Dear City Council, I read with great interest the staff proposal to close segments of various downtown streets in order to support the reopening of our downtown retail district. I think Councilmembers Mueller and Nash are onto something here and I've heard from a number of residents who agree. By all means, seek as much input as you can from the downtown business community. But if they are game to test this plan, I think we should go for it. The idea of closing some part of downtown to through traffic has been floated at various times throughout the years (including during the development of the Downtown Specific Plan)–but for understandable reasons (e.g. emergency access, parking concerns), it's never taken off. Now we have a rare opportunity to test that idea while also helping our small businesses reopen in accordance with mandated social distancing guidelines. Traffic and parking needs are at an all-time low, so we have some slack in the system. And restaurants and stores desperately need more space in order to make the unit economics work. Of course, even with a larger physical footprint to play with, many businesses will struggle to make ends meet, but it seems foolish not to try. We've closed the downtown before for a weekend at a time. Physical changes to our streetscape can be temporary; recovering from the loss of our anchor businesses and restaurants would be less reversible. And if our efforts are successful, we throw our retail community a lifeline, preserving not just their stores and livelihoods but also the jobs of at least some of their employees, not to mention the cherished vibrancy enshrined in our city mission statement. What do we have to lose? Thank you, as always, for your encouraging leadership during these trying times. Warm regards, Katie -- Katie Behroozi 650.804.1812 (cell) Received on Mon May 11 2020 - 22:19:53 PDT
