City Officials Pleased With Results Of 'Downtown Matters' Workshops

There were no naysayers at the joint City Council/Planning Commission meeting Wednesday, despite the fact that the subject -- how to improve the downtown -- is one that has divided the city for many years. Property owners seeking more income from higher densities and higher rents, residents who want to keep the small town and historic feel intact, merchants who want more customers so they can keep the doors open; all of these factions have opposed each other for years.

Wednesday night, at least, there were kudos all around for the series of workshops held over the summer called Downtown Matters, led by consultant Susan Moeller, the former Redevelopment Director of Redwood City. The workshops examined how various downtowns have reinvented themselves, and included tours of Lodi, Livermore, Redwood City and downtown Martinez. The effort culminated Wednesday at the joint meeting.

“People (on the Martinez tour) said it was difficult to get around,” Moeller reported. “It’s confusing. The wayfinding could be improved. Main Street Plaza is not welcoming. The consensus was to start with improvements to the retail corridor on Main Street and to link to the marina.”

She said that city officials should lead the way to the creation of a community vision for the downtown.

“Once you have a vision,” she said, “the funding will follow.”

Though Mayor Rob Schroder only attended one and a half meetings, and most of the council didn’t make any, they were impressed with Moeller’s presentation, and seemed open to the ideas presented to them Wednesday.

Schroder particularly liked the idea of extending outdoor dining from the 500 block of Main Street all the way down the street.

“The 500 block is wonderful,” he said. “Why can’t we do that all the way down Main Street?”

 “We have Sharkey Square, undefined areas downtown just begging for some character and panache,” said councilman Mark Ross.

Councilwoman Janet Kennedy said the city needs to find a way to keep merchants from closing their shops during events when the streets are full of people.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come downtown and seen two thousand people with their kids downtown, and the businesses are locking their doors. I don’t get that,” she said.

Councilwoman Lara DeLaney said she was skeptical of the process in the beginning, but agreed that “there are some good ideas in here, and things we can move forward with. We are a multiplicity of interests. We’re not just one thing. We should articulate what we are and what we want to be.”

“I think there’s real hope here if we’re smart and don’t fall into some of the bad old habits we had in the past,” said commissioner Harriett Burt, with one group saying ‘we won’t,’ and another group saying ‘we don’t want that,’ and another saying ‘we can’t.’ We do need to come together and have some kind of overall vision.

We’ve got to move away from the old way of dealing with our downtown and really look at it differently, and look at it as a group, and not act like the United States Congress.”

“We need a lump of money to do these projects,” DeLaney said. “We have to invest in our city. I want our council to exhibit the political will to fund some of these improvements.”