New Haven Independent

Hooker Delayed. Calmed?

by Allan Appel | July 28, 2009 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

nhihookercalm%20002.JPG Will this site of a future back entrance to the new Hooker School help calm a busy section of East Rock?

That would be good news to neighbors who showed up at an East Rock Community Management Team meeting Monday night.

The two dozen residents who gathered at the library of the East Rock Magnet School were generally very pleased with two developments in the neighborhood: the recent repaving of Whitney Avenue and the upcoming opening of the new home of Hooker Middle School.

nhihookercalm%20003.JPG Sue Weisselberg (pictured), the citywide school construction coordinator, gave an update on Hooker project construction delays. Weather-caused delays have pushed back the opening of the Hooker school from the beginning of the school year this fall to, likely, the first of next year.

“Safety is going to be a big issue when Hooker opens,” neighborhood activist David Cameron said.

Buses will enter and leave only on Whitney. Cameron noted that the Hooker lot is small. Even though a new traffic light is scheduled to be installed, there was general agreement that fixing a single corner will not solve Whitney Avenue’s problems.

The repaved avenue, attendees said, is already giving rise to speeding. Red lights irritate the speeders.

One resident asked if parking restrictions could be lifted. The idea: parking along both sides of Whitney could calm traffic.

Dispelling what he called myths about the avenue, East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar said, “Whitney is a local road” under the jurisdiction of the city, not a state road. Nevertheless Lemar added he was not sure whether the terms of the state funding for Whitney’s repaving would allow the parking change.

Lemar and other local leaders recently met for brainstorming about a possible next phase of Whitney’s transformation, which, he said, would accommodate all users.

“We know it doesn’t now,” he said.

nhihookercalm%20008.JPG Bill Kaplan, a member of a recently formed traffic calming committee of the Ronan Edgewood Neighborhood Association (RENA), added, “With the new Hooker, kids will be walking on either side of Whitney Avenue.”

His committee was formed after traffic incidents on Highland and Canner and a chronic disregard of signs and crossing guards at the schools and day care centers along the hill from Whitney to Prospect.

A meeting with city traffic czar Mike Piscitelli led to one in-street yield sign, which Kaplan praised, as he did a noticeable increase in enforcement.

“While we’re really appreciative of what Mike has done,” said Kaplan, “it’s limited and not enough. We’re willing to be a thorn in his side.”

He also expressed dismay that the in-street signs, which have proven effective, will be removed in the winter.

Another neighbor called that move a “technical brush off.” Like others, he expressed appreciation at the shortage of municipal resources at this time. He questioned how difficult it might really be for the city to have a staffer deploy and then re-collect the signs even in the winter.

Lemar defended the progress the city has made in popularizing traffic-calming. He called attention to the Complete Streets legislation he helped to author (along with Fair Haven Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale). He also concurred with many of the criticisms.

Those included dissatisfaction that the city’s residents, area by area, ending up developing their own traffic-calming initiatives and hire their own consultants.

nhihookercalm%20006.JPG “You need to push the city to deliver,” Lemar said.

Many of the city’s 60 in-street yield signs are deployed on State Street and other locations in East Rock.

He also said the city in his view is poised to deliver traffic-calming measures more systemically.

nhihookercalm%20001.JPG Will it be in time for the new school population clustering around the new Hooker?

As to the Hooker delay, Weisselberg said neighbors have been patient. They’ve been waiting a long time for their school, she said, and they know it’s important to get it right.

In her view no wounds were being opened up from the long-drawn out legal battle preceding construction. That opposition was led in part by neighbors on Everit Street.

A Gate for Walkers

A pedestrian gate to be installed in a black steel fence in the back of Hooker on Everit Street was designed for the many “walkers” who don’t come by bus or parental car, Weisselberg said.

Weisselberg said she didn’t know how many of the school’s 350 kids would be “walkers.” Her concern was that parents not drive to the back and drop their kids off on Everit, causing traffic congestion and hazard at a pedestrian point.

“The school,” she said “will have to work with parents so they don’t abuse it and become bad neighbors.”

Weisselberg said the building could be finished as early as October, with move-in scheduled for either the Thanksgiving or the Christmas break.

Hooker School students will remain at the St. Stanislaus School until the move-in. The students of the Engineering and Science University Magnet School, who had been scheduled to move into St. Stanislaus, will move temporarily to the old Prince School at 22 Gold St.

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Posted by: Streever | July 28, 2009 8:06 AM

This is great to see--aqnd great to hear more residents are willing to push the city. What we need is for the Mayor to better fund TT&P and then we need TT&P to have the staff and resources to provide proactive, unified plans for the entire city.

No one would mind if the traffic calming took a little longer as long as we start to see proactive long term plans--
and that would possibly open us up for some real funding too!

Posted by: robn | July 28, 2009 8:39 AM

...so to calm traffic we'd put in parking spaces instead of bike lanes? Please.

If the red-tape-bureaucrats in Hartford don't get what we're trying to do, I suggest our NH transportation people put together data showing that more bikes means fewer cars and slower cars and that lighter traffic translates to less road maintenance and reconstruction in the future...win-win. Also be prepared to go over their heads to the Leg if necessary. One size fits all rules don't work for Connecticut's cities or the burbs or the rurals.

Posted by: jawbone | July 28, 2009 9:33 AM

So they are now claiming the weather caused a 12 month delay in delivery of the completed building? Please. The construction schedule was probably only 24 months to begin with. Sounds like the Owner/Architect/Contractor team really didn't have it together.

Posted by: anon | July 28, 2009 11:06 AM

Many other cities with higher snowfall totals deploy the signs in the winter. I don't see why New Haven can't.

Maybe a few can be removed, but the most critical locations retained.

Also, the signs should eventually yield way to more permanent sand-filled bollards, like those used in Cambridge, Boston and other nearby cities... if not permanent pedestrian medians. Making our neighborhoods more walkable should be a priority of the administration.

Bill, David, Roland and the other neighbors here are doing a great job. The result will be a safer and more attractive school.

Posted by: reader | July 28, 2009 11:59 AM

I sincerely appreciate the work of the Independent and the up-to-the-minute reporting, but surely the reports could be spell-checked before posting? Correctly spelled reports give more credibility to the effort.

Posted by: latichever | July 28, 2009 5:11 PM

I'm glad to see that there will be an Everit Street entrance to Hooker since there was an ambiguity about this in previous planning.

My Hooker child will be able to walk and use the Everit entrance, but if I have to drive him you can be sure that I will also drive up to the safer Everit entrance than Whitney. I'm quite glad there is such a option, and I would protest if there weren't.

I don't care at all about the obstructionist neighbors who are the ones who cost the city millions defending against their dubious and exclusionary claims.

They are the ones who are responsible for years of delay. Shame on them.

Funny, nobody is crying their crocodile tears about the safety of St. Thomas on Whitney, Foote on Loomis, or the current location of Hooker on a busy, commercial highway, State Street.

If people, i.e., those on Everit and their minions, want to live in a gated community, they should move to one.

Posted by: anon | July 28, 2009 10:13 PM

Nobody complaining about the safety of children/adults on State, Loomis or Whitney, Latichever? So tell me is that giant rock above your house keeping you cool these days?

Posted by: Ned | July 29, 2009 10:05 AM

Latichever,

Where were you when the new Hooker school was being planned without any provisions to mitigate the unsafe traffic on Whitney? I know that many people are concerned about St. Thomas on Whitney, Foote on Loomis, and the current location of Hooker on a busy, commercial highway, State Street (though you might add the little Hooker [school], on Willow St., a street that is way overburdened by speeding cars and trucks, and which is also not safe for children to use as route to school. Actually, just about any school in New Haven would benefit from traffic calming...

Posted by: Resident (not for much longer) | August 7, 2009 9:33 AM

As the late Ronald Reagan said "Here we go again". More lies and distortions from the BOE and its booster club. Notice how many high-end foreign cars in the East Rock neighborhood sport both "Proud Hooker Mom" and "Hopkins" (or Foote, etc.) stickers. What's the message here?

Posted by: elmcity69 | August 9, 2009 3:10 AM

Dear "Resident (Not For Much Longer)":
I drive a 1999 Saturn SL; until quite recently, I had one of those "Proud Hooker Mom" stickers on my back bumper. Imagine my glee when I read your comment: my boring little ride is actually "a high end foreign car". Who knew?
Sarcasm aside: no one is more frustrated and disgusted with the school delay than we Hooker parents. The only thing more infuriating than the elitism of our neighbors --I actually live on Everit, just like many other public school parents-- is their unceasing Chicken Little act. The sky is falling on their Garden of Eden!
Lastly, I wonder how many of my neighbors who opposed this project have participated in the mass chaos of Foote's traffic scene up on Loomis?

Posted by: georgedaddio | September 3, 2009 5:09 PM

The new hooker school being delayed doesn't surprise me.School construction and the companies should be looked at very closely. I would like to see a quality check done. It may look nice but is the quality of work good.

Hooker Delayed. Calmed?

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