Wes Fanhani remembers all too well when single-lane traffic on Jefferson Street crept along. He also recalls that his customer flow sometimes mimicked the traffic slow and tentative.
"Now it's much better," said Fanhani, manager of The Accessory Store at 69 Jefferson St. (see www.thedailystamford.com/home-garden/lets-shed-light-matter). It took them eight months to open the road. Now it's great. The traffic is really, really fluid and flows nicely."
Road renovation in front of The Accessory Store is part of the first phase of the city's Urban Transitway Project, which seeks to decrease traffic congestion and create easier access to I-95. That first phase still needs to be completed. There's also a second phase to the plan that incorporates improvements to Myrtle Avenue between Elm and East Main streets.
Though millions of dollars have been secured for the project, its supporters are counting on $4.83 million more from the Board of Finance to ensure its completion. The board has declined to appropriate the supplemental capital, which would be a combination of city bonding and grant funding. BOF is scheduled to revisit the issue at its meeting Thursday.
"It needs to be done," said Martie Perry, a sales associate at Harbor View Center for Antiques, 169 Jefferson St. Though some managers have been "put out" by construction inconveniences, she said, "because of the transitway being cleaned up, we tell people you can take the train to Stamford and walk without getting mugged."
In addition to better traffic flow, the restructured Jefferson Street brought another dividend, said Fanhani.
"Our business got better, too," he said. "When they widened the street, it came closer to our store, so [customers] were able to see our sign better."
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