February 10, 2009

City backs design work for Main Street improvement

The city is taking the first step toward a possible realignment of High and Summer streets that would require the demolition of at least one decrepit apartment building.

City councilors agreed Tuesday to pay $29,250 to Beta Group, a design firm, to work up plans for fixing the intersection in order to clear up a troubled junction and provide more parking for tenants in the area who have nowhere to leave their cars overnight.

Doing the work “does create some positives,” said Jonathan Rosenthal, the city’s economic development director.

Only one councilor opposed the move, Democrat Craig Minor. The others supported the idea, which has the backing of business and neighborhood groups.

Minor, however, called it “a waste of money” that could be better spent on more pressing issues elsewhere in Bristol.

City Councilor Frank Nicastro, a former mayor, said the proposal has been tossed around for years. He said that doing it would help both the library area and downtown generally.

“It sounds like a solution looking for a problem,” Minor said.

The city already has a design in hand for a $1 million streetscape project that would transform the atmosphere along Main Street from the top of the hill to the Downtown Café.

The plan would copy much of the look of the revamped North Main Street that was done during former Mayor Gerard Couture’s administration, including new lighting, traffic calming, walkways, benches and other pedestrian amenities meant to make the area more appealing to shoppers and merchants.

Rosenthal said he doesn’t know what the intersection realignment will add to the bill, if the city opts to do it.

“We don’t know what it costs until it’s designed,” Rosenthal said.

City officials have long eyed the possibility of razing some of the aging apartments on the west side of Main Street near the library because they have no parking and are so beaten up that they hold little attraction for the young urban professionals the city would like to attract downtown.

Rosenthal said that lining up the roads and knocking down a building or two would allow for the creation of some parking for the remaining buildings while cleaning up some problematic properties.

The Bristol Development Authority, which is overseeing the streetscape work, has already given its blessing to the realignment design.


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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a great idea. The area could use a fix up, especially around our beautiful new library. Councilman Minor must have been feeling a little cranky; I'm glad the rest were thinking clearly. Hope it comes to fruition.

Anonymous said...

How much are we going to spend to "fix" something that is not a traffic problem?

Anonymous said...

You've got to be kidding me. The city's crying about not having any money for gas for city vehicles. There crying about money for health insurance and the only way they can pay for it is by taking money from the unions. And now there giving tax payers money to a private company for a study on how to straighten a road that has very little traffic on it. What are theses city councilors thinking, it's obvious that it's not for the welfare of its tax payers. I hope they rethink this waste of money at this time because come election time this will become a real issue to the tax payers.

Anonymous said...

This is a great idea! That area in it's present state is certainly doing nothing for the City, but bringing it down. I sincerely hope this happens!

Anonymous said...

Good Idea, Wrong time!

Anonymous said...

Other than tearing down the building, what will it accomplish?

Better to tear down the Building and put parking there.

Anonymous said...

8:50 sounds like a hack union city worker who doesn't care about the city. let the city go to hell, as long as you get your city paycheck and benefits.

Anonymous said...

11:53 I couldn't agree more. Call it for what it really is, an attempt to clean the area. I can save the city alot of money; knock down all the appartments and leave the street alone.

Anonymous said...

This Wards idea of moving FORWARD!!!

Anonymous said...

The BDA is an abomination!

Anonymous said...

I thought the whole idea for the center mall re-development was to make it pedestrian friendly .

Now they want to remove buildings because they do NOT provide adequate facilities for vehicles ?!?!?!?!

It would be nice to have the parties involved communicating with each other . That just may save the taxpayers some money .

Anonymous said...

Another W.O.M. (Waste Of Money).

Anonymous said...

HOw will this affect Cathys??

Steve Collins said...

I'm pretty sure Cathy's is already defunct. So I don't think it will have an impact.
The building that Cathy's is in would not be directly impacted by this.

Anonymous said...

too bad about Cathys, but did anyone really expect it to survive? downtown Bristol is a black hole. the only people who benefit from Bristol are city workers who can go out of town to spend all their money and enjoy a nice lifestyle after work and on weekends planning all the things they'll do with their pension in retirement while the rest of us struggle and wonder if our job will survive another week.

Anonymous said...

How much did Rosenthal give Cathys?

Anonymous said...

GREAT QUESTION???????????

Anonymous said...

What ever it was, it is now down the drain!

But I bet that Rosenthal got his share of free lunches.

Where was BDA in all of this?

Anonymous said...

This is a blatant case of Social Engineering, not Traffic Engineering!

They just want to tear down the building: they aren't concerned about the traffic.

Talk about spending a million dollars we don't have, unless Obama decides to fund it. (We don't have the dollars he plans to use either)

Anonymous said...

Finally! Minor is on the right side of something. Just in time to see him ride off into the sunset.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Stortz wasn't so bad after all.

Anonymous said...

9:18

Don't fool yourself - Stortz actually was so bad after all!

Anonymous said...

7:38

Sounds like you have a personal grudge against him.
What happened, did he not give you a city job?

Anonymous said...

2:06

No grudge necessary. Just one of the many citizens of Bristol who weren't pleased by Mr. Stortz' performance.

Anonymous said...

And many were quite satisfied, and would have voted for him again.

Moot at this time, we'll see what happens going forward.

Anonymous said...

Stortz for Mayor in 09!

Anonymous said...

For-Ward being the key word!

Ward in 09'

Anonymous said...

The city can't/doesn't even maintain North Main Street, after spending 3 Million dollars on it!

And they want to take on more?

Anonymous said...

Rosenthal for Mayor