Dark clouds loom over an empty downtown Westport as all the anchors for the town center have been systematically removed! As if with a huge crane! 9/13/2015 Photo: Todd Tracy for THE GREEN
I have been working on being real. My best friend has kind of confronted me about how I feel about different things. I hadn’t thought about my feelings for a while — maybe years.
Then I started thinking about things and the next thing I knew — I was crying. I was crying about the past, the future…and everything else.
Normally my emotions are off.
When I quit the music business, that was it for me, I would never feel again. Music, for me, was so emotional. It took a lot out of me to turn on the magic every day for years. I was relieved when I learned to just turn-off the emotions. Just shut everything down and become a cold reptilian predator.
But that don’t fly with close personal relationships. She asked me how I felt about this and at. I was like, “those subjects are off limits, I don’t talk about them.” She was looking at me.
Then I realized, “oh shit, I have to be real.”
It reminds me of downtown Westport. The authorities and planners, selectmen, and committee members never talk about the real issues facing downtown. If they did they would be reduced to tears.
Downtown Westport has been stripped of its anchors. There is no reason for a Westport resident to go down there.
Think about it. In the old days we had Kleins. Makes me cry when I think about them and that department store. Kleins had everything, and once you were there getting your office supplies — the rest of downtown awaited — for your personal exploration.
Another anchor of the old downtown was the YMCA. That was the biggest mistake in Westport’s history — letting the Y move to a residential neighborhood. When I was a kid the new Y was rebuilt and wow, holy anchor for downtown. Half the town went there every day, and then when you were done working out — the rest of downtown was waiting for you to personaly check it out — and hang out.
The library located at One Main Street, aka 17 Parker Harding, was a way groovy place to hang out. It had such an old school Westport vibe. Any self-respecting Westport kid went there once a week, and then, when they were done reading, the rest of downtown awaited exploration. One must always remember that the Y building and the library building were gifts to the town of Westport from wealthy benefactors who knew more about what Westport needed than any of the current crop all put together. Haven’t seen a kid downtown in years!
The Town hall being basically in the center of downtown, as opposed to the outskirts, has been a factor in terms of anchoring as well. When I was a kid my mom was a newspaper reporter and we used to go to Town Hall all the time, while she was in there I had downtown for my childhood explorations.
The movie theaters were a great anchor for downtown. All the restaurants and bars thrived when the movies would get out and hundreds upon hundreds of people thronged the streets. Downtown was vibrant back then. Now it’s dead. Do you really think Post 154 and Tavern On Main would be for sale if the movie theaters were still downtown? No, I didn’t think so.
Another great anchor in the old days were the pharmacies. CVS on Main Street was packed to the gills with people at all hours. The pharmacy across from Oscars (I forgot the name) opened early and stayed open late. We had an account there when I was a kid, I think everybody’s family did. I can tell you, while you were waiting for your prescription, usually exotic narcotic pain killers, downtown awaited your exploration.
There were other great anchors downtown as well such as Bill’s Smoke Shop and Bongs and Jeans.
Bottom line: All the anchors are gone.
Re-bricking the sidewalks ain’t gonna do sh*t. If there is no reason to go there Westporters won’t.
The Gap is not an anchor( the gap is soo Norwalk). Westporters want Gucci and Lauren. Banana Republic is not an anchor(soo eighties).
So I say to our leaders, “Whacha gonna do?”
Nobody wants to talk about it. It’s like my emotions. If our leaders were to face the impending reality they would be reduced to tears.
New fancy signs that say welcome to Westport will be the nail in the coffin. Ha