Parking garage could block permanent ban of cars on part of San Pedro Street
It’s been almost a year since a car was seen on the most popular block of San Jose’s San Pedro Street — a strip many consider the heart of downtown’s dining and nightlife scene — and a group of restaurant owners are working to keep it that way.
But a parking garage situated smack dab in the middle of the block could jeopardize their plan.
Although the block was closed to traffic in mid-july as a way for eateries shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic to offer outdoor dining, the restaurateurs are now jointly lobbying the city to make it car-free for good.
“Because of the pandemic and what we’re doing now with Al Fresco, it’s validating that this is something that downtown San Jose is lacking and really needs,” said Randy Musterer, CEO of Sushi Confidential. “With all of this new development and billions of dollars going into creating this urban environment downtown, this is one of the many things that will help San Jose prosper.”
While car-free zones are less common in the United States than in Europe, they have made a resurgence in recent years, most notably Market Street in San Francisco and 14th Street in New York City.
And the COVID-19 pandemic gave San Jose an opportunity to test the waters.
A few months into the stay-home health orders triggered by the pandemic,
San Jose launched “Al Fresco,” the moniker for a program that allows businesses prohibited from operating indoors to set up tables in parking lots, streets, parking spaces, public parks and plazas. Originally meant to last a few months, the program has been extended numerous times, with the latest expiration date set for Dec. 31.
As part of Al Fresco, restaurants along the corridor of San Pedro Street between Santa Clara and St. John streets have set up dozens of outdoor tables and chairs, erected large tents, carried out portable heaters on cold nights and added decorations and plantings to give the area a shimmery ambiance.
“It was already a really good outdoor space with the square inside of San Pedro Square Market, but to have this extra feeling of community and people out and about talking and interacting and stuff — it’s something we’re all missing and it feels good,” Ben Kroll, a downtown resident who lives nearby, said of the street closure.
After watching their restaurants not only survive but in some cases even thrive as customers flock in to soak up the vibrant atmosphere, the owners determined a closed strip should become a permanent staple of downtown. Members of the San Pedro Square Committee since have developed their own plans and drawings, met with city officials to propose a handful of options and submitted letters of support.
Now, they say, the ball is in the city’s court.
Colin Heyne, the spokesperson
for San Jose’s transportation department, said consideration of the street’s potential closure is still in the “early stages” and a great deal of analysis is needed before any decisions are made.
“There are many factors to consider, such as whether a full-time or time-limited closure would be most appropriate, how access to the parking garage might be maintained, what impact it might have on surrounding traffic, and how it can best support community events,” Heyne wrote in an email.
Though full pedestrian malls like the one restaurateurs are proposing for San Pedro Street have worked in some cities like Denver, they don’t necessarily have a good track record.
Cities across the U.S. and California, including Sacramento and Fresno, designed them into their business districts decades ago only to later let the cars back in when the pedestrians didn’t come in droves.
Even so, San Jose Councilman Raul Peralez, whose
office has been working directly with San Pedro restaurant owners on their proposal, called the block “a perfect street to be able to shut down.”
“This is something that my office has been eager to try and accomplish for years,” he said in an interview this week.
Peralez acknowledged, however, that closing the street permanently is “easier said than done.”
In conversations with officials from various city departments, Peralez said he has heard a wide range of concerns about the closure, from the potential danger of hindering fire engines’ easy access to businesses and nearby apartment complexes to ensuring the city can build strong enough barriers to prevent people from accidentally — or deliberately — driving through the street.
An even bigger issue for city officials appears to be cutting off one of the two entrances to the San Pedro Market Parking Garage, a 1,200-space structure located in the middle of the block that is regularly used for large downtown events.
Previous closures of this stretch of San Pedro Street had been limited to San Pedro Square celebrations, farmers markets and events like the Super Bowl in 2016 and the College Football Playoff National Championship in 2019.
Peralez said he envisions some sort of deal where the street might remain open in the mornings for deliveries and then shut down the rest of the day for lunch and dinner dining. He hopes that by the time the Al Fresco program expires, the city will have pinned down a plan for at least a “semi-permanent” closure.
But many of the restaurateurs are hoping for something more stable — a system that wouldn’t force them to lug tables and chairs in and out of the street every day, and instead would encourage them to make more longterm investments such as raised patios and landscaping.
One concept they’ve proposed is a permanent closure of the strip but with movable barriers at both ends of the southbound traffic lane, allowing for it to open up on days of big events so cars can get in and out of the parking garage on that side of the street.
“If you don’t do it all the way, I think you’ll lose the luster and people will just go back to the way it was,” said Mike Messinger, the owner of Farmers Union. “The tenth-largest city in the nation deserves a great downtown, and this is something that would help get it there.”