NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk’s restaurant business has increased since 2009 but nearly not as much as that in Fairfield, according to information provided by the Hartford Courant.
Norwalk 2.0 founder and former Zoning Commission Chairwoman Jackie Lightfield blames this differential on the Norwalk Parking Authority.
“When we go back to the heyday of SoNo, prior to the Parking Authority when the Webster lot was free at night, SoNo was booming before the Parking Authority was aggressively ticketing,” Lightfield said at Monday’s Wall Street Task Force meeting. “People came to SoNo. It was one of our economic engines. Everyone likes to say ‘Oh, it’s just anecdotal that the Parking Authority over-aggressively tickets and didn’t’\ really cause a material change in the economies; you know those restaurants that closed were bad operators and everything.’ This chart … tells the real story.”
The Courant’s story focuses largely on Hartford, citing the state Department of Revenue Services as its source of information. But it includes an interactive chart in which you can look up any town in Connecticut.
The chart states:
• In 2009, Fairfield had $97 million in restaurant sales. In 2013 Fairfield had $154 million in restaurant sales, a 58.6 percent increase.
• In 2009, Norwalk had $129 million in restaurant sales. In 2013, Norwalk had $148.5 million, a 15 percent increase.
• Westport’s 2013 restaurant sales were $75.5 million, a 30 percent increase from 2009.
• Wilton’s 2013 restaurant sales were nearly $19 million, a 40.7 percent drop from 2009
• Darien’s 2013 restaurant sales were $49 million, an 18.42 percent increase from 2009
Lightfield said Wilton was booming but has not yet recovered from the recession. Darien opened a lot of restaurants recently, so the question is will it’s increase continue, she said.
Westport and Fairfield have taken Norwalk’s business, especially Fairfield, she said.
“We know that Fairfield is the big one because most of the operators who operate in SoNo have locations in Fairfield that they have opened. They specifically went to Fairfield because they knew that’s where the market had shifted to,” Lightfield said.
Her “favorite anecdote” is The Stand, a juice bar that recently moved to SoNo from Wall Street. It took The Stand a year to open its Wall Street location because of conflicting permit requirements, she said. When it opened, the Parking Authority aggressively ticketed The Stand’s customers, she said.
The Stand opened a location in Fairfield and got it done within three months, she said. Parking for its customers is free, she said.
That’s a comparison multiple SoNo restaurant owners are making, she said.
Lightfield said, “I think the big story is that, from a policy standpoint in Norwalk, that this is the evidence that SoNo in particular, because I think the majority of our restaurants are in SoNo, did suffer a huge financial impact because of the parking policies implemented by the Parking Authority.”
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