Dear Menlo Park City Council,
My name is Karsten Iwers, and my family owns Harvest Furniture. We were located at 639 Santa Cruz Avenue (the closed block). We closed our store after 24 years on Santa Cruz Avenue in March of 2023.
Although I no longer have a stake in this decision, I would like to express my opinion.
The street closure was devastating for our business. After thriving on Santa Cruz Avenue for over two decades, we were forced to close our store because it was difficult for our customers to access our establishment. All visibility had been removed and driveby traffic was reduced to less than 50%.
I am an experienced merchant with multiple locations in the Bay Area and have experience with downtown dynamics. While street closures may benefit some restaurants because they get free-of-rent space, it hurts other brick-and-mortar stores due to limited access, visibility, and overall lower foot traffic. Many of our customers expressed frustration with downtown Menlo Park because it is not convenient to navigate. Ultimately, the closures will affect the restaurants adversely as well because the community does not find it convenient to visit downtown Menlo Park and find it uninspiring to see so many shuttered businesses.
Sincerely,
Karsten Iwers
Harvest Furniture
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Karsten Iwers
harvest
www.shopharvest.com
