In response to last week’s article “City promotes downtown vision,” we would like to present a case for turning a portion of Castro Street into a permanent walking street. The section between Evelyn and California streets is perfect for this.
Many restaurants along Castro Street use parking spaces to offer outside dining which can be an enjoyable experience. It would be nice to dine in this setting without the noise and smells of nearby traffic.
We expect that, given the opportunity, more restaurants would offer outside dining. Many evenings the sidewalks along Castro Street are very crowded by pedestrians, servers attending to outside customers, and customers perusing menus or waiting to be seated. Imagine the enjoyment of casually strolling down the middle of the street avoiding this sidewalk congestion.
Some might argue that parking is needed on Castro Street. The present parking configuration and restaurants using spaces for outside dining limit the number of parking spaces. Side street parking, parking lots and garages will provide enough spaces to accommodate the relatively small number of eliminated spaces.
Many cities have converted a downtown street to a walking street. Generally they are nicely bricked, clean, safe and a joy to experience. Recently we rode a light rail train from our daughter’s home 30 miles to Old Town Denver, Colo., for an enjoyable evening of outdoor dining and shopping along their walking-only street.
Such a conversion on Castro Street would provide an environment unique on the Peninsula and would attract many visitors. Mountain View could become a dining and shopping destination with visitors arriving via Caltrain and light rail from other cities on the Peninsula.
Rerouting the 20,000 cars that drive on Castro Street daily is a major issue to be addressed. Other cities have achieved success, so we are confident our Mountain View city engineers could do as well.
We encourage Mountain View city planners, the mayor and City Council to consider as part of their planning the conversion of part of Castro Street to a walking street.
Chuck and Cookie Henderson live on Aldean Avenue.
