Today’s Hour prompts thoughts about what might be in the future of Norwalk, in kind of a a murky snow globe like crystal ball filled with newspapery ideas. The theme –connecting Norwalk — seems so modern it’s positively retro. And so past is prologue, and I turn to a brief New York Times article from 1901.

Norwalk in 1901 was celebrating 250 years of existence. The subhead, “the town which sent proportionately more soldiers than any other to the war of Independence.” In 1901 though, the tremors of today can be gleaned by passages such as this:

Probably Norwalk might have become a fashionable summer resort for New Yorkers, as it was forty years ago, if its manufacturing and commercial growth had not developed so fast.

Fast is perhaps not a word one would use to describe commercial and manufacturing development these days, but the dilemma of what direction Norwalk should grow has apparently been one on the minds of Norwalkers for over 150 years. From the Hour:

The Norwalk Redevelopment Agency is hoping to launch a master plan aimed at connecting the city’s urban core — from the Head of the Harbor on Wall Street to the South Norwalk Train Station — for pedestrians and others who want to leave their cars parked.

In his 2008-09 capital budget submission, Timothy T. Sheehan, agency executive director, has requested $300,000 to produce such a plan.

“There was a local group (Norwalk Connections) that came together and basically put the outline of what was perceived as the needs. But then comes the question of how do you actually try … and integrate all of the needs,” Sheehan said. The master plan “basically would provide the framework for an implementation plan to do pedestrian connectivity between all the projects. I’m looking at it from the Head of the Harbor to the (South Norwalk) Train Station.”

The capital budget request comes as four redevelopment plans, each calling for various mixes of housing, retail and offices, advance for Wall Street, West Avenue and the Reed-Putnam area of South Norwalk. Collectively, they stand to brings thousands of new workers and residents into the core of Norwalk.“As the designs of these projects were presented, community leaders rightly questioned how these projects related to one another and how people would move through and between them,” wrote Susan Sweitzer, Redevelopment Agency senior project manager, in a memorandum to the Common Council’s Planning Committee.

Right now, means of getting from one area to the other, excluding via automobile, are lacking. According to Sheehan, a “host of obstacles exist,” including Interstate 95, unlit underpasses and sidewalks too narrow for pedestrians. While the highway will not go away, the ways under it and elsewhere, from South Norwalk to Wall Street, can be made friendlier, according to Sheehan and others exploring the problem.

Walking from SoNo to Wall Street is something I do frequently. My most recent excursion was a reminder of the baffling results that can occur when policy fails practicality. Things like the missing crosswalk connecting Lockwood Mathews Park’s part of the bike path, and the other side next to the Y. The trash-vertorial hulk that sits triumphantly in the middle of the underpass to I-95, waiting for straggling pedestrians who have to cross the Route 7 connector without a crosswalk or timed signal.

The random width of sidewalks is another puzzler, even more so considering the bizarre practice of sticking utility poles in the middle of sidewalks, as well as other obstacles. What would a Nor-walker of 250 years ago think?

source: The Hour, 300K Master Plan would connect city’s urban core, By ROBERT KOCH, December 30, 2007