Downtown Bus Gets Closer to the Cliff

The bus taking us down the road towards the Complete Streets project has just lost its brakes.

Last night, the Concord City Council voted to accept the Complete Streets report. The vote to accept rather then approve has very little significance for our city council as we have seen when they "accepted" but didn’t approve the Re-Thinking Main Street report that is being used as the basis for the Complete Streets grant. 

While I understand the Complete Streets project is going to happen, that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it or that I am comfortable with its odds for success. Just last night, questions were asked relating to Concord Steam's ability to provide the heat for the snow melt system for the sidewalks and the cost to the city. And questions were asked what happens if Concord Steam runs into financial difficulties down the road and the city needs to find an alternate source to heat the streets. Where’s the money for that?

Lots of questions ... no answers ... and even fewer guarantees.

And if we can’t pin down costs associated with heated sidewalks, a streetscape element that is in the Complete Streets grant and has been budgeted for, is there even the remotest of chances that we will see heated streets? 

The construction timetable is up in the air. The original schedule had construction going through Dec. 15 of each year. We know that can’t happen, what with holiday sales. So it now appears construction will stop in the beginning of November. In two construction seasons we lose three months. So instead of work potentially wrapping up in early winter 2014, it now looks like construction will continue into 2015.

The timeline continues to be a huge issue. Many realize that before going forward and messing around with parking and parking fees on Main Street and in the city’s garages that a parking management plan should be commissioned. 

But now we are told that time and funding are at a premium. There isn’t funding for a complete parking study. And there isn’t time, as the administration needs to come back to the city council in March and April for design approvals.

We have been told that the Complete streets project should be transformative. That we should think big and bold. But our city engineer tells us that we need to come back down to earth. That we need to balance big and bold with the fiscal realities of this project.

Engineering tells us that when they come back to the council in the spring that it won’t so much look like an a la carte menu to pick and choose from, rather it will give the council an idea of the direction the design will be taking.

What about the economic impact of this project? As I’ve stated before you can pave the streets and sidewalks in gold and it won’t impact the assessments of the buildings downtown by one penny. The only component of this project that I believe will generate more sales for our downtown merchants - heated streets and sidewalks - is now in jeopardy.

This project is a done deal and it has been a done deal since the day the city council ‘accepted’ the Rethinking Main Street report. So buckle your seat belts and hope when the bus finally stops tumbling down that cliff there is still something left of our Main Street.