Does Portsmouth's Market Square need a makeover? Residents share conflicting views

PORTSMOUTH — Residents offered a number of ideas about what to do — and what not to do — as the city considers making changes to its iconic Market Square.

There have been a number of suggestions made about how to improve the downtown gathering spot, including closing it off to vehicle traffic, widening sidewalks, creating a seasonal stage and adding more outdoor dining.

Judith Blake, who lives in Market Square in a building over the Popovers cafe, said the proposal to close down Market Square to cars is a “ludicrous idea.”

“You have a lot of retail right downtown, they need deliveries,” she said during a recent meeting about the Market Square master plan at City Hall. “We have people living in condos that need emergency services. I think we need to be conscious of that.”

Widening some of the sidewalks, Blake said, “is not a bad idea,” but she is not a fan of the Jersey barriers used for outdoor dining downtown.

She noted the Jersey barriers had been dropped off last week, and stated, “I thought there was a plan to make them more attractive,” but she thinks they’re “as ugly as ever.”

“I think we really need to start to think about what the impact is on the beauty of our city, when we allow such things,” Blake added.

Jeffrey Cooper, who’s lived in Portsmouth for about 40 years, said he “wouldn’t recommend closing Market Square certainly just because of the traffic patterns.”

But he believes Pleasant Street is the “least necessary for cars going back and forth to get around.”

“To have a real pedestrian mall there would be a real fantastic thing,” Cooper said.

He also raised the idea of having a “loop shuttle” that would run from Prescott Park to downtown and then connect to the West End.

Impact on downtown residents

Resident Tim MacDonald, who lives on Congress Street, said he agreed with the idea of the city offering more public transportation.

But he added, “that can only get you so far.”

“If you’re talking about closing down major streets like this … there’s people who live in the square, they need a car to go grocery shopping, to make doctor’s appointments, for emergency services,” he said. “Every time people want to close up the square, that’s impacting me. I think it’s selfish to not give consideration to the people who live here.”

Resident Stephen Pesci has lived in Portsmouth for about 40 years, he said during the recent Market Square master plan meeting.

He pointed out Market Square “has been fundamentally unchanged for 45 years” since its last upgrades in the late 1970s.

“I hope that we can be as aspirational and thoughtful as that group was 45 years ago,” he said. “I hope that we can think about what Portsmouth will be like 50 years from now.”

He suggested improvements to the square could include putting more overhead wires underground.

Resident Susan Sterry shared with the other people gathered in City Hall for the meeting that she was “born in this building” in the 1950s when it was a hospital.

“I’ve lived through all the changes, and I do remember before 1978 when the change was made” to Market Square, she said.

“If we change sidewalks or add a bicycle path or whatever, I think that’s great,” she said. “My concern is it doesn’t turn into something else that isn’t Market Square.”

The square used to be the “center of all of Portsmouth,” Sperry said, “now it’s just become its own little island.”

“If we’re going to refurbish it, that’s great but … if we’re going to change so many things, then that’s a whole different ballgame,” she said. “I think that might affect how the square really feels.”

Resident John Singer said he supports “a more permanent outdoor dining capability,” which he believes “would really be helpful for the square.”

2023 story: Portsmouth eyes Market Square upgrades: Could changes make city more vibrant and walkable?

That could be accomplished, he said, by expanding the sidewalks in Market Square.

“One major advantage of that, which I feel strongly about, is it would enable us to get rid of those incredibly ugly concrete barriers, those Jersey barriers, which to me are so totally inconsistent with the whole rest of the character of Market Square,” Singer said.

Two-way traffic idea raises questions

Resident Mary Lou McElwain asked about the talk she’d heard about potentially making Congress, State and Daniel streets open to two-way traffic.

“Is this going to happen? Is this all part of the plan?” she asked.

Arek Galle, a landscape architect and planner for Beta Group Inc., which the city hired to work on the project, said “it’s all part of the planning process.”

His company has seen recommendations calling for the streets to become two-way but “we haven’t dug into them in full detail,” he said.

“Those are pieces of what we’ll be looking at for the master plan,” he said.

McElwain stated she believes “those are very important considerations if we’re looking at changing anything within Market Square.”

Resident Alice Wall also asked if the proposal to close Market Square to traffic was “a done deal. Is this the direction we’re going?”

City Planning Manager Peter Stith responded, “this is the first public meeting, we’re trying to get the initial public input.”

He added that the gathering of public input would continue “throughout the summer. Nothing is set in stone right now."

He explained at the beginning of the recent meeting the city intended to start the Market Square master plan process in 2019, but then COVID-19 hit.

The consultants started with the city earlier this year and the city is now starting the process, Stith said.

“This process is an opportunity to look at public spaces and consider how they might be altered or improved, to be consistent with historic preservation objectives, urban planning design, and several policies the city has for complete streets, (along with) walk and bike friendly policies,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Should Portsmouth make changes to Market Square?