Love it or not, Kent motorists have become used to avoiding part of Franklin Avenue for years.
The road has been partially closed from Erie Street to Main Street for almost half the year since 2022, when the city established an Outdoor Seating Area in that space.
Per city ordinance, the closure was effective from the first Saturday in May...
Read moreKent claims to be a walkable city; whether it is or is not is debatable. The same can be said, probably more strongly, about the ‘bike-friendliness’ of Kent. DORA seems to be much of the same: Kent wants to be thought of in a certain way, but either does not really consider how to achieve the goal beyond the theoretical or perhaps simply wants to appear DORA-friendly (pedestrian-friendly; bike-friendly).
One might ask if the actual purpose of DORA is achieved by closing a single street: “create an outdoor public ‘park’ space” only works, it might seem, for those businesses along the closed road; “assist downtown businesses” is a rather vague goal in itself, is it not? If it means to provide traffic-free egress for people on foot, again, it only assists those businesses at the closed street. If it means provide an area for people to sit and drink/eat, again one might ask, are people really going to purchase bev/food somewhere else and walk to the closed-road DORA area?
Regardless, if the overall desire is for vehicle-free zones for people to eat, drink, sit, walk, etc., the obvious thing to do is to prohibit parking on all the DORA streets throughout Kent. Kent has a parking garage. Of course, that puts a burden on those (many, I’d guess) who do not walk to walk much of any distance, and even a cyclist, cycling (etc.) would become a major issue and hazard, so much more enforcement (hint: ban all electric vehicles, viz., scooters, bikes, etc.).
But my guess is that DORA just sounds nice, so that’s why most signed on to it. In reality, is it worth it? Only Kent business owners (rather than individual business data) can respond.