Craig Saling
May 16 at 11:09 PM ·
As a real generational local and someone who processes credit card transactions for 41 businesses along State Street versus Coast Village, I have a front-row seat to our local economic reality, and the numbers are alarming. Today—despite being a sunny Saturday featuring the farmers market and local dog and community events celebrating smurf blue streets—the vast majority of these businesses saw a 15% to 20% drop in revenue compared to the previous ten Saturdays. Out of 41 businesses, only one saw an increase (a marginal $300).
It is time to reopen State Street to cars. If we don't restore vehicular traffic and feed these businesses the customer volume they need, I am genuinely concerned that none of them will survive another year. Even worse, landlords will end up demolishing their buildings in favor of hotels and short-term Airbnbs. This isn't the market for Section 8. And without thriving small businesses that can pay $24-$65 an hour after tips or retail commissions, there is no market for workforce housing either.
We have always had a creative economy that hinges on parades and a few other events each year providing the financial infusion to get through the entire year. We are losing that, and we need to fix it.
I am partnered with every single SMB in the fact that I live on an average transaction of .05% and a per customer transaction of .04 cents. All I care about is the number of qualified people that show up at the door to buy something and if you got a bike or arrived on foot chances are you are not going to spend more than $5 a month.
The "Trunk and Family" Factor
Big-Ticket and Bulk Items: You cannot strap a dining room table, a large television, or a week's worth of family groceries to a bicycle. Businesses that sell large, heavy, or highly expensive physical items absolutely depend on cars.
The Car Multiplier: A SUV or car carrying a family of four or five who comes downtown for lunch, ice cream, and some shopping is going to drop significantly more money in a single afternoon than a solo cyclist stopping for a quick coffee.
The Commuter and Tourist: People driving in from the suburbs, neighboring towns, or tourists coming off the highway need a place to put their car. If they can't see the fun and park easily, they will just bypass the area entirely and go somewhere like Coast Village where the logistics are easier.
Beyond the basic logistics of carrying purchases, there are four other glaring realities we are ignoring by keeping the street closed:
We are disenfranchising the elderly and disabled (including both or my parents). By closing State Street to cars, we have essentially hung a "Do Not Enter" sign for anyone with mobility issues. Seniors cannot park three blocks away in a city structure and hike in, nor are they riding bicycles. They rely on close-proximity parking or being dropped off at the door. We are cutting off an entire demographic with high disposable income.
The promenade is an e-bike freeway, not a pedestrian utopia. Families with toddlers and older shoppers are actually deterred from strolling down the middle of the street because they are constantly dodging high-speed e-bikes. Reintroducing cars brings back structured traffic rules, designated crosswalks, and a much safer environment for actual window-shoppers.
Retail cannot rely solely on 75-degree weather. Bicycles and walking are fair-weather transport. When it rains, or during a heatwave, pedestrian and bike traffic plummets to near zero. Cars provide the climate-controlled transport that keeps businesses alive and customers arriving during off-weather days.
We are losing the Uber/Lyft tourist crowd. Tourists staying at beachfront hotels or in the Funk Zone rely heavily on rideshares. If an Uber cannot drop a wealthy tourist directly in front of a high-end restaurant or boutique on State Street, that tourist will simply redirect the driver to Coast Village or somewhere else where they can be dropped at the door. Convenience wins, and right now, State Street is profoundly inconvenient.
And frankly if you want to see my own local company survive share this, always buy local, and vote for anyone else than this last group of idiots in city council.