Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 46
| think it will benefit businesses tremendously, especially in the colder months. You have a larger
population of take out and curbside pickup, because | can’t really see anybody in November trying to sit out
on Main Street, maybe diehards but | think that’s going to impact businesses as well. And while | hope that
at that point something has changed or there’s a new dynamic or we have figured out new protections to
allow for more inside dining and these do exist. | think this is something that we can immediately do that no
only addressed the immediate need for business owners, but it may be something that we can maintain in
the future. We could have multiple types of parking spaces that maybe we color then a certain way in the
future and we leave it for parking. Maybe it’s something that you know businesses can apply for.
So | like seeing changes in response to community needs. | think there may be the likelihood that some
places are going to identify a need for longer term parking, longer than 90 minutes. | am just starting to
hear from restaurants now because they’ve only had people sitting down this past week. But Director
Cummings has been doing a really good job with doing the phone conferences and trying to maintain some
continuity of development between the different stakeholders downtown. And finally | wanted to say that it
is very gracious of the Downtown Improvement Committee to support this because their inclination is,
anybody’s inclination is, | would prefer to have revenue that | can use to support the downtown businesses.
In this case, they are doing something that is counterintuitive from that perspective and they are really
supporting downtown businesses by not collecting revenue. So | think that speaks highly of their attention
to the crisis as it is unfolding and | think this is a very piece of Legislation.
President Wilshire
OK. Anyone else? Alderman Schmidt.
Alderman Schmidt
Thank you, Madam President. This is a perfect accompaniment to the previous bill, narrowing the road but
leaving spaces for the 15-minute pickup and delivery. It’s the perfect accompaniment to it and! am so
grateful that this is brought forward. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Alderman Jette.
Alderman Jette
Yes, again if | could through you ask Attorney Bolton another question. | am keeping him busy tonight,
helping him earn his salary. As | read this Ordinance, | don’t see the part where it says that the 15-minute
parking is free. Is that necessary or did | miss something there?
Attorney Bolton
If you look in the paragraph it says “now therefore be it resolved’ in the third line down about 2/3 of the
way across, the 15-minute parking is free.
Alderman Jette
OK. We are talking about 20-016, correct?
Attorney Bolton
Yes, the first four paragraphs start of “whereas”. The fifth paragraph starts off “now therefore be it
resolved”.
