Main Street is home to numerous restaurants that have been happy to make use of the additional seating space provided to them by the concrete barriers, however, Main Street is also home to other businesses that do not benefit from these lane closures. Banks, jewelry stores, pharmacies, yoga studios, clothing boutiques, attorneys, barber shops, and other small businesses, all feel the financial effects of the loss of frontage parking, and the loss of downtown visitors steered to alternative retail locations such as Amherst Street, the Daniel Webster Highway, and other locations outside Nashua, due to fears of traffic congestion and parking difficulty. While restaurants are understandably in support of the barriers, the majority of businesses located on Main Street are not restaurants.

In 2009, the Service Advisory Committee made up of downtown merchants, City officials and property owners developed a comprehensive plan for improving Downtown. The plan is called the Cultivating Vitality Report (CVR) and was presented to the Planning and Economic Development Committee and the Infrastructure Committee in November 2010 and it is available for review on the city’s website. The first section of this report outlines numerous parking issues. The report states that “Ease of parking and an abundance of spaces are essential in a vibrant Downtown. Providing adequate, convenient, and safe parking is critical to creating an environment that will attract shoppers, diners, and workers to Downtown Nashua.” Parking issues are the reason why many consumers choose to go to other areas to do their shopping.

The CVR included a survey of downtown businesses and consumers. Out of 106 business responses, only 18 identified as restaurants, or roughly 17.5%. Making a sweeping change to the fabric of downtown to benefit less than 20% of the businesses downtown at the expense of the other 80% does not make financial sense. These 106 businesses were asked about their biggest challenges, with 36% of the businesses reporting “Insufficient Parking” as their biggest concern, more than double the response rate of any other issue. When asked “Where do your customers typically park?”, “On the street” was the answer nearly 60% of the time, and when asked “How far do your customers have to park from your business?” they answered “Near Entry” nearly 40% of the time. When consumers were asked where they park when they come downtown, “On the Street” was answered nearly 60% of the time. While the city does have some street parking easily accessible to these businesses, there is not enough and this is cited as a reason in the report that consumers choose to patronize other places instead of downtown, with nearly half of consumer responses citing parking as the reason they choose to shop somewhere else.

The CVR detailed numerous ways that increased parking revenue would result in an increase in funding for the Downtown Parking Benefit District. This plan would make the maintenance of the Downtown district funded by the revenue provided by Downtown parking, so that visitors and thriving commerce would pay for its upkeep, making it more attractive and more desirable for more visitors. With those visitors no longer coming to Downtown, however, the city is losing large amounts of money in uncollected parking revenue that would be used to fund maintenance to sidewalks, landscaping, and other beautification projects that make our Downtown so attractive, forcing us to either not perform those projects or take the money from something else.

The report states that “Parking is an extremely important priority for all successful downtowns. In order to entice people to drive Downtown, parking must be convenient, adequate, and safe. Parking cannot be perceived to be a barrier; otherwise, potential customers will choose to shop, dine, and live elsewhere”. The report goes on to say “It is critically important for the city of Nashua to maximize the scarce parking resources located downtown”. A lot of work went into this plan and into improving Nashua’s vibrant downtown. It would be a shame to undo all of that work with this proposal and move Nashua backwards for three more years.

The seizure of 50% of Main Street’s travel lanes to use for outdoor seating is unsustainable. There is a sentiment that Main Street should not be used as a thoroughfare, however, commuters can’t help that there are only 3 bridges that cross the Nashua River, so drivers need to be able to traverse Main Street whether city planners like it or not, unless new bridged roads are under consideration. Asking drivers to avoid Main St by diverting onto Bridge St and increase their travel distance by 260% is not a solution, especially when that route leads back to Main Street at Railroad Square, one of the most heavily congested intersections in the downtown area, and would further overwhelm the already congested East Hollis Street.

Congestion along Main Street is bad enough when the road is fully open and downtown suffers from a lack of adequate, accessible parking solutions. This plan would reduce the number of handicap accessible parking spaces along Main Street, making it more difficult for residents of different ability levels to take advantage of Main Street shopping and dining. The stopped traffic also presents a less than ideal dining experience; with tables essentially adjacent to travel lanes, diners have to endure vehicle exhaust and engine noise, loud music, drivers smoking, and more. These outdoor areas are also only available during good weather. The report suggests that vehicle congestion and loud noise discourages sidewalk dining. This is evident, as the outdoor dining areas were rarely utilized except on only the busiest of nights, and only if the restaurants had adequate staff to accommodate them. We should not be eliminating what little street parking there is to turn it into empty tables and unused space because diners choose to escape these negative experiences by either going elsewhere or sitting indoors now that they’re allowed to without restriction..

Due to the length and impact of this legislation, the right thing to do is table this proposal until after the next board begins its term. The people of Nashua voted one month ago to send seven new voices to the Board of Aldermen, and as this proposal would last for the duration of the incoming board’s term and beyond, and it will be the incoming board that has to deal with its ramifications, it should be the incoming board that decides the best course forward.

Main Street restaurants already have the ability to offer outdoor seating without expanding into the travel lanes, and many had been doing so before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This proposal is not to allow outdoor seating, as that already is allowed. This proposal is only about the unsightly concrete barriers and the closure of travel lanes along one of Nashua’s most traveled roads. While the increased outdoor seating space was likely a saving grace for some restaurants at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when they were forced to limit their seating capacity, those capacity limits are no longer in place, so this is an obsolete solution to a problem that no longer exists.

Alex Comeau is alderman-elect for Nashua’s Ward 6. You may contact Comeau at info@comeau4nashua.com.