"They call me the cherry tree assassin," says Arty Selkowitz with a rueful smile. As chairman of the Mill River Collaborative, Arty, a Stamford native, has had to make an unpopular decision or two. The temporary removal of Mill River Park's emblematic cherry tree groves probably raised the loudest ruckus, but that's because locals didn't understand the reasons behind the change, Arty explains. The trees were removed as part of a process to restore the river's natural terrain; the plan was always to plant more.
"Anyway, even if we could have saved the trees, they wouldn't have lived that much longer," says Arty. "Cherry trees don't have that long a life span, it turns out. People say, 'Well, what about the cherry trees in Washington?' They don't realize those trees are replaced every 10 years!"
Renewing the park's population of George Washington's favorite shrub is just one small part of the Mill River Collaborative's vision, which is "to create a world-class urban park in the Stamford Downtown that will serve as both an oasis in city life and a vibrant, diverse green space for the Stamford Community."
Translated into more concrete terms, the new Mill River Park will feature an amphitheater, carousel, ice skating rink, kayak station and more, and will stretch nearly 30 acres from Broad to Pulaski streets. The seven bridges crossing the river will each have its own lighting design ("We want it to look like a necklace glowing at night," says Arty). Perhaps most notably, a massive elimination of centuries-old barriers and dams will restore the natural flow of the river itself for the first time in over 360 years. If all goes as planned, this should lead to a resurgence of native fish, wildlife and flora.
The project at large, meanwhile, should lead to a resurgence of the surrounding neighborhood, long-considered a "blighted area," as Arty puts it.
"Stamford downtown has been ridiculously under-parked," he says, referring to the city's lack of green space. With a design by landscape architecture firm The Olin Studio (past projects include Bryant Park in Manhattan and the Washington Monument) and a budget of $60 million dollars in federal, state, city and private funds, Mill River Park and Greenway is poised to take its place as a top city oasis. A retired advertising executive who commuted for years into Manhattan, Arty knows a little bit about what makes urban gems like Central Park great.
"A space like this has to be clean, safe, and well-programmed," he says. "Cities today can't do it alone." That's where the Mill River Collaborative comes in, he continues. "We model ourselves after Central Park Conservancy. They're really the gold standard."
Arty estimates that Phase One of Mill River Park will be completed sometime in 2012. His own children are grown and spread out across the country now, but he's sure his future grandchildren will benefit from his efforts in some way,
"This is what I think of as a legacy project," he says. "Generations to come will say, 'I'm glad they were smart enough to do this.' I wish they were smart enough to do it back in 1929 when the surrounding property was going for peanuts, but we're doing our best now."
To learn more, visit the Mill River Collaborative's website.
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