Last week’s “06880” post on “Downtown Activism” really roiled the water.
More than 40 commenters waded into the long-running debate about downtown Westport’s charm (or decrepitude). Some of the most interesting replies noted the decided lack of advantage we downtown property owners have taken in what really is a spectacular riverside setting.
San Antonio's riverside...
Parker Harding Plaza, for example, snags what could be a wonderful shopping/strolling/dining/hanging out district — think San Antonio’s River Walk — and uses it instead as a parking lot.
It’s not as if people have parked there since, like, colonial days. Until the 1950s, the Saugatuck River lapped up against the backs of Main Street stores. Today’s “plaza” is all landfill.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for a River Walk. (I’m already holding it waiting for the Post Road/Main Street crosswalk to be striped.)
But the comments got me thinking about one of my (many) pet peeves: Starbucks.
... and Westport's.
No, not the uber-ubiquitous chain itself. (Though I still maintain that if a “tall” is the smallest size offered, I am Yao Ming.)
My beef is that our downtown coffee shop is the most poorly designed of all 3,287,682,451 Starbuckses in the galaxy.
Who gets to look at the river? Not the customers. The workers baristas. (Well, they would if we weren’t standing in the way.)
The seating area should face the river. The serving area should be where the seats are now — that pitch-black, very unwelcoming section in the back.
Or so it seems. I don’t sit there. I’m afraid I’ll get mugged.
Which leads to today’s “06880” question: What other places in Westport — downtown or elsewhere — need a makeover?
Click the “comments” tab. All ideas will be collected, collated, tabulated, and passed along to the proper authorities.
Who will toss them into the Saugatuck River, never to be seen again.
