Business

‘We Felt It Immediately’: Downtown Merchants on the Loss of Parking Spaces on Elm Street

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One month after town officials preliminarily “lined out” a new parking configuration on Elm Street that loses downtown New Canaan more than a dozen spaces, some merchants say the change already is having a dramatic effect on business. Though parking woes already were aired daily by customers, the new scheme that includes a legally required 25-foot buffer zone between a crosswalk and parking space “has had an immediate impact,” according to Maxine Berg, owner of Jade, a popular luxury fashion fitness boutique at 7 Elm St. “We felt it immediately, the minute those spaces were taken,” said Berg, who purchases parking permits for the Center School Lot for herself and staff at the shop. “Especially on my part of Elm. There were four, five spaces.”

Prompted by a resident’s formal complaint about New Canaan’s non-compliance with what appears to be a seldom-observed state law, the town rather suddenly in mid-July was compelled to eliminate 13 parking spaces on Elm Street, which has five crosswalks.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The owner of a commercial property in downtown New Canaan on Wednesday filed a lawsuit seeking $10,200 in back rent from a former tenant. According to the complaint, the plaintiff—ANCAR Inc., a company whose managing partners are Knapp Lane residents, according to Connecticut Secretary of the State records—is seeking two months’ rent due in March and April for a tenant at 149 Cherry St. at $4,600 per month and $1,000 owed for short payments amassed over the prior 10 months. The defendant is Devonshire Holdings LLC, owned by a Greenwich resident, state records show. ***

The New Canaan Fire Department had a very big turnout at the Katonah Fire Parade, as did the Mount Kisco Pipers.

Around Town

New Canaan Library, Bookstore See High Demand for Controversial ‘Fire & Fury’ Book on Trump

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Officials at New Canaan Library and the bookstore in town say they’re seeing high demand among locals for “Fire & Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” a new book at the center of a political firestorm involving the president and his circle. The library had ordered one copy of the nonfiction work before it had any buzz—even though the book wasn’t reviewed anywhere or expected to do very well—and that copy is expected to come this week, according to Lauren Phillips, head of collections. There already are 29 holds on that print book—Phillips said she since has ordered three more copies, and hopes to have them soon—and 21 holds on an e-book version out of the library. “This is an unusual situation,” Phillips said. “It’s not unusual for us to have a lot of holds on a book before its publication date.

Business

10 Great Last-Minute Christmas Gift Ideas from New Canaan Shops [GALLERY]

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We’re entering the home stretch of Christmas shopping in New Canaan, as most every holiday shipping date has past. For anyone looking for great last-minute gift and stocking-stuffer ideas, we’ve created the gallery above—covering everything from $5 squishies for the kids to a $3,600 six-liter bottle of wine for the grownups. Though it’s not meant to be exhaustive—for example, we left off favorites such as the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce’s gift cards, New Canaan Historical Society’s ornaments and Philip Johnson Glass House’s design store items—the gallery represents a good cross-section of downtown merchants. As Laura Budd from the Chamber’s offices above the Playhouse on Elm Street said: “From our office on the ’50-yard line’ and from our interactions with store owners and managers, we know that New Canaan shoppers have embraced the ‘Shop Local’ movement. We know this is in no small part due to the tremendous effort the local businesses put in to the ‘experience’ of shopping here in New Canaan.