New Haven Independent

DeStefano joined the 60-member Connecticut delegation for breakfast Tuesday, his first full day at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. In the down time between high-profile speeches, most of the state’s delegates hung out at filed into a Chinese restaurant for a political event for Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy.

DeStefano skipped the bash for the man he fought bitterly against, and beat, in a 2006 gubernatorial primary race, and could well be running against again in 2010. Instead, he hopped the new light rail system into the heart of downtown.

Getting there meant jumping a median, walking past a field of prairie dogs, over 13 lanes of traffic, and descending an elevator to the nearest hub of the commuter train line.

He walked through a tunnel to the station. The walls sparkled with brightly colored reflectors, hung in diamond patterns.

“That’s cool,” reflected DeStefano, looking at the walls. No electricity cost. Nice look.

The nuts-and-bolts mayor made many such observations, taking mental notes as he toured this modern western city — and, subtly, arriving at what sounded like at least one gubernatorial campaign line about mass transit.

He hopped aboard the E line with a delegate tote bag, a few maps and a carefully annotated diary. On one page were pasted photos of a recent trip to Madison, Wis., where he’d spoken to a group of progressive local chief executives, the Mayors Innovation Project, about the city’s immigrant-friendly ID card.

Later that day, Malloy was set to speak at a rival mayor’s association — the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which had given a presentation Monday about crime.

DeStefano wasn’t attending the various convention-related events by that group, which he said is more focused on larger cities, and on promoting itself. He’s worked most extensively with a third group, the National League of Cities, which is comprised of statewide coalitions of cities across the nation. (He formerly served as the group’s president.)

On his route DeStefano took in Denver’s remarkable transportation infrastructure. Founded as a mining town in 1858, the city now bustles with a population of about 588,000 — over four times the size of New Haven. Expecting a population boom bringing it up to 1,000,000 residents in 20 years, the city has been amping up its transit network, including a new light rail system.

Hmm… How About Connecticut?

The light rail hopped with passengers. Out the window, DeStefano noted the ample space: Wide gaps between train tracks, room for huge highway arteries, large commuter parking lots, and buried utility lines lending to wide open views.

Is there a comparable transportation initiative in Connecticut to the light rail system zipping alongside the highway? the mayor asked rhetorically. Nothing, really, he thought — the UConn campus expansion, maybe.

Was it the ample room of the West, where land is plentiful and cheap, that made this rail project possible?

“I don’t think it’s the room,” replied the mayor. “I think it’s a lack of urgency.”

Big transportation initiatives have fallen out of public favor in Connecticut, he said. “After Urban Renewal, people backed away from big projects.”

Connecticut needs better train lines on the Northeast Corridor, he said, but there’s no public will. “People don’t feel the urgency” to make that commitment.

The Denver light rail nodes — train stops by the side of the highway, with large commuter lots leading to shuttles or walkways to office and hotel complexes — are “not good examples” for Connecticut, he said.

“The model for us is to develop right on the lot,” DeStefano said. Connecticut needs dense development, built around or immediately next to the train station, with an easy connection to bus lines, he said. “We need vertical development,” because there’s no room horizontally. That’s the model he’s trying to build around New Haven’s Union Station, where plans for a transportation-oriented development remain at the mercy of state officials.

New Haven has thought about reviving old trolley lines on city streets. Consultants came up with a recommended system, the mayor said. But the plan would need a revenue structure. “Would people feel it’s a compelling need? I don’t know.”

“There’s a lot of good things to do, but not a lot of consensus to do them,” especially not with local funding. Lacking a regional property tax system — something DeStefano rallied for in his unsuccessful 2006 gubernatorial run against Republican M. Jodi Rell — the city has little power to fund a project like that, he said. Perhaps the city could fund a transportation initiative by levying a local sales tax, but that proposal would require state legislation. A so-called “penny tax” gained some traction in Hartford last year, but died as the state budget plummeted into bad budgetary times.

Standing by the side of the tracks awaiting a transfer Tuesday, the mayor found the tall office buildings had shrunk to a more human scale — an old steakhouse and some housing behind the bushes. “Public housing,” he declared, looking at ”70s-style brick structures.

“Anywhere you go in America, you can spot public housing.” Now, with the mixed-use, vinyl Q Terrace and the Monterey Homes, “we’re trying to move away from that.”

Free Wheelin’

Downtown, the mayor and this reporter jumped on transportation mode number two: Free bicycles being lent out through the Freewheelin’ program on downtown streets. The program, a collaboration between the Humana health care company and the Bikes Belong cycling advocacy group, is lending out 1,000 bikes to give the city’s swarm of visitors an on-the-ground tour of the city.

We zipped down a ramp to a waterfront trail, where runners, riders and rollerbladers rolled along the pleasant Cherry Creek. The riverside road runs to shopping malls and parks, all below the hum of the city. We stopped to ask directions from a talkative young father, who was pedaling his 13-month-year-old downtown for lunch.

DeStefano said he liked the active lifestyle, but missed the density of New Haven, Chicago, or New York. “I like buildings on the sidewalk,” he noted. “I guess you like whatever you’re familiar with.”

Downtown, the mayor marveled at a central bus stop facilitating transfer routes — not something New Haven has. He stopped in a popular bookstore and asked what makes it work — short shelves, a popular café, room to sit and read. He was nonplussed by the city’s central avenue, a pedestrian walkway of outdoor bars and restaurants, where buses and pedicabs rolled by a median big enough to fit benches and street musicians.

“I’d rather have it connected to what’s going on with the storefronts,” he remarked.

Did he come across anything he’d like to replicate back home?

“Yeah, if we had millions and millions of dollars,” he said, walking down the central thoroughfare.

An Old Rivalry

Soon enough, the hour for dim sum with Malloy had passed. “That’s now? I forgot,” DeStefano said. In an interview at the fundraiser, Malloy raised the question of who’ll be the next Connecticut governor, then coyly declined to formally announce his candidacy.

Malloy was using the time for “profile expansion and visibility,” DeStefano remarked. Neither has made any official announcements, but both are considered likely candidates for the 2010 governor’s race. DeStefano said it was too early to make a move.

“I’m like, that’s next year,” he said. “Let’s see who wins the [presidential] election first” — a decision that may cause a reshuffling of Connecticut’s top elected seats.

For now, the mayor said he’s reading a book about campaigning strategy, and enjoying the break from the campaign trail. “I don’t feel like I need to be in a perpetual state of being someone other than who I am.”

In the meantime, he said he’d spend the rest of his convention time building relationships.

“I figured, today I’d do Denver. Tomorrow I’ll go to the convention center early, or maybe I’ll ride bikes again.”