On Wednesday night, the Rye City Council voted by voice vote extend Purchase Street “pedestrian plaza” until Sunday, August 9th. The council will revisit the closure once again at its next meeting on Wednesday, August 5th.
“I’ve never seen anything better than this – its electric,” said Jim Sullivan of Rye Grill & Gar and Ruby’s restaurants. But not everyone was so positive. Caroline Schneider of Lola, a clothing store, described the Purchase Street closure as “Devastating to me. I can’t recover from this. This is going to put me out of business. I’ve been here 15 years.”
Tony Coash of the Rye Chamber of Commerce went door to door surveying downtown merchants. He found 39 in favor of extending the closure and 25 against it.
It’s not the street closure that’s going to put Lola out of business, I think it’s all the other factors at play in this new world. I think it’s great, it breathes new life into our town.
It’s the most good the city can do for most of the merchants.There is no solution for all. Yes, some will suffer much more than others. I believe in, “doing the most for as many as possible”.