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Health & Fitness

Ideas for METRO's new Pacific Station?

Getting your ideas for the redesign of METRO's Pacific Station

If you’ve been at the METRO’s Pacific Station recently, you may have noticed these large orange posters that ask you “What do you want here?” If you follow the link or scan the QR code, you’ll have the opportunity to suggest your ideas on Spotmojo

I’m a co-founder of Spotmojo.  Spotmojo is a web & mobile platform that gives the community a voice in the things they want in their neighborhood.  We started with more of a focus on shops and restaurants to help communities and small businesses, but we’ve branched out a little bit with projects like METRO’s Pacific Station (transit center) in downtown Santa Cruz. 

We started out in San Francisco and the East Bay, putting our posters in any vacant space where the owner would let us. Recently, one of the members of the Pacific Station Design team stumbled upon one of our posters and thought it would be a great way to engage the community to determine the future of Pacific Station. 

The Pacific Station Design project is a partnership between the City of Santa Cruz and METRO. The goal of the redesign is to transform the current Pacific Station into an attractive civic place that is safe, sustainable, functional and well-used. Input from the community is critical to create a transit center that fits into the Santa Cruz community. 

Some may think a bus station is just a place where busses and riders come and go.  Maybe add a newsstand, a vending machine, some parking and we’re all set.  But bus stations, or public transit stations in general, can be much more than that.  With high gas prices and the declining popularity of sitting in traffic, more and more people are using public transit as their primary mode of transportation.  At the same time more urban planners are designing communities with public transit at their core. 

The base of the new Pacific Station will still be a transit facility, but it has the potential to be much more than just that. Some of the ideas that are being considered so far are building housing above, a public library, shops, restaurants, offices, an arena and/or parking.  Like I said, there’s a pretty wide range of ideas so project team really wants to hear what’s important to the community. 

The future Pacific Station will be a place that’s actually enjoyable to be in, a place where you don’t mind spending a few minutes before or after your bus ride.  Maybe you’ll even grab a bite, browse some books at the library, pick up some supplies, or just hangout and watch people walking by.  But to design a place like that with the right type of businesses and amenities, the project team either needs to be mind-readers, really good at guessing, or they could just ask you.  I prefer the latter.

Suggest your ideas on Spotmojo using this link: http://www.spotmojo.com/openspot/metro/ 

Of course numbers matter so get the word out to your friends and neighbors that use (or want to use) the METRO.

Invite them to visit the page or attend an in-person community meeting in early-December (exact dates TBD). For more info on community meetings, visit: www.metropacificstation.com.

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