New Haven Independent: Neighbors Raise Substation $$$

Neighbors Raise Substation $$$

by Andrew Mangino | June 18, 2008 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Picture%203web.jpg Whalley neighbors like Peaches Quinn (pictured) reported at least temporary success in their struggle to save their police substation. Not everyone was celebrating.

As usual, the monthly gathering of the Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hills (WEB) management team took place Tuesday night at the storefront substation at 386 Whalley Ave. But that was not always a foregone conclusion.

In the face of an emergency budget crunch last month, the mayor’s office cut funding for the WEB substation from the city budget. Though the residents did not take up arms this time, they came close, holding an “emergency meeting,” staging a City Hall stake-out and demanding the city find about $20,000 in a multi-million budget for their neighborhood’s community-policing epicenter.

The city did not. Instead, the residents faced the inevitable: they would have to raisesome the money themselves as part of a compromise that involved partial city funding.

Picture%204web.jpg Nearly a month later, the plan, organizers announced Monday night, is proving successful. The substation will remain open until at least January (At least they have not heard otherwise yet.) And the landlord has agreed to a month-by-month payment schedule so that fund-raising can continue through the rest of the year, said Beaver Hill Alderman Moti Sandman (pictured).

Among the contributors so far are Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts ($100) and the political action committees of state legislators Patricia Dillon and Toni Harp ($500 each). Letters requesting further funds and signed by the area’s aldermen went out this week to local businesses.

Once the good news was relayed, Peaches Quinn, WEB’s treasurer, raised her objections, calling the arrangement a “terrible” and “awful” model.

“It’s a very dangerous precedent to ask citizens to raise money,” she said. “I think once they do that… it can easily become the habit.”

The problem, she elaborated afterwards in an interview, is that by shifting the burden to citizens, the city is getting away with abdicating one of its basic responsibilities: public safety.

“The substation model,” she said, “is the heart and soul of community-based policing.”

Added others at the meeting, it is also one of the standout substations in the city — a paradigm of leadership for other neighborhoods.

“I kind of agree with you, too,” said Beaver Hill resident Jane Mills when Quinn offered her critical assessment of the precedent potentially set. “I had these visions before I came here today: ‘What if?’ What if we lose our substation, and then what if… [they say] ‘Why don’t we merge back with Dwight,’ Godforbid?”

Sandman and Board of Alderman President Carl Goldfield, who also was in attendance, promised that such a merger would be unlikely to happen, at least not without extensive debate, even if the district lost its substation. The board recently passed legislation demanding that any redistricting first pass through its auspices.

In an interview after the meeting, Sandman said that Quinn did make a valid a point.

Picture%205web.jpg “They’re well founded,” he said of her fears. “But you know what? We have to deal with it.”

He went on, though, to question WEB’s response, which involved convincing the landlord to halve the rent. “Maybe we didn’t do everything right,” he said. After at first stopping himself — “I’m not going to second-guess myself; we did what we did what we did” — he admitted, “I think we should have pushed the landlord harder.”

The substation cuts occurred during a round of citywide emergency budget cuts. City officials originally sought to close the substation. They said it’s the only one in town for which the city pays rents (instead of owning the space outright); and that some important functions of the substation, like enabling cops to be visible in the community, can take place in police cruisers, where they can file reports while parked. Neighbors called the substation essential as a meeting space and visible anchor for crime-fighting.

WEB Management Team Chairman Robert Caplan (pictured above) put the issue in frank terms.

“While the residents and the businesses are willing to kick in this year,” he said, “we expect the city to have this budgeted next year.”

‘Raucous’ Plan For Wednesday Night

John Vuoso (pictured below), a local business owner, reiterated Tuesday night his plans to cause a “raucous” at tonight’s meeting of the City Plan Commission in order to stop — or at least stall — Mobil Station owner Gurjant Narain’s proposed construction of a convenience story at the corner of Whalley and Sherman.

Picture%206web.jpg “I want everyone out tomorrow night with their pom-poms,” he told the group, confiding later to another resident that he would be quite “pissed” if they did not show up.

(To read Allan Appel’s report on the controversial plan, click here.)

Goldfield warned the group attendees to come prepared with not only quality-of-life arguments but also pointed legal arguments and means of stalling, such as requesting that a traffic assessment be commissioned. He faced one dissenter: Eli Greer said he could not easily “understand the difficulty” with the proposal and might prefer a neighborhood discussion over a City Plan Commission protest. Vuoso promised they would come prepared (and must).

“It’s not about putting someone out of business. It’s about the realities of Whalley Avenue,” he said after the meeting. “We need to stop it at any cost.”

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Comments

Posted by: bugupit | June 18, 2008 7:41 AM

Hearty congratulations to neighbors for pulling together and doing what they have to do. But I agree with Quinn, this is a shameful situation and a terrible precedent. We are not talking suburban pay to play sports programs or after school music here! What's the new Chief say? Would City Hall allow him to reallocate within his Department budget? Kudos to Smuts for kicking in, but I don't think that fully covers you for favoring other programs and initiatives for funding over the very basics of community policing. How many times $20,000 is the City spending in cash and kind on the Arts Festival --- something that I suspect is taken advantage of by a smaller percent of City residents than they would have us believe.

Posted by: robn | June 18, 2008 8:25 AM

Our city needs sharp fiscal austerity measures, but I'm very uneasy with the idea of neighborhood supplementing the police budget with private money beyond their tax obligations. This is a slippery slope towards privitized security which is, as we've seen with Blackwater, an inequitable, unaccountable and often volitile security model.

Posted by: Carl Goldfield | June 18, 2008 9:55 AM

A mild correction: I advocated for investigating and addressing the legal standards that City Plan must consider rather than presenting opposition grounded solely on quality of life concerns. Ultimately its a legal hearing and I was counseling the best chance for success based on my legal experience.

I did not suggest using a request for a traffic study as a "stalling" tactic. That came from a representative of a city-wide, safe-street group who was present to request the support of the management team for their effort to promote traffic calming measures. He was also not proposing a tactic; the volume and charachter of the traffic the proposed gas station/convenience store will produce is a legitimate concern.

Posted by: Exiled Italian Shill | June 18, 2008 10:32 AM

Robn I am with you!

While it is nice to see community come together to raise money for something they care about like the substation, but the Greers could have just as easily wrote off the cost. Their interest in keeping the station there is the proximity to the school. One idea might have been to just cut the Greer's CDBG subsidy in the amount to offset the cost of the substation staying where it is now.

Posted by: Nan Bartow | June 18, 2008 10:51 AM

The City should definitely budget for retaining the Police Substation on Whalley Avenue next year. The Substation is an essential part of Community Policing. Keeping it on Whalley Avenue is an essential part of reducing crime on Whalley Avenue. If the City is serious about improving Whalley Avenue, supporting Community Policing, and reducing crime, it should plan to support the Substation on Whalley Avenue in next year's budget.

Posted by: Lets get real | June 18, 2008 11:08 AM

I see no reason why people in the community must fundraise money to keep their neighborhood substation. You mean to tell me that my huge increase in my taxes and everyone else isnt eneough??! Isnt that what we pay some of our tax dollars for! INSANITY!! Secondly, my own personal opinion based of my neighborhood substation (fairhaven) is a waste anyways. Its based in the middle of a problem area with drugs and prostitution, bodegas that sell drugs on the sly - and the problem has gotten better. we have a substation and then you look across the street and see someone picking up a prostitute or see them working with cops driving by in broad day light as kids walk to the store. Westville must have a great sub station becuase they can tear down mines, its just takin up space anyways..Im not saying all of them are this way, but i am saying we need to take a closer look at some of the ones in urban communitities..i think they are used more as the coffee and donut retreat!

Posted by: Deuce | June 18, 2008 12:27 PM

Cutting back any police funding in a city where violent crime is common (and growing) is government stupidity at its worst.

Posted by: Elfer | June 18, 2008 12:45 PM

Mr. "Exiled Italian Shill"

Let's get our facts straight and then comment, the Greers already slashed the rent by 5K which has already been reported by the independent in previous articles, and the City has dramatically cut all participants of CDBG across the city due to the lack of funding. Furthermore, the Greers have put in 500 trees in the neighborhood over the years with the CDBG funding. Get your facts and then comment.

Posted by: Zach | June 18, 2008 2:58 PM

A substation in a school is a horrible idea, but as Rob pointed out, we're living in a post-substation world. Cops are more effective walking a beat and doing paperwork in their patrol cars than they are drinking coffee and jotting notes in a substation. Residents in other neighborhoods don't have the luxury of a substation whose rent the city subsidizes so why should they in WEB?

Posted by: facChek | June 18, 2008 4:31 PM

"Once the good news was relayed, Peaches Quinn, WEB's treasurer, raised her objections, calling the arrangement a "terrible" and "awful" model".

You are correct peaches, when that sub station was first established the city did not require the residents to contribute towards the sub-station rent or sustainability. Your taxes did that.
The opening in that location was a deal between the Greers and DeStefano. However, since the fall-out between the two, over citizen armed patrols, and the resulting embarrassment to DeStefano, this sub-station became a liability.
The budget cutting action became the excuse for "pay back to the Greers".

Public safety and police in particular is a priority for city taxpayers and DeStefano alike.
Should he finally close the sub-station Feb. and crime along whalley ave. increases, as predicted, then the mayor should and will pay politically for this spiteful political decision.

Hell no, we won't pay!!!

Posted by: James | June 19, 2008 9:08 AM

...the mayor should and will pay politically for this spiteful political decision

facChek, I wish that were true. But if that man had ever been held accountable for anything he would have been gone long ago. The lack of any serious opposition makes sure of that.

Posted by: iwasthere | June 19, 2008 9:14 AM

mr mayor would like people to give and rise money to support his substations, which are city's responsablities, but the tables are turned when the elm city id's come in affect. the mayor cannot not rise the money for the cities id. the budget is in the whole. why don't you hear the mayor asking people to donate $250,000 dollars, this i think is a double standard the mayor is playing. yes substations are very important. but finding private sources to fund it is not.

Posted by: anon | June 19, 2008 6:08 PM

"the mayor cannot not rise the money for the cities id. the budget is in the whole."

The effect of a single armed robbery on the city's economy, including property values and community psychology, is probably pretty close to $250,000. Municipal IDs can reduce the robbery rate, therefore, the project pays for itself pretty quickly.

Here's an idea: on top of a mandatory jail sentence, increase the fine for armed robbery to $250,000 (and/or equivalent community service), so that communities can recoup the cost of the crime.

New Haven Independent

Neighbors Raise Substation $$$

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