Here’s a fun one, when the local government decided to make my street pedestrian only a local business owner made an absolute spectacle of opposing it. There were sit-ins in town hall, threats of a hunger strike, the storefront was full of flyers, there were attempts to get the press to claim the proposal had widespread opposition. The idea was that who would show up to that street if they had to park somewhere else, right? The business would die and storeowners on that street would be out of a job in a year.
Thing happened anyway, the entire rest of the town is a business desert. Every shop, supermarket and pub moved within half a block of the pedestrian area because of course who would NOT hang out in the nice, safe spot that looks good and has enough room to walk and sit outside for a drink.
Every now and then I walk in front of the dumb place and think of how umuch more valuable it is and how ironic and unfair the whole thing turned out to be. I am pretty sure that the undeniable reality of it all has caused zero self-reflection. I hope I’m wrong.
I bet they pat themselves on the back every time they think about it, because their good business sense helped them survive the terror of the pedestrian only area.
The idea was that who would show up to that street if they had to park somewhere else, right?
So here’s the thing, functionally that’s how it works downtown already. The convenient parking spaces fill up instantly and stay full forever, so your ass is parking a few blocks away and walking up anyway.
Here’s a fun one, when the local government decided to make my street pedestrian only a local business owner made an absolute spectacle of opposing it. There were sit-ins in town hall, threats of a hunger strike, the storefront was full of flyers, there were attempts to get the press to claim the proposal had widespread opposition. The idea was that who would show up to that street if they had to park somewhere else, right? The business would die and storeowners on that street would be out of a job in a year.
Thing happened anyway, the entire rest of the town is a business desert. Every shop, supermarket and pub moved within half a block of the pedestrian area because of course who would NOT hang out in the nice, safe spot that looks good and has enough room to walk and sit outside for a drink.
Every now and then I walk in front of the dumb place and think of how umuch more valuable it is and how ironic and unfair the whole thing turned out to be. I am pretty sure that the undeniable reality of it all has caused zero self-reflection. I hope I’m wrong.
I bet they pat themselves on the back every time they think about it, because their good business sense helped them survive the terror of the pedestrian only area.
So here’s the thing, functionally that’s how it works downtown already. The convenient parking spaces fill up instantly and stay full forever, so your ass is parking a few blocks away and walking up anyway.