Patience Needed on Park Street

Editorial
July 9, 2004


Park Street merchants who say the city's $6 million project to repair and beautify the commercial corridor is hurting their business should show a little patience.

By the fall, if all goes according to schedule, the street will be more attractive than ever to shoppers from all over New England. The project includes street repaving, traffic-calming devices, ornamental street lighting, trees, signs and benches, and the resurfacing of all sidewalks with decorative paving stones.

City officials expect the new streetscape to be the underpinning for improvements such as the restoration of the Lyric Theatre and development of the gateway to Park Street at Main Street.

Expediting a job of this magnitude requires traffic diversion and limits on parking. Unfortunately, this can temporarily cause some walk-in customers to shop elsewhere.

Storeowners should have known about and prepared for the project months before any ground was broken. In fact, an overwhelming number of merchants had lobbied for the streetscape project for years. As with any such undertaking, however, a few shopkeepers are bound to be more adversely affected than others.

Merchants who need help to get by during the construction should consider taking advantage of the low-interest loans that the Spanish American Merchants Association is offering. To help alleviate the disruption of parking, the owners of private parking lots in the area agreed to allow the general public to park their cars there for little or no charge.

Efforts are being made to mitigate the injury caused by the street work to businesses. Customers should make the effort to support them despite the inconvenience.