New barriers go up on The Avenue
GREENWICH — It was a new day for Greenwich Avenue on Monday as the lower part of the town’s signature street was closed off to vehicular traffic.
The goal is to open up The Avenue for pedestrians — creating a kind of outdoor mall and allowing restaurants to expand outdoor dining into the street. They can welcome back customers after the coronavirus closures while creating more space for social distancing.
“Don’t be afraid to come out and patronize the store and have a bite to eat,” First Selectman Fred Camillo said as he inspected the area. “Everybody who is a merchant here is taking great care setting up all the precautions to have a safe environment to eat and shop.”
The Department of Public Works went to work early Monday putting up the barriers and signs for the closure, which will last through Sept. 2.
With the barriers in place, Camillo toured the area with Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and state Rep. Livvy Floren, R-149, on Monday afternoon. Bysiewicz has been visiting towns and cities to see how businesses and restaurants are taking steps to reopen safely.
“People love ... to go out and walk,” Bysiewicz said. “I think people have been going a little stir crazy and they can’t wait to go out to dinner.”
She said it was important to boost the restaurant industry since the first phase of reopening on May 20 allowed outdoor dining in Connecticut. The second phase, which will allow limited indoor dining, is scheduled for June 20.
The first phase of the closure is from Havemeyer
Lane by the Starbucks down to Railroad Avenue. That portion includes 17 of the 27 restaurants on Greenwich Avenue.
Despite the closure, one lane remains available for emergency access as well as for trash pickup and commercial deliveries.
A new scene
Residents were eager to take advantage of the new downtown scene — with many sitting outdoors for lunch at one of the restaurants or going out for a walk.
“I love it, I absolutely love it,” town resident Holly Grinnell said. “I think this is fantastic. I walk the Avenue all the time for exercise and as soon as I walked into this today I got a hometown feeling, like it was being taken care of.”
“This is great,” agreed a Greenwich resident who identified himself as MJ, who pushed a child in a stroller. “It’s a little weird not seeing cars here, but it’s good. We live close by, so we’re going to be coming a lot more often.”
It attracted fans from out-of-town, too.
“We need to have this in more areas,” said Ori Bitter, from New York City.
“This has a very European feel to it, like you’re walking in the town square,” Mark Perkins added.
Carolina Cuevas and Rares Ispas were in Greenwich for the first time, enjoying lunch at Mediteraneo. And the New York City residents said they were likely to return.
“Things are open here and you can walk around,” Cuevas said. “It’s been a while.”
Camillo, Bysiewicz and Floren agreed that this could be an opportunity to attract visitors from New York, who might decide to rent or buy in the area — or to work in town. Camillo said he discussed that idea last week on a webinar with New York businesses.
“They were looking at Fairfield County and Greenwich to set up satellite spaces,” Camillo said, calling it “very encouraging” for the town and state.
Bysiewicz said it was a “great opportunity” for Connecticut, which “should be marketing ourselves as a state with great education, with easy access” to New York and Boston.
“Why would you go for a tiny apartment in New York or really expensive office space when you can have this beautiful quality of life” in Connecticut, she said.
Two more phases; changes possible
Although there were raves from pedestrians, some business owners on the Avenue expressed concerns. One store owner estimated that closing the street off to traffic had already cost him 70 percent of his business on Monday. He said there should be 15minute parking spaces available for shoppers to run in, make a purchase and leave.
Camillo said he wanted to hear from local business owners and said the Board of Selectmen would continue to examine the situation. He suggested that areas could be carved for some parking.
“We stand ready to adjust as soon as possible if we have to,” he said.
The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to discuss Phase 2 and 3 of the plan at its June 11 meeting. Phase 2 will cover Greenwich Avenue from Putnam Avenue to Lewis Street, and Phase 3 from Lewis Street to Havemeyer Place.
“We’re going to see how it works with this one first,” Camillo said. “We’re trying to do the crawling before we can walk.”
Restricting vehicular access to Greenwich Avenue had been discussed long before the coronavirus pandemic.
Camillo said he would like to see parking at Town Hall with a trolley bringing visitors back and forth to Greenwich Avenue, similar to the Harbor Point service in Stamford.
This is the first step in long-term plans for Greenwich Avenue as the town works to better connect it with the downtown waterfront and provide further economic opportunity.
“There’s lots of things we can do,” Camillo said last week. “It keeps evolving. We can really make this a nice attraction and destination for people. We want to get it up and running and get these businesses going.”