Much to the chagrin of local independent restaurants, Stamford is considering moving the cut off on meter fees up to 10pm. The restaurateurs claim that this development will be a further hit to business, a market that has already suffered from the arrival of the new chain restaurants at the mall plaza.
I understand how running to "feed the meter" at regular intervals can be a pain in the ass and can see how this might not be a wise decision at a time the local restaurants are already hurting. Looking around lately parts of downtown Stamford are indeed dead. Columbus Park seems to be chugging along, but you can hear your echo in most establishments along Bedford and Summer as of late.
While I think the cold weather is playing a large part for the recent ghost town, there are more fundamental problems facing the restaurants downtown than extended meter hours.
1) Suburban Mindset. Each of the major pedestrian cores, Columbus, Summer, & Bedford are each serviced by large, almost always empty city garages. If baffles me that no one brought these up in the recent Stamford Advocate articles on the meter issue. No one needs to run out on the middle of Cloverfield to pop pocket shrapnel into the meter when you can park in a garage cheaper and for long periods of time. Fishing change off the floor of your car isn’t even an issue here because you can use either bills or plastic at the pay stations. This would also free up the on the street stops for more quick, run-in/ run-out stops.
The problem is people in the ‘burbs aren’t accustomed to anything other than door to door driving. Each of the garages though is no longer than a few blocks from most downtown restaurants. Garage parking seems to be the accepted norm for a night out in White Plains, so I suspect Stamford will come to the same realization soon. The city could ease some of the growing pains by upgrading lighting and safety in the Bell St and Bedford garages to be on par with the new Summer St garage.
2) Underdeveloped Retail: After you feed in Stamford your options are pretty limited. Booze, movie, or go home. Yes, we also have the Rich Forum & The Palace, but these aren’t events you would necessarily partake in regularly. Cheap parking isn’t the driving factor behind the mall plaza restaurants. The mall at least offers people something to do before and after diner… shop. Downtown Stamford offers over 70 restaurants, but little else has caught up. Think If Stamford had more pedestrian level retail, attractions like a live music venue (think Toad’s Place), comedy clubs, attractive parks, a modern library… this is suddenly more appealing than trying out the massage chair at Brookstone.
3) Downtown Housing: The math is simple here, more people living downtown = foot traffic = more restaurant traffic. Locals love to trash the Trump building, but this huge influx of new people downtown will be a massive boost to the downtown economy. Stamford needs to continue to push to bring more people from every economic level downtown and invest in amenities like attractive sidewalks, bike lanes, & safe crosswalks that make it friendlier to move about.
