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Sometimes, a story will sneak up on you — touching off a vigorous back and forth of opinions on social media, even though the subject matter doesn’t, on the face of it, seem that controversial.

Such was the case with our report on the four-month, $26,000 study being down to help the Downtown Medford Association determine whether an economic improvement district would enhance the city’s core.

Times readers, as you might expect, sounded off on a variety of topics — from parking issues, to the presence of the homeless, to the reconfiguration of Main Street to widen bicycle access, as well as the central question itself:

Can downtown Medford become a more bustling experience for business?

What follows is an anonymous sampling, edited for length, of the more than 275 responses the story received.

“They should start by allowing parking for more than one hour on the streets. It’s kind of hard to have a relaxed meal at a restaurant in an hour or get much shopping done.”

“First, change Main Street back. The current format is ghastly. We need to work on attracting more businesses and make it easier for customers to park and reach them, not harder.”

“Anything to bring the vibe out of the mid-70’s and into 2024 and beyond has my support!”

“Thank you for adding the bike lanes, thinking ahead for the future of downtown. Way to go Medford.”

“The installation of the stupid bike lane on Main Street keeps me away. … The bike lane cost $2 million dollars to put in. I guarantee you, they are going to pull it out one day. Just like when they turned Front Street into a one-way. It lasted a couple years at the most.”

“(The story) cited Bend as an example, Bend has twice the income and the population income demographic that live there also. You might check out Petaluma Calif. That is a better example and they have a vibrant downtown. Would love to see a vibrant downtown in Medford.”

“There is plenty of parking downtown. The problem is the lazy people. If they can’t park right in front of the business they are going to they won’t go. They won’t walk a block or 2. And my second thought is if people would make a point of supporting the businesses that are there then more businesses would come.”

“For what it’s worth, it seems like the lack of parking, lack of broadly appealing businesses, proximity to the bus depot, and a throng of homeless people are keeping area residents away. … Frankly, very few cities have the political will to tackle any of those issues.”

“There are many opportunities to enhance our downtown, but every business is a silo of marketing effort and they need to come together and pool resources to make our downtown a great shopping district. … Together, they have a voice to the powers that be and a seat at the table in how our downtown is managed and I hope they take full advantage of this opportunity.”

”It’s always interesting that a private firm has to be hired by a public municipality to figure out why no one goes downtown. How about asking us, the citizens who don’t go downtown. I go there for the Craterian and thats about it. The parking is a pain, and the new road squeezing will not help.”

“They’ve been trying to improve downtown Medford for the last 40+ years that I’ve lived in the Rogue Valley. Not sure why it never works.”