the end of March, an eight minute average wait time, which is better than our 10 minute benchmark and really pleased with what we're learning from the program. We've got a great partnership with Katz, the city's team at C.R.T.P.O. and Central Lina to take all of the data that we're getting from the back end of this program to analyze it, to understand it, how are people moving around, where are they going, what time of day are they moving, and share that with our partners again, so we can learn about what's happening in South Park. We've had a great partnership with Katz as they launched their micro transit service in North Mecklenburg, sharing insights both ways. Our hope is that as this program matures we can use the insights to help shape the rest of our transportation network and begin to connect to it and really create a system rather than separate parts. One of the things that I would just highlight about this program in particular, as I mentioned, we published the Vision Plan last April. This was on the street in mid-November. It underscores our organization's commitment to come up with bold ideas and then to put them into action quickly, which brings me to Symphony Park, which is another priority identified in the vision plan as a catalyst for a more connected community. Earlier today, I've shared with the committee the framework for a public-private partnership to launch a new era for this beloved community asset. This is the result of years of hard work by a lot of people, a big team, but I do want to specifically thank Councilman Bakari as well as the planning and economic development staffs for their partnership and work on this that precedes the existence of our organization. This has been happening for the better part of a decade. A lot of people around the table working on it, and it's our privilege to come to the table and help try to bring this partnership together and deliver this project. As I mentioned, this was a top priority of the Vision Plan and the Vision for Symphony Park comes directly from our community. They told us through CNEP and through the vision plan process exactly what they want in this space. We know that the community wants a new place to gather for events big and small, a place to create, excuse me, a place to discover whether they're new to the neighborhood or whether they've been here for years. A place to create art, opportunity, and memories. A place to spark on, wonder, and a place to connect with others, strengthening the fabric of our community. This is a $21 million project that seeks to transform Symphony Park into a signature urban green space that will become an extraordinary community destination, home to frequent high quality programming that invites those deeper connections with others. The design, again informed by the community, leans into the park's location on the South Park Loop alignment, creating a true walkable destination for residents, workers, and visitors. The project calls for the addition of new access points and pedestrian infrastructure, enhancements to the park to facilitate a wider array of community programming, two anchor restaurants which will generate new tax revenue and create jobs, and micro retail space to support emerging entrepreneurs. And as you look quickly through the renderings as I appeal through them, what I hope you will take away is that the vision for this space is it's where the community comes together. This is a place beloved by our nonprofit community for as a venue for walks and runs and fundraisers and we really see that community spirit as core to the identity of this public space. So let me walk you through quickly the capital stack and some key terms. Again, the total estimated cost of this project is $21 million with a commitment from the private sector for $13 million led by a significant investment from Simon Property Group to build those anchor restaurants. South Park Community Partners has committed to raise $5 million from the private sector. And our request for the city is $8 million in existing bond capacity for District Six Capital Project. So leveraging funds that have been obligated for our community to help us fund this project. During the committee meeting today, we had several questions about the county's participation in this. We're continuing conversations with county staff and are hopeful that we can have the county as a participant in this project. You can imagine there's been some transition there, both at the county leadership level but also in the parks department continuing to work through our conversations with the county. This site is privately owned and under the terms of this framework the county or the Simon would continue to own this site. They would design and construct those restaurant buildings and be responsible for any cost overages of that portion. South Park community partners would be a steward of the design and construction of this park improvements to the micro-retail and that 500-foot South Park Loop segment. Our target construction date begins summer 2026 and delivers in 27. On the operations side, South Park Community Partners would operate and program this space as a public amenity through an operating agreement with Simon. Simon has an existing easement agreement with the city of Charlotte. They would amend and extend that easement to ensure perpetual public access to this space. And I do wanna mention, as many of you know, this is called Symphony Park for a Reason. The Symphony has called this space home since it was built and we've had great partnership with the Symphony and they are committed and we are committed to have them in this space after its renovation and construction. As I close out, I want to emphasize that the business community is really excited about this project because of its ability to drive talent, attraction, and retention, the ability to steward South Park into its next chapter as an important economic engine for our region. We know that communities that prioritize public space and high quality programming consistently attract talent and investment. This is an incredible opportunity to advance the community's vision for South Park and deliver an asset that serves all charlatans. We look forward to working with you to bring this to fruition and I'd be delighted to answer your questions. And I tried to move through that as quickly as I could. Absolutely, Mr. Bacchara. Thanks, yeah, I gave longer remarks that I won't make today, again earlier. But the two punchlines I think are important for everyone to understand the backstory. In 2018 after I came in for the first time in this role, we went through that budget process and I appreciated all my colleagues, some review that we're here at that point for the support of allocating this money for investment into that infrastructure. At that time I thought it was going to happen a lot quicker than the seven and a half year journey that then it took to get to this point. But chalk that up to the life experiences thanks to Adam and everyone for helping kind of bring this through to the finish line. But that money doesn't need to be found. It's been allocated and approved by Council already in that process. And it's just about the process going forward, making sure that everyone's comfortable with what the project looks like, not necessarily finding the money somewhere and sacrificing other things. And the second point is, while it is, it says a park symphony park, I personally believe this is much more than just a normal park. As you see in here, there's economic development aspects to this, a bridge into the retail area of what the mall will feature become. It's an opportunity to connect the walkability and a lot of the investments we're starting with the South Park skipper. We're taking that data going more towards autonomous travel, all kinds of things that are going to be possible. This has a lot of those dynamics in it that will be an economic engine for this region. But we need to inspire others. And with this move, today's news, but then this move to get this first phase going. This is just the starting point of what I believe will be. Many phases of growth and building on top of this and the next step is to inspire the already nearly inspired private sector to fill their components. But the county is going to play a very important role in this going forward as well. And I believe that this is the right step to get that moving from just a wish to an actual commitment. But hopefully that background is helpful. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, and thank you, Council Member Bacari, for that clarification. So you said this money has already been allocated since 2018. And what is the scope of the project? Is it for the park and to boost retail at the mall or? So council members that described the scope of the project. Let me flip back. It is a number of things. The new pedestrian infrastructure building a south park loop segment integrated to the park and access from the loop directly from the loop into that space. Facilitating ease of pedestrian and bicycle movement from the loop into this space. The creation, which is privately funded of restaurant buildings, permanent anchor restaurants, to drive daily activity. So that gets people moving around the space day to day, as well as some micro-retail space that we intend to use to support emerging entrepreneurs. And then some improvements to the topography and to the amenities inside the space to be able to help us more effectively program it. One of the challenges with this space is that it is largely underutilized as a function of its design which is outdated and sort of doesn't meet the needs of those who need to access it and program it. So some of the moves we're making is to try to facilitate through design a space where we can drive daily activity across a wide range of uses. Thank you. And Mr. Manager, he's not in here. I was gonna say, oh, there you are, okay. And we can talk offline because if we're, if we're gonna set precedent for assisting malls, there's a mall in District 4 that we can talk about. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Ms. Mizejimir. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Ms. Misejmir. Thank you. Adam, I really like how you are integrating the National Component, which is the green space and preserving beautiful tree canopy that's there. and certainly I'm all for the programming because it really activates the side, brings tourism and also really brings jobs and opportunities to Councilmember Bukhari's point. And I appreciate how you are leveraging the private dollars to make this possible an expedite. I know this was allocated back in 2018, but without this, I don't know when we will be able to accomplish this project through completion. So I certainly appreciate that we will be able to deliver this sooner rather than later because of this partnership. So if we can leverage our public dollars to expedite improvements like this and really revitalize the area I think that's an old brainer to me and that's all I have thank you. Thank you Councilmember. Thank you any additional comments or questions? Hearing none shall we move to Mr. Stanley? Thank you. Thank you. We saved the best for the last. I live over there so I gotta say that. I'll want to say this up as I want to say thank you to the council and the mayor, the city manager and staff. It's been a great opportunity to lead university partners. And so I appreciate it. Also council member Renair with the pre-student support, a number of different things you've been to help us on. Something that I'm going to talk about in the next few minutes. I'm trying to keep my comments brief so I don't get in between the game and where people want to go see. But also about this presentation it's about University City, it's about the sights and sounds what we're doing, which you've already tasted a little about University City from Understanding Council. Remember John, to be said the food came from Cuzzles, which is a University City business. So I hope you enjoyed that food coming from our University city. It's not. This presentation really boils down the focus on area of our vision plan that was released in July of 2021. We talk about the public safety economic development marketing and small business initiative and this is out a lot of work we're doing in our vision plan. Level set for those just for university city. The biggest thing is that the growth that we have university city over 150 apartment units close to 20% of all residential development permits within Mechelburg County are coming from university City so we're growing our leaps and bounds. In the fall of last year we pulled together our first public safety form had over 60 individuals come including CM CMPD, Charlotte Fire, businesses, residents. And what's come out of this is really that we want to continue to focus on keeping University City clean. You see these numbers up here. We have a team that's dedicated to addressing coal violations dealing with the shopping carts, dealing with the yard signs. And this is really key for the work that we do because you want people to feel welcome. Including around the lake, we heard this at the last session how we people had concerns about the lake. And so we've been able to address that through these programs. I'm mentioning about the growth about University City. One thing I do want to point out is that do we hear the news about Vanguard? But there's also some other stories in there. RE Mason, Pinnacle Financial, and of course our beautiful University City Regional Library, all adding value and growth to University City. A part of the Vision Plan that we talked about as far as the brand of University City, and we see the value and how we carry the brand and carry the momentum and the story about University City. We talk about University City Research Park, this 2,200 acre park that we manage. We work closely with the council, we're closely with the number of tenants to make sure we're getting the right mix in there. We also look at University or Waters Edge with the library activation and the novel activation, but also activating the lake itself. We've been able to bring over 40,000 people to the lake with our six symmetry events. We have a holiday tree lighting ceremony. We have kids fest. We have wine fest coming up this weekend, so please get your tickets. And it's really about engaging the community around this beautiful asset that we have. But it doesn't just stop there or we also have, there we go. Other events we were excited to announce Boom Charlotte comes University City. We also have the Queen City Arch Festival, Low Country Food and Culture Fest, 9-year Nation Week, the New Year's Day 5K, these events activate not just around a lake or around the community, and they bring people to the community to bring dollars to the community. Yep. No problem. God you got it. But it's all about data too. We don't just do anything just to do. We want to make sure we understand we have the data that drives us to the work that we do. We've where we're to invest in place, AI, which allows us to understand the traffic, the foot traffic around University City. We know that 3.4 million people come to the lake. We know that the average stay time for people around the lake is 38 minutes. We also know that more we have events the more they stay and the more money they spend. So it's about activating just like my colleague, so if we're in earlier, it's about activating people, activating the spaces and places for people to come and spend money. We say a return on investment, but also return on emotion making sure people are enjoying themselves. But also, as I mentioned earlier about the safety and clean area, we understand our residents, see University City as a beautiful, clean place and they want to keep it that way. That's why hence we're going to move forward a couple projects. For the future, actually as I wrap this up, for the future for University City as a couple categories we're going to be looking at. We mentioned earlier, we've heard my colleague, Michael Smith talk about it, we're going to be looking at an ambassador program for University City. The shopping cards, some of the issues that we're seeing, it just can't be done. We have a unique issue in University City. We have WG Harris and North Trian. They are state maintained streets. We put close to $100,000 a year maintaining them ourselves, but it's just not enough. So our goal is to have conversations. We already even started after the committee session. Today having conversations with our colleagues and others about what will the university city ambassador program look like. We got to give it a little shopping carts. We got to give it a little zard signs. Get rid of the tires. We want this place to be a clean inviting place. But also the future also includes our continued walkability. Although we are three times the size University is about 10 square miles. We are part of one of the largest MSDs in the country. I want to repeat that one of the largest in the country by size, not by budget. By size. We want to make sure that we are advocating for sidewalks and walkability in micro transit. So we are going to continue to work with Brent Cagel. I heard his name a little bit earlier with Katz. We've had conversations with him. We're excited about this 1% sales tax. We understand that it will bring value to University City because we're part of one of those zones, a micro transit zones, as we see that, but also sidewalks. And so we want to make sure that we're increasing those sidewalks in the University City. The big thing for us, and mentioned earlier, you and she started with our one status. We're gonna lean into that. We're working with our board members, working with administrators, because as they go through the research and development and go through prototype manufacturing and go through intellectual property, we want some of those jobs that economic activity landing in university cities, specifically university research park. And that wraps it up. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a man who knows the game tonight. Okay, we have Ms. Agamira. District Councilmember, you want to go last? Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Let me give you kudos for your leadership in addressing some of the issues around the lake. Thanks to your leadership. I have seen how lake space around that has transformed. Pretty much at our last year's conversation, there were four points that I had made. And you pretty much worked on all four and you delivered. I appreciated Lake area is very clean now. I do not see leader around the lake where it used to be leader. Now it looks like a very well-capped, well-maintained, very clean environment where we take care of our natural resources. So thank you to you and your team. I see your team members here. Also, I appreciate how you have supported small businesses and have brought activation. You have done under your leadership we have seen so many festivals from boom Charlotte to family friendly activities to farmers market. I appreciate that. And just advocating for sidewalks in park, certainly the university area is when you look at our park space for the university area, we certainly struggle with that. So I appreciate your continued advocacy on the park space, green space, as well as sidewalks. I just can't thank you enough for your leadership, Keith, and you just been a rock star, you and your team. Thank you. I do want to say this. I thank you for last time I was here. You connected also a number to the chambers. The black chamber and the A's in chamber, allowing us to connect to half conversations. We have 1,500 small businesses in the University of City because of that partnership working with those chambers. We've increased our engagement with 910 of them. So that was a big thing for us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Stanley, I'll go and I'll allow the council, the district council member to close out. And Mr. Graham wants to speak as well. But you know, I give you your congratulations earlier during the committee meeting, but just want to extend that. And earlier in your presentation from earlier today, your slide six and seven, it's not here this evening, but I believe it was slide 6 and 7 that focused on public safety. Yes. I thought those were, that's a great template if you will of how we can attack and address public safety in other areas of the city. Because as I continue to state, public safety does not equal CMPD, right? Alone, right? It takes partners and you are manifesting that in your approach. And you see peace, so thank you for that. But the two other points I want to make, one is that these MSDs, you all have so much rich data. You just talked about place or AI. You all have so much rich data around trips, around time spent, probably around spend, and the demographic and psychographics of your residents. I would love for us as a part of the city of Charlotte to be able to utilize that data extrapolated up and see if there are other similar areas throughout the city that might have residents that look the same that we could be activating programs similar to what you're doing, but areas that don't have MSDs. I think there's a strong benefit to having MSDs to be able to activate in neighborhoods. However, we can't have that across the entire city. So, Mr. Manager, we need to be leveraging that. And finally, I'm gonna lift up again, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I had the opportunity to spend the weekend in Boston for reunion and I was exclusively on my alma mater and my team's campus. But many of my sores who I went to school with, it was sorority reunion. We were all kind of trying to figure out where in the world are we, right? Because we've been there a million times, but the growth right there on East Campus in particular was clearly around economic vitality that was tied to the university, but also private industry. And so right there on the on MIT's campus, you have right across the street, Google has a major office building. And because and other tech leaders there, and because of that, there are restaurants and bars and other things that not only the students can take advantage of, but the private employees, but of course they're pulling from the students, the graduates from MIT to populate those jobs, entry level jobs. You mentioned that you had a couple of board members thinking about the connectivity with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. But with this R1 status, I think it's an opportunity to be forward thinking around what a five, 10-year plan could look like bringing private industry in, tapped into the research as well as the economic vitality of UCP. So, and I think that's a part that the city can play a role in as well. So I just really invite you to lean into how that could enhance and really put a view on university city around the university that we don't have today. That could truly elevate that area even more so than the work that you've been doing. So thank you. I will say I really appreciate that we, or the past 60 days, we have the eye that opportunity to connect with, not just with UNC Charlotte, but also with NC State, even with Chapel Hill about how they're working with either MSD or academic development groups that that they partner with within their areas. We're starting to learn a lot of how this partnership between town and gown really could play out for University City. So I definitely agree with the root of the team to lean in and put UNC Charlotte. And as with that, our one status, what that could potentially mean for us as far as intellectual property and just economic development around University City. Thank you. Absolutely. It is also important to note that UNCC is the second largest university. And I would think within the matter of years, we'll take over North Carolina State University as the largest. And they also graduate the most engineers out of any university in the North Carolina University system. So again, just thinking about economic development and vitality for that part of the city is important. We have Mr. Graham and then we have Ms. Johnson. Thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Again, I just want to thank you for your leadership as well. As a resident of University City, I can see the changes in terms of the outreach and the commitment to place making a university city under your leadership and your team leadership. I want to thank Councilmember Johnson for sure, for her advocacy, for a wide variety of issues that you need help with from a city perspective. Like the 18 wheelers and some of the cold enforcement issues. And even some of the campaign yard signs that still out there after a year at large. That still stands still, right right? And those are real issues and also talking about how this relationship between the MSA, the city and more importantly the state, which really is the crux of our, I think that's limiting the growth growth. And a lot of your budgets being spent on maintaining state-owned roads, which is certainly not fair, for sure. And we got to find, I think, not let that be an issue for university-city partners, but an issue that we as a council take out with some of our delegation members in terms of really getting the type of support necessary for that area because unlike the other two districts I85 is a blessing in the curse Right because we we get all this incoming traffic coming through University City and they throw things out of the window and they don't live in the area and they really don't care. But the problem rests with the city of Culled Enforcement and with you, primarily, the gatekeeper for the city to ensure that the quality of life for those who want to come up there to shop and play, it's quality of life is great. I won't touch you on the university so I think the Mayor Pro Tem was particularly clearly what I wanted to reiterate about that. I wish there was a way for us to open up the gates and allow those 26,000 students other than living in all the apartments over there, but to begin to have an experience, right? If we can get that football games off campus on to hypothetically Harris and not trying on straight, right? Where you can kind of see and feel what's happening behind the gates of the campus. And so I know that's the work in progress. I know Betty has been really instrumental in trying to find a way to bleed outside the gates of the campus so that we can experience the excitement, the growth, see the students. You've got to look really, really hard sometimes just to find students in the area because they're behind the gates of the wall and there's close to 26,000 of them, right, that come throughout the community each and every week for one reason and other weather for academic classes or sporting events sporting events et cetera and so working with the university not only to leverage the research status which should help fuel the research park but also the student experience and the experience of growing the university city area in a way that is impacted for all. So just wanted to thank you, when the thank comes from Member Johnson, because I know some of the phone calls I get, and I try to help and come from the Johnson's already done it. And so I really appreciate your support and that's coming from me to US, a constituent. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I'm truly honored to represent District 4. It's just, I mean, they're engaged and just a great district. I want to thank you and your team. How many employees do you have, Kate? Four. Four. Yeah, I want to lift Janelle and Drew and the other, and Kevin, Janet. So thank you all for the great work that you do. I could just echo what the other members have said. You do a great job. You mentioned forward thinking Keith is very progressive. You talked about AI. That is something that we could almost seem like we could require some of the organizations that we fund to bring us that level of data and that level of detail. So thank you. He has a podcast and he's really big on branding the area. So continue to do what you do. I am fighting for you. You know that? Yes. Yeah. So, and Keith has opened up the office. He allows the District 4 Coalition to meet there and just really engage in the community. And I think that has really helped to raise the level for District 4 our partnership our working together and just thank you for the work that you're doing so keep them the good work. Council Member Renad, I want to publicly thank you the quick thing I want to share before I wrap up is that the fact that you you know you call me about the so delus you know restaurant they were looking for a place, they grew out of their location in University City. We didn't wanna lose them. And she said, keep, there might be an opportunity. I came, rain came running out the office, we met with the ownership, met with the owner of a potential location. They are looking to be opening up their largest location again in University City. And keeping the small location open to this may. And so having that type of commitment to the community is so important to see African American owned businesses that are grown by leaps and bounds, higher locally from the community, absolutely amazing. So I just want to thank you publicly for that. I am honored. It's going to be the hottest spot in the city when they met with me. They wanted to move out of the district. So I know. So we got work, so not only do we keep that one, he's expanding and we're excited. When you talk about activate the lake. That's right. So soul delicious is opening, May 12th. So we're excited. Thank you, thank you. Excellent. Any additional comments? Hearing none, thank you, Mr. Stanley. Is there a motion to adjourn? All right. All right. So move. Good night