The Boulevard Neighborhood Association Board of Directors stand with the 75 downtown businesses objecting to the changes Next Step proponents are pushing for, despite lack of support from businesses most directly impacted.
Chief among these is the reduction of Main Avenue parking places. Lack of parking is dismissed as mere perception by staff, with the blessing of some city councilors, who value tourism and potential growth over preservation of Durango neighborhoods.
Those east of the downtown continue to shoulder this burden, while the city approves dense development without adequate infrastructure to support it. City parking lots sit half-empty because the city refuses to do what many tourist communities have done for decades: Offer free parking for minimum wage workers and small businesses who keep Durango’s tourism economy afloat. Central to the city’s position on parking: “We’re not willing to give up potential revenue.”
For an estimated $12 million-plus, Next Step benefits a few at the expense of many businesses, offices on East Second Avenue and neighborhoods to the east.
Several parking consultants have been hired in the last decade to state the obvious. Rather than address Durango’s parking needs, those cheerleading Next Step are doing the opposite: Removing more downtown parking mostly for the sake of Disneyfication.
A lot of things need fixing in Durango. The downtown is not one of them.
Boulevard Neighborhood Association Board of Directors: Kristen Bushnell Philips, Mike Todt, Tom Darnell, Russ Kimble, Karen Brucoli Anesi, Joann and Jim Hards
Durango
