Hannan Adley of the Journal News has a story up on the downtown parking situation.
New Rochelle business and city leaders want to extend meter hours into night
She reports…
New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson said the recommendations had a lot of support in the business community…
Does this mean a lot of the business community supports the plan or that those in the business community who support the plan support it a lot?
Have the residential towers delivered a lot of foot traffic and money for downtown businesses? Mostly I hear that residents of the towers sleep in New Rochelle but most do their shopping and entertainment in places like Manhattan. What have you heard?
downtown business
not sure that proposed solution makes sense. there seems to be a diversity of opinion among business owners. what i am sure of is that large residential downtown dwellings have to work with city and come up with a plan to ensure business’s are not shortchanged during normal business hours. this is an issue that likely can be resolved or at least eased; I believe one gentleman, (perhaps Gary of Spectators) had what seemed to be a good solution).
I am most concerned about a lot of cohesive planning on downtown development and it looks more and more like the piecemeal approach we are seeing on tv daily with so called health reform. I read recently that the city is going to pretty much dictate the furnishings and interiors of future condos, etc. to ensure that they represent a certain quality that would attract a clientele with dollars to spend downtown. A developer said, quite correctly, that this is routine regarding his (and unless lower end contstruction) other developers.
It is reminiscent of a lack of critical thinking and I am hoping that our import from Stamford Ct can add insight and planning to a broken promise and while he is at it, find the many holes in the IDA fabric. There are so many other things to address: the current over use of non-tax paying properites and the seeming unwillingness to zone them to nearby areas that do not interfere with appropriate development. We have a lack of alternatives put forth on partking and congestion and see it not from the viewpoint of the development perspective, but more catch as catch can. We see no direct city investment on what is vital to exisitng middle to high end residents — simply involving them in focus groups or surveys to dimension what types of close by walking services they would appreciate. The failure to put in a police facility; adding safety and face validity to an area which will decay without security is a huge problem The Commissioner’s point of view on patrol patterns, etc. is frankly, irrelevant. A precinct, even a 24 hour storefront is what residents need and want if they are to walk our streets and reduce traffic flow. Along similiar lines, it makes no sense to me why we have an administrative enclave at and around 515 North Avenue. Surely this is against common sense and faith in the commuity. Brewster, for one, saw the need to bring some resources to their downtown district and are happy for that decision. Think of how useful and supportive it would be to have perhaps several administrative units moved from city hall — and I would include the Board of Education in this — it might well begin to clear up the plethora of nail halls, dollar stores, non-profit store front churches and the like. Yes, we need to redistrict and rezone, — we needed another CVS?
Development means making difficult, longer term decisions to grow the city and build the tax revenue base. My hopes rest on recent changes as well as a more active council. Seems like only one or two councilmen– Louis is one of them — is carrying the load.
We have, in my judgement, two major areas requiring all hands commitment; the school district and tax base development. Lets gather around these.
warren gross
downtown business
not sure that proposed solution makes sense. there seems to be a diversity of opinion among business owners. what i am sure of is that large residential downtown dwellings have to work with city and come up with a plan to ensure business’s are not shortchanged during normal business hours. this is an issue that likely can be resolved or at least eased; I believe one gentleman, (perhaps Gary of Spectators) had what seemed to be a good solution).
I am most concerned about a lot of cohesive planning on downtown development and it looks more and more like the piecemeal approach we are seeing on tv daily with so called health reform. I read recently that the city is going to pretty much dictate the furnishings and interiors of future condos, etc. to ensure that they represent a certain quality that would attract a clientele with dollars to spend downtown. A developer said, quite correctly, that this is routine regarding his (and unless lower end contstruction) other developers.
It is reminiscent of a lack of critical thinking and I am hoping that our import from Stamford Ct can add insight and planning to a broken promise and while he is at it, find the many holes in the IDA fabric. There are so many other things to address: the current over use of non-tax paying properites and the seeming unwillingness to zone them to nearby areas that do not interfere with appropriate development. We have a lack of alternatives put forth on partking and congestion and see it not from the viewpoint of the development perspective, but more catch as catch can. We see no direct city investment on what is vital to exisitng middle to high end residents — simply involving them in focus groups or surveys to dimension what types of close by walking services they would appreciate. The failure to put in a police facility; adding safety and face validity to an area which will decay without security is a huge problem The Commissioner’s point of view on patrol patterns, etc. is frankly, irrelevant. A precinct, even a 24 hour storefront is what residents need and want if they are to walk our streets and reduce traffic flow. Along similiar lines, it makes no sense to me why we have an administrative enclave at and around 515 North Avenue. Surely this is against common sense and faith in the commuity. Brewster, for one, saw the need to bring some resources to their downtown district and are happy for that decision. Think of how useful and supportive it would be to have perhaps several administrative units moved from city hall — and I would include the Board of Education in this — it might well begin to clear up the plethora of nail halls, dollar stores, non-profit store front churches and the like. Yes, we need to redistrict and rezone, — we needed another CVS?
Development means making difficult, longer term decisions to grow the city and build the tax revenue base. My hopes rest on recent changes as well as a more active council. Seems like only one or two councilmen– Louis is one of them — is carrying the load.
We have, in my judgement, two major areas requiring all hands commitment; the school district and tax base development. Lets gather around these.
warren gross