East Side Partnership Neighborhood Meeting – November 2015

On Tuesday, November 10, 2015, the East Side Partnership held its last meeting for 2015. The meeting was held at Chelsea Piers CT. The attendees included East Side Partnership board members, community representatives, residents and business owners. Jim Grunberger, our Chairman, gave the opening remarks and welcomed the group. He thanked our previous Executive Director, Eva Weller, for her time and commitment to the East Side Partnership. Jim introduced Katie Travia as the new Executive Director for the East Side Partnership. Katie has been a resident of the East Side of Stamford for over 7 years and brings enthusiasm to her new role.

Katie provided an update on the projects the East Side Partnership has been involved since the last meeting in April. The projects included helping the city and Charter Oak Communities with the McKeithen Park Revitalization Project, coordinating the Harvey School Volunteer Day, rebranding the East Side Partnership’s website and marketing materials, planning a free sewing workshop for Stamford residents and organizing a petition for the Board of Representatives requesting a parking solution for businesses that lost on street parking as a result of the Urban Transitway Project.

Eileen Heaphy, the East Side Partnership’s Vice Chairman and a member of the Board of Representatives, gave an update on the upcoming construction projects on the East Side, which include projects on Courtland Avenue, the 95 bridge and the Urban Transitway Project. Captain Brian McElligott gave a police report on the East Side of Stamford as well as Stamford. He provided advice to the audience on street safety and indicated that the city will be launching a new camera systems across some of our parks between 2015 – 2016.

Erin McKenna, Associate Planner from Stamford’s Land Use Bureau, served as our keynote speaker providing an overview of the McKeithen Park Revitalization Project. The project started in the fall of 2014 with planning and design work. Charter Oak Communities collaborated with the City of Stamford on the project, which included a build day on August 28, 2015 with over 200 volunteers from the community. The result is a new playground for the residents of Lawn Hill Terrace and surrounding areas. Further renovations are scheduled for 2016 for the park including a basketball court, splash pad and community garden. Erin’s presentation is included below.

The East Side Partnership also provided an update from the Department of Engineering on the construction project on East Main Street for the Urban Transitway Project.

Harvey School Volunteer Day

On Tuesday, October 6, 2015, the East Side Partnership welcomed students from the Harvey School for a volunteer day. The Harvey School is a private school in Katonah, NY. The upper school participated in their “Harvey Builds Day.”  150 students went to Mill River Park to clean and paint a mural. 25 students went to CLC’s Hillendale branch, and 125 came to the East Side to help with a variety of projects. We based our volunteer projects around our motto of “Clean, Safe and Green”.

Clean: The bulk of our volunteers spread out across the East Side and helped us clean the streets. The Reddi Rooster at 1053 East Main Street surprised our volunteers with sandwiches and drinks to thank them. They also called in News 12 CT to interview some of the students and teachers (clip included below).

Safe: The Stamford Fire Department provided us with paint and supplies, so a group of students could paint some of the fire hydrants around the East Side. Many of our residents stopped the volunteers while painting to thank them for their efforts.

Green: We received donations from Purdue Pharma and Fairfield County Bank, which allowed us to purchase 10 new planters to place along East Main Street. The students helped plant fall foliage into the new planters and also planted bulbs in some of our pocket gardens along East Main Street.

The students worked from 9AM – 1PM on all the projects and made a great impact in our neighborhood. We look forward to future collaborations with them. If your business or employer is looking for volunteer projects, please contact us! We also have a variety of projects that require volunteers to help us execute.

East Side Partnership – New Branding

We have re-branded our image at the East Side Partnership! Browse around our website to see how its changed and added new information. We updated our logo to match our “neighborhood with a vision” tagline. Lastly, we are more present on social media. If you haven’t subscribed to our mailing list, please do so here. Also, be sure to follow us on Facebookand Twitter!

McKeithen Park Playground Build

On Friday, August 28th, over 200 volunteers worked together for over 6 hours to rebuild the playground at McKeithen Park off of Lawn Avenue. The project, sponsored by MetLife and managed by KaBoom!, envolved months of planning and coordination to bring the day together. Charter Oak Communities, the City of Stamford, KaBoom and the East Side Partnership collaborated together to coordinate donations, volunteers, fundraising and many other efforts for the park. The day included a DJ, breakfast and lunch for the volunteers, touch-a-truck activities for the children including the fire department and rescue squad and many other activities. At the end of the build day, the children will presented with bicycles and helmets as well. The City of Stamford is continuing to work on the landscaping for the park as well as the installation of a basketball game. This is a great achievement and new amenity for the East Side of Stamford. We would like to thank all the volunteers and businesses in the area, who donated their time and goods to this wonderful project. If you spent the day with us, please share your photos with us so we can post on our website.

East Main Street Businesses

On Tuesday, May 5, 2015, The Stamford Advocate published an article about the loss of parking hurting businesses on the East Side of Stamford. The article written by Elizabeth Kim is provided below.

STAMFORD – The Aim of the projects has always been clear: create a faster connection between Stamford’s East Side and other parts of the city, most notably the downtown and train station area.

But as work on the Urban Transitway resumes this month, long-time merchants say the city’s goal of moving traffic has come at a significant cost. Several East Side business owners say they have seen at least a 40 percent drop in business.

While noise and traffic have been issues, the larger reason has to do with the project’s design, the merchants say.

“They don’t come because there is no parking,” said Maria Lucero, who runs a bodega on East Main Street. Even getting deliveries has become a challenge, she added.

To make way for the $52 million second phase of the Urban Transitway, on-street parking was removed last year along portions of East Main Street and throughout Myrtle Avenue. The road-widening project, which includes a finished one-mile stretch from Atlantic and Elm Street, calls for a four-lane roadway that will accommodate bus lanes and cyclists, but not parked cars. On-street parking is seen as slowing down traffic. The issue is not new. Business owners have protested the removal of parking going back to 2006, when the city began holding public hearings on the plan. But the latest pleas come as the East Side undergoes a rapid period of growth. Over the years, East Main Street has seen pockets of redevelopment and new retail, beginning with the construction of Glenview House and East Side Commons, two residential projects that were completed in 2008.

From 2000 to 2010, the area bounded by Greyrock Place and Myrtle Avenue grew by 23 percent, making the census tract the city’s most populated neighborhood with 7,354 residents.

The removal of on-street parking has been especially frustrating for neighhorhood advocates who have worked to rid the East Side of crime and litter, and bring in new retail business.

“If you want to kill a business, the surest way to do it is to remove the on-street parking,” said James Grunberger, the chairman of the East Side Partnership, a group consisting of property owners, residents and businesses.

From a safety perspective, Grunberger said cars parked on the street provide a protective buffer for pedestrians. He cited a 2007 University of Connecticut study that found that on-street parking promotes a traffic-calming environment that attracts pedestrians and urban growth.

“Everything can’t be a raceway to the downtown,” Grunberger said. This is a village unto itself.”

The city has yet to publicly address the issue. But Thomas Madden, the city’s economic development director, said he was well aware of the criticisms, and that he talks to the East Side Partnership on a regular basis. He acknowledges that Stamford and the East Side has changed since the Urban Transitway’s original design nearly a decade ago. The city is now even more focused on promoted pedestrian and bike-oriented transportation, he said.

But changing the project’s design would require federal approval. As part of the grant, the Federal Transit Administration is paying for 80 percent of the construction costs of the Urban Transitway. The plan submitted by the city was the one the agency agreed to fund.

Instead, Madden said the city was planning to work with the neighborhood to make “tweaks for parking access.” He said he was currently in the process of discussing the matter with the project’s designers.

Manny Jurado, the owner of Manny’s Bakery at 902 E Main St, suggested the city could compromise by permitting on-street parking between the periods of rush hour traffic. After the city removed the parking spaces on his block last year, Jurado said business fell by 50 percent.

Jurado has plenty of experience in the neighborhood. He started his bakery 10 years ago, after a restaurant he ran for 12 years had to be shut down because the building was taken through eminent domain for the Urban Transitway.

He said his customers come as far as Darien and that he cannot survive on foot traffic alone. “Everybody has cars,” he said.

Similarly, Diony Vasquez, the 34-year-owner of JCB Interiors, a furniture and rug store at 914 E. Main St, said that nearly all of his customers drive, coming from as far as Bedford, NY. Although he has a parking lot, the loss of on-street parking has resulted in the customers of other businesses taking up his spaces illegally. The situation is difficult for him to monitor.

“I can’t be running back and forth from the showroom,” he said.

The parking shortage has not only affected customers. Mariely Gonzalez, an account representative at Durango Insurance Agency on East Main Street, said she comes to work 15 minutes early just to search for parking. “Its a headache,” she said.

Lawn Hill Terrace Revitalization Project

During the April 22, 2105 neighborhood meeting, Vincent Tufo, Executive Director and CEO of Charter Oak Communities, presented on the Lawnhill Terrace renovation project. Lawnhill Terrace is a sixty hear property on Custer Street. The upcoming revitalization project will transform the development and convert it to private management. Complex-wide improvements will feature exterior upgrades, heating system replacements, ADA accessibility, interior unit updates and sitework upgrades.

A unique feature of this project will be it’s focus on energy efficiency. The 3 phase project will yield between 45 – 55% increases in energy efficiency and reduced physical operating costs.

Phase 1 of the project will begin in the summer of 2015 and take approximately 12 months. This phase will consist of 60 residential units in 8 buildings. The attached document provides photos and details on the project.

ESP Neighborhood Meeting Update – April 2015

The East Side Partnership held a neighborhood meeting on April 22, 2015. During the meeting, Eva Weller and James Grunberger provided updates to the attendees on the Stamford Urban Transitway Project, provided announcements about upcoming events and introduced Vin Tufo, who provided a presentation about the Custer Street renovation project.

James read a letter from Ann Brown from the Office of Operations for the City of Stamford. The Urban Transitway Phase II resumed work on East Main Street in April. The underground utility work on the south side of East Main Street is complete except for the Level 3 conduit at the Myrtle ave/East Main St intersection. Base paving of the south side of East Main St is complete. When the south side is finished, traffic will be placed in this area and the north side of East Main will be started. The Contractor expects to begin on the north side of East Main St by July 2015. The Contractor continues to coordinate its work efforts with the utility companies.

Free Mobile Clinic Visits East Side at Domus and adds new stops

Play and Learn Nights

The Stamford Early Childhood Collaborative is sponsoring Play and Learn Nights for families heading to Kindergarten this fall.  One of the sessions will be held at Domus (cafeteria) on May 29th with Childcare Learning Centers located on Maple.  This is a wonderful opportunity for East Side families.

Eva Weller, Executive Director

East Side Partnership

203 329-0452

Play and Learn Nights

Families of children heading to Kindergarten in the fall of 2014 are invited to a night focused on literacy and

math readiness skills.  Come with your soon to be Kindergarten child to “play and learn”

and leave with activities to do at home during the summer! 

Three dates – same program each time.

Thursday, May 1, 6:30-7:45 p.m.

Chester Addison Community Center

Thursday, May 15, 6:30-7:45 p.m.

Ferguson Library

Thursday, May 29, 6:30-7:45 p.m.

CLC at Maple Avenue, DOMUS Cafeteria

Reserve your space today at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PlayandLearn2014

Saint Joseph Parenting Center‏