New Haven Independent

Pictured on the midday walk Tuesday, from left to right, are City Plan staffer Helen Rosenberg, and Port Authority Commissioners Katherine Goodbody and Miles Lasater.

The Port Authority is working on a land use plan to identify ways to grow the economy and make connections within the port. As part of that, the Port Authority must designate a route for the Harborside Trail, a biking/hiking trail that will link up with similar trails to the east and west. It will go either through or around the heavily industrial port.

Park advocates, along with cyclists, birders and others, prefer a route that goes through that corridor, while city planners have proposed a route that traverses Woodward Avenue and Route 1 around the authority, including a crossing over I-95.

“We have consultants that are specialists on bike/pedestrian connections that will look at it more specifically,” said Mike Piscitelli, assistant director of comprehensive planning for the city (at right in photo, in the cool hat). “We put together a little matrix for them to work from.”

Walkers included three Port Authority commissioners, two members of the consulting firm that will design the route, and two people connected to the regional Council of Governments’ effort to create a regional bike/pedestrian plan.

The matrix included the criteria of safety, security, feasibility and functionality. Click here for a fuller explanation from a previous meeting.

But Chris Ozyck, the hardest-working of the many New Haveners supporting a route through the Port Authority (and pictured on the left of Piscitelli), pointed out that the matrix lists only the Woodward Avenue and Connecticut Avenue options, not East Shore Parkway. He favors East Shore Parkway because there would be no user conflict if the trail were built there (e.g., motor vehicles and pedestrians/cyclists sharing the same space).

On Thursday, March 15, and Monday, March 19, Ozyck counted cars and trucks from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. first on Forbes Avenue and then in the port itself. The totals were 2,310 cars on Forbes Avenue, and 219 in the port; 123 tractor trailers on Forbes, and 192 in the port; but 165 of all other kinds of trucks on Forbes Avenue and only 24 in the port. Ozyck said it’s obvious to anyone walking or biking the different routes that the “cyclist/pedestrian/motor vehicle interface” is a “nightmare” on the route going around the port; his vehicle counts just confirmed it.

Jan Okolowicz (pictured in photo above, in the middle between Ozyck and Piscitelli) is with the design firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, consultants to the city and the Port Authority Commission on the project. He said this walk was a chance to bring everyone out with an interest in the trail to see what the issues are on the ground. “That’s why we’re here — to learn — and see what we can do then, afterwards, that’s hopefully an accommodation for all these interests.”

Piscitelli asked everyone on the walk to send comments to him so he can forward to the consultants “to digest all the data and plan on reporting out for the April meeting.”

Al Paolillo, Jr. (pictured on the right with fellow commissioner Lasater) is the aldermanic representative to the Port Authority Commission. He said he has lived near the port his whole life and often drives through it, but this was his first trip on foot. He and the other commissioners all withheld comment until they also have a chance to “digest the data.”

Ozyck has led several walks over the proposed routes in the past few months, but after this one he said, “I definitely got the message, ‘This is not your show.’” He was disappointed that none of the consultants had the Council of Governments Harborside Trail report, which recommended the port option. And disappointed that up to now the city has not put a line on a map to indicate where the alternatives are.

“I felt like they were going through the motions so they could say they went through the motions.” He also noted that as the police cruiser followed participants as they walked along the busy city streets around the port, “The police escort keeps the traffic from whizzing by you at the normal speed. And when you go to cross the highway, they had the police there to stop the traffic.” That fundamentally skews the experience a pedestrian or cyclist would have on his or her own.

“It’s still going to be a battle,” Ozyck said. He’s hoping to win more recruits to his side by leading hikes along the alternatives on the coming two Saturdays, especially hoping more members of the Board of Aldermen will come out to learn first-hand what other New Haveners are so excited about.