New Haven Independent

Posted by: Norton Street | December 22, 2009 2:28 PM

We must love warehousing people, cuz we keep doing it. In industrial cities we warehouses workers in cramped tenements, which rapidly spread disease. After World War 1, we warehoused people in massive housing projects, which lacked a sense of ownership. After World War 2, we began warehousing middle class people in suburban subdivisions, which made people dependent on cars, created monocultures of ignorance and misconception and more recently has been the cause for mental and social disorders in children. After WW2, we also began warehousing poor people in aging city neighborhoods, that had little or no job opportunities, which resulted in the creation of a violent sub culture, social degradation and a complete disconnect with mainstream society through lack of technology, adequate transit options and choice of affordable housing in different neighborhoods.
The problem has always been and continues to be warehousing of people, whether we warehouse them in tenements, housing projects, mcmansions, cul de sacs, dilapidated century old houses, or new urbanist designed developments.
However, if the design of this development is done correctly, the housing built here has the opportunity to change over time and be used in various ways. Traditionally designed homes have an incredible amount of inherent flexibility of use that comes from how they are organized programmatically, in relation to the streets, and in relation to people.
It would be nice if this development were planned around a Main Street that allowed people from the Pine Rock neighborhood to walk to stores instead of having to clog streets with their vehicles to get to strip malls. Large projects like this have the opportunity to set an example to show how the private market should invest in places, but if this project is seen as a solution, then we have a problem. Government is not a solution; it can be used to show how things should be done, but that's about it.

Posted by: robn | December 22, 2009 6:53 PM

wow,

Thats $400,000 per unit. Couldn't we buy large swaths of derelic or distressed housing stock and renovate for less? You could buy a house on Morris Cove for much less. Just sayin'