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Main Street's Economic Vitality is Affected by Parking Problems - Please Help
Dear Editor:
Over the last two years, the WPEDC (Western Putnam Economic Development Council) has been working on helping to preserve and promote the Hudson Highlands. On Friday, the New York Times published a glowing article about Cold Spring. In part it read, "Its historical Main Street is lined with those little stores that make many shoppers coo, and there is no want of antiques. The restaurants are considered among the best in Putnam County, and historical architecture dignifies the streets. If you're feeling outdoorsy, a hike up Mount Taurus is less than a mile north. Then there is the view. Cold Spring perches on a spectacular bend in the Hudson, and Main Street deadends at a waterfront vista straight out of a Frederic Church painting."
Last weekend the WPEDC joined forces with the MTA, and put together a promotion to bring more than 300 people to the town for our annual Halloween Parade. Cold Spring is a place that people want to visit because its charm, but we need economic viability to help preserve its historic charm.
At the Comprehensive Planning Board public presentation, one of the most consistent comments people made was about the issue of lack of parking in the village. The WPEDC has taken a community based initiative to communicate some ways to lessen the problem of limited parking through letters, Village Board meetings, emails and direct contact. One of the most important has been to ask shopkeepers, employees, professionals, and government workers to use the Municipal parking lot instead of Main Street, or walk to work. Cold Spring needs profitable businesses that can afford to preserve and maintain the historic structures we regard so highly. By parking elsewhere, we do much to help support the shops and restaurants along Main Street. The WPEDC wants to help procure a solution to the parking issue. There are many possible long-term solutions being suggested and discussed by those hardworking volunteers in the Comprehensive Planning Board. In the meantime, making Main Street parking available to customers, and side streets available to residents are things we can do to help ease the parking situation right now.
Marc Sabin Philipstown
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