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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/7/2023 Item 6a, Christensen (2) Josh Christensen < To:Johnson, Derek; E-mail Council Website Subject:Re: More parking nonsense This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. I sent an email 2 weeks ago to all y'all. My email was responded to my 2, two, yes 2 of the members of city leadership. Who amongst you has the gumption to meet with me in person? ------ Your staff's presentation tonight was insulting...at best. If you're going to lie, steal, and cheat us, it seems the least you can do to look us in the eye, give us more than 2 minutes to say our peace, and than do so. You've enslaved/indebted our town to a $50 million+ "bond" for ONE PARKING STRUCTURE... and it's too late to undo it. Who owns this debt? Who owns our town to the tune of 50mil for a single parking structure? I demand this answer? Who owns our town?? I raise my hand and admit I'm fundamentally guilty for not pouring over all your ill-advised and terribly conceived legislation...after all, I'm just a man who's producing for my staff, my patrons, and busy trying to be a decent husband and father (which I know offends some people greatly...how dare I bring more white people with defined genders into the world!) But all excuses aside, I damn well should've been paying attention to the fiscally irresponsible folks at the city who have demonstrated a giddiness at burning the hard earned money of its citizens. So on that count, my bad. As I said to Jim Dantona tonight, I have no doubt that I'll not be doing business in this town for that much longer. Whether it be economic forces, the next World war that our national leadership is careening us towards (of whom I'm 1 sure y'all giddily voted for), or the utter state of disarray and filth of this once beautiful downtown that muddies our day to day lives...I have no doubt I'll be exiting the SLO experience at some point. But as I also noted to Jim, I'm not rolling over for people who hate me, and I'm sure as hell not going out a liar. Y'all have failed in the utmost. Your lack of leadership has given free reign to bureaucrats who exist to make their monster (The City, Inc) money off the hard work and revenue that people like me produce. I'm not holding my breath, but anyone who has half a care to chat over my claims can email me or text me directly. My phone number is below. The staff lied, they cajoled, and they propogandized with the best of them tonight. I'm happy to provide a defense for my position to anyone who cares to give me the time. We can meet at my place where I'm happy to provide a drink, coffee, or food. Heidi once told me that it wouldn't be prudent to accept a gift from a voter (lol...we all know how that turned out)...but rest assured, I cannot afford to live in SLO. I live in Atascadero. I cannot vote for or against any one of you. I do not seek anything other than HONEST conversation...which seems to be in short supply these days. ----- A few more points: ----- Y'all conceded to a few things tonight, probably thinking that you'd placated us normies. Some people may be pleased. I am not. I don't write this on just my behalf. Not even just for my staff or patrons. I fight for much more than my piddly businesses. ----- We were referred to as "customers" multiple times tonight by staff...possibly also by council, but I cannot confirm this by memory alone. I'll consult the minutes to confirm...either way, I cannot begin to express my disgust at this. 2 WHO PAYS YOU PEOPLE? WHERE DOES THAT MONEY COME FROM? WHO DO YOU SERVE? The council is elected. Y'all serve US. You are to REPRESENT US. In theory, y'all retain the services of city management. They work for you...who works for us! We ARE NOT your customers. ------- We ARE NOT your customers. ------- You ARE NOT business. If you were, you'd be out if it! ------ You exist to SERVE THIS COMMUNITY...NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. Anyone who does not see it this way is an authoritarian. If you disagree, please stand up and be of enough integrity to say that you believe YOU are above US. Y'all can ignore this email if you so choose, but you've woken me up. And I'm not simply going to show up at council meetings from time to time to lose my cool. I may just be some slack jaw bartender, but I have people that I'll go to war for...and y'all have fired more than the first shots. I have loads of notes, and beautiful quotes from your staff, that demonstrate apathy for the community... at best. If you want to know what the worst possible interpretation of the staff's communications were, let's chat. Respond...or don't. I'm not holding my breath, but I guarantee you this: 3 Y'all ain't the only ones who've read Saul Alinsky. ???? I make it my business to know who hates everything I stand for. Y'all think this is about parking...but a few of you know better (at least, I hope so). I look forward to your responses. In all due respect, Josh Christensen 805.888.9313 On Wed, Oct 25, 2023, 10:09 Josh Christensen < wrote: This message is to all those who've instituted and overseen the disaster y'all call the new parking system. I'm sure you've heard from plenty of business owners and community members regarding your absolutely atrocious parking rates and ridiculously complicated new system, but I have another complaint about the whole thing. Every day I use the app to (over) pay for my parking, and every day it takes me upwards of a minute to actually have my payment process due to an error message that says "parking time is too far in the future". EVERY. DAMN. TIME. And today, after attempting multiple times I got a call, walked into my restaurant and by the time I was off the call I'd received a ticket. I am absolutely sick of this crap. I'm not scheduling "future" parking. I'm utilizing the technology that you people forced on us. I have to sit there and try to pay over and over again until finally it accepts the payment and starts my meter...oh, and by the time it's actually accepted and the clock starts ticking, it's always LESS time than I'm paying for! Not by a ton, but if I'm paying $4 damn dollars an hour, and better get exactly that much time on my meter! This wasn't happening when you first switched over to this system, so I can only assume y'all switched some kind of setting. Fix it. I do not apologize for the terse nature of this communication. I, and SO MANY others, are fed up with this situation and this leadership's attempts to jam some utopian pipedream of "progress" down our throats. You're doing immense harm 4 to those who live and work here, all for some hypothetical future wherein our once unique and beautiful town will turn into just another garbage city (more so than it's already becoming). And you're implementing tools that don't even work as they should. It is a damn shame. In great frustration, Josh Christensen Sidecar 5