New Haven Independent

When asked to host a DeStefano campaign event instead of the usual koffee klatch, Fair Haven Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale had another idea.

She organized a tour for the mayor where residents along the river could show hizzoner their achievements, such as this four and a half-pounder brandished by Chris Frianza of the Fair Haven Lobster Company.

Residents told DeStefano businesses need help with parking and school buses need to be slowed down. In return he pledged to set up a speed trap to stop racing First Student vehicles as they zoom by Lewis Park.

Some 30 people, many of non-voting and even non-walking age, accompanied the mayor from Quinnipiac River Park up to the Fair Haven Marina and points in between.

At Grand and Front, Sturgis-Pascale and GAVA’s Gabriella Campos urged the mayor to calm traffic at the intersection by inserting a roundabout and adding diagonal parking along Front and on the west side of Grand.

“Businesses here need pedestrians,” said Campos.

Next stop was the splendid Italianate Greek Revival restoration being done by owner (left) Len Suzio. The mayor was impressed with how Suzio was combining the 1842 Rhoda Mallory House with his own adjacent 1830 structure into one 6,000 square-foot house; it’s being niftily designed by local architect Matthew Breisch, complete with a grass roof above the columned roof.

Across from it, where the old oyster house stood until the 1920s, the mayor met some public art: a sculpture of a sharpie, last century’s oyster boat reconceived by Val Kropiwnicki, and funded, in part by the mayor’s community arts grant program.

“Did we really pay for that?” he asked with a smile.

Yes, answered David Zakur, who conceives of public art dotting the green spaces from Criscuolo Park up to Dover Beach. The city paid $1,500. Zakur thanked the mayor.

In front of Lewis Park, another neighborhood restoration, done with a grant from Lowe’s, Zakur (pictured) and Ian Christman reminded the mayor of the unchecked problem of stop sign runners and speeders, including many school buses along Front Street’s narrow passages at this intersection.

“I’m going to call the chief operating officer of the school system,” the mayor pledged. “I’ll have him work with Lt. [Luiz] Casanova to set up a speed trap. If they run through here, it should be the basis of disciplinary action. The bus companies are contracted by us.”

Next, the mayor hung out with Ken Waldron and some of the guys from the Waucoma Yacht Club, who swept clean their bocce court in hizzoner’s honor. Instead of playing a game, Sturgis-Pascale urged Waucoma’s Ken Waldron to tell the mayor how many times speeders, many losing control on facing Pine Street have torn into Waucoma’s fences.

“Oh, six times within the last four years,” he said, “and all due to speeding, Mr. Mayor. Each time we have to replace some fence, and the opening and closing mechanism costs $9,000.” Waldron said five out of the six did not have insurance.

Last stop was the Fair Haven Marina which has received a recent makeover by Lisa and Bill Fitch (pictured with the mayor). The splendid new offices are made over to look like the façade of the old barge restaurant. With new landscaping, a new sign, a sandwich shop to serve locals and their kids, and a kayak rental-in the making, it was a new place.

DeStefano, who kept his own 17-foot boat here in the 1980s, said, “You really made a marina.”

After the Fitches gave him the grand tour, he summed up his commitments and offered his advice. “I get the stuff you’re telling me about managing traffic,” he said. “I’m with you on that.”

“I’m also with you on helping to develop the commercial side at Grand and Front. That’s important, the city should be supporting that.”

In answer to a question about the waterfront and Dover Beach, the mayor said he’s working on finding federal dollars to fix what he called the sink hole at the end of the promenade at Brewery Square and the seawall at Dover Beach.

“But to keep Q Terrace looking in ten years as good as it does today, as Monterey Place does, work closely with Wynn Management,” he suggested. “They are the managers of the property, and they do it better than we can. Lease compliance is key.”

His most surprising advice was not to linger on complimenting Fair Haveners on what they done, but to ask them if they are clear on their vision of the place. “Is it just a long street in Fair Haven that you’ve created, or do you want it to be more? A destination?”

To achieve the latter, he suggested, area people should work with the Vespoli Company, up on Middletown Avenue. Vespoli makes racing shells. “They are a national and international company,” he said, “and they can help you … well, you have to decide if you want this.”

Take the Grand Avenue Bridge. “If I do my job right, in the next two to three years,” he said, “we rehab that bridge. When we put it back together, should there be some illumination on it, so that it’s not just a bridge, but a destination? And you develop two or three restaurants around it and then people will come here.”

There obviously is a risk, he suggested, in that this next step might involve sacrificing some of the unique quality of the river life that has drawn people down to the Quinnipiac.

Keya Jayaram, the mayor’s campaign manager, said this was the 30th gathering of the campaign. It was believed to be the first stop at which a crustacean attempted to shake his hand.