Hi. I'm following the post on Nextdoor.com where a number of people are rallying around the idea of making Santa Cruz Ave a walking-only section. While I have not studied this deeply, I am biased against this for the following reasons: - Philosophically, this seems to be a massive wealth transfer from the city to (1) the landlords who have property on SC Ave. and (2) the existing tenants who can take advantage of being essentially given free real estate - Philosophically, this is a wealth transfer away from restaurants/etc. that are adjacent to SC Ave, but will not get the free real estate and be able to offer al fresco dining and so on. Why does Amici's get a freebie and The Refuge not? - Parking - while there are those who argue that downtown MP has plenty of parking, I have had numerous experiences of trying to park near the Left Bank on a Fri night and being unable to find a spot. I would presume this would now be worse The one thing that makes me support the proposal - at least we would no longer have 13 stop signs between El Camino and University, some of which seem like they are 25 feet apart. The issue to me is that our downtown lacks vibrant, interesting tenants, which makes the area rather drab and boring. I don't know why we need so many thrift stores. We need tenants - places that bring energy. Thrift stores do the opposite. Frank Han Received on Tue May 26 2020 - 08:50:56 PDT
