The long-debated plan to reverse the direction of Main Street in downtown Gloucester is languishing, with proponents unable to build a consensus among residents, merchants and city leaders that a switch is the right thing to do.
"The reversal is not dead, but we're still determining the best way to go," said City Councilor and Downtown Development Commission member Joseph Ciolino, who has spearheaded the reversal movement. "The only way the reversal is going to happen is if we do it correct and have a solid plan in place."
Planning for the reversal — already controversial — has now become wrapped up in another project with a questionable future: the streetscape refurbishment of Washington Street from Grant Circle to the American Legion.
After the city ripped up Washington Street to perform the first stage of the Combined Sewer Overflow project, the state signed off on a plan to improve the street using around $5 million in federal highway dollars.
But as project planners realized, working on Washington Street without first deciding what to do with Main Street — which empties at the enigmatic Tally's corner intersection at the foot of Washington Street — could cause as many problems as it would solve.
So the Downtown Development Commission and Mayor Carolyn Kirk's administration have been faced with finding consensus on not only what to do with Main Street, but with Washington and Tally's corner at the same time.
"The proposed reversal has to be understood before we can understand Washington Street," Public Works Director Michael Hale said Friday. "(The stretch of) Tally's through the Legion would have to be significantly changed if Main is reversed. We haven't come to terms with that."
Kirk said that, because of concerns among some Washington Street residents about how the work would alter parking on that street, her administration may approach the state about whether the money set aside could be redirected.
As to a Main Street reversal, Kirk said Friday "it will take a concerted effort to build consensus, and basically bring the plan door-to-door with the businesses and residents impacted."
"City staff is stretched so thin on so many other priorities that there has to be an overwhelming push and assistance from the community to make it happen," she said in an e-mail message.
The idea to reverse Main Street was born out of frustration with reaching the street, downtown's primary commercial artery, from Washington Street or Western Avenue. Tales of tourists approaching downtown Gloucester and never getting there, confused and diverted through the collision of roads at Tally's corner, have become lore.
Ciolino, a Main Street shop owner, has touted the reversal as a way to increase traffic on Main Street to boost business.
Most agree that the Tally's intersection — where Western Avenue, Angle Street, Commercial Street, Rogers Street, Main Street and Washington Street all come together and wrap around a busy service station — was not designed with either pedestrian and motorist safety in mind.
But getting everyone to agree on the right solution has eluded planners for years.
On Washington Street itself, the planned work would smooth travel lanes, improve sidewalks, install uniform curbs, make the street handicapped accessible and possibly install trees and benches.
Hale said that, while the plan actually increases legal parking on Washington, some places where the parking code has never been rigidly enforced would have to change.
And those plans could become even more controversial if they were to include installing a traffic light at the oft-clogged intersection of Washington Street and Centennial Avenue, an idea pushed by formula-driven traffic consultants that has been rejected here before.
If installed, the traffic light would become the only traffic light on a city street, if you don't include those on the state-owned Route 128 extension.
Kirk said if the state allowed, she would consider using the $5 million set aside for the project to improve sidewalks throughout the city.
Hale, however, said it's possible that, if the city does not use the Washington Street money this year, the state could send it elsewhere.
"I am sure there are other communities that can convince (the state) they would use it," Hale said.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3455, or via e-mail at panderson@gloucestertimes.com
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