Originally Posted by
Bunty
Thanks. It's upsetting to me that the city of Stillwater appears headed toward making Block 34 an outdoor gathering place development. Well, this sure isn't California or Florida. I can't see it being used for intended purposes much of the time, due to unpleasant weather. According to the local paper, the city has a plan to be done in phases which is to install green space/play space, small cafe/hospitality area, a stage, underground utilities for food trucks and farmers market. Total cost estimated to do this is $4,776,000 with annual maintenance $100,000 to $150,000. I wonder if artificial turf would be laid to assure year round green.
To me it makes better and more efficient sense for the city to sell Block 34 to a private developer to turn it into a dual residential and business use, like businesses on ground level, housing on upper levels. The city ought to be open for such a use. It complains about sales tax revenues being down. Such a development would increase the tax base from property tax and more sales taxes from new businesses. But no, one of the city council members said, "In larger cities than Stillwater, it makes sense to pack people downtown. Stillwater is not one of those places. It is an easy no for me." But common sense tells me that downtown businesses would welcome more new residents living downtown as a source for more customers, which I bet would be more steady ones. Downtown restaurants and bars are having trouble growing beyond what little is already established there as evidenced by the closing of the Pink Parrot Bar. I'd commonly walk to downtown, if I lived closer there.
That city councilor needs to recognize that downtown Stillwater is different from other small towns by the fact that OSU with its 24,000 students and 5000+ employees is not too far away for a bike ride or walk. I think affordable downtown housing would be attractive for some of those thousands of people. More people walking or biking would cut down on traffic congestion. A major reason why people from smaller towns hate Stillwater is from having to put up with all its heavy traffic in the streets. If you are from smaller towns, like Cushing or Perry, you're not used to it. Opportunities that can reduce some of that traffic should not be missed. Of course, the big problem too difficult to overcome may be that no private developer wants to tackle a major project in downtown Stillwater.
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