Testing the waters on Virginia Street closing

For about five months in 2008, from May through October, Virginia Street was closed on and off (mostly on) for the pool construction on the Mayfair Hotel's roof. If I remember correctly, traffic was backed up on Grand Avenue during rush hour and other times when the street was closed. The artery of Virginia Street was needed to help ease traffic flow.

This plan of closing Virginia Street for good may or may not work. How about we do a test? There was talk last year of closing the street for the month of December and making it a Christmas village. Why not try that this year and do a traffic study at the same time?

We can put a great big Christmas tree at the foot of Virginia and have a village and all sorts of things out around the street, including Snow Days, and see how things go. We talked about making it a Christmas Village last year, with a tree and all, but that never happened. I remember Dave Collins from the BID walking by one day and wondering why some of us were crawling around in the dirt in the middle of that green triangle at end of the block. We were looking for an electrical outlet to light up the possible tree, alas there was no outlet.

Last year, Merrick Park in Coral Gables was overflowing with people the day they had their tree lighting. They had cookie decorating, hot apple cider and lots of family things to do. Santa and Frosty can be at our event along with these things and we can make a big deal about lighting a big Christmas tree in the Center Grove. Merrick Park also has a children's choir funded by the Children's Trust, we can do that, too. We can give lots of movie tickets and Grove Bucks to everyone and spread the wealth throughout the Grove.

What say?