'Southampton In The Streets' Resumes This Saturday

After a two-week trial, “Southampton in the Streets,” an effort to provide village businesses with a boost by closing Main Street and Jobs Lane to vehicular traffic on Saturday nights, was on hold last weekend. It will resume this weekend on Saturday, July 18.

Main Street from Hampton Road to Jobs Lane, as well as Jobs Lane to O'Connell Drive, will be closed to traffic from 6:30 to 11 p.m.

Village Board members on Saturday said they had approved the initiative as a pilot program, but needed to discuss tweaking it before moving forward on a permanent basis. The village had launched the effort to bring more people downtown by making those streets pedestrian-only as a way to help businesses that have suffered from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurants were permitted to expand outdoor dining onto the sidewalks and even into the closed streets.

“We want this to work, but we have to listen carefully to what the restaurants, retailers and other business are saying,” said Trustee Kimberly Allan, “and we need to course correct based on good information.”

Ms. Allan said she had hoped the board would have discussed the matter when it met on July 9 but that Mayor Jesse Warren had not placed it on the agenda. The board will continue to discuss the matter at its July 21 meeting. In the interim, members plan to continue to gather feedback from business owners.

Reached via text Saturday night, Mr. Warren said there were “many reasons” the event was not held this week. “Weather was a main consideration,” he said, given the forecast for inclement weather this weekend. “I’m optimistic we’ll be back for next weekend,” he said.

Trustee Mark Parash, who worked with Ms. Allan and the village’s Business Revitalization Committee in creating “Southampton in the Streets,” agreed it was important to talk to different interest groups after the two-week pilot program. “We wanted to get feedback,” he said. “There was a lot of positives, but also a few negatives.”

He said the board might consider shutting down only one street or limiting the closures to the parking spaces only while letting traffic through. Thought also might be given to hosting the event on nights other than Saturday. A schedule of dates is expected to be discussed at the July 21 meeting.

While many people praised the event, some retailers were not happy because they feared eliminating parking spaces might discourage shoppers from patronizing their stores, or that families coming downtown would be more interested in the activities on the street than in shopping, Ms. Allan said.

“We want to do what’s best to boost our businesses,” she said, “but it is our job to obtain feedback from an array of constituents. We want to deliberate as a board and take all the factors into consideration.”

This Saturday night, retailers and restaurants will be permitted to expand their existing businesses into the street to accommodate additional customers while safely maintaining necessary social distancing protocols, including the wearing of face coverings when 6 feet distance is not possible.

Additional reporting by Kitty Merrill