Bristol is in need of an upscale shopping center such as the one in Blueback Square in West Hartford. Imagine a place where you can take your family and friends to enjoy a beautiful spring, summer, fall, or winter day. No matter what the occassion, you can shop, get some exercise, or just simply enjoy the beautiful scenery, all in the comfort of our own city! A movie theatre, some upscale storefronts, and top all of that off with some exquisite dining.
Bristol’s own "Blueback Square"
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Posted in: Public Amenities
Submitted by David
January 20, 2011 (last changed February 22, 2011)
20 January 2011
Written by David
13 Comments
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Bristol needs some more upscale stores. All we have is dollar stores and thrift shops. Let’s bring some life to Bristol!
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A grocery store is really needed downtown. Ideally the BDFO can be relocated somewhere in the new area.
Bristol can do even better than Blueback Square. Blueback is adjacent to a thriving historic retail entertainment district that emphasizes independent businesses that add uniqueness and culture to the neighborhood. It also boosts its local economy versus using Bristol’s incomes to further profit the national chains. Instead, Bristol will be a destination because no other city will have a piazza, a skating rink, a river walk, a live music venue… all within a beautiful urban fabric that will have Blueback regulars coming here instead. However, if it has the same national stores, there’s less reason to.
I agree with Neil on this one. Bristol not only can do better than Blueback which met with huge amounts of public dissent, Bristol has to do better. As a collaboration through Bristol Rising, I think Bristol has a much better chance of getting it right.
agreed
I definitely don’t think that BlueBack Square is the ideal model of a New Urban area. The idea is to create enterprises through Bristol’s own innovation, resources and talent and to minimize the need to truck in the types of commodities found in a shopping district.
The point is to be able to walk downstairs and down the street to the butcher’s shop to pick up a few pieces of meat, then to the grocery store to buy some local produce that’s displayed outside, and then to the bakery to get a loaf of bread. 15 minutes. One small bag of purchases. No food going rotten in a huge refrigerator, just everything you need for the day without having to get in a car.
New Urbanism isn’t about buying more stuff locally, it’s about living overall on less energy. Major brands are about selling, selling, selling. Bristol Rising should be about community needs.
Having been born in the late 50′s, I have memories of the time when we were able to buy everything we needed in downtown Bristol. All our clothing from locally owned specialty shops to household appliances, furniture, linens etc. All of these stores did great business and made decent livings from those businesses. Unfortunately today, too many people are captivated by malls, big box discounters and on line shopping and have very short attention spans. Economic times make it difficult to stretch our money. Sadly, too many people don’t realize if they bought a few quality items instead of a lot of cheap items, their money would go a lot farther. Also, the concept of supporting our local businesses is fading fast.
The only way to revive it is to bring in enough shops to grab people’s attention and keep them in the area. I owned a children’s clothing store in town for 21 years, closing in 2005. Some of my most prosperous years were when there were other stores in town also selling good, quality items. We fed off each other and recommended each other, thus keeping the business in town. When I was the last kid’s store in town people would comment to me how happy I must be to be the “only show in town”. That was the farthest thing from the truth! I wished that other quality shops survived so that people would have many reasons to shop in town.
Like it or not, consumers are trained. For example, if we fill a town with only low priced, discount stores, that is what too many of the consumers will come to expect and patronize and before you know it, we are a “Dollar Store Community”. If we offer enough good quality shops, people will come to expect and patronize them.
But, as with everything we are hoping for in Bristol Rising, the retail area must put forth a good, solid showing, not just a random shop here and there. They will not survive and the needed continuity for the area will not be achieved. Hopefully the smaller businesses can sustain the higher overhead that is sure to come with beautiful, new buildings.
We can do this, but we must get it right this time.
We have empty retai space now and the busiest parking lot in town is at Walmart. We had a mall and ignored it to death. Hobby store? two towns over. Toy store. Kinda. I’m afraid Canton beat us to it. We need a destination for sure, but high end retail? We should play to our strengths. Maybe the home of ESPN should have a sports venue.
Please no – We don’t need to recreate blue back square. Maybe a few, , but I’d like to see more local businesses. Bookstore would be nice and more “non chain” restaurants.
Along the vein of the pedestrian-urban design principles of blueback, but I agree with Neil on keeping things authentic and distinct. Our own Bristol Boutique downtown. Give people a reason to drive or come to authenticity in Bristol.
Being a native to Bristol, I’m not a big fan of the trendy image of West Hartford. I’m also not a big fan of the “wanna-be ghetto” image alot of my peers have fallen into. I consider myself a member of the American middle-class, something that made Bristol a great place to live. I think we need to hang on to Bristols more balanced image, while incorporating a little more culture while adding to the tax base. But I’m not sure I like the Blue-Back Square image. This project needs to be careful not to upset the current demographic of the rest of Bristol. Like making Bristol too expensive to live in or attracting people from other areas with conflicting ideals to natives of Bristol.
I do not want a carbon copy of Blueback but if you read what Neil T. posted Jan.21, 2011 …..my sentiments exactely!!!!!