Salinas Updates residents on Downtown Vibrancy Plan

Work continues to bring new business to the City of Salinas Old Town District.

Leaders met with the public for one last time on how the Downtown Vibrancy Plan is going and progress on Main Street Improvements.

It’s been years in the making but we may soon have a final plan for the Main Street upgrade in Salinas.

“We’ve got to decide now on how the downtown’s gonna look, what changes we’re going to make,” said Don Reynolds, assistant director with Salinas Public Works.

The plan will give downtown Salinas streets their first facelift since 1985. Changes that include turning some downtown streets from one way roads to two way. A plan many longtime Salinas residents aren’t supporting.

“The one-way is much better,” said one resident, “Because we tried it the other way.”

There are also complaints coming from businesses who also want more attention.

“The 300 block hasn’t been renovated as well as the 100 and 200 block,” said business owner Alohi Galicia.

Still there were plenty of good things said about the Downtown Vibrancy Plan and city leaders say they’ll take all the feedback into consideration as part of the final design.

“It’s not too late to insert some of these ideas into our plan and to make changes and adjustments moving forward,” said Reynolds.

The project is expected to cost 12 million dollars, money that will come from Measure X.