Re: Special City Council Meeting, Annual Strategic Planning and Work Plan Development

Dear City Council Members,

My name is Katherine Bit. I’m a current Junior at American Canyon High School and the Co-Vice President of Napa Schools for Climate Action, a student-led coalition and activist group that advocates for youth climate justice.

I appreciate the chance to comment on the issue of the climate emergency and the need for mandatory, emergency-level climate action to be taken in American Canyon. In the Climate Emergency Resolution curated in 2022, American Canyon’s commitment to achieving Net Zero Climate Pollution by or before 2030 was professed. It would be amazing to see American Canyon make this same level of commitment in its work plan for the coming year, as well as the General Plan.

You, along with our schools and cities who have set the same goal, would send the message that we are in a true emergency and that you take your responsibility to our younger generation seriously. Please understand that we can not wait for results and that climate action should be a top priority in all of your planning and development.

Being a part of the youth, I know that mine and my peers’ futures are in a precarious state. We can not tolerate business as usual. There’s no better time than now to make a significant impact as a community and guarantee a healthy future for our city’s youth. It’s the responsibility of our city’s leadership, and even just us as humans, to restore a habitable climate by taking immediate, emergency-scale action.

Thank you,
Katherine Bit

Subject: Concerns Regarding the Broadway Project and Its Strategic Impact on American Canyon Parks and Neighbourhoods.

Dear Mayor Washington and City Council Members,

In regards to the Friday, February 28 Annual Strategic Planning and Work Plan Development special meeting, I propose that the City take special focus on the upcoming completion of the Broadway Project located on the property line of the American Canyon Veterans Memorial Park and strategically plan measures to protect both the park and the surrounding neighborhoods.

I am not available to attend this meeting on Friday in person. Still, I am sure Mayor Washington and all Council Members, City Manager Holley, and Chief Greenberg are well aware of my (and other American Canyon residents) concerns over not so much the building but the tenants that will eventually be living at the Broadway Project.

These concerns primarily stem from the City of Vallejo's lack of operating funding to properly provide for the individuals they are contracted to care for at the Broadway Project for the next 55 years. The current owner and developer of the property has no experience managing a building of this scale nor the tenants it is contracted to occupy.

True, the proper operation of the Broadway Project is an affair of the City of Vallejo and Solano County. Still, without question, the location, inexperienced management, and lack of funding for the Broadway Project also make it an American Canyon issue.

I appreciate that there are many strategic issues in place before the City today. The safety of our public parks and neighborhoods and how the American Canyon County government will proactively protect them is, without question, paramount.

Without effective strategic planning by the American Canyon city government to protect its park and neighborhood, the future residents of Broadway Project pose an existential threat to both.

Thank you for your consideration.

Willliam Baker