Leonard Honeyman Photo
The villagers said they want traffic to flow more smoothly.
Those at the east end, by downtown, sought crosswalks, sidewalks and parking.
Those in the middle saw the “speedway” as the biggest problem.
They all were talking about Whalley Avenue on Thursday night — and how to make it better.
The South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG) has had Boston-based consultants PB studying the road from Emerson Street to Broadway for much of the past year. They’re planning a major re-do of the Avenue — part two of a job now underway west of Emerson to the Woodbridge town line.
The consultants had come up with their appraisal of the road: who lives and does business on it, its traffic patterns, its strengths and weaknesses as a major artery. They prepared maps and charts of the Whalley Avenue that is.
It was now up to the group of about two dozen city officials, business people and advocates of one stripe or another to fill in the blanks about what they want the Whalley Avenue of their dreams to look like.
They gathered Thursday night at the Beecher School, a short walk from Whalley between Fitch and Jewell streets, near one of the bottlenecks identified by the consultants.
Three working groups were formed and soon buzzed with suggestions and complaints, some feeding off each other.
The $70,000 study, paid for with federal, state and SCRCOG funds, is meant to present the visions of people who walk, drive, shop, do business and commute along Whalley. The study reached from Emerson Street because that’s where the currently underway $9.3 million renovation of Whalley stops.
The consultants will take the feedback they received Thursday night and write a report to be presented to the group in early June.
The report will then be presented at a public hearing and, by the end of June, be sent to the state Department of Transportation for its study.
The state, of course, has no money for the new project and doesn’t expect to have any for perhaps five years. But that doesn’t negate the value of the study, said Stephen Dudley of SCRCOG. “Most project take from five to 10 years from study to actual work,” he said. “We don’t know what will happen,” he said.
Most of the people were crowded around public-school-sized cafeteria tables talking about the west end – from Emerson to Fitch – or the east end – from Broadway to the Boulevard.
The central part is mainly residential and cemeteries, so fewer people were interested in that part of the road, said Kathleen Krolak (pictured) of the Economic Development Corp., who ran the meeting along with consultant Stephen Rolle of PB, shown in photo.
Some of the suggestions by the villagers included changing about the confluence of Whalley and Fountain Street, including possibly a roundabout. Advocates Thea Buxbaum and husband Gar Waterman suggested reversing the flow of Tour and West Rock avenues.
The east siders heard consultant Bob Talbot say traffic flowed at an acceptable rate but its intensity varies depending on the hour.
John Vuoso (pictured at the top of the story), chairman of the Whalley Avenue Special Services District, said many businesses at the east end of the road have no off-street parking available. He said the negative perception many people who are not familiar with the area have is “improper” and said they might have been put off by what he called the deplorable condition of the sidewalks and the lack of adequate lighting.
Some pointed to a long-vacant lot on Sherman Avenue between Whalley and Elm Street as a possibility. But Vuoso pointed out that it was sold to a church for congregant parking.
They also talked about the recent closing of Shaw’s grocery and the hardship that will have on residents, especially those living in nearby elderly housing or people without easy transportation.
Vuoso was upbeat, saying after the meeting that he is “confident” that there will be a “super” market in that space “hopefully within six months.”
Farther west, parking also was the subject of discussion, with business people calling for better marking of parking spaces, more streetscapes, and traffic calming, with one person saying it looked like the start of an auto race when the light turned green at Whalley and Fountain heading east.
Displays and some of the takeaways from the meeting will be up on the SCRCOG website, by the start of next week, Dudley said.
