New Haven Independent

Posted by: cedarhillresident | September 4, 2008 2:36 PM

NO IT CAN NOT!!!!!! GRRRRRR Renters need places to shop! Most are train and bike commuters.

Posted by: Dave | September 4, 2008 3:15 PM

umm how about we bring more culture here besides foods from around the world.

We need more live music venues (although mad props to Cafe nine)......but most importantly we need places for bare necessity.

We need food markets that aren't Gourmet (pricey) heaven. We need to make downtown a place u don't have to drive to get what you need.

Everything we need should be downtown, burn down the fancy designer clothing stores for yalies and big suburban spenders to abuse what does that do for little old me and my peugoet? Nada. Except I have to wind up interacting with this people who just want to run me over on my bike because they are going to miss the sale at Hello Boutique.

Posted by: David Streever | September 4, 2008 3:32 PM

We need real stores, and not just expensive women's clothing shops, on Chapel Street. Over-priced boutiques don't seem very viable when they don't service the community: if you want to drive, you can pay less in the suburbs, so why would people drive into New Haven to pay extra?

I don't think these stores mesh well with the community when they oppose movies on the green, the jazz festival, and other cultural highlights of our city. They claim that these events, which bring in hundreds of thousands of people, somehow hurt their businesses. Maybe their businesses just aren't helping the citizens of New Haven.

Many of the downtown festivals are shadows of their former selves, and it's dissapointing to see this trend. It's possible this is merely a reflection of the current economic situation, but I suspect the story doesn't end there.

Posted by: anon | September 4, 2008 3:46 PM

Nobody is going to retail shop when traffic is moving at 30mph and streets are difficult to cross. Nobody is going to walk more than a few blocks on a regular basis in that kind of environment -- hundreds of studies back that up. People in their 20s and 30s might at times, but the rest of the population - elderly, disabled, kids, etc - are being forcefully excluded from the fabric of the city. 20 and 30 somethings aren't enough to support retail.

Until we have safe, livable, walkable streets in our communities, with narrow crosswalks and reasonable traffic speeds -- instead of highways running through the middle of our city designed to carry traffic through as quickly as possible -- retail will never flourish and the city will continue to lose jobs and tax revenue.

European cities have flourishing center city retail but they also have 10-15 mph max speed limits in their downtown areas. Meanwhile, we have streets of death. Result: No retail.

We also have policies that create more traffic. Specifically:

1) Parking on street is cheaper than parking in garages. 1/5th of traffic accidents and traffic is caused by people searching for parking. Raise the price of on street parking (there is plenty of demand); lower the price of garage parking. Traffic will drop.

2) One way streets. These are basically designed A) to move 5% more traffic through the city at rush hour and B) to make people drive more. Create two way streets and people won't have to drive a mile just to get around the block, like they do in some parts of downtown New Haven. Traffic will drop dramatically if you do this.

3) Total exclusion of bicycling and walking as legitimate forms of transportation. Crosswalks do not give people enough time to cross the street. We provide secure, monitored free parking for cars and dedicate 30% of the city to massive roadways designed to carry millions of vehicle trips, but no bicycle racks or bike lanes. Once again, this just creates more traffic. 50%+ of trips in the city are a couple miles or less, and easily traversed by most people by bicycle, but there is no infrastructure and no bike-friendly policies. We make it uncomfortable to walk across the city by failing to enforce basic regulations designed to keep pedestrians safe, such as stop signs. Result: more traffic, since a lot of people drive even when they could be using alternative modes. City Hall workers regularly drive fleet vehicles to go from City Hall to the Coliseum site, a distance of about three blocks.

The rich can always drive their chauffeured SUVs (Superintendent Mayo, who has a city vehicle; Atty General Blumenthal, who drove 90,000 miles in a state limo last year) on beautifully paved superhighways; the rest, many of whom don't even own a car, suffer.

Posted by: anon | September 4, 2008 4:00 PM

New Haven is not that bad of a place to find a screwdriver: There is a 24 hour Walgreens and two Rite Aids downtown.

Posted by: pedro | September 4, 2008 5:11 PM

There is one huge conflict in terms of bringing a mass of retail to the city core. Us very consumers who want low, low prices for absolutely everything are the very ones to blame for the gutting of the small urban retail business.

Are we prepared to have Stop and Shop, Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, and Circuit City, combined with a downtown mall? THAT is where people go to when they leave New Haven to go shopping. Where would they go in a revitalized urban center? The city has already said that they want no part of big box developement downtown (unless it comes in a blue ikea-sized box)

We are addicts of choice. We want to be able to find the best price at BOTH target and wal-mart depending on the need. Why spend $5 on a screwdriver at Rite-Aid, when you can go to Home Depot and be deluged in a hundred different screw driver possibilities?

I am 100% for the safe-streets initiative, and for making larger sections of downtown pedestrian friendly. The car is not going away any time soon, nor should we live in denial that that is not the case. BUT we can make downtown a far more pleasant area than it is now.
I like a lot of Anon's ideas, and I also think that there are very large ideas outside of just making pedestrian friendly areas that will encourage downtown retail.

The point that I am trying to make is that there are a multitude of pressures that need to be balanced and mitigated before the urban core becomes revitalized. We may have to say yes to a few big boxes (maybe they can be medium sized ones) so that a broad swath of people decide to return to urban center living.

Posted by: anon | September 4, 2008 5:28 PM

I think a great location for a grocery store would be the corner of Church and Crown streets, in the Gotham City space. It is about 15,000, directly across from the new Gateway (where hundreds if not thousands will be convening daily in a few years), a block away from the Green, and equidistant between the soon-to-be 10th square and the current residential stock in the downtown area (that isn't Yale properties)

Posted by: robn | September 4, 2008 6:05 PM

If you're pondering the complexity of the problem, then you don't get what the problem is. Mom and Pop don't want to open a hardware store becuase they don't have a commodity of scale like Home Depot who can drive manufacturers prices down and sell for less. Very few independent hardware stores or clothing stores or appliance stores can survive that competition.

Posted by: Nestor Makhno | September 4, 2008 6:08 PM

Cafe culture and public conversation pretty much died when smoking was banned. Unless you feel the need to use a laptop in public or have a thing for watching people staring at laptops, there is little reason to ever enter a cafe. Plus most of the places in town close so early. In fact I have never actually seen Fuel or Lulu's open. I think they keep the same hours as Bryn Mawr books.

At least you can always get a screwdriver at Richter's and drunks strike me as the last people who still remember how to speak.

Posted by: Goatville | September 5, 2008 8:23 AM

The Bryn Mawr Bookshop closed a couple of months ago. (Another sad moment for New Haven; apparently I was virtually the only person who noticed.) This may explain why you never see it open. When it *was* operational, it was open very regular hours, my friends, and I was always mystified by people who said it was "never open." I never had a problem getting in there...
Lulu's is also open on a regular basis; its hours are not designed for people who work 9-5 jobs, but it *is* open and a pretty welcoming place, all told.
Fuel I know nothing about, I admit.
I do wish New Haven still had a proper department store...it would be nice to be able to buy decent sheets, say, or a bra for less than $60. That little hardware store on Orange St. near Pearl Street went out of business recently and that saddened me, though I did think the owner deserved to retire. (And I was always happy, by the way, to see him in there smoking; if I remember correctly he favored unfiltered Camels, god bless him.)
I'm all in favor of cafe culture. But it's also true that I literally have recurring dreams about stores that I wish existed downtown or in my neighborhood (Goatville)... I have, for the last 5 yrs., had a recurring dream about a place that is like a branch of Edge of the Woods which is, in my dream, located on Willow St. just past the Marlin building. Weird.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | September 5, 2008 8:42 AM

robn
I am going to argue that just a bit. Yes in general mom and pop stores do have to struggle. But I have an appliance store in my area Gallos that does just fine and I got all my appliances their and it was a better deal that lowes and she delivers at your convince. And the small hardware store below low my job...they may not have everything but they will get what you need and again I find most of their prices are as cheap if not cheaper than lowes. It is a matter of people making that effort to support local mom and pops so that they can keep the prices low.

David Streever Ditto

Posted by: robn | September 5, 2008 9:27 AM

CHR,

Well you've got a point there...I think that the key here is customer loyalty and business owners who carry decent stuff at reasonable, if not lowest prices. I've noticed that the larger hardware conglomerates often offset their large goods bargains by charge nosebleed prices for small neccesities like screws and such. Having ruined many a project by torquing the heads off cheaply made screws from Home Cheapo, I now make trips out to Goody's in East Haven (great hardware store) and sometimes the Nutty Company in Derby (best fastener store in CT).

Posted by: Steve Ross | September 5, 2008 10:04 AM

"Unless you feel the need to use a laptop in public or have a thing for watching people staring at laptops, there is little reason to ever enter a cafe."

You can't have conversation without smoking? Reading? Writing? Drawing? What of the Scrabble and the Jenga? Sunday Times crossword? Launching an anarchist collective? I don't see where you're coming from, Nestor, though I love reflecting on those wee hours of the morning in a diner with a pen, napkins, and a waning pack of cigarettes.

Further:
If opening box stores in the midst of downtown is the only way to revitalize the neighborhood, I say keep it the way it is. And while I very much agree that slowing down traffic there would make the area friendlier for shoppers and amblers, I wonder how hard commuters would rail against the idea. Is a 15 mph downtown realistic? And why is retail the answer anyway?

Incidentally, Fuel is open until 5 and has some serious coffee.

Posted by: Clark Pearlman | September 5, 2008 12:56 PM

Goatville,

That little hardware store on Orange and Pearl St. (Bunnell Hardware)has not closed yet. He (Lenny) is going out of business, but is still open. I encourage people to stop in because Lenny does have some great deals or just to say hello and thank him for over 30 years of being such a great business owner in our community.

Posted by: David Streever | September 5, 2008 1:33 PM

Screwdrivers:
try the hardware store on Chapel before you go to Walgreens! It's cheap and very friendly owners. I don't know if they are still open but I hope so.

Posted by: Walt | September 6, 2008 12:45 PM

Walgreen's and Rite-aid for screwdrivers? You must be kidding.

Strictly junk and overpriced too!!

You will never get a decent screwdriver or other worthwhile tool in those places.

Bunnell's and other hardware outlets....of course.

Posted by: Nadine | September 6, 2008 4:54 PM

Or try Whalley Hardware, 5 minutes from downtown; great local hardware store, extremely knowledgable and friendly staff, and you will be doing your part to help us revitalize Whalley Avenue!

Posted by: st. pt. ia | September 7, 2008 12:09 AM

Personally I love Good Will. So it would be nice to see something come in that resells stuff that's not too high end. It would be nice to see Chapel's sidewalked widen so those two sad tables of Basta's don't look so sad.

Also bring in kid friendly places - Park Slope Brooklyn could teach us a thing or two here.

But it seems like you've got to shut down traffic on Chapel and reroute it further out. Let the bike riders have the street and slow things down with wider sidewalks. More Kioska's and street preformers. Get the Yalie and SCSU and UNH drama departments entertaining those who chose to stop.

A soap box seems like it might also be something that all the politicos around here would like for carrying forth.

Our problem is if we are not buying something we all go freaking nuts!!! Yale's gotta get their rent.

Seems like we first need to fix the traffic problem. Use that stupid waste of a trolley to bring people back and forth from a distant parking lot ro something.