Troubling sign of times on Greenwich Ave.
GREENWICH — Greenwich Avenue is the most prized and expensive retail real estate in town, attracting as it does affluent, and uber-affluent, buyers from all over Fairfield and Westchester counties and points beyond. It stands to reason that this busy shopping and dining destination is also a prime advertising location.
The town and some civic organizations, most notably Greenwich Green & Clean, work hard to protect what might be described as the quaint charm of The Avenue. Decorative lampposts line both sides of the oneway street; in the spring and summer, pots of blossoming flowers hang
from the dark green posts, and at Christmas, decorations add seasonal cheer. For its part, the town has maintained strict, comprehensive regulations that prohibit commercial signs and advertising from the public thoroughfare.
But apparently a new era of tolerance for commercial advertising has come to The Avenue, courtesy of First Selectman Peter Tesei and Think Greenwich, a nonprofit offshoot of Tesei’s Economic Development Advisory Committee. The group received $30,000 in town funds last year.
Think Greenwich is selling banners on the lampposts to advertisers, and Tesei has permitted the activity by interpreting the ads as “public information.”
“I made the decision to allow the banner program as allowed under building zone regulations section 6-166 (e) (1) that the town is conveying public information via the banners,” Tesei wrote in an email.
The cited section says, “All signs that are on the public right of way are expressly prohibited except those signs erected by a governmental body to convey public information or direct pedestrian or vehicular traffic.”
“These banners are a violation of the town’s own regulations. They are completely illegal,” said Mary Hull, longtime executive director of Greenwich Green & Clean. “We raised the money for those lampposts and worked very to revise a lot of town regulations to keep Greenwich the beautiful place it is.”
Others have been critical of the program but did not want to go public with their comments.
Interest in the banner program is running high, according to Think Greenwich co-President Sabine Schoenberg, a Realtor and residential developer in Greenwich. In March, she told the Economic Development Committee, of which she is a member, that demand was strong and that only a “few spots were left for 2019.”
The 40 banners that line Greenwich Avenue hang in pairs from the lampposts. In some pairs, one banner features a specific reason to “Think Greenwich,” such as Greenwich Restaurant Week or the Bruce Museum. The second banner is pure advertisement. And in some cases, both banners are advertisements. Among the advertisers that have appeared so far are Stamford Health Medical Group, Robin Kencel Group of Compass Real Estate, Yale New Haven Health/Greenwich Hospital, and several individual Realtors from Sotheby’s International Realty.
The advertising program is a boon to Realtors in a town that does not allow “For Sale” signs on individual properties. What better place for a Realtor to advertise than the popular shopping mall that is Greenwich Avenue?
Tesei would not provide any specific financial information, other than to say that the “proceeds of banner sponsorships support the overall Think Greenwich campaign.” He referred me to Think Greenwich’s co-presidents for more information. Schoenberg would not answer my questions, directing me instead to the Think Greenwich website, which has no financial information. Her co-president did not respond to my inquiry.
I have been told by a Realtor who inquired that participation in a twomonth program carries a $10,000 price tag. I hope they charge double during Christmas season.
“To Celebrate, Protect, and Build the Brand of Greenwich,” says the headline on Think Greenwich’s website at thinkgreenwichct.org/. We are each of us a brand to be managed, it seems. Apparently, the Greenwich brand is built around hedge funds, cinema, and music, if the Think Greenwich special events page is any indication. I suspect the hoped-for economic benefit of all this is the reinvigoration of the backcountry real estate market.
Several people worried that the banners have banished the flower pots from the lampposts. But Greenwich Green & Clean’s Hull assures all that the flower pots will reappear soon.
“The banner will detract from the flower pots, but we’ll keep at it,” she said. “I like to make positive suggestions rather than negative one,” she said. “But I would like to see the beauty of our town enhanced rather than putting commercial advertisements where they don’t belong.”
Many towns fly banners in downtown shopping districts. Some are just bold colors to provide some interest to an otherwise dreary townscape. Others provide cultural information, or celebrate a centennial birthday. But Greenwich Avenue needs no such enhancements, and it certainly does not gain anything from these banners, either aesthetically or economically,