Todays New York Times focuses on WestportҒs Main Street and Greenwichs downtown as bastions of old-time shopping.
In a story headlined ғOld-Time Shopping Is in Fashion in Wealthy Towns, Times correspondent Eleanor Charles, who has written often about WestportԒs real estate market, said Westport attracts those who find mall shopping unsatisfying.
It has been a factor in the success and continued high rents ֖ of Main Street for years, but the Times lead paragraph makes it sound as if it is something new:
In some affluent suburbs around the country, people are returning to the old-fashioned way of shopping, urban retail analysts say: strolling along a downtown street, stepping into a store, stepping outside to browse the next few stores, lunching at a cozy restaurant, pausing to chat with a friend in the shade of a sidewalk tree.Ӕ
But the Times then quotes an expert who acknowledges it is a trend in place at least since the mid 90s.
The story includes details of recent Main Street sales transactions but notes that not everything on the street is high-end retail Җ citing Oscars Deli, opened in 1948, and AchornҒs Pharmacy, a Main Street fixture since 1927.
The Times does have an error many Westporters will be quick to spot. It said Westports population is 23,000. The 2000 census put it at 25,749. It has not been 23,000 at least since the 60Ғs. The Times also listed Greenwich’s population as 65,000. The 2000 census put it at 61,101.
Less apparent is the error stating a Main Street property changed hands “last month” for $18.1 million. It was actually April 14 (see WestportNow on April 19, 2003).
