Allan Appel Photo
O’Brien leads walkout.
Sean O’Brien and five other Morris Covers walked out of a city-organized workshop on proposed airport improvements and a “community benefits package” to accompany a proposed expanded runway at Tweed Airport. They called the “workshop” a poor substitute for democracy.
Many of the two dozen neighbors who stayed to talk to officials about jobs, roundabouts, and flooding expressed reservations that the rushed nature of the project gives at least the appearance of a lack of candor, or, worse, that something backhanded is taking place.
That was the passionate but polite scene Monday night in the cafeteria of the Benjamin Jepson Magnet School in Fair Haven Heights, at the end of Lexington Avenue in Fair Haven Heights.
The meeting was held as a follow up to last week’s stormy public hearing on the matter before the Board of Alders Community Development Committee.
At issue is State House Bill 5537, which would eliminate a provision in a 2009 state law that restricts Tweed’s runway to 5,600 linear feet. City government and business officials are pushing hard for that bill so that Tweed can pave another 1,000 feet of runway — and, they claim, be able to draw commercial jet service to Washington, D.C., Florida, and Chicago.
Many airport neighbors view that as the breaking of a pledge given ten years ago when New Haven and East Haven signed a deal to allow a previous expansion. City officials assert the addition of more efficient and quieter commercial jets is within the understanding of the agreement; they argue that pa 6,600-foot paved runway will result in a boost in jobs, municipal marketability, and other benefits for the city as a whole and immediate Morris Cove neighborhood.
Having emerged from the General Assembly committee rather abruptly in March, the bill would need to pass the General Assembly before it adjourns on May 9. Mayor Toni Harp is leading the charge for the Board of Alders to pass a non-binding resolution in support at the next full meeting on Monday, May 7.
Traffic Chief Hausladen and Townsend Ave resident Sam Sigg
Her aide Michael Harris was on hand Monday night at Jepson along with directors of departments and more than half a dozen alders. Harris said the idea of Monday’s workshop was to let residents hear about the city’s proposed concomitant improvements in traffic calming, parking, infrastructure, and noise control — as well as the expected new jobs and economic activity — from city officials themselves and to take feedback to incorporate in those plans.
The set-up — five “work stations” on those subjects each manned by a city staffer — to solicit input made O’Brien and several other opponents suspicious.
“This whole thing [the workshop format] makes it look like we’re authorizing this benefits package, when people are not happy. This is a transparent attempt to divide us into sub-tables so we can’t speak. They know the response, so they’re trying to manage and control. This is a poor substitute for democracy,” O’Brien charged said.
Then O’Brien, whose criticisms filled up a considerable length of the readers’ comments to Independent coverage of last week’s meeting, led a half dozen people out in a quiet exodus.
Roundabout: Yes?
Burr Streeters Fico, center, and Michele DeMusis check out possible roundabout and additional parking.
Carmel Fico was among those who stayed.
“Here’s my bedroom,” Fico, who is 78 and lives on Burr Street facing the runway, told city transit czar Doug Hausladen. “And here’s the runway.”
Hello!” she said, ironically, pointing to the table-top map.
She said her husband refused to come to the workshop “because you can never win. Nothing’s going to change.”
Her fellow Burr Streeter, Lisa Ventura, added, “Between the jet fuel and the noise, I haven’t been able to open my window in years.”
Neither was impressed with what City Engineer Giovanni Zinn called a “conversation starter” proposal — one of the benefits — to put in a roundabout at Dodge and Burr streets. The roundabout would handle what modest additional car traffic would be created if Tweed adds up to six flights a day.
They discussed with Zinn how a previous traffic calming device — traffic bumps — were installed years ago but then taken out when residents complained. Another resident said a roundabout isn’t needed because she doesn’t see much traffic there at all. Someone else suggested Dodge be made one-way.
East Haven Entrance?
Zinn said he found it useful to hear residents’ perception because changes at the airport need to fit into the larger context of the neighborhood.
He said the roundabout and proposal for a speed table at Burr and Fort Hale Round “came to light as we began to talk about the airport.”
Townsend Avenue resident Sam Sigg had an extended conversation with Hausladen. He suggested that fliers coming from the east to the airport might access Tweed not by going down Townsend and the other two-lane residential roads, but rather four-lane Hemingway Avenue in East Haven.
He and Sigg discussed possible routes. Hausladen duly noted the idea on the city map.
Conspicuously absent from the workshop were any representatives from East Haven, on which land part of the airport sits, or representatives from Tweed itself. Also absent was State Sen. Martin Looney, who represents the area, or other state legislators in whose hands rests the ultimate decision about Tweed’s expansion plans.
Zinn and Sigg had a productive exchange about whether adding any more impermeable runway surface would contribute to Morris Cove’s drainage problems during major flood events. Zinn’s charts indicated the Tweed expansion plan would result in only “0.24 percent increase in total impeviousness in the the watershed.”
“I really enjoyed talking to people about drainage,” Zinn said. Hearing neighbors discuss how flooding affects their lives and homes helps him and other city officials do their job better, he said.
Deputy Director of Ec Development Michael Pinto, with Edward Fitzgerald.
Sigg caught the atmosphere of Monday’s workshop a little more accurately, and skeptically: “It [the workshop] is useful. I’m open to having my mind changed. To have a few more flights to help New Haven, yes, I think we [local airport neighbors] have to be reasonable. We were accused of being unreasonable, but we just found out about these ‘benefits’ and they’re not benefits, just common sense. It was disingenuous of the city. If Mayor Harp had come out in an open way and said, ‘If we add six more flights,” and we were approached in a decent manner instead of being backhanded with this solar …”
Before he led his exodus, O’Brien said he might not attend the next and last gathering before the aldermanic vote, scheduled for Saturday, May 6, at 9 a.m. a.m. at the Nathan Hale School, if the format does not change.
The city’s Harris said he thinks the format will remain the same, with the opportunity for residents to continue to meet one on one with officials to voice their concerns.
Acting City Plan Director Mike Piscitelli with Quinnipiac Avenue resident Christina Kane, who said she is a fan of the airport and its expansion.
There will be one difference, prompted by Townsend Avenue resident Tania Giacomini. After Harris had described the tables or stations of the event, she called out, “You don’t have a health station.” She brandished reports on the prevalence of asthma in the area. “iIf you don’t have health, you have nothing,” she said.
“You’re right,” Harris said. “We’ll add it.”
Among the alders present were Tyisha Walker, Rose Santana, Brian Wingate, Frank Douglass, Evelyn Rodriguez, and Sal DeCola.
“The vote on the runway is in the state’s hands,” said DeCola, who represents Morris Cove. However, he added, “I’m going to vote no on the resolution.”
This is like the "public hearings" at City Hall. Tweed presents for 60 minutes; the public gets to speak for three minutes. It's cathartic but it does little good. What's most interesting is the city trying to cover their backsides with an afterthought of a faux benefits package, a last minute workshop nobody knew anything about so that they can report back to the legislature the box has been checked.