It’s too late to make changes to the Main Street Redesign. In May (two months ago), we asked to see a plan of Alternative 3 with our proposed changes - a switch to parallel parking, and a continuous canopy of street trees. Main Street for Everyone did their due diligence suggesting improvements that directly addressed this. The lowest priority? Maintaining on-street parking. Alternative 3 was selected, but many respondents were clear that their “preferred choice” didn’t exist. They wanted a design with more space for people and trees - that was the highest priority. Main Street for Everyone rallied hundreds and hundreds of people to participate in the survey. At that time, most people were just emerging from a year of COVID and had no idea of the plan. We had one month to complete the survey to vote on a design. Only one represented any significant change to address current safety and environmental concerns. Here’s the actual timing: The city presented us with three design options in April of this year (three short months ago). You don’t get to take your ball and go home before the game is done just because it’s frustrating or because you fear angering one small group of very vocal stakeholders.

This decision is too big and will impact too many for too long to reject the transformative, data-driven improvements suggested by Main Street for Everyone. The design team is still available to do the work. The deadline for finalizing 25% of the design elements is in December. Mayor David Narkewicz says it’s too late to make any changes to the Main Street redesign.

The Significant by Kyra Anderson