Biomed Builds Up West River Block

When this redevelopment was first foisted upon the public, it was sold as 'stitching two neighborhoods' back together, after the disaster of 'urban renewal'.

Now we know that 'that sales pitch' was just 'code' for connecting up the two hospitals!!!!

I live a block away form this corridor, and I have absolutely no reason to ever 'visit'....

It is a barrier, not a community.....

Bill, my friend Pat Wallace raised similar points several years ago. I respect Pat immensely. And her comments were well informed and thoughtful . But I doubt that low-density residential development was economically viable, then or now. A two-family is being built on Howard Ave., which is great. But it will $350,000 per unit (I don't believe that includes the cost of the lot).

Kevin,
Tax Burden wise, first assessment after this development started, it was the giant bump in 'land value' that was the biggest driver of my tax increase.... just on the other side of George Street, everyone saw their 'land value' go down.... Meanwhile up on the other end of Dwight, the Brownestone section of the neighborhood saw an even more egregious land value bump! Good for Investor's, but not homeowners!

@BillSaunders1: I was still living on Dwight St. when we had several "visioning" sessions at which truly thoughtful and lovely suggestions and even designs emerged to "re-stitch" the neighborhoods after the disaster called "urban renewal". A redesign of the road was part of what was addressed, but like so much of what city officials do (remember Elicker's post-election Vision Plan?), it duped people into believing the propaganda that what went up on the vacant land would benefit the neighborhoods.
"Fool me once,......."
The City of New Haven belongs to the Principality of Yale, aka Yale University and YNHH. Elections are ceremonies to see who is most worthy of serving the hedge fund and the Board of Trustees.
New Haven is served by the same point of view that a former head of General Motors notoriously expressed decades ago when he said that what was "good for General Motors was good for the United States." We should have paid better attention because in fact GM and numerous other corporations - profit and non-profit (no shareholders) alike call the shots at every level of American life.
Of course the career insiders at City Hall always knew that the land would go to the highest bidder and re-building neighborhoods and community was just good public relations.
@Kevin McCarthy: Your "spin" on the phony representations made to residents may come from your endless optimism, but for those of us who invested our time and our caring in hopes of actually reclaiming some of what had been lost when a thriving community was ripped apart for 2 roads, read what Bill has written. He has lived here a long time and contributed his time and his gifts and his gentle genius to the cornucopia of local talent that makes New Haven worthwhile.
As New Haven transforms into a transient, over-priced and soulless "anywhere USA", remember, there were choices.

Bill, the increased valuations are a mixed bag for homeowners. Taxes have definitely gone up, with the largest increases in poorer neighborhoods. But the sales prices that Tom Breen has been reporting for homes has generally tracked the revaluation appraisals. Your home and mine are in fact worth more than a couple of years ago, increasing our equity. And folks paying private mortgage insurance can reduce or eliminate these payments as a result of the decreased loan to value ratio.

Patricia Kane...well said!!!

"The City of New Haven belongs to the Principality of Yale, aka Yale University and YNHH. Elections are ceremonies to see who is most worthy of serving the hedge fund and the Board of Trustees".

And...that's why there are 3 Unions at Yale University.

The juggernaut is that the workforce at the hospitals have been trying to organize a union there since the late 1960s and the Yale goons/union busters are still on the scene and doing a great job.

Common people, let's get some unions at the Yale Hospitals!

Not to worry, Yale's vicious, well-paid union busters are on the scene almost everyday with fun "campaigns" to make those who are vulnerable think that Yale is their "Santa Claus" and Yale is their home and that's why the administration pretends to love them, but doesn't VALUE them and HATES them. Yes, they have wonderful benefits (really?) the #1 being that lower paid workers can say they work at (get this) YALE!!!!

The fact is that there are not that many "jobs" in the area for those w/o college degrees to go.
They seem to be dependent on Yale-New Haven Hospital as the ONLY place to work. I think that's partly true.

Unions at Yale's Hospital would benefit all of us because a workplace that is well paid then has money to spend in New Haven and in the Greater New Haven area.

Union YES!

It’s the last construction work stemming from a 2014 Land Disposition Agreement (LDA) that brought Continuum of Care, a now-closed Rite Aid, and The Learning Experience to the area bounded by MLK Jr. Boulevard, Legion Avenue, and Orchard and Dwight Streets. The Cambria Hotel, which opened in 2022, was the last ​“Route 34” addition.

The state gave this property back to the city and the city squandered the opportunity to develop it responsibly.

The city elites lie incessantly in order to get their way. The "stitching" was all BS. Remember when they brought the corrupt former mayor of Milwaukee here to pimp the concept? The visioning and blather promised to restore the neighborhood. The economics of housing and neighborhoods didn't change. It was always a bait and switch. And it was never a necessity to lie about it. Remember Ninth Sq and how we were just loaning money? Took it in the shorts there too. The lies are also told and repeated on other city policies - Elm City ID card launched with a grant and a promise it would end if grant money ran out. The grants dried up and yet it remains. The Q House was goibg to be a non profit. Raise its own money and manage itself. That changed in secret and now cost all state taxpayers millions and continues to cost us locally hundreds of thousands annually. The clock factory and the rhetoric and actions around affordable housing...and so on. The question is why lie?

Truthfully in my opinion, I think two-way conversions, a two-way cycle track, a center median, and raised intersections would really good traffic calming improvements both way along the former highway connector between Ella Grasso Boulevard and Howard Avenue..

Folks, I would have been happier if the area had been developed along the lines that Heather et al. propose. More importantly, the city would almost certainly have approved such a proposal. It is similar to what is going up on the Coliseum site

But as far as I know, no one with the requisite funding put forward such a proposal. (Heather strikes me as a really good person. She does not strike as someone with millions in her checking account 😉)

I once heard someone (unfairly) say that former mayor DeStefano would have sold his own mother to expand the city's grand list. Among the many flaws in state's system for financing local government is that it forces municipalities to take a short-term approach to development. We agree that this was a really suboptimal use of the corridor. I very much doubt any of us would have made different decisions facing the same realities the major did.