HomeMy WebLinkAbout061521 DODD, KEVA - 08.1
June 15, 2021
To: Hon. Renee Morgan
Hon. Newell Arnerich
Hon. Dave Fong
Hon. Robert Storer
Hon. Karen Stepper
Re: Council Meeting, Agenda Item 8
Dear Honorable Mayor and Danville City Council members,
Thank you for your tireless efforts to keep our local economy going during the course of the Covid-19
pandemic, March 2020 to date. Providing grants, opening up parklets for dining, street signs and social
media to support local businesses have all made a great impact in shoring up what may have been our
towns economic disaster. Our community for the first time since I can remember is supporting local:
dining and shopping consistently. There is not a day that passes, that my customers comment on how
wonderful it is to be downtown and how lively our downtown has become. I hear very few negative
remarks about outdoor dining and even fewer about the parklets. Yes, members of the city council, you
have built it and they have come, so why would you consider reversing all the time, money and energy
you have spent to unwind this good fortune stemming from such a difficult period?
It only makes sense to take this foundation and use it as the platform to fine tune and improve what has
been established. If you take the opportunity to listen to your downtown businesses and the residents
of our community who are taking advantage of our downtown, you may discover how these changes are
making a dynamic impact for restaurants, retailers and services, all who are making up for great losses
from 2020 and 2021. With the lifting of restrictions, I caution you to believe any of us are back to
normal yet, and most are not ready to dine indoors for some time. At the very least, I urge you to keep
the restaurant parklets up until the end of the year, as encourage by our Governor, Gavin Newson.
Furthermore, I would encourage you to consider these parklets as a part of your downtown master plan.
Robert Gibbs, ASLA has advised on over 500 urban centers and is a charter member of Congress for the
New Urbanism states, is to implement modern traffic-calming measures, an attractive public
realm and realistic codes to enable walkability and cross shopping. We have the beginnings of what
could become everything you have been working towards over these many years, and to strive to keep
Danville as a thriving living local community.
I urge you to keep the parklets intact as you develop ways to make a few of them more aesthetically
pleasing and regulated for safety.
Thank you,
Keva Dodd
Owner, Whim House