Zoom
Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team Chair Caroline Smith.
Nobody got Zoom bombed at a monthly meeting of Downtown and Wooster Square neighbors, thanks to extra steps taken by management team leadership.
Both the New Haven Board of Alders and Hamden Legislative Council faced “Zoom bombings” this week, where hackers took over the meeting with child pornography and racist and homophobic messages, respectively.
The phenomenon has exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic as workplaces and public bodies turn to the Zoom videoconferencing software as an alternative to in-person meetings.
Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team (DWSCMT) held its monthly meeting Tuesday night — and avoided such interruptions.
“Please give us feedback. This is our first time doing this for a public meeting,” said DWSCMT Chair Caroline Smith.
Smith announced at the beginning of the meeting that she could not completely prevent Zoom bombings. Then she detailed the measures she took to prevent trolls from taking over .
Anyone who wanted to join the meeting had to be accepted in, using Zoom’s waiting room function. No one could talk until Smith unmuted them, and members of the public submitted questions in the meeting chat.
In addition, Smith monitored the videos of everyone in the meeting and could kick anyone out if they started to display distracting or crude content. No one was allowed to share their screens except Smith, as the host.
Preventing Zoom bombing meant Smith spent most of the meeting monitoring who could speak when.
This led to the meeting’s only snafu, when Smith was sharing a presenter’s Powerpoint on her own screen and did not notice that a neighborhood organization wanted to join the meeting. At the end of the meeting, Smith offered a solution to that problem: She could make a presenter a cohost when they needed to share their screen.
The new 19 Elm St. building would have a traditional front on the thoroughfare and more modern materials tucked behind.
The precautions meant that the Downtown and Wooster Square neighbors were able to focus on what they came to the meeting to talk about — namely a new development just approved for the former Harold’s bridal shop at 19 Elm St.
Architect Kenneth Boroson recapped the main features of the project. Developer brothers Josef and Jacob Feldman plan to demolish the Harold’s building and construct six stories of apartments and one floor of offices in its place. The building would have a rooftop deck and on-site parking for cars and bicycles.
The 96 apartments would be a mixture of studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms. This led one member of the public to ask whether the developers considered including some larger apartments to bring more families into the downtown area.
Jacob Feldman said that they have other developments — for example, in East Rock — more geared towards families.
“I don’t think this will be a transient-type building. I think there will be a lot of tenants from the central business district who want to jump out of bed and be at work,” he said.
The plan is a redo of the five-story building the Feldmans had won approval to build in 2017. Shortly afterwards, downtown zoning changed to allow more housing units per building, so the Feldmans decided to submit a new plan allowed as-of-right under the new rules.
Neighbor and labor organizer Ian Dunn asked whether the Feldmans will make any of the units’s rents affordable.
Jacob Feldman said that the cost of developing the apartment building prohibited them from doing any affordable units. He explained that the cost of construction, including material and labor costs, in New Haven is higher than elsewhere and that sets rent prices.
“Especially in smaller developments, we’re on a pretty shoestring budget. If mortgage rates change, we’re underwater pretty much immediately,” he said.
Developer Jacob Feldman: Wants to be part of future solution.
Dunn said that, in general, “there’s a problem with the market in our city. It creates units that no one can afford.”
Jacob Feldman said that he wants to be part of the solution but that solution has to work for all parties.
City development chief Michael Piscitelli said that the city is close to one potential solution—inclusionary zoning, or affordable units set aside in all new buildings. Piscitelli said that the pandemic outbreak shifted city staff members’ focus to Covid-related concerns. He said that staff members who know the most about that initiative can attend the next DWSCMT meeting to provide updates.
“The broad point is that New Haven is a New York marketplace but you don’t get New York rents — which is hard to believe given how high rent is,” Piscitelli explained.
You have to be accepted in - and what criteria is used for that? I get the zoom bombing threat but this doesn't sound like free and open conversation. Submit written questions? Come on.