As New Haven approaches crucial decisions about the future of Church Street South, a weekly “Pundits” panel argued that a long-term solution might be more possible than it appears.
The Friday Pundits panel — veteran radio journalist and WNHH radio host Michelle Turner (pictured above at right) and Babz Rawls-Ivy (at left), managing editor of the Inner-City News (and a WNHH host, too) — chewed over this week’s headlines on WNHH’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Church Street South dominated the headlines. City inspectors concluded that almost all the roofs are shot on the 19-building, 301-unit subsidized apartment complex across from Union Station, and ordered emergency repairs. Families huddled in small hotel rooms after the city condemend their apartments; the federal government decided to reinspect the entire complex and offer relocation vouchers for families in unlivable spaces.
Now, in addition to wrestling with the short-term crisis of how to house potentially dozens or even over 100 families currently in decrepit conditions, officials must decide how to proceed with the long-term goal: Tearing down the complex and having a larger, mixed-use, mixed-income development built there, while guaranteeing quality housing for all the families current living there. The chairman of Northland Investment, the complex’s owner, said he wants to strike a deal with the city to build that development, which was the company’s stated plan when it first bought Church Street South in 2008. Mayor Toni Harp said she’s hesitant to strike a deal with a company in which she has lost trust because of the complex’s current condition. And Northland had sought to include 20 percent affordable housing in the planned 800-unit development; the city wants to see at least 30 percent.
Rawls-Ivy, who grew up in Church Street South, argued that it’s worth it for the city to see if it can reach a deal with Northland — and that it’s worth it for Northland to compromise on the amount of affordable housing in a prime development on which it stands to profit handsomely.
“The idea of trust can be handled with enough oversight,” Rawls-Ivy argued. “Put enough oversight and micromanage to some degree so that everything that is done has to have eyes on it moving forward. Everything. That’s the way to alleviate the trust factor. If you stay diligent from jump, every blueprint, every nail, everything to be looked at and explained to your satisfaction, that will take care of the trust factor.
“Antyhing can be done. Political will drives everything. If you want it done, you can get it done.”
Turner argued that Massachusetts-based Northland, which in other cities builds primarily market-rate housing, has a special incentive to compromise and carry out a successful rebuilding: “You don’t want it out there that you have all these luxury buildlings in your portfolio and now all of a sudden you’re down here in New Haven fighting with these “poor people.’ Who’s going to trust you?”
On Friday’s program, Turner and Rawls-Ivy also spoke with me about the latest developments at Hillhouse High School and the confusing communication by the Board of Education, as well as Hillary Clinton’s emails and New Haven’s decision to pursue building a 1‑gigabyte fiber-optic network to deliver ultra-fast internet service to all of the city. Click on the above sound file to hear the whole week-in-review discussion.
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