Ok, but still the downtown needs more clothing / fashion stores, an apple store, more entertainment, a big nightclub playing music for a diverse community / more outdoor events and festivals / more big chains of restaurants / more stuff for kids and young people / easy transit stops in the downtown / a streetcar line / mini markets like the ones in El Camino / a small central park etc. I hope one day the downtown of Redwood City will see as the one in Palo Alto / San Mateo / Berkeley, it still needs more addings and a little of patience to get there.

Question: how is Redwood City preserving their retail space and keeping rents low enough for these retail businesses to survive? Palo Alto needs to learn how to do this.

I recently had lunch with a friend at Orenchi another newish restaurant in the downtown area. Ramen was great but the parking was awful. Drove around for 15 minutes trying to find an open parking space close to the restaurant so I didn’t have a long walk. Finally gave up and used my handicap parking card and parked in one of those spaces on the other side of the railroad crossing. As Redwood City grows they better start looking at parking structures convenient to the growing downtown area.

Fantastic! We always need good restaurants.

A night club/live music scene would be nice.

There is enough retail around: Stanford Shopping Center, Town & Country, Hillsdale, Westfield (Valley Fair). Only big name chain stores can make it in a downtown, like Palo Alto has: Vans, Apple, Lululemon.

In response to "resident", RWC is NOT keeping rents low enough for retail to survive. A number of smaller businesses I know and love are beginning to look elsewhere, as new construction and franchise spaces with more capital are driving rents sky-high. I love seeing the new restaurants come in, but not at the expense of some of my favorite tea shops and salons!

@egsnjamb, hah! Fortunately they've got almost everything you mentioned except the big chain restaurants.

They've done wonders for their downtown. You can hear live music at the Little Fox every night, attend concerts at The Fox, enjoy dinner and a concert at Angelica's Bistro, step outside The Fox and join a few thousand folks enjoying Movie Night on the square which hosted 5,000 people for the Women's March Rally with Joan Baez et al.

They've got the movie theater, pubs, a few good Thai places, a wonderful Pho place, quite few good Italian places, seafood places. decent parking, etc. etc. Lots of neat older buildings, including some used as restaurants and art galleries and boutiques.

It's not an office park and the big companies like Box are mostly on the outskirts, not downtown. It's got character.

@Allie, that's upsetting. I'm seeing/hearing the same thing in Menlo Park.

@ Online Name - Box is between M'field & Jefferson, 1 block from Broadway. This IS downtown.

@JoanneB - There are hundreds of parking spaces in garages under the M'field/Jefferson/Broadway block, muni garage on Broadway betw.. Main-Jefferson, Box bldg after 5 pm, & Muni lots @ Winslow & M'field + 2 lots on M'fled betw. Jefferson & Main, another on between Broadway & Brewster. Hard to believe you couldn't find parking.

Allie's concern is real.. Redwood City is restaurants & offices, loads of coffee chains, with a handful of salons, 2 jewelry stores & a couple of mishmash boutiques. People like to shop & eat. A 30+ minute trip to Stanford Shopping Center (El Camino gridlock @ most hours) doesn't fill the town's retail needs. Since Pamplemousse closed, there is no bakery. Rents are too high. The "galleries" aren't top notch & downtown apartment rents approach $3500 mo for 1 BR.

Street fairs-events? Average 1 per week, 2. + in summer, many Latino culture based. Frequent use is made of the Courthouse Square with concerts & outdoor movies. Not sure how many more you want.

@Chip, I know where Box is and it's separated from downtown by parking lots and a major street; it doesn't feel like it's in the midst of everything. I'd hate Allie's concern realized and for the "mishmash" and quirky boutiques, less than "top-notch" "galleries" and antique stores disappear due to high rents.

@ Online Name -
We definitely have very different ideas about what "separation" is. I walk out of the Box garage, use the crosswalk in front of me, & continue in a straight line along the 800 block of Middlefield (restricted traffic) which has Portobello Grill, Timber & Salt, Arya, La Tartine, Chipotle, then Quinto Sol, & Cinemax Theaters, at the corner of Middlefield & Broadway.

To me, that's downtown, but obviously your route is different. I've crossed one street. I don't go past any parking lots.

The antique stores on Main closed long ago but the window displays are still there. I'd like more retail, hopefully of higher quality. A good stationery store, for example? The clothing store near by La Tartine is tiny & has cheap stuff. I'd like to see shops with nice accessories or a Footwear Etc, which has the kinds of shoes most of the downtown employees & residents wear.

Of course, if I made a right turn after crossing the street in front of Box, at the end of that block is Cost Plus World Market with quite an array of goods.

Chip, you're right about different routes. I was thinking Winslow and Broadway.

Thanks for the head's up that the antique stored are closed but the displays are still there. Too bad. Yes, more retail's always good.

Someone is asking for more festivals and downtown events? I'd say RWC has that in spades compared to neighboring cities - there's movies, music every weekend in the summer. That's one thing I love about RWC that I don't see other places. A very central downtown space to gather and I'd say the events planning groups use it well.

I just took a survey about creating a park green space downtown so I think that's coming - fingers crossed. I'd love to see some of my favorites expand to RWC - I think they'd do well here. Asian Box, Oren's Hummus to name a few.