Councilmembers,
In regards to the outdoor dining and gathering parklet spaces on Santa Cruz avenue in its current form, I’m for the decommissioning of this space to improve traffic and bike flow down Santa Cruz Ave. However, it’s unfortunate the three options being presented aren’t coupled with an overdue forward thinking plan to bring new business to downtown, and create safe activity spaces for our city’s young people. Two opportunities our City Management and Chamber of Commerce seem to be sleeping on. This space was born from a pandemic necessity and has added much value to our community. But, it’s just another example of how business owners are forced to get creative to draw people to downtown MP (e.g. design district anyone?) for themselves. It’s time to take the lessons we’ve learned and come up with a more thoughtful longer term solution to support existing businesses, encourage business, and without being forced to improvise or close streets to do so.
Best,
Julie Hartstein
