New Haven Independent

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The meeting was very successful tonight. I took a copy of the article [the Independent] posted tonight and was entertained by the library employee having a lunchtime Hennesy and bud, as were many of us.

In attendance were 3 Westville merchants, Wintergreen developer, Tim mulcahy, the West Rock Avenue artists residents (not an official title, just a group of 10 or so artists who live on this tiny part of West Rock a\Ave, between the west river and Whalley Avenue), and 2 government types, Rep Pat Dillon, and Chair of the 25th ward, Barbara
Segaloff. A handful of westville residents rounded out what i thought was an excellent turnout.

we stuck to the agenda:
1 introductions,
2. discussion of recent events,
3. review of what we requested last year, and how that relates to
what we need to accomplish,
4. actions to take, and
5. discussion of creating an incident log of how we have all been affected.

iiwas impressed by the ideas we uncovered, but it’s a bit premature to tell you all that. i would report that this group is ready to become a squeaky wheel , down in city hall, to keep complaining until we get what we asked for last year…..our late alderman, Phillip voigt signed a petition, and together with him, we presented a letter to the mayor asking for a number of quality of life improvements that he agreed upon, but has done little to implement
1. sidewalk construction. All around Owl’s Nest parking lot, so the parking lot doesn’t spill into the road.
2. replacement of street signs that keep getting defaced or removed,
stating parking limitations.
3. speed humps
4. resident only parking zones.

We added a few more requests, such as sidewalks with trees, as lower West Rock Avenue hasn’t gotten any public works beautification money. We discussed contacting UI to light up the night, so the constant illegal drug trafficking in the Owl’s Nest parking lot ceases… collecting Owl’s Nest trash in clear trash bags, and presenting it to
the mayor, when he comes to Westville for a special meeting, date tbd…

We chose 2 speakers to represent our group succinctly… We are compiling all the incidents (as mentioned above) but also a list of how much money these incidents have cost us, how our taxes have gone up, but we are spending more to repair the damages the bar has wrought… quality of life has gone down… 2 people reported
overhearing Yale students say that “Westville is dangerous”…

We discussed challenging the Liquor Control Board’s documentation that a parking lot that is not adjacent to a bar is not liable for lawbreaking individuals…..

This is just an overview. We have a very creative and devoted group, so far, and I know a handful of others who are planning to attend the bigger meeting.

Muffy Pendergast