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.

Momentum Builds for Bike-Friendly Union Station

The New Haven Register reports today that the city has received a $10,000 grant to improve bicycle access at Union Station, and also has submitted a federal funding request for $145,000 for on-street dedicated and shared bike lanes connecting Union Station to Downtown New Haven and neighborhoods to the south and north of the city, which themselves have bike routes planned to connect with other sections of New Haven. The funding requests and grants also contain provisions for improved bike storage (with something like the photo at left, from a small Swedish train station, as the eventual goal in terms of encouraging use). More specifics on a proposed route can be found in the article:

"The bike lane, signage and striping would take place along Orange and Humphrey streets, Whitney Avenue, Temple, George, Church and Crown streets and Union, Howard and Columbus avenues with $15,900 for bike racks and covered parking at the rail station."

Improved bicycle routes and parking at Union Station would not only provide improved efficiency for commuters, but would also potentially have a major impact on the city's economic development, public health and traffic safety, as bicycle lanes also tend to calm traffic, promote walkability, raise real estate values, increase bicycling use, help citizens save millions of dollars per year in commuting costs, and promote local retail districts. They could also have an impact on suburban areas, by making the land near train stations on Metro North, Shoreline East and the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield line more valuable.

Of course, to be truly effective and enable the majority of city residents to feel comfortable commuting via bicycle, designated bike routes must also be combined with traffic calming treatments that reduce vehicle speeds and create safer intersections. As the number of cyclists in Downtown New Haven continues to grow, transit ridership increases, and the potential citywide economic benefits of improved traffic safety are more widely understood, the political will for implementing these types of strategies -- which have been in use for decades in many other cities and countries -- will hopefully increase.

WTNH-8 also ran a video news segment on this story, with great images of overflowing bike racks at the train station and footage of Elm City Cycling's recent "Bike to Work Day/BTW Breakfast." Also see separate WTNH news coverage here (video) and here (story). The $10,000 grant application was made possible based on the city's recent application to LAB for designation as a bicycle-friendly community. Click here for a thread summarizing previous DNH coverage of bicycle access on trains and at Union Station.

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.

Northland Explains Plans for Coliseum Site

Northland Investment Corporation chairman Lawrence R. Gottesdiener explains his approach to developing Downtown New Haven's former Coliseum Site, and the importance of walkability, in the most recent issue of Business New Haven:

"We have three business plans. One is growth surrounding information-technology markets. One is contrarian: for us that's south Florida. And one is high-barrier-to-entry markets where it is very difficult to build, and that includes Connecticut and Massachusetts. New Haven fits the 'growth' and the 'high-barrier' business plan. My belief about New Haven is that it has the ability to be the greatest second-tier city in the country. New Haven has everything Hartford doesn't have - it has pulse, energy, a vibrant restaurant and somewhat of a retail scene. It now needs to go to the next level: It needs some landmark development to say, 'Forget Greenwich, forget Stamford - this is the place to live.' Not just for the best and the brightest, but also for the empty nesters who are gravitating toward university towns. The big challenge is to knit downtown to Union Station, which is why my interest in the Coliseum site and to emphasize its location at the crossroads of New England."

"The old paradigm that density is bad is over. If you really study the New Urbanism, now the argument is that density is good - live, work and play, keep people close, let people walk. Walking and train, the pedestrian experience and the train experience is going to be the future of the Northeast corridor."

For more details on Northland's plans, also visit our most recent posting on the New Haven Coliseum site (and see additional image above).

National Train Day to hit New Haven Union Station

First Robert DeNiro and Kate Beckinsale, now National Train Day. New Haven's elegant Union Station will host the "only National Train Day celebration between New York & Boston" this Saturday from 4:00-5:30 PM, on the 2nd Floor Balcony. See here for more photos courtesy Herbert S. Newman and Partners.

The press release notes that "sticker shock at the gas pump is matched by increasing congestion on the roadways and in the air, and that polls, referenda, and ridership data on train systems across the country (including those in New Haven) all point to a demand for more trains, the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) and its local affiliates are sponsoring events at stations across the country that highlight the role of passenger trains in a networked transportation system." In addition to discussing plans for the future of Union Station and the opportunities for the national rail network, the New Haven event is also likely to focus on multi-modal transportation, such as bicycle access on trains. The speaker-driven event will include a number of local and state officials and state environmental advocates, and several members of the media are expected. For more details, see the press release.

City Receives Multiple Bids for Former Coliseum Site

Original Post, 4/22/08: Official RFQs for the major 4+-acre Downtown New Haven site were received this morning from a wide range of development and real estate companies. The City of New Haven has been seeking a project team that can create a vibrant mixed-use, walkable development incorporating the Long Wharf Theater.

The list of proposers looks promising at a first glance. Related Companies, for example, was the successful developer of the massive $1.1 Billion, 2.8 million square foot Time Warner Center -- the most valuable real estate property in all of New York City. AvalonBay has 171 major developments with 49,000 apartments. The other bidders have impressive track records as well -- focusing on development in, for example, "the most desirable neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, the New York metropolitan area, Seattle and Boston."

The site has also long attracted attention from New Haven-based architects (also see here).

What's next? Selected development firms will face an in-depth selection process and a difficult financing market. In fact, fallout from the financial troubles in the global market effectively prevented a number of major companies from responding to the RFQ, even though the site's central downtown location -- one block from Union Station and the proposed new Transit Oriented Development there -- is extremely valuable. More information on the RFQ (including details such as proposed land uses) should be available soon.

RFQ SUBMITTALS 4/22/08
THE RICHMAN GROUP DEVELOPMENT , GREENWICH , CT
ARCHSTONE , NEW YORK , NY
HEYMAN PROPERTIES, LLC , WESTPORT, CT
NORTHLAND INVESTMENT CORPORATION , NEWTON , MA
AVALONBAY COMMUNITIES, INC. , SHELTON , CT
RELATED COMPANIES LLP , NEW YORK, NY

Update, 4/24/08: Coverage of the response now appears in today's New Haven Register, Yale Daily News and New Haven Independent.

Update, 5/2/08: Articles about the proposed downtown development, with additional details and images of the responses, appear in Business New Haven, New Haven Register and the New Haven Independent. More images may be available soon and will be posted here.

Update, 5/8/08: Additional details on the Coliseum RFQ are now posted in a separate article.

Hollywood East

The New Haven Register reports today about upcoming movie shoots in Downtown New Haven and the surrounding area, including one with Robert DeNiro and Kate Beckinsale scheduled for next week at Union Station.

According to the Register, "Connecticut has become known as “Hollywood East” because of a 30 percent tax credit given to filmmakers who spend money here." Apparently, the enormous tax credit is already having a spillover effect in the regional real estate market.

Last summer, a significant portion of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was filmed in Downtown New Haven, pumping an estimated $10 million into the local economy and attracting thousands of tourists from all over the world hoping to catch a glimpse of Steven Spielberg. According to New York Times coverage at the time, film production in Connecticut had increased from $750,000 to $52 million immediately after the tax credit was introduced, and was expected to top $300 million this year. In other words, don't be surprised if someone even more famous than Harrison Ford hits New Haven this summer.

While we're on the subject of tourism, check out this week's article in The Independent's (UK) Business Travel section that highlights Downtown New Haven. We are guessing that the travel correspondent attended last week's Discover New England summit in New Haven. Tourism to New England from Europe is rapidly increasing, in part due to the decline of the dollar.

Update: The Courant writes about how you can volunteer your house for a movie shoot.
Update 6/3/08: DeNiro films at Yale.

New Haven Register: Reclaim Route 34

A thoughtful masthead editorial from today's New Haven Register, supporting the plan to reclaim Route 34 for urban development:

Reclaim Route 34 for downtown (New Haven Register editorial 4/20/08)

There is no need for the Route 34 connector that funnels interstate traffic into the heart of downtown New Haven. The sunken roadway creates a dead end for downtown, gobbles up land that could be developed and doesn’t even serve the purpose for which it was built. The connector was built in 1959 as the first section of a highway that was to have extended to Route 8 in Derby. Instead, it stops abruptly at the Air Rights Garage.

The idea of reclaiming this land, which once was full of homes and businesses, has been slowly gaining support since New Haven’s quick, initial 2005 study of its feasibility. The city has estimated that development of the highway land could add almost $3.8 million in tax revenue.

A far more detailed study done by consultants for the South Central Connecticut Regional Council of Governments was completed in October. That study, done at the city’s request, has formed the basis of preliminary discussions with the state Department of Transportation. The study estimated that the land could support 1.4 million square feet of midrise buildings for commercial, residential and retail use.

Last week, the discussion of Route 34’s future was energized by a public meeting and discussions here led by John Norquist, the former mayor of Milwaukee, who oversaw the demolition of a freeway spur in his city and its replacement with city streets.

Milwaukee is one of several U.S. cities that have replaced freeways with streets. Portland, Ore., tore down the Harbor Drive Freeway that once carried 90,000 vehicles a day. The Central Freeway in San Francisco, on which 93,000 vehicles traveled daily, was replaced by a boulevard. In comparison, about 75,000 vehicles a day use the Route 34 connector.

What happens to that traffic? According to Norquist, who is president of the Congress for the New Urbanism, it is absorbed into the restored street grid. In New Haven’s case, instead of the connector’s three exits, drivers could choose from all the city streets that now end where the highway cuts them off.

Norquist also widened the discussion. Much of the talk here has centered on a broad boulevard that would extend from roughly Church or Orange Street to the Air Rights Garage. He noted that Milwaukee replaced its highway with a two-way street with sidewalks and parking. He also suggested that all of the connector be reclaimed, right up to where Interstates 95 and 91 connect to Route 34 next to Water Street.

Albert A. Martin, the new state deputy transportation commissioner for transit-oriented development, attended the meetings here. Although the DOT has yet to be convinced of the Route 34 plan, he agreed “there is a need for change.” State support may hinge, in part, on how reclaiming Route 34’s land will support alternatives to automobile use, from the provision of bike lanes and the construction of housing within walking distance of work to how a new street plan connects to the nearby rail stations on Union Avenue and State Street.

Shore Line East ridership up 5.5%, Update: Metro North ridership skyrocketing as well

The AP reports today that ridership on the Shore Line East commuter rail line, which stops at the new State Street Station as well as Union Station in Downtown New Haven, was up 5.5 percent last year. The DOT credits an expanded weekend schedule and rail car improvements for the increase. The service normally operates on weekdays only, but was expanded this year to include weekends during the holiday shopping season.

Given the success of the weekend stops and the rapidly-rising costs of driving, should the schedule be expanded to include weekends throughout the year?

Update 4/19/08: Ridership is up 8.8% in the first part of the year and Metro North ridership is also way up. See http://blog.tstc.org/2008/04/14/connecticut-metro-north-and-shore-line-east-ridership-up/

Google Maps 'Bike There' highlights Downtown New Haven advocacy group ElmCityCycling

Googlemapsbikethere is an interesting advocacy group petitioning Google, Inc for better online maps. See http://googlemapsbikethere.org/2008/04/02/elm-city-cycling/

"Occasionally we try to spotlight different groups of people - often cycling advocacy groups - from around the world. We recently covered groups in Australia and Hungary. ‘What is The Elm City’, you say?"

ECC was the main driver behind the City of New Haven's recent LAB Bicycle-Friendly Community application and has several subcommittees focused on other advocacy topics throughout New Haven. Based on the online discussions and the subcommittee work, the largest issues of concern to ElmCityCycling's members include improving bicycle and pedestrian access to and from Union Station, securing bicycle access on trains, calming traffic, and improving the safety of bike routes from all of the city's different neighborhoods to Downtown. They are working closely with City Hall to accomplish these tasks. Visit the ECC website at http://www.elmcitycycling.org/ and look around for yourself.

Union Station as reimagined by the City...

Reporting by the New Haven Independent: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2008/03/read_union_stat.php

See the full study here: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/upload/2008/03/JLL020708.pdf

Some are apparently concerned that the plan does not do enough for pedestrians and bicyclists. A discussion on Elm City Cycling's listserv has begun: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/message/6270

City's Future Framework Plan for Downtown New Haven and Route 34

From CityofNewHaven.com

http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Government/pdfs/Future%20Framework%202008v9.pdf

City begins study on reestablishing streetcar service to Downtown

"We’ve got buses, cars, bikes and even a trolley. Now the city is considering bringing back streetcars, which rolled through New Haven from 1860 to 1948."

http://www.nhregister.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/BigDaily?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.content=%2FMAIN_REP%2FArticle%2F2008%2F03%2F13%2F1736838

http://www.nhregister.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/BigDaily?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.content=%2FMAIN_REP%2FArticle%2F2008%2F03%2F04%2F1683870