Mednick Sets Record Straight

HANH and its executive director should apologize. The drama, threats, and advocating HUD investigations in total, was unnecessary and frankly, not factual by a long shot. Is it too much to ask that HANH, which has been run by the same people for years, do its research and for goodness sake, look at their own history before hurling their accusations and denigrating a town? Where's the press conference and photo op now?

Honestly, is it as simple a legal matter as to who owned the land the fence was on? If so, why spend the money on Mednick's "exhaustive" report, when a simple survey would have sufficed?

Mednick's piece reads like a political argument dressed up as a scholarly piece, but it leaves untouched the bigger questions of whether an easement was established, and if an implied contract, (that the wall would persist), was established between Hamden, New Haven, and the Hamden homeowners.

Sadly, I believe this story isn't over. Note that if the Hamden residents do organize and sue, it likely wouldn't happen until the end of the statute of limitations. (Giving time for several homes to sell at a loss, or god forbid, something ghastly were to happen.)

As to the morality of this saga, count me in as someone in favor of the wall's removal. But this remains a very complex issue, dating back to the time when someone made a bad choice as to where to put a public housing project. As to the Hamden homeowners it's easy to dismiss them as prejudiced or racist, but the reality is that given a market with choices, almost none among us would choose to buy a house and raise a family next to a sizable public housing project.

As a result the homeowners are bound to take a $50,000-$100,000 hit on their home values due to the change, and the question remains whether that is fair, or if they deserve or are legally entitled to compensation.

Lawyers and more lawyers!

"The Independent comes under particular criticism from Mednick for offering what he sees as a misleading, simplistic depiction of the fence's history."

The above quote can be applied to much of the reporting done by this publication, especially where New Haven politics is concerned. If one takes out the last three words of Mr. Mednick's statement the statement can be used verbatim to talk about many issues that are not cover indepth as they should be.

A publication calling itself "Independent" shoud be in a position to critique and even to criticize the status quo, which is the true spirit and purpose of journalism and journalist.

Samuel T. Ross-Lee

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Interesting review of the process and history by Steve, but I think he got the title wrong. There were angels in the room. My position as an alderman and the representative of that area never altered or was in question, that fence needed to come down with no preconditions, the rights of those fenced in residents were paramount. And as I predicted, it was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Glad the fence is down, now it is time to remove other barriers placed in front of poor people.