Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 46
President Wilshire
Alderman Klee.
Alderman Klee
Thank you, Madam President. | want to echo much of what Alderman Clemons said, especially about the
barriers. The issue that! would have with us not putting money aside, this year we were able to do it
because of CARES money and soon. So we were able to use that money that we didn’t have. Ithad not
been ’appropriated” or “budgeted” or whatever. | slightly disagree with, “we’ve already taken the money
therefore we should spend it”. | don’t necessarily believe in that, but in this particular case, | think that it’s
good. | think that it’s necessary. | believe that this is something we are going to continue year after year. |
think it made downtown quite easy to move around. Everybody | talked to absolutely loved it. We had a
hard time getting used to some of the traffic patterns. | will agree that in terms of noise downtown is not all
that conducive. We had people thatwere literally going up and down the streets, | don’t know for what
reason, but in the end this is good for busines, it's good for downtown Nashua. | think we should put this
money aside as if we had budgeted it. | mean obviously we came up with this idea after basically the
budget had gone through. So we used the CARES money for it. If we don’t budget it then | think we are
not being fiscally responsible because we are going to have to take it from somewhere else sometime
down the road. So for that reason | cannot supportthis motion.
President Wilshire
Alderman Lopez?
Alderman Lopez
Yeah, | just wanted to also express my support for the downtown barriers. That is the number one thing
that businesses downtown have asked for us to continue. There is a lot of interest and enthusiasm for it.
And as Alderman Clemons says, it really did re-shape the downtown into a much better communal space
particularly in the areas where there’s multiple restaurants and they are all collectively having outdoor
dining, maybe a couple of them have some outdoor music. It also creates a space for people who aren’t
necessarily engaged in that particular scene can pleasantly walk and be involved in downtown, listen to
music, and feel like they are included. So for that | think it’s a lot for the City’s morale at a time wnen we
really needed it.
| think next year when we are looking at people coming back out, we really, really want to encourage that
behavior to continue. Because we can have restaurants all just clam back up and go back to worrying
about their own space all by themselves or we can take this opportunity to have a vibrant downtown that is
interactive and works together and shares a population and a commitment to that group. So | want to see
that continue and | want to see that sense of comradery that the outdoor dining has created. And | know
businesses really, really do too. So for that, |am unwavering my support for it.
With regards to the Riverfront Project, | have never been the most vocally enthusiastic supporter of the
Riverfront Project because | just really never understood the vision of it, particulary when all the trees were
wiped outlast year. | just couldn’t understand why we were doing that to a Riverfront. But over the summer
the grass is growing in, Nashua Area Kayak Exploration Destination has been much, much more active.
People have been out using and enjoying the Riverfront. And as the Mayor and Lori have said, you can
see it so much better and more clearly, | think that’s also very good for our downtown community and our
downtown climate. The area where the improvements are, if | understand correctly, is actually Ward 3.
But that area has had a lot of new housing being putin. Ithas a potential use for people taking walks.
We started the whole green scooter, bicycles project last year and then we had to stop it this year, but | thin
all of those things are going to come into play next year wnen we need themto. Because next year we
are going to really want to see an economic return to vitality downtown. We are really going to want to see
