Congratulations

To all the runners, particularly those folks in the 5K since it runs right past my house. I'd especially like to congratulate the old, the young and those folks who run as I do.

Well done.

Count me as 1,001

Daily News Item: 1,000 rally to save Port's White Hen


Wars sometimes start in the most interesting places. With all batteries aimed toward the waterfront, who would have imagined the the first battle of the (latest) war over Newburyport's downtown would take place on Pond Street?


I'm speaking, of course, over New England Development's intention to force out the White Hen Pantry from its current location and allow CVS to take over the entire building.


One might see this as a fight between two corporate chains, but the ownership issues are really pointless. (For the record, I think the White Hen Pantry is locally owned, but it carries no local brand. This isn't Angie's.)


The true pertinent fact is this. The White Hen Pantry serves an important role in this community, and has for some time. It kept me alive during my time at the Daily News as it usually was the only place you could find coffee and a sandwich after a Newbury Town Meeting.


But even today, when I'm blessed with a more regular schedule, the White Hen Pantry is what it is supposed to be a convenient store where I can typically buy what I need when I need it.


I shop at the CVS as well as do thousands of others everyday. It's a fine store just the way it is. 


Ann Lagasse, in today's article in the Daily News, suggest Newburyport Development simply is trying to keep its anchor tenant happy. I get that. But I have hard time understanding how CVS isn't happy with the current arrangement, especially since it's taking over the rear of the store. Is CVS really going to leave this coveted spot if it doesn't get the tiny corner that White Hen Pantry currently possesses? I doubt it.


Newburyport and New England Development might want to focus on keeping their customers happy as well. If this is a sign of things to come--larger companies shoving out smaller ones at will--the fight over the downtown may be more brutal than I thought.

Uh, Governor

Could you turn the motorcade around? Sources (okay, the Mrs.) say this town is lousy with landfill stink, even here in the North End and over by Moseley.

Taffy's

Finally made it over there for lunch. Here's the review. Good menu. Good service.

Great chicken sandwich. (It was one of the specials, can't remember the name.)

Food prep took a little longer than I thought necessary, but nothing unreasonable, especially for Newburyport.

Can't wait to try the breakfast.

Psst, can you pass me the mojito

Well, I have tried and tried and tried, but I could NOT secure an alcholic drink--or any beverage whatsoever--from the folks dining on our city's fair sidewalks. Cheap bastards.

So perhaps we can put that red herring of a concern to rest. I guarantee that sidewalk dining will not turn our youths into $9 martini or boutique beer junkies. Let's go fry some other fish.

And while we're on the topic, can we lose the whole "European Feel" description. Save it for the NED marketing material but let's keep it out of everyday conversation. As one friend noted, Atlanta, Ga. is lousy with outside dining and I don't think anyone would confuse it with Paris.

Bottomline, side walk dining is good for diners and good for dining establishments. Let's figure out a way to make it work. I think any concerns about alcohol being passed to minors are ridiculous, and the businesses certainly need to make sure the sidwalks are clear enough.

Oh, and I hope the city is collecting a fee for the use of our sidewalks. Nothing too crazy, but it would seem fair.

BTW, I'm still a little lost on how a fire truck is supposed to get down Inn Street. This was reportedly a concern when Oregano's wanted to serve liquor outside but couldn't do so without erecting some barriers.

Won't those two giant wooden pillars in front of the Inn Street Barber shop get in the way, Oregano's seating or no Oregano's seating?

What She Said

I zoned on posting a note about this, but Gillian has details on the Wind Turbine hearing being held tonight by the City Council.

7 p.m, upstairs at City Hall.

Root, Root, Root for the Trolley

The Globe did a little write up on our local trolley. Now I regret my earlier questioning of whether the trolley was too much.

It may be, but I'm rooting for the guy. I've got a boatload of respect for entrepreneurs who try and try again.

NED's Attention to Detail

SPOILER ALERT! Subscribers to Progressive Grocer Magazine may just want to skip this post.

The magazine Progressive Grocer--which carries the odd tagline "Ahead of What's Next"--published a short piece on The Market, the small scale grocery store found in The Pinehills, a planned development community built in Plymouth by New England Development and others.

The piece gives a short history on the creation of and the creativity behind The Market. Apparently, the American public is growing tired of big-box superstores, turning instead to smaller, more intimate markets presenting more upscale foods. (I wonder, though, whether this trend will hold given the state of the economy.)

Here's an excerpt:

The Market was conceptualized by Newton, Mass.-based New England Development with the help of Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Store Design Services (formerly Design Services Group), which is a subsidiary of SUPERVALU. “Our goal [for The Market] was to create a small-format store, but with full service, so it has everyday items and gourmet foods,” says Harry Steen, creative director for Store Design Services. “Most stores are boring square boxes,” adds Michael Szathmary, managing director of The Market. “We wanted to design a footprint store that is exciting and out of the norm, that doesn’t make you feel like you’re just walking up and down aisles.”

New England Development worked with Store Design Services for approximately nine months designing The Market, which opened in October 2008. “Elkus Manfredi Architects designed the barn-shaped outer shell,” Steen explains. “[The exterior] is actually built out of steel, and has a unique, vintage appeal to it.”

In fact, vintage, turn-of-the-century New England charm is precisely what the design group was shooting for. Store Design Services added plenty of vintage touches to The Market—from sandblasted wood signs and the dyed concrete floor that looks like rich leather to custom-designed, acid-etched metal fixtures, Steen says. Additional hints of the dawn-of-the-century look include old mining carts placed around the store, a hayloft-style bakery and cheese island, aisle end-caps modeled after old farmhouse bureaus, and a custom, 16-ft. farm ceiling fan.

Although all of the décor elements play into the store’s shoppable, rustic charm, the design team was careful to keep them understated, so that the main focus of The Market remains on the food products. “The interior is not overemphasized,” Szathmary says. “It’s not about the décor, and though the fixturing and lighting [elements] are important, they’re there to highlight the product.”

Why should you care? First, I'd still love to see a small market downtown, but only if it complimented ongoing efforts like the Farmer's Market as well as local growers. Second, while this degree of design in a supposedly "intimate place" that mimics a natural setting makes me a bit queasy (sort of like the efforts that go into making casinos so darn enticing), the Market demonstrates how detail-oriented NED can be in devising a project to fit into a community, or at least perform a function.

This leads me to my final point. We can have all the chatter we want about the NRA waterfront parcels. In my eyes, the project NED eventually builds will have a greater impact on the downtown and the perception of our community than those two remaining parcels. We have to keep our eyes on that ball.

Daily News Responds

All in all, I feel the Daily News did an admirable job keeping up with the tanker truck crash on 95, at least within the confines of conventional journalism.

The updates were comprehensive and mostly helpful, but I couldn't help but feel the staff is being shackled by the limits of their technology.

In a better scenario, the Web site should have been awash in images from this compelling story. Later in the day, the paper did post an slide show of Bryan Eaton photos which I found interesting and well done but the images were too small, taking up less than one-eighth of the page, with the rest of the space spent on ads and white space.

I know it's a commercial enterprise, so the ads are necessary. But the pictures suffered.

The Daily News did secure a video of the scene, but I have to agree with the commentors. It didn't add anything to the story.

The News did put a call out to readers to email their personal stories related to the accident and crippling traffic. I'm interested in seeing if they query produces any responses.

I thought the Newburyport Today blog provided an noteworthy contrast in presentation. It merely posted some photos with links to other sources (and NOT to the Daily News, an omission that I found interesting) including Twitter.

With the superior content, I think the Daily News would have benefited from having access to a simple blogging tool that could easily post short reports and photos.

And in other news...

My wife just spotted a deer running down Oakland St.

STAY HOME!

This clearly isn't the worst news related to the crash on 95. But High and Merrimac Streets are a mess as is Route 1 North.

If you don't need to leave home, don't.

And prayers for those who nine who were seriously injured.

Charter Review

Gillian Swart is doing her normally thorough job in keeping us posted on who has pulled papers to run for Charter Review Commission.

I may steal some of her thunder and start posting the names of the potential candidates as well as other information on the Charter Review campaign. It's a thorough--and therefore complex--process that deserves explaining.

I'm thrilled that 14 people have pulled papers so far, and I hope the count only goes up. When I ran into Mayor Moak a few weeks back I half-jokingly suggested he should run since he's not up for re-election. He laughed off the idea, but a recent chief executive would add an interesting element to the race and commission.

For those pondering a run, some good news, the deadline for returning signed papers is actually September 15, not the 28th as previously thought. I'm still not clear on why the difference, but that gives anyone ample time to collect 50+ signatures.

In other words, I no longer have an excuse for not turning in my papers.

Newburyport Nationals?

Apologies for the absence. Spent the past few week equipping the house to withstand an onslaught of four-year-olds, enduring the rain in Conway, NH, visiting Storyland for the first (and not last time), turning 40 and popping Advil.

At the risk of exposing me as a carpet bagging newbie (ooops, too late), I'd like to ask where and when the Newburyport Nationals came on the scene? I'm referring, of course, to the team written about in the Daily News on Tuesday. Do they play in town? If so when? Is there a web site? Am I the only jamoke with a remote interest in watching them play?

BTW, Nick's Pizza and Andyman's cake rocked the house on Saturday when we had The Boy's birthday party. But the ice cream truck we'd arranged to have stop by the house might have won the day.