More retail/grocery options in downtown area that don't need accessibility by car - Target isn't cutting it.

Similar to the above, there needs to be more retail (or coffee, eateries etc.) in all the ground-floor areas of these major apartment buildings. Atlantic Station is finally putting in a Fresh & Co, but there's still a ton of open space left that's going unused, and the same goes for a lot of other buildings.

Main quality of life improvement would be less traffic congestion, but that seems impossible at this point.

Would also love to see more family-owned coffee shops open up.

I think more green space is always good, but there’s already three parks within walking distance of downtown, so that feels like a hard sell. Maybe there’s open land or abandoned property in the more urban sections of the city that could be turned into community gardens and/or parks though, I just don’t know the spots that need it most. I’d like better variety in the restaurants, but there’s not really much control the city has over stuff like that.

I would like to see Stamford set up its own utilities. We all hate Eversource, so why not have a public power company to maintain the lines & hold down generation costs? While we’re at it, Optimum also sucks some serious shit, particularly downtown. It’s okay now that I’m in Westover, but downtown I only had the option of cable, and it was practically unusable. A municipal ISP would be great, or even just some laws to put the screws to them about upgrading their old cable whenever they decide to run fiber to the new luxury apartments.

What else…a public bank would also be cool. When cities can service their own debts, it often creates impressive efficiencies. North Dakota of all places has a public bank for the entire state, and it’s basically the only part of their government that’s worth a damn. Let them service low-cost businesses loans/mortgages & accept depositors, and we might also get some local growth.

Oooh! Here’s a thought: ban foreign ownership and corporate ownership of single-family homes. You want a house? Gotta be an actual person. Limit landlords to one rental property a piece. If you want to make rental money, you gotta go big & dense. Require all new developments to set aside some percentage of units as affordable housing, with none of that separate entrances bullshit so the bourgeoisie can avoid looking at their neighbors.

I’m warming up to this! Ranked Choice or Approval voting would be cool. I don’t hate Simmons, but I wouldn’t mind if city elections were more open to third-party challenges. I think we’re all pretty tired of the red vs. blue thing, and if it works here we can point to it at the state level and be like “See? Not so hard, is it?”

What else what else what else…that’s all for now. I do reserve the right to come back and inflict more of my ideas on you all though.

Public housing to put downward pressure on rent and to house more of the folks already here.

Expanded public transportation to alleviate traffic and make the city more accessible.

Municipal utilities to eliminate profit seeking behavior of Eversource, Optimum, Frontier, etc.

Places for teens to hang out—all-ages music venues, community centers, diners. There’s a lot of activities around for little kids, but not for teens.

Pedestrianizing the bottom part of Bedford Street (i.e. McDonalds to Tigin) would be awesome. Tricky to do in practice I know but that’s what town planners are for! Maybe make it timed access with rising bollards. Would be awesome for farmers markets and outdoor dining in the summer. Incredibly common in Europe and they make it work so we can definitely do it too.

Pave the GD sidewalks

Real bicycle infrastructure (not painted gutters or sharrows) in tandem with removing the e-scooter ban (& maybe bringing in a share system like lime).

The intended effect would be to reduce congestion by enabling trips that are just past walking range (e.g. 1-2 miles) to be completed without a car. Live in downtown and need to pop up to Ridgeway center? No more need to battle it out for a parking space. Train station? Don't have to park at the crumbling cash only parking lot. Any of the beaches? The list goes on.

There’s a ban on electric scooterw? Can you tell me more?

Heres a SA article with some info: https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Stamford-banned-motorized-scooters-in-2005-Now-17258043.php

There is probably some more detail in city ordinance you can look up. It doesn't seem like this is strictly enforced but having the ban on the books eliminates a scooter share system from being implemented in the city. Having recently been to a city that has a similar density to Stamford I found them to be extremely convenient way to get around, albeit a bit expensive.

That’s a great idea

I don't necessarily know the ownership structures but there are plenty of non-massive-chain coffee shops in Stamford.

• Lorca on Bedford appears to be a single location and likely locally owned.
• Winfield St Coffee in the Library is not family owned but there's only 9 locations, it's better than the Starbucks it took over the space from.
• Turning Point has 2 locations in town and roasts its own coffee, and I believe is locally owned.
• Humbled Coffee on Hope Street is almost definitely locally owned.
• BonJo on Elm St is also a local roaster and I believe locally owned.

Granted only 2 of these have prime downtown locations but still.

Not sure this would work given how much Uber/Lyft/can activity there is on most nights. Also Summer street is one way. There are few options to drive north there.

More sidewalks would be great. And where there are sidewalks, alot of them just abruptly end, especially in the Springdale area. I would love to see a rezoning of industrial areas to commercial or residential. For example on Hope St, they are putting up another huge self-storage facility which is a lost opportunity...could have been residential apartments with nice storefronts, but no it'll make Hope uglier than it already is.

Lorca is locally owned. She used to have a Cos Cob location but it closed during the pandemic.

Turning Point is locally owned.

Honey Joe's on Broad Street is locally owned.

Winfield is locally owned.

Humbled and BonJo are too but they're not downtown.

Unfortunately there's enough competition more coffee doesn't make sense but I am personally dissatisfied with almost all of them. I find Honey Joe's to be the most acceptable because they offer La Colombe. Lorca is inconsistent. Turning Point is very acidic. Winfield is absolute trash.

Interesting to read your perspective on Turning Point, I love their beans and buy them regularly and haven't had this issue.

Lorca on weekdays only. On weekends the quality is way lower.

Maybe they've changed or have a revolving door of baristas so there was a string that was very acidic. I just remember summer 2019 getting an iced coffee there and it tasted so sour and an hour later I felt like I was having a heart attack. Kinda turned me off.

If I were a town planner (I'm not) I would bollard off lower Bedford St and send the Northbound traffic up Greyrock Pl, left onto Forest St and then right up Bedford from there. I'd also make the section of Bedford between Spring St and Forest St two-way so people could access Spring St from Forest St.

I would then turn the parking area outside Lucky's into a Lyft/Uber pick up point and get some CCTV cameras going to enforce strict no parking there.

Somehow, someway, making the trip from the South End to Downtown more palatable for pedestrians/cyclists. The I-95 corridor acts as a major unsavory/unsafe barrier between the two neighborhoods. No solution comes to mind, but Atlantic-Bedford could be 2-3 miles from city core to shore.

Also, no way of how to accomplish it, but connecting the shorelines. Getting from Southfield Ave to Cove is difficult outside of a car and downright unsafe via bicyle.

There are a great deal if unused baseball fields from the Little League glory days; converting one into an amphitheater and get some quality shows.

Car free summer evenings on Bedford.

Affordable shuttle to JFK/ Laguardia.

I dont live in Harbor Point but it amazes me that all those residential buildings were put up with limited commercial spaces on the ground floors. I know the rents would be outrageous but wish there were more small business down there. Its a great place to walk around but theres a deli, 4 chain restaurants, and they lost their grocery store.

Making it more walkable. There are so many intersections with crosswalks and no crosswalk lights. Also there are a lot of sidewalks that are either really narrow or uneven which isn't safe. We have so many pedestrian accidents it's sad and preventable.

I’d like more side walks, bigger side walks.

I’d like more stuff to do as an adult that didn’t center around drinking.

This^^^*** - to correct my original reply, yes there are some, but honestly nothing too impressive and/or inexpensive. Winfield's cold brew is Rise, Honey Joe's is La Colombe, and in general they just seem very pricey is all.

Protected bike lanes. Stamford painted some streets and called it a day. Ridiculous

💯

I want a Philz

More live music! And I don’t mean big name artists. I wish talented up and coming musicians had a venue in town.

Could not agree more about this. What a waste.

More cops

considering how many people walk to the train, it’s incredibly unpleasant getting there from south and north, and once there it’s also unpleasant. Improving walkability like others have said would be amazing.

protected bike lanes and additional sidewalks would be game changers. also, Harbor Point is seriously lacking in the restaurant department. Sign of the Whale and Mexicue are subpar. would love to see additional restaurant options, a convenience store, and World of Beer to reopen (or something similar in that space).

fill the potholes. bury the highway underground

they aren't putting one in. fresh &co leased the space from them. The reason all the storefronts are empty is that it's not profitable to open any businesses there.