Markeshia Ricks Photo
Mark Barros with Alder Clyburn at community meeting.
Brown, 83, addresses Harp.
Octagenarian Mert Brown asked the mayor to grant him one wish: Repair the sidewalks near his Newhallville home before he dies.
Brown told the mayor at a community meeting that he has watched for years as sidewalks near the Knickerbocker Club were repaired, while the ones in front of his Newhallville home remained untouched.
“Everybody fixed the sidewalks for the Knickerbocker; they fixed the sidewalks for everywhere around,” he said. “And nobody fixed mine. Nobody has touched mine. Every time I say something, everybody looks at me like I’m crazy.
“I’m 83 years old — end of conversation.”
His plea echoed others offered from among the more than 100 people who showed up to a meeting at Lincoln-Bassett School to tell Mayor Toni Harp and several of her administrators seek action on basic city services such as sidewalk repairs, tree maintenance and trimming, traffic calming on Shelton Avenue, and absentee landlords and rogue tenants.
Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn organized the meeting this past Thursday night so that people could pose their questions directly to Harp. A number of the neighbors, longtime residents of Newhallville and homeowners, expressed frustration that they have reported problems to the city over the years that never seem to get addressed.
Part of the crowd at Lincoln-Bassett.
Mark Barros said he’s been on a waiting list to have trees near his Butler Street home cut for five years. Not only has the city not come, he said; when he’s called, he just gets the runaround. He said he saw someone come to trim trees just once, back in 2012, when the fire department arrived because the trees were rubbing against the power line, creating a possible fire hazard.
“You have city officials touting these new LED lights but you go down some streets that are so dark that you can’t see them because of the trees,” Barros said. He said he has nothing against the mayor, but he would believe that the work would get done when he sees it being done.
Reese Green said he feels the same. He lives on the last block of Bassett Street before the Hamden town line. He said it seems like whenever there is a new public works project fixing sidewalks and curbs, the city always runs out of money when it gets to his block.
“I pay taxes like everyone else,” he said. “And the problems with the sidewalks really pisses me off. Every time there is a major project we get the shaft.”
Harp at the meeting.
Harp told residents that her administration is working on many of their concerns. But she also encouraged them to keep reporting their problems. She said that in the past the city contracted out much of the street-level work in the city. Her administration has brought more public-works tasks in-house.
Carter: city has more work than money.
“But because we’re doing more in-house, that means we’re going to get to more these things,” she said. What’s working against the city now is the temperamental weather.
Chief Administrative Officer Mike Carter said he oversaw a complete assessment of the city’s streets. He said he had good news and bad news to report.
“The good news is we have found money to do a lot of the work that needs to be done,” he said. “The bad news is there is more work than money.” But the administration is diligently seeking more funds from other sources, he said.
Harp had other good news. Thursday night was the last night of target practice at the Sherman Parkway police academy firing range, where loud gunshots have bedeviled neighbors. The new police academy on Wintergreen Avenue will have an indoor firing range, the sound from which should be virtually undetectable to residents.
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said that he’s taking about $20,000 from his streetlight budget for the city, a project that is nearly complete, and using it for tree trimming around those new LED lights that have gone up all over the city.
Neal-Sanjurjo: stable neighborhoods, housing top priorities.
Livable City Initiative Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo said the city is working a plan to increase homeownership in Newhallville and throughout the city. She said making sure that the city has stable housing is one of the administration’s top priorities. That means keeping existing homeowners in their homes, and helping people who have been renting long term to become homeowners, she said.
“Newhallville took one of the biggest hits … during the market crash,” she said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to counter that and work to at least even the scale around rentals and homeownership.”
Harp credited Clyburn with keeping the administration abreast of many of the concerns that the neighbors expressed Thursday night.
Reese Green left the meeting skeptical.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Green said.
When in doubt, blame the weather......