Downtown

By Curtis Cole

We deserve a thriving downtown and people-friendly businesses throughout the City.

Retail sales have been on a downward trend for many years. Do we want to change that? The businesses need more foot traffic, perhaps three times as much as we have today. How do we make that happen?

We need to plan for the long term and do it right. A new City Hall and Civic Center must meet our needs for the next 50 years. The Civic Center should be an extension of - and draw people to - the downtown.

The appropriate visioning process for our downtown involves educating our leaders and citizens, engaging all of the interested parties, listening to every diverse view, studying best practices from other cities, and collaborating to decide what kind of downtown we want. The result should be a precise plan detailing the size and style of buildings appropriate for Los Altos and identifying the types of retail and office uses that we want to see.

We should design our downtown and civic center for people, not cars.

Successful business districts will contribute significant dollars to our schools and city every year. This supports our city services.

I can work with city staff and downtown business leaders to make the City business-friendly and an attractive site for new retailers.