a fleet of drivers that delivers pizzas, and they say the pre-Covid delivery times of ten or fifteen minutes are more like
forty-five minutes to an hour, which adversely effects their service levels, and is frustrating for both employees and
customers.
At our pharmacy we have over a hundred customers a day. We can turn a parking spot three to four times an hour. The
Block decided after one of the Infrastructure meetings when we were “accused of being in the minority” to put a
petition out just after the barricades were removed, which were up for almost nine months, to see how many were
against it.
We had almost six hundred signatures in the one month. | understand Kristen Wilson put out a Facebook petition and
got 275 signatures “against” in a short period of time. | have been told the Nashua Telegraph put out a petition and
thousands responded and eighty percent were against.
Everyone asks why three or four restaurants are catered to and get special treatment for, at the expense of the
hundreds of non-restaurant businesses. | have talked to many of the restaurant owners and they admit it is unfair. They
admit they would be against it if it were them. All the restaurants confess they are below their normal staff levels. There
was a report in the National Association of Restaurants a few weeks ago claiming a large number of pre-Covid restaurant
employees have left the industry. The majority will be not coming back, and that will not change in the next three years.
There are almost zero customers in the extended dining areas at lunch hours. A lot of restaurants are closed for lunch.
Yet, the non-restaurants have their daytime parking spaces full of barriers and are discouraging people to come
downtown. Some restaurant customers can not find parking and they resort to restaurant options with good parking on
Amherst St, and DW Highway, and avoid downtown completely. | talked to Jake at the Flight and he does not need the
“Extended Dining”, the same with Whitney at Joanne’s Diner, Christie and Basil at Main St. Gyro, and Chris at Fratello’s.
The general manager at Peddlers Daughter said outdoor sales were lower in 2021 verses 2020. Why does JaJa Belles
take more than half a block and closes at 2PM. Why are all the restaurants blocking the parking for customers for the
barber, the jeweler , the print person, the haberdasher, the insurance man, the pharmacist, the banker, the dentist, the
financial planner, etc.
We at Wingates Pharmacy do not want any more tables or chairs or umbrellas or barriers in front of the boundaries of
our pharmacy business. We want the parking for our customers. The most disheartening and frustrating issue that ours,
and all the customers and employees of the Block have experienced, are having repeat customers, and new customers,
coming in extremely frustrated by the two lanes of traffic and the lack of parking they are accustomed to through the
years.
There are so many negatives. What is the reason for blocking our parking. What is the reason for having a major
thoroughfare like Main St. Nashua being two lanes. Why have two lanes when four lanes are tough enough with the
PAC construction with all the trucks and cranes, with the gas lines being put in, with the remodeling of the Riverfront
coming, with the new building adjacent to the High Street garage, the Bronstein project.
Since the restaurants are given extra, “free” space at no extra cost, and the non restaurants are having their space
“taken” in front of their stores for barriers and tables and blocking parking, doesn’t it make sense that we should get an
abatement of our taxes, and the restaurants should pay more.
In closing, the Block got quite an education in listening to both restaurants and non restaurants and to employees and
customers. We did not find that we “are a minority”. We found we are a well respected majority that cares about our
customers. That want to provide ease of negotiating downtown traffic. That want parking in front of our stores. We are
asking the alderman to make the right decisions that bring our great city, and hard working business owners and their
employees, a happier and healthier environment to come visit.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
