Lowell's

Health care reform: A small business perspective

This week, we're finalizing our shop's health insurance requirements for the next year.  Our policy will be 25% more this year for the same coverage.  Last year, it grew by 16%.  Compounded, that's 45% in two short years.  No other cost increases on that scale for us.

As a small business, the spiraling costs of health care hit us particularly hard each year.  And the need for a new approach to health care is particularly acute, for us and for our employees.

I've been puzzling over health care for a long while - and I won't claim to have the answers here.  But I thought it could be helpful to step away from the town hall and cable channel histrionics and fear-mongering to share some observations on health care from a small business perspective.

Insurance companies are like casinos: The house always wins.
Insurance companies have received a lot of criticism during the health care reform debate.  But they are doing precisely what they are designed to do.  They make money for investors by taking bets on the health requirements of their customers. 

Insurance companies operate like casinos or racetracks: the table is always tilted in favor of the house.  They may lose big on a single 'jackpot', but across the full array of customers they nearly always win.  And when they don't win 'enough', they'll raise the cost of making bets with them. 

When we enter into agreements with insurance companies, we're always taking a sucker's bet that we're very likely to lose.  The only reason an insurance company takes our money is because they 'bet' that we won't need that amount of medical care.

Ultimately, as with the casino, the house wins.

The oddity of employer-provided health insurance.
We don't really question it much today, but it is just plain strange that something as personal and as private as health care is mediated by employers at all.  We don't usually involve our employers in house payments or banking or appliance purchases or car insurance.  But, somehow, we've come to expect them to provide health care insurance.

Employer-provided insurance is an historical artifact from negotiations between General Motors and labor unions in the late 1940's and early 1950's.  Charles Wilson, GM's CEO, saw it as a last-ditch concession to help prevent the 'nationalized healthcare' system that Harry Truman was championing - which Wilson saw as a threat to the integrity of the free enterprise system.  (Funny how many things just don't change.)  Soon, other employers adopted health care coverage as a standard part of their benefits packages, and employer-provided insurance became the norm.

But, really, why are we employers involved at all?

Leverage
One reason that employers remain involved is that they often have more buying power than individuals.  Over the past 60 years, we've been able to provide leverage which lets us negotiate somewhat better plans with insurers and medical providers. 

But small businesses have scant more negotiating leverage than an individual.  Often, our employees choose to get independent coverage rather than participate in our group plan. 

When Lowell's bid out to three other health insurance companies, the results were disheartening.  The other three companies offered rates that were 200% to 300% higher than our current rates with Anthem.  So we're 'trapped' with Anthem.

Expanding waistlines, increasing costs.
As a nation, we're getting a lot unhealthier.  We eat more.  We exercise less.  We sleep less.  We're in worse health.  We're living longer.  And we need more care.

We don't spend much time, effort, or money on the preventative health care and self-care which would help eliminate the much more expensive catastrophic care.  We're too busy to exercise.  We don't want to pay for the mammogram.  We don't like waiting in the doctor's office. 

And we require more medical care as a result.  Often, we get that care after a catastrophe built upon years of self-abuse: We have a heart attack.  Our knees fail.  The cancer spreads.  (We see the same phenomenon with routine maintenance in the car business - put it off, put it off, put it off, then replace an engine.)

Health care is getting more expensive, in part, because we are getting unhealthier.

Rising expectations, increasing costs.
We've come to expect more from our medical system.  We expect our doctors, staff, drugs, equipment, and facilities all to improve.  And we should expect improvement as medical science advances.

But those advances are costly.  The astronomical research and development costs for the medical 'miracles' of MRIs and cholesterol-fighting drugs and 'little blue pills' have to be paid for in some fashion.

And doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies won't simply absorb those costs.  They will pass them on to patients.

Health care is getting more expensive, in part, because health care is getting better.

There are no painless solutions.
We've seen politicians, lobbyists, pundits, and fellow citizens all offer various versions of 'painless' solutions to the healthcare problem.

They promise that government should bear more of the burden. Or that government shouldn't bear any of the burden.  Or that we just need full, universal insurance.  Or that insurance companies should pay.  Or drug companies.  Or hospitals.  Or doctors.  Or that we shouldn't have to pay for the chronically uninsured.  Or that we should just collar all the lawyers and their malpractice suits.  Or we should just have more competition.

Nobody says that we must bear the responsibility.  But we must.

If we refuse to provide insurance or government coverage for the roughly 45 million uninsured Americans, what happens to those who can't pay?  Hospitals and emergency rooms will still provide care.  Their costs will go up.  And they will pass those costs to other patients in the form of, say, an $8 dose of ibuprofen.  We pay.

If we provide government-paid health care to them (or to ourselves), what happens?  Our national deficit will rise.  This week's projection of a $9 trillion deficit over 10 years amounts to about $30,000 per man, woman, and child.  Which will have to be funded through taxes.  We pay.

If we have full universal coverage in a government program, what happens?  Because they don't bear the initial brunt of the costs, patients get more health care than they really need.  And doctors and medical institutions will happily provide (or suggest) that profitable care.  More deficit.   More taxes.  We pay.

If we squeeze insurance company profit (or put greater requirements on them), what happens?  They will likely refuse coverage for the riskiest, least profitable customers.  Unable to find private coverage, those customers will opt to go without coverage or to go with a public plan.  More $8 (or, now, $10) ibuprofen.  More taxes.  We pay.  

If we squeeze drug or equipment company profits, what happens?  They have less to invest in research and development.  They take fewer risks, and release fewer blockbuster drugs or fewer equipment breakthroughs.  Improvements in our medical care falter.  We pay.

If we collar lawyers and malpractice suits, what happens?  Doctors' malpractice insurance costs will likely go down.  But a few careless doctors who commit malpractice may inflict injury or death without significant penalty.  And who ultimately bears the cost of that irresponsibility and that injury or death?  We do.  We pay.

If we allow more competition between insurance companies, what happens?  The insurance companies look at the same basic actuarial tables.  They evaluate risks in the same way.  They put a price on the 'bets' they are willing to take in the same way.  And their prices remain about the same as without as much competition.  We pay.

We want ever-better medical care.  We are getting unhealthier.  We want someone else to pay for it.  But they won't.  We must bear the responsibility.  We must pay.

Can government, insurance companies, hospitals, and doctors get more efficient?  Sure.  Are there opportunities to eliminate waste?  You bet.  Can we patients get healthier and do more preventative care?  Absolutely.  But it will cost us in some way.

There are no painless solutions.  In the end, we all pay.

The moral obligation
"Is health care a right or a privilege?"

It is a question that we don't talk about enough, and which underlies much of the national divide about health care today.  Is health care a right to which all people are entitled?  Or, is it a privilege bestowed only upon those who have earned it?  

It is an interesting question, and the health care debate has hinged upon how people answer it.

Except that I think that it is the wrong question.

The "right or privilege" question presupposes that rights and privileges are somehow separable. I don't think that they are.

I think of health care in many of the same ways as I think of citizenship or, even, to being a human being.  As citizens and as humans, we have certain 'inalienable' rights.  Heck, our country was built upon them - "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".  

But those citizen's (and human) rights come with deep responsibilities.  We must participate.  We must act in certain ways.  We must work together to improve our nation and our well-being.  We can't abuse the fundamental rights we have been given.

For me, health care comes down to a moral issue.  I can't tolerate 45 million fellow citizens living without a safety net.  I can't tolerate wasteful spending on needless tests and procedures on the public dime.  I can't tolerate 45% increases in insurance costs over 2 years.  I can't tolerate 'competition' which triples my existing rates.  I can't tolerate people (including me, unfortunately) who don't take good enough care of themselves.

I can't tolerate the status quo.  Can you?

For me, health care is a citizen's right.  And an earned privilege.  We must strive to provide health care for fundamental human needs whenever possible, while simultaneously striving to ensure we grapple with the responsibilities that come along with that privilege.

So to the politicians, lobbyists, pundits, and citizens engaged in the public debate, I say: Grow up.  Step up to the plate.  Quit attacking.  Get realistic.  Have adult discussions.  Lose the scare tactics.  Work together.  Compromise.  Take responsibility.  Live up to your moral obligations.

Then, maybe, just maybe, we can build a better health care system.  For our nation.  And for one another.

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LexMob: Final Schedule

When we started LexMob on July 22nd, the idea was to keep patronizing businesses affected by the closure of South Limestone for a month. It has been extremely rewarding to meet fellow LexMobbers and to meet owners and workers in the targeted businesses.

It has also been very time-consuming.  I've decided to stop organizing LexMobs after Monday, August 31st, so that I can better tend to my business.

This doesn't mean that LexMobs have to stop.  In fact, we'd be thrilled if LexMob continues into the fall.  And anyone can organize a LexMob for South Limestone: The idea is to 'show up' with our feet and our wallets to help out these businesses.  Whether it is a mob of 1 or a mob of 100, simply show up and ask others to show up as well.

The easiest way to organize a LexMob: Send out a notice on Twitter with the hashtag phrase "#LexMob for #SoLime".  In my experience, it is good to send out a few tweets at different times of the morning to let different people know when and where the LexMob will be.  Then, after your LexMob, tell the twitterverse how it was and thank those who came.  That's all it takes. 

I've had a number of suggestions for how LexMob could continue:

• LexMobs could be weekly (or a couple of times a week) instead of each day
• Perhaps the businesses on South Limestone could organize LexMobs themselves
• We could just see what happens; Hopefully, other LexMobbers could continue to organize mobs without a central planner

We support any or all of these options. 

In any case, here is our 'final' schedule for LexMob:

• Wednesday 8/19, Lunch: Sav's Grill
• Thursday 8/20, Lunch: Hanna's, Zag's, & Failte Irish Imports
• Thursday 8/20, 7 PM: Social Event at Pazzo's Pizza Pub (sponsored by the Lexington Fashion Collaborative)

• Monday 8/24, Lunch: Banana Leaf
• Tuesday 8/25, Lunch: Tolly Ho
• Wednesday 8/26, Lunch: Cloud 9
• Thursday 8/27, Lunch: Han Woo Ri, The Album, Sqecial Media, and ReBelle
• Friday 8/28, Lunch: Sav's Grill and Oneness

• Monday 8/31, Lunch: Pazzo's Pizza Pub and CD Central

We hope to see you there!  Who's in?

What you told us: How Zappos would fix cars

This week we asked for your help in defining an astoundingly great car repair experience.  We summed it up this way: How would Zappos fix cars?

In Wednesday's post, we talked a little about what Zappos does and why customers love them, including the famous I Heart Zappos post.  And in the past two days, we've gotten some really great responses on Twitter, Facebook, and here on the blog - including one response from a Zappos employee!

Over on Facebook, Joan commented that she thought that Zappos was actually the "Lowell's of selling shoes".  (We heart Joan.)  We love that sentiment and will try to live up to it, but still think we have a lot to potential to improve our own customer service.

On Twitter, Jim suggested that Zappos "would come to your house and fix it at night while you slept".  Allan and Mari joked about needing to buy parts online from Amazon (an allusion to Zappos' recent purchase by Amazon.com).

But the strongest theme running through the comments: The need for greater transparency in auto repair.  I'll run through some of the comments, and then talk a little about what Lowell's does (and what we could do based on your comments).  On Twitter, Jupiter said he'd like to prevent that "being had" feeling, perhaps by getting greater detail on what was being repaired and why it was needed.  Ace Weekly chimed in "They would spoon you before giving you the bill?"  Here on the blog, Letha (a Zappos employee) shared a friend's experience with a body shop which sent her daily text messages about the status of her car after a wreck, including a countdown to when it would be ready.  Jim added this comment:

"The thing the frustrates me about car repair is the unexpected nature and size of the expense. It would be nice to provide as part of the service an educational piece that says here are the expected life cycles for key systems for your car and what you might expect to pay. And here are indicators of failure so we can start to diagnose these issues BEFORE they happen. At some point, owners need to start BUDGETING for system replacement and failure and that takes planning and information."

What's clear from this last batch of comments is that automotive service is all-too-frequently a kind of mysterious 'black box' where a car goes in one side and nasty, unpleasant surprises emerge from the other. 

At Lowell's we try to prevent such surprises in the following ways:

• On each invoice, we print a list of factory-recommended maintenance given vehicle mileage, including a rating of the severity or urgency of each one, and pricing.  We try to review that list with our customers when they pick up or drop off their vehicle.  We sometimes fail to discuss maintenance needs during busy pick-up and drop-off times.
• We always get customer approval before doing work on a vehicle, providing customers with estimates of the costs before we do the work.  If they are available, we'll also offer less-expensive alternatives, like fixing or cleaning a part instead of replacing it.  (Ace, we try to reduce the need for 'spooning' whenever possible.)
• When we call a customer to get approval, we tell them what a technician found and explain why action might be needed.

Based on your comments to us, here are some ideas of what we could do:

• Explainers.  For frequently-done maintenance and repair service items, we could provide detailed "explainer" sheets, including text and pictures regarding what the service is, why it is needed, and what a part might look like when it needs replacement. 
• Schedules.  With ongoing maintenance, it is easier to implement Jim's suggestion that we provide more of a roadmap of service.  And we do that, to some extent, with our list of factory-recommended maintenance.  But it is very difficult to predict with accuracy when something will break and require repair, and for many repairs there are few warning signs until something breaks.  When visible, we'll tell customers about signs like brake or belt wear or engine leaks.  One idea: We could take pictures of the actual parts that are wearing or of the places that are leaking, to show the thing that needs service.
• Convenience.  Not sure yet how we might do something like this, but Jim's other suggestion of working on vehicles overnight is interesting.  Perhaps we could pick a car up and have it back in the morning for very basic items, but a big part of our process is communicating back to customers about what we find (and they probably won't welcome updates at 2 in the morning).  But Jim's suggestion got us thinking: Are there other ways we could make getting auto service easier?
• Updates.  As a mechanical shop, most of our repairs are completed same-day, so we almost never have the 20-day delay in getting completed that Letha's friend had at the body shop.  But Letha's post got us thinking: Are there other ways you'd prefer to be contacted?  While the phone is our usual way of updating customers, we do frequently find ourselves in a kind of phone tag during the service approval process.  We could provide more contact alternatives: text messages, Twitter DM's (direct messages), etc. 

Which of these things would matter to you?  What other things would create an astounding car repair experience for you?

We really appreciate your thoughts, and please, keep giving us ideas on how to improve.

How would Zappos fix cars?

We spend a lot of time thinking about how to make our shop a better place for our customers and our community.  We feel like we're pretty good at the basics.  Just a few examples:

• We have an expert staff who know how to get cars fixed.
• We have a lot of nice touches for customers who wait on their vehicles: 5-cent Cokes, complimentary coupons for a drink and snack at Third Street Stuff, and we encourage customers to take our waiting area magazines with them.
• For customers who can't wait around, we have a complimentary shuttle to take them back home or to work.  For longer repairs, we provide complimentary loaner vehicles.

These (and many other) touches have helped us a lot.

But "It can always be better" is my personal motto.  This isn't some pessimistic, glass-half-empty statement; it is a fundamental belief that we can always improve the way we do things.

So we've been thinking about companies that really excel in customer service, and one name keeps popping up: Zappos. 

Zappos is a world-class online shoe and clothing retailer who has gained a fanatical customer following because they do a lot of things right:

• They offer free shipping (both ways).  While not promised, the shipping is often next-day.
• They have a 365-day return policy.  If your shoes don't fit or don't look the way you expected, return them at no cost.
• They have round-the-clock customer service.
• They have a positive culture which puts a premium on providing astoundingly great customer service and having fun.
• They have an enthusiastic staff which has permission to make things 'right' for customers with frequent pleasant surprises like this one.

Zappos recently agreed to be acquired by Amazon.com, and there has been a lot of concern about their ability to maintain their unmatched customer service. 

But for us, Zappos presents an interesting question:

How would Zappos fix cars?

What would an astoundingly great car repair experience be like?  Please share your thoughts in the comments below. 

We can't wait to see what you come up with.

UPDATE: What you told us.

LexMob Schedule

We like (and encourage) the loose, spontaneous organization of LexMob (an initiative to patronize businesses affected by the closure of South Limestone). 

But several folks have encouraged us to put together a LexMob schedule so that they can plan their attendance.  We think that's a good idea.  As always, feel free to organize or propose your own LexMobs.

Here's our tentative schedule for the next week (also published in this week's Ace Weekly on page 5).  Look for updates and schedule changes on Twitter (look for the #LexMob or #SoLime hashtags).

Friday 8/7, Lunch: Tolly Ho
Friday 8/7, 5:30PM: (OFF Lime) Front Porch Friday, Ace Weekly, 185 Jefferson
Saturday 8/8, 6-9 South Limestone 'Street Party' near High Street

Monday 8/10, Lunch: Banana Leaf
Tuesday 8/11, Lunch: Hanna's, Zag's, & Failte Irish Imports
Tuesday 8/11, Dinner: SoundBar
Wednesday 8/12, Lunch: Sav's Grill and Oneness
Thursday 8/13, Lunch: Cloud 9 and Kennedy's Bookstore
Friday 8/14, Lunch: Tin Roof

Please join us as we support businesses on South Limestone.  Also, if you are up for a hike (7 to 8 blocks) you can park in the Lowell's parking lot on the south corner of North Limestone and Mechanic Streets.

LexMob Update: Who's in?

It's been two weeks since South Limestone closed and since I suggested the idea to LexMob businesses up and down SoLime.  So how is the LexMob idea faring?  Have we made a huge difference to the bottom lines of the affected businesses?

In a word: No.

In two words: Not yet.

As an ad hoc effort, we usually decide the spot we'll mob for lunch that morning.  I usually send out a tweet proposing a time and place, and ask "Who's in?" 

So far in a typical LexMob, just three or four people show up.  A couple of times, the mob swelled to about a dozen or more.  And yesterday, I was the lone LexMobber.

These weren't really the overwhelming numbers I had hoped for, but are about what I expected as we get the idea of LexMob off the ground. 

Still, the LexMob experience has already been rewarding in a number of ways:

• I have gotten to meet a lot of great new people while LexMobbing.
• I have gotten a lot of exercise marching up and down Limestone (except in yesterday's monsoon).
• I have gotten a lot of encouragement from the local Twitter community and from the affected businesses.
• Lexmobbers (including me) have gotten exposure to great restaurants and stores that we would never have patronized if the closure hadn't happened.
• A few times, I've seen folks organize their own LexMobs
• I have gotten an inspiring, up-close look at how resilient and innovative other business owners are in the face of profound challenges.

And those rewards will keep me going back to SoLime businesses during the closure.

Where have we been?  Here's our list so far:

7/22, Lunch: Pazzo's Pizza Pub (4 LexMobbers)
7/23, Lunch: Sav's West African Grill (3 LexMobbers)
7/24, Lunch: Tolly Ho (14 LexMobbers)

7/27, Lunch: Tin Roof (3 LexMobbers)
7/28, Lunch: Han Woo Ri (Korean - 11 LexMobbers)
7/29, Lunch: Hanna's on Lime and Failte Irish Imports (8 LexMobbers)
7/29, Dinner: Pint Night at Pazzo's Pizza Pub (~4 LexMobbers)
7/30, Lunch: Pita Pit (2 LexMobbers)
7/31, Lunch: Sav's West African Grill (4 LexMobbers)

8/3, Lunch: Banana Leaf (Indian & Malaysian - 2 LexMobbers)
8/4, Lunch: Cloud 9 (1 LexMobber)

While I think all of these businesses need our help, I worry less about the popular campus hangouts (Pazzo's, Tolly Ho, Tin Roof) than I do the lesser-known and more out-of-the-way spots.

At Cloud 9 yesterday, I wasn't just the only LexMobber there - I was the only patron.  During what should have been their busiest hour, I was the only customer in the whole place. 

And - given its former 'dive' incarnation as the original Tolly-Ho and Wok 'n' Go (tucked behind Kennedy's Book Store) - it was a surprisingly great place.  Very clean.  Really nice ambience.  A very tasty special burger blend from Critchfield Meats.  Deep-fried hot dogs.  Beer-battered fries.  Unique and delicious 'flavor-blasted' soft serve ice cream.  Home-made mix-ins for ice cream treats.  Home-made frozen cheesecake.  I already want to go back.

Being the only customer gave me a chance to have a long conversation with the owner (Kurt Henning) about a variety of topics, including the South Lime closure.  He had no communication from the city about the closure - he heard details mainly through rumor.  He didn't know that the digging would go as far south on South Lime as it has.  He had no warning that the Euclid / Winslow / Avenue of Champions intersection with South Limestone would be completely closed.  And, he was surprised that the road in front of his shop (on Winslow, well off of South Lime) was being dug up as well.

And yet, Kurt was surprisingly resilient in the face of such a disruptive interruption to his business.  He's looking forward to when students get back on campus and business picks back up.  He's working to ensure good word-of-mouth (he does no advertising) about his business. 

And, sitting there as the only lunchtime customer in a great local establishment, I decided then and there to give him some good word-of-mouth.  (Did it work?) 

Don't go there - or to other South Lime places - because you feel sorry for them.  Go because they really are that good and because they deserve our business.

And, despite the extra inconvenience, time, and cost - I decided to continue LexMobbing South Limestone.

Who's in?

Pretty to Gritty: Thoughts on Lexington Streetscapes

Last week, Lexington's Downtown Development Authority held a "Downtown Improvements Public Forum" to share plans for renovating streetscapes along Limestone, Cheapside, Vine, and Main Streets.  (Controversial renovations on South Limestone are already underway.)  More 'open house' than 'forum', the lead agency for DDA's plans, Kinzelman Kline Gossman, had ringed the room with posters showing artists' renderings of what the streetscapes would look like and detailing guidelines for street and sidewalk construction. (Large PDF of the DDA streetscape plan here.)

Walking through the door, there was a telling moment.  There was an artist's rendering of what South Limestone would look like after the streetscape project was finished.  It was beautiful.  Except that it wasn't South Limestone.  The lone rendering of a South Limestone streetscape, while pretty, included non-existent buildings and storefronts.

Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to manage relationships and to interact with numerous creative agencies: design firms, ad agencies, industrial designers, consultants, and the like.  I've had many opportunities to witness their creative processes at work.  I've also seen the common pitfalls of such creativity.  And Wednesday's open house struck a familiar chord. 

One of the most common pitfalls of creative work is to focus disproportionately on 'the pretty'.  'Pretty' is creative work in its purest, most idealistic form.  Pretty designs are often, as their name would imply, beautiful and inspiring.  And as long as inspiration is their primary goal, pretty designs can be useful.

But too often, pretty designs are seen as some kind of end point in the creative work.  After producing a a creative product, the agency - or, worse, their clients - see the work as complete.  They frequently choose not to get 'dirty' with the unglamorous implementation of the project.  Many design firms see implementation as too mundane, too pedestrian.  In their view, they should focus on the pure 'art' of their creativity; it is then up to the engineer, the website coder, or the construction foreman to do the arduous task of making the project match the pretty design.

And that is precisely the problem with pretty designs.

When the pretty design meets schedule constraints or cost constraints or other real-world constraints, it can fall apart.  When the engineer or construction worker runs up against physical realities, the pretty design often gets severely compromised, and becomes something considerably less pretty.

While pretty creativity gets accolades and awards, it usually only accounts for a small fraction (I'd guess 5 to 10%, based on my experience) of the real creative work on a project.  And that real creative work is what I would characterize as 'gritty' creativity: the practical, streetwise, action-oriented creativity which actually drives the project forward and finds creative solutions to real-world problems.  The success or failure of complex projects depends in great measure on how much 'gritty' creativity is employed within those projects.

The disconnect between pretty and gritty is the most common cause of failure in creative projects.

What I saw at the DDA's forum was an abundance of stylistic and architectural details.  They had detailed guidelines for how to design intersections and sidewalks.  They had beautiful renderings of what downtown streets could look like after the designs were applied.  They had very pretty designs for the future of our downtown.

But what was missing from the forum was any substantial gritty design work for the actual execution of the project.

In the wake of the uncoordinated and under-publicized closure of South Limestone for streetscape improvements, I - and many others in attendance - expected many more practical, gritty details about how the rest of 'Phase I' (Cheapside, Vine, and Main Streets) would be implemented.  Indeed, I had also hoped to find out more about how future phases would affect my business and those of my neighbors on North Limestone. 

The disconnect between ideal ("the pretty") and implementation ("the gritty") was troubling: Could we be headed for another South Limestone? 

In the South Limestone closure, many businesses seemed to have little time to prepare for losing a big chunk of customers for a year or more.  Commuters had little time to adapt to drastically altered traffic patterns.  While the city made some public parking available, that parking was a pedestrian-unfriendly 4 to 5 blocks away from some of the affected businesses.  In short, South Limestone needed some gritty design for the implementation and coordination of the project.

The pretty planning for downtown streetscapes has been underway for years.  But real-world work on Main, Vine, and Cheapside is slated to begin in just 3 to 4 months.  This short timeframe creates added urgency for understanding how the rest of the streetscape project will really work.  And the utter lack of gritty planning details in last week's meeting makes answers to the following questions even more important.

• Could all three streets, as with South Limestone, be completely closed?
• Which sections of which streets will be closed?  For what periods?  What is the planned sequence of closures?
• When can each business on the affected streets expect their businesses to be interrupted?
• How long will such business interruptions last?  What will those interruptions look like?  Where will they be most severe?
• How can we accelerate the project where business interruptions will be most profound?
• Can we sequence closures around business cycles?  Could retailers be least affected during the holiday shopping season?  Could work near outdoor cafés be completed by spring?
• How will the city or DDA assist businesses during the closures?  How will such assistance be more effective than what was done for South Limestone?  Targeted ad campaigns?  Special events?  Shuttle services from parking garages? 
• Will drivers need to find alternate routes (as with South Limestone)?
• What are the likely sources of project delay?  How will those be mitigated?
• What, precisely, are the future phases?  When are they slated?

To avoid the chaos that accompanied the South Limestone closure, the DDA and the city must begin mapping out the gritty planning of how this project gets executed.  And simply throwing such vital details to a construction contractor isn't acceptable. 

The streetscape project is certainly a pretty design.  But, if it is to be a successful urban development project - if it is to help us build a better, more vibrant city - then it must get much more gritty as well.