The eastbound train station building is about to get nip/tucked. Or something like that. There are even plans for a café. Funding for the project comes from the reinvestment of net revenues back into the parking system.
“We want people to take the train and walk to their destinations, said Kathryn Hebert, Administrative Services Manager for the City of Norwalk, so that they can fully enjoy the uniqueness of SoNo experiences with a short walk, bike ride or by taking the shuttle bus.”
The eastbound side is also home to the New England Fashion and Design Association located in the former Police Substation space. This summer, a new café, tied-in with a fashion theme, will also open on the eastbound side of the Station.
Meanwhile, yesterday Bobby Burgess couldn’t seem to figure out that private property owners who’ve had to put up with the unruly maw of taxi cabs around the train station, don’t exactly want to lend their property to have the taxi cabs hang out. From The Hour:
This week, Ward B Democrats Chairman Bobby Burgess, who has represented Eveready Transportation and Lloyd’s Taxi of Darien/Norwalk Yellow Cab in talks with the city, charged Republican Mayor Richard A. Moccia with not honoring “agreements” made behind closed doors on May 30.
According to Burgess, Moccia agreed to, among other things, allow 30 to 40 taxis to use Bates Court behind the former Diane Knitware property as a holding area.
“Although handshakes and agreements concluded this meeting, the mayor has thus far failed to live up to his parts of the agreements,” Burgess said in a press statement.
On May 12, the city mandated that cabbies vacate the parking lot on the eastbound side of the station and queue up in designated spaces along State Street on the westbound side. City officials, including Moccia, said that the cabbies were using the lot as a dispatching center, and creating unsafe conditions for pedestrians and vehicles.
Burgess and taxi company owners say the changeover has forced cab riders, including disabled persons, to cross through the tunnel beneath the station. The cabbies say they now must drive about, burning gasoline that costs more than $4 a gallon, because of lack of adequate space on State Street.
Strangely, the problems of how local taxi cab companies operate is now an issue for the CIty of Norwalk to deal with? Sorry, that’s private enterprise, and the Taxi cab companies can find a lot to lease and solve their won problem. Back to the improvements to the station. From the Advocate:
Originally built in the early 1890s, the train station burned down in the early 1980s before being restored in 1994.
Improvements will not disrupt commuters’ schedules, Hebert said.
The work was scheduled for August, when demand drops because many people are on vacation, and will be conducted on nights and weekends when commuter traffic further slows.“We’re going to have to direct people where to walk, of course, while we’re pulling up floors, painting and putting in doors,” Hebert said.
The work will be primarily aesthetic, not structural.
Bathrooms will see a fresh coat of paint and new fixtures, and manually operated wooden doors will be replaced with automatic doors, among other improvements.
“Over the last 14, 15 years, people just kick (the doors) open because their hands are full, and some are difficult to close. They’re very much beat up,” Hebert said.
The various aspects of the project are out to bid and will be funded by a $300,000 capital budget appropriation.
Work to replace rusted outside stairwell doors and clean pigeon droppings in the stairwells is funded under this fiscal year’s budget and is under way.
Eventually, Hebert hopes to work with the Norwalk Arts Commission, of which she is an ex-officio member, to install public art on the station’s empty walls, making the space more welcoming and tying it into South Norwalk’s artistic atmosphers.
The idea is to make the station a welcome mat for the neighborhood, Hebert said.
And with the nearby $450 million 95/7 redevelopment project under way, and Stamford developer F.D. Rich’s $24.6 million purchase of 28 properties along Washington and South Main streets, Hebert hopes the neighborhood grows toward the train station.
“If you’ve been to Manhattan, you don’t even think about walking out of the train station. You could walk 10 miles there and not care, because there’s so much going on. You feel safe. That’s what’s missing here. There needs to be more of a draw. Hopefully, with all those developments going on, that will happen.”
source: The Advocate, South Norwalk train station due for a makeover, By Alexandra Fenwick, 06/13/2008
source: The Hour, Cabbies put on hold for standing area, by Robert Koch, June 12, 2008
