The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1954-05-14

"A street widening program and
more off street parking facilities
were among the measures recon-
mended by City Manager Victor
Lang Wednesday in a speech dis
cussing the city's downtown park
ing congestion before the Chamber
of Commerce Retail Merchants
Division in the LaConcha Hotel.
Lang also warned that unless
a solution is found to the problem,
a serious drop in downtown pro-
perry values may result.
Lang's speech:
"The City Of Key West is vitality
and selfishly interested IN the down
town traffic problem. It is a pro-
blem which vitality affects every
citizen of our community and par
ticularly our Duval Street business
men. Unless a satisfactory solu-
ton is found promptly, we can ex-
pect a decline in values in the
central business district with a YES
ultant loss of revenue from taxa
ton. Probably our largest single
source of revenue is being threat
ened. This is no idle fancy - the
Chicago Loop has dropped billions
in value in the past ten years.
"Every city in the United States
with our problem has lost real
and taxable value in the business
area, the amount of lost value de-
pending upon the acuteness Of the
traffic problem. We cannot afford
to sit nonchalantly chatting about
this problem. Something must be
done - done now!
Probe Asked
Several months ago, your City
Commission asked me to investi-
gate, and / have been studying
this problem since. The Traffic
Committe has been studying it
and we have called upon outside
help to study it. Today, we are
discussing some Of the factors in
volved in a solution to this pro-
blem.
"There are four ways that peo-
pie can get to the downtown area
to shop. They can walk. They can
ride the bus. They can drive their
cars. They can arrive in some other
vehicle, horse back, buggy, bicy-
Gle or scooter. think you will
agree that unless they can arrive
by automobile, Duval Street will
starve - and so will the City. We
must therefore make it easy for
your customers to shop by auto
mobile.
"H people cannot drive to our
main shopping center, they will
drive elsewhere to shop. To the
extent, if this happens, business
on Duval Street will fall off, other
business centers will develop with
better auto facilities, and property
values on Duval Street will depre-
ciate. Look at what is happening
in every large city in the United
States.
Drastic Action Needed =
"Like cancer, the traffic pro-
blem is choking downtown business
and choking off time form our citi-
zens, and like cancer, drastic
cutting operations are necessary
to cure this sickness of our main
shopping district. And like a
cancer, cooperation and willing
ness on the part of the patient is
necessary for satisfactory cure.
Fortunately, l believe the cancer
is being considered early enough
to respond to treatment.
"There are two conflicting pro-
blems involved in getting the auto
mobile to our main shopping Gen.
ter. First, the driver must be able
to travel over our streets. Second
ly, he must be able to park rea-
sonably close to his destination.
"What can we do to make it cas-
Ter to get to our destination? Down
town Key West streets are almost
invariably 30 feet wide. A salts
factory traffic lane should be II
feet wide. This leaves 8 feet which
is satisfactory for one side park
ing.
mo 3O-foot street can have two
lane traffic and parking on both
sides without serious traffic haz-
ards and congestion.
"The sooner we all realize this
fact, the sooner we can arrive at
a solution to our traffic congestion.
furthermore, no traffic lights, traf-
fic policemen or other cure-alls