Guv Claims State Will Finally Build That 2nd Train Station Garage

Glad to hear this is finally getting under way, but does this put us any closer to the direction of more retail at Union Station? Didn't the original plan involve an entire second floor of boutiques, restaurants, etc.? Is this all just a pipe dream now, like light rail in New Haven?

Why does DeLauro give us more pollution-spewing parking garages for suburban commuters, instead of transit for the neighborhoods that are suffering from a 20%+ unemployment rate?

Looney and Harp keep talking about how jobs are important, but then looking the other way as we cut bus service and sequester transportation funds to be used for other State expenses.

They could be standing up for our city, but instead they just want to funnel more money and more resources to their donor base of upper-middle class Union members and suburbanites who drive everywhere, at the expense of the majority of city workers, youth, and elderly.

Not directly related to this, but does anyone know how work for the supposed New Haven-Springfield commuter line is going, if going at all? We were in theory supposed to have a commuter line going by 2015 I thought.

@MadCap
According to nhhsrail.com: "Cable installation activity began in October 2012 and is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2014. To date, more than 24% of the construction work has been completed, including cable installation from North Haven to Hartford and on-track cable plowing. In addition, the installation of communication and signal equipment, as well as bridge attachments have begun."

A new garage doesn't help New Haven. Why not make it easier to get to the station without driving?

This project should be squashed for 2 reasons: 1. CT doesn't have the money and Malloy continues to squander taxpayer money.

The west side of the state gets the money because we have most of the people and pay most of the taxes and need most of the services.

Also the "make the train station easier to get to" comments are ridiculous. 90-95+ of people going in and out of Union Station don't live in New Haven. People aren't going to ride their bike to the train station from Ansonia or Wallingford.

Madcap, it's not ridiculous to expand rail service and public transit. Ansonia already has a Metro North station, but one with poor service. Increase the service there. Wallingford will soon get commuter rail too. More Shoreline East service could be added to reduce parking demand in New Haven (in fact, they could run Metro North trains straight through on to the Shoreline).

After all, why should New Haven have to lose valuable real estate to park suburbanitess' cars (which just pollute our city). Notice that they aren't proposing building a garage in one of the suburban towns to service out-of-towners, and those towns have huge parking shortages as well. (Most of them claim they want to preserve the rural character of their towns; but in reality, they just don't want the pollution and traffic).

New Haven has lots of potential for walkable development around the train station--one of the few places in Connecticut where there is real potential for it---and so it makes no sense to turn that space into a storage lot for out-of-towners' cars.

If you think one parking garage is going to ruin the walkability in an area that is 1/2 desolate and 1/2 crime ridden, I don't know what to tell you. There are kinds of plans to re-develop that area, but that's where they stop, being plans. Unless a whole lot of money materializes, the area around the train station isn't changing in any serious manner any time soon. A parking garage actually increases walkability my adding more foot traffic to a place most people don't like to walk.

There's also some willful ignorance going on here about the fact you live in a city, it's like when people in Manhattan complain about tourists. We live a a city that is part of a larger area, not an independent fiefdom. All cities have to acquiesce to outsiders to some degree(if you don't want to, we have a place for that, it's called the suburbs). We are also a city that is a mini transit hub. I don't know about you, but I'd like to extend that role. People are going to travel regardless but if they're going to I'd like them coming in and out of New Haven and perhaps spending their money here.

These policymakers are taking the most valuable real estate in our entire State, and making it (and the surrounding properties) essentially worthless.

Great job, guys - I'm sure the Building Trades are happy.

It makes no sense to say there is no money for redevelopment. The whole point is there some money and it's apparently not going to redevelopment: it's going to a garage. (Although who knows, the details have not been released yet).

I also reject the idea that living in a city should mean always having to accept increasing levels of out-of-towners' traffic and pollution. Cities can also be nice places to live. Let's have higher aspirations.

Anonymous asks "Why does DeLauro give us more pollution-spewing parking garages for suburban commuters…?" Answer: as TheMadcap points out, "90-95 [%] of people going in and out of Union Station don't live in New Haven." But suburban labor union members and their PACs are the biggest donors to DeLauro's perpetual re-election campaign. See Sector Totals at bottom of page: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2012&cid=N00000615&type=I
Just to be fair, I should point out that DeLauro didn't "give us" the proposed parking garage; she had nothing to do with it. But she DOES make it a point to get photographed every time a new union-built project is getting under way—so her donors will THINK she has something to do with it.

Madcap, outside of the United States, most train stations of this size are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of square feet of walkable, tax-paying development.

For some reason, our imagination here begins and ends with more parking garages. And then we "wonder" why the surrounding area isn't more attractive, why there is so much pollution, and why our country is so dependent on imported oil (which is the main cause of the rising trade deficit, and therefore, the reason why we can't spend more of our money on things like day care centers, schools, and parks).

Most of people in charge have traveled outside of the United States, and know exactly why this is happening. But since they are never the ones who are directly impacted, they have no reason to care. People like DeLauro, Malloy, and DeStefano do not need public parks because they can afford as many vacations to Tuscany as they want, they do not live in areas with high air pollution, and they keep getting elected by Big Money donations from the suburbs.

MadCap that area is desolate and crime ridden by design. They don't want the evil gentrification to creep in.

Anonymous, I don't understand your animus against suburbanites. You and I have chosen to live in New Haven (I believe I came here 15 years before you). But suburban dollars at the state and federal level pay for the bulk of the costs of the city's transportation infrastructure (transit and highway), and it is reasonable that this infrastructure serve suburbanites as well as us. More importantly, building the second garage will increase the number of people taking the train rather than driving on 95 to Stamford, NYC, etc., thereby reducing pollution levels.

DingDong: Building a single parking garage is cheap and easy, not to mention bond money is much easier to get for transportation projects.(case in point on Friday the state bond commission is announcing the roll out of more bonds to continue work on the New Haven-Springfield line). Billions of dollars to re-develop that area don't exist beyond anyone's imagination. Not to mention you can't just redevelop an area like it's Sim City. You need developers who are willing to come in, do the construction, fill the buildings, ect.(look how long it's taken just to get some plans for the much more valuable real estate near the Coliseum). I'd love it too if they were re-doing the whole area, but unless someone can make a whole lot of money pop out of thin air as well as figure out what to do with hundreds of people(for how eager many people are to redevelop the area, talking about what to do with the Church St south folks always seems further down the list), it's all just a pipe dream and a single parking garage is actually a small improvement to the current area.

Christopher Schaefer: Of course most of her contributions come from the suburbs. DeLauro doesn't exist to specifically serve New Haven. 83% of her constituents do not live in New Haven. And all 5 state representatives usually fight hard for transport funds and bonds.

anonymous: That's actually true for the good deal of places inside the United States as well, the area around Union Station just wound up with some bad planning. It will be fixed in time, but it's going to be years and years. Nothing is going to be done until the Coliseum site is finally finished because no developer is going to want to develop and move in around the train station as long as that dead zone towards downtown continues to exist. Also, parking garages still exist in Europe. Europe is not a transit utopia, places like Holland and Denmark are statistical anomalies. France, Germany, Britain, Italy, ect, 80%+ of trips are still made by car.

Kevin, I think suburbs are great places to live. But in the long run, turning some of the most valuable real estate in the Northeast into parking garages hurts all of us, not just city residents. In the short term, city residents pay a greater price.

These decisions are clearly being made based on what can bring short term profits to people in charge - who, like it or not, are almost entirely based in the suburbs. If they lived within a half mile of the train station, they would be making very different decisions. To me, this debate shows how great the suburbs are, not vice versa.

These decisions are being made because the train station needed a new parking lot, end of story. There's no suburban conspiracy going on. It's needed one for years, heck it even needs more bike parking on top of it. This isn't even true just for New Haven, more stops along the line had to expand their parking lots because ridership on both Metro-North and Shoreline East has been increasing over the years.

This is also not "the most valuable real estate in the north east". You don't get to judge value on some fantasy situation of what you'd like the area to look like. Currently that area isn't even one of the better real estate spots in New Haven. On top of it all though, if people want this area to be their vision of stores and whatever, the added inflow of potential customers from people deciding to park in at the garage vs driving or getting on at a different stop is needed. I'd like these people and their money to show up in New Haven, and the people already showing up need to leave their car somewhere. I'd rather it's in one centralized location than spread out all over the area which in turn will just make any new business in the area want more surface parking.

Interested readers may search for the railroad station master plan. Includes second garage, offices, retail, apartments. Low rise & tower. Also: proposal for adaptive reuse of railroad offices within station building -- only a small part of the station is actually renovated/restored.

@Madcap. I get the sense we aren't going to convince each other. But I thought this article, which is mostly unrelated, might be interesting to you http://www.ctmirror.org/story/state-pushes-new-us-transportation-secretary-keep-rail-project-track

I hope that grant money gets released, and soon, because I'm also worried if Malloy gets booted in 2014, a Republican governor might not be so keen on continuing the idea of the New Haven-Springfield line. Republicans in CT are generally more mass transit than the rest, but the party has still become a bit screwy over the years.

Josh Levinson -- I suspect Union Station next phase will not begin until the bulldozers are on the move across the street.

George and Jane Suburbanite are relieved to get out of traffic and into the new garage at Union Station. They cross the street to visit Daughter Former-Suburbanite at her new apartment. All three then jump on the streetcar in front of the station and in a few minutes are outside the new Long Wharf Theater downtown. The restaurant chosen is just around the corner, so there's plenty of time before curtain. After the play, they walk across the courtyard and have a cocktail before catching the streetcar back to Daughter's apartment & garage. As they wait for the light to change while exiting, Jane says "Let's look at those condos down the block from the theater." And George responds "Great idea. I'm tired of mowing grass, raking leaves, shoveling snow, and driving around constantly. And I can take the streetcar to the station whenever I need to get into the city."