Posted by: nfjanette | March 22, 2006 7:33 PM

In other words, the hospital agreed to a “community benefits agreement� that activists from the labor-affiliated community group CORD had been demanding.
An alternate version of that reality: in other words, they gave in to the extortion for money demanded by everyone with their hand out. But either way you look at it, Yale-New Haven has placed a generous offer on the table that will satisfy any reasonable group involved.

The jobs program is a fantastic idea! It's one of the best concepts I've seen coming from the city and/or Yale in a long time. Someone has got to address the gap between the type of skilled jobs that the center will create and the average education and training of much of the local potential workforce.

Yale-New Haven will pay for the traffic signal upgrades in that area that Mayor DeStefano's administration has failed to provide for the city - that's great news in and of itself - perhaps the embarrassment that has passed for "traffic engineering" in that part of the city will finally be fixed. If only it would be fixed everywhere else in the city as well, perhaps both drivers, bikers, and pedestrians would be safer. They're called left turn lanes and signals: use them, please. Can you imagine driving down Howard Avenue and being able to turn left on York Street to get to the hospital main entrance without taking you life into your hands?

Posted by: new havener | March 23, 2006 8:16 AM

Does anyone actually believe that this wasn't staged to happen at this time, while the delegates are being chosen for the democratic convention, and less than a week after an opinion piece in the New Haven Register blasting the mayor for his lack of leadership on this issue? Come on!!! Don't be suckers. DeStefano was the puppet master behind this CORD deal all along. They didn't get anything more now than the hospital offered 6 months ago.

Posted by: Truth Be Told | March 23, 2006 7:58 PM

I agree with New Havener.

Sunday's editorial pushed the Mayor to act. New Haven is not composed of idiots, they will see through his feeble last minute attempts to save his gubernatorial bid.

Posted by: Victorious | March 24, 2006 12:56 AM

I hope that the people who have posted comments above me will soon be able to share in this victory. For the first time in the history of New Haven, hundreds of community members and employees of one of the most powerful institutions in the world have bridged racial, economic, and territorial boundaries to win a Community Benefits Agreement, the first agreement of its kind on the East coast. The precedent this sets in New Haven and across the country is historic. This agreement was won through years of community and labor organizing to bring New Haven together on issues that affect us all: affordable housing, access to health care, environmental stewardship, good jobs, resources for young people, and responsible city planning. Real improvements in all of these areas were won and will make our city safer, healthier, and welcoming for everyone. In a time of unprecedented compromise at the federal level in all of the categories of benefits mentioned, perhaps this agreement was staged to happen now, through the frustration and passion of people struggling for some kind of shift in our economic system. If you don't think you're going to benefit from the Community Benefits Agreement with Yale New Haven Hospital, you're living somewhere very far from New Haven.

Posted by: dwight resident | March 29, 2006 9:48 AM

I think the CCNE, YNHH and City Hall agreement is flawed. It does not address the environmental, zoning and planning issues. Neighborhoods such as Dwight and West River were excluded. I recently reviewed the revisions of the zoning amendments and all the important elements were taken out as of 3/28/06 by City Plan Dpt. Parking demand reduction, open space component and design review were removed by City Plan Dpt. Last week those sections were in the amendments and this week they are gone. CORD and CCNE have also excluded our concerns about a parking garage (Lot E), and additional traffic and Polution. The Community Benifits Agreement are minimal at best. Giving out ashthma inhalers instead of proposing a plan for commuters is an insult.The air quality in NEW HAVEN will increase the number of cancer patients according to actual testimony submitted at the hearing. Is that what YNHH really wants?

Posted by: Ned | April 4, 2006 2:47 PM

Amazing what can get done when the mayor is seeking higher office... Even the fence (which was smashed by an SUV four years ago...), at the entrance to College Woods, in East Rock Park, is being repaired. Thanks to "victorious" for the great apparatchik propaganda spiel; the Soviet Union collapsed about twenty years ago though. Seems to me like business as usual, in dysfunctional New Haven; everyone has their hand out - begging or threatening, guilt tripping and dissembling. Who would want to attempt to relocate or start a large for profit enterprise here? Meanwhile, New Haven is still one of the poorest cities in the United States.