Understanding Downtown Issues—getting with the program or stepping away from the game.
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Notice all the garbage being exposed at the new Levitt Pavilion work site. Former site of town dump. The pile driving will begin soon creating much loudness. Meanwhile parking at the library is an outrage. Photo: Todd Tracy
This whole D2020 thing is totally political. Some people want their pet projects to be “planned in”, as if Westport ever went by a plan, the notion is ludicrous.
All the projects are moving forward anyway; Bedford Square, Levitt Pavillion, Save The Children, The Library. The only thing left open for development is Jesup Green(the official Town Green—after which this blog is named—in it’s slanged form from the 70′s) or the parking lots along the river(aka town owned land).
Downtown could never have been planned! Yet, it’s so vibrant and commercially successful. Just about every building is standing in violation of current P&Z rules.
Downtown itself is an arbitrary notion; there is no definition or formal boundary.
Rule number 1: No new space or building can be created without creating new parking spaces. This rule applies to everybody–everybody. Why should there be such a silly rule you ask?
Downtown can be seen from the perspective of parking. The first thing that should be noted is that for a store to thrive, in our downtown environment, customers need a place to park. Sounds simple, right?
Imagine, if you will, an employee at a retail shop on Main Street. She arrives about 10:30 because some of the stores open later. First thing she has to do is park, very few employees downtown arrive by the Coastal Link or by boat, everybody has their own car. There is no ride sharing as everyone has a different schedule and live scattered about the region.
((In fact, there is a specific number of employees that are looking for a spot. There is also a specific number of spots to park downtown. Same everyday. Drew Freidman and I conducted a parking study in about an hour. Half an hour to count all used spots at 8:30 and half an hour to count all used spots at 11am. Took us about an hour to tally it up on maps. He walked it right into the the First Selectman’s PIC committee that day. The response from the committee was blase. That’s when I knew we had a problem.))
Let’s call our gal Virginia. She is beautiful. She cruises the Baldwin parking lot looking for a long term spot. All the spots are filled by 9:15am. What’s a girl to do? She will never park at the Imperial Avenue lot because it’s dark when she gets off and it’s too far. Ginny, I’ve come to call her, zips around, darting in and out of traffic until she see’s a spot right in front of her store. That spot happens to be on Main Street but she knows she can move the car every hour to avoid getting a ticket, she must not be late for work or her children will starve–half to death. She takes the spot right in front of her store on Main Street.
Next comes Felicia, she is gorgeous and rich. She has money and wants to buy a blouse. But darn–all the spaces on Main Street are filled. Maybe she’ll come back and maybe she won’t. Traffic is a drag maybe she’ll just go home and order online. Meanwhile Ginny is out moving her car sometimes 3 times a day, maybe she only gets 2 tickets a month.
It’s not just one or 2 Ginny’s, it’s hundreds of Ginny’s going out to move their car.
Interesting–you might say. But why should you care?
Do you want a new movie theater downtown?
Do you want the Arts Center to get a proper new gallery?
Do you want a walking bridge to the other side?
Do you want a new library with an auditorium?
Do you want a more vibrant mix of stores downtown?
Do you want the developers to slow down trying to make Westport a new White Plains?
Do you want the new restaurants to be successful?
Do you want downtown to feel like a community spot or just a mall?
Do you want to save the last green places downtown?
If you haven’t responded yes to any of these you can ‘step away’, this is not the blog your looking for.