nothin Civility Proclaimed In The Heights | New Haven Independent

Civility Proclaimed In The Heights

Yes, the dangerous intersection at Hemingway and Quinnipiac avenues needs a redesign.

And more speed bumps will slow traffic at Oxford and at Aner.

And while we’re at it, people should avoid blocking site lines where Lenox meets East Grand.

However, shouldn’t all of this cut and paste” traffic calming also be part of a broader aldermanic plan to put civility back into city life?

That notion emerged Tuesday night at the impassioned monthly meeting of the Quinnipiac East Management Team (QEMT) at the St. James Church at 62 East Grand Ave.

Richards and Shansky at management team meeting.

A dozen neighbors invoked frequently heard mantras at such gatherings aboutt he pressing need to ameliorate speeding and thoughtless parking. Attorney and area resident Marjorie Shansky declared that all the cut-and-paste traffic-calming should be part of the alders putting civility back into city life.”

Shansky came up with a novel slogan for her just-born campaign: Civlity — The Traffic Calming of Personal Responsibility.”

Another local resident and lawyer, Peter Treffers, endorsed the notion and volunteered to create posters.

However, much as she liked the idea, Fair Haven Heights Alder Renee Haywood cautioned that it takes far more than a catchy slogan to change human behaviors.

Shansky concurred that without a deeper approach to change behavior, merely putting in speed bumps, for example, only encourages the public to ride over them.

So, she added, Why aren’t we going into schools with a program? Why not billboards?”

A wide-ranging discussion ensued of other uncivil behaviors beyond rude and dangerous driving that bedevil Fair Haven Heights as well as other neighborhoods.

These include midnight dumping, out-in-the-open chronic littering, including items being tossed out from car windows on a regular basis, and, during spring and summer, teenagers racing bikes loudly and dangerously along thoroughfares like Quinnipiac and Grand.

Would more trash cans promote less littering? How about putting receptacles near the bus stops? Shansky asked.

Haywood.

Audrey Richards, who lives in one of the condominium complexes above Route 80 and off Quinnipiac Avenue, described her painstaking routine of picking up garbage from the entryway street into the various complexes. Richards sold her house on Cassius Street in the Hill to move to the Quinnipiac Meadows area; she said she has disappointed by how few, if any, of her new neighbors notice and pitch in even as they see her on her solo route.

I’ve asked them to come out and help, but my neighbors have no concern. They all have their stories,” she said.

I would put your face on a billboard as a local hero,” declared another neighbor, Pat Kane.

Richards: Pitch in, folks!

As the discussion widened from the incivility of thoughtless driving to thoughtless littering and how to promote better behaviors among kids and neighbors, Shansky revised the wording to her proposed slogan: Civility Practiced Here.”

Management team Chair Kurtis Kearney gaveled the meeting to a close. He said he’ll invite city transit chief Doug Hausladen to the next meeting to discuss traffic-calming issues specific to Fair Haven Heights. He’ll also bring up the larger issues of civility, and perhaps a campaign.

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