My yearly plea to cut down on downtown street closures.

An article on KTVZ about "Visit Bend"s shift to "Leave-No-Trace practices. Sustainable tourism. A focus on community."

If an organization whose whole reason for being could shift from sheer boosterism, then so can the Bend Downtowners.

Every time I go downtown, I'm amazed by its vibrancy. People walking around, standing on corners, shopping, eating, laughing, enjoying. 

In other words, we've succeeded in what we set out to do. There is a real danger of gridlock if we keep pushing and pushing.

A weird thing happens when you have a store full of people--sometimes, no one spends money. Everyone is assuming that everyone else is shopping.

Anyway, this is my yearly plea to cut back on street closures in the downtown. Enough is enough. Go ahead and grandfather the events in, but please don't add any more. If an event drops away, don't replace it. Try not to fill the peak weekends of summer.

Let downtown be downtown--a retail district.