“Walkable cities” are environmentally, socially and economically vibrant.
Can Westport become a “walkable town”?
Sustainable Westport thinks so.
On June 4, the non-profit group brings urban planner Jeff Speck to Bedford Middle School (6 p.m. reception, 6:30 presentation).
Jeff Speck
Speck — whose books include “Walkable City: How Downtown Saves America, One Step at a Time” — speaks nationally on how towns and cities can embrace walking and biking.
In February, he addressed a capacity crowd at the New Canaan Library.
But Westport is a bit different from our suburban neighbor, Speck acknowledges. For one thing, a river runs through us.
For another, our train station — the town’s transportation hub — is located away from downtown.
Speck has been to Westport. He likes it.
“You’ve got good bones,” he says. “A lot of places don’t have a traditional downtown, with small streets and buildings that make it walkable.”
Westport “is starting on third base.”
What will get our home town to home plate?
As with any walkable, bikable community, 4 things are part of the framework. It must be “useful, safe, comfortable and interesting.”
“Communities like Westport don’t like to change,” Speck notes.
“It’s not complacency. It’s a fear of losing what they have. I understand that.”
But, he adds, change is often necessary for “resilience and longevity.”
One obvious place to look is the Post Road. Speck knows it’s a state route; the town does not control it. But, he says, there are ways to make it “calmer, and more welcoming.”
More controversial might be his thoughts about downtown. He advocates apartments — and a parking garage hidden behind them — at the Baldwin lot on Elm Street.
Jeff Speck thinks a parking garage — and apartments in front — would make downtown more lively and “resilient.”
More people, and easier parking, would make downtown more lively, Speck says.
“A lot of people would love to live in smaller units: young people, older ones. The more bodies you have downtown, the better it can weather the economic storms that visit our communities.”
He’s seen the “shock and outrage” that accompany suggestions like that, in dozens of communities. That fades, he says, when they see how well those ideas work.
Two places where, he says, these hidden parking lots work are Northampton, Massachusetts and Frederick, Maryland.
Speck has another idea — one that he was unaware is currently causing great debate here.
He was surprised, when he visited Westport, to see that “the waterfront is a parking lot.” He’d prefer “a linear park” along the Saugatuck River.
“If I wasn’t so busy, I’d draw it up myself,” he says.
Some of Jeff Speck’s ideas align with those proposed originally by the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee, for more green space by the Saugatuck River. The idea is controversial.
Another “major opportunity” is to add more housing near the train station.
The area is “under-utilized,” he says. “People can live right by the railroad. It’s a healthier lifestyle, for themselves and the planet.
“You learn in Planning 101 to bring housing to transit, and transit to housing.
One challenge to ideas like those, he reiterates, is that “communities generally don’t like to change.
“Most people in most communities would like more apartments. They just don’t want them near them.”
Most public meetings until the last decade “pitted NIMBYs against the business goals of developers,” Speck explains. “Planners had to choose which they wanted.
“Now you’ve got pro-housing, pro-sustainability, pro-biking people, who just want to see their community do the right thing. They’ve been effective.”
Speck had not heard of Bike Westport, a non-profit dedicated to making Westport more safe for biking and walking.
But, he says, “Bike groups have been my biggest supporters. I hope they show up.
“It will be a lively discussion, I promise.”
(Click here to register for Jeff Speck’s June 4 talk, and more information.)
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