The City Council has hired a consulting firm to come up with a new plan for Main Avenue. They came up with four choices, all with common features:
Traffic on Main is reduced to one lane in each direction, loading zones would be gone, sidewalks would curve out into the street and would be widened for restaurant patios, parking would be decreased by 20, 50 or 100% and all of these choices cost lots of money!
In the city survey people have been asked to pick from the four plans. Here is another option:
From College to 14th Street, Durango has four traffic lanes in each direction. If you remove two, traffic is forced to Camino del Rio, Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues.
We were all happy to see restaurants have bump-outs during the pandemic. That time is now over. It is not the city’s responsibility to provide space for businesses on a public sidewalk.
Over 30,000 county residents visit downtown Durango. Cutting parking and creating congestion will make that difficult. Tourists will be discouraged from visiting. If there are no tourists, most of the restaurants and shops downtown will not survive.
Most importantly, Durango is a real town and we have a real downtown. Main Avenue has been a vibrant business street since its inception. People like it. We are neither Disneyland nor a fake “downtown” shopping center.
Leaving historic Main Avenue as it has been for over 100 years is the best option.
Jackson Clark
Durango
