$12M State Grant Celebrated For Long Wharf Park’s Renewal

For years I heard that the harbor waterfront had been permanently destroyed by I95 and nothing could be done about it, no point in trying. And that seemed right me. But then I started sometimes going down to the food trucks and I would see families huddled on some bare grass near one of the few trees. Huddling down beside them and looking around it was clear that the place could in fact be much better. Not like what "could have been" without I95, but a lot better.

Progress is possible and this grant is good news.

Scuse me, mista Maya. How much state dough would it take to keep the current version of long Wharf clean? I tried to take the family for a bike ride but we all got flats from broken glass in the bike lane

Tanks,
Westville's Daddy

It would have been great if folks associated with the Vietnam V and Veterans Park would have been invited to the presser.

$12 million for a plan - with no funding to get anything done. Wow. At least it's a chance for the mayor and his cronies to deflect attention away from the shootings, and the crime, and the mess that is the New Haven Green. Some day, all the money that the Fed has printed will dry up and these folks will be left looking rather silly.

Sounds like a collection of positive improvements that’s are good for community. Thanks NHV for working to secure this funding!

Spending $12M on a park plan but have no plan to address CT homeless situation or why people have these jobs that are now paying 20-26 a hr but still can't afford housing...no wonder there's a lot of crime and shootings going on the more people on the streets the more crimes.they had years to upgrade long warf why decide to do it now when everyone is in a crisis I swear our mayor does things backwards....prepare for things to get worse in our city everyone it's bad now but this is just beginning I feel like my government failed me and I can't trust anything they say I get all these alerts to my phone saying CT got founded millions of dollars to address the housing crisis but I don't see anything happening the section 8 wait list is unheard-of you'll be homeless by the time you get a voucher or dead we already experienced discrimination we got scammed for our money when we were just trying to find a home the government can't help you when stuff like that happens I pray everyday that something will happen....not just for me but for anyone who is struggling to survive in CT if God where to come now and see what was happening he would be sick to his stomach....evicting human being and animals from there homes knowing things are bad already knowing they wouldn't have nowhere to go ME and my partner been through alot when our management changed and raised the rent we had to travel to a whole different state to live with a stranger that afford us a place to stay then being Sexually assaulted by that same person to stay their.we had kids(our cats) we had to give them up they were all kittens at that time because the mom literally gave birth while we were going through a eviction.the Marshall that was supposed to serve me and my husband the papers wanted us to do things with him and he never gave us a official document to sign...and don't let me get started about 211 they don't help anyone.

Does this 'plan' include a Flood Wall???

The Long Wharf project needs to be connected to the Farmington Canal trail, the Shoreline East trail and the West Haven boardwalk to a western shoreline trail so people can bike and jog and walk all along those trails.
Everything about this project will increase the ability for the public to access and enjoy our waterfront and make New Haven more attractive to travelers on the highway to pull off and get a bite to eat and stretch their legs and enjoy the view.
Unlike when I was a kid and the highway along the waterfront stank so bad you could barely breathe at low tide from all pollution in our waterways and the industries along our waterfront rivers and harbor, now you can canoe our rivers and see bald eagles and other wildlife, you can swim at Lighthouse park without brown foamy fuzz where the waves break, and you can eat a wonderful variety of choices from our food trucks and you can look out at the boats in the harbor, and you can walk from downtown and the Hill and the train station to the harbor to enjoy it.
I lived in Chicago for a short time and used to visit it often, and it has fantastic waterfront parks, trails, entertainment, attractions, marinas, watercraft access, activities, shopping, dining, athletic venues, sports fields, museums, and a highway running right between the waterfront and the city.
Increasing our public waterfront access and enjoyment is a huge positive for the city, and for the state.
A very large number of travelers along I-95 and I-91 pass by our little city on their way from one state to another state in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic. We need to give them a visual reason to stop along the way and discover all that New Haven, the County, and the State have to offer visitors.
And we need to create more waterfront access and free and low cost fun for all the residents who live here as well, and clean up the environment and create global warming flood mitigation at the same time.

DRUG clinics are not family friendly and don’t belong near our kids parks!!!!

It’s great that there’s some money coming in to invest in public spaces like Long Wharf and the renderings are lovely as usual…hopefully built into that investment is a plan for upkeep. Better trash containers, more personnel to empty those containers, a move to reduce styrofoam and plastic…because right now the waterfront is a garbage dump. Contestant trash overflowing, broken glass, tons in the rocks and water. Picked up 2 full garbage bags the other day and it didn’t feel like there was even a dent.

$12M to build Long Wharf Park … amazing! There is a biblical verse that says where your heart is, there is your treasure also. And $12M for a park is a lot of treasure. ‘Projects that build communities’; ‘Hill residents appreciate what’s happening here’; outdoor classrooms, tents for shade, playground area, Fusco’s 500 apartments … exciting? We have many parks in the Hill and other neighborhoods that could use a few coins to improve. But many parents choose not to bring their children to parks for fear of them getting shot by care-less thugs doing shooting car chases like what just happened at John Daniels. How many lockdowns at how many schools this school year? How many schools have after school programs? Tents for shade will go up on Long Wharf while we tear down the tents on the Boulevard used for homes. Teachers making out-of-pocket purchases of classroom supplies. Teacher shortages; teacher burnouts. How many New Haven teachers have we lost this school year? Not enough police officers to address quality of life issues like trespassing, loud music, speeding & dirt bikes and criminal activity like open air drug dealing. How many officers are we down? Families being priced out of housing and communities by greedy profiteering slumlord landlords who just want to make more money. How many homeless do we have in temporary housing - let alone in the streets? We NEED more affordable housing. We NEED more safe stabilized communities. We NEED more teachers. We NEED more police.

We find and spend $12M for a park on Long Wharf … a community that does not YET exist. How many homes can be built, how many teachers can be hired, how many police officers can be hired … for $12M? Makes no sense!!! Rather than take care of and build up the ones we have … let’s build another community … a prettier one for … for … ???

Economic Development has finally found a way to close Long Wharf Dr. Years back, there were plans to renovate Long Wharf/Sargent Drive and they actually had a Long Wharf Committee comprised of residents of the area who gave input into the proposed plans. At that time the Committee shot down any plans to close off Long Wharf Dr.
Long Wharf Drive has the potential to be an esthetic street to leisurely drive down, it's also an extremely important artery in getting in and out of City Point without having to deal with Sargent Drive which is perpetually clogged with traffic getting off or going onto the highways.
Months ago, Mayor Elicker came to Hill South and laid out the city's plans for Long Wharf and Sargent Drives. They were IMMEDIATELY met with rebuffs from the community the minute they mentioned closing Long Wharf Drive to traffic. The Mayor was told that change would occur at the expense of the neighborhood and that was ignored.
To date there has been no new Long Wharf Committee formed to advise on any effect these changes will have on this neighborhood and there probably won't be. The city knows that it will face opposition to this aspect of their plans and it's easier to have no community input and just present them with a fait accompli. When Alder Rodriguez states “our Hill residents really appreciate what is happening here”, I have to wonder to whom is she referring. She has not been to a CMT meeting since the Mayor announced changes for Long Wharf. Had she been, she would know that the CMT consensus has been to keep Long Wharf Dr. opened to vehicular traffic.
Plans to develop the area are positive in many aspects but ignoring the needs of the affected community in order to create a destination park for the rest of the city is not equitable when we pay taxes like everyone else. I have to wonder if the 500 new Fusco apartments figure into these plans. This will make a dandy little park for those apartments.
No taxation without representation?

Lots of money for a plan to create lovely open space. Meanwhile the wide open, almost never used soccer fields on Ella Grasso remain locked up. East Rock Park, 400 acres of open space is locked up to many of us. Explain it.

APT and building communities should never be used in the same sentence. They are awful neighbors.

I'm 100% for developing Long Wharf.. just not in love with the what's in the picture here.
What I see in this design for $12M: a large roof, a useless clock tower, a lot of cement, some perfect green grass, and nice landscaping.

this - this is complete madness! on one side of harbor, we have hundreds of complaints about Tweed and the expansion, with almost everybody at some point citing global warming/climate change/oceans rising...and now the city gets the green light to put a $12m+ park - next to the ocean?? the same ocean where thimble islands still sell for millions, and where Biden, Obama, and Kerry - who are all climate alarmists - all bought ocean-front property...well folks, I'd say we've all been played. live your best lives, and don't worry about a thing, because neither does anyone else. the hypocrisy of this park, by anyone at this announcement that ever mentioned climate change and oceans rising is stunning.

NO APT!!! What the hell is it with this city plan commission constantly putting drug businesses near our parks. STOP IT! TAKE APT OUT OF THE PLAN! Nobody is going to visit a park with a meth clinic in it! RIDICULOUS! We just lived through another drive by at the APT site near John C Daniels school. NOT ANOTHER APT!!!

This plan looks completely uninspired. The city should add recreational activities here at the least. Pickleball etc. The food trucks are an environmental disaster and the city has proven that we can not effectively manage trash removal, bathrooms or litter on Long Wharf. The state should never have given the city the money without first proving that they can maintain the existing space appropriately.

"Our parks are some of our most cherished resources,” Elicker said. When we aren't selling them for $1

1644, you're right that the current shoreline was formed from landfill in modern times. But over millennia, shorelines shift dramatically due to natural forces. Native Americans have been in CT for over 10,000 years. It's entirely possible that what is now Long Wharf was in fact dry land land over various times during this period.

LookOut, this and the previous Long Wharf article describe the millions of dollars in state and federal funding that have been obtained for these projects.

AquariusBoy4616, point taken on funding for housing and services for homeless individuals. Politically, it is far easier to get funding for capital projects, of any type, than on-going program funding. Not only services for the homeless, but things like park maintenance.

Bill, the sea wall, living shore, and other investments are being funded by the Army Corps of Engineers. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/09/19/new-haven-pumps-200-million-into-plans-for-floods-climate-change/

MyTwoCents, the slides and minutes of a community meeting held this February, which had about 60 participants, can be accessed here https://www.togethernewhaven.com/longwharfpark

I like Long Wharf the way it is now, except for the broken glass in the bike paths - there needs to better trash pickup. The food trucks are great - without question some of the best food in New Haven is from the food trucks - and the food trucks have sprung up on their own, without big money from the government. Any new design for the area should center around the food trucks - I don’t see food trucks in the picture of the new proposed plan. The clock tower doesn’t really add anything, we all ready know what time it is from our smart phones. Trees would be nicer than the big shade roof - the shade roof will look very old in a few years, but trees will look better every year, and trees provide shade and are good for the environment. The food truck area could use more picnic tables because so many people are already using the area, and they need places to sit to enjoy their food. The Long Wharf area, near and around the food trucks, is already a lively area. I suspect that the new design is aimed to please developers of luxury apartments and is not designed for the regular folks who are already enjoying the area. The regular folks can afford great food from the food trucks. Regular folks bring their kids to play by the shore, I see some folks digging for oysters at low tide and it’s amazing that such a thing is possible - when I was a kid all our rivers and harbors were so polluted we were warned not to touch the water. The new park I see in the picture looks a lot less lively than what we already have at Long Wharf now. I also like the Vietnam Veteran’s area, and the bird sanctuary area. I like riding my bike on the dirt path through the woodsy sanctuary area over to City Point. Things are nice the way they are, we just need more road cleaning and better trash pickup and public restrooms. New Haven is known for its wonderful trucks, why destroy a good thing.

YouTube video review of some Long Wharf truck food: https://youtu.be/CItHUZwUysw

Robert Menefee, I share your view of the food trucks. But they did not just “spring up.” The food trucks are at Long Wharf and other sites as a result of efforts by the city https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/food_cart_food_truck

Stylo, East Rock Park is not closed now, and was not during the pandemic. You could always drive to the Davis Street lot, the rose garden, College Woods, etc. Vehicle access to the summit is limited, and this poses a bona fide issue for people with mobility disabilities. If you do not fall in this category, it is an easy walk or bike ride to the summit from places you can park.

Mr. HinkyDink, the area is being developed with the understanding that climate change is real. In New Haven, the issue is not sea level rise per se, but rather the interaction of sea level rise and coastal storms. This interaction means that it is foolish to build housing or other occupied structures unless they are flood resistant. Building a waterfront house with its HVAC and electrical panel in the basement or ground floor is stupid. Placing these systems on higher floors will likely protect them for the building’s useful life. In contrast, the structures being built as part of this project will not be occupied. When coastal flooding occurs, the water will flow through the structure doing no permanent damage.

Heather, the Farmington Canal Trail will in fact terminate at the harbor. And as someone actually from Chicago, I can tell folks that cleaning waterways has cash value. In my youth, the Chicago River was a sewer (literally). Now it is the site of housing and restaurants https://www.newhavenct.gov/government/departments-divisions/city-plan/plans-projects/farmington-canal-greenway#:~:text=The entire length of the,way to Long Wharf pier.

Kevin McCarthy The food trucks didn’t require a $12,000,000 design by the city. They are charged to operate by the city, and they are regulated by the city, but they are funded by the owners of the food trucks. The city does tell them where they may park, so in that sense, they didn’t just “spring up.”

Will this plan address the constant congestion on the roadway? Always hate driving through there, but sometimes it's the best/only way to get onto/off of 95. If the food trucks are staying, it would be helpful if there was more space for parking and whatnot so that people aren't constantly crossing the road.

Stylo, the owner of Il Gabbiano signed a multi-year lease for the restaurant. So if the project does move forward, it will be substantially smaller.

Pending Polymath, as the story notes, part of the project will provide more parking.

Robert Menefee, I have not seen a detailed budget. But, the $12 million is going to all sorts of investments in addition to those related to the food trucks. These include the waterfront promenade, playscape, and added parking at the boathouse.

OneCityDump, the access roads were designed for horse-drawn buggies and have very gentle slopes. You regularly see families with little kids walking up the hill.

The City does a terrible job of cleaning/maintaining/policing its current parkland. Make it a State park and let the State pay for it entirely - including the maintenance, cleanup, repair and security/policing. Have at it!