“Grander” Grand Vision Lands $6M

The state has awarded $6 million towards overhauling Grand Avenue to make the bustling Fair Haven commercial corridor safer, cleaner, better-lit, and more pedestrian-friendly.

Those improvements can’t come soon enough for neighborhood stalwarts like Maria Ocotecatl of Grand Fish Market, and Javier Sanchez of Evolution Hair Studio, and Angeles Romero of Rodeo Groceries, and Ines Vidals of Dayvett’s Gifts, who have built up their small businesses because of their diverse and supportive community — and despite some of the conditions that persist outside their shops’ front doors.

Those Grand Avenue business owners spoke up about commercial life on the corridor, and their hopes for an even better Fair Haven to come, during a Thursday evening walking tour organized by Fair Haven/East Rock Alder Claudia Herrera, Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, Fair Haven Alder-elect Frank Redente Jr., and Grand Avenue Special Services District director Erick Gonzalez. 

The walk took place a few days after Gov. Ned Lamont visited Fair Haven to traverse a similar route on Monday morning — to hear directly from Grand Avenue business owners operating in the city’s most commercially dense and diverse corridor.

Meanwhile, in a Friday morning email to constituents, Alder Miller announced that the city has been awarded $6 million from the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s (DECD) CT Communities Challenge Grant program to redevelop Grand Avenue.

That grant award — for the so-called ​“Grander” Grand Avenue Roadway & Streetscape Revitalization Project — ​“will implement public safety and traffic improvements that celebrate the diversity of Fair Haven neighborhoods, support economic development, and provide a cohesive pedestrian experience from Downtown New Haven to the Quinnipiac River along Grand Avenue,” according to the grant program’s website.

DECD spokesperson Jim Watson confirmed for the Independent on Friday that the city was verbally notified of the grant award on Sept. 8, and now the city and state have to enter into a formal contract. Mayor Justin Elicker said that the city has agreed to spend $1.5 million in locally bonded funds to bring this Grand Avenue revival project to fruition. 

Miller wrote in her Ward 14 constituent email that the ​“Grander” Grand Avenue proposal builds off of a suite of collaborative neighborhood revitalization efforts over the past year, including the rejuvenation of the Grand Avenue Special Services District, the coming expansion of the Fair Haven Community Health Center and redevelopment of the Strong School, and the revival of Fair Haven Day, among other initiatives.

The now-approved proposal will see the replacement of asphalt and installation of new signage, lights, bike lanes, curb extensions, raised crosswalks, and roundabouts on Grand between from State to Front Streets; the upgrading of sidewalks, curbs, street furniture, street trees, planters, and other ​“green infrastructure” along that same commercial corridor; and the transformation of an underused parking lot at Grand and Poplar into a new ​“Grand Avenue Plaza” to serve as a public space for ​“recreating, casual dining, and permanent amenities.”

Click here to read the proposal in full.

“In many ways, [this grant] is a game-changer,” Mayor Elicker said in a Friday afternoon interview. ​“There hasn’t been this kind of investment along the Grand Avenue corridor, I think, in any of our memories.”

He said the city’s ability to improve the street for all users with better pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure as well as the creation of a public plaza as a neighborhood gathering ​“will dramatically improve an area of the city that is one of the most important economic corridors” in New Haven.

Miller singled out for praise all of the different Fair Haveners who worked together to make this project a now-funded, soon-to-be reality. ​“This critical project emerges as a direct result of strong collaboration among a wide range of stakeholders,” she wrote, ​“who have built community, listened closely to the concerns and ideas of residents and business owners, contributed time and money, and stood up to advocate for the change we need.”

On Grand Ave: "They Deserve A Safe Place"

On Thursday night, some of those community leaders and small business owners and employees spoke up about the good and the bad of working on Grand Avenue today.

The alders’ first stop was at El Rey Azteca, a paletería serving ice cream, popsicles, and fresh fruit out of a brightly hued storefront at 315 Grand Ave.

Sandra Aguilar gave Miller, Herrera, Redente, and this reporter free samples of tequila-flavored ice cream as she reflected on how Grand Avenue ​“has always been a Latin environment,” and therefore a supportive place for the Mexican- and Dominican-owned shop she works in, with plenty of customers and neighbors coming from similar national and cultural backgrounds.

On the down side, she said, ​“it’s not really a safe neighborhood.” She’d like to see ​“more security, police” visible to make her and customers feel safe, especially after dark.

Nearby at Rodeo Groceries at 335 Grand Ave., past aisles crammed with party favors and Mexican flags and candy and even freshly cut cactus, Angeles Romero worked with a colleague in a back room filled to the brim with everything from traditional Mexican bowls and crosses and Nativity figures to piggy banks and bottle openers and stuffed animal dinosaurs.

“Trash,” Romero said in Spanish, with Herrera’s translation into English, is her number one concern with Grand Avenue today. There’s too much of it, on the sidewalk and overflowing from trash cans.

Her other top complaint, she said, is ​“the people hanging around” on the sidewalk, drinking in public, occasionally intimidating customers.

Miller and Herrera described the $6 million state grant that will fund a host of streetscape and public space improvements; as well as a new partnership between the Grand Avenue and Town Green special services districts to have a uniformed ​“ambassador” in Fair Haven like the ones who work downtown. Miller also described a revived ​“engagement center” plan, previously pitched for Ferry and Grand, now eyed for Grand and Haven Streets, where community leaders and healthcare providers hope to provide a space for those who currently drink and sleep and use drugs in public to gather and receive services.

At Grand Fish Market at 353 Grand Ave., Maria Ocotecatl took quick break from selling tilapia, porgys, and red snapper on ice to talk about how her business is growing ​“with a lot of work,” but ​“the environment [on Grand Avenue] needs to be improved.”

There are ​“too many people hanging around” outside, she said in Spanish, with the help of Herrera’s translation to English. She’d like ​“the area to be much cleaner.” She described a recent incident where a motorcycle came barreling down the sidewalk in front of her store, almost hitting one of her customers. In general, she said, she hears from shoppers that they want to patronize her store — but feel unsafe spending too much time on Grand.

Gonzalez, who took the reins of the neighborhood’s business-boosting special services district this past spring, said he’s been working hard with small business owners to submit sidewalk and trash and quality-of-life complaints to SeeClickFix for city government to learn about and tend to. He said he’s also built up enough relationships over the years with barber shop owners and corner store employees and the people who hang out outside of those businesses on Grand to encourage them to keep things civil and remember ​“your activities are yours, until they affect other people.”

An avid cook, Gonzalez also described some of the tastiest ways to prepare tilapia sold at Ocotecatl’s shop — ​“scale it, cut in slices, deep fry it” — and the culinary charms of queso fresco, the ​“Mexican mozzarella.”

En route to Grand Fish Market, Gonzalez ran into his barber, Luis Franco, and on the way out, stopped briefly to talk with Geraldo Garcia, one of the dozen-plus men and women hanging out on the sidewalk not far from Ocotecatl’s store.

Through slurred speech, Garcia said he loves Grand Avenue. When asked about business owners’ concerns about loitering, he spoke about how people regularly stand on sidewalks when patronizing hot dog stands. Asked about what could be better about Grand Avenue from his perspective, he said he’d like to one day own and run a smoothie shop.

Across the street at Evolution Hair Studio at 314 Grand Ave., owner Javier Sanchez said in Spanish that, 10 years after he helped start the barber shop, ​“business is booming.” 

Over his several decades of working as a barber on Grand, he feels like the corridor has improved — more lively, more people, more storefronts, more students. But, he said, there are still ​“so many people hanging out” on the sidewalks, openly drinking and using drugs, bothering passerby.

He said he appreciates all of the security cameras in the neighborhood, many of which city police have access to. He also spoke about his efforts to get to know the people who spend so much time outside on Grand, ​“making connections,” introducing himself, even hiring people off the street to work in his barber shop by, say, sweeping up.

Sanchez said he once struggled with alcoholism. He empathizes with those currently struggling with drug addiction. His goal in life: ​“respect everyone.” He thanked Gonzalez for his work with the special services district to support businesses like his so they can continue to grow.

Crossing back to the northern side of Grand, the group met up with Alberto Bustos and Laura Hernandez at Hernandez’s protein shake bar and Zumba workout studio.

In between showing off copies of a new book about his life and work in Fair Haven — entitled ¡Llego El Momento! — Bustos described the need for more police and better lighting on Grand. ​“Because in half an hour, it will be dark,” he observed. ​“It’s a different world” on Grand after dark, Gonzalez observed.

Hernandez agreed. Her top priority for the corridor, including the stretch outside of her business: ​“Clean the street. Clean the area.” Find some way to deal with all the people ​“hanging outside … selling drugs.”

Musa Ugurlu, who runs a Boost Mobile cellphone store on Grand and who recently built out a new office and commercial space at 233 Grand Ave., added, ​“We have to get lighting on the street. … If you make it look nice,” people will want to come and shop and stay on Grand. 

The last stop on Thursday’s Grand Avenue walking tour, at least for this reporter, was at Dayvett’s Gifts at 259 Grand, a shop that specializes in quinceañera dresses and other party decorations. 

Co-owner Ines Vidals described in Spanish a recent incident where a stray bullet hit her business at 10:30 in the morning. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt, but she and her customers have remained shaken. She said people want to shop at her store, but ​“violence is stopping” them from coming.

With Herrera translating into English, Vidals said that her business has struggled enough financially that her husband is considering getting a second job, which would leave her alone in the shop most days.

“This is what is really happening” on Grand today, Herrera said. ​“They deserve a safe place. They are a part of the economic development of our city.”