O.K. Can we get something out of the way?
Complaining about not enough parking spaces and or biking racks is kind of strange.
Yogi Berra was once asked why he didn't go to a popular nightclub spot anymore. "No one goes there," he said. "It's too crowded."
Here's a thought experiment.
If we start with 10 parking places, and only 5 people using them, our goal would be to increase business until all 10 spaces are full. If we succeed in getting all ten spots filled, we can expand it to 15 parking spots.
Complaining about not enough parking spaces and or biking racks is kind of strange.
Yogi Berra was once asked why he didn't go to a popular nightclub spot anymore. "No one goes there," he said. "It's too crowded."
Here's a thought experiment.
If we start with 10 parking places, and only 5 people using them, our goal would be to increase business until all 10 spaces are full. If we succeed in getting all ten spots filled, we can expand it to 15 parking spots.
But where does it end? At what point do we say, "Hey, we've succeeded. We've filled the available spots...."
How many times have you passed on going into a store or a restaurant because no one was there? How many times have you decided to go into a store or a restaurants because it looks busy?
When I worked in gas stations in high school and college, we often parked our own cars at the pumps just to draw people in.
I have a theory that there is a 'emptiness' multiplier. That is, 10% empty feels like twice that much. 25% empty feels like half empty. Just check out most downtown cores, which can often feel dead, even though if you count the shops more than half are full.
We shouldn't underestimate the importance of traffic -- car, bike, or feet. It's all part of the experience. God help downtown if the "mall" proponents ever get their way. These issues have popped up over and over again, over the years. You can't kill them. Newcomers are especially prone to thinking closing the streets would be a good idea.
How many times have you passed on going into a store or a restaurant because no one was there? How many times have you decided to go into a store or a restaurants because it looks busy?
When I worked in gas stations in high school and college, we often parked our own cars at the pumps just to draw people in.
I have a theory that there is a 'emptiness' multiplier. That is, 10% empty feels like twice that much. 25% empty feels like half empty. Just check out most downtown cores, which can often feel dead, even though if you count the shops more than half are full.
We shouldn't underestimate the importance of traffic -- car, bike, or feet. It's all part of the experience. God help downtown if the "mall" proponents ever get their way. These issues have popped up over and over again, over the years. You can't kill them. Newcomers are especially prone to thinking closing the streets would be a good idea.
If you take the same traffic that downtown Bend has, for instance, and transfer it to the downtown of Baker, which has streets that are twice as wide, it would look like half as many people. It will feel relatively empty.
If you take a 1000 sq. ft. store, and stock it with product that covers only 500 sq. ft., you will look empty. The same 500 sq. ft. of product will look full in a smaller store, or a store designed to block off the other half, or whatever.
Being busy and full and hopping is what we want.
But their very interest in downtown comes from the fact that they like it -- and yet they are willing to change the very downtown they say they like with very iffy and dangerous ideas.
Sometimes being busy is a good thing.