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Have you used it lately? And more significantly, has anyone observed an increase in people biking on it? Does it draw in new people biking? And how does it function for kids? There was no "walk and roll to school day" hoopla earlier this month, and it had seemed like some might be keyed to the Greenway.
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| Is there a plan for post-construction assessment? |
Governor's Cup Expanding or Moving?
Others will have more detail on whether the Governor's Cup is moving or is expanding, but details in a Hearing Notice at the Historic Landmarks Commission show that the old Allan Bros. space downtown on Liberty Street should not be vacant long and strongly suggest the Governor's Cup is going into it.
Some have cited the coffee shop's closing as a sign that our downtown is ill. But Allan Bros has been closing shops around the valley. In Eugene a third-wave roaster, Farmers Union Roaster, recently went in the old Allan Bros shop in 5th Street downtown, and they seem to be plenty busy. In that instance, and likely here in Salem also, the problem may have more more to do with a tired brand than problems of downtown economics or politics. Allan Bros did not seem be able to bring themselves out of a 1980s model of coffee retailing, and the market has moved on to newer styles in coffee shops. There are other ingredients also, and it's true the Starbucks on Chemeketa and Liberty closed, but it's not like Allan Bros elsewhere have been thriving. That's surely the main factor.
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| Here's an old photo of the upper part of the building. (More discussion of it here) |
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| Dennison Building in Downtown Historic District |
7 comments:
Why does the City insist on calling it a Greenway and not a Bikeway? I think that branding will hinder getting to the outcome of more use by cyclists. It reminds me of their insistence, for a time, of referring to a proposed Climate Action Plan as an "Environmental Action Plan." The City sometimes tries to avoid calling things what they are in a effort to deflect criticism. Is that the case here?
RE: "greenway" - I think the idea was to conform to the usage in Portland. Greenway is thought to be more inclusive of all road users, not something for "special interests," which "bicycle boulevard" might be (mis)read as. In PDX, if I recall, this designation also made it possible to assign stormwater funding sources, since they also included rain gardens sometimes that had a dual-purpose as a traffic calming feature.
So it is, in a way, as you say, to deflect criticism. But there has been a national move to this nomenclature, and it is defensible.
Here's a discussion of the term at People/Places for Bikes.
I was just reading the AASHTO bike guidance, they are still bound to "bicycle path" and "~lane." They have a separate multi-use infra guide.
I take issue with the term bike path/lane/blvd for a lot of the same reasons the Places for Bikes article discusses. Plus the denotative failure of the term of "bicycle," as tricycles (especially recumbents) gain popularity amongst boomers. But I digress...
I commute on the greenway, and I see almost every mode on it. I've read this discussion elsewhere, talking about "medium speed lanes," "micro-mobility," and "human-scale," but nothing seems to float to the top. I think "bike lane" (path, whatever) is likely to become the generic term, much like teflon or aspirin.
(If we are talking "-lanes," how about "smile lane"?!)
And here's the Staff Report on the Denison building. It recommends approval:
"At the time of designation in 2001 the building was documented as the Dennison Building and was evaluated as historic noncontributing due to the alterations to the primary façade in the 1960s (Attachment B). In 2006,the primary façade of the Denison Building was substantially restored and the status was changed to historic contributing (Attachment B1). In 2018, research completed as part of the Downtown Historic District update confirmed that the spelled of Dennison was incorrect and should have been Denison."
A tattoo parlor went in the Allan Bros. space, so no Governor's Cup there, at least for now!
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