New Haven Independent

Posted by: nutmeg | December 17, 2008 3:10 PM

more land off the tax rolls?

Posted by: wilton davis | December 17, 2008 3:56 PM

When the city gave this school away for chump change years ago, bet they did not consider 33 mill 1 day . Talk about corporate WELFARE!!

Posted by: cedarhillresident | December 17, 2008 6:01 PM

OMG Less taxes coming in! This is getting out of control! Hartford need to step in!!! Where is richard b. Johnny boy it is time to suck it up and ask hartford to do something about yale!

Posted by: Sean | December 17, 2008 6:23 PM

Why do we want to do anything about Yale? You think this big town would be anything without Yale here? Think all you want that Yale has to be stopped, but New Haven would be even smaller potatos without this Ivy League and the money of their students/faculty and of their endowment.

Posted by: vblaisdell | December 18, 2008 1:14 AM

I think this story needs a little more explanation. Like, how did a city-owned public school become private property? Did we sell it to Church St. Development Association? If so, for how much? CSDA seems to have sold it to Yale for $33.25 million. Just wondering, but what would have happened if the City had hung on to ownership of the property, rented it out to Yale all these years and then sold it for $33 million? Would 33 mill be of any benefit to our current budget shortfall?

I've always had a kind of love/hate feeling about the building. When it was first built in 1967, I liked the idea that a modern school was situated on the other side of the Connector (really, the Divider, meant to carve The Hill off from the whiter parts of town). And as a photographer, I appreciated the blocky shapes piled around one another and the way the shadows re-defined those shapes.

But it took only a few minutes being inside the school to realize that the place not only looked like a bunker from the outside, but felt like one inside. No windows. Cement-encrusted hallways. You half expected iron gates to clank shut behind you as you walked down the halls. As with the earlier East Rock School, the architects clearly subscribed to the notion that school children should be walled off from their community and the community from them. Riot-proof is the feeling I got, especially since this building went up only a few years after New Haven's 60s riots

Let's hope Yale might want to punch out a few more windows in the place and symbolically if not actually connect with, say, the housing project across the street. Let's hope, but I'm not counting on it.

Posted by: nutmeg | December 18, 2008 9:16 AM

sean, that's the same old tired argument from the yale crowd, who seem to believe that big blue is gods gift to new haven.

what would new haven be like without yale? that's hard to say. my guess is it would be pretty much the same. take a look at bridgeport and waterbury. neither city has an ivy league school but both have a similar populations and income distribution. and lest we forget, it wasn't yale that brought pizza to new haven, either.

this building site is a disaster. let's hope the building gets torn down and the superblock broken up.

Posted by: christina | December 18, 2008 5:44 PM

I am a new student at Yale's nursing school, inside the old school at 100 Church St. And you know, Vblaisdell was right, the building does feel like a bunker! The big fence around the whole thing doesn't help much either. I don't know much about the city's budget, or about buying and selling properties, but it would definitely be nice to hear more about how people who live locally are feeling about this. From my first few months here, its obvious that Yale has a lot of work to do if it wants to act as a resource for New Haven, the relationship certainly seems unequal! I do know that Yale's nursing school does not get much money from Yale the College, in fact we have to pay dues over there! So if Yale isn't even supporting it's own franchised graduate and professional schools, it doesn't seem like they are very good role model of community service.

In an effort to contribute more to and become a bigger part of the New Haven community, some of us students are in fact partnering up with the housing development across from us. We are making big plans, and have already had a few events together focusing on health and neighbors. If other folks or groups or organizations are interested in making this sort of thing happen more often, please post something! Let's work together to make Yale take more social responsibility and New Haven feel proud.

Posted by: nfjanette | December 18, 2008 10:27 PM

I know that building well. There are other Yale New Haven Hospital departments located there in addition to the nursing school.

The fence around that property is there, sadly, for a good reason: to protect your life. You don't want to be walking around there at night without a security escort.

Posted by: ap34 | December 20, 2008 4:22 PM

Hey Christina,
I'm an organizer with one of the unions at Yale. We're interested, as members of the Yale community, in looking at Yale's role in the larger community. I'd be interested to hear more about what you and others are doing, and connect you to other folks looking at these issues if you're interested. You can reach me at patten@yaleunions.org if you'd like.

Posted by: Andrew | December 21, 2008 1:36 PM

hhhmm. New Haven as Bridgeport or Waterbury without Yale, Nutmeg claims. That's a hell of an arguement in support of Yale. Bridgeport and Waterbury being some of the most dysfunctional and corrupt cities in the northeast corridor.