Quote:
Originally Posted by exit2lef
Update: I went to lunch at Carly's and walked by the site on my way. Workers are spraying water, presumably for dust control, on the Scientology building right now. That's usually a precursor to imminent demolition.
On a sort of related note, I ate on the new patio at Carly's. It's a nice patio, and I hope other businesses also activate their portions of the enormous sidewalk. At the same time, having the patio there is a reminder of the flaws of the Roosevelt Streetscape. The sidewalks on the north side now have an inner portion, shielded from traffic and sun by a row of trees, and an outer portion that is right up against the curb. Along most portions of the street, I expect pedestrians will choose the inner portion, but when that area is being used for a patio, they'll have to use the outer portion without the buffer of a row of parked cars.
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LOL, so stupid. Seriously. This is what happens when you let business owners, with no expertise in urban or street planning, dictate the design of public rights of way. And, yet, these same business owners - who removed parking because they wanted this redesign to emphasize the pedestrian-friendliness of Roosevelt - are STILL whining about the "parking problem" downtown. Just ashphalt over the entire south side of the street so the people eating on these new patios can have a gorgeous view of cars speeding by AND sitting parked in lot after lot. The only 'saving grace' is that bike lanes have yet to be added, which will add *some* form of buffer between the sidewalk and street. But, instead of 20' sidewalks, they could have at least protected both the pedestrians AND bikes by adding a 2' lane of low-growing landscaping or even just slighty raised pavers between the travel lane and bike lane, if they were going to remove parallel parking. But, no, 20' sidewalks to accomodate Carly's new patio and the *1* night a month where pedestrian levels reach a point where this amount of room is necessary was completely worth screwing over everyday needs. Luckily, I think Short Leash and the Dressing Room plan on having patios, but I think the latter might just be rooftop and in the back? What a drab street-scene they've created.
And, the City never learns. In spite of the terrible feedback given following Phase 1 of 1st Street's redesign, and the efforts of the community to raise awareness of these flaws at the recent unveiling of Phase 2, the McKinley-Moreland portion doesn't address any of the issues and is merely a continuation of the disaster originally implemented. No bike lanes, no double row of landscaping, no pedestrian crosswalks except at Roosevelt... instead, ROW is being used for ANGLED PARKING, a 2' concrete buffer for people who park their cars to step onto between the landscape area and their car, 14' travel lanes (highway standard is 12' for Christ's sake) that widen up to 17' in places, dedicated left turn lanes where absolutely unnecessary.
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