nothin Street Maze Frustrates Neighbors | New Haven Independent

Street Maze Frustrates Neighbors

David Yaffe-Bellany Photo

This block runs in the opposite direction to the rest of Ivy Street.

Clyburn: Up to city now.

When she drives her children to school, Robin Miller-Godwin has to take a circuitous route: She turns right at the corner of Ivy Street and Newhall Street, drives past Hazel Street, turns left onto Starr Street, takes another left onto Winchester Avenue, and finally zooms past Hazel and Ivy in one inconvenient loop.

Miller-Godwin, who owns her late grandmother’s house on Ivy, traces her frustration to an annoying quirk in the design of the one-way street. A single block at the end of Ivy, which extends from Dixwell Avenue to Winchester, runs in the opposite direction from the rest of the street — the result of a redesign initiative intended to curb speeding in the neighborhood.

Miller-Godwin, a manager at the Housing Authority of New Haven, described her problematic commute to a team of city officials gathered recently at the restaurant 30 Plus on Fitch Street for a meet-and-greet with the mayor. She called for the city to reverse the last block, between Newhall and Winchester, so that commuters driving down Ivy can turn directly onto Winchester.

She is not alone in her frustration.

Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn has advised city officials to change the design, after numerous meetings with neighbors who find the street turnaround more irritating than helpful.

I did the homework on that,” Clyburn said. That is completed on our part, and the city has it now. It’s in their ballpark now.”

City transit chief Doug Hausladen told the Independent that his team is examining the block in question as part of a larger traffic study in Newhallville.

He has spoken to Clyburn, he said. He hesitated to make any promises.

I would like a broader study before changing one particular block of one particular street,” he said. We’re thinking of changing a number of streets, and working through a community process to do it.”

He added that adjusting one street in isolation, without developing a plan for the rest of neighborhood, often creates more problems than it solves.

Drugs and Fast Cars

Miller-Godwin.

Miller-Godwin became interested in the history of Ivy St. in 2009, when she took over her grandmother’s house.

After having to go around and around, I said, Let’s see if we can get some information,’” she said.

She soon discovered that in 2003 then-Newhallville Alder Charles Blango wrote to the Department of Traffic and Parking requesting the very design change that now infuriates residents. 

Cars have been known to speed throughout several areas in the 20th Ward,” Blango wrote. There have been at least three separate accidents where speeding motorists have struck children.”

He wrote that the issue came to his attention after several calls from my constituents and meeting with the area residents.” His letter was dated July 3, 2003. That July 8, the Traffic and Parking Department issued a notice announcing that the block would be reversed in August.

Miller-Godwin, who said she has canvassed long-time area residents for information, maintained that the community was never consulted and that many in the neighborhood resent a change that they feel was imposed from on high.

My grandmother and the neighbors said they had never had any meetings. They didn’t find out about it until it was done,” Miller-Godwin said.

Melissa Bailey File Photo

Blango: The neighbors spoke already.

Blango, who coordinates the city’s truancy and dropout prevention program, rejected that account of the design change, saying he discussed the issue at numerous community management team meetings.

Everybody was invited. That’s where the discussions came,” he said. People choose to come. It’s like doing homework – I forgot it,’ or The dog ate it.’ I was always inclusive.”

Blango added that speeding was not the only issue at play in his decision to request the redesign. He also hoped that making the neighborhood less hospitable to passing cars would curb drug-dealing and other street crimes.

And, he said, he will fight any attempt to have the block reversed.

Blango, who lives on the corner of Ivy and Newhall, said neighbors are still divided on the issue. Those who live on the long stretch of road between Dixwell Avenue and Newhall, he said, did not experience the brunt of the crime and the speeding. Neighbors living between Newhall and Winchester, however, were the primary victims of those problems and therefore better understand the value of a redesign that he claims has contributed to a drop in crime.

This is not for convenience,” Blango said. This is for safety, this is for illegal activity.”

Miller-Godwin said she disagrees: In her view, the updated design has done nothing to combat the problems in the neighborhood.

Down on Ivy Street, they still speed, and they still go the wrong way oftentimes,” she said. It’s just ridiculous how they’ve switched the streets around, and it hasn’t stopped this drug trade, because it’s still going on.”

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