Downtown pedestrian districts—so commonplace in Europe—have brought both charm and economic prosperity to some of America’s favorite cities. College towns including Boulder, Colorado; Madison, Wisconsin; and Burlington, Vermont have thriving car-free zones filled with cafes, restaurants, bars and specialty shops. These areas have become novel tourist destinations that stand out in contrast to many American cities, where driving and parking dominate the downtown core.
This week, the dream of bringing a car-free zone to Bend’s downtown core got a lot more in reach. A number of businesses encouraged the City of Bend to consider new emergency policies to help local restaurants and boutiques survive the coming months.
At the Bend City Council meeting Wednesday night, city staff and council members discussed allowing restaurants and retail locations expand tables and racks out into their private parking lots. Some businesses want to spread out on the sidewalk beyond their immediate storefronts, if their neighbors agree.
Perhaps the most controversial proposal was closing down NW Wall Street and NW Bond Street to cars for a few months to give businesses even more outdoor real estate. David Abbas, the city’s transportation and mobility director, presented a hybrid plan that would close off one lane of traffic downtown and still allow for some parallel parking. In addition, other areas of Bend, like NorthWest Crossing, may have their own proposals for sidewalk expansions and street closures.
Most councilors agreed to give City Manager Eric King permission—under the emergency declaration—to approve individual applications from businesses who want to branch out into their own parking lots and shared sidewalks.
However, council hesitated to turn downtown into a temporary pedestrian district. It’s more likely a majority of councilors will eventually sign on to Abbas’ hybrid option—but getting consensus among business owners may prove an insurmountable hurdle.
Councilor Bill Moseley said blocking parking and traffic on major downtown corridors could be a risk for some businesses, like furniture stores. Councilor Barb Campbell, who owns the retail store Wabi Sabi, which recently moved out of downtown Bend, expressed concern that this kind of policy might favor some businesses over others.
Restaurants
Restaurants may be the clear winner in the street-closure scenario, but this is a relative term. Not only have many dining establishments been in the red for the last two months, now these owners must adhere to pages of strict reopening guidelines, while they try to lure back their staff who may be thriving financially with the extra $600/week in unemployment they’re getting from the federal government. Further, just because these establishments are allowed have sit-down service doesn’t mean people will want to come inside.
“The conventional wisdom says that these restaurants are operating at 50% capacity,” said Ben Hemson, the City’s business advocate, at Wednesday’s meeting. “[But] I spoke with a sampling of local brew pubs… While some were approaching 50%—depending on their size and layout—many of them are more like at 20-30% capacity and that is just not really feasible to even break even, especially with limited hours and those sorts of issues.”
Gov. Kate Brown’s guidelines for restaurants and bars directs them to discontinue service at 10pm and keep 6 feet between parties.
After much discussion and debate, the Bend City Council voted 5-2 in favor of establishing a short-term program for the use of public streets and other public places to give businesses more room outside. Bend City staff are now empowered to work on it and gather data about what business are interested and what they want to do. Councilors Bill Moseley and Justin Livingston voted nay because they wanted to hear from businesses first.
“I realize timing is important, but I think it’s important to gather information about how businesses are impacted before moving forward so quickly,” Moseley said.
Will the whole thing die on the vine as it progresses through due process and bureaucratic hoops?
“My sense is that any expansion into the right-of-way on Bond/Wall would require the cooperation of a number of adjacent businesses to make it work,” Hemson told the Source in an email. “There’s a cluster on the north end of Bond that are in discussions about a proposal and another group around the Wall/Minnesota intersection with similar interest. There’s also a good push from businesses on Brooks and Tin Pan alleys for closures, at least in the late afternoon/evening hours when deliveries cease.”
Hemson said it is likely that a number of business will start expanding beyond their storefronts sooner than later. Closing streets? It could take a while.
“The challenges around getting the right equipment to ensure pedestrian, diner, and shopper safety—along with the need for some pretty significant buy-in from businesses—probably means the changes will happen incrementally,” Hemson said. “As initial projects show success I wouldn’t be surprised if it garnered more support for projects on those higher order streets.”
Both the Bend Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Bend Business Association told the Source their organization’s support the council’s decision with caveats: different points of view must be taken into consideration before closing streets.
This article appears in May 20-27, 2020.
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So glad this is being talked about. However, note that the Abbas representations are way off by the amount of space allocated. The “Existing” image needs to show much less space between parked cars and cars in driving lane. No way is there as much space as shown! And the sidewalks do not really have that much pedestrian space, either. The reality is there is barely enough room for two to walk side-by-side, and you still need to swerve around ad vending machines, trash bins, bicycle parking, and restaurant tables. Also consider winter conditions where snow reduces space even more. The proposed design would at least give more room for those snowbanks, and businesses might be more willing to clear sidewalks if there was a place to put the snow.
Thanks for writing in MCAT… Perhaps I need to make it more clear in the story that this would only be temporary, through the summer, just to get businesses going for a bit.
I live the idea of closed streets totally. How about like 11:00 am – 10 pm. This would give businesses time and space for deliveries. I love downtown Bend when the streets are closed. Walking is good for everyone. Not sure any businesses would want to be open in the street in winter anyway, would they? I for one will only dine in a restaurant that allows outdoor seating.
Closing down Wall & Bond to cars is a fantastic idea. It would help businesses (especially restaurants) to begin to recover. Even if it’s just temporary though the summer months. Maybe starting late afternoon until 11pm.