Graham, Donna
From: Jeff Bois
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2022 11:47 AM
To: Board of Aldermen; O'Brien, Michael (Alderman)
Ce: Jeff Bois; Jeff Bois
Subject: Support for Expanded outdoor dining
CAUTION: This email came from outside of the organization. Do not click links/open attachments if source 1s
unknown.
TO BOA-
Hello- | am writing in favor of expanded outdoor dining. | ama fourth generation Nashua resident that works
downtown. I've pasted below a note that | sent out on behalf of my small business located downtown off East Pear! St,
Stella Blu. It captures most of my sentiments on the matter, but | will add a few points.
1.) Lappreciate the efforts being put into this matter and the thoughtfulness of the public officials tasked with the
analysis and decision-making. Some of the treatment | am seeing online by certain public officials is horrible and does
not reflect Nashua residents at large. These individuals no doubt fill their time watching conspiracy-theory based
YouTube videos and Facebook-shaming everyone that does not agree with them. This does not adequately represent
the will of the people. The half a million people that joined us for outdoor dining over the last few years better
represents what people want. Actions speak louder than words!
2.) Certain individuals pushing their own agendas through Facebook is leading to misinformation, negativity and
generally making your job more difficult. It's a shame it's not all adults in the room...it's embarrassing.
3.) The will of the people. Due to the nature of my business, | have interacted with tens of thousands of individuals over
the last two years. While people hate traffic (obviously), | see an enormous amount of support for the expanded
outdoor dining. In fact, almost every customer this winter has asked about it. Summertime seems short in NH so these
warm summer nights relaxing outside are so precious to them/us. | travelled downtown over 600 times in the last two
years...the traffic is not that bad and frankly there will always be traffic during rush hour. Have you tried travelling down
Amherst St or DW Highway during rush hour?!? Nashua is a CITY not a town.
4.) What is downtown. There is a general misunderstanding in what "downtown" means in this proposal. People are
mostly focused on Main Street. The side streets have much less sidewalk than Main St, so the thought that all
restaurants have always had plenty of outdoor seating is inaccurate. Obviously, establishments with more frontage and
larger sidewalks (on Main St) have much more seating. The largest and most well-known restaurants will be fine, and
many are building owners not just business owners, it is the new true small businesses we should be continuing to
attract as a city.
5.) Jobs. There may be a misunderstanding of the true job growth this creates. Restaurants are the largest employers
(as an industry) downtown...period. Restaurants require a lot of workers. For example, if a clothing store increases their
sales by 30% they can likely get away with hiring zero or maybe one more part-time employee. If a restaurant increases
their sales by 30% it can require many more employees to accomplish their goals. We are literally cooking, cleaning,
prepping, serving thousands of people per week. It takes a lot of employees to do so.
Also, locally owned independent restaurants downtown are much more likely to employ Nashua residents. This means
that the money goes back into Nashua, and often into downtown where many of our employees live and work.
Restaurant jobs are great for seasonal employees (kids back from college), second shift jobs for parents and high-
schoolers, flexible schedules for single parents, part-time work for teenagers, etc...
