Graham, Donna
From: Kerry Baxte
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2022 8:51 AM
To: Board of Aldermen
Subject: Main Street Barriers
CAUTION: This email came from outside of the organization. Do not click links/open attachments if source is unknown.
From:
Kerry Baxter
31 Harris Street
Nashua, NH
Good morning,
| wish to express my support for expanded outdoor dining, but | DO NOT support placing barriers which reduce the
travel lanes on Main Street.
Our First Responder leaders have indicated publicly that permanent lane restrictions on Main Street impact their
response times in emergencies. That in and of itself should be reason enough to seek a different approach to expanded
outdoor dining options. Thus far that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Additionally, the placement of barriers decreased the amount of available parking. Parking has consistently been a
complaint among both residents and businesses downtown. Whether perceived or not, it continues to be a topic of
discussion and parking options should be added, not removed.
Placing barriers only benefits the restaurants, which by the way have decreased their operating hours. Many are not
open Mondays and or Tuesdays and many remain closed for several hours on the days they do open for business.
Let’s not forget the intent of the original objective of barriers on Main Street. It was to allow restaurants to operate at
closer to their usual capacity because of indoor dining restrictions during the pandemic. Mission accomplished for that
time period. Now we are back to “normal” so the City should look to expand outdoor dining without closing lanes on
Main Street.
Thank you,
Kerry Baxter
Sent from my iPad
