As mayor of New Britain, Erin Stewart has had a reputation for looking outside the box and fostering relationships on challenges ranging from economic development to chronic homelessness.
On this week’s episode of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities’ “The Municipal Voice” on WNHH FM, we brought on Stewart to discuss the various ways she puts New Britain on the track to success.
One key item was the development of the CTFastrak. That project, which started well before Mayor Stewart took office, was a jumping off point for success.
“We were on the cusp of something special with CTFastrak,” she said. But New Britain was lacking in a plan: “There was not a single document with any planning for any of this.”
The town came up with a transit-oriented development plan to complement to existing Complete Streets Master Plan, which was only a single-phase project.
By 2019, there were nine phases. It featured bike lanes and angled parking, which “drove some people nuts,” Stewart recalled. She assured residents that people do use the bike lanes, and will more so when regional bike sharing comes in at a later time. The angled parking is safer for pedestrians and children, she said.
She spoke of the importance of keeping the public, legislators, and the governor in the loop on city plans.
Each year she sends her legislative delegation a dossier on the top five or more issues that she and the town’s lobbyist will be fighting for. That way the delegation won’t see it as a shock, and can help the city accomplish its goals.
The biggest example: a billion-dollar fuel cell and data center project that looks to bring upwards of 3,000 jobs to the New Britain area. Like the CTFastrak and Complete Streets Master Plan, the Energy and Innovation Park (EIP) was discussed when Stewart’s father served mayor. It fell to her to see the project through.
That meant it took “a lot of partners to come to the table,” from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), and not one but two governors, she said.
“It’s very rare that you find a project that lasts the span of two governors, and has the support,” she said. “It speaks volumes to how great a project this is.”
When Ned Lamont was elected governor, her first call to him involved EIP.
When CCM put together a committee on ending homelessness, Stewart was one of our first calls. Her Coordinated Access Network is reporting that the Chronic Homelessness rate in New Britain is at zero.
“There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” she said; partnerships, federal models and a consortium of services allow her to succeed.
Running any town or city requires knowing what to do and when, and one of the qualities that allows Stewart to succeed is knowing whom to look to for partnerships, making phone calls to the governor to make sure a project moves forward, educating people and letting everyone know your goals. For Stewart, it is helping her keep New Britain on the fast track to success.
