Board of Aldermen 10-13-2020 Page 30
President Wilshire
Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Lopez
| just wanted to comment on some observations that were made earlier that | kind of want to make sure
(audio cuts out) efficiently here. We were talking about how many single parking spaces were being added
by the parking garage versus how many were lost. Now we don’t need a parking study to tell us that if we
put a building on a parking lot, we lose those parking spaces. And we don’t’ need it to tell us that if we
raise that building, we don’t lose those parking spaces. And it is important to remember that if we did lose
those parking spaces, then we have to get those parking spaces from somewhere. So what was being told
to us from Economic Development was that they were going to get the parking from the parking garage,
which is staking spaces away that (audio cuts). The businesses that benefited from having parking across
the lot from them, there is a business that has its own parking lot that was objecting strenuously, they
weren't going to live or die by that particular change. They were, in fact, much more concerned about the
impact construction might have on them and they resolved those concerns.
There was another business which didn’t benefit from having free parking it needed it, the same way that
other restaurants and other businesses need parking because you don’t make any money or generate any
revenue if people can’t park in proximity to your location. It wasn’t like a want or a wish it was an absolutely
for that business to survive, especially given the climate where you know now we are dealing with COVID-
19 and closing down restaurants. And that business also rightly pointed out that they have contributed a
huge amount of revenue to non-profit organizations over the years (audio cuts out) of their presence
downtown. So it is important to consider the economic impact of taking away what they need. And | think
that with the planning that we were able to recognize a compromise that actually improves the situation by
adding new residents right across the street from them and maintaining their parking.
So there’s a lot of ways that this project actually improves the situation there other than detracting from it.
There was also a non-profit organization that was concerned about where employees would park (audio
cuts out) first and foremost by not giving away those parking spaces in order to provide a new housing
program. So those parking lots that we were talking about, they are not just individual units that we are
going and being added in simple arithmetic it was a much more dynamic that was at work. And they found
a good solution. | was very pessimistic towards this when it first began, | myself was more focused on
affordable housing, not there, not with that footprint and not in that particular area but | did think it was
(audio cuts out) for workforce housing. Now that opportunity still exists assuming you have the building.
You have a developer who is willing to build a building then things may change over time or over the years,
but this project we get a developer developing a building. He has the opportunity to succeed. And it may
be some future days workforce housing, if that’s the way things turn. In the meantime we can focus our
efforts on expanding affordable housing and low income housing in areas and scenarios that are
appropriate for them. | don’t think it’s ever an appropriate solution to try to move the poor by shoring them
into an extremely inconvenient spot just because you are not willing to look for other options. We have
other parts of the City that need development. We have other buildings that really need to be repurposed
and reimagined. | know Elm Street has been brought up but there’s also buildings on Main, there’s
buildings on Spruce Street.
We do need to look at affordable housing but we should be putting our effort and our time into places that
will yield results that will build quality housing and effective scenario for the people that are going to take it.
So | think the housing project and the subsequent dispute over whether or not there’s parking has
immensely distracted from the other parts of this and | think they need to be considered in total. | think it
was commented that perhaps the Nashua public wouldn’t vote for the Performing Arts Center if it were
introduced again. | don’t know that that’s the case. | think first and foremost personally, I’m not really that
interested in the Performing Arts Venue, I’m really interested in an economic anchor downtown, because
that’s what we were actually trying to do in the first place. We lost Alec’s Shoe Store. We have never been
