nothin Hausladen: Make Way For Seniors | New Haven Independent

Hausladen: Make Way For Seniors

Diana Li Photo

Constantinople speaks of seniors’ transit challenges.

The city’s new transit chief crashed a hearing on seniors — and drove home a message about helping New Haven’s growing elderly population navigate buses and crosswalks.

The transit chief, former downtown Alderman Doug Hausladen, delivered that message at a CIty Hall hearing Thursday night. The hearing, held by the Board of Alders Human Services Committee, examined the challenges of a growing senior population amid declining public help.

After Hausladen saw a Facebook post about the hearing by Alderman Darryl Brackeen Jr., he decided to stop by to explain how transportation policies can play in a role in improving senior citizens’ qualify of life.

From 2010 to 2015, the number of seniors in Connecticut is projected increase by almost 12 percent amidst rapidly declining services. Human Services Committee Chairman Santiago Berrios-Bones said he remembers when the city had 12 operating senior centers with over 20 employees. Now it has three centers operated by just six employees.

This problem is like Medusa: It has too many heads,” said Berrios-Bones, a Fair Haven alderman.

Diana Li Photo

Hausladen and David Hunter, CEO of the Mary Wade home.

All Aboard

New haven has an estimated 12,000 seniors now. Service providers and senior centers are facing ever-increasing demand with limited resources.

Hausladen noted ways his department can help. Making the streets more walkable, accessible, and safe and improving the bus system would enable the elderly to get around the city, he said. The city is asking the state to put GPS trackers on buses to enable people to tell more easily when buses are coming. As access to driving decreases for those growing older, people still need transportation options, he said.

We want to create inexpensive engineering design solutions that will narrow crossing distances to allow pedestrians to cross more safely,” Hausladen said. We need to make sure our sidewalks are flat, we need benches at bus stops: things like that to improve getting around.” These simple things would go a long way to improving transportation possibilities for the elderly.

Dwight Alderman Frank Douglass asked Hausladen about the Chapel-Church intersection, where crossing distances are over 60 feet.

Hausladen called it one of the craziest” in the city. The city is waiting to hear from a consultant and is looking into reducing crossing distance and converting one-way streets to two-way streets, which might help with some of the traffic and walkability problems, he said.

Bella Vista Alderman Barbara Constantinople said she herself has difficulty sometimes getting across streets because of their poor design and the traffic.

Castro reads the department’s mission out loud.

We need to design a system that takes into account all users, not just those who can do an eight-minute mile but also our children, our elderly, and our disabled population,” Hausladen said. We have to fix our system to design it for all these people.”

He added that Mayor Toni Harp wants the public’s suggestions for calming traffic and making streets more walkable. Currently, his department is looking into extending the sidewalk at certain intersections so people can cross streets more safely. The Complete Streets program is part of the broader attempt to achieve these goals.

Berrios-Bones admitted that he himself gets confused by the bus routes and wishes they were simpler. Hausladen said his department has been in touch with CT Transit about how to improve that signage to guide riders.

Next Steps

We’re not exactly everyone’s favorite people,” said Don Dimenstein, a former city director of elderly services. There are a lot of other social causes in this town, all of them in great need. But in terms of support and finance, they’re way ahead of us. … We need a base of community support.”

He added that in neighborhoods like the Hill and Fair Haven, access to services is either sparse or nonexistent. The poor and the elderly are often the same people, he said. Their voices aren’t always heard.

But you forget: most of the elders vote,” Berrios-Bones said in response with a smile.

Dimenstein responded that from his personal experience it is still difficult to generate community support and financial backing for the elderly.

Berrios-Bones asked Migdalia Castro, the city’s newly appointed elderly services director, how her department is planning for this silver tsunami” of an increasing elderly population. She called it a complex issue and said she looks forward to hearing everyone’s ideas.

It’s time to get out of the box and be creative,” Castro said.

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