Crescent Street Sidewalk Plan Advances

Approximately 550 feet of new sidewalks should soon be coming to an oft-traversed stretch of Crescent Street thanks to the pedestrian safety advocacy of Beaver Hills neighbors.

City Engineer Giovanni Zinn described that planned infrastructure upgrade Thursday night during back-to-back presentations to the City Plan Commission and the Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) committee. 

The former meeting took place online via Zoom. The latter was held in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

Zinn appeared at both meetings to seek support for the installation of new sidewalks on the western side of Crescent Street from Ella T. Grasso Boulevard to Colony Road. 

That new-sidewalk project must ultimately be approved by the full Board of Alders before the city can install the new walkways, hopefully by next spring.

Zinn said that the city and the Resource Allocation Committee (RAC) are prepared to spend $40,000 in already-budgeted capital funds to construct the two blocks worth of new sidewalks. And he said the impetus for this project was a petition drive undertaken by Beaver Hills residents.

Click here to read about that neighborhood mobilization effort, and here to read more about the planned new sidewalk project.

“Sidewalks are a wonderful thing,” Zinn told the city plan commissioners. ​“The pandemic reminded us of how valuable they are.” He said this stretch of Crescent Street is a particularly appropriate place for new sidewalks because of the proximity of Hillhouse High School and Bowen Field.

“We do like to be considered a walkable city,” East Rock Alder and CSEP Committee Chair Anna Festa said in support of the proposal during the aldermanic hearing.

Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hills (WEB) Community Management Team Chair Rebecca Cramer and former Beaver Hills Alder Shafiq Abdussabur, both of whom played key roles in the grassroots petition to get new sidewalks on Crescent Street, heralded the coming improvements in separate interviews with the Independent Friday.

“I am thrilled that the Board of Alders” is considering supporting these new sidewalks for Crescent Street, Cramer wrote in an email comment. ​“As the 200 neighbors who signed the petition know well, this new sidewalk will help connect our neighborhood and allow residents, including many families with young children, to more safely access Beaver Ponds Park and SCSU. We also look forward to working with the city on additional traffic calming for Crescent St, which is badly needed. I also hope the BOA will consider revising the statute that requires the approval of the full BOA for new sidewalks to facilitate similar projects in other neighborhoods.”

“I am so excited about it, and I applaud the commitment of the residents and their ability to really advocate for something that’s going to make the neighborhood safer” for residents and visitors alike, Abdussabur said. He described that stretch of Crescent Street as a ​“critical traffic thoroughfare” for pedestrians.

Just to be clear, City Plan Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe asked during Thursday night’s commission meeting, there are not currently sidewalks on this side of Crescent Street, right? And the plan is to put new sidewalks in, as opposed to repair existing ones.

That’s right, Zinn replied. If there were existing sidewalks on this side of Crescent Street, the city would not need to get the full Board of Alders’ approval in order to repair and replace that infrastructure. But since there are no sidewalks there now ​“and we can’t find any evidence of there having been one in the past,” the city needs full Board of Alders approval for the placement of the new sidewalks.

Radcliffe said she’s familiar with the area, and that it’s deserving of new sidewalks. ​“That’s a very walkable neighborhood,” she said. ​“There’s always people out and about walking,” and having new sidewalks there — and, really, anywhere — ​“always promotes pedestrian safety.”

Both the City Plan Commission and the CSEP committee endorsed the sidewalk plan Thursday night. Now the project advances to the full Board of Alders for further discussion and a final vote.