New Canaan Realtor, Business Owner: Our Town Deserves Better

To the editor:

I’m writing today to express my feelings on the New Library plan. Presently I’m a real estate broker with [a local firm] specializing in Commercial Real Estate and our Town’s Modern Houses. I have also been active in many Town preservation initiatives. My preservation work lead me to an important discovery at the Johnson Alice Ball House that catapulted me to two research stays at the American Academy in Rome. I’m one NewCanaanite who has lived the ‘international power’ of our heritage and believes as others that it is a highly important key to our future mercantile development.

I also was a merchant in Town for 38 years and experienced the golden age of the New Canaan commercial area (decades of NO empty stores) to the present decade-long, sad state of affairs we have been living through. I am however highly optimistic as I believe our Town can successfully reposition itself. Protecting our unique centralized business district, preservation of our historic past (both in lore and physical structures), maintaining our scale of buildings in Town, and keeping intact our unique gateway entrances into Town all strongly factor into what draws people here and makes our Town such a special place for its citizens and beyond.

I want to mention in the preservation of our historic building we have to do a better job in reusing them. I was involved as a bidder on the old telephone building across from the library about 30 years ago. A fantastic building that was well marketed by the Town and had many bidders and was saved and beautifully reused. This is the goal of many in town for the Library building. These are important opportunities for our Town.

Current usage plans could include a new and better home for the Glass House Visitor Center. It could also be a museum site for an Architectural and Design Museum to further attract and build needed traffic to down town. Here’s my letter to Advertiser on this subject https://www.ncadvertiser.com/opinion/letters/article/Letter-A-design-museum-is-fitting-in-New-Canaan-14043452.php

Two other points. I cannot understand the removal/ giving of the important Center School parking lot to library use. Look at our downtown – it’s been suffering a long decline. That parking is desperately needed for business workers and general use. The lack of insight on this is really sad for the business district.

Lastly, I’m concerned with a library of this size that has to run side businesses to survive. I myself experienced this as the library ( a 501c) thought it was justified to go into the video business which had horrible economic effects on my business ( Gramophone Video). No other business person in New Canaan should ever have to compete with a library as I was forced to do. I can assure you the New Canaan Library did not care and did what it had to do to drive their falling numbers.

Now it sounds as if the new library will have to include food services, business room rentals, tutoring, and other ways of generating incremental usage and revenue, taking away from the local businesses in the very heart of our downtown.

Why should the public have to support this with their tax dollars when the downtown is full of empty stores that wish to offer these same services....and in a better way.

The library board needs to go back to the drawing board and develop a better plan for our Town.

Sincerely, Jack Trifero

Merchant, Preservationist and Real Estate Agent.