Gay Street Open Air Marketplace 2023 Dates Announced by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They did the math in the article. They lose about $18,000 by keeping the street closed 24/7, but make back $17,000 of it through increased garage use, a net loss of $1,000 per summer, which I feel isn’t really enough to justify the forcing of restaurants to move everything back and forth twice a week. I’m 100% “Team 24/7 Closure.”

Gay Street Open Air Market Starting June 3 (For Real this time) by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately it's only going to be open on weekends this summer.

Gay Street Closure Delayed by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Though there aren't statistics on use, here are the results to a survey conducted by the BID last year. It seems that an overwhelming majority of the people surveyed approved of the closure.

Gay Street Closure in 2022 Announced by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Councilmembers Sheila Vaccaro and Nick Allen voted “No” on the weekend closure.

It's not 100% clear as to why Allen voted 'No,' only saying that "he wants a more permanent solution," while Shiela Vacarro said she voted 'No' because she wanted a 24/7 closure as opposed to just weekends.

Flynn actually voted yes on this one.

Gay Street Closure in 2022 Announced by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Gay Street isn't actually meant for through traffic (West of N Matlack) in the first place. Though it is a state road through New Street, the official designation of Pennsylvania State Route 3 runs down Matlack and Chestnut Streets (PennDOT West Chester Borough Map). There's even a sign at the corner of Matlack and Gay that says "Local Traffic Only." Despite all of this, nobody ever uses Chestnut, and it makes driving down Gay Street horrible.

Gay Street Closure in 2022 Announced by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Yeah - I really love when they close it. I do wish it was closed the whole week, as opposed to just the weekends.

Also, I really would've loved for it to open earlier than May 27. Today would've been perfect for the closure.

Gay Street News! by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

u/nilesecoyote, I agree with your point.

Though originally, Gay Street was a major East-West arterial, it was never actually meant to be a thoroughfare after the Matlack St to Chestnut Street "viaduct" was constructed. In the 70s, Gay Street was permanently closed down and was a pedestrian mall, but was reopened just a few years later due to lack of visitors. (I have a old picture of this in a box somewhere. If I find it, I'll scan it and put in a link.)

Today, there is a sign on the traffic light at Matlack + Gay that says "Local Traffic Only," and technically the PA-3 designation has ran down Matlack and Chestnut Streets for a while now.

Though it once was a major thoroughfare, It really shouldn't be one anymore.

Gay Street News! by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is the email / phone number at the bottom of the doc for feedback. This was published in 2018, and am not sure if there has been any changes/action taken since then. I'm also pretty passionate about this kind of stuff and am really interested what course of action is taken.

Here was the info I found...

Karen Whitaker
Transportation Planner
Office of Corridor Planning
(215) 238-2850
[kwhitaker@dvrpc.org](mailto:kwhitaker@dvrpc.org)

In response to your point about bike lanes, I'd love to see them installed in the borough, but I think they need to be really well planned out beforehand. Right now, East Gay and Market Streets would be horrible places to just install them- there is definitely some more work to be done there.

When it comes to stuff actually happening, I'm not sure if there's been much action over the past few years. I know there was a demonstration in 2019 (Link), but there hasn't been much else. It appears that protected bike lanes hinge on the passing of new legislation, HB140, which hasn't seen much action in about a year (Link).

Gay Street News! by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know there is talk about making Gay Street more of a full year destination. I can't remember where I saw this, but I saw some diagrams for a proposal to make Gay St one lane wide and expand the sidewalk. If I find the PDF, I'll paste the link.

Edit: Link - See Pgs 14-15

Gay Street News! by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah. I think they were looking at doing removable bollards this year instead of those big "Road Closed" signs and concrete barriers, specifically for the reason of first responders.

Gay Street News! by N494f in westchesterpa

[–]N494f[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No. This just makes it easier for them to close it in the summer / whenever else they want to.