Plans to revamp downtown Oak Bluffs which include changing the angled parking on the upper part of Circuit avenue to parallel parking drew a mixed response Monday evening.
Plans to revamp downtown Oak Bluffs which include changing the angled parking on the upper part of Circuit avenue to parallel parking drew a mixed response Monday evening.
Strollers, shoppers and out-for-Sunday-brunchers had Circuit avenue and the lower half of Kennebec in Oak Bluffs all to themselves Sunday afternoon, in the first of what is planned as a weekly summer-long street closure to vehicles.
The health of the historic resort community is not in doubt. But a streetscape master plan project begun in January wants to identify parts of the downtown that can be improved. And planners want more public opinion.
Beetlebung owners Renee and John Molinari, the newest holders of a seasonal all-alcohol license in Oak Bluffs, plan to cater to a different audience than the typical bar. The Menemsha-based business will fill one of several vacancies on Circuit avenue with a hybrid coffeehouse and bar, to open in May.
An Oak Bluffs business owner’s months-long battle with the town to generate income on his property may be nearing resolution.
At meetings spanning the spring and summer, Bill Coggins asked selectmen to support various plans for a Circuit avenue lot he purchased in April. The board discouraged him from pursuing options that included food trucks and retail cars, saying they would compete with brick and mortar businesses and violate a town bylaw that prohibits the exhibition of wares on the street.
It’s not unusual to see a group of people traveling the streets of Oak Bluffs together, to see them stop in the middle of a Circuit avenue sidewalk and gaze up at a historic building, or stand next to the Tabernacle and take in the quiet calm of the Camp Ground.
But the group touring the resort community Monday morning were not tourists.
