Sag Harbor, more so than any other of the Hamptons communities, is known for being a walking town. Based on the crowds that we already have seen in May, our business district could become a circus during summer 2020 unless we plan.
Here is how we can make it work:
First, we 86 all motor vehicles. Then, we reallocate the paved surfaces. Storefronts take the concrete; pedestrians take the asphalt.
Shops would place racks, shelves and merchandise tables directly on the sidewalk. Restaurants and other food services would set up chairs, dining tables, host podiums and server stations on the sidewalk as well. A bonus is reduction of the density of patrons within the buildings themselves.
Although the period from June through September is warm, some provision for inclement weather must be made — the responsibility of individual business owners. Awnings, tents and canopies could reach from building facades to the curb.
Out on the streets, pedestrians would prevail where cars once ruled. Direction of foot traffic would be same as that for automobiles, with northbound pedestrians to the east side of Main Street, and southbound to the west side. Barricades along the midline of the road would separate lanes and help gently guide movement in a counterclockwise pattern.
Street closures would cover the core of the central business district. Close Main Street from Long Island Avenue to Spring Street. Close Madison Street from Main Street to Sage Street. Close Nassau Street. Close Washington Street up to Church Street. This makes most of the downtown area a pedestrian mall.
Reverse the current one-way on Church Street from Sage Street so that it flows into Washington Street; the parking space lines are already painted on the correct side.
The post office property on Long Island Avenue already provides a cut-through to Meadow Street; it would just need to be formalized and indicated by signs.
Eliminate street parking for a hundred yards or so on the roads leading into the business district. This will disperse crowds even more, as folks will have to walk greater distances from their cars.
Folks will need vehicle access to various parking lots and to the rear entries of shops, and in order to bypass the car-free sections. Leave open the intersection of Madison Street and Sage Street; do the same with the intersection of Spring Street and Main Street. The intersection of Main Street, Route 114 and Long Island Avenue would remain open out of necessity.
Bay Street would have to remain open, but street parking could be suspended from Route 114 (aka Hampton Street, aka Division Street), as far as Burke Street. The sidewalks along Bay Street are too narrow, and foot traffic already too heavy, to permit parking there. The extra space freed up on the shoulders will come in handy to accommodate the throngs.
Sag Harbor Village, through accident, design or a bit of both, finds itself predisposed to facilitate these adjustments. The majority of the businesses on Main Street are sited on block-through properties with frontage on another street: Route 114, Meadow Street or Church Street. Customers and clientele can reach most shops through rear entrances, while alleys facilitate access to the rest.
We can capitalize on our urban layout. While most villages could not accomplish this, we are not most villages. We are fortunate to have the redundancy of additional access lanes behind our primary thoroughfare.
You may wonder how we can accommodate certain vital visits. Some tractor-trailer deliveries can come in only through Main Street. Some errands require a car trip to the front of a shop, in particular for older residents.
We have that covered.
Main Street would open to vehicular traffic at 3 a.m. Wednesday mornings, then close again at 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoons. The 36-hour window would give folks the opportunity to drive and park along Main Street throughout the daylight hours on Wednesday, plus all morning and most of the afternoon on Thursday. (This is not a heavy lift; locals already know to shop midweek during tourist season.)
Again, most of the week, five days and six nights, would be given over to pedestrians. Businesses would have one setup and one breakdown per week for outdoor furniture, although most wares would be set out daily and brought in nightly.
The streets would close to automobiles at 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoons, and reopen at 3 a.m. on Wednesday mornings the following week.
This is a sketch and a starting point. There are many possible tweaks.
Chris Chapin is a resident of Sag Harbor.
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