City of New Haven Photo Illustration.
Less than a month after aldermen rejected a plan to help fund a $1 million streetcar study, the city is trying to get the project back on the rails.
At its regular meeting Monday evening, the Board of Aldermen officially received a proposal from Kelly Murphy, head of the city’s economic development department, asking lawmakers to green-light a study that would look at the feasibility of putting in a streetcar system downtown.
The item is now headed to the board’s City Services and Environmental Policy committee, where it will have a public hearing in advance of a vote by the full board.
Under the proposal, the city would have to put $190,680 towards the streetcar study. The rest — $762,720 — would come from a grant from the federal Department of Transportation. That grant has already been approved by the feds, but the city can’t receive the money until aldermen agree to match it.
It’s a deal that aldermen already rejected once, at their Oct. 25 meeting, when they voted it down 16 to 6. Lawmakers, including Hill Alderman Jorge Perez, argued that times are too tough to be throwing $200,000 towards trolleys.
This time around, Murphy’s letter to the board emphasizes the possibility of finding other money to cover the city’s portion of the trolley study.
“If approved, the City proposes to use a portion of its future capital allocation or regional transportation funds as may be available to
move this project forward,” Murphy wrote in a Nov. 16 letter to board President Carl Goldfield. “We are now in discussions with Connecticut DOT [Department of Transportation] in regard to the local match and I believe that we will arrive at a financing plan that is acceptable to the Board.”
Murphy’s letter also lays out the other expected benefits of a streetcar system to the city. She calls it a “catalyst for job creation and tax base growth.” She mentions other cities — Portland, Ore.; Little Rock, Ark.; Tacoma, Wash. — that have seen increased public transportation ridership and economic development as a result of trolleys. She describes environmental benefits, including the reduction of diesel exhaust fumes.
Those arguments were echoed Monday night by East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker, who has championed the streetcar plan. He noted that recent studies have shown elevated levels of asthma is cities compared to suburbs. A streetcar system could help alleviate that, he said.
“I’m obviously very hopeful it will pass,” Elicker said.
It could happen this time, he said. “My personal thought is that the combination of getting some additional money to cover those matching funds and an effort to reach out to people and help more clearly explain the benefits of a street car system will more likely lead to a positive out come, meaning it will pass.”
Alderman Perez declined to comment on the proposal, saying he hadn’t had a chance to read the latest iteration.
“I’m willing to listen,” he said.
West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson, who also opposed the first streetcar proposal, said he’s fine with the city “wasting $1 million” on a streetcar study, as long as taxpayers aren’t paying for any of it.
Depending how fast the proposal works its way through committee, Goldson may be among the aldermen who won’t be around to vote on the streetcar study a second time. With 19 new aldermen being sworn in on New Year’s Day, it remains to be seen how the 2012 Board of Aldermen will look upon the trolley plan.
This should be called the trolley scam not plan. This funding is just the beginning and the drain on city finances will grow.
Anything Kelly Murphy writes about a big economic boom from a trolley should be taken with a very large, chokingly large grain of salt. Fuel cell at City Hall - not only was it not built, but the projections of savings are all over the place; 360 State, not even close and now we're embroiled in a lawsuit over a cooked evaluation; Winstanley on route 34, no development or tax agreement even though Murphy/Finance said our new round of $7 million in new debt subsidy for Winstanley would pay for itself.
Our problems in this city are so severe - from finances to education, from union contracts to 20% unemployment - that diverting attention and money away from these activities is without conscience. DeStefano builds beautiful schools but fails to educate; launces Promise to get kids to go to college knowing that more than 80% of them flunk out.
And now, pushes a trolley scam as a magic ride to economic good times. Perhaps instead of thinking up more stuff to distract us from solving real problems, Murphy/DeStefano could spend the same energy to audit the development deals we've already made, like the one with the Chase Family, and make sure we get our $1.5 million and counting that the robberbarons are keeping that don't belong to them.