Dear Council Members, Thank you for your efforts to revitalize downtown Menlo Park. I am the owner of Harvest Furniture at 639 Santa Cruz Avenue. We have been in our current location for over 25 years. I am strongly opposed to closing the 600 block to vehicle traffic. This measure interferes with our ability to welcome customers into our stores. It also limits our exposure. The two restaurants on the block, namely Vida and Left Bank, already have parklets to accommodate their guests, and I am not opposed to offering them additional parking spaces for additional tables. Since tables and chairs cannot be placed on the street (to allow for emergency vehicles), this measure provides no benefit to restaurants either. San Carlos closed two blocks of Laurel Street about two weeks ago. Literally every merchant in town as well as several restaurant owners are strongly opposed to the measure. We had two emergency meetings in the last two days to reverse the closure. Merchants reported a significant drop in foot traffic and sales over the last two weeks. Our store in San Carlos has been generating about 50% of normal revenue after reopening. Since the closure, our sales are at about 25% of normal. Our neighboring merchants are reporting similar trends. Clearly, this is not sustainable and will force even more merchants to close their doors for good. COVID-19 has brought Harvest to its knees. Closing the street for no apparent benefit will finish the job. Our lease ends in April of 2021. I hope we can pay the rent until then, before we close after 25 strong years in a great community. I ask that you at least give merchants a chance to come back from the SIP closures. Closing the streets is a devastating decision. Thank you for your consideration, Karsten Iwers Harvest Furniture Sent from Mail https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986 > for Windows 10 Received on Thu Jun 25 2020 - 08:45:46 PDT
