Shore Line East expands service

In response to increasing ridership and skyrocketing gas prices, the Shore Line East commuter rail is immediately expanding to include round-trip weekend service and late-night departures from Downtown New Haven. Click here for the Governor's press release.

Rapidly increasing rail service to Downtown New Haven, from points west, east, and north (once the Springfield-Hartford-New Haven commuter line is implemented), is likely to boost land values in the downtown area and open up new opportunities for development at the nearby Coliseum Site and Union Station, especially if walkability is promoted. New Haven will once again become a major railroad hub -- a trend likely to accelerate as petroleum-intensive forms of transportation, like airplanes and automobiles, continue to become less and less viable.

Arts & Ideas Festival tours New Haven

The Arts & Ideas Festival has wrapped up its series of public walking and bicycling tours, many of which focused on Downtown New Haven's rich panoply of history and culture. The tours were hosted by the New Haven Preservation Trust, Elm City Cycling and the Broadway Merchants Association. Check these links for media coverage of the New Haven public art and public sculpture bicycle tour, Hillhouse Avenue historic district walking tour, and "free speech" bicycle tour. Other tour sites featuring Downtown New Haven included sacred architecture, waterfront neighborhoods, city planning and art galleries. Upcoming summer bicycle rides, including the Wednesday Night Ice Cream Rides, are posted on the calendar at http://www.elmcitycycling.org/. Group walking tours can be arranged by contacting Design New Haven and other Downtown organizations.

Van Gogh's Starry Night and Cypresses: together for the first time

Original Post, 5/12/08: The Yale University Art Gallery in Downtown New Haven is pleased to exhibit side by side, for the first time ever, two of Vincent van Gogh's most renowned paintings: Cypresses and The Starry Night. Completed in June 1889, during his yearlong confinement at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, in southern France, these two paintings exemplify the work of this modern master at the height of his creativity. On view June 15–September 7, 2008. To ensure an unrushed visiting experience, free timed tickets will be available beginning May 29.

Update, 6/18/08: The Stamford Advocate has published a review of the show: "With a new art installation in "an intimate setting" in New Haven, museum-goers have the opportunity to view three masterpieces by one of the most beloved artists of the modern era."

OffManhattan: Nix Hamptons for New Haven

From Manhattan's green weekend travel blog comes an earth-friendly itinerary for Downtown New Haven attractions. Aside from all of the transit-accessible, walkable downtown attractions, like the New Haven Green and retail operations, however, the article fails to point out one of the best things about a summer escape to New Haven - the excellent waterfront areas and public parks with hundreds of miles of hiking trails within a short walk or bicycle ride of the city center.

Of course, the idea of New Haven being a perfect compromise between thriving city and rural escape is nothing new: on February 12, 1842, Charles Dickens wrote:

"New Haven, known as the City of Elms, is a fine town. Many of its streets (as its alias sufficiently imports) are planted with rows of grand old elm-trees; and the same natural ornaments surround Yale College, an establishment of considerable eminence and reputation. The various departments of this institution are erected in a kind of park or common in the middle of town, where they are dimly visible among the shadowing trees. The effect is very like that of an old cathedral yard in England; and, when their branches are in full leaf, must be extremely picturesque. Even in the winter-time, these groups of well-grown trees, clustering among the busy streets and houses of a thriving city, have a very quaint appearance: seeming to bring about a kind of compromise between town and country; as if each had met the other half-way, and shaken hands upon it; which is at once novel and pleasant."

DNH Added to Livable Streets Network

"We are re-envisioning our cities, reversing decades of automobile-dominated planning and policy to create healthier, more sustainable, people-oriented neighborhoods, better prepared to meet the challenges of the new century. The Livable Streets Network is an online community for people working to create sustainable cities through sensible urban planning, design, and transportation policy. We provide free, open source, web-based, resources to citizens working to create a greener economy, address climate change, reduce oil dependence, alleviate traffic congestion, and provide better access to good jobs in healthy communities."

"We believe that people make a city great. Yet, so many of the world's great cities dedicate too much of their precious, limited public space - their streets - to motor vehicles rather than people. We are working to redesign our communities around public transportation and walkable, bikeable streets. We are transforming parking lots into public plazas, busy intersections into town squares, and congested highways into bike paths. We are taking back our cities, one street at a time."

Design New Haven is proud to support these goals, which are critical to the long-term success of areas like Downtown New Haven. Click here for the LSN site and scroll down for a list of other Livable Streets Network sites. The network is a project of the Open Planning Project.

Cycling Activity vs. National Gas Prices

Looks like the number of posts per day on the ElmCityCycling listserv, a forum for making New Haven more accommodating to bicyclists and pedestrians, is highly correlated with the national price of unleaded gasoline (click on chart to enlarge). Who would have thought?

With gasoline predicted to hit $6-10 per gallon as soon as a few months from now, the number of nonmotorized trips to work in New Haven is only likely to continue to increase. As a relatively flat and compact city, Downtown New Haven is already perfect for bicycling and walking, as evidenced by the fact that the city has one of the highest percentages of bicycle commuters in the United States (1.8%, versus 1.2% in Boston, 0.9% in Providence, 0.6% in New York City, 0.4% in Hartford, 0.1% in Bridgeport and 0.0% in Waterbury, according to the Census Bureau's 2006 ACS). During rush hour, there are already occasional bicycle "traffic jams" on the popular Orange Street bicycle lane. New Haven was also recently named one of the 20 most walkable cities in the United States.

However, improvements to the city's bicycle-friendliness are needed before the average area resident will choose to ride to work, or even use his or her bicycle for short trips (e.g., a 4-block run to the corner store). Considering that bicycles are already widely-owned (and very inexpensive), the most frequently given reasons why Connecticut residents don't bicycle more often - infrastructure and safety - are fairly easy to solve. According to numerous studies, infrastructure such as bicycle parking, bike-friendly street design, multi-use greenways like the Farmington Canal Trail and accessibility at train stations raise land values by an amount much greater than the investment put into them (in part because they tend to calm traffic). Reckless and high-speed driving and driver education can be addressed through community-wide "safe streets" efforts and traffic enforcement, and through measures such as anti-dooring ordinances like those found in Chicago.

With the average American family devoting 20% or more of their annual spending towards automobile expenses - more than on health care, education, or food, farmers switching from tractors to pack mules, gasoline prices continuing to skyrocket, and of course, global warming (if everyone who lives within 5 miles of their workplace were to cycle to work just one day a week, nearly 5 million tons of global warming pollution would be saved every year, the equivalent of taking about a million cars off the road, not to mention that the energy required to manufacture a new car is 100+ times that of a new bicycle), American cities will likely need to start taking a Copenhagen-like approach as soon as possible. New York City is already heading that direction, with the hiring of Jan Gehl, Copenhagen's world-renowned planner and urbanist. By conservative estimates, the number of bicycle trips in New York has already increased by 50-75% in the past 10 years, even without major infrastructure improvements. Transit ridership is increasing rapidly as well, on systems all across the United States including those that serve Downtown New Haven.

In Connecticut, promoting bicycling and walking will most likely require a shift in funding priorities. According to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, more than 60% of 2007-2010 highway funding is currently used to expand and build new highways (even as existing ones crumble), whereas less than 1% of the overall transportation budget is spent on bicycle and pedestrian projects (see PDF report here). If Connecticut's 169 cities and town centers are to compete in the 21st century, that equation needs to flip.

Update 5/23/08: According to this graph, bicycle sales are up too. NY Times factoid of the day: "Every one-cent increase in gasoline prices means Americans pay $1.42 billion more a year for gas, according to Stephen P. Brown, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Nearly two-thirds of that goes to foreign producers." It is any surprise that we are $10,000,000,000,000 in debt?

Update 6/15/08: Chart updated - both gas prices and ECC listserv posts have risen more quickly than anticipated. Also, a couple of local news items today: according to a story in today's Hartford Courant, higher gas prices are now reshaping hiring practices. Not only have studies shown that commuters who walk or bike to work at least once per week more productive (because they are healthier), they are apparently becoming attractive to companies in other ways as well. Also today, an article in the New Haven Register talks about various options that commuters are turning to in order to reduce their gasoline use:

Probably the most ambitious rider at Friday’s event was Alienne Morrione of Bridgeport who bicycles 30 minutes from her home to the Metro-North train there. After the 25-minute trip to New Haven, she cycles to the Yale Medical School, where she works in the brain tumor center. Morrione, 31, a dedicated rider, has sometimes been blocked from peak-travel times on Metro-North, so she cycles almost two hours between the cities... “As a single mom, it’s the greatest way to save money,” Morrione said as she pedaled away to work.

And in the article, an interesting statistic on commuting mode share to Downtown New Haven's largest employer:

"Holly Parker, director of Sustainable Transportation Systems at Yale, said in a survey taken last November, she found that 44 percent of faculty, staff and graduate students, over 10,000 workers, drive alone to reach the Yale campus.... But this means that more than half already, even without the added incentive of rising gas costs, were walking (23 percent), taking public transportation (19 percent), sharing a ride (6 percent), bicycling (5 percent) or telecommuting (3 percent.) She is eager to compare figures from the second survey set for the fall."

Bike to Work: Bicyclist Appreciation Breakfast

Original post, 5/28/08: Free breakfasts for bicyclists, this Friday (5/30/08) from 7:30am to 9:30am at Phelps Gate on the New Haven Green. Helmet required. Click here for information on the Downtown New Haven event, which is being hosted by Yale University. Check ElmCityCycling for future Bike to Work breakfast announcements - they run throughout the year.

Update 6/12/08: Over 200 cyclists attended the first event. The next BTW breakfast takes place tomorrow morning from 7:30 to 9:30am in front of New Haven City Hall, with coffee provided by Koffee and the Mayor rumored to arrive around 8 or 8:30.

Update 6/13/08: Click here to launch the WTNH-8 news video about today's bike-to-work event. Also see a written version of the news story here. The Downtown New Haven event was also picked up on the national Bike Commute Blog and covered in the New Haven Independent and New Haven Register. Also see the 17 reasons why the bicycle is the most popular vehicle in the world.

Update 6/23/08: The next BTW breakfast takes place July 11th at City Hall.

Arts and Ideas Festival Kicks Off

The internationally-renowned Downtown New Haven event begins this weekend. The Hartford Courant has a nice piece on it today:

"This year the festival is expected to attract an even larger crowd than its typical 100,000-plus numbers. Gasoline-challenged families no doubt are looking to fill the warm-weather weeks with nearby events and the festival has much to choose from....

"And let's not forget the "ideas" portion of the festival, which includes many of the artists at the festival, such as Irish playwright Sebastian Barry. The U.S. premiere of his play about Ireland's emergence as a world player, "The Pride of Parnell Street," which bows here, and who will have a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon....

"Aleskie says she hopes audiences will check out off-beat, shorter shows like "Siren," "The Japanese Garden" and "Glow." But traditional, classic or just for fun shows abound as well: Roseanne Cash and Mark O'Connor perform a salute to Cash's father Johnny Cash; Maya Beiser performs a commissioned work on cello; New Haven native Ben Allison presents his new jazz group; mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves sings an evening of arias at the Shubert.

For contrast, East Village Opera Company reinvents classical opera with rock in a free concert on the Green. "Think Puccini meets Freddie Mercury," says Aleskie."

Bicycles on Trains: Updated ... Again!

Original Post, 3/30/08: Bicycle parking on trains (and at train stations) is needed to promote multi-modal transportation and reduce automobile use, particularly in compact areas like Downtown New Haven. Numerous other cities and regions allow bicycles on trains - why not Metro North? Recently, controversy has erupted over the state's promises to include some bicycle parking on its newly-ordered train cars, as well as whether or not cyclists will be barred from peak-hour trains. See more information here and here.

After a disappointing discussion with the Connecticut Commuter Council, cyclists from New Haven and other parts of Connecticut and the region attended the MTA President's Forum in New York City in late March 2008; the New Haven Independent reports here.

Selected comments from the MTA President's Forum article:

Patrick, on MNR President Cannito: "Does he simply dismiss all of us who would be using the Metro-Northbetween Connecticut stations? It's incredibly frustrating for me because I travel between New Haven and Bridgeport and would like to use my bike as transportation to and from both stations. I'm not in the proper cycling shape to do a 50 mile commute every day, but I canand love to handle the 16 miles+train ride. Cannito also doesn't seem to be thinking about the future."

David Streever: "Despite assurances from them, they have now reneged, with neither an explanation nor a rationale for why they previously indicated they would provide dedicated bike parking."

Charlie: "The thousands of commuters currently traveling from New Haven to Stamford (or vice versa) each day can take the train, but often have to take 4 car trips per day to and from the stations. That's a recipe for gridlock, environmental degradation, urban decay, and overall social collapse."

Gary Doyens: "Some of you want to levy extra taxes, spend tax dollars for bike lanes and even more tax dollars so you can ride the train with your bike. Why is that our responsibility?"

Robn: "cyclists have been subsidizing both car and rail for years and its time for a bit of payback."

DowntownNewHaven (Moderator 06510): "You can't look at MNRR and just analyze the trains themselves in some sort of bizarre vacuum. You have to look at the tens of thousands of parking spaces taking up valuable land around the train station (land that could probably be rented for $50-$100/SF, and produce incredible tax revenue for the communities nearby, but instead is used to subsidize parking for drivers), the traffic created by said stations, etc., among many other factors."

Many downtown residents are writing letters to Governor Rell, elected officials, DOT administrators and others. Local bicyclists are encouraging everyone to write or call in on the issue (also see here). Discussion is continuing on the ElmCityCycling listserv.

Update 4/10/08: The New Haven Advocate reports today that bicycle "tie-downs" will be included on some trains, but that bicycles will still be prohibited from trains at peak hours.

Update 4/28/08: A thoughtful op-ed on the subject of bicycles on trains appeared in the Hartford Courant, with several comments. Further discussion and complaints have also erupted over postings by Jim Cameron, Chairman of the Connecticut Commuter Council, on his personal blog site. Discussion also continues on the ElmCityCycling listserv.

From the Courant op-ed: "Many employment centers along the New Haven line are too far from stations to be reached on foot, but can be easily accessed by bicycle. Having appropriate bicycle storage areas for train users would expand Metro-North's potential pool of riders, while doing nothing to exclude its existing ridership. One can look to many train lines across the U.S. and Europe for models of successful bicycle-train integration, including Caltrain, Metrolink, Tri-Rail, the California-Amtrak Surfliner and Capitol Corridor trains, and the Berlin S-Bahn, to name only a few."

Update 5/8/08: Richard Stowe refutes all of the points in Jim Cameron's article.

Update 5/28/08: An excellent feature article on the topic of bicycles on trains appeared on the front page of today's Hartford Courant. The article also features coverage of the recent National Train Day event in Downtown New Haven:

Rep. Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, spoke about a second attempt to pass legislation letting bikes on peak Metro-North trains, particularly the new M-8 cars purchased almost entirely with state money. Your best friend is the price of oil," she told them. "We're looking at $150 a barrel this summer and $200 next year. It will be unaffordable for some people to commute to work next year."

Jason Stockmann, a graduate student at Yale, quietly took notes. He works on medical imaging at Yale and recently put his car into storage. Bike tie-downs are critical for the new trains, he said later."If we miss this opportunity it could be a really long time until someone musters the will to install these things," he said.

Update 6/12/08: The New Haven Register reports that, following a letter of request from New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Governor Rell has ordered bicycle storage to be installed on all new M-8 train cars. The article does not say whether bicycles will be allowed on peak-hour trains (even if just in Connecticut) -- a somewhat controversial issue that will most likely have to wait until the beginning of the legislative session.

Coalition: Remove Route 34 Relic, Rell!

Following last March's open civic forum with John Norquist, a coalition of businesses, community organizations and nonprofit groups has delivered a letter to Governor Jodi Rell's desk requesting the removal of the remainder of Downtown New Haven's Route 34 connector highway -- a completely unnecessary and dangerous relic of 1950s traffic planning -- in accordance with the City of New Haven's longstanding plan to redevelop the area as a mixed-use, tax-generating, pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented development that expands the downtown. The New Haven Register also wrote an excellent masthead editorial in favor of the proposal.

Momentum for the plan is building. Even without considering the benefit the city would receive by having acres of downtown land next to Union Station available for future development (and greatly increasing the value of the development already in this area -- might a TIF be used to pay for a portion of this?), the removal of this "stub" highway would save money in the long term by reducing maintenance costs on the amount of road infrastructure in the corridor. Might the next step include a community design charrette?

The text of the letter appears below:

May 27, 2008

Governor M. Jodi Rell
Office of the Governor
State Capitol
210 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106

RE: Removal of Route 34 in New Haven

Dear Governor Rell:

We write today as a broad coalition of community leaders, non-profit policy organizations, businesses and local elected officials to strongly urge you to support the removal of New Haven’s Route 34 connector.

Route 34, a six lane highway which runs from I-95 to the Air Rights Garage, bisects the City of New Haven, inhibiting its growth and revitalization and creating a dangerous situation for pedestrians. The highway is underused and even during rush hours does not experience significant traffic. The City of New Haven has an ambitious vision to remove the highway, recreate the street grid, and develop housing, parks, and offices in the highway’s place. We support the vision, and write to ask you to take a leadership role in helping the City and community bring the project to fruition.

There is substantial public support for the proposal. Last month the Tri-State Transportation Campaign hosted a public event in support of highway’s removal. The event, headlined by John Norquist, President and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism and former Mayor of Milwaukee, was attended by over 125 community members, elected officials and activists. During his tenure as Mayor, Mr. Norquist oversaw a similar project to remove the Park East Freeway, a project which has created millions of dollars in downtown investment.

The removal of Route 34 fits seamlessly into your efforts for more responsible growth and transit oriented development throughout Connecticut. The more vibrant and livable our urban centers, the more likely new and current residents will choose to reside in those areas. And by focusing growth on our cities, we are more likely to protect existing open space in rural areas.

We ask that you support the removal of Route 34, and dedicate state support towards implementing the community's plan.

Sincerely, (in alphabetical order)

Mark Abraham, Member, Elm City Cycling
Robert Alpern, Dean, Yale School of Medicine
Tokunbo Anifalaje, West River, New Haven, Resident
Nate Bixby, President, Network for a Sustainable New Haven
Lynne Bonnett, Chairwoman, New Haven Environmental Network
Frances T. Clark, Alderwoman, Ward 7, New Haven
Reverend Kevin G. Ewing, President, West River Neighborhood Services Corp.
Anstress Farwell, Executive Director, New Haven Urban Design League
Norman Garrick, Ph. D, Associate Professor and Director, Connecticut Transportation Institute, UCONN-School of Engineering
Florita Gillespie, Chairperson, Dwight Community Management Team
Scott C. Healy, Executive Director, Town Green Special Services District
David Kooris, Director, Connecticut Office, Regional Plan Association
Philip Langdon, President, Ronan-Edgehill Neighborhood Assoc.
Robert Orr, Partner, Robert Orr & Associates LLC
Christopher Ozyck, Greenway and Community Advocate
Jonathan Romanyshyn, Member, Yale Medical Area Traffic Safety Group
Kate Slevin, Executive Director, Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Don Strait, Executive Director, Connecticut Fund for the Environment
Erin Sturgis-Pascale, Alderwoman, Ward 14, New Haven
Carter Winstanley, Partner, Winstanley Enterprises, LLC

Cc: ConnDOT Commissioner Joseph F. Marie, ConnDOT Deputy Commissioner Albert Martin, State Senator Toni Harp, State Senator Martin Looney, State Representative Patricia Dillon, State Representative Toni Edmonds Walker, State Representative William R. Dyson, State Representative Juan Candelaria, State Representative Cameron Staples, State Representative Robert Megna

Stem Cells for Dummies

The Yale Stem Cell Center Presents "Stem Cells: Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask," a program given by Haifan Lin, Ph.D., Director of the Yale Stem Cell Center and Professor of Cell Biology and Genetics at Yale, and Robert Mandelkern, Connecticut State Coordinator, Parkinson's Action Network. The event takes place on Wednesday, June 18, 2008, at 12:00 p.m. at the Anlyan Center Auditorium, 300 Cedar Street, Downtown New Haven. Please bring anyone you know who would like to learn more about stem cell research in non-scientific terms. This is a brown bag lunch, but cookies and drinks will be served.

One Floor, Two ECA Events

Downtown New Haven's Educational Center for the Arts (ECA) Visual Arts Department will be holding a Benefit Auction (bring your checkbook - artwork available for $10 and up) this Thursday, June 5th, 5-6pm, at 55 Audubon Street at the 5th Floor Observation Lab. There is also a visual arts reception for the End Collective - same day, same building, same floor: 5-7pm. ECA will be holding its senior thesis and faculty exhibitions on Saturday afternoon, as well as a sale of retrofurbished design work.

New Materials in New Haven Architecture

Original Post, 4/29/08: April 2008 photographs of new buildings currently rising in Downtown New Haven. Through their unique material expression, these new works offer a window into contemporary life in New Haven.

Pictures include: Gwathmey Siegel's Loria Center for the History of Art and Rudolph Building Renovation at Yale on York (zinc panels and limestone facade), Cesar Pelli's Arts and Humanities Magnet High School on College (glass with elm leaves motif and copper stair towers and roof details), Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg's new Chapel Street hotel (glass curtain wall with color glass detail), Hopkins Architect's Kroon Hall at Yale (designed to be the most environmentally friendly building in the United States in terms of CO2 reduction, showing wood truss structure), and Studio ABK's historic renovation of a stunning building on the corner of Chapel and Orange (restored terra cotta and marble details at street level). Click to enlarge the photos.

With major new commissions such as the Yale School of Management New Campus (Sir Norman Foster), College Square (Robert A.M. Stern), 55 Park Street (Svigals + Partners and Behnisch Architects), Yale-New Haven Hospital's new 500,000 square-foot Cancer Hospital (SBRA), 360 State (Becker + Becker), University Health Services (Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam) and Gateway Community College (Perkins + Will) -- and many others -- currently in design or construction, the image of Downtown New Haven will be changing for years to come. Can New Haven sustain its longstanding reputation as a place for some of the nation's most groundbreaking architecture and design?

Update 6/2/08: Chronicle of Higher Education's Buildings and Grounds site has a great new article about the Loria Center, which explains some of its interesting material qualities in greater detail. The irregular stone box of the Loria Center seems like a proper formal response to the idea of Yale being a stone campus, with each building featuring some kind of unique element in that material. In that way it can be iconic, but contextual. One of our readers points out that "it is very difficult to find a material compatible with concrete.... this stone, with its colors shifting from oyster to rust does it well."

Update 6/6/08: Another article from the Chronicle asks, what would you have done?

Walking Businesses to Downtown New Haven

In an interview published in this past week's issue of Business New Haven, the city's new EDC Chief Michele (yes, with one "l" in Michele) L. Whelley outlines her strategy for attracting new business to Downtown New Haven. It sounds like Whelley has read some of the Brookings Institution's reports and studies on the urgent need for more walkable cities:

"So more and more of our institutions are recognizing [location] decisions that are being made by top talent - faculty, doctors, researchers and also students are [driven by] lifestyle [preferences] and where they want to be.... what you sell is the urban environment, which for some companies is a huge plus. The lifestyle, the walkability, resources and facilities.... [Technology companies need] to locate near one another, not necessarily in one building but near enough that there is a sense of community and collaboration. And they have to be able to hire the talent they need, and that circles back to lifestyle."

Downtown New Haven has made major strides in terms of walkability, becoming the most vibrant, walkable place between Boston and New York (and was recently named one of the 20 most walkable cities in the United States). Promoting bicycling and walking is critical to economic development, not only because of "lifestyle" and density preferences, but also because the massive amount of money typically spent on automobile operation gets redirected locally instead of sent offshore. These forms of transportation will grow increasingly important as gas prices continue to rise.

Michele Whelley implies that if the state wishes to compete more effectively in the global economy and attract new residents and businesses, it needs to begin paying even closer attention to promoting transit-oriented development, true pedestrian-friendly streetscapes and "livable" streets, improved multi-modal transit, more frequent mass transit, geographically dense business clusters and urban infill opportunities in key urban centers like New Haven. The city will also need more urgent regional and state support for projects such as the rebuilding of the Route 34 corridor, the mixed-use development at Union Station and other long-term changes to the Downtown.