Renaissance Downtowns

Riverside Rediscovered community organizer Siris Barrios, who has worked for five years on Riverside revitalization efforts is leaving her post at the end of this month.

Construction is underway of a mixed-use building on the Riverside traffic circle site where the long-vacant Riverboat Diner stood.

Though the subject of the public hearing was a generic environmental impact statement on a revitalization plan, Riverside-Flanders residents, bearing posters depicting derelict buildings and complaining of drugs, prostitution and crime, pleaded with the Southampton Town Board for action.

Riverside threw itself a little party yesterday. It was the first outdoor event held in the struggling hamlet in a very long time — maybe even the first one ever. Story and photos.

This is where the rubber meets the road. The ambitious revitalization plan known as Riverside Rediscovered, more than a year in the making, must now be incorporated into law so that the vision laid out by planners and embraced by the community can become reality.