‘Like It’s Indianapolis’: On Forest, a Call to Change On-Street Parking for Safety’s Sake

Saying motorists take Forest Street “like it’s Indianapolis,” a New Canaan resident is calling on town officials to re-jigger parking so that cars pulling out of driveways there can safely enter the roadway. On-street parking on Forest currently is allowed to about number 54—the last residence on the west side of the street before the vacant Bank of America building, as zipping motorists travel south, Chris Hussey told the Police Commission at the group’s most recent meeting. When those parked cars are SUVs, “if you are coming out of that driveway—and there are two driveways, three buildings with four families in them—you cannot see,” Hussey said at the group’s May 20 meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “It is a blind spot, and you are coming out and you are the driver and they are they are coming down Forest Street like it’s Indianapolis, and by time you get out, they are there on top of you. And what I had suggested and hoped they would do at some point was to push the parking back, maybe not even not quite to Hillside Avenue—because there’s a condo complex there on the right, Forest Knoll—but maybe to that driveway, just so you have an opportunity to come out and see who is there.

Did You Hear … ?

For the first time ever, May Fair will open its rides to visitors on the Friday night of the weekend that the hugely popular event runs. “Friday Night Lights” will run from 5 to 9 p.m. on May 8—featuring just the rides, a performance stage and select food vendors Baskin-Robbins, Joe’s Pizza and Chicken Joe’s—and the full, cherished annual fair running about 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. the following day, said Richard DePatie, parish administrator at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. “We’ve been talking about it, off and on, for a number of years, and weather is a factor,” DePatie told NewCanaanite.com. He explained that in recent years, foul weather has caused organizers to hit pause on May Fair for periods of time on the selected Saturday, and that affects how much money can be raised (the fair benefits charities through the St.

Changing Elm Street To Paid Parking: Officials Eye Solutions to Problem of Downtown Employees

Downtown workers—not shoppers, not diners—take up 70 percent of the parking spaces on Elm Street, and one way to reverse that phenomenon could be converting the main business drag to metered spots and designating the free spaces a bit further off of it, officials say. The prospect has been discussed on and off for years–its major merit being that employees only force themselves into the downtown spots because as it is, they’re free—though it typically has been met with opposition because there’s a feeling it would be “non-village-y” to put meters in the heart of the village, Parking Bureau Supervisor Karen Miller said Wednesday during the Police Commission’s regular meeting. Yet there likely is no more effective way to address “the most sophisticated game of musical cars that you have ever seen in your life,” Miller said, referring to workers’ habit of keeping the spots for themselves by swapping with one another prior to reaching their 90-minute limit at a single space. “The real solution is that it should be paid parking [on Elm and Main] and nothing in the [off-street lots], absolutely,” Miller said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “The employees are parking there because it is free and they can move from one street to another.”

It’s a game of musical cars that goes on “literally all day,” she added.

Rule Changes Weighed To Free Up Downtown Parking for Shoppers (Not Employees)

New Canaan officials are deciding whether to introduce new parking rules designed to free up parking spaces for customers—rather than employees—of downtown shops and other businesses. Specifically, and at the suggestion of a New Canaan resident who is recommending the practice, officials are thinking about adding to 90-minute parking signs a “per day” notice—effectively preventing a motorist from parking the same car twice in the same spot on a given day. In conjunction with that, members of the volunteer group that oversees on-street parking in New Canaan could designate an entire zone—say, the length of Elm Street—as an area in which a car could only park once per day at its signed time limit. What likely is happening now, Police Commission Chair Stuart Sawabini said, is that employees at shops wait until a few minutes before their parking time is up, then “go out to the street, drive their car to different location [on the same street] and park again.”

“Hence the white chalk mark that was established by the town parking enforcement officer now disappears underneath the tire and looks as though they’re a new visitor to town,” Sawabini said at the commission’s regular monthly meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. The idea of changing the parking rules had been proposed by New Canaan’s Jeff Holland, the commission said.

New Canaan Police: Motor Vehicle Accidents Up ‘Pretty Significantly’ in 2014

Motor vehicle accidents in New Canaan are up “pretty significantly”—by a total of 20 at this point in the year compared to 2013—the chief of police said last week. Accidents with injuries are down and motor vehicle violations have improved month-over-month but are “not what they should be,” Chief Leon Krolikowski said during a Police Commission meeting Wednesday. During targeted enforcement for distracted driving Monday on Route 123, New Canaan police issued 14 tickets including nine for cellphone use, officials have said. “I could give 14 tickets on Elm Street in a three-hour period of time just by looking,” Police Commission Secretary Sperry DeCew said during the meeting, held in the training room of the New Canaan Police Department. Asked by Commission Chair Stuart Sawabini whether police would assign an officer to plain clothes duty for violations, Krolikowski said yes.