Union Station Deal Struck

Too bad. Eyes are bigger than it's wallet. New Haven will demand more state money as it continues its beggar status.

FWIW, the great gateway cities of the world - London, Paris, Moscow, Madrid, Rio - have budgets that are mostly line items within their national governments, they raise other money for special projects, but they are not expected to build infrastructure, transportation, civic buildings from their own taxes.

It is the American exception, due to our peculiar organization around states, that make cities creatures of the state government and not federal or national government.

Yes, half of New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport's budgets come from he state - and yet our taxes are still 30% higher than most of our suburbs; meaning that we ought to get 70% of our budgets from either the state or better yet the region. Why? Because around the country and the world the norm is for leading cities to have LOWER property and business taxes than their suburbs to encourage efficient density and to avoid subsidizing sprawl and low density investments.

So, Noteworthy, the city is not a beggar at all - we are doing the visionary planning for the rest. The big four cities (and their surrounding suburbs) have historically been the only reason any people, jobs and investments actually moved into Connecticut at all. And most people who come here from out side the state take years to fully fathom that Branford, Milford or Wallingford are really separate places with no legal connection to their center city. No one from Minneapolis, LA or Columbus would understand this at all.

If cities such as New Haven do not dream of and then demand great transportation centers such as Union Station, innovation centers such as Science Park and Hill to Downtown, attractive downtowns with fully function bus depots and entertainment centers or world-class education systems then the State and southern New England stops being globally relevant.

Noteworthy, worry when we stop seeking funds from the State or region for urban excellence. That's when the state and region will have no future.

This will never happen.This state is broke.

A lot of us have been waiting for the lower property taxes, Matt Nemerson, but patience is wearing thin....

Matt: Seriously, no city in Connecticut is a great gateway city like London (heck, Paris and Madrid are not in the same league as London, let alone New Haven). Boston may be globally relevant, but no city in Connecticut is.
No one has moved to Connecticut because of Bridgeport for several generations. Much of Bridgeport, like a smaller percentage of Hartford, is a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Just look out your train window next time you travel to the city. As for its surrounding suburbs, they are suburbs of New York, not Bridgeport. Absent NYC, few would live in Fairfield Country, including Stamford. They orbit a true global city, New York.
Yes, in the UK, most local councils get most of their funding from the national parliament. However, their ability to control local decisions is severely limited. Things like police and schools are controlled by the national, not local government. If New Haven is dependent on the state for most of its funds, why should boards and officials elected solely by New Haven residents control the expenditure of those funds? Heck, even Milford and Branford sell their proximity to New York and Boston, not to New Haven. (Just as New Haven always has sold its location "on the main road from New York to Boston.")

As for the disparity in mill rates, for most New Haven homeowners, that disparity was reflected in the purchase price of their home. As higher mortgage interest rates drive home prices down, so, too, do higher mill rates. For as long as I have been alive, housing prices in New Haven have been lower than those in the suburbs, in large part due to higher taxes.

I'm sure the people of Bridgeport, Connecticut's most populous city, would be interested in knowing they live in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. That is going to be a real let-down for them.

Of course, I don't expect anything less than cruelty from someone whose apparent knowledge of Bridgeport is from the window of a Metro North car.

Between: Okay, try driving virtually anywhere along Fairfield Ave. Look at the empty spaces around the Congregational and Episcopal meetinghouses near Park. This should be the center of Bridgeport, yet is naught but a few social service agencies and lots of surface parking. Walk north on Main Street from the courthouse: you will see bail bondsmen, empty lots, and decaying buildings. A once grand theater crumbles more each year. Look at Steele Point south of Stratford Ave. Drive Stratford Ave. Drive North/Boston and look at the empty land between the cemetery and Bond Street, once the site of a huge factory complex. Black Rock is described as wealthy, although much of it is working class duplexes and apartments population by immigrants. Yes, there are some very nice homes facing Fairfield, but most are comparable to New Haven's East Shore, not Westville, Prospect Hill, East Rock, or Hartford's West End. Pretty much everything outside of Black Rock is blighted, making Black Rock "wealthy" by default. It was the neighborhood that hammered in the last real because everywhere else real estate prices declined significantly.

What exactly will cutting the time from New Haven to Grand Central do for New Haven? Will there be an express in the morning for all that New York City money come up to see the opportunities offered in New Haven? Is the price of a home and tax rates make it worth for people to live up here and commute to NYC?
Reading this article I took that these are plans to get people out of New Haven, not into it. Increased parking lot, bike racks etc. I think the State and New Haven should look to add trains on the Shoreline East and with the double tracking of the Springfield line set up a Shoreline like system. It's ridiculous for Amtrak to run that line with its minimal inconsistent schedule. Long gone are the days of the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad competing to connect New York and Chicago in the fastest time, today passengers get on and off between cities. Unless New Haven's future is going to be nothing but a college town we have to realize that people live in the suburbs. When your twenty working and living in the same area may be "cool" but it does become stale. What makes Metro North work for people along the Westchester to Fairfield towns is that, for the most part you can catch the trains every 1/2 hour and they run late into the night enabling the commuter not to be beholden to the train schedule this is not the case with the Amtrak and Shoreline.
As for Bridgeport well one reason for the daily exit 25 bottle neck on I-95 is because no one is getting off at Bridgeport.

"I think the State and New Haven should look to add trains on the Shoreline East and with the double tracking of the Springfield line set up a Shoreline like system. It's ridiculous for Amtrak to run that line with its minimal inconsistent schedule."

Until the "Full Build" option is funded, only about half of the 62 mile New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail corridor (now rebranded "CTrail Hartford Line") will be double tracked by the January, 2018 target date. New stations have been built and modern signaling installed as well. Initial service is planned to increase from 6 runs daily to 17, a huge increase that should dramatically improve the usefulness to potential commuters. A good source for background and updates on the project is the web site (www.nhhsrail.com).

Peyote Haze Notes:

Over Memorial Day Weekend, I caught a train (an early one) to Bridgeport, got off that train, and just made the ferry. It was a wonder in modern transportation -- i just kept moving to the next 'mode'. From Taxi, to Train, to Ferry......

Wow, New Haven, you really blew it with our waterfront possiblilites.

I don't trust anyone at City Hall to be able to manage things.

If the answer is to make 'stuff' for people to 'hang out' at while waiting, the boat has been missed....(departing hourly)

Thank you Nathan, very helpful, I have been reading about "studies" and watching dog and pony news clips of politicians getting on the train from New Haven to Hartford for decades. Looking at the track mile post charts 62 miles will get you from Springfield to New Haven, some of which are already double racks. Have a question wouldn't it be more important to get the tracks laid and the train stock funded before the Stations? A simple basic platform will be adequate for the time being. Another important aspect for suburban stations is parking. I believe people find The Shoreline and West Haven convinient because there is parking. Please don't dream of increasing bus service in suburban towns it is too costly and will be underused. These trains do not have to travel the speed of sound they need to be scheduled for peak and off peak times. To maximize High Speed rail the tracks need to be straight. The current lines, laid in the 1800's often curve through towns and other high density areas.

And Bill. You nailed it. "to make 'stuff' for people to 'hang out' at while waiting." Brilliant, a bus schedule shows I could arrive at Union Station 5 minutes before my train leaves, Hmm I guess I better take the bus one hour earlier just in case.