Fixing the real problem

The City is spending more than $400K to install temporary bulb-outs at two intersections on lower Main Avenue to judge their efficacy for two months. My first question is, why are they spending this money when there are two newer neighborhoods that have bulb-outs existing right now in the flesh: Three Springs and Twin Buttes?

I suggest City staff go to these bulb-outs and see for themselves the tire marks where vehicles have driven over them by cutting corners too tight. There are many tire marks on all the bulb-outs creating an unsafe situation. This action would have cost a couple of dollars in gas rather than $400K.

My next question is, what is driving the “Next Step” to modernize downtown sidewalks and intersections when the existing infrastructure has worked well for decades? I suggest City staff go downtown at any time and witness families walking up and down main street with no problem. You will also notice older couples doing the same thing with no problem either. I maintain that you should not fix something that doesn’t need fixing, especially when the fix will cost tens of millions of dollars if not more.

My third question is, why not take those tens of millions of dollars plus the in-lieu parking fees collected from Colorado Bank and other businesses that were to be earmarked for a future parking structure and do just that – build a parking structure? The parking structure has been discussed for decades and never acted upon. Now is the time to act. This would solve the problem of city, county and downtown business employees parking on Third Avenue and streets east of Third and encumbering those property owners with a problem they didn’t create. This would fix a problem that has needed fixing for decades.

– Gerald Weis, Durango