My wife and I live downtown (DTN) and my office is DTN. I walk DTN 2-3 times a day mostly to visit and spend money at businesses.
Here is what I see. On most afternoons and early evenings, I see lots of people walking and dining. I see lots of families (last night we saw five families with young children in the first block we walked back from dinner). I see lots of bikes and full parking lots in the evening. I see pretty full cafes in both the afternoon and evenings. I see people of all ages including young couples and older residents sometimes in walkers or wheelchairs. It feels again like a happening place though I do not know how many businesses are profitable given the rising costs of labor and inputs with recent inflation and labor shortages.
I do not go much into retail stores except as I outline below so do not know how much of the pedestrian traffic I see goes there.
DTN is our neighborhood and here is where we go and how we spend money DTN.
Our essential stores are Whole Foods and CVS followed by Ace Hardware.
We dine out a lot and pick up takeout. I go to cafes like Coupa and often have meetings there and at Café Venetia.
Most of the other visits are to personal services places—things you cannot get done or done as easily online. Both our dentists are DTN. We frequent Jacque’s sewing. I go to two banks DTN. We frequent spas and salons. I get my hair cut DTN. I buy eyeglasses and Apple products but most of my visits there are for services—getting my glasses straightened or questions about my IPhone and IPad. We get our watches and jewelry repaired DTN. We go to the Stanford Theater now that it is open again.
We buy most goods online or at T&C and Stanford Shopping Center. I wish local stores that sell clothes and furniture and the like DTN well but mostly they are not a need for us. I love to go to Letter Perfect but the fact is CVS has cards and now we can send e-cards. I love to browse in book stores but have not bought a book (except for grandkids) in years as I find e-books much more convenient.
We used to go to video stores 25 years ago. We used to buy camera equipment. A long time ago we used travel agents. All of that has passed to technology—photos on your phone, booking travel online, streaming.
I suspect families with children and pets who live DTN will have other places they visit DTN or wish were here like a Veterinary facility like we used to have or some places for kids.
If you live DTN let me know where you spend money and what you see.
