HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/7/2023 Item 6a, Sexton, R. (2)
From:Ronald Sexton <
To:Francis, Emily
Cc:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Re: Parking & Bike Lane Recommendations
Hi Emily,
Thank you for the insights below. Appreciate the clarity and challenges.
First, I highly recommend scaling back on climate action.
“Road diets” are not the answer. Cars are a fact of life, especially in California regardless if gas, hybrid or EV. New homes
across SLO are being built with two car garages. We need free-ways to move from point A to B. Example, I’ve grown to
like roundabouts in low traffic areas in SLO, this helps reduced GHG and congestion. Road diets increase congestion.
Further, 40% of US population is deemed overweight, and that % is growing! Yes, they need to exercise. The population
is also aging and less inclined to walk or ride downtown as their mental and physical dexterity decline. Today, I don’t
witness these people using sidewalks or bike lanes for trips to downtown SLO.
However, a bike / walking path infrastructure / arteries to downtown or around SLO would be a plus. These would snake
into the city and not shared by cars. The Bay Area has the many like this. I used the Guadalupe trail which ran from
South San Jose to Mountain View. NO CARS!
WRT parking, I would have hoped the two new hotels built on prime parking lots would have contributed to funding
addition parking. Either through the bed or occupancy tax or a condition to build the hotels. Is this a source of funding
for the new parking structure or parking fee relief?
Appreciate whatever can be done and thanks for listening!
Have a great evening and wishing for a positive outcome at tomorrow’s council meeting.
Kind Regards
Ron Sexton
On Nov 6, 2023, at 7:09 PM, Francis, Emily <EFrancis@slocity.org> wrote:
Ron and Cathy,
Thank you for taking the time to write in about these issues. Our city has prioritized climate
action as a major city goal. The only way we’ll meet our ambitious reductions in GHGs is
through a focus on mode shift to transit, carpool, bikes, pedestrians, and trollies. The bike
infrastructure and road diets are an important step towards achieving those goals and getting
more folks out and comfortable on our roads and sidewalks.
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I hear the concerns of businesses and residents who are feeling the stressors of higher costs
and the impact to visitors. While it brought me no joy to vote for higher rates, they were the rates
mandated by the bank in order to qualify for the bond on the parking structure. I’m glad to see
we have a bit of flexibility due to over realizing revenues, we’re still faced with very limited
options. As it stands, if we return the one hour free to all visitors in place of the park local
program, we are unable to meet our debt obligations in 7 years. I've attached a chart from page
154 of the agenda packet that evaluates the cost of various options. You can ignore the
highlighting, that’s from my note taking.
One concern I have is making sure we use the right tool at the right time to protect our
businesses while maintaining a responsible management of the city budget.
I’m hopeful we can have a productive conversation Tuesday night about how to best balance
the concerns of businesses and residents while keeping an eye towards our debt management.
Thank you again for your observations and if you have any additional thoughts, I welcome a
continued discussion. I hope you'll give our amazing businesses another chance.
Take care,
Emily
From: Ronald Sexton <ronsexton3504@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2023 4:33 PM
To: E-mail Council Website <emailcouncil@slocity.org>; Stewart, Erica A <estewart@slocity.org>;
jmarx@clocity.org; Francis, Emily <EFrancis@slocity.org>; Pease, Andy <apease@slocity.org>;
mshoreman@slocity.org
Cc: Ronald Sexton <ronsexton3504@gmail.com>
Subject: Parking & Bike Lane Recommendations
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Dear City Council and Mayor,
What will be done to fix downtown and make downtown far more inviting?
Our family has lived in SLO for 27 years. We used to do a great deal of business downtown living only
three miles away: ample parking, intuitive parking meters, “who cares” parking fees, and co-existence
with cyclists, pedestrians, commercial deliveries, and motorists across three lanes of traffic.
Today we rarely go downtown. Downtown SLO is absolutely un-inviting:
1) Greatly limited parking spots (hotels, commercial parking, outside dining (ex: Giuseppe’s).
2) Two lanes have greatly increased traffic and congestion, especially when delivery trucks take up a
lane!
3) The bike lanes are unsafe and NOT needed!
4) Homelessness continues to be a pain - Homelessness is top priority for my property taxes, yet to see
any progress!
The bike lanes are scary and unsafe! I’ve been a cyclist all my life. I commuted to and from San Jose to
Santa Clara on my bike for years. Downtown San Jose did the same as SLO removing a traffic lane and
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adding a bike lane. I cannot tell you how many times I was almost hit by a car or saw someone
almost hit. Drivers do NOT see cyclists when marking a right turn as cyclists are hidden from view behind
parked cars. The other safety issue is pedestrians walking in the bike lane and/or pedestrians walking in
front of cyclists. I will not ride my bike downtown, ever.
Recommendations to help the situation:
- STOP all consolidating traffic lane projects and STOP adding bike lanes resulting in reduced parking!
- Example: Johnson already had a huge bike lane before the lane consolidation project!!!! Total waste of
taxpayer money.
- Example: Lincoln removed parking for neighbors and those working downtown making minimum
wage.
- Ask: Add a bike line on Tank Farm between Broad and Higuera. Too much 50 mph traffic with narrow
bike lanes.
- Roll back parking fees to 2019
- Reduce the hours requiring parking fees to 2019, (9:00 AM - 5:30 PM)
- Minimum one - two hours of free parking at all garages.
- Reduce the number of commercial parking spots
- Eliminate dining extensions on the street taking up precious parking slots
Parking is FREE everywhere else in SLO, and parking is especially free for on-line shopping, both without
the headaches of downtown. I'd hate to see downtown become a ghost down of empty storefronts and
revolving close out sales.
You must do something to help the downtown businesses, employees and customers to make
downtown far more inviting and for people to stay downtown. The parking fee (tax) is not inviting, nor
the bike lanes, lake of parking, lane removals, commercial parking/deliveries, etc.....
Note: My wife and I spent 3 hours in downtown Paso today (11/6/23). We had lunch and shopped
(including Ambience). Parking was ONLY $2.25 with an intuitive payment system (Flowbird).
Thanks for your consideration.
Ron & Cathy Sexton
965 Goldenrod Lane
SLO CA 93401
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