Opinion

Letter to the Editor: Rethink Pleasant Street needs to be rethought

A recent city council presentation on the Pleasant Street revitalization project detailed proposals that were never done. It, however, oddly left out a project that was done. I am referring to the 1979-80 downtown beautification project when the square was changed to its present configuration, when trees were planted and a couple dozen benches were placed around the square and on Pleasant and Broad Streets.

The benches looked nice. The problem was that within a year, people couldn’t sit in them for more than a couple of minutes without being prodded along by the police. The biggest opponents of the benches became the downtown merchants – the very people who were supposed to benefit from them — who didn’t want riffraff hanging out on Pleasant Street. Finally, the city removed the benches. I’d like to know why anyone thinks it would be different this time.

If downtown businesses complain about people loitering, what happens? I don’t think the CPD has manning to patrol benches. If officers need to be hired for that, there goes the spiel that this doesn’t impact the tax rate. Also, you can’t choose who sits down. There were recent complaints of residents sitting in lawn chairs on Sullivan Street. If benches are placed around the corner on Pleasant Street, they can sit there all day. If not, why not? So if it reaches the point that people needed to be prodded along after sitting for a bit, then we can’t sit and enjoy the street, can we?

This could be the final nail in the coffin of a dying street. We had great stores such as Corner Book Shop, Marsons, and others. Now we have more vacancies than not and storefronts sit empty for years. I don’t see how pulling the parking away from one side of the street, making it a one-way, and reducing the number of spaces in that stretch will benefit businesses. Yes, there are hopes to add spaces elsewhere, but that is currently wishful thinking.

A better plan would be to keep Pleasant Street a two-way with parallel parking on one side and angled on the other. That would increase the parking on that stretch of Pleasant Street. Opponents can’t say there isn’t room for that, because that’s exactly how it used to be.

If the proposal goes through and we have the same issues with the benches as we did years ago, what happens then? The benches get removed, and then we have wide sidewalks for no reason. Then those can be dug up and guess what? You have to pay to pave the street again.

If the pipes in the ground need to be replaced, then replace the pipes. Scrap the widened sidewalks and one-way traffic.

Wayne L. McElreavy

Claremont, NH

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