To the editor:

Having witnessed two separate screaming matches this past week alone on Water Street, each involving three cars trying to enter/exit/navigate restaurant locations, one involving a cyclist, I am curious what the Town has in mind as the solution to the swiftly accelerating problem that ill-conceived approvals have created?

The latest approvals by the Zoning Board and Town tipped the balance from a charming neighborhood and vibrant Water Street to something else entirely. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or killed on Water Street due to the toxic combination of too many cars, too narrow a street for two-way traffic, people unfamiliar with how to navigate the area driving too fast or the wrong way on one way roads – all with an increase in cyclists and pedestrians.

In addition to these worsening safety issues, now on Thursday through Sunday it is not uncommon for restaurant patrons to park throughout the entire downtown district, filling the side streets in the North End of Water Street, and all the way south to at least Wheaton Street. The influx of visitors who descend on the area beginning at lunch time displaces residents who rely on on-street parking and also impacts all of the smaller, lower impact non-restaurant businesses, whose customers now do not have any place to park.

As a resident of the downtown area, I can confirm the problems we are seeing are new as of this year. We did not have this problem last year. The recent Zoning Board and Town approvals have tipped the balance to untenable.

What is the solution, Town of Warren?

Steve Thompson
Broad Street