The City of Beacon has decided to make one block of South Avenue between Main Street and Beacon Street be one way southbound (toward the mountain) until October 2024, in order to accommodate the massive renovation of the Lewis Tompkins Hose Firehouse located on South Avenue. The City Council voted this in during the City Council Meeting on 6/12/2023, after discussing it during a public Workshop meeting on 5/15/2023. The City robo-called constitutions who opted into the SWIFT911 call network about the decision on 6/14/2023. According to a statement by City Administrator Chris White during this week’s City Council Meeting, the one-way status would go into effect on Friday.

According to City Administrator Chris, the City intends to add parking spots to South Avenue within this block to help ease the loss of parking for St. Andrews Church, which relies on its parking lot for funerals, food pantry pickups and drop offs, etc. During the meeting on 5/15/2023, he stated that St. Andrews was not pleased about losing their parking lot to the City. It is not known at this time if the City intends to compensate St. Andrews for the partial or full takeover of their parking lot.

Originally, 54 parking spaces were projected for South Avenue, but during the 6/12/2023 City Council Meeting, City Administrator Chris stated that they “substantially reduced that.” Striping of the “parking stalls” as they were referred to will happen soon. As will signage about the one-way status of the block.

Potential Benefits Of One Way Status

While this temporarily adds to the number of partial one-way streets in Beacon, making driving a choppy experience, there are some benefits.

There is a No Left Turn status at that intersection. When turning right onto Main Street from South Avenue, there is a crosswalk. It is one of the most dangerous crosswalks in Beacon, because pedestrians have to:

• watch for fast traffic coming off 9D/Wolcott onto Main Street

• watch for Main Street traffic headed toward 9D/Wolcott

• watch for cars coming down South Avenue to turn right

As for the second benefit: drivers who do turn right, run the risk of hitting cars parked in the parallel parking spot located in front of Bank Square Coffee. An ambulance of the City’s newly contracted private ambulance company, Ambulnz (now called DocGo), did hit a parked vehicle there last year. Quite easy to do if you’re not familiar with the area or watching for it.