Recommendation to request City Manager, or designee, to extend the previously approved Open Streets Initiative plan allowing restaurants and other related service industry temporary parklets and outdoor dining spaces to remain open through June 30, 2022.  (Citywide)
Thank you. I've had a couple requests of items to move up, so I'm going to do those. There is no open public comment today, so no one has signed up for that. So we're moving on from that. We're going to do the open streets, please. Extension item 30. Item 32 reports on Public Works recommendation to extend the previously approved Open Streets Initiative plan allowing restaurants and other related service industry temporary parklet and outdoor dining spaces to remain open through June 30th, 2022, citywide. Okay. Mr. Murdoch, is there a presentation on this? Yes, just a very short one. So we've been in front of the council a couple of times about the Open Streets program, which includes three different things, just to remind everyone. It includes your parklets, which are actually on the street. It also includes some of the streets that we have shut down in the past. We have fewer of those now and that are kind of open for just public consumption. And then it also includes the occasional activity permits where people can use their parking lots for other nontraditional things for parking, like having restaurant use, that type of thing. So we're here recommending that we extend that. I think we still certainly have some impacts from COVID, and we would recommend going that through June 30th, 2022. But I do have an amended motion I'd like public works to read. We do have one area that does have some unique conditions. It has higher traffic counts, higher speeds and some resident complaints as well in a very in a compact area. And that's Second Street. So we are looking at putting them on a slightly different approach where we have the next three months to do some additional outreach to really go and inventory every single parklet and talk to some of the business owners and the residents and then come up back to council with some additional ideas about how to handle that. So I will have Nico read that motion and then we'd be ready to answer questions. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Members of the Council. The motion is to be amended as such. Request the city manager or designate to extend the previously approved Open Streets Initiative plan, allowing restaurants and other related service industry. Temporary Parklets, outdoor dining spaces and outdoor activity permits to remain in effect through June 30th, 2022. The extension shall include a process for residents to protest specific parklets that are violating the conditions of their permit. These protests shall be reviewed by staff. Attend a community meeting regarding temporary parklets along Second Street between Bayshore Avenue and Livingston. Drive to address ongoing neighborhood concerns regarding the number of temporary parklets, their impact on parking and their proximity to private residences. Inspect each parklet installation along this corridor to ensure that one the business owners want to keep the Parklet installation to the Parklet installation is being used as intended. Three The Parklet installation is being properly maintained for business owners abiding by all permit requirements. Five Parklets installations encroaching in front of neighboring businesses receive renewed approval from that business, property owner and the city traffic engineer. Six Any changes in traffic conditions do not justify removal and seven parking impacts are reevaluated as needed. Thank you very much. Oh, sorry. Excuse me. The motion also includes the return to the City Council with a recommendation regarding the ongoing use of temporary park installations along the Second Street corridor before December 31st, 2021, and to apply the inspection process to Parklets and other installations outside of the aforementioned area in response to a protest, or if deemed necessary, by the traffic engineer or his designee. Okay. Thank you very much, staff. I think we have the amended motion on the floor. There is a motion any second on the amended. Motion on a motion. Let me do public comment on most customers. And they just wants to go first through the public comment first. Okay. I'm going to ask the first five speakers and then the next five speakers. So please just line up the call. Your name Ryan Hoffman. Jenny Holbrook. Brian Pickett says Cochrane, Estella, Tiki Dore and Ron Newman. Please come forward. Ryan Hoffman, Jenny Holbrook, Brian Cochrane, Estella Theodore. And Run, woman. Please go ahead. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for your time. My name is Ryan Hoffman and I'm one of the owners of Season Second on Second Street. Obviously, the pandemic has been absolutely devastating to the restaurant industry. You know, we've had to do quite a quite a lot to survive it. We're really not out of the woods yet. We're seeing that indoor vaccine mandates are coming in different areas and we're very concerned about that and got quite a bit of investment into our parklet on both St Joseph and on Second Street. We're very concerned about moving back outdoors. Our staffing levels are based on having some of those parklets outside, which means if we lose those parklets, we're going to be losing employees right before the holidays and things like that. So our opinion, it's really too soon to get rid of them. And that's really all that we have to say right now. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's pick a piece. Hi, Mayor Garcia and council members. My name is Jenny Holbrook and from Don Mature and Without Health and development. Sure. Residents Association. I, I and the Residents Association are not anti restaurant. We're not anti anything. We are pro traffic safety, pedestrian safety, sidewalk access for those using assistive devices and baby strollers and pro parking availability for residents and their guests. For months, the Belmont Shore Parklets have displaced dozens of parking spaces from the neighborhood and negatively impacted safe vehicle and pedestrian passage. SHAW Residents dealt with these issues to help the businesses while they could not utilize their indoor seating. Now Public Works and the city manager proposed another extension of the temporary parklets and this time four nine met. However, they just amended it. Thank you, Mr. Modica, please do not approve any extension of temporary parklets in Belmont. Sure. Until Councilwoman Price has had an opportunity to hold a widely publicized meeting of several mature residents and the residents deserve a fair chance to hear city staff experts on traffic accessibility, etc. give their input on areas of concern. And then the residents have an opportunity to provide their own input. Thank you. Please do not pass this. Thank you so much less. That is part of it. Thank you so. Much. Next up, please. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and city council members. Thank you for having us. I'm a resident of the Belmont Shore, the pier area, right next to both our brewing company and the adjacent businesses there. As a result of the PARKLETS and the programs, our residents, our living rooms, our bedrooms have been inundated with noise congestion, resulting fallout from the businesses incursion in that space. Belmont Brewing Company alone was denied a permit by the Coastal Commission in 1995 to extend its space to that space. That area that's now encroached upon this parklet maneuver allowed them to do that for a temporary lifeline. But during the space of time for that last 18 months or so, it's become abusive with noise, traffic, dog noises, motorcycles, parking the restaurant, attempts to talk to the managers of the restaurant and other businesses have met with no no response whatsoever. They've been absolute contemptuous when we've reached out to them regarding issues with how much encroachment we've had patrons on the patio bringing their own music, the restaurant permits that. There are groups of motorcyclists between 33 and 30 that pull up on weekends and park adjacent to the restaurant, contravening local parking laws and ordinances. In short, I would ask you to look at your time if you're home on a Sunday watching TV, trying to prep for a meeting in the next day, talking to a loved one on the phone and having to hear the carnival of noise and intrusions that's encroaching on your space and well-being during that time. So please vote no against extending this. Thank you very much. Thank you. The speaker, please. Hi. I'm Estella Heider. I live directly south of Second Street in Belmont. Sure, the Parklets were designed to help the restaurants weather COVID. And while this was happening, I was happy to do my part and take the it. Take the inconvenience. That time is over. Business is brisk. The restaurants have a robust takeout business as well now. And it is time to give the neighborhood back to the residents. I cannot park in front of my house. I'm 65 years old. I have to park a block away, bringing in groceries, dry cleaning errand. It's a problem. My. I bought my house in 1990 and this was my retirement house. I have put up with bad jobs and awful bosses, but I have kept my beautiful little beach house. Now I'm ready to retire. My right hip is about to go. I can't park in front of my house and my neighborhood has turned trashy, completely trashy. It looks awful. It sounds awful. And it's no longer the neighborhood that I bought into. So please do not allow the parklets on Second Street. They are ruining the neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Ron Newman. And as Mr. Newman comes up, I'm going to have the next five speakers up. It'll be John Ehlers, Linda Dwyer, Darrell Burns, Tony Hosler and Katie Fahey. We'll be after this order. Ron Newman. John Ayers. Linda Dwyer. Daryl Burns. Tony Hauser and Casey. My name is John Eilers and I currently live at 6211 Riviera Circle in Long Beach. I lived in Belmont Shore for 30 years. I currently own a couple of apartments in the shore. What's president of the Belmont Shore Residents Association? For a couple of years and served on the board for maybe five years. I am opposed to the extension of the Parklet parking in the shore. Back then and now, parking has been an issue. Not enough spaces. Belmont Shore is identified as a parking impacted area, and as a result, owners who sell must have their garages inspected. I approved the limited use of Parklets during the pandemic to help restaurants stay open, but the need has passed. Also, restaurants were, and I feel, still required to provide parking spaces based on their occupancy. I do not have the exact details of the codes and requirements. Parklets seem to advocate the restaurant occupancy code and restaurants are now able to increase occupancy requirements or needs without regard to existing code. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you so much, sir. Mr. Newman here is a running mate. Yes. Looking for. Mayor Council member Ron Newman from Panama. Joel. I encourage you to extend the park kids in Belmont Shore. 30% of our customers want to eat outside fresh air, sunshine, as well as feeling safe. Outside dining gives us that European feeling. That's kind of what happened in Europe after the Spanish flu. They put up all these parklets and that changed the whole image of of that whole area. It increases traffic for business. Walking, biking, shopping and dining. People watching. I heard some of the comments from the other people as far as lack of parking and etc.. There's always been a lack of a certain amount of parking. But with uber, bicycling, cities are finding that it doesn't take the same amount of parking anymore. As far as any complaints. I've never had any complaints from any residents that if we did, we would take care of it right away. Belmont sure needs an uplift. A lot empty businesses down there. And if you look at our neighboring cities, they're all approving these parklets. Thank you so much, sir. You're welcome. Next speaker. Hello. My name is Linda DeGolyer. I'm a resident of third district in Long Beach, but not near Second Street. I hope you can hear me because I can't hear anything you've been saying. My opposition to the extension of Bark Park, which is based mainly on my experiences on Second Street, but also other places I've seen in the city. First, they are usurping public property for a private business. No to the safety of turning into or off of Second Street. When you're down there, you can't see around the parklets. Three further restriction of parking in areas with minimal parking, especially handicapped spots for safety in walking on Second Street, especially through these parklets. I felt very unsafe walking through them. And five often a lack of appropriate ventilation with sides and the areas above all covered and thus decreasing air ventilation when it is most needed during this COVID time. I think these points make my opposition to the extension of Parklets obvious. Thank you so much. The Parklets may have been appropriate during the worst of the pandemic. Thank you so much. But their time has passed. Thank you. Thank you so much. I. Durban's okay. Okay. Thank you, sir. Yep. Um, Mayor Garcia, City Council. Thank you for having us here today. I appreciate the amendment, and I definitely want to go on record as supporting that. My name is Dale Burns. I live in Belmont. Sure. I'm just going to reiterate a lot of the comments that are made in terms of just concerns of safety, compliance with with codes, in terms of people with disabilities being able to access the sidewalks and also proximity to resident communities. I think the impact obviously been stated here. I don't need to reiterate that noise, drunkenness, disorderly behavior and the impact it's had on the shore. For me, I'll just say very simply know I think parklets are a privilege and how do we make sure that we're assessing Parklets appropriately so that people are to maintain that privilege? My personal opinion as a resident is I don't think all parklets are created equal. I think some parklets are doing very well. I think some of the businesses in the show are doing very well with those parklets and I support that. I support their efforts because they're making sure that our residents and our community stays the quality it should be. On the other hand, there are businesses and operations that are not in compliance and those need to be assessed. So thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and Council. My name is Tony Hauser. I live on Glendora off the second street, and I am not in favor of extending certain parklets. I am not against all of them. Some of them are managed very well. I do believe Panama Joes, that user that you have security in the parking lot behind you. That's what I've been told, that he has security in the public parking lot behind his restaurant. Others don't. Our main concern is that people urinating in the parking lot, smoking pot, drinking alcohol from the bar that they were in. When they go out to smoke, they bring their drinks with them. Nobody manages that. Nobody polices it. The sidewalk is very cramped with tables and chairs. It is definitely not ADA compliant and I am very frustrated about who actually comes down and sees this. We have photos, pictures, a cornhole tournament. People basically laid out on the sidewalk, on mattresses, and it is really impacted quality of life for everybody, not only on the south side of second, but on the north side of talked to homeowners on that side and the noise, the drinking, the speeding out of parking lots all hours of the night from patrons that are attending these this bar. It's got to change somehow. It has to change. And we need enforcement. And I'm not sure who to go to to find out who enforces that. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Speaker, please. And as Katie comes up, the last three speakers Cumulus, Lazaridis, Nick Clare and Rebecca Hendra. Please come forward. Hi. Thank you for letting me speak on this issue. I'm Katie Fahey. I also live on Glendora. I support that amendment to look at things case by case, location by location. Um, I just want to give you my experience from a location, a parklet that's on a side street. I feel like it has brought the bar into my living room. They've it's not only parklets. There are TVs, there's sporting events, there's crowds. There's a lot of drinking going on. But somehow that has they feel like it's okay now instead of smoking next to the restaurant, in the restaurant to clean it up. They come down in front of my house. And smoke and I wake up in the morning and it's vape pens. And butts and it's just. Dirty. And then constantly going outside asking people to please stop smoking pot. It's coming into my house, so I have to police that. There's nobody who's controlling their crowd for some reason. The third parklet they feel the the parking lot is their bathroom. My kids are looking over the wall, watering plants. There's somebody staring at me. Is there pain on the wall? Like, how do I there they tell me. The restaurant tells me, not my property. So who manages the people that come out of their restaurant so that we can have a safe place for our kids? I've been there over 20 years, many iterations, and it's the restaurant owners need to take responsibility for the privilege they have of having a parklet. Thank you. Thank you very much. And a lot of speakers, Jimmy. Mr. Mayor, City Council. My name is Tubular Diseases. I'm the owner of George's Greek Cafe in Belmont Shore. Let's see again. I've been a friend of his in a while. I'm supportive of the amendment to it. I was going to say something else when I stepped up here, but after listening to other residents, you know, it seems like there's a couple of bad players on the street and it's affecting the rest of us that are operating our businesses in our restaurants, in our parks correctly. So that's why I really support the amendment. I've been a long time Long Beach resident. I went to Wilson High School. You know, the parking issue has been recently not as bad it has been in the past. I remember coming up from Wilson High School in 1980 as a sophomore in high school and going to us, we didn't have the park six blocks away to get to three. So the parking issue has always been there. It's kind of something you accept to anticipate for sure. Mr. Mayor, you and I are friends. We haven't always seen eye to eye on everything, but still friends. When you jumped into action and help with the parklets, it saved us having to compete so closely to Orange County. You have you coming up with the parklets and putting the barriers up for us. It saved our business. That's not even an exaggeration. We are not out of this yet. The people aren't on. The money we got from the federal government was helpful and we're grateful for it. But we're still in this thing. So I'm, I'm in support of Parklets for sure. And I'm also am in support of policing it and making sure that the residents don't feel about us as they do. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Mayor Council. My name is Nikki Claire. I'm from George's Great Cafe and my sister. We've been in the community a long time. I live in the Hietala very close by. I agree with everything that everybody said. I do think that this isn't a parklet issue. I do think that it needs to be manned. But they have saved our business. We are at a premium for outside. Business right now. If we don't have the parklets, we have two tables. A lot of people still don't want to sit inside. This is still a COVID issue. We would do anything that you asked us to to keep these parklets to make it safe for the residents, for our customers. But this is what's keeping our business open right now. Yes, we have deliveries in to go. People still want to get out and they want to sit outside. I still have tables inside that people will not sit down and eat out because they're not comfortable. And so I agree with the amendment to a point. If we can manage it differently, manage it differently, we need to be able to compete with other restaurants in the nearby areas, especially across the way, which is half a mile or so a mile from Orange County. And so I'm that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you so much. In the last speaker, Rebecca. Hello. Honorable mayors and members of the City Council. My name is Rebecca and I am a co-owner of Let's Joke About It. It's a breakfast spot on Second Street. I also want to second where Jimmy said, I am appalled to hear that the residents have been suffering and I would in no way ever support that. I encourage my staff to ride their bikes. I've bought bikes for some of my staff members and I walk to work even though I live in the neighborhood and I'll drive sometimes. But the parklet has saved my business. The pandemic is not over. If it is over or if we're heading towards over in, our masks come off and everybody feels comfortable. Absolutely. I don't want the Parklet indefinitely to inconvenience our residents. I completely support our residents. And and that's pretty much all I have to say. If I didn't have the parklet, I wouldn't have the business that I have today. My business was very empty inside this morning and I had about a 15 minute wait for the parklet. That's truth. And I'm also keeping my tables six feet apart when a lot of the parklets have jampacked them in other parts of the city. I'm I'm trying to be compliant. So thank you for your time. Thank you very much. That concludes public comment. I do have a motion and a second customers in the House. You, Mayor, and I do really appreciate the amendment of the motion. And this temporary parklets were done in a time of distress for us here. And I really want to thank city staff our council for really stepping up and trying to be creative and thinking outside of the box to be able to save some of our businesses . We weren't able to save all of our businesses, and that's still hurt and it'll continue to hurt our city. But I think that one of the things that we did that we did do right was, you know, spring into action by creating these opportunities for our businesses to be able to offer a safe environment where they could also save their business. And, you know, I'm very supportive of this item, and I think that we definitely need to remain, you know, extend the parklets. With with also taking into consideration that we need to look at certain parklets and evaluate if it's working and if it's not and trying to help our businesses move forward. And yes, we're still not out of this pandemic yet. So we really need to make sure that we continue to look for creative opportunities to continue to save our businesses while at the same time providing goods for our residents as well. Thank you very much, Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think what's happening here is we're in a transition. And, you know, we all wear face masks and, you know, address the public. The reality is we don't know how long COVID 19 is going to be here in our communities. And we have to transition to create more resilient communities, more resilient businesses. We have to do what we know works. We know eating outside works. We know masks work. We know the vaccination works. We know that a year ago. Also know that the restaurants have taken a significant, significant hit. We don't get you know, our services are based on a certain mix of revenues in the city. Police officers, firefighters, the services people depend on are directly connected to whether restaurants can operate and generate sales tax. Whether we can generate transit occupancy tax in our hotels, it's connected. And so we have to figure out how to be more resilient cities. At the same time, you know, I think what the city manager is proposing, whether it's Second Street or any corridor, we have to make sure that we prioritize those local residents. You know, zone in on what the issues are and work out a management plan to resolve some of those issues. And I think that's what the city manager is proposing with his men in motion to take a look at this particular corridor. And I would say any quarter that has significant concerns that race to that level, there should be a process in place and whatever moves forward for local residents to be able to appeal and have a formal due process to explore. But in general, I think we have to pivot. We have to start thinking differently about current management, about the sidewalk, the public realm, about restaurants, all of that if we're going to be a more resilient city. So I think what's in front of me, I'm happy to support today. Thank you. Councilman Price. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to start by thanking staff on this item. They've been working, starting from the top with our city manager to our public works team. They've been working with me almost daily on this issue for about two weeks now to come up with the amendment that was shared a moment ago. And I and I so appreciate you doing that. As I indicated in May and I will do so again. Now, there are certain business corridors in the city that are similarly situated, given their proximity to homes, businesses and homes, though I'm not sure is one of those areas. It's the only business corridor that has numerous homes consistently within just a few feet of residents of businesses. And so the impacts are felt at a much deeper level. And so I appreciate the amendments that were proposed today. Those amendments include the feedback that I have received from the community, as well as the experience that my team has had in monitoring the the PARKLETS since they initiated. I want to also think that we have 21 comments on this issue. I know my council colleagues get that comment live. That's a really significant number of comments to be submitted on one particular agenda item. So I want to thank residents who were not able to be here who who sent in their E comments. And I want to thank the residents who came out to the meeting tonight and our businesses. I have had the opportunity to speak with almost all of you during the past year, year and a half on this issue. And I hope that you feel that some of the amendments that were put into place tonight by my staff through the recommendation address, the very things you've asked me to work on, and those are things we're going to work on. We were one of the first cities to offer this opportunity to local businesses when the COVID pandemic hit. And I was a strong supporter of the Open Streets Initiative from day one. I am sure that countless businesses and individuals that this program has helped keep from seeing significantly worse financial situations and possible bankruptcy are extremely grateful for this opportunity. I am a business owner on Second Street, so I have a vantage point that's very different than all of my council colleagues in that the COVID pandemic hit me and my family in a very personal way. And so we understand the need to have helped our local economy in the best way that we could, and I hope to continue to do so. We're in a very different situation today than we were when we first implemented this program. One of the biggest things that we're seeing now is that we have many more people that are back to work, meaning the streets that were vacant for so long during the beginning of the pandemic are now being filled again with cars and commuters who are commuting daily and impacting the traffic volumes on the street. We're also seeing, obviously, that there are major parking impacts as a result of some of the parklets going into place. And that has resulted in a lot of retail businesses reaching out to us, letting us know that people are not wanting to go shop on Second Street because of the need to look for parking. And that's something that we're constantly aware of. We do, I think, need to reevaluate some of the parklets on Second Street. Some of them are no longer used or not used as frequently. And so we need to go through a process of talking to those business owners and finding out whether they want to continue their parklet or not. We've had some business owners reach out to us and say they don't want to continue their parklets and we respect that will accommodate that. We also need to talk with adjacent business owners to find out if there is any encroachment, if they're still okay with that encroachment or not. That's a conversation that some businesses have asked us to initiate as well, and so we will do that as part of this extension amendment that was being passed today. I do believe it's very, very important for our residents to have an appeal process because there isn't a one particular location that that really needs to be addressed. It's been a huge quality of life impact for residents, and the residents need to have a mechanism to address that, and we need to think about whether we can move some of the parklets off of the side streets when they're in very close proximity to homes and figure out a way to get them onto Second Street if , in fact, we are going to allow that extension. So this amendment by the staff allows us to take a look at all of those different options and be able to come up with a plan in December that is a little bit more streamlined for the businesses that are here that have been operating without any problem and no complaints. I want to thank you for being responsive and for for allowing I'm so glad you're here, because you get to hear directly from the residents what my team and I hear from the residents all the time. So I know that my time is up and I need to to let other council colleagues speak. So I just want to end with just a huge thank you to Lisa West from my team. She's our business liaison and she has talked with every single person in this room. Numerous times our team was out there helping lay out the trails on the days that they were delivered. We've been very hands on on this process. And I just want to say that we couldn't have done any of it without her. And I just really want to appreciate everyone who's here, especially staff, for helping us come up with this. We will host a community meeting. We will widely broadcast that meeting and encourage residents to attend, and that will be the start of a conversation for permanent parklets and other conversations that we need to have. Thank you again, Catwoman entrepreneur. Thank you. And thanks to all the speakers tonight and thank you to staff for a great presentation. My comments run aligned with the vice mayors and that is well, Second Street might be unique. It might be the only all encompassing location for this. But unless the traffic engineers tell me otherwise, it's not the only spot in Long Beach that has an issue with the PARKLET. And so I get a little nervous when we do a carve out for a district and there seems to be no path for any other districts . And I heard Director Marconi correctly that if there's a a process for someone with an issue on a parklet, I think he said that has to be based on the original parameters of how that that parklet was set up. It can't be a new amendment to the Parklet. And I'm sorry, I don't remember the lighting exactly, but do you know what I'm talking about? I'm not sure, but I'll try and address that. And you let me know if I got you or not. The. There is people can already file complaints about Parklets. We're going to formalize that process so that perhaps it would look like a dedicated telephone number and email address where people can file their complaint. Staff will go investigate that complaint and identify whether or not the business is complying with the requirements of the permit for the temporary parklet. If they are not, then we can take action. Okay. And so what I would like to see is some latitude in there because it might have been set up with all great intentions, but that doesn't leave any margin for what if something changed or would have. COVID has changed a little bit. And I'm just wondering if we can get something in there to where a protest could be lessened or could be submitted based on a new circumstance, not on the original set up of the parklet, if that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. And I think that that's reasonable. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And Councilman Mongo. Thank you. I just wanna thank everyone who came out today, and I especially want to thank the councilwoman as a regular on Second Street and a person who has a lot of friends that live walking distance. And we love to meet at their house and walk down. And I've seen both sides of it and I've heard both sides of it. And even residents who live nearby still enjoy walking down to Second Street and enjoying it. So I applaud the councilwoman for her efforts on this. And she always works really hard to make sure that everyone's heard and we can come to a resolution that I think if we get there, this could be a solution that could work for the whole city because Parklets have changed and there are some value and there's a lot of interesting opportunities district citywide, but each of us have different unique things that our district. So I'm going to stay tuned. Thank you, everyone, for coming out tonight. Thank everyone. Please cast your votes for the men in motion. The question is, hey. Thank you. We're not going to do. A series of items, none of which have any public comment lined up, and there's no staff presentations on any of these. So we're going to kind of go through these quickly. Madam Cook, I am 27.