As part of a $400,000 effort to “test” the viability of the city’s plan to redo Historic Downtown Durango into an outdoor dining mall, the city has installed fake sidewalks, taking up 15 parking places on the south end of Main Avenue.
What this “test” is proving is that we need those parking places back.
Two of the City Council members who favor “Next Step” to modernize Main Avenue run businesses in north Durango. Both have their own parking lots so employees and customers can easily access their establishments. City planners and council members have free downtown parking passes. The fact that Next Step will eliminate 50 parking spaces on Main Avenue and hurt business really doesn’t concern them.
Planners claim the two reasons for “Next Step” are to create “social” spaces on the sidewalks and make the streets safer.
What it will do is destroy the Durango’s Central Business District and, by making traffic lanes so narrow that you have to step into traffic to exit your vehicle, it will make downtown more dangerous.
At the same time, the city has increased the price of meters to $1.50 per hour. It wants to raise parking prices while also eliminating 2½ blocks of parking. City planners really don’t want people downtown.
Three of our City Council members have forgotten who elected them. It wasn’t the planning staff.
Jackson Clark II
Durango
