Sweet Sixteen Cafe is coming before the planning board next week to get approved for outdoor seating in the front of its and Chet's storefronts. They are also looking for the city to relocate the one city owned bench in front to make room for it.
I feel it is a great idea as Main St needs more activity on it during the summer. Connecting the inside and outside realms of an establishment is one way to do that. One of my favorite things about Lewiston is all of the outdoor seating at various businesses. It makes you take note and give pause to consider trying the places out. It also makes it obvious that they are open. It makes it obvious that other people are finding a reason to stop.
These older facades on Main St. make space at a premium on the side walk. One way to increase the space is to use 2-3 of the parking spots as temporary "parklets" for chairs and tables. These temporary structures can me moved when the weather turns cold for plowing etc or in the future if, god forbid, DT becomes a busy, busy place again. I say lets kick it up a notch and do something progressive.
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"What unites us is more important than what divides us." Welcome to the Lockport NY discussion blog. An idea grown out of the old LUSJ forums aimed at giving a permanent home to discussions on renewal, investment, growth and preservation toward creating a great place to live. Topics pertaining to the city and town of Lockport NY, headlines from the Lockport Journal/Buffalo News along with diverging views on them are welcomed and encouraged. If you have your own Lockport-centric blog, let me know. I'll happily link to it and participate. Want a topic addressed and opened for comment? Send me an email. -MJ
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29 comments:
Good idea!
Lookn' good!
So if we do for one.Do we do for all.What would be the subjective thinking everyone wants it.But then there would be no parking at all,or sidewalk access to the 500.000 visitors to this city. I can see Rotten Ink wanting outside tattoing for its buisness.If you do for one you do for all.Unless you have connections.
typical "Lockport Loser" comment.."you'll have to do it for everybody"..
take a big S--t on everything why don't ya..
."oh....I'm so afraid of everything"..."no parking for visitors"....boo hooo....
You make it for food establishments. I'd love to see the activity of one of these per block. It may even bring all those "parkers" you mention.
There are more than enough surface lots in the city for people to park at. Which is part of the problem, not the solution. 500 open spots with no other reason to go to them except that they exist does nothing. Give people a reason to want to go somewhere and they will find parking.
yes..more creative ideas..that's what we need !
Nay-sayers...Denny's is calling your name!
this will not go over good with the spires crowd, like the anon above
i hope this is made official, even more-so when placed in the context of one business that was ran out of town because old people didn't like young people drinking coffee out in the open air
I think it is a terrible idea! Having seating inches away from traffic is a safety issue, and a lawsuit waiting to happen.
and like the anon right above as well
Is having sidewalks inches away from traffic a safety issue? Are people using crosswalks a safety issue?
Actually parked cars, bump outs, trees etc actually increase safety because it slows drivers down and makes them pay more attention. When they do happen they then happen at lower speeds causing less damage.
Where are the worst accidents seen around here? The intersection of 78 and 93. Wide open views, wide lanes, higher speeds and the resulting auto-pilots behind the wheels.
Safety is nothing a few concrete planters could not address. Feel free to find me the instances of accidents involving these. They are probably as common as a seating area abutting a parking lot.
MJ said...
"Is having sidewalks inches away from traffic a safety issue?"
Well, right now there several feet (6' perhaps) between the sidewalk and traffic, and 12+feet between the business in question and the traffic in the street. Lets be realistic, MJ
I too think the traffic, at 30 miles per hour, would be too close to seated patrons to be safe.
"Safety is nothing a few concrete planters could not address. Feel free to find me the instances of accidents involving these. They are probably as common as a seating area abutting a parking lot."-MJ
Main Street is not a parking lot!
"Main Street is not a parking lot!" Of coarse its not but I bet the accident frequency or hitting patios next to travel lanes is close. We are talking a single lane 25mph zone with stop lights every block. One can not get much slower than that. And there is no separation from the sidewalks prior to corners which is what I was referring too.
The people in picture above do not look like they are in peril. If it can work on the streets of San Francisco it can work on our small commercial strip. Walk the streets of Seoul Korea or Sao Paulo Brazil and tell me people and cars can't coexist. Look at a myriad of pictures from Europe and tell me they can't coexist.
Safe is the lack of risk. There is no such thing as safety. Is there risk here? Of coarse. We see people driving through Walmart store fronts now and then but it's rare and should not leave us fearing everything in life.
Let's be realistic. Anyone could use their judgement to sit there or not. Images like the one above show that many would. Give them the choice.
so you admit to speeding through the city anon?
Hey, Hitler, most of Lockport has a speed limit of 30 miles per hour, except a few blocks on Main Street, or other obscure areas. Even so, most cops are not going to pull people over for going a few miles per hour over or under the speed limit. Although, I have known people who have been charged with going under the speed limit in Niagara County, 15 miles per hour under the 55 mph speed limit. :-)
Everyone speeds. We naturally adapt to the road we are on. Without speed limits a majority of people will find a reasonable speed for the road based on its design. (of coarse there are outliers that go way above or possibly even below)
If you design a road where people feel natural doing 75 etc they will tend to do it. Even if you post 55 or 45. It then becomes known as a speed trap because we are all watching our speedometers trying to eek out the max we can without getting pulled over.
The less things next to/in the road, the wider the sight lines and lanes etc the faster people will tend to go. Traffic engineers will call those things safety while they only tell our brain it's OK to go faster and that we have to pay less attention.
Pedestrians, parked cars, street side trees, etc cause us all to naturally slow down. Remove these things and of coarse people will speed up. 25 on Main would (and does) feel like a death march with nothing going on. But add all that activity people will slow down pay more attention and take note of what is going on. Maybe even desire to come back instead of just driving through as fast as possible.
Excuse me while I take a big DUMP on every new idea and anyone who is willing to think outside of the current "Lockport Comfort Zone".
GEEEEEEEZUSS...what a bunch of "fuddy-duddy's"!!!
regardless you are saying that in a busy area with a lot of foot traffic, the problem is that people will be driving too fast for the road conditions
I don't completely understand that sentence.
I was saying in busy dense areas people naturally drive slower. And if they are still going too fast: Clock 'em, ticket 'em and put some extra $$ in the coffers.
Also I am not saying safety should not be addressed but it should not prohibit a use such as this.
mj, i was pointing out the irony that someone claimed that it would not be safe because they drove too fast, meanwhile the 'too fast' was already above the posted speed limit, and that they wouldn't let any change in their environment affect how they drove
in other words, distilled down, anon was claiming that "it won't be safe, because i'll drive too fast for it to be safe"
it was not a response to what you were saying
"...in other words, distilled down, anon was claiming that "it won't be safe, because i'll drive too fast for it to be safe"..."-Hitler
No, I think it would still be unsafe to have customers seated only inches from traffic passing by at 25 mph, as if that 5 mph would make a huge difference!
Anonymous..11:36 back from the concert and all juiced up wanting to pick a fight with everyone.
Have you ever agreed with any post?
Try the cafe..sit right at the edge and see if it's too scary for you. Then let someone who's not a whimpering coward sit where you were sitting and see what his opinion is.
post 15 miles an hr on main street. problem solved
go back to bed..problem resolved...
This argument is absurd.
How 'bout Elmwood Avenue? What's it's primary draw in the better weather? Sitting outside and having everything from a meal, a drink or a great ice cream sundae.
There are also a whole bunch of bars which have outdoor licences if they mind their "p's and q's" - literally.
Maybe those who are so against this idea have never been to Buffalo?
no..those that are so against this idea are against anything that might represent progress.
Same bunch..Same old story....
You're right Moe - I don't know why I keep thinking they'll acquire a brain, or at least some common sense.
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