Best Wishes to Jennifer Janelle

Jennifer Janelle, a board member of the Bristol Downtown Development Corp., an environmental attorney and a devotedBristol mother of two, was married over the weekend to her beau Don Arasimowicz.

He was her high school sweetheart (collective "awwww....)

I found out about it from looking at my husband Steve Collin's facebook page. He's facebook friends with Jennifer and that's why I got to see the happy couple posing for the photographer. She was looking stunning and he was looking ... right at her, of course!

I am not on facebook and wouldn't post her photo here if I was, unless she said it was okay.

“He and I dated in high school and after painful divorces, ended up back together” about two years ago, she told me in February for a profile I wrote of her published back then in The Bristol Press. “We’re happy. Things are good.”

It seems that things are even better now.

Congratulations, best wishes and a rose to the happy couple.

Zoning Buddies

I met a couple of real nice gents at the Bristol Zoning Commission meeting Wednesday. These two guys, Richard Chapman and Pete Roseen, showed up out of concern for the project on the corner of Middle Street and Mountain Road.
They were quite dedicated, as they waited nearly four hours to have a chance to speak about the proposal.
Quite a few newcomers were on the zoning board that night, and things weren't exactly speedy. Former Chairman Frank Johnson and former Vice Chairman John Lodovico, who had both been on the board since Moby Dick was a sardine, recently stepped down as their terms ended. They're still active in a lot of community stuff, most visibly the Bristol Downtown Development Corp.
But let's get back to my new zoning pals. These are guys after my own heart. They patiently sat through long presentations on a couple of other projects, including testimony by the ever-riveting traffic engineers.
Mr. Roseen, who said the meeting was going on WAY past his bedtime, told me it was "like watching grass grow."
Mr. Chapman, whose daughter, Patty Chapman, recently retired from the city treasurer's office, is a former state police officer who has seen his share of ugly.
"Autopsies are more fun," he said, than zoning meetings.
I couldn't resist asking them if this experience didn't make them appreciate newspaper reporters just a little bit more.
It did, they said.
After that, I shared my candy with them, making it a better evening all around.

The Deal is Done

Don Monti's Renaissance Downtowns is now officially on board as the preferred developer for the 17-acre, city-owned former mall property in the heart of Bristol.
Unlike some people, I don't think it's taken the BDDC all that long to find a developer, particularly given the property's track record and the lousy economy we've all been living with in the last couple years.
I especially credit Frank Johnson for his leadership on the board and Jennifer Janelle for her diligence and courage throughout her time on the BDDC. Without either of them -- and this is not to take away from the valuable work that others did -- things could have turned out very differently.
Since I arrived on the Bristol scene in 1993, I've watched a lot of botched attempts on the mall property, and a lot of potential investors take a look and walk away.
Monti sees something different, and I hope it works.

BDDC Approves Contract With Monti

Tonight, the Bristol Downtown Development Corp. approved a long, detailed contract with Don Monti, president of Renaissance Downtowns.
The deal, which next goes to the city council for approval, gives Monti two years to come up with a concrete plan for the 17-acre, city-owned site in the heart of Bristol. It is largely empty now but was the place where the old mall once stood.
Councilors will take it up next week.
Read details of the deal in my story in The Bristol Press on Tuesday: www.bristolpress.com.

Give Downtown Project a Chance

Yesterday I wrote a story for The Bristol Press (www.bristolpress.com) about the realistic timeframe people can expect for the downtown project.
The deal isn't even signed yet between the city, developer Don Monti of Renaissance Downtowns and the Bristol Downtown Development Corp., but both Monti and Frank Johnson, who chairs the BDDC, kindly spoke with me a little bit about the plans.
I'm sure many people in town are as eager to know what to expect there as I am, and hopefully just about everyone is also as eager to have something good there.
They were honest enough to say downtown won't be built in a day. In fact, expect it to be built in phases, a piece at a time, over a period of years. The whole thing could take the better part of a decade. At the moment, Monti plans what he called a "boutique" hotel as part of it all. That means a small one. That would be part of the big picture of mixed use, commercial, residential, retail, pedestrian-oriented development that Monti is pushing.
As I understand it, the investment could be really significant.
Of course, the anonymoust reaction to this in the stupid blogosphere is outrage -- it'll never be built, why should it take so long, the hotel will be terrible... yada, yada, yada.
My husband and favorite co-worker, Steve Collins, wrote in the Bristol Blog about how shameful this anonymous and moronic tirade is. See what he had to say in www.BristolToday.com.
Now it's time for my two cents.
Too bad the silent majority is so silent. How about a little confidence in the members of the community -- homeowners, business leaders and others like Frank Johnson, Jennifer Janelle, John Lodovico and the rest on the BDDC as well as Mayor Art Ward and the entire city council and a host of professional staff, some of whom live in town and others who are professionally invested-- who have given their own time (well, yes, the professionals were paid) and energy into figuring out what to do with the old mall property and done it all by using their real names, in public?
How about giving Monti, the chosen developer a chance to see what he can do? He's putting his own money on the line, after all.
From my interactions with him, I can tell you that Monti is very high energy. I know Bristol needs that. He's got successful businesses elsewhere and other towns have put their faith in him.
He's got a track record of bringing all sorts of people together and he sees great potential in Bristol.
It seems Monti believes more in Bristol than the anonymous posters who can't wait to go on the attack and trash him, the city and everyone else who is trying to do something for the good of the community.
I think the people of Bristol can return that faith, at least to give him a chance to give it a go. I hope they do, and I hope he ultimately gives them reason to cheer.
I may no longer be eligible to vote in Bristol, but I was for some time. My children were born there and I've invested the bulk of my professional life in the Mum City. I care about people who live there and I truly want good things for the city.

Shamrock Shoes

Shoes of the Week Award goes to...
Tom Cosgrove of the Bristol Downtown Development Corp., who was sporting a pair of green, 2007 sneakers with little shamrocks on them.
"They were only sold in New York," said Cosgrove, who said the company made only 2,000 pairs of them. "They're worth 200 bucks."
If you know Tom, you know he has quite a shoe collection. Maybe someday I'll write about it. For now, you know he was observing St. Patrick's WEEK with his feet completely in the spirit.

Pay for Parking in Downtown Bristol?

I'm sure you're all on pins and needles about that parking study, so without further delay, here's what I wrote for Tuesday's Press about it -- www.bristolpress.com.

BRISTOL -- When the city’s new downtown takes shape, it should include a fee for parking, consultants told the Bristol Downtown Development Corp.

If a parking garage is part of the downtown project, it’s going to have to bring in revenue to support it, said Chris Granatini of Tighe & Bond, a firm that the BDDC hired to do a parking study of downtown.

Granatini said the last thing the city wants is to have people driving up and down the street looking for a free parking space. The time to institute a fee for parking is when the new downtown is built, he said.

John Lodovico, who serves on the BDDC board, said he didn’t disagree about the necessity of charging for parking but warned that people wouldn’t like it.

“It’s going to be quite a culture shock,” said Lodovico.

Granatini and a colleague, Joe Balskus, gave a presentation to the BDDC Monday about the downtown parking situation.

Citing downtown Middletown as a model, they suggested creating a parking authority -- an entity Bristol already has -- to oversee, manage and operate the parking.

Downtown Bristol has more than enough parking spaces for now and for the planned development, the consultants said.

Granatini said 1,900 parking spaces are regularly used out of a total of 4,700 spaces downtown, when all public and private lots are considered.

The former mall site, which is expected to be developed by Renaissance Downtowns, is tentatively slated to have 750 residential units, a 100-room hotel, commercial space and 1,550 parking spaces.

“The existing supply can accommodate what’s proposed in the future,” said Granatini.

Frank Johnson, chairman of the BDDC, said it’s important to remember that what Renaissance has now is a “concept plan” that may well change.

The firm identified several places they referred to as “hotspots” where parking is in high demand.

The hotspots on the street were along North Main Street in front of City Hall, the post office and fire station; on West Street between Laurel Street and School Street; on High Street in front of the library and along Main Street between the library and Riverside Avenue.

Off the street, the hotspots included the municipal parking near the post office where Foley Street meets Meadow Street, and across from City Hall on the former mall site, which they identified as “municipal area overflow parking” and on the old mall site on Main Street, identified as overflow parking for Main Street businesses.

The parking analysis suggests several potential spots for new parking lots, including the Bristol Boys and Girls Club site on Laurel Street, the former site of the Mamatseos building on North Street and North Main, the former Bristol Press building on Main Street and the former Mills box factory site on Church Street, among others.

The study also advises “road diets,” or a narrowing of some multi-lane streets like Riverside Avenue to make room for on-street parking. The consultants suggested some could be added on North Main Street near the junction with Riverside Avenue and along Riverside between Main and North Main streets.

Johnson said an alternate idea might be to accomplish the same thing by expanding the former mall site out to include those lanes and have additional parking on the property. Johnson said it is also possible that a parking facility could be a public-private venture.

Granatini said the city could gain some parking spaces in the municipal garage between City Hall and the police station, which he said is not used to capacity. He suggested that perhaps the city could assign some of the spaces to municipal employees to encourage its use.

-30-

The Rest of the City Hall Scene

What else is going on over there? I just attended a BDDC meeting and the highlight for me, anyway, was the downtown parking study. Stay tuned, readers because you'll see it revealed here first.

The BDDC had to keep things short because the Democratic Town Committee was busy piling in for their meeting.

They had a few candidates who were going to make a pitch... Jonathan Harris, who wants to be secretary of the state, Merrick Alpert, who wants to be a U.S. senator, and James Amann, who wants to be governor. I didn't see any of them because I had to leave to write about that fascinating parking study and I was on deadline.

I did, however, see a smiling Sen. Tom Colapietro, who planned to announce his re-election campaign tonight.

Then, I had to leave.

My date tonight with the BDDC

Yessir, it's that time again... for the monthly meeting of the Bristol Downtown Development Corp. at City Hall. Come one, come all. If we're lucky, we might even hear about the parking study!
Seriously, it probably won't be as much fun as recent meetings, but then, those were pretty exciting by City Hall standards. I for one am pleased that things seem to be moving ahead with the downtown project and we have to give this little posse some credit for that.
Anyway, dear readers, I will brave the rain along with the plucky board members of the BDDC and their professional staff, and then I will bring you the latest word. I hope there's something juicy to report.