I would argue the shutting down of Castro to cars has hurt businesses that are not restaurants. It is also a waste during rain season! [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]

Can we talk about the real issue here? If rent wasn't so absurdly high on Castro Street, you would get more small businesses moving in. It's because the rent is so expensive that no one wants to open up a storefront on Castro anymore especially with the low foot traffic. I am a local small business owner myself and would love to have a storefront on Castro street, but I can't afford the $6-8k a month in rent. Work with the property owners to lower the rent and more businesses will naturally fill in the vacancies.

Agreed, I stopped going there after the car street parking was removed. It's just too difficult for a family or worse yet a family with a child that has a disability in my case. To the powers that be they keep iterating that everyone should just bike there or not use cars, sigh, I here the same argument over and over in the bay area as they continue to discriminate against families with little ones and those that have no option but to drive.

Agree with others that having the street closed is a pain in the A.

But if they are going to close the street, they should at least police it. It's supposed to be a no-bikes zone, but people are riding bikes in there all the time. It's not pleasant walking through there knowing that any moment you might have some dude riding a bike up your A while he's instead looking at his phone.

Look around all of Mountain View and there are quite a bit of vacant or empty storefronts fenced in and in some cases awaiting redevelopment for years (the old Chevy’s site on El Camino, for example). It’s getting to be a bit much - the solutions need to get out of committees, and into action. Sure, some of it can be chalked up to bad business models (a store selling gimmicky sugar and sugar water concoctions downtown… no idea why that didn’t work out in the 2020s… ;) or transitions like the pedestrian mall… but we have got to either get viable businesses into these places and get things moving again, or realize the businesses aren’t coming back and redevelop. And don’t put it all on taxpayers… owners need to realize that high rent but no tenant equals zero rent, and figure out rates that are actually viable.

If a lack of wheelchair-accessible parking is a problem, the city should add more handicapped spots in the off-street lots. Removing the ~20 curbside parking spots didn't cause a single real problem.

If a lack of wheelchair-accessible parking is a problem, the city should add more handicapped spots in the off-street lots. Complaining about the loss of ~20 curbside parking spots is a distraction.

Someone should talk to a landlord and find out why rent is still so high despite all the vacancies.

When friends recently treated me to celebrate a professional accomplishment, I chose a restaurant on University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto, even though I live really close to downtown MV.

Driving to PA was easy, navigating PA was intuitive and convenient, and I didn't notice the sound of vehicles as we ate. I'll go back before I go to downtown MV.

This is all 100% true. When choosing an area to have lunch, downtown MV didn't even cross my mind -- and I used to really love downtown MV, before city leaders blocked off access.

MV City leaders say Castro at Central will eventually be permanently closed -- they haven't said why, in the interim, they allow traffic flowing from downtown MV and onto Central, but do not allow traffic from Central and onto Evelyn Avenue.

City leaders say Castro at Central will eventually be permanently closed due to Caltrain Electrification, but they haven't said why they didn't explore creating an underpass for vehicles in any meaningful way.

City leaders have had their thumb on the scale the entire time through this supposedly transparent process, producing unscientific "polls", and messaging designed to support their pre-determined decisions.

Respectfully, I wish city leaders had meaningful front-facing retail business experience. I think if that were the case, they would have quickly realized that we live in a car culture, where any barriers to convenience, and that includes access, quickly reduce the bottom line.

I acknowledge that downtown MV was experiencing issues before the pandemic, and inflation and economic uncertainty has only excacerbated challenges facing downtown MV businesses.

At the same time, the way to grow retail businesses, in general, is to ensure areas are clean and well lit, with adequate parking, and easy access.

It's not rocket science. Of course, the above is not as "sexy" as creating a "european style pedestrian mall".

Why have an outdoor mall if it's empty?

There are vacancies in many apartment complexes too but they go unnoticed. These days the corporate landlords use vacancies as a way of pumping up profits. It enables them to charge as high of a rent as possible in the occupied units. They get info on what is the exact max amount to charge from a service like realpage. See Web Link

As far as some of the vacant properties go, they are being planned for redevelopment. For example the Chevy's on El Cmaino has a vacant liquor store next to it. Both properties can be redeveloped together for a new project. It takes time to get to the point of doing the new project.

I don't know what parallel universe Billy is living in. The Castro pedestrian mall is full of people every time I go there. And city leaders were very clear about the reasons to not make a vehicle underpass. It would be a $100M boondoggle.

Now that Google is actually starting to close offices in Mountain View,
You are not ever going to see the kind of recovery like we did in 2008.

I warned you all for years about it.

Now it is happening

I also agree that the move to shut down Castro to cars permanently is the last straw for downtown's post-pandemic economy. After all, why would consumers come back to downtown MV especially when there are many choices of restaurants and shops in the neighboring cities that are more accessible in terms of traffic flow and parking? Considering the number of population in downtown of merely 3-4 blocks is far insufficient to support its business, we need to reopen Castro St to create a more convenient and accessible dining and shopping environment that is appealing to most consumers.

It saddens me deeply to witness an entire generation that seems unable to fathom the beauty and vitality of moving around our cities without relying solely on their cars. It's a disheartening reality that we've become trapped in our own metal and glass cocoons, oblivious to the joy of exploring our neighborhoods on foot. This car-centric mindset not only isolates us from our surroundings but perpetuates congestion and pollution, harming both our cities and our planet. We must break free from this dependence and reclaim the soul of our urban landscapes. Let's champion walkable communities, invest in public transportation, and create a future where the simple act of walking a few blocks is seen as an opportunity to rediscover the essence and spirit of our cities.

I agree with those who point out that non-restaurant businesses have essentially been sacrificed by the City Council.

The street closures were lifted in PA and LA, and both downtowns bounced back nicely from COVID. MV blew it. The only time downtown is crowded now is mealtime, but mornings or afternoons the place is deserted. Pity the dry goods and service businesses that were sacrificed.

Keeping Castro closed guarantees lower customer demand. Running a business is a numbers game and every proprietor knew their number intimately. At least we could have kept the bus service running down Castro on what will otherwise be a pedestrian mall, to generate some uptick in customer demand. (A bus running down Castro also cuts down on the parking nightmare, another important reason folks like me choose LA or PA at this time for a quality experience if I'm hosting friends.)

Plus, the very sidewalks and streets on Castro need steam cleaning badly. The sidewalk at the busiest corner, Villa and Castro, is filthy. How does goop and spills on the sidewalk ever draw restaurant customers given the physical infrastructure's high yuck factor? Hint: Stay away from the parking garage stairwells if you don't want to lose your appetite during a night out! The concrete there is actually oily, not to mention the urine.

I don't think that having a pedestrian mall along Castro street necessarily hurts the businesses that arent' restaurants, You have to consider that all these buildings back up on parking lots where most of their customers parked all along. There are ways to walk to the front doors of the businesses from the parking lots, and some already have back doors facing the parking lots. Sure, it affects different types of businesses differently, but the main thing that has changed is all the online shopping that people are doing. Retail businesses hurt from that more than not having cars cutting through Castro Street to reach Central Expressway.

There is a major change occuring for the city.

Many luxury units are vacant and those businesses will not disclose the data, because investors will either redeem their funds or sell the shares of stock.

Apples latest gizmo is a nothing burger, too expensive and doesn't actually do anything worth it.

AI is going to collapse, look at the lawyers that are getting sanctioned because they used ChatGPT to write a pleading, with it full of errors. You cannot transfer any judgement by a human with an AI. It is not even close to operational.

So the IT market is burned out all of the future values, and it is reaching the satuaration point, no market growth, and cost cutting is required to keep in business.

The ckity is in the heart of the problem, and it is likley going to become the silicon valley ghost town. Unless it adjusts to a new market, with far less tech workers living here.

Oh wait - why would I go to Down Town MV (= a Castro Street version, or any version?)
It is a 10 minute walk. It still has a wonderful nationally famous regional theater company (the Performing Arts Center also supports other local companies). It's a 10 minute walk.
It has a two decade old restaurant I really like (Cascal). TONIGHT's DINNER - yum!
It has a nice 'falafel joint" I like (Mediterranean Grill House)
It has a couple other higher end Middle Eastern 'table cloth' places
Several variants of Asian foods / higher and lower prices / different regions
It is a 10 minute Pleasant walk.

Castro is deserted on most mornings and afternoons because the restaurants don't open during those hours. Many restaurants, especially the Asian places, have a break between 2pm-5pm and there are only a couple places that open for breakfast. This was the case even before the pandemic.

I'm a staffer at East West Bookshop, and also a 25 year resident of Mountain View. We're a non-restaurant business downtown, and we are HUGELY in support of Castro being pedestrian. So are our customers. When the City polled the public about closing 3 blocks of Castro Street to traffic, I think it was upwards of 90% of the public saying they loved it this way.

Honestly, I and most of my friends never went to Castro to just enjoy the street until the street closed to cars. We see MANY more people in our store since Castro became pedestrian-only than before. There's TONS of free parking (thank you, City!), and you can spend hours on the street strolling without car fumes, people-watching, our eating at one of about 40 (wow) restaurants. This is common throughout Europe, and one of the reasons people find Europe so charming. It's not so common in America, and people are voting with their feet.

I appreciate that the city is exploring ways to incentivize faster turnarounds for the empty storefronts; that's something that will add to the fun of being downtown.

We are happy with how business is going for East West. A HUGE thank you to locals for shopping so enthusiastically with local merchants during covid. It was a wonderful support. I honestly feel like the downtown is thriving because of the policies and energy of so many people (residents, City, various committee, Chamber, businesses). I haven't been involved much in local government till recently. Most of us have no idea how hard people are working behind the scenes to make things a little nicer for all of us. Really, thanks to everyone...