Letter: Remove parklets and restore downtown parking
Photo of downtown Paso Robles parklet on June 24, 2021.
To the editor,
When downtown recently, I was shocked at the shabby parklets. What happened?
It is my understanding that restaurants want the city to make parklets permanent. No, the city should not allow this. They have not shown they can manage nor maintain temporary parklets and should not be allowed to have permanent parklets. Our city street sweepers can keep parking spaces cleaner.
Now that restaurants have 100% seating inside, it appears many of the parklets have been abandoned. The red covers are filthy and hanging off the barriers put up around the parklets to keep diners safe. If I recall the city pays $8100.00 per month for these barriers.
How could the restaurants treat free rental property (for restaurants) this way? Just because they can seat people inside does not mean they are not responsible for maintaining the parklets they wanted outside. They do reflect what your business maybe looks like on the inside. I assume these businesses are your livelihood?
The vendors that set up twice a week by the park are much cleaner. They respect their space and patrons. The majority are not from the Paso Robles area.
Bring back the 69 parking spaces for patrons, residents and remove the eyesore of parklets. Bring back our welcoming charming downtown which use to be the heart of Paso Robles and open up the streets again. Now that inside dining is at 100%, parklets are no longer needed.
Respectfully,
Martha Wilson
Paso Robles
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