Downtown has been very vibrant lately. The new sidewalks are going in on Main Street. Bedford Square and the Gunn house are under construction.
I have so many questions about downtown, just personal questions about different projects like the Save the Children/Famous Artists building across the river. I saw David Waldman waiting for coffee a couple weeks back, I asked him about the plan for the spot but he only mentioned something about still working on the concept. They had presented a pre-app to the P&Z months ago so I am assuming they are tweaking things. That will be a major transformation to the Westport river-scape.
A new art gallery is already doing private functions and is going to open in early June. It’s called Gilles Clement Gallery located underneath the old Remarkable Book Store, where the barber shop was for eons. I spoke to the gallery owner, Gilles Clement, last week he confirmed that there will be a party?!
I hope the new Library Director is as awesome as Maxine Bleiweis. The Library is one of the most progressive aspects of our town. Maybe the most highly functioning department, I don’t know anything about the schools – other than having attended them – they function pretty awesome as well. We will have new people in leadership positions, like; Parks & Rec, Staples Principal, next year Board of Ed. And Library Director.
The new plan for how the admin thinks downtown ‘should be’ including their timeline for the changes they want to make downtown. Melissa Kane, chair of committee commissioning the plan, did mention last week in some press release or another that she was focusing on the maintenance aspect. I consider that a good development. The maintenance has been terrible downtown – for years; garbage cans overflowing into the streets; horrible management by the DMA of the garbage pick-up location. They treat it like they are at the dump already, shows a real lack of leadership and understanding of the dynamics of how downtown works. The DMA need to just clean it up. No big ideas for that one, just pick up the garbage and make it look neat. Sometimes the simple things are the hardest to achieve, like weeding or picking up the garbage, everybody acts like its not their job and nothing gets done, year after year.
Other than that there is always that very early spring time section of the calendar before the people from out of town arrive for the summer, when Westporters can enjoy the beautiful weather and saunter around town in amazement of how different everything is from the old days.
With the Baron’s Land now being officially designated a park I would think it could be the center-piece of a new downtown plan. We have a new park facility complete with forest right in the heart of downtown! The awesome unintended consequences are staggering; playgrounds for children, museum like kiosks, some new expanded parking for the facility might give some relief to downtown parking. The senior center wants a pool, maybe it could be public. The Y downtown was cool because they had a public pool. Maybe a work-out center next to the senior center, the possibilities are endless. Yes, an indoor public pool for every Westport resident, right next to the senior center.
I have questions about the re-purposing of the Baron’s Mansion that is apparently underway — as the library has been ordered to get their books out. My question is: What will its purpose be? I think a museum of a kind as yet to be determined but having to do with Westport, maybe an annex of the Westport Historical Society?! eh, any takers on that one?