Please join the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, the New Haven Urban Design League, ConnDOT Deputy Commissioner Albert Martin and City of New Haven Economic Development Administrator Kelly Murphy to learn more about the City of New Haven’s plan for turning Route 34’s road to nowhere into a neighborhood of workforce housing, retail and open space. Featured speaker, John Norquist, will show how this can be done. Mr. Norquist, president of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and former Mayor of Milwaukee will discuss how Milwaukee tore down the elevated Park East Freeway and created a vibrant community in its place.
Where: Career High School, 140 Legion Avenue in New Haven’s Hill Neighborhood
When: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 from 6:00 to 8:00pm
Feel free to post observations, design ideas, essays, photos and neighborhood commentary here (anonymous or credited), either by adding to the comments or sending items to downtownnewhaven [at] gmail.com.
New Haven Register post-event coverage here, New Haven Independent here.
See this article, "Death of a Neighborhood," in Mother Jones magazine for some background on the Route 34 Corridor and the neighborhood that was lost when it was built.
Update 6/6/08: A letter in favor of the removal of the Route 34 stub highway, signed by a broad coalition of community leaders, activists, organizations and others, has been delivered to Governor Rell.
3 comments:
The NHI has a good write-up, as always.
The hardest part here is the funding. The key is to get our state reps and also Rosa DeLauro behind this. There is no way on earth that New Haven can fund this.
Norquist seemed to suggest that proposals like these are in fact typically net generators of value, on a grand scale. If that is indeed the case, then I presume funding becomes a shorter-term financing issue: a matter of determining whether anyone is prepared to make the investment.
He also suggested that the lion's share of the cost of removal should be borne by those who paid to put the Connector there in the first place, which I understood to imply federal/state funding. Is this wishful thinking, or is this how these things are normally done? New Haven would certainly not be the first city to have undertaken something like this.
He noted further that it is in fact not at all uncommon for massive state and federal funding to be misapplied towards transportation projects that ultimately degrade rather than build value. The Oak Street Connector project itself may be an example of just such a mistake; in keeping with its kind, it has attracted surface parking lots and derelict buildings, not valuable real estate. The first question to be asked is always: "But where will the money come from?" Norquist would perhaps suggest that the money is already there, but is being misspent.
During the questions after the presentation someone did mention the Q Bridge project.
The positives sought can be achieved with new buildings on platforms designed to preserve the subterranean right of way.
If the planning fails to do that, then that which is built may become future demolition specials- ideally at 10 cents on the dollar!
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