New Haven Independent

Jordin asked the question at a Thursday night meeting at the Blatchley Avenue police substation of the Fair Haven Management team. Heavy on the minds of the 35 people at the meeting was the death earlier that day of 11-year old Elm City Prep student Gabrielle Lee following a late Wednesday night hit-and-run on Whalley Avenue.

“A death of a young person in violence by bullets,” said Fair Haven Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale (at left in photo), the city’s leading champion of traffic calming (pictured with Fair Haven Middle School principal Kim Johnsky), “often gets attention. But that girl who was killed, it was not an accident. It can be prevented.”

Describing herself as more energized and motivated than ever, she said the city may be at something of a turning point. “People have been fuming silently,” she said, “for a long time.” Now those fumes are turning into action.

Specifically, she brought to the meeting Mark Abraham, who helps run a new coalition, newhavensafestreets.org. He was circulating a petition (click here to read it in full, and sign online if you wish) calling for comprehensive new enforcement, engineering and policy to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities by 50 percent by 2009. The petition cites specific measures, such as enforcement of strict 25 mile-per-hour speed limit on all streets, and holding the city responsible for regular reports on enforcement.

Sturgis-Pascale, he said, was the first alder to sign it. Eleven more have since signed, along with community organizations. He was hoping for the Fair Haven Management team to support it as well.

“Traffic calming,” he made his case to Jordin and the other attendees, “not only saves lives, it helps retail. When the streets are safe,” he said, “people will extend the radius of their walking and expand the base of commerce.”

He ought to know. In addition to being part of the Elm City Cycling organization, one of the original creators of the new group, Abraham is an urban planner with Svigals + Partners, which is designing the new Columbus Family Academy on Blatchley and Grand.

“Do you know,” for example,” he said, “that the state, which is paying for most of the school’s construction, isn’t putting a dime in for crosswalks or other safety measures? And the streets around the school are not safe for kids!”

The other early sponsor of newhavensafestreets.org is the Yale Medical District Safety Group, which was spawned in the aftermath of the traffic death of medical student at the corner of College and Frontage April 19.

The idea is to get as many individuals and groups as possible to sign, then bring the petition to the state delegation to take to Hartford. That’s in keeping with Sturgis-Pascale’s approach. “We have to solve this as a city and a state,” she said, “and build momentum that we’re not going to take it any more.”

In the immediate area of Fair Haven, she bemoaned the drag-racing that continued on River Street, despite city pledges to put “chicanes” in place. These are curved additions to the straightaway curbs to slow traffic. “I just don’t know why it’s taking so long.”

District Manager Lt. Luiz Casanova said the cops play a cat and mouse game with speeders. Many come from other cities, including Bridgeport and Hartford, to gun their vehicles and endanger residents.

“In California,” Sturgis-Pascale said, “if you’re caught speeding, not only are you seriously ticketed, but your car is confiscated and you get to watch it be crushed in a yard.”

Another positive development, she said, was her traffic-calming symposium with consultant Dan Burden, attended by 75 Fair Haveners last Saturday. The follow-up, in which Burden is going to present local solutions will take place June 14 at 10 a.m. at the Quinnipiac Terrace Community Room.

Before the meeting was over, the management team voted to support the gist of the petition, although some members wanted to read it more carefully. Katrina Clark (pictured), who runs the Fair Haven Community Health Clinic, had absolutely no problem signing it, as Abraham and Grace Johnson, also of the Elm City Cycling, looked on. “When you sign the petition,” Abraham said, “you personally pledge to abide by what it seeks to attain at the state level.”

And what did Jordin Melendez think of the proceedings? He wasn’t quite sure what happened, he said through a translator, but he liked it. What part most? “All of it.”