Recommendation to request City Manager to work with City Attorney to report back regarding the feasibility, opportunities, and constraints both legal and practical to limiting median access near major intersections to improve safety for pedestrians and drivers, including in this report how other jurisdictions manage this traffic safety concern.
Motion passes. Okay. Thank you. Graduations, everyone, and thank you to all of our library friends out there for their support. Give them a round of applause for their work. Okay. We're going on now to Madam Clerk. Adam 19, please. Communication from Councilwoman Price, Council member, Super Council Member, Your UNGA recommendation to request the city manager to work with City Attorney to report back regarding the feasibility to limiting median access near major intersections to improve safety for pedestrians and drivers. Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I want to make sure that I hear from the audience and all the people that came out tonight. I know this is a really big issue with some of our busiest intersections, PCH and second, as well as seventh and Bellflower at the Iron Triangle. And so I'm going to be very brief in my opening comments. I want to thank everyone for coming out. I also want to make sure that everybody knows and understands that this is really a it's a public safety item. It's it's designed to address the concerns that we've seen at these particular traffic intersections and many other traffic intersections. I have here a list of the traffic intersections in the city where we've had the most collisions. And I think avoiding distracted drivers, minimizing the chaos and the noise around those intersections is a very important thing for us as a community to focus on. And so I think it's it's important to to note that we've done things like road diets, put in bike lanes, traffic calming, and many other measures to improve pedestrian and traffic safety. And now median safety is one of the major concerns that we're facing at our intersections. This item is really asking for the city attorney to come back with some options for us in terms of how we can limit access to certain medians, not every median. In fact, there are some medians in the city that have access points for the public, but there are medians that we all know are not safe for people to be standing on or the one that one of you in here sent me a photo of today with a man and his keyboard. I've seen a man and his drums. I've seen pets. And those are definitely intersections that are way too crowded. And we want to make sure that we improve traffic safety to the best of our ability. So what the item is intended to do is to apply a common sense measure that takes people on foot out of harm's way and reduces driver distractions by making intersections unsafe. And with that, I'd love to listen to my colleagues and the people that are here, and then we'll all give some final comments. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. We're going to go to Councilman Andrews. Councilman during question first going to the public that we were requesting? I think so, yes. There's no leaks unless anyone has. If there's any objection, we'll go to the public comment first. Okay. If you have a public comment item, please come forward and line up on the on the microphone and just make sure you. So just please come forward and line up if you have a public comment. Please. Mr. Mayor and city council members. My name is Gary Morrison. I live at 385 Clinton Alameda Heights. I happened to be the president of the Interstate Improvement Association, and I probably only get to see this once. But Councilwoman Price is part of my constituents. So thank you, Councilwoman. You know, we can't drive in Texas text. We can't drive without talking our cell phones in less. We're hands free people on them on the medians are distractions. I mean, the picture of the guy in the keyboard on the median, I think it was Bellflower in Seventh Street was pretty funny. But it's pretty much a distraction and. It puts drivers at at risk. It puts pedestrians at risk. We've got a lot of rules and regulations in our society to make things safer. We've we've got OSHA. We've got, you know, just think of everything that you can think of. There's always a rule or regulation to make it safer for us to function as human beings. I support item 19, the median access at major intersections, a proposal that the councilwoman is presenting. And I would like your consideration to make our medians safer, to make our lives safer, and to make our environment safer. And I'd like you to do it sooner rather than later. I think this is a one time opportunity for us to come and talk to you about this issue. It seems kind of strange that this would be an issue, but it really is. It's crazy to go out Saturday morning, Sunday, Monday and see all the different people hanging out on the medians one in our attention. So please give us your honest and clear consideration to make our streets safer and sooner rather than later. Thank you very much. Thank you, Alex. Speaker, please. Hi. Mr. Mayor. Members. My name? Kristy Fisher. I totally understand and get why we have panhandlers who are out on our busy intersections on the medians, because it gives them a chance to try and interact with as many people as possible. But that said, we need to weigh that concern against traffic safety. Some of the medians in the iron triangle, which I live nearby and I drive through several times a day, are really narrow, super narrow. And they're standing on there sometimes one, sometimes two of them, and there's nothing there to protect them. The other day I was coming home and there was a fellow who was sitting on the median on PCH with near the in the Iron Triangle area and had his feet on PCH. Now, I mean, it's not that his feet were that big, but it was like, well, what is he going to do next? At one point I've seen a woman who was lying on the median. I caught her in my rearview mirror and thought, Oh my gosh, do I need to call 911? What's going on? And she rolled over and moved. But during that period of time, I was very distracted. I was very concerned for her. And I think the instances that concern me the most are when I see them there with their dogs and they're even though they're on a leash, I'm thinking, when is that dog going to bolt and when is that owner going to bolt after that dog right into the street. And I going to be the reckless driver that hits them. So please, if you can come back and I'm sure that there's a way to legally do this. I very much appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Lucy Johnson, resident of the fifth District. And I wanted to say I completely support this recommendation. I drive through PCH, at least daily, both directions, sometimes north and south, most of the time east and west. And also through this, the iron triangle. And I'm concerned about the dogs up there as well. But even more so, I've watched people in the medians who bend over to pick up stuff that's been tossed down into the street, whether it's coins or somebody trying to hand them a dollar bill or whatever before they drive off. And they're actually getting into the street as traffic is going through. I also called our police dispatch a few months ago as I was going westbound on Second Street and there was a young man in the median on that side. I stopped at a red light. He immediately starts going from the median across the street on the south side of second towards the gas station, right as the lighted turn, so that the people turning left from southbound PCH onto Eastbound Second Street, they just walked right through. And he was clearly in an altered state. And it was, you know, very scary to see what might happen with people making a big left turn in that area. So I think it's absolutely a safety issue. It does concern me when I go through those intersections and see people reaching down or not in a completely sober state that are weaving around as they stand there. So I urge you to approve this recommendation. Thank you. Next week or please. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry. I didn't get the nice little hand. Thank you. Speaker, please. Hi. My name is Christine Barry. When you consider 100,000 cars going through in one day in an intersection and then you see two guys having a shoving match on the median. Not only is it a distraction for the driver, but what's going to happen when one of them lands in front of a car because they didn't notice traffic had begun to move and somebody gets killed. And we'll all be responsible for it because we didn't do anything about it. We need to stop this. Whether it's two cars hitting each other and one jumps on the median or whether it's somebody falling in the street. There was a woman the other day walking to visit her friend who was on the median. She became distracted. She stopped in traffic and didn't notice that the traffic had started moving. These medians are an opportunity for something bad to happen. You have the ability to put a stop to that and maybe save someone's life. But at the very least, to save all the anxiety that everybody who goes through the intersections looking at this experiences. So I would plead with you, please do something about stopping the access to the medians. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Janine Sausalito, and I am a resident of Long Beach and I. Live in the neighborhood of Alamitos Heights. I'm here to express my support for Councilwoman Pryce, looking into limiting the access of pedestrians, standing on medians and walking on medians in these highly congested city streets and intersections. I'm personally concerned with where a seventh street crosses Bellflower and PCH. This is in my neighborhood. I travel this intersection daily. There is not a time. I am not distracted by someone. Standing on this median. It's a daily occurrence. Just this past Sunday. Driving my daughter home from her. Volleyball tournament at three in the afternoon, there was two. Pedestrians loitering. In the median at the intersection. Of Seventh and. Bellflower. I needed to move to the right one, to my right and one to my left. I continued. West on seventh Street. Crossing PCH, where the three lanes merge to two. I needed to be aware of a car emerging to my right, aware of the person standing on the median to my left, as well as a person turning from Seventh. Street onto PCH. Where two more individuals. Were sitting on the curb. Somewhat blocking the turn lane with their belongings. This was a total of five individuals loitering at this intersection as I drove through. This is one of the busiest intersections in Long Beach and one of the main gateways to our city. As a driver through here, I already need to be alert because there is it is a diagonal intersection. And it's an Elise. One more block. You go through another intersection. It's already busy with pedestrians walking to Long Beach State. The VA. Hospital and the retail stores nearby. And if there. Is a way to prevent the additional distraction of pedestrians. Standing where they don't need to be standing or loitering is a welcome. Safety for all involved. I hope that you will look into this. I support council. Isn't woman's price desire to improve the conditions and make it safe for everybody? Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Stephanie Dawson. So Democratic Socialists of America launch this study as it is proposed today, is not designed to promote a facially neutral, narrowly construed law to address an imminent threat to public safety. If this was the case, then this measure would have been a come forth. When Kolb or Wilson students were advertising car washes or other sets for fund raisers in these same controversial meetings. Rather, this is an attempt by the co-sponsors to at best, remove poor people out of sight and out of mind. And at worst, it represents a continuing trend by the city to criminalize poverty. The intersections mentioned so far have and have other major elements that contribute to traffic collisions besides the fact that they also happen to be the most the most prominent places for homeless people to panhandle bars. If we were truly constructive, if we were clearly concerned with distracted driving, we would eliminate the dozens of bars, as well as the dozens of built of billboards in those same areas, especially in the Iron Triangle. CARTER Congressman Lowenthal, his office is right now producing a study study on traffic, on traffic distractions and traffic safety. They'll provide the same exact objective analysis on this issue without impacting city resources. Lets any minimum weight into the results of this study or available before making a rash decision that will open up our city to the very real threat of a lawsuit from the ACLU, who has already established a firm precedent recently in favor of the rights for the homeless. The Supreme Court, as well, has also made several recent rulings concerning facially neutralized limiting speech in public areas such as such as these medians, especially when it has a discriminatory impact as this law would. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you, councilwoman. Members in there. My name's Maureen Neeley. I'm on Termino Avenue in Belmont Heights in the third District. And at first glance, I. Didn't think this was a very important request. Or that we really needed this. It seemed to go. Against the idea of free movement in a free society. I kind of get that. But I started really looking at these medians and they're not intended to be used as sidewalks. I have no problem with people congregating on sidewalks. And exercising free speech and liberty, etc. But standing on a raised concrete. Strip while cars. Are whizzing. By at 50 miles an hour is no protection at all for anyone. And that's not what the intention of those medians were. With more and more people using these. Medians as sidewalks and for purposes of to. Interact with drivers and holding signs and apparently dogs and keyboards. I didn't know that. It's only a matter of time that someone is going to get hit and or a driver causes an accident trying to avoid a person or an object. I nearly hit someone. Who stepped out of the center divide on Willow. I wasn't expecting it. I wasn't ready for it. I had the green light. This woman had children in tow and it took everything I had. To not hit them. I don't want that feeling. For anyone in this room or anyone in the city to experience something like that. It's a horrifying experience. The medians are just that they're medians. Let's try to figure out a way that people can still practice their civil liberties on the sidewalks or in open. Open areas that are safer. But let's not have to use a strip of concrete that could potentially put their own life and the lives of others at risk. Asking for a staff report on best practices and how other cities address this problem seems reasonable. And I ask that you support this. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Sarah Sang Meister, member of the third District. I want to thank Susie Price for bringing this forward. And just to remind everyone that this is basically a recommendation to oust the city attorney in the city manager to look at this. I don't think anybody's asking the city council tonight to make a decision, and I understand the other speakers concern. I think what you're hearing is a number of people from essentially the east side of town. And I believe that the three councilmembers who brought this forward are hearing from a number of their constituents about this concern. One of the reasons I'm here this evening is I live close to second and PCH and I'm almost on a daily basis. I generally don't come down here to talk about these things, but on almost on a daily basis, there is not a time from 6 a.m. until ten or 11:00 at night when I'm going through there , that there is not somebody out there on that median. And I have been in situations where I've watched near car accidents, dogs running across other situations that I think really are a public safety issue. I guess I would say one thing is when the city manager and the city attorney are looking at that is to perhaps talk to the police department, maybe talk to some of the neighborhoods, because I think a number of people in who are here tonight and are concerned enough who took off time to get here early enough, really see this as an issue. So please just look at it as I don't think we're trying to ask you guys to make a decision tonight. I know city attorney Perkin will look diligently at it and try to find some answers to try to find that balance between civil liberties. But it is definitely a safety issue as well. Thank you. Thank you, Speaker, please. Hi. Excuse me. Hi. My name is Sharon Hagen. I'm a resident of Alamitos Heights. I just wanted to bring maybe a little bit different perspective prior to that. I would like to say thank you very much for having us on the agenda. The entire neighborhood of Alameda site is quite concerned about this. This is definitely an ongoing situation. I feel since I walk the neighborhood daily that this has become a business on the medians and as such, perhaps the people that are conducting business on the medians as they are quite regular people should perhaps be required to have a business license. I understand that some cities do require that, and perhaps that is another avenue that we could pursue. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Very good. Somebody left a pen up here. I commend the makers of this motion. It's obviously a very serious issue. One of the things that I like to hear. The individual that said that it's a violation of civil rights and. That people should be allowed to do that, if they will, that that individual will put his money where his mouth is and agree to pay any liability that flows from any accidents that would come flow from the type of activity we're talking about. I think an easy way to address that are one of the inexpensive way is to put rubber stanchions like we already have on highways that funnel traffic off like on the Davis Bridge. Are there places inundate that median with those stanchions? They're relatively inexpensive to put in there all around the city, and that would reduce. Bottom line is they wouldn't have it. Nobody would be able to stand there and look for it. One final thing reference to just permit me for 10 seconds and representative councilman, your anger's a good idea relative to sending out the library notice on the water bill. Make sure that people understand it's not a threat to shut down your work. Cut off your water. Some people make that. Thank you. So we'll take you back behind the rail. Councilmember Suber now. I'm fine. Thank you to all the members of the public who came down here tonight. This is an issue in multiple districts, as some of the speakers indicated, and primarily on public safety issues. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Andrews. Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor. And I also want to thank Councilwoman Price for bringing this item forward. And I think it's very important for all of us to take a look at the change that medians can bring about. You know, I have quite a few in my area also. But I think the saddest part, a lot of the individuals who decide not to go down to the crosswalk or to the light, they would rather go out from the medians. And that's where we are going to have some problems. So, you know, I think traffic and pedestrian safety is one of, you know, my number one priorities. And I would want to want to avoid any tragedy possible in the city. So this is why I'm truly in favor of this item. Thank you very much. God surprise, for bringing this item forward. Thank you. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Yes. Thank you for everybody who has spoken on this item. And so I after reading this item, I was a little bit confused because I see one thing, but I so I just want to get some clarity around this. And I understand the goal and the mission of the community members. But this item says with with safety as. A specific focus. Correct. Says safety is a specific focus. And so with that, is there data that backs up the car accidents, the collisions that we're talking about here? Because I know for in my district from experience, when we've had some of the largest and most dangerous intersections, we've had data to back that up. To be able to say this is why it's such a problem in the in the area gun Byner Park was one of those areas. We collected the data, we had community meetings and then finally we got a park. But I don't see that here. So do we have. Any information. Mr. West. You know, if I could answer that, actually, you're correct. So we worked with the city attorney's office to draft this item. In fact, Jack Cunningham from my staff has been working with the city attorney's office for a few months now. And yes, we do have data. As I mentioned in my initial comments, we have data for highest traffic volumes and highest traffic incidents for the last ten years. The last five years. In the last year. But what I was hoping for is that tonight would be allowing the city attorney to go back and look at the different options that are available to us. Because if public safety is truly the concern, then the goal wouldn't be to ban people from all medians. It would be to ban people from medians where there is high traffic volumes or collision related data that would support it. So yes, we have that that data available. We can make it available to anyone's officers that they would like. We have the top 25 busiest intersections where there is a high incidence of traffic collisions. Okay. So then my next question would be, thank you for that. It would be good to see that information first. But why? So instead of having the city attorney look at this information, why don't we do a traffic study and have our public works traffic division? Look at this information that would seem to me a little bit more within their purview and realm. Yeah, the data we have is from our traffic engineers. They've already done the data analysis. And then which intersections? I mean, it's because I think we're just giving the information to our city attorney. But there's I don't have any we don't have any data to go off of based on. On this item. So I guess what I'm suggesting is that perhaps going to our traffic engineers, getting some information and data on that. First, I believe we also have master plans that are in place. That have. Information related to lessening traffic collisions, lessening pedestrian collisions, lessening bike collisions. And so I think gathering all that data first would be, I don't know, the most feasible in my opinion, but. That's the information on I'll share. And then which I mean if you have that data, it'd be nice to see it. But if you have that information, which of the I don't know, are there top three medians that have the most what are the top three medians? I don't even know what those locations would be. Sure. And again, just to clarify, we're not directing the city manager to prohibit people standing on specific medians. We're asking him within the legal parameters that he has. There has to be a neutral reason to limit people's access to medians. So whether that's high traffic volumes or high collision data, those would be recommendations that they would come back to us on. We're not saying that we would like you to draft an ordinance that would prohibit median access for the highest volume intersections. We're not saying that at this point, but in the past ten years, the top three intersections where there were most collisions were Long Beach Boulevard and Ward Low Redondo and Seventh PCH. And second, that was in the last ten years. In the last five years, the three top intersections in our medians were Pacific Coast Highway in Second Street, Redondo Avenue and Seventh Street, Long Beach Boulevard and Wardlow. In the past. Year, the top. Collisions were Redondo and Seventh. Pacific Coast Highway, Outer Traffic Circle and Anaheim Street at Long Beach Boulevard. Okay. And I again, I'm. Just. Focusing on the safety aspect. So I think I don't know in terms of process, I guess in my mind works is that we ask for information back from our traffic engineers, we get the data and then we're able to make a determination as to which what to do. Then I don't know why we would just jump to the city attorney's office to find out feasibility opportunities and constraints both legal and practical. So limiting media access. And so I think it's just a little off. So I don't know that I'll be supporting it as is. I would like us to consider possibly going back to our traffic engineer and bringing that information back to the council so we can have a little bit more informed information prior to just sending it to the city attorney. So after hearing my colleagues, that might be the direction I may propose. Councilmember Pearce. Yes. I want to thank the cosigners of this for the intent around public safety, but I definitely am going to talk through one as I think process, I think. Councilmember Price. Councilwoman Price, you have a lot of information in front of you that if we all had that same information, it might have made tonight a little easier to kind of go forward and say, okay, now we really understand the intent. And so thank you for working with the staff and having your staff do all that work. It would be great to have that information upfront on future items. I have a couple of things. One is it's my understanding that we already have a law on the muni code that prohibits people from soliciting in medians. No persons shall so offer, give, distribute any merchandise or manner or manner and description whatsoever, including newspapers, printed material. No person shall solicit contribute donations for my position or place upon any public street in the city. Public street using means highway roadways, streets, medians, divider islands. So we already have some policies in place. Number one, that's in our muni code that already says that it's illegal to do a lot of that activity. So I would want us to be really careful. I do think that, you know, I have gotten some concerns from my constituents around who would be most impacted by a policy like this. And my response is that it's already on the books. Number two, if we if the concern of this item, which I, as someone who's had three fatalities in my districts from pedestrian and car collisions, definitely care about public safety in this, we already have adopted a Vision Zero strategy last year and staff, I believe we received a $250,000 grant to bring a consultant on to talk about Vision Zero. Can you guys give us a little bit of background on Vision Zero and if it would include what the council members are looking for today? Sorry. Our public works director, Craig Beck will respond to that. Thank you. Yes. Mayor, members of the city council, I believe recently a staff report was sent to all of you to talk about Vision Zero. And essentially the goal with Vision Zero is to get to a point where we don't see vehicular and pedestrian incidents. We want to create safe corridors, safe passages for our pedestrians within the city. We are bringing on a consultant with the grant funds that we just recently received. We will be looking at a number of call them hotspots or dangerous intersections within the city and elements that we can do to improve pedestrian safety within those intersections. So that will include kind of a Vision Zero task force, if you will, that will be able to come forward and make a number of additional recommendations to council as we move our Vision zero plan to implementation. Great. And so these medians obviously would be areas as we've listed that we already have a priority list would be included as a top priority for the Vision Zero work. Well, certainly we don't encourage pedestrians to be in medians. That's not a safe area to be. We want to try to keep people to not only cross at signalized intersections when at all possible, but if not make sure that they are in a crosswalk. And that rarely includes crossing and being in a median area which isn't typically safe. Yeah, and I thank you for your comments on the Vision Zero. What's our timeline on the Vision zero? So I hope to have a consultant on board within the next 60 days. And then I imagine we're looking with community input and in finalizing an implementation plan somewhere in the 4 to 6 month time frame to get that ready for council adoption for implementation. Great. Thank you for that. I think there's. Let me see if I have one more question. Um, I think that's it. I think that, that the intent of this item is already carried through with the Vision Zero work. And so I would not want to ask our staff to double the work or to look at prohibiting people where we already are, prohibiting them in our muni code. And so I will not be supporting this item, but I definitely support the intent and want to continue to make sure that working together with the Vision Zero team and with our staff directors on making sure we can create a safe community for everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I got to tell you, when I saw this item, I didn't think this would. Bring on so much debate that this would be a pretty quick item. And in my opinion, it's a it's a pretty common sense, no brainer. I will be supporting it. I want to thank Councilmember Price and Supernormal and Urunga for bringing it forward. Obviously, these are concerns that these council members have in their district. I'm as well I'm very concerned about pedestrian safety, period. I do understand and think some really good points have been raised about there already being an ordinance on the books and us engaging the need to engage our traffic engineers for solutions. I think this this the recommendation in asking this item actually looks for a legal opinion on what best practices are and what what options are available on the legal front and in the end, as well as what can be engineered. So what type of solutions can be engineered through. And I think that is the task of the city manager's office and that's why I read this. And so, you know, I hope we can we can get through this. This is, like I said, a pretty, pretty common sense item. And I look forward to getting the report back. And again, I will be supportive. I'm going to go to Councilman Mungo. I just want to add just one thing also real quick here and correct if I'm wrong, Councilman Price, but it's my understanding that the reason this is being directed to the city manager and the city attorney's office is also to get, like Councilmember Orson said, just the legal clarity. I mean, the truth is, is that there is actual case law. There is a lot of court conversations that have happened around this issue. And so I think Councilman Price is looking to get some legal framework of what actually is or isn't possible in this area, that she's able to take that information and can give it to her constituents and ensure that the people that are making these requests and asking of the information have the information and that we and that the city is able to know what we can and cannot do. So I, I have viewed this item as an opportunity to request to get to gain information. There is no there is no asking it to create an ordinance in this item. It's asking to get some legal clarity and some information from staff to bring it back so that the council has the full information of what is. Allowed both legally and not allowed. And I think that's really, I think, important. And and I also think that there is enough folks in the community that have asked about this issue. And I think it would be it would be wise to get the community that have asked for the information, the information from the attorneys office. So I just wanted to throw that out there. Councilman Mongo. So. I'm going to talk to the the broader point on this. First, I'm going to start with stating that I'm going to support the item tonight. And then specifically on the information that has been provided to many of us, has been very decentralized in specific to our districts and we go out into the community. I was at a community meeting, I think it was last week where we had 70 neighbors who had similar types of concerns, and we have a similar discussion with each different group of neighbors related to the traffic issues and instances in their district, in their area where they live. Within the district, there are several intersections and neighborhoods that have impact. And when one neighborhood's impact is fixed, we have to work really hard not to just be moving that impact to another district. And so I'd like to add even just to put it out there, it's not completely in alignment with going to the city attorney. So I'm just going to state a few things that I think we need to be talking about and considering. One, all of the data that is provided to each of our offices related to these medians needs to be put on the Internet immediately. We have open data. Data LBE should have the number of accidents per intersection. It should have all the information that each of us know about our own council districts. And so while it's easy for us to say, Well, Councilmember Price, I don't have your data because I also don't have that data, that that really is the responsibility of data lab. And so we need to be open and transparent about this because what ends up happening is we end up getting the data, then going to our community meetings and then the community has to both digest the data we're giving them and talk through the risks and potential solutions and and potential best practices and some of the case law and issues with some of the things they're asking for. I'd like to take it a step further and say that once we get to this point, the traffic engineer that came and spoke at our community meeting last week, hands down, A-plus, a professional who knows and understands this stuff. We need just to have a mini video that each of us as council members can direct people to, because we want the community to be able to come up with solutions. But sometimes the solutions they come up with aren't legally allowable by the state. Or there's past issues with a solution, for instance, a boulder being cemented into a median. There are other issues that have come up with that and other legal challenges, and that's not a possibility at large at certain intersections of certain sizes. So all of that needs to be outlined and available so that community has the access to that information without giving up 2 hours of their night on a weeknight when they would rather be at yoga or watching their favorite TV program or having dinner with their children or helping with their homework. And so I hope that this is a bit of either if the staff are understanding where I think we as a council think we need to go, that's great. If not, I'm happy to work with two other council members to put an item on the agenda in the next several weeks that this is an important thing for us as a city. And I think that public works has been such a help. But to continue to draw on our city engineers, to come to community meeting after community meeting after community meeting, in my neighborhoods, we have almost 15 community groups. That's just a lot of resources of a highly paid staff member who already has a backlog of traffic studies that we need to get done. So just a thought. Let's use that technology available to us and I will be supporting the item. Counsel for Supernanny. Thank you. I signed on to this item and I seconded the motion tonight, so I will be in support. I'd just like to speak to the concept of narrowing the focus at this point, or as a suggestion. Let's come up with a finite number of intersections. This is not the time to narrow the focus. This is when we need to expand the focus. An example, Councilman Price red off. One of the intersections was PCH, an outer circle. That's in the fourth district that the traffic circle in general has issues. The other thing we have to understand is PCH is under the jurisdiction of Caltrans, as is the traffic circle. You go north on PCH and the well north, by the way, is described, but the northern side of PCH is Signal Hill. So where it's multi-jurisdictional, we need as much input here as possible. The other thing we have in our district speaking with Caltrans are our freeway on ramps, which we get calls on weekly on those. So I would just like to suggest we keep this open at this point. We move to exactly what the proposal is and be all inclusive in the information gathering mode. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Yes, thank you. And I would like to say that I will first like to add a friendly amendment, if I could, and I'd like to add a few things that after hearing my colleagues, I want to make sure that we are and I didn't expect this to go on and be this big deal. But I really feel that in terms of process, we need to add additional information. So there's just a few things that I'm going to ask when we're looking to send this to a city attorney. So a friendly amendment will include the information to Councilmember Janine Pierce's point that will include Vision Zero information, meeting information. So all the data that a council woman price has related to medians and traffic and collisions that should be provided in a two from four as soon as possible. Again, I think this information is pertinent to not only the community but to the council members to look at, you know, issues all over the city and then the attorney language. You know, again, just want to clarify that this is a feasibility to focus on safety first, not any other issues, that it should be separate. So safety first is as noted here in the agenda. So if those are accepted, I would hope so. Then I would be. Gladly to support. I'm happy to accept. Thank you. Councilmember Pick Councilmember Ringo. I agree with the the amendment as provided. Truthfully, I was somewhat hesitant to sign in on this on this item, but I want to thank him to do so. And the reason I was hesitant, because in the past years, 18 Lions Club members, I have seen firefighters donate to the boot, also on medians, asking for donations for the foundation. And so, I mean, I was like, okay, well, we need a better clarification as to what can we legally or legal or illegal or illegally or not accept in terms of what's a medians. There's also people who are making statements or just just using their First Amendment rights on medians. So, I mean, there's there's a lot of other things taking place other than panhandling or people just illegally crossing in the middle of the street to go to the other side. So a totally in agreement with the need to study this further. And that's why I signed on to this, because I think that it's important that we get complete information and clarification as to what's taking place here in the use of medians for public information or for other types of purposes, such as panhandling. So I will I will be supporting the title. Thank you. Councilmember Pearce. Yes. I want to thank my colleague for bringing up your your friendly. I did have a question around. The task force is still here. Yes. Sorry. Can you let me know if we have community organizations as a part of that Vision Zero Task Force? Councilmember Pearce we can certainly expand to community members. I think initially we were looking at representation from both the traffic engineering group, our health department, our police department to focus on some of the more enforcement and safety issues. And then once we came up with a number of recommendations that we would go out to the community and share with different community groups and gain input from that perspective. Okay. I'd like for us to just have a conversation about it, and it doesn't need to be part of this item, but how we include organizations that might come in contact with people that panhandle or in those medians so that we can talk about an education program for them or what legal things, besides giving them a citation , might we be able to do to be in alignment with the rest of the vision that the city has laid out around trying to do wraparound services and everything like that? So I'll say that. And then, you know, I think being really clear on the item that it is around public safety, that we're including the vision zero part, the red flag for me, just as always, any time that we can get in a situation where we're criminalizing one group, but like my colleague said, not criminalizing another, whether it's people at the boots, I just have to be really careful and cautious. And so I'll support this item with the friendly amendments made and I look forward to report coming back where we're being really clear about this being specifically for public safety and how we can ensure that we're not isolating one or one type of of people to be targeted. So thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you. I just want to chime in. You know, we like the here Long Beach is a collection of neighborhoods and there's clearly neighborhood support for this recommendation. So I you know, I have no problems with what was brought forward. I do want to acknowledge the sensitivity that was brought up about, you know, making sure we're clear about what the intent is. And but I think that this is just being a responsive councilperson. So congrats on that. I would also say, you know, I don't want to get a ticket for going and pick up any couches or mattresses up the median. So so if you see me in the median picking something up, you know, is that okay? Do I get a pass? All right. I think we're fine. But, you know, I also would say, you know, there's these flags that keep popping up, you know, these big flags. And it's not you know, I don't I don't know who's putting them up. These flags keep coming up and our business district keeps take them down. It is a you know, maybe a safety issue will say. You know, this this blight gets there somehow. Thanks. Councilwoman Pryce. Thank you. And I want to thank my colleagues. So just for clarifying, so actually a few things. First, I want to thank Councilman Turanga for signing on to this item. I think the beauty of this body is, for the most part, we have a group of people who are willing to work with one another, even when we have differences in our particular neighborhoods that may not bleed into other neighborhoods. And I appreciate that. So and I've sat in his office before and he's enlightened me on things that are important to him that I may not see in my neighborhood. And I appreciate that collaboration. So I want to thank you for that and for signing on and for giving it an opportunity. And I agree with you. I think the filling the boot, the you know, we have an issue in the third district. And I think some of my neighborhood association presidents who are here will understand where we have people in the medians. We call them guerilla gardeners. They go out there and they garden in the medians. That is dangerous. We we don't want that either. I don't want Girl Scout cookies being sold on the medians. It's just I don't want car washes being solicited from the medians. It's just a dangerous traffic hazard. And people get confused, especially. I mean, it just you have to be on your game when you're driving. And if there's a distraction or someone, you know, a foot or two away from your car, it can be really distracting. Regardless of what they're doing or what uniform they might be wearing. It doesn't matter. And in fact, if there were car washes on the corner, every time I went to the iron triangle, we would be bringing an item. But those are so few and far between that they don't necessitate the issue that we have here today because it's something we're seeing. This is my community, the people that came out here tonight, I represent I proudly represent them. This is an issue that is a big concern for them. And I and I think can appreciate my family, my colleagues, for giving them consideration and letting their voices be heard tonight. It affects their quality of life every day and it affects public safety and the health and wealth welfare of our community. I just want to clarify that the the item with the friendly includes a TFF will come back with some traffic collision data, some traffic volume data and that the city attorney will continue as by way of this motion to engage in its legal analysis and provide us with options in terms of what other cities have done, what connection must be made legally in order for us to prohibit behavior at a particular location so that it's a neutral analysis and that council will have options to consider in terms specifically of medians and traffic safety. And is that Mr. Park? And is that your understanding as well? It is, yes. Okay. Thank you. So with that, I want to thank my colleagues for their support. I want to thank my community for coming out. And I ask everyone to join me in support of this item. Thank you very much. We had public comment already. Thank you all for coming out. We had our council comment. So with that, there's a motion on the floor second by Councilmember Supernova. Please cast your votes. Motion passes. Okay. Thank you all very much. And we will be moving on to the next item, which is 21.