The Lewiston City Council is looking in the wrong places for solutions to the evergreen problem of Park Street.

Latest council action about this occurred June 5, when the board extended a moratorium on liquor licenses in the neighborhood for 90 additional days, while granting an exemption for a new coffee shop/eatery on Middle Street, Guthrie’s. Doing so sends the mixed message that Lewiston wants it both ways, bustle and quiet.

Planners have told the city council the responsibility for solving the problem lies with it. City Administrator Jim Bennett was quoted as saying the city’s planning board has “overestimated” the council’s authority. In the meantime, a section of downtown will lie dormant for another summer, as the city vacillates.

An in-house solution isn’t there. Park Street bars have been a problem for decades. Any answers will be found outside the community, as thriving downtown areas exist elsewhere, and some surely must have endured similar growing pains toward gaining sustainability.

What this situation needs is knowledge. Lewiston has the experience, but knows little about how to resolve the ongoing issues. A comprehensive look at how others handled similar scenarios should provide needed insight into a problem that simply won’t go away.

The job seems tailored for the city’s new downtown committee. Perhaps it will discover innovative ideas for making residents and businesses co-exist downtown. Or, maybe they’ll declare the problem so complex, the only solution is rezoning the area residential and be done with it.

Either way is better than leaving a chunk of downtown, and its denizens, in limbo.