Category Archives: Downtown

Pic Of The Day #391

Posted on May 13, 2018 | 3 comments

Checking out reflections in the Saugatuck River (Photo/Mary Sikorski)

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Posted in Downtown, Environment, Pic of the Day

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Wrong Way, Myrtle!

Posted on May 12, 2018 | 9 comments

At first glance, there’s nothing wrong with this photo:

(Photo/JP Vellotti)

But look closely. The car is cruising the wrong way down the 1-way stretch of Myrtle Avenue, between Avery Place and Main Street.

After never in my life seeing that happen, I spotted it twice in 2 days recently. Alert “06880” reader/photographer JP Vellotti saw it too — a different time — and snapped this photo.

Then yesterday evening — while standing with 100 or so people outside the Westport Historical Society, at the opening of the (fantastic) new exhibit on our town’s African-American past — we all watched another car zip past Town Hall, headed the wrong way. (For good measure, it blew past the stop sign at Avery Place.)

I have no clue why there’s this sudden epidemic of driver cluelessness.

But it gives me a chance to ask a question I’ve thought about for years:

Why is Myrtle Avenue 1-way in front of Town Hall?

There’s no logical reason. The road is wide enough for 2-way traffic (if there’s no parking on the street next to the stone wall). It’s a waste of time — and a teeny bit of gas — to send people leaving Town Hall on a 180-degree loop from Main Street to Avery Place, just to go south on Myrtle toward the Post Road.

With 2 traffic lights on the way.

I know why Myrtle Avenue is one way at the Main Street/North Kings Highway light. There’s not a lot of room there, and traffic from Myrtle heads left, straight and right. All I’m talking about is 2-way traffic from the Town Hall exit, back toward Avery Place.

If someone has a good argument for keeping Myrtle Avenue 1-way, I’d love to hear it.

Otherwise, let’s make this little-but-big change now!

Traffic coming out of Town Hall should be able to turn left as well as right — right? (Photo/Alison Patton)

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Posted in Downtown, Transportation

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Good News: Peloton Pedals Down Main Street

Posted on May 10, 2018 | 4 comments

After months in which big-name retailers fled downtown — Nike, Ann Taylor and Allen Edmonds, to name 3 — we’re about to score a big win.

Peloton is taking over the Sperry boat shoe store, just past Banana Republic on Main Street. They hope to open in early fall.

A peloton is the main bunch of bicyclists in a race. (Think of all those guys roaring 8 abreast down South Compo or Hillspoint, plowing past stop signs and forcing drivers into the other lane.)

But Peloton — the company — takes that group concept, and brings it into your home.

They sell stationary bikes. They’re sort of like the kind you find at a gym, or that sit unused in a corner of your house — but only in the sense that the Tour de France is like your 6-year-old on training wheels.

Peloton bikes are high-tech, and cutting edge. They’ve got big, bold interactive screens, through which you access “group” classes any time. You can track your performance through many different metrics.

There are tons of instructors — each with his or her own personality, all motivational. Just pick the one who suits your mood most, at the time.

All of this is streamed from a studio in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood. (A 2nd tread studio, for treadmill work, is on Christopher Street.)

A Peloton bike

So why is Peloton coming to Westport?

They’ve got 33 retail outlets, in 16 states. That’s where you buy the bike, plus accessories like shoes and heart monitors. (You don’t need a helmet!)

Right now, the closest one is in the Westchester Mall. In fact, most Peloton stores are in malls.

So the fact that Peloton has chosen Main Street, rather than Norwalk’s shiny new GGP Mall, is big.

In a few months, we’ll welcome them to Westport.

Just drive on down.

Or ride your bike.

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Posted in Downtown, Local business, Sports

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Downtown Art Show: Bigger And Better Than Ever

Posted on May 9, 2018 | 8 comments

There’s always something new under the downtown art show sun.

And we do mean “sun.” The annual event always seems to be held on the hottest weekend of the year.

This year’s 45th art show — that’s what everyone calls it, though the official name is the Westport Fine Arts Festival — will expand to Church Lane.

Last year’s return to Main Street and Elm Street — after a few years hidden in Parker Harding Plaza — was hailed by artists and art-lovers alike. Over 9,000 people attended.

According to the sponsoring Westport Downtown Merchants Association, the 2017 show was ranked 34th in the nation.

Sculptures filled the street in front of Banana Republic, at last year’s summer art show.

Also new this year: an expanded jury of prominent local artists and experts.

The panel — with graphic artist Miggs Burroughs, Westport Arts Center director Amanda Innes, Westport Library curator Chris Timmons, town arts curator Kathleen Bennewitz, WDMA and The Visual Brand president Randy Herbertson, and festival director Sue Brown Gordon — has already selected over 160 high-quality local, national and international artists. They span a broad variety of categories, and include last year’s Best in Show winner, photographer Mark MacKinnon.

The downtown art show — er, Fine Arts Festival — is set for the weekend of July 14-15. We know 2 things:

  1. It will be filled with excellent art, music, food and fun.
  2. It will be hot. Wear sunscreen!

PS: The logo is new too:

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Posted in Arts, Downtown, Entertainment, Organizations, People

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Lincoln Street Nears Historic District Designation

Posted on May 9, 2018 | 16 comments

Last night, Westport’s Historic District Commission unanimously supported the creation of a new historic district. Comprising 13 houses on Lincoln Street and 4 on Riverside Avenue — all built between the 1850s and 1930s — the designation could help the town in court, should it oppose a plan for an 81-unit housing development proposed for the area.

Lincoln Street connects Post Road West and Riverside. It is near Kings Highway and Saugatuck Elementary Schools, and Assumption Church.

Here — thanks to alert “06880” reader Tina Torraco — is a glimpse of that historic neighborhood.

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Posted in Downtown, Organizations, Real estate, Saugatuck

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Pic Of The Day #385

Posted on May 7, 2018 | 5 comments

Finding our way in beautiful downtown Westport (Photo/Lynn U. Miller)

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Sorry, Senior Center!

Posted on May 7, 2018 | 7 comments

That’s what I get for relying on tipsters.

A few minutes ago, I posted a story referring to the Post Road East street that appeared seemingly overnight between the Sunoco and Mobil stations, opposite the Westport Country Playhouse:

Based on an email I had received, I wrote that it created new access to the Baron’s South property.

It does. But only if you go through the Senior Center.

Former 2nd selectman Avi Kaner notes that the road is part of the Senior Center enhancement project.

Happy trails!

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Posted in Downtown, Environment, Organizations

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Art For All This Month

Posted on May 7, 2018 | 3 comments

For over a century, Westport has been known as an arts community.

While our focus is often on noted artists, art comes in many forms. So does “community.”

Two upcoming events honor art of different types — and the concept of community.

A free “HeARTS Open Wide” gala on Thursday, May 17 (5 p.m., Westport Woman’s Club) celebrates the work of budding artists from CLASP Homes, Project Return and Homes With Hope.

Those local organizations support adults with disabilities, teenage girls and young women in crisis, and homeless families — populations that may not seem to have time for art, but for whom it can be a life-changing form of expression.

The Westport Arts Center and Westport Historical Society will also be represented at the gala.

The event is the first-ever art show for the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center.

Senator Richard Blumenthal is scheduled to present 3 DFCAC scholarships at the gala, in partnership with the WAC and Westport Woman’s Club. Staples High School seniors Lilianna Giaume, Katelyn Loucas and Zoe Molina each earned a $5,000 award.

The evening also includes the introduction of the $1 million DFCAC Fund. Over the next 10 years, it will support art programs and scholarships for underserved artists of all ages.

Miggs Burroughs — a noted artist DFCAC board member — has matched local organizations with art instructors from the Westport Arts Collective. That jump-started the foundation’s mission: reaching budding artists who may otherwise not have access to supplies and education.

There will be music too, from the incomparable Suzanne Tanner — and of course food. Friedman and Nick Visconti — chair of the DFCAC, and Friedman’s longtime business partner — owned local restaurants.

Nick Visconti (front row, middle) and Miggs Burroughs (back row, middle) with some of the art students helped by the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center.

CLASP Homes and Project Return are also beneficiaries of a portion of sales at 2 pop-up gallery shows. They’re set for 153 Post Road East — the building opposite Design Within Reach (old post office), between Westport Pizzeria and Finalmente/Jeera Thai.

Over 30 artists will be featured from May 10 to June 3. There are 2 receptions, with food and music: Saturday, May 12 (4 to 6 p.m.), and Sunday, May 27 (6 to 8 p.m.).

The pop-up shows are directed by artists Amy Kaplan and Trace Burroughs. Their goal is to “connect the community, and energize downtown Westport through art.”

The 1st (May 10-22) includes Kaplan and Burroughs, plus Kat Evans, Miggs Burroughs, Irene Penny, Nina Bentley and others.

Amy Kaplan’s “Dreamweave.”

The 2nd show (May 24-June 3) includes Noah Steinman, Dan Long, Katherine Ross, Charles Douthalt, Melissa Newman, Diane Pollack and more.

There’s plenty of art for Westport this month. After all these years, we are still very much an arts community.

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Posted in Arts, Downtown, Organizations, People

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Pic Of The Day #381

Posted on May 3, 2018 | 2 comments

Saugatuck River and the west bank, from the Kings Highway marsh. (Photo/Amy Schneider)

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Photo Challenge #174

Posted on April 29, 2018 | 13 comments

Bedford Square has changed the way Westporters use downtown.

Its courtyard, stairways and several entrances and exits provide shortcuts between Church Lane, Main Street and Elm Street. It’s taken a while, but many folks now zip into, through and out of the handsome retail/restaurant/ residential complex that replaced the YMCA.

As work continues on the adjacent property — the old Bobby Q’s restaurant — a once-hidden alley has been exposed to the public. Now everyone can see the graffiti there.

Eileen Lavigne Flug, Arnie Rusoff, Jeff Giannone, James Weisz, Lawrence J. Zlatkin, Bob Weingarten, Ben Pool, Michelle Saunders, Chris Buckley, Breno Donatti, Andrew Colabella, Ralph Balducci, Michael Calise, John Moran, Suzanne Ford, Sal Liccione and Alison Patton all quickly identified last week’s photo challenge — a photo of “Stop War” graffiti — as that alley. (Click here to see Betsy P. Kahn’s image.)

Can our alert readers be so quick with this week’s challenge?

We’ll see. If you know where in Westport you’d spot this, click “Comments” below.

(Photo/Bob Weingarten)

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Posted in Downtown, Photo Challenge

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