FrankLloydMike
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2010
- Messages
- 514
- Reaction score
- 0
Despite having a historic building stock and relatively consistent street wall, Manchester Street has always seemed to struggle, particularly relative to Hanover. If the city could ever talk Citizens into moving its parking lot underground and making that lot a quality urban park (think central fountain and gardens), I think it might help open the area a bit and would particularly help Manchester St. The lot currently is pretty surrounded by buildings and I think it would be well utilized. Additionally, the brick plaza directly behind Citizens could be developed into a cafe or something that might spur more streetlife within the park.
Part of the reason Manchester Street has struggled is definitely the concentration of social service agencies, particularly those catering to the homeless, on the street. I don't mean that to sound callous--just that people generally don't want to open up shops or wander down a street lined with social service agencies, and that those agencies are probably spending most of their money on things other than facade beautification and the like.
I wouldn't want to displace those agencies, which are vital to the city's most vulnerable population, but if they could be consolidated nearby--and remain accessible to their service population, perhaps in the Police Station once they move to Valley Street--then Manchester Street could be redeveloped, and the buildings renovated into an extension of Hanover Street. Ironically, the Citizens Bank garage is probably to thank for the wide (for an alley) Nutfield Lane connecting them, as I'm pretty this was a narrow alley and buildings before it was built.
I don't see Citizens giving up its garage or footing the bill to bury it any time soon, but I bet if a developer offered them the right price for the land where their drive-through is, they'd sell that (there's a drive-through at another branch a mile or so north on Elm). I know Greg Barrett, a local real estate agent and developer, has suggested turning that spot into a small park. That might work, but I wonder if building something on the drive-through site with retail facing Nutfield and Manchester wouldn't be better. That could be more of a draw to walk down Nutfield between Hanover and Manchester Streets.