Letter: The Belvedere debate can bring out the best in Bristol

Posted 6/14/18

Our town is so fun. Where else could we go on a Thursday evening and hear and see hundreds of our neighbors and friends give their impassioned pleas for or against a major project in our little …

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Letter: The Belvedere debate can bring out the best in Bristol

Posted

Our town is so fun. Where else could we go on a Thursday evening and hear and see hundreds of our neighbors and friends give their impassioned pleas for or against a major project in our little town?

I had no idea how many experts we have in our community; our town has some really brilliant minds who care deeply, and for this I am so happy to live and own a business here.

Then two nights later, we enjoyed each other’s company celebrating the arrival of the British Car Festival, as many of us volunteered alongside of each other to offer our time to support the event.

A few of us on both the pro and con side managed to find ourselves making our way to Judge Roy Bean, where had a lively and reasonable conversation as we had a birds eye view of the controversial lot. What was refreshing in the discussion with about six strong and highly-opinioned women, was our ability to hear each other’s sides.

I consider myself pretty reasonable, and I try to hear what the opposition’s points are. What I heard over and over was, it is not that the opposition does not want a building. They do. The variance requests are a major sore spot for so many residents who have had to jump through hoops to do one seemingly simple request.

But this is not an existing space already defined as historical. It is a new building. When was the last time we had a new building in downtown Bristol? Stone Harbor?

Of course we all want to get it right, but we cannot compare apples to oranges. Existing buildings like the Gladding buildings being rehabbed fall into a totally different category than a brand new building, as do the buildings newly acquired by Steve DeLeo on State Street.

There was lots of talk that this decision sends a message that our comprehensive plan and our need for established rules and regulations would not be take seriously if this were to go through. Have we created such strict guidelines that make all change inflexible for our future?

I think the message we are sending is that if you want to come to Bristol and invest $10 million, don’t bother because the hoops you have to jump through are not worth the money and time. Whoever will eventually be an investor in the Robin Rug building, when and if that occurs, is watching this scenario. Oh but wait, maybe if someone wanted to make it affordable housing, maybe this would be an acceptable solution? Highly doubtful that the concerned citizens of historic Bristol want this solution “in their backyard” on the waterfront. 

The comments over our drinks and grilled cheese were clearly against the size and the boxy feel. But the boxy feel was in direct response to the opposing side’s last request to shorten the height. The previous plans that had the peaks were much more attractive and, ironically in our conversations, we all agreed that the peaks were a better look.

I posed the question: What do you want? If you could have anything at all, what do you want? And please consider, while you are deciding, that this is in fact economics, as we live in a free country where business owners are allowed to make money. 

We have the ability to create some new, modern and hip small apartments in a town that desperately needs more residences. Twenty apartments are not going to solve the economic future of our small downtown area for our businesses. I don’t think any business is saying that.

It is going to create a new and interesting energy in town though. Energy shifts in business create growth. If my business looked exactly the same as it did when I opened, there would be stagnation. My business continues to grow and thrive in a town of less than 25,000 people because I am willing to take risks and shake things up. 

Our retail in town and empty storefronts are too easily scapegoated on outside forces. There is some wisdom to this, but what I have witnessed over almost 20 years in business, is too many people open businesses because they have an idea, but they don’t always have the business acumen alongside of the idea.

Businesses come and go, not always because they weren’t successful, but many times because out of the gate they didn’t do the market research or the redesigning of their existing business to keep up with the pulse of what is necessary to keep it going.

I hope we can come to a reasonable decision where most of us can agree on what is to become of the lot on Thames and State, where we can take some of the past and mix it with the future. The parking lot there now surely doesn’t fit our idea of historical.

Alayne White

11 Constitution St., Bristol

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