Texas: "Cautiously coming back from the shutdown."

The key word in the clock-baitish headline is "cautiously." What if there were a reopening, and very few came? It would lessen the chance of a surge -- and an economic recovery.

Texas Is Showing the World How to Reopen Cautiously at Bloomberg

A month into lifting restrictions, coronavirus cases haven’t surged. Many residents are keeping their distance, raising doubts about the speed of the economic recovery.

Over Memorial Day weekend, a club in Houston hosted a pool party that looked straight out of spring break, with loads of bulky bare chests, bikinis and day drinking on an umbrella-filled patio during a balmy Saturday.

A day earlier, Texas Governor Greg Abbott allowed bars—along with rodeos, bowling alleys and bingo halls—to open their doors at reduced capacity in the second phase of the state’s plan to restart the economy after shutting down in early April to slow the coronavirus.

The scene at Clé Houston, which quickly spread on social media, played to stereotypes of Texans—libertarian, don’t-tread-on-me types who prize personal freedom.

But the reality of how many of the state’s citizens are behaving is much different. In other parts of the city that Saturday, bars were tame, even boring, with sparse attendance and plenty of crowd control. Some owners marked tables and floors with an X to reinforce social distancing. Another set out squeeze bottles filled with hand sanitizer.

South Padre Island, this was not.

A month into the reopening of one of America’s biggest economic engines, Texas looks a lot like those other Houston watering holes: cautiously coming back from the shutdown ...

Social restrictions, bullying and reopening: It's all about consumer behavior.

I'm no fan of Politico, but this piece is solid. Key point:

“Unfortunately, resuming normal activity cannot be achieved by diktat from the top,” said economist Megan Greene, a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “It needs to start with much more confidence from consumers, and we are still a long way off from that.”

There's plenty of apocryphal evidence derived from the respectively blue and red silos amid the wasteland of social media. Apart from the chest-thumpers with megaphones and chips on their shoulders, my sense is a silent majority of Americans are going to exercise caution in the following months.

How much has the pandemic altered our assumptions?

We're about to find out.

How Trump’s reopening plans could collide with reality, by Ben White (Politico)

Consumer and business behavior are mostly out of the president’s ability to control.

President Donald Trump is squabbling with governors and calling on a new council of corporate executives as he tries to reopen the American economy as quickly as possible. But his powers are limited not just by the Constitution but by the fact that he has limited sway over the real economy.

Trump can fire off tweets, attempt to bully states into lifting social restrictions and otherwise declare America open for business. But he can’t force companies to reopen or ramp up production until owners and executives believe their workers are ready.

He also can’t make consumers flock back to malls, bars, restaurants, sports arenas or other public areas until they feel comfortable they‘ll be safe from the coronavirus ...

Hello, Larry ... and Jeff, and Warren, and HWC: Improve the city by slowing the cars in walkable places.

The folks at the Strong Towns feed at Twitter finished Sunday with two excellent links.

First, something perhaps never before uttered at a Board of Public Monetization Works and Selective Safety meeting in New Albany.

"If you're looking to help small businesses thrive, maybe you should start thinking about how to slow down your commercial streets."

Cyclists Spend 40% More In London's Shops Than Motorists, by Carlton Reid (Forbes)

New research from Transport for London (TfL) claims that people walking, cycling and using public transport spend more than motorists in local shops. Conducted by Matthew Carmona from University College London's Bartlett School of Planning, the research reveals that those not in cars spend 40% more each month in neighborhood shops than motorists.

The research was conducted in areas of London which have benefitted from Dutch-style streetscape improvements, such as the addition of cycleways ...

From London, Strong Towns moves to Italy.

"It's not every day that you hear about an Italian village that followed North America's lead and ran a highway through its downtown. Will they do what most American cities are afraid to do, and use good design to #slowthecars in their walkable places?"

Italian Village Installs Speed Cameras, Records 58,000 Infractions In 2 Weeks, by Merrit Kennedy (NPR)

... "We hope that these speed gauges can be an effective deterrent to motorists and that they can benefit the citizens of Acquetico, because you do not want to make cash with the fines, but it is necessary to protect people's safety," the mayor told the news agency, according to BBC.

Why so fast?

The mayor proceeds to explain that the highway is designed for speed, and drivers use it as designed.

Wait -- might this be the fundamental problem, Mr. Rice?

Toll bridges: "The mental model that says traffic levels are some inexorable natural force like the tides, which must be accommodated or else, is just wrong."

From 2010. Now he wants to toll interstates.

Joe Cortright's latest dispatch in the "Louisville Traffic Experiment" series (below) prompted a few thoughts from Jeff Gillenwater, NAC's junior editor, from whom I enjoy purloining passages like this one because he's so damned good in expressing them.

I chuckled the other day when Kentucky transportation officials said it would take a while for traffic counts to increase owing to time spent figuring out new or alternative routes. Not only did they not include people deciding to just not make the trip(s) among possible alternatives - something a lot of us pointed out would happen - but they also left out the even more obvious: all the alternative route seekers I know or have heard about are seeking to avoid tolls, not pay them.

Lots of area businesses have instructed employees who regularly traverse I-65 to cross the river at 2nd Street for all their daytime trips. It's not like it's crowded in the middle of the day or takes much, if any, extra time or driving. Likewise, as I've already mentioned, I've had occasion lately to talk with a lot of out-of-towners who are seeking and finding non-tolled alternatives as well.

We're nowhere near good enough at political organizing to stop bad projects like this, but we're not entirely stupid, either.

And now the source:

The latest from the Louisville traffic experiment, by Joe Cortright (City Observatory)

Even with the free alternative closed, traffic is very light on the new I-65 bridges

Time for one of our periodic check-ins on our real world transportation pricing experiment in Louisville, Kentucky. As you recall, we’ve been watching Louisville closely, because just at the end of last year, the city started what amounts to a laboratory experiment in transportation behavior. Kentucky and Indiana build a new bridge to double the capacity of the I-65 freeway as it crosses the Ohio River near downtown Louisville. At the same time, it put tolls on the I-65 crossing, but not on the nearby Second Street Bridge, an older, four-lane highway bridge that connects Louisville to the Indiana suburbs north of the River.

As we reported in February, the initial month’s worth of data on bridge traffic shows that adding tolls (which run from $1 to $4 for cars) have caused traffic levels to fall by almost half, from about 122,000 vehicles per day to about 66,000. We showed photographs from area traffic-cams that show rush hour traffic on the tolled bridges almost empty, while traffic was fairly think on the free Second Street Bridge.

The latest phase of our experiment came this past this weekend, courtesy of “Thunder Over Louisville” a kind of combined concert, airshow and fireworks display that is held annually. To handle the big crowds the come downtown, and afford great vantage points, the city closes the Second Street Bridge. It did so on Thursday. So we looked to see how this affected traffic levels.

In which the Tragic Ketchup Calamity is recounted.

Every time an incident like the Tragic Ketchup Calamity occurs, the 1% smiles, because it means that all the rest of us are screaming at each other, and not sharpening knives.

Maybe You Get Bad Customer Service Because You're a Bad Customer, by Matt Walsh (Huffington Post)

 ... Now, I replay this back to you because I realize you probably scream profanities at minimum wage customer service representatives every time you run an errand or grab a bite to eat, so you might not recall the specifics of this one incident. And that brings us to the possible answer to that query you posed in the midst of your ketchup rant. You asked: "Why can't I ever f*cking get good customer service?" Well, ma'am, that might have something to do with you being a vulgar, miserable, malicious person. Maybe you get bad customer service because you're a bad customer. Did you ever consider that possibility?

I get it. "You're the customer so you're always right." They work here so they have to bend over backwards for you "because that's their job." Well, you're partially correct about that. Yes, you are a customer and, yes, they do work here. But it's actually not their job to deal with psychopaths. They aren't hostage negotiators, they're fast food workers. And even if the powers that be at these corporate chains push this "customer is always right" crap because they've decided it's good business to placate horrible jerks, in the real world, outside the land of plastic chairs and soda fountains, adults who throw temper tantrums in public are never right about anything.

In reply, John Gonder quite properly references Cassius: "The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Cribbed from somewhere on the Internetz.

I'm glad John told me about his published reply, as I'd missed it on Sunday. Here's my tip from last week:

Damn it, John Gonder: Help revitalization and small business prospects downtown with two-way streets!

Here are John's thoughts.

Click through and read them all. We wouldn't get any such thoughtful explanation from the current occupant(s), would we?

Glad You Asked

Earlier today I read the NA Confidential blog by Roger Baylor, in which he questions my comments in a News and Tribune article by Daniel Suddeath on the current state of downtown New Albany. Roger felt I had betrayed an unspoken allegiance to a walkable New Albany by not seizing on the opportunity Suddeath offered to bring out the incantation of street conversion in my remarks ...

 ... When Daniel interviewed me, he referred back to some conversations he'd had earlier in the day, or week, with Dave Duggins, and some others. Because I do feel that a walkable New Albany would be a better environment for small and independent businesses, I thought of mentioning the conversion of one-way to two-way streets, since, as I said, I believe such a conversion brings us closer to that goal. Somehow or another, Daniel and I got on to another aspect of his question about what government can do to help stem the loss of businesses downtown, or to create a more fertile field in which to grow new businesses downtown.

I could be snide and add an 11th, but let's take the high road to begin 2014.

Neither newspaper paywalls nor Hanson-up ads are mentioned, but the Confidential household was talking about several of these wallet sappers even before reading the MarketWatch analysis.

Topping the list: Paring down what we pay to TimeWarner cable, all the way down to basic local channels, and then subscribing to streaming services to make up the difference at a fraction of the cost. Why pay for what isn't being used?

We already knew about airbnb, which can be a nifty way of bypassing traditional hotels, and it has become the basis of a future idea for interior remodeling at our own house.

It's a good list. I have no 2014 resolutions, but maybe/finally/at-long-last refraining from (too much) pissing away money better spend on alcoholic beverages and slabs of Feast BBQ's smoked pork... that'd be nice.

10 things not to buy in 2014: Dying technologies aren’t the only unnecessary drain on our wallets, by AnnaMaria Andriotis (MarketWatch)

Millions of zombie shoppers can't be wrong: Thanksgiving retailing and the intrusion of consumerism.

I'm unsure what can be done when the sheep willingly embrace the instruments of their prospective slaughter.

Protests mark Black Friday's creep into Thanksgiving (Al Jazeera)

Decision by large retailers to open on Thanksgiving has been attacked by those wanting a consumerism free day

... The decision by some retail giants to open on Thanksgiving has been greeted by alarm by those who resent the intrusion of consumerism on a day that traditionally has been about bringing family together. Workers planned petitions and protests around the country to coincide with early opening hours.

Walmart has been the biggest target for protests against holiday hours. Most of the company's stores are open 24 hours, but the retailer is starting its sales events at 6 p.m. on Thursday, two hours earlier than last year.

The issue is part of a broader campaign against the company's treatment of workers that's being waged by a union-backed group called OUR Walmart, which includes former and current workers. The group is staging demonstrations and walkouts at hundreds of stores around the country on Friday.

"Let’s Explore Anti-Local Craft Beer Unconsciousness," at LouisvilleBeer.com

Shall we?

Let’s Explore Anti-Local Craft Beer Unconsciousness

“Art can never take the place of social action … but its task remains forever the same: to change consciousness.”

– Amos Vogel, from “Film as a Subversive Art”

When will craft beer finally change the consciousness of the American beer-drinking mainstream?”

I’m tempted to answer one question with another:

Should mainstream consciousness ever be the desired outcome for craft beer?

But let’s play it straight. Some might say that craft beer consciousness already has arrived. Craft beer’s availability is wider than ever before, and statistically, most Americans live within close proximity to a craft brewer, even if the average measurement is skewed by Michigan as compared to the Deep South.

Slowly, even this imbalance is changing, and craft beer consciousness is penetrating all geographical areas of the country.

"The more downtown merchants and restaurateurs insist that customers need not walk past other storefronts, the less they benefit from each other’s customers."

Once again, kindly permit me to boost a comment to the marquee. Reader Dan Chandler posted the following in response to last evening's "What are 23 parking spaces worth?" I have only one observation: During the discussions of the past few days, we seem to see the emergence of differing theories of consumer behavior. Which are to be fluffed, and which to remain unfluffed?

---

Go to any mall such as Oxmoor, St. Matthews or Green Tree. The stores with the highest foot traffic are those along the main corridor, furthest from the parking. Space by the mall entrances, closest to parking, attracts fewer shoppers. The whole point of a mall is that each store get cross traffic from other stores’ customers. Enclosed mall space commands higher rents than strip mall space because customers walk past stores they otherwise would not have considered visiting, but visit they do. If each mall store had its own parking spaces, there would be no cross traffic customers.


The same principle works downtown. The more downtown merchants and restaurateurs insist that customers need not walk past other storefronts, the less they benefit from each other’s customers. Most downtown businesses will benefit by thinking of themselves as part of a shopping and entertainment district instead of cluster of unrelated businesses whose customers never cross.


Cross traffic is highest when the walking experience is most enjoyable. Historically, the mall had an advantage; part of the walk was past attractive storefronts. Downtown, much of the walk was past weed filled lots and boarded up buildings. The more pleasant the walkway, the more cross traffic will walk there. Mall operators know the importance of continuous attractive storefronts. Most mall leases contain a “lights out” clause that basically terminates the lease if the tenant closes the store, even though they continue to pay rent. If it’s not a pleasing environment, all tenants are hurt by reduced cross traffic.


So no, easy parking and foot traffic are not inextricably linked. Downtown has seen a business boom in the last five years despite no new parking. I don’t think this is coincidence. If you want isolated stores, you can get that anywhere; if you want a district, downtown NA offers something not found anywhere else in metro Louisville. Customers don’t like walking past places that are dirty, unattractive, loud or dangerous. So merchants, instead of making each other’s customers walk past bare concrete lots to get to your storefront, make sure your neighbor’s customers have an enticing trail to your storefront. Attractive facades do this. Attractive landscaping does this. Safe sidewalks do this. And calm, slow, quiet, two-way streets do this. These make places customers enjoy on foot.