Before hopping a train back home Thursday, John DeStefano shopped a new $20 million New Haven streetcar system around the halls of Congress.
Actually, he went asking for the money.
The mayor was in D.C. for Barack Obama’s inauguration. He then met Wednesday afternoon with Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd; and on Thursday with Connecticut U.S. Reps. John Larson and Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Joe Lieberman.
He presented them with a wish list of priority projects he’d like to see Congress fund in New Haven.
But while other politicians have focused on grabbing a slice (or more) of the pending $825 billion economic stimulus bill working its way through Congress, DeStefano appealed for money from other pending legislation.
“Everybody was receptive and open,” DeStefano said of his meetings, during a phone conversation from the Amtrak train he was riding home Thursday afternoon. (He’s pictured above on a different train, a light-rail system he checked out in Denver at last summer’s Democratic national convention.) “There’s an awareness that they sit in different chairs. They have different leverages.
“I did not go down to emphasize the projects on our stimulus list. Those will be funded or not” based on decisions by Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
Specifically, DeStefano in his Capitol meetings sought:
‚Ä¢ $20 million to build an electric streetcar system on four miles of rail to be laid from Science Hill to downtown, then down Church Street to the train station; with a possible future link to Hamden. Destefano said the money would come from a transit program called “Small Start,” to be considered by the Banking Committee, which Dodd chairs.
‚Ä¢ $60 million to reconfigure downtown’s roads and reconnect the central business district to the Hill neighborhood, Union Station, and the harbor. DeStefano wants to remove the Route 34 mini-highway, return local streets there, extend Orange Street to the train station, extend Lafayette Street, continue Temple Street south. The $60 million ($7 million of which the city previously received) would be authorized over six years in an upcoming six-year transportation bill if DeStefano has his way.
• $6.5 million from the Department of Homeland Security to build a new firing range in the West Rock neighborhood. (Read about that here.) Sen. Lieberman runs the Homeland Security Committee.
• $4.6 million from the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Bill for anti-violence initiatives such as the street outreach workers program and a pending prison reentry effort.
Like other cities, New Haven has “shovel-ready” projects it would like to be funded under the stimulus bill. (Click here to see the city’s wish list.) However, money from that bill will go to the State of Connecticut. The governor will then distribute that money.
Meanwhile, DeStefano said, New Haven has pressing problems — youth violence, downtown growth — that could use a direct injection from the pending Congressional bills.
“Money that’s spent on transit, on renewable energy projects, are going to have recurring benefits,” he said.
DeStefano said he’s also “increasingly of the point of view of what’s going get us out of [the recession] is a fix of the banking system” rather than economic stimulus legislation. “The larger issue is fixing the lending system.”
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I hope this all works out--very nice plans!