Graham, Donna
From: wii
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2021 1:14 PM
To: Wilshire, Lori
Cc: Board of Aldermen; Graham, Donna
Subject: Seasonal Road Closures and Elimination of On Street Parking for Outdoor Dining
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Dear Board Members,
It has come to my attention that the city is discussing continuing to close
roads and eliminate on-street parking during certain months for a 3 year
period ending Nov 2024.
| am the owner of the League of NH Craftsmen Nashua Fine Craft Gallery
located at 98 Main Street. We have been in this location for over 11
years. We sell fine craft created by 250 local artists and draw shoppers
and diners to downtown Nashua from across southern NH and northern
MA.
When in-door dining was restricted in the summer of 2019 | was happy to
see the accommodations made by the city to expand the existing out door
dining. | look out my front door to the outdoor dining area for Casa Vieja
and there were many people out there much of the time. The atmosphere
was festive and people were just happy to be out.
With indoor dining restrictions eliminated this year, that was NOT the
case. It was RARE that there were more people dining out doors than
could have been accommodated with the tables set up on the
sidewalk. Most of the tables were EMPTY. Rather then being festive, it
was kind of gloomy. | do not believe believe the downtown restaurants
need this accommodation any longer. Outdoor dining can still be
available, but should be limited to the sidewalk area as it was prior to
summer 2019.
Many shoppers have been avoiding downtown. | know this because they
tell us that is the case when they finally do come in. How many purchases
did they make at the mall or online while they were avoiding
downtown? Some people will call us and have us ship to them, and they
live in Nashua! Were they to come in and browse they might buy more
than the one thing they had us ship to them, and they might visit more
downtown businesses while they were here. It is not just the
parking. Traffic gets snarled more easily and the barriers with all the
discordant colors and designs are distracting to drivers. | think it would be
important to take into consideration the affects on all downtown
businesses, not just the restaurants.
