New Haven Independent

Posted by: Esbe | July 27, 2007 11:57 AM

I've been arguing that the subsidies given to the Shartenberg project are not a "giveaway": if the city piles demands on a developer, then it is going to have to pay.

But Paul's critique today about scale and "starry-eyes" is more worrisome. The good news is the higher fraction of private money than there typically was in the 60s and 80s. Also good news is that the downtown is doing better all on its own. But it would be bad if this project sucks the life out of various other smaller-scale projects that might have sprung up around town. Smaller-scale renovations have reached a limit (there aren't many old buidings left), but perhaps smaller-scale new construction is or was still possible. That is one reason my first choice would have been the smaller-scale C.A. White proposal

I am a little nervous, but I don't want to get so cynical that we purposely refused to ever imagine the stars.