4 ms·

If you want a walkable downtown, you need to keep the stores alive, which means they need revenue. Especially true in a place like Palo Alto with its crazy rent

If you want a walkable downtown, you need to keep the stores alive, which means they need revenue. Especially true in a place like Palo Alto with its crazy rent prices.

bluGill 7y ago
IF you want a walkable downtown you need people to have a reason to walk. Once someone is in their car it isn't a big deal to get back in my car to drive to the next place - you see this all the time in strip malls where people drive to the next store. Keeping people from getting into the car in the first place is key. That means you need to focus downtown first on the people who live there. Outsiders who don't live downtown are welcome to come too, but if you make their needs the focus you kill downtown.
- village-idiot 7y ago
  Car shoppers are the least valuable shoppers by far. They spend less and they demand more public spending in their support. You can downvote all you want, but it's been researched. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2012/12/cyclists-and-pedestrians-can-end-spending-more-each-month-drivers/4066/ https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2012/12/cyclists-and-... https://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/study-shows-people-who-walk-and-bike-main-streets-spend-40-percent-more-people-who-drive.html https://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/study-shows-people-w... https://www.bishopstonsociety.org.uk/bishopston/amenities/1155-pedestrians-spend-more https://www.bishopstonsociety.org.uk/bishopston/amenities/11...
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    "Car shoppers are the least valuable shoppers by far. They spend less" Hmm...sounds like a good justification for owning a car - I can't give it up, otherwise I would spend too much on other stuff!
- cjensen 7y ago
  I won't disagree with your ideas in general because I just don't know. But in the case of Palo Alto, this isn't true. Parking is just hard enough to find that people generally do walk once parked. And there aren't enough people in downtown to keep it alive without the outsiders.
  - bluGill 7y ago
    I've never been to Palo Alto, but I'm going to guess that it is another town that goes to bed early. Busy during business hours and sporting events (and other large venus that bring in people), dead otherwise. People already downtown for work stay downtown for lunch, but they do all their non-lunch activities elsewhere if possible. (using the court house is only possible downtown...)
    - bradknowles 7y ago
      Palo Alto is a town where Millionaires complain about being treated like undesirables, because they don't make as much money as the vast numbers of people who have hundreds of millions of dollars, or billions. And so the "just millionaires" become the new downtrodden and homeless. At least, in their own minds. You wanna talk about "Reality Distortion Effect"?
    - cjensen 7y ago
      There's a lot of places like you describe :-) Palo Alto is oddly not one of them. I don't know why PA is so unusual, but it is. Might be the safety. Might be the disposable income. Might be the lack of mainstream-style shopping and dining areas.

If you want a walkable downtown, you need to keep the stores alive, which means they need revenue. Especially true in a place like Palo Alto with its crazy rent prices.

bluGill 7y ago

IF you want a walkable downtown you need people to have a reason to walk. Once someone is in their car it isn't a big deal to get back in my car to drive to the next place - you see this all the time in strip malls where people drive to the next store. Keeping people from getting into the car in the first place is key. That means you need to focus downtown first on the people who live there. Outsiders who don't live downtown are welcome to come too, but if you make their needs the focus you kill downtown.

village-idiot 7y ago
Car shoppers are the least valuable shoppers by far. They spend less and they demand more public spending in their support. You can downvote all you want, but it's been researched. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2012/12/cyclists-and-pedestrians-can-end-spending-more-each-month-drivers/4066/ https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2012/12/cyclists-and-... https://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/study-shows-people-who-walk-and-bike-main-streets-spend-40-percent-more-people-who-drive.html https://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/study-shows-people-w... https://www.bishopstonsociety.org.uk/bishopston/amenities/1155-pedestrians-spend-more https://www.bishopstonsociety.org.uk/bishopston/amenities/11...
- perl4ever 7y ago
  "Car shoppers are the least valuable shoppers by far. They spend less" Hmm...sounds like a good justification for owning a car - I can't give it up, otherwise I would spend too much on other stuff!
cjensen 7y ago
I won't disagree with your ideas in general because I just don't know. But in the case of Palo Alto, this isn't true. Parking is just hard enough to find that people generally do walk once parked. And there aren't enough people in downtown to keep it alive without the outsiders.
- bluGill 7y ago
  I've never been to Palo Alto, but I'm going to guess that it is another town that goes to bed early. Busy during business hours and sporting events (and other large venus that bring in people), dead otherwise. People already downtown for work stay downtown for lunch, but they do all their non-lunch activities elsewhere if possible. (using the court house is only possible downtown...)
  - bradknowles 7y ago
    Palo Alto is a town where Millionaires complain about being treated like undesirables, because they don't make as much money as the vast numbers of people who have hundreds of millions of dollars, or billions. And so the "just millionaires" become the new downtrodden and homeless. At least, in their own minds. You wanna talk about "Reality Distortion Effect"?
  - cjensen 7y ago
    There's a lot of places like you describe :-) Palo Alto is oddly not one of them. I don't know why PA is so unusual, but it is. Might be the safety. Might be the disposable income. Might be the lack of mainstream-style shopping and dining areas.