This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

We Want Your Help with Downtown

Improvements

Many of you have heard about the City of Watsonville's ongoing efforts to improve Downtown.  In 2009 and 2010 we converted several vacant lots into attractive new pocket parks and parking lots.  In 2012 and 2013 we added twinkle lights in our trees and new banners on our light poles.  As part of hat same project, we rebuilt our underground infrastructure for our streetlights on Main Street - providing the opportunity for increased capacity for broadband in Downtown.  And while we have done all of this wonderful work, Downtown continues to struggle.  

In 2009, the Gottschalks Corporation went bankrupt and with the failure of the chain came the loss of our only Downtown anchor store.  The City and the property owner have been working hard to find an adequate replacement.  We have had some nibbles, and even a few big bites - but so far no new store has emerged.  Unfortunately, due to the economic problems we are currently experiencing, retailers are having a difficult time growing - and as a result we have seen this store remain empty.  We continue to work to fill the store - but we have heard from several of the potential tenants that the Highway 152 and the one-way streets in Downtown are part of the problem.

Highway 152

In 2011, City staff asked CalTrans to consider relinquishing a small area of unused Right-of-Way back to the City.  They refused, but offered to relinquish all of 152 in the Watsonville City Limits.  Since then, the City and CalTrans have been taking the steps required by state law to move forward with this relinquishment.  The City and State are discussing the terms of the relinquishment and we are hopeful that we can make a deal that would allow us to take control of the streets Downtown.

Of course, this presents our community with an opportunity to change the course of Downtown.  Earlier this year, we formed a group of stakeholders that have been discussing he best practice for Downtown areas.  We will be making recommendations on what direction we should take - but we also want to hear from you.  We are partnering with the Santa Cruz Business Council and with a local start-up called Civinomics to host a online discussion.  We will also be surveying the Downtown Business Community next week.  So with that in mind - I hope you will all visit our online discussion of Downtown at Civinomics.  You can visit our effort directly by clicking the link below.   Thank you in advance for keeping the discussion positive and for helping us out!

https://civinomics.com/workshop/4K0t/improve-downtown-watsonville
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?