Street Closing part two

Dear Downtown Constituents,

Regarding Friday Night Live street closings, I support the police department in shutting down streets to maintain pedestrian safety.

I do not know which streets specifically they will or will not be shutting down. My understanding is that this Friday night will be the first test of how this works. I will be down there to observe.

My recommendation is that we see how this works and then have a large group meeting sometime next week to discuss

Jeff Scrima

According to the Webster’s dictionary the definition of Main Street is: The principal street of a small city or town. That got me thinking about the “heart”; (an organ that supplies blood and oxygen to all parts of the body), of downtown Waukesha, or any downtown for that matter. What happens when someone has a heart attack? The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute say that a heart attack occurs when blood flow to a section of heart muscle becomes blocked. If the flow of blood isn’t restored quickly, the section of the heart muscle becomes damaged from lack of oxygen and begins to die.

So why I am giving you a refresher course in Biology 101? To express my concern of street closures in the “heart” of Waukesha…the downtown. There is talk of closing Main Street on Friday nights. The reason? To accommodate the crowds of people that are coming down to listen to the many bands that are placed on various streets throughout the downtown known as Freeman Friday Night Live.

I think it is great that this event has become so successful that the organizers feel the need to close Main Street. As a business owner on West Main Street, I would like to keep the blood pumping throughout the entire “heart”. There are a lot of different parts to this organ that need to work properly in order to keep the heart healthy. To those in charge and to any future business owners, PLEASE take into consideration how closing streets is just like blocking an artery. It would be a shame to have a heart attack when it could be prevented.

Katie Stewart
Katydids

Hello fellow colleagues and team members of downtown Waukesha,

I heard via the grapevine that Main Street will be closed for all Friday Night Lives. It is most unfortunate as a taxpayer, B.I.D. member, resident, and landlord to several downtown businesses that I have to find out through the grapevine. I feel this is a joint effort and all should have been notified of the street closing before a decision had been made.

I love Friday Night Live and have no objection to the event at all. I actually think it is a great event for all involved, not only the owners of all businesses but the Waukesha community as well. It is a nice way to showcase the downtown.

What I am concerned about is no one was notified of the decision. It is not for only the Merchant Association to decide. Not all persons downtown are members of the Merchant Association. What about persons who reside downtown in the apartments? What about the businesses on the West End? With WI avenue closed and persons coming from Milwaukee it would be a challenge to get through. We worked too long and hard to remove the Spring House and open up the downtown and now we want to close it again. What if the Art Crawls start asking to close streets? Let’s have meetings that all are made aware of and can voice their opinions too.

It is common sense if a band or duo is booked to entertain in front of stores that people will congregate. My suggestion is to block off all parking on Main St. (we have plenty of parking structures to accommodate) and still keep Main St. open for traffic.

We still have the stigma of “I can’t navigate around in Waukesha” Let’s get rid of this stigma and leave streets open to the public. Let’s make it fair for all who have a common interest in the downtown.

From the outside looking in I don’t see team players in the downtown. We should all be looking out for everyone’s interest. I see pettiness and bickering and jealousy. Let’s stop and get along. The downtown is thriving and we should all hope to keep it that way. There will be times decisions are made and not all will agree.

If we all are in this for the same cause and work as a team, the downtown will flourish even more. Isn’t this everyone’s main goal? How cool that people talk about downtown Waukesha and how great it is. I’ve been down here for 20 years and this is a first. Kudos to Downtown!

Thanks everyone for listening to me.

Carol LePien

I think it is the police's choice to close the streets for safety. However, I do support the LePien Option. Give up street parking but keep the street open.