New Haven Independent

The stops were originally removed in an agreement with a Baltimore-based developer, David Cordish, who said that doing so would “create a desirable ambience” around his proposed project to rejuvenate the old Chapel Square Mall and rebuild the adjacent hotel. Some local activists understood that to mean a desire to rid the Green of those who frequent Connecticut Transit buses, mostly low-income people of color, the elderly and those with disabilities. They fought back, and they’ve been fighting ever since.

Cordish never came to New Haven to build his project. Instead, he partnered with Omni, which rebuilt the Omni Hotel. Paul Wessel, the city’s traffic and parking czar, said Omni company reached an agreement with the city to declare the earlier bus-stop agreement null and void. “That meant bus stops could be anywhere downtown they made sense to the system, to the traffic patterns, to pedestrians.” He said Connecticut Transit proposed restoring the stops on Temple and Chapel on two sides of the Green, so that’s what the city proposed to the Traffic and Parking Commission, and those stops were restored two years ago.

He added that when the Church and Chapel stop was removed, a new stop was added on the northeast corner of Church and Elm streets, the equivalent of two blocks away. He says the old stop is now shorter, because police parking and a loading zone have been added post-9/11. He says there are concerns about buses protruding into a lane of traffic if there is a back-up.

Mary Johnson, the octogenarian who’s been leading the fight ( pictured on the left, in photo above), said research done by the group revealed that buses may stick out into traffic at many stops around the city, but nobody removed those stops. “Instead of consulting Connecticut Transit,” she said, “the mayor should be doing a survey of the people of New Haven. At six public hearings in ‘97, people said they did not want the bus stops removed.”

“People have been advocating for restoration of a stop that served the system that existed in 1997, but no longer exists today,” Wessel said. “We work with where are the buses, where are the pedestrians, and where are the stops that make sense.” He added that the system has changed largely due to cutbacks in service.

Ward 7 Alderwoman Dolores Colón (pictured above with Mary Johnson) was on her way to a meeting in City Hall, and stopped to weigh in on the protesters’ side. “This area has always been a hub for bus transferring,” she said, “and for the elderly it’s hard for them to move around, to walk two blocks to catch a bus. Sometimes you miss it and you have to wait around, and sometimes there’s no place to sit. If you’re old, and not in the best of health, it’s a double hardship.”

It turned out that most of the protesters out on Wednesday were not bus users themselves. They’re acting in solidarity with bus users, many of whom, they say, can no longer come downtown without suffering significant hardship. Just then, an older woman walked by who identified herself as a bus user. She didn’t know about the protest, but said she hoped it would succeed. “Walking all the way down Church Street from before Chapel until Elm Street is very hard, especially if I’m carrying packages,” she said. “And, in the winter, it’s very difficult because you can slide on the ice — you can kill yourself, or hurt yourself. It’s very bad.”

It looks like the city has no plans to restore the Church and Chapel bus stop, but Wessel said it does have plans to replace six bus shelters around downtown with modular units that will be lit at night and heated in winter. The $1.5 million project is funded by the feds and should be ready by this winter.

So those elderly bus riders can be warm in between their forays on the ice down Chapel Street.

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