Why is our City Council rushing to spend almost $400,000 to do a preliminary engineering study for a permanent Promenade on Forest Avenue? Instead of spending money at this point, why not wait and see how things work in a more normal year with the festivals and Playhouse open, the trollies running and the return of thousands of visitors.
More importantly, the Council should first do a comprehensive, unbiased survey of what residents and local businesses want for our downtown. Requests for participation and transparency continue to be ignored.
Anne Caenn, President of Village Laguna
The “engineering” is too late for a Promenade, maybe we get a parking structure for another $20 million instead.
Anne, your final statement,”the Council should first do a comprehensive, unbiased survey of what residents and local businesses want for our downtown. Requests for participation and transparency continue to be ignored.” uncovers exactly what then problem is. Has our city management ever done a community survey that didn’t direct the outcome? Ever? Not to my knowledge. They have only conducted them when they felt it could help convince the voting public to support what they intended to spend money on. That’s how our city government works.
Les….yes the parking structure is a done back-room deal. And don’t expect Council members, city staff or the Chamber to admit it. That would require transparency.
We tried to build a parking structure, at 303 Broadway in 1986. The structure would have accommodated 300+ parking spaces . We would have stayed at the 35 foot height limit but the city thought four stories no way! So we got shot down ! How is that for such forward thinking?