To do item: Say No to Chappaqua Crossing

There’s a feeling of civic empowerment that takes over you when you find the courage to speak before your local town board and offer an opinion. So kudos to everyone who turns up at Town Hall to speak up about anything (it’s a bit nerve wracking for me too), like at last night’s hearing over Chappaqua Crossing.  That strip mall/shopping center is one I sincerely feel will deleteriously impact the mom and pop shops in downtown Chappaqua. To clarify the position I offered: Both as a long time resident and a long time publisher of a merchant supported magazine: With limited time, the typical suburban shopper likes to consolidate her/his efforts: So…if you are a busy person shopping at a supermarket off the Saw Mill Parkway, the odds of hitting the next “to do” item are much more likely to take place at the shopping center and much less likely to take place in town. With a strip mall so close to downtown, slowly but surely, King Street and Greeley Avenues, which have struggled long and hard enough to create a downtown community spirit, could get hit quite badly creating the dreaded “ghost town effect.” With so many other solid arguments presented last night against Chappaqua Crossing, revolving around traffic and access and perhaps an actually minimal tax revenue increase too, I hope the board votes a resounding NO to Chappaqua Crossing.