New Haven Independent

Posted by: JP | January 15, 2009 3:32 PM

Of course its cheaper in the burbs parking alone for 400 employees would run 48,000 a month that's over a half million dollars a year just to rent parking spaces.

Posted by: Our Town | January 15, 2009 3:39 PM

Don't mess with Vito's!!!

I can't believe the mayor eats the same Vito's sandwich as me...

Posted by: Peter | January 15, 2009 3:42 PM

Scrap Gateway and let them build there...taxes and jobs

Posted by: nutmeg | January 15, 2009 4:08 PM

contrast UI's move with Northeast Utilities, which is moving their corporate headquarters from a "1960s-style car park" on the Berlin Turnpike to an office in ">downtown Hartford. Corporate moves like this usually come do one factor: the preference of the CEO's wife.

Posted by: nutmeg | January 15, 2009 4:09 PM

sorry, this should work:

http://nuwnotes1.nu.com/apps/corporatecommunications/empinfo.nsf/1655e8f1972fb0848525668000587994/95fb820833144f97852574c60074d574?OpenDocument

Posted by: cedarhillresident | January 15, 2009 4:41 PM

ugg First lower than dang property taxs stop the phase in, CUT WHAT EVER YOU HAVE TO TO DO IT!

All the businesses that are going to be left in this city is Yale and divisions of Yale Lawyers and Non-profits! this is just sad! You need to make the city affordable coffee shops and restaurants are all fine but how long can they stay open without industry happening here!

Posted by: Bill Saunders | January 15, 2009 4:58 PM

So, the hoo-haw over Becker & Becker providing 175 parking spaces for the Financial Center as part of the Shartenberg Development evaporates like canned milk.

Is the Financial Center the next luxury condo tower on the high-risen? Or will it be the first homeless shelter with corporate digs?

Or maybe mixed use is more appropriate, kind of like the two sides of Clark's Dairy -- Upscale/Downscale.

Posted by: robn | January 15, 2009 5:01 PM

I'd like to know if Orange has given UI a sweetheart tax abatement deal to lure them there. Any anserws intrpid NHI?

Posted by: JAK | January 15, 2009 5:02 PM

Just asking, but what about the town of Orange? They are getting a brand new corporate taxpayer and there will be a small cottage industry of local small businesses which will prosper from lots of UI employees buying services and products out there.

Why do we insist on this stupid brutal competition for a tax base all the while making winners and losers out of close neighbors?

Why not consolidate the towns of greater New Haven government and have a shared property tax base? New Haveners will benefit from spreading the cost of carrying tax exempt property while suburbanites will be able to enjoy reduced property taxes because together we can run regionalized police, sanitation, fire, and school services. Millions and millions of dollars of savings and cost efficiencies.

As the state deficit grows, regionalism is becoming an idea whose time has come!

Posted by: ED | January 15, 2009 7:23 PM

Paul, would it not be relevant to mention that the Bonnano daughter is #2 at City Development Administration?

Posted by: City Hall Watch | January 15, 2009 7:24 PM

Name one major company who with the mayor's leadership, decided to stay in New Haven and grow its jobs and business.

This is John DeStefano's legacy.

Posted by: James | January 15, 2009 7:33 PM

John, you're a failure. Have the decency to find a legitimate successor and leave town.

Posted by: name withheld | January 15, 2009 7:36 PM

Rising parking rates are going to choke New Haven's growth.

What's the market rate for a parking spot near the Financial Tower? $120/month, or more?

What is the NHPA doing with all their money? Certainly not building new garages.

Posted by: Chrissy Bonanno | January 15, 2009 8:10 PM

Hey Ed--

Thanks for pointing that out. I am probably far better known as "Vito's daughter" than as Deputy EDA. Having parents who have been small business owners in New Haven for 35 years has really helped me do my job better because I know first hand how challenging and rewarding it can be to have your own business.

Posted by: anon | January 15, 2009 8:23 PM

Let's hope that Pat Dillon's efforts are successful. UI has no excuse for what it has done.

Posted by: iwasthere | January 15, 2009 8:57 PM

It to get away from high taxes. If the city did it right the company would still be there. If city residents have a choice they would would move too. The Mayor is the one to blame.

Posted by: JMS | January 15, 2009 9:07 PM

JAK,

Regionalism is a wonderful idea that is (unfortunately) probably never going to happen. Believe me I'm all for it but I just doubt the surrounding towns would ever sign on.

JMS

Posted by: cedarhillresident | January 16, 2009 8:24 AM

Jak I to agree regionalism is the to go but I also agree with JNS the surrounding towns will not agree. This is the state mandate that needs to happen to save the city's and larger town's of the state.
But with that said, Vito's does rock! And Chrissy's family has lived in New Haven as long as mine has! She comes from good people that has seen all the ups and downs of this city. I do think she gets it and I do think she cares about NH as much as the rest of us. You work with what you have as they say.

Posted by: True New Havener | January 16, 2009 8:35 AM

Amazing. One of the only local companies to profit from the crappy economy decides to leave town. Expect this to come with yet another rate increase. First UI had to raise rates because the price of oil was going up. Now they have to raise rates because the price of oil is going down.

Orange will never develop any shops within walking distance of this location. This is utter nonsense by a bunch of goofball executives who let us all know how stupid they think we are once a month.

Expect the state legislative delegation to do what it did when UI began raising rates to the highest in the nation -- make some noise and do nothing. We still have one of the stupidest rate structures in the country. And who convinced the legislature that it would engender "competition"? You guessed it: UI, their lobbyists and a very aggressive set of donations.

This company has been ripping off the people of this state and city for some time now. The old-style "corporate fathers" approach that UI used to have has been gone for a generation or two. Since privatization, this company has done nothing but screw this town and any other place in the state where people struggle to pay their electric bills. The company's leadership has no connection to New Haven or anywhere else. They are of the Enron -- corporate pirate mentality.

Would have been great to have kept them but guess what, New Haven will survive. And for those naysayers, I would have to ask: Does anyone really think that downtown has been on anything other than a constant upswing over the last 15 years? Sure there is a long way to go but we have come a long way as well.

And remind me of the last time that UI was a significant partner in that forward motion. Not since privatization of the industry.

Posted by: Pedro | January 16, 2009 9:28 AM

But! They'll have Stew Leonards across the street (snark). I'm actually pretty disappointed about UI moving to orange for other reasons as well, having grown up there.

The parcel they want to develop (if you know Orange, it's the very large open space to the right of Outback and the Mariott), is old farmland and is yet another plot of open space that will be gobbled up for development. It wouldn't surprise me if some residents of Orange actually voice opposition to this as well.

In defense of the city, I"m sure that Orange simply drove the sweetheart deal that their city could handle, since they are so much smaller. If New Haven had sold it's metaphorical soul to get UI here (property tax freezes, free property etc.) the very same people complaining that we lost UI would have been rabidly complaining that we sold out to them.

Posted by: Mister Jones | January 16, 2009 11:21 AM

400 downtown jobs. 7 huge floors of office space. Holy smokes! This is a huge hit to downtown. Another irresponsible corporate decision. Is it really dollars and cents when they will have to spend millions of $$$ to build the new offices? What ever happened to executives with a sense of civic responsibility and commitment to making the city a better place? They want to build their truck depot in the suburbs, fine, but offices should be downtown.

Posted by: Walt | January 16, 2009 11:36 AM

If it makes more sense to build in Orange than to re-lease in what is probably the highest-cost building in high-tax New Haven, I'm all for it, if ratepayers come out ahead,

Wish it were in Hamden rather than Orange, but we out-of-Town ratepayers owe nothing to the City of New Haven, and certainly not to the DeStefano Administration.

Posted by: Carlos | January 16, 2009 12:04 PM

To JAK: A regional Greater New Haven government? I guess you would have John The Great DeStefano as mayor of the region. Great idea? Did you try to sell the brooklyn bridge too?

Posted by: KD | January 16, 2009 2:33 PM

There should be a massive sin tax imposed on any company building suburban-style corporate office blocks and parking lots on farmland when there are vacant buildings available in the city.

Posted by: Your Tax Dollars at Work | January 16, 2009 4:54 PM

Movies in old UI bldg -- UI goes to the movies in Orange --- It would be a joke if the joke weren't on the City, the environment and, ultimately us.

UI is leaving the City to pave over open farm land and waste fuel getting there.

In the end, tax and rate payers (i.e. the rest of us) will pay for this U.I. boondoggle in the rate base (already the highest in the country) and in our taxes (already very regressive).

Where are the regulators -- the legislators -- the gov -- the A.G.-- Congress -- ? Investigating Bernie Madoff, "saving" the banks etc. --in other words trying to close another barn door after the horse is out.

Posted by: latichever | January 16, 2009 5:13 PM

"Why not consolidate the towns of greater New Haven government and have a shared property tax base?"

And why not do that for education funding too.

Or, better still, why not abolish the regressive property tax, and just go to a progressive income tax.

Posted by: John E Padilla | January 16, 2009 5:43 PM

point of clarification, the New Haven parking Authority has nothing to do with parking at the Financial Center. That is a private lot, which explains why it is so expensive. BTW, I think it is much more than $120 per month.

Posted by: Daniel | January 16, 2009 6:49 PM

I'm so sick of these small towns. They don't want a Stew Leonard's but they will accept this industrial eye sore with its traffic, trucks, and congestion (all of the reasons why they don't want Stew Leonard's). These small towns want to undermind the larger cities and take away tax paying companies. Well, why don't you take away our burdens too? Why don't you build some homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and half-way houses for drug addicts and AIDS patients. Or maybe we should have the buses dropping off criminals to these towns seeing that all the jobs are there!

Posted by: 3144 Member | January 16, 2009 9:30 PM

200 plus layoffs are expected at City Hall early February. Destefano has no cause to rip UI. He is causing as much damage. God help downtown business. No customers. Higher taxes. More layoffs. Congratulations, Mayor.

Posted by: norton street | January 17, 2009 2:19 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsDJCGpLNiw

Posted by: James | January 17, 2009 8:59 AM

@3144 Member

Don't forget the nice raise he gave himself and his lapdog Ron Smith. Might as well loot the ship before it sinks, right?

Posted by: ned | January 17, 2009 10:16 AM

Here's a picture of the new UI/Orange strip mall "campus"/ suburban Connecticut "smart growth" work camp, or is it I95 at rush hour?

Posted by: cedarhillresident | January 17, 2009 12:41 PM

3144 Member

Layoff of who is the question? Are they the lower payed need workers losing their jobs? Or the paper pushers that do little or close to nothing! I don't want to see layoff as much as the next person but what are the city employees offering to stop this? Have you seen what is happening across the state? I have been watching BPT and they are uniting and taking cut and concessions! The are forgoing raises changes in Medical benifits and loss of city owned cars and expense accounts, the list goes on. These people across the state are not just being asked to do these things the are offering it up to save jobs! I have not heard of this happening in New Haven yet?? Well the PW guys have said talk to us, not the union rep's but that is all I have heard of in past weeks. Can you give me some example of what new haven has done in cut backs? As a city we are looking at millions of dollars in cuts from the state this budget year, so even if we cut 200 low paid jobs that is not going to add up to the budget gap we are going to have.
Like or dislike the Mayor...unions need to start working with him and making cuts and concessions. We can not expect the stimulus to be enough to stop this from happening this year. Tax payers in New Haven have seen a TRIPLING of the property taxes, to cover expenses to ask them to pay even more would be a sin. It is time for the right thing to happen...New Haven government needs to be made smaller.

Posted by: anon | January 18, 2009 12:02 AM

Getting rid of parasites starts at home. Currently, 75-80% of New Haven city employees live in other towns: yet one more reason why city taxpayers are subsidizing the wealth of our sprawling, energy-hogging neighbors.

The fact that the people who are supposedly serving us can live elsewhere doesn't exactly create much of an incentive for them to work harder or invest in making the city a better place.

The Mayor and Aldermen probably can't require that all city employees live in New Haven proper, due to legal issues -- but they can change this situation with some smart policy.

Begin by raising parking fees for non-resident city employees at downtown lots and schools by an additional $500 per month (which is the true cost to the city anyways, in terms of opportunity costs because of all that parking). Enforce street parking and zoning regulations to catch any scofflaws who try to park in Wooster Square or at an industrial park, or who try to feed the meter every 2 hours. Parking should be for the people patronizing our businesses, not commuters coming in from Monroe who feel that they are entitled to break the law.

Next, begin cutting base salaries and using the savings to create an enormous city employee home-buyer program (like Yale has, or even better - Yale employees are 2-3x more likely to live in the city than city employees!), giving massive bonus payments to employees who walk to work every day (under the guise that healthy employees are far more productive on an hourly basis than obese ones), giving free bus passes, giving bonus payments and college tuition downpayments to employees who send their children to city public schools (under the argument that we are investing in the city's future workforce), and many other things along those lines.

Sure the unions might get pissed off, but you can't argue against investing in the next generation of residents, right? Those employees who don't like the salary cuts and higher parking fees can find work in another town (good luck with that!). Not to worry because city will be able to attract the top talent from among those who live here, or who would move here in a heartbeat for such a great job.

Within a year or two, the percentage of employees living in the city proper, or at least taking the bus to it instead of driving, would skyrocket. That would be a huge benefit to the city's economy and quality of life, because people working here, including teachers, firefighters and cops, would become more invested here.

The city is in a crisis primarily because parasitic suburban towns are sucking it dry. It's time to fight back in a way that only the city can. The current economic depression provides a once in a generation opportunity to make a significant change in the city's long term trajectory.

Of course, much of the above will happen anyways, whether the city does anything or not. The suburbs are the slums and raw material scrap heaps of the next generation. But the city can improve people's lives more quickly, within the next few years, if it fights for itself.

Posted by: JMS | January 18, 2009 9:46 AM

For the record... if I am not mistaken... there was a story several years back about the town of Orange having the distinction of being the only town in America (who was asked) that actually refused permission for a national AIDS fundraiser/awareness bicycle ride to stop and rest in their town. Not that this has anything to do with this story... but it just popped into my head while reading about the lovely town of Orange. Just a tidbit of trivia for all to enjoy.

JMS

Posted by: JAK | January 18, 2009 1:12 PM

Carlos,

Yes, John DeStefano could be mayor...but only if he got the votes!

I'd guess that there are about 50,000 registered voters in the city of New Haven and probably about 350,000 among the towns that make up Greater New Haven. I'm no political pundit, but based on where the mayor drew his support in the governor's race, I think he'd have a difficult time becoming the mayor of a larger New Haven.

But it doesn't matter much WHO becomes greater New Haven's first mayor....What matters is whether we as a region can finally see the wisdom in pooling our resources, sharing our costs equitably, and making decisions which benefit the region as a whole. I made a quick list of our assets, and we absolutely have amazing potential:

Perfectly situated between Boston and New York;
A transportation hub with metro-north;
A deep water port;
Home to Yale, a major economic force for us in the 21st century;
A college town infused with the energy of youth
A promising community college;
A top-notch medical center;
An educated population;
A rich culture and arts scene;
A potential regional airport;
A BEAUTIFUL area with access to the ocean and the hills of New England;
A very caring community and an army of volunteers who care deeply about our economic and social problems that we have;

Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have lots of winners and losers just because UI moves 5 miles away?

Posted by: New_Haven_Resident | January 18, 2009 10:01 PM

DESTEFANO NEEDS TO RETIRE! I SEE NEW HAVEN IN A HOLE IN A COUPLE OF YEARS!

Posted by: norton street | January 20, 2009 6:14 PM

does anyone have a rebuttal for anon? id be really interested in someone trying to argue against anything anon has proposed...or does the fact that no one has responded yet give a clear answer already?