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Comment Card Responses
Community Meeting No. 1
May 25, 2004
- What is your overall vision for the Webster Business District?
- University Avenue in Palo Alto
- A district with neighborhood serving retail, interesting shops, arts, fun nightlife, a variety of good restaurants, increase ties to water
- Less focus on leisure service, more focus on applied arts, inventions, and productions stemming from arts and inventions
- Safe, green, lots of foot traffic, family-friendly
- Go fun upscale, do what residents want, plenty of room upside, build on historic assets
- In time (1-2 years) mall shopping what this I hear no sales tax only for Webster
- Beauty, happiness, friendly, active & successful
- Have better mix of retail-more clothing?
- Vitality, new paint job on all buildings, new commercial enterprise, food court, bookstore
- Improve quality of the Islands community & economy for a unique bedroom community
- Health & social services and retain stores such as car dealers
- Neighborhood — clean & safe
- Safe, family oriented destination with variety of events and services, convenient for residents and non-residents
- A place that captures its historic roots in Victorian Era/Western town business area & attracts people to interesting businesses & good neighborhood services
- A complete renovation
- Thriving retail & services district by day, entertainment by night
- Like 4th street in Berkeley
- Upscale, safe shopping, restaurants, bookstores, less fast food, more small restaurants
- Attractive, welcoming with various businesses seen as a destination
- College friendly retail stores, community friendly
- Pacific Grove (near Monterey) meets Piedmont & 4th street in Berkeley, destination point
- Businesses that promote continual pedestrian traffic and provide destinations for the neighborhood
- Vibrant community serving businesses — variety; open days & evenings, more pedestrian oriented, no big box, no more fast food, no more auto related business, not drive by, drive thru, or drop of but rather get out and stroll environment
- Pleasant, inviting environment with a mix of businesses, a particular interest in making the business district more useful & inviting to college of alameda students
- What are some issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve that vision for the Webster District?
- Change look so it doesn’t look like a street full of used goods
- Catalyst project that requires property consolidation, retail recruiter working with property owners to upscale tenants, ability to create mixed use developments, planning by city & fortitude to stave off pressures to say yes to every project throughout city
- Less provincialism, which appears evident in Alameda except on Webster at which one observes aversions to certain cultures, these elements should be included
- Fresh paint and greening-outdoor seating where possible, renaissance project should help address the "one broken window" problem, long stretches of closed shops make it less likely that we’ll stroll before or after dinner out and spend more money
- Appearance/quality of businesses, traffic issues, co-marketing & Marina Village, Catellus
- Litter sights for litter cans or baskets. (The dumping times or schedule of the litter cans) The need for reliable telephone booths, vandalism
- Exteriors of stores need upgrading
- Loans to commercial owners for painting upgrades and ADA access & tenants
- Power lines, landscape, mixed uses, respect for diversity, good density, alternative to higher stores-density
- Sidewalks Buena Vista, Webster street between burger King & TK Restaurant
- Safety-beat cop, stores "neighbors" need i.e: bike shop, clothing
- Nightlife: dancing? Live music? Open on Sundays? Perception of Webster as a ghost town with no services to offer besides liquor, gas & fast food. Business owners following through with improvements
- Clean up/fix up derelict buildings, promote/recruit, market the area
- A better class of merchants, no 99 cent store
- Negative image of street, number of businesses that don’t cater to walk in traffic and/or are not open enough. Parking
- Recruitment of businesses
- Safety, consistent hours, visual appeal
- Remove certain unattractive businesses, bring in new business refurbish & restore present buildings
- Appealing to businesses who have stable economic growth & capital
- Streetscaping, business plan & recruitment of desired businesses, safe & friendly feeling for street, bike/pedestrian friendly planning
- Lack of retail excitement —no destination- type businesses that encourage repeat business
- Improvement of physical environment (streetscape), business/merchandising training for existing businesses, cleanup of unsightly signs, work places, store fronts, mixed use questions about measure A need to develop residential above or adjacent to business
- Visual appeal, thought about community college student relevant, interesting businesses: bookstores, clothes, coffee shops
- What specific kinds of new stores and businesses would you like to see in the Webster District?
- Electronics: Good Guys, Circuit City, Best Buy and office supplies, Barnes & Noble
- Bigger variety of restaurants, unique gift stores, upscale grocery
- Arts, always Arts, especially music; American food eateries focused on health
- Family entertainment live music w/out bar scene, First Run Toys (though F.A.P is wonderful for re-sale) high-end clothing, good quality gifts
- Grocery, home improvement, kitchen (Sur La Table)
- I would like to see a variety of stores that will meet people’s needs. We need to cut down on the liquor stores where drug dealers like to hang out & stand in front of the doors.
- Women’s and men’s clothing & gift shops
- Borders Books to capture COA student population, (maybe re-orient the West Marine parcel towards constitution, and include smaller college interest businesses)
- Good mix, private, small entrepreneurs vs. big money franchise
- Instead of giving to Oakland, Berkeley, or other places, there must be a new social security administration, social services and health such as dentists will accept Medicaid (same as Medicare)
- Bike shop/ new repair, children/young adult clothing stores, paint store/hardware
- Vintage clothing furnishings & resellers, music & video stores, more antique dealers, toy stores, comic book store, video arcade, computer training center for youths
- A good grocery that has different choices from Safeway & Albertsons, some other destination shops (not sure which), restaurants that are neither Asian or Mexican, we have too many already
- Food store like the market place on Park St., theater, bookstore
- Some Arts & Crafts, clothing, services, entertainment
- A fresco dining on the Side of street, Acme Bread, cowgirl cheese, Rosenblum wine store
- Restaurants, bakery, produce, clothing boutiques, bookstores
- Whole Foods, Home furnishings store, hardware store, small department store, upscale clothing stores, fresh choice
- Maybe a home depot or Expo Design would be a good strong, stable, fast growing employer, very community oriented and student friendly
- Grocery, bakery & coffee shop, bookstore with activities associated (music, coffee shop, reading area, other entertainment), outdoor recreation (ie. REI)
- Gift stores, better sit-down restaurants, lifestyle stores, bakery, books
- Men’s, women, & children’s clothing, gift books/cards, house wares, home fashions, bakery, grocer
- Bookstore(s), restaurants, café, hardware store
- If assembly of property for a new redevelopment project were to occur, what type of anchor business(es) would you like to bring to the District?
- Andronicos,
- New age technology retail and yes…arts
- Personally because I go to Palo Alto for this, Ann Taylor, Eileen Fisher, Old Navy and Gap. I go to Park Street for kid stuff & activities, stroll/eat, organic produce we should have a drop-in style indoor kid playground on the west side perhaps co-sponsored by Bladium or Marina Gym?
- Grocery, home improvement and hardware
- No low-income housing!
- I’d like to see some bookstores, I’d like to see another record shop like tower of power, or warehouse, I’d like to see Mexicali-Rose restored, also an EDD office
- Grocery
- Borders Books = food & music & books! Andronicos food store (somewhere on west end) could be a point
- Community enhancing
- Create jobs such as building or renovate the Alameda Point Affordable Housing. (ESR) Those are vacant.
- Gap, Best Buy, Home Improvement, Paint etc
- Youth Centers, Transportation Hub, Unique clothing thrift or consignment
- Whole foods, Andronicos, a great restaurant @ Crolls, American, Barbeque/a steak place
- Do we need one?
- Something scaled to the current district retail or service that compliments current merchants
- I am not in favor of a grocery store as an anchor, I would rather have retail shops, this sounds like grocery businesses to consolidate
- Grocery
- Large upscale grocery store
- A large retail like the Home depot
- REI, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Borders
- A lifestyle store (like The Gardener in Berkeley) or a bookstore/café
- High end grocer (specialty grocer-Whole Foods, Andronicos), House wares/home Fashions (Sur La Table)
- Borders type (comprehensive) bookstore, perhaps a cluster of interesting multi ethnic restaurants, hardware store
- Given your ideas about possible anchor businesses, what other shopping trips or errands would you like to combine with visits to the anchor(s)?
- Gift shopping, dry cleaning, pharmacy, cards
- Global, centered, energy!
- Fresh artisan bread
- Solano Avenue, College Avenue
- I’d like to see the amateur electronic supply store, or a ham Radio outlet, and a bingo parlor
- Dining
- Gift shops, co-op arts collaborative Co-ops (just saw the slide on the Alameda Art Center-great!) Upscale consignment combined with new clothing
- Market outdoor organic is good, small is beautiful
- Post office (upgrade) include benches for disabled people
- Food, clothes, misc. (band aids) home improvement
- Community networking center for improving our neighborhood
- Other stores: book store, eateries, with outside dining, some night life, quality bakery, bagel place, toy craft store, activities
- Services (banking, etc.), restaurants, bookstore
- Do we need an anchor? When Webster was a growing concern, did it have an anchor? When Lucky was open it was when Webster began closing down.
- Bookstore, specialty food stores
- Additional retail eateries
- Upscale dining dessert/tea restaurants open evenings, clothing boutiques
- Butcher, baker, produce, seafood, wine merchant
- Trip Link: buy a card, buy a gift, get a new pair of shoes, mail a letter, buy baked goods, and get groceries?
- Other comments or ideas for the Webster District
- Upgrade P.O
- Global links to Bart to SF to the World
- We’d like to consider shifting the Tuesday farmers market to the late afternoon say 3pm-7pm during warmest months
- Film festivals at Antiques by the Bay Regional shopping opportunities, public transit like light rail () Between shopping areas ()
- Seeing as A.C Transit may not have any weekend service, we need to get ourselves a shuttle service that will take us into Oakland and vi se versa
- Dining
- Trees are wonderful but they often block the signage! How can this be balanced or managed? How about combining a merry-go-round theatre arts center at Crab Cove? Could we partner with the parks system to do that? How can the city capitalize on Internet sales? Is it captured in the business license fees?
- Monorail to JLS connections
- There must be a new senior center program at Alameda point. There could be a new police department at Alameda point and add bus companies like school bus to pick up kids from their home which ever schools they want to go to. It’s making easier for kids and elderly and disabled people.
- Clean & safe
- Business owners using the area to bring families & neighbors closer with events and businesses that support and reinvest
- Great potential! Take advantage of historic past and current international flavor
- 450,000 retail 500,00 of Office and R&D
- Beautify store fronts with renovation & restoration & with plants and trees and flowers
- Evening Farmers Market (as San Luis Obispo) on summer evenings, once a week, businesses should extend hours too
- Strong commitment to an overall parking strategy including a possible parking structure
- Intercept survey (college), better marketing, education for merchants, shuttle
- Use college of Alameda students to perform "intercept" survey
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