More Parking at Stratford Train Station: Winners and Losers

The movement to create more parking spaces at the Stratford train station is again beginning to move ahead. Slowly, very slowly.

Several years ago a two-and-a-half-story home was knocked down on Main Street between the Camelot Apartments. The land is still empty.

Next store is the doctors offices which is home to the Otolaryngology and Hearing and Balance center from Yale University. The building is also home to the Last Call Wine and Spirits store which has been at that location for more than 20 years.

All of this will change over the next several months. The parking lot adjacent to the Camelot Apartments was owned by a private concern. It was recently sold (taken over) by the State and the town which will now do the upkeep and collect the parking fees.

According to a source very, very close to the deal it was "like dealing with the Three Stooges on steroids doing the 'who's on first act' when working with the state." The outfit could not get their act together and make the negotiations with the private firm difficult to say the least, I have been told.

The lot is now called Parking Lot "K" with a total of about 70 spaces if you count the ones where the fallen trees rest.

Several weeks ago city workers in the rain were installing signs telling one and all this was Stratford Railroad Station property. I asked "what gives" and for some reason no one understood English in the sign installing crew. Interesting. The signs advise of many evils which will befall the motorists who takes their lives into their hands and dares to park in the lot without the "K" ticket posted on their windows.

You will be tagged, towed, booted and charged for towing and any damages. If you do not pay the ticket you will become a scofflaw. If you are really bad there is always the stocks on Paradise Green of the rack in the basement of Police Headquarters.

As of June 21 the lot was half-full. There is allegedly between 400 and 600 people waiting for a parking space. Interesting. Next to go will be the doctors office and the liquor store.

I heard the some comments from people close to the taking over of the doctors office and the liquor store. It was the Three Stooges act all over again. Vincent J. House Jr. is the permittee of the liquor store, a veteran and a nice guy, who is now in the process of moving to the Courtyard at the Center on Main Street.

On the good side, the store will have double the retail space but on the downside it will be buried in the back of the center where the old golf shop use to be located. The parking will be difficult to say the least, as House and company (you know the small businessman who always gets the pointed end of the stick) when dealing with the state.

He will have to share parking with at least eight other business in the center along with Mandell's Haircutters and at least two restaurants.To be transparent I do have my haircut at Mandell's who does use the old style of cutting hair a scissors and a razior. The liquor store move will probably not make him a happy camper. 

House will also lose the off the train commuters who grab an adult beverage and head home. He will also lose some of his lottery business since Devon News also has a lottery machine. Which just goes to prove that nice guys finish last when dealing with the state..

Of course on the other side of the tracks from the Station House Wine Bar and Grill we have the National Helicopter Museum. Would have made a great location for the liquor store. No way. Property is owned by the state and when one person asked if restrooms could be put in the museum for commuters arriving back from the city he was given the death stare.

Apparently whoever or whatever operates the museum has friends in high places in the state offices in Hartford or at least knows where some of not all of the political bodies are buried. You have a dust collector of helicopter parts in a building which could be put to so much better use.

Gov. Dan Malloy is allegedly pro-transportation yet no one in the state offices seems to want to mess with the museum. Worse come to worse you can at least get a good meal at the Stationhouse.

Phases two and three allegedly calls for the round about (for those who have never been to the United Kingdom, it is the grassy area in front of the restaurant. to be leveled along with the doctors offices which still have not found a home. The lot on the eastbound side (towards New Haven) will be expanded all the way down to the "99'' restaurant where there will be an exit on the the Barnum Avenue cutoff.

That will entail paving, lighting and all sorts of major renovations. The areas between the Camelot Apartments and the restaurant will be made into one large parking lot which I have been told will have multiple exits and entrances on to Main Street. Which I am sure will require more and more police overtime to direct traffic.

At the pace the state has been moving with the project, the captains of the Port Jefferson ferry boat will be tossing my ashes off the boat at Middle Ground on Long Island Sound. Maybe motorists waiting for a parking space can have it put in their wills for their children and their grandchildren to have a space in one of the several new lots.