Grander Grand Greeted With Joy

Fair Haven schoolchildren and neighborhood boosters and elected officials gathered for a festive press conference celebrating an even grander Grand Avenue to come — with dozens of new apartments and millions of dollars worth of streetscape improvements now in sight.

That presser took place on Tuesday morning in the stately lobby of the the Fair Haven School at 164 Grand Avenue.

The cause for celebration was a number of major development and infrastructure projects en route to the Fair Haven neighborhood’s main commercial corridor. Those include the conversion of the former Strong School into 58 new affordable, LGBTQ+-friendly apartments, as well as a full repaving and traffic calming of Grand Avenue from State all the way to the banks of the Quinnipiac River. Grand will also see new lighting and street furniture and shade-giving trees; a new roundabout replacing one of Connecticut’s most crash-cursed intersection at Ferry Street, and a fine new plaza/zocalo/public square at Poplar Street.

That’s an awful lot to celebrate in one fell swoop about the substantial changes coming to Grand Avenue, Fair Haven’s most important commercial and public-gathering corridor. 

At Fair Haven School, a full phalanx of alders, members of the state legislative delegation, long-time local development activists, city economic development officials, the mayor, and a dual language class of Fair Haven School students led by Natalia Marcano came together to celebrate.

They hailed both the vibrancy of Fair Haven today and of the near future. And that near future was no longer just a convenient phrase, but an unfolding reality, thanks to some serious cash, which the whole happy, appreciative crowd seemed almost able to taste.

The reason was dual: More safety, security, and beauty coming to the neighborhood thanks to the awarding of a $6 million state grant (from the Department of Community and Economic Development) and a matching $1.5 million of city funds (thanks to the American Rescue Plan), all to be invested in the new, lasting, and significant infrastructure improvements projects along Grand Avenue. 

Also on the books is a Development and Land Use Agreement (DLDA) that will trigger the Penrose LLC and Cloud Company’s $27 million conversion of the long-vacant Strong School into affordable apartments and art spaces.

“The cars will slow down, it’ll be safer to walk [to school], better lighting, and not just for us, but for the kids of the future,” said Natalia in remarks, quietly eloquent in both English and Spanish.

And the eighth-grader knows of what she speaks. Dropped off every morning at the school by a family member, she said she finds the cars often speeding, she doesn’t feel safe crossing over, and at least once she reported a personal close call.

Click here for a summary of the three phases of the project — first the repaving, then the new street-scaping, and finally the new public square — scheduled to begin in late 2024 and to conclude some 18 to 24 months later. 

“This is a great day but long-time in the making,” said Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, one of the primary movers-and-shakers of the initiatives.

“There is so much going on here [in Fair Haven, for example, with a 130 small, minority-owned businesses, one of the highest commercial density rates in the city], but there’s been no significant infrastructure investment in 25 years.”

Yet thanks to her efforts and those of economic development officials, the state delegation, and other local nonprofit advocates and never-say-never neighbors — a fine love-fest of mutual appreciation characterized the brief but optimistic remarks — all that is about to change. 

No more – to list the sins cited by Miller – no more cracked sidewalks, garbage cans overflowing, and a historic school abandoned.

And if a long ignored neighborhood were finally about to receive its due, the other theme animating the press event was how critical this is for a neighborhood that long received immigrants from around the world – many of the parents and grandparents of the city and state officials speaking included – and continues to be, in effect, the city’s welcoming center.

Of the Fair Haven (K to 8^th grade) School’s 900 students, about 60 percent walk to school, said Principal Monica Morales. That means they encounter speeding cars. There are 19 buses that pull in and out daily from all over the city, and two ​“newcomer centers” where Pashto, Arabic, Portuguese, Mandarin, and 30 other languages are spoken daily.

For kids who come from countries and backgrounds that may not be safe and secure, that’s precisely the way you want them to feel (that is, to feel safe and secure), added Morales, who said the planned improvements will importantly enhance all that.

“They come from all over the world. Many with limited or interrupted educations, and they come with the expectation that it will be a safe, secure place they can take pride in. It’s so important,” she said.

“All important, much needed, and long overdue,” Fair Haven Alder-elect Frank Redente, Jr. characterized the grants and the unfolding vision for Fair Haven. ​“Being the great grandson of immigrants, let’s remember lots of families come here for a better life. Let’s work to be true to our word.”

State Senate President Pro Tem Marty Looney, a key figure in helping to secure the state grants, recalled his own growing up in the neighborhood, the pizzerias he frequented, the two movie houses on Grand that he often went to (the Pequot Theater and the Grand Theater, the latter having stood where Centro San Jose is today).

“The major arteries in New Haven are getting the attention they deserve,” he said. ​“As we enter the holiday season, there’s a great deal to celebrate today.”

Fair Haven’s State Rep (95^th Distrtict) Juan Candelaria echoed that back-to-the-future variant of the immigrant dream, Fair Haven style.

“This community has been advocating for years,” he said. ​“Now we are going to light up Fair Haven. People will now be coming down here for their haircuts [and other services and products]. And these children’s [the sixth-grade dual language class behind the speaker’s dais] own children will be shopping on these streets.”

“The community pushed us to be better,” concluded Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Ezyaguirre, who emceed the cheerful proceedings. That meant the sometimes arduous and protracted yet larger-vision filled community-led planning process for the Strong School, which ultimately led to, to use Ezyaguirre’s phrase, ​“an RFP that worked.”

Penrose Regional Vice President Charlie Rose said he and the company felt ​“honored and humbled to be entrusted with this historic asset.”

Turning to the children behind him, he said, ​“It has real meaning, sentiment, it’s served for a hundred years, for the first hundred it’s served kids, and now it’s being repurposed to house residents. A couple of years from now we’ll be having an event like this at the restored Strong School.”

The presser wound down with officials reminding the public that these projects, impressive as they are, should be seen only as a beginning of a revival of Fair Haven as a whole, with Grand Avenue, to use Mayor Elicker’s word, ​“the spine.”

“The big picture,” said Mayor Elicker, ​“is the unbelievable potential” of Fair Haven.

He cited, for example, more desperately needed housing that could be sited where River Street’s now decaying 19^th century industrial buildings barely remain standing; he bemoaned UI’s failure to follow-up on the promised clean-up of English Station which also has ​“unbelievable potential;” and he said city officials are keenly aware of the connection to the water, that is, the Quinnipiac River, ​“a beacon for all.”

Miller added that a separate grant, $250,000, has also been ear-marked specifically for Quinnipiac River Park improvements, to be begun next year.