Thomas Breen photo
David Agosta with Zinn behind K of C museum on walking tour.
As cars rumbled along a milled-but-not-yet-repaved stretch of State Street behind the Knights of Columbus museum, City Engineer Giovanni Zinn urged the dozen downtown neighbors before him to engage in a little “crazy brainstorming.”
What could — what should — this roadway be when it no longer belongs to cars?
Thanks to a largely state-funded redesign of the downtown corridor, that question wasn’t simply hypothetical. It was part of an already begun process of paving the way for a safer and more pedestrian-friendly State Street.
Zinn asked that question Tuesday afternoon during a walking tour that he, Downtown/East Rock Alder Eli Sabin, and Hill/Ninth Square Alder Carmen Rodriguez led up State Street from Water Street to Grove Street.
The answers he received — ranging from a pickleball court to a sculpture park to a grassy picnic area — spoke not just to what might one day take place on this small slice of State Street downtown, but also to the possibilities inherent to the roadway’s coming shift from car-centered transport to human-scaled livability.
Tom Breen file photo
Cars be gone: Current northbound State Street roadway will be converted to area for pedestrians and cyclists only.
The purpose of Tuesday’s tour was to take a look at the existing conditions of State Street as it cuts north along the eastern edge of downtown from Water to Trumbull Streets, and to talk through the city’s plans to reclaim a sizable chunk of that car-dominated public space for pedestrians and cyclists and potential new mixed-use developments.
That planned State Street redo will be funded in large part by a $5.3 million state Communities Challenge Program grant that New Haven recently received.
The Elicker Administration plans to use that state aid to cleave the downtown section of State Street in two, converting the street’s western half into a two-way north-south roadway and its eastern half into a car-free area open to pedestrians and cyclists only. That car-free eastern half would include the downtown extension of the Farmington Canal Trail.
The State Street redesign should also free up several parcels of land on the eastern side of the street for residential and commercial developments. The city envisions up to 447 new residential units and 80,000 square feet of stores atop land currently dominated by surface parking lots.
Zinn: This is about "improving the safety" of State St.
This project is primarily about “improving the safety” and “walkability” of State Street, Zinn said during Tuesday’s tour. It’s about “making sure we really make this a road that works for all different users” — including people traveling along State Street by foot and by bike and by wheelchair and by bus, and not just by car.
“We’re really trying to bring State Street back to what it used to be” before mid-century urban renewal, Sabin said, a bridge between downtown and Wooster Square and East Rock and the Hill. “This is exciting,” Rodriguez said about the host of planned walkability improvements. “We’re going to be making a big difference here.”
Zinn said that the design work for the State Street redo should be complete sometime in 2023. The actual construction work should take place in 2024.
After starting the tour at the intersection of Water Street and the southbound stretch of State Street — to be converted to a two-way roadway as part of this project — the group walked around the southern edge of the Knights of Columbus museum and up the narrow sidewalk towards Fair Street.
Zinn stopped the group halfway up the sidewalk, and then pointed east, across the shaded half-paved roadway towards the train tracks.
“Any thoughts on what this should be?” he asked this group.
As part of the State Street redo, this northbound stretch of the road will no longer be open to cars. It’s also not on one of the future development tracts. And, because the road currently sits atop a bridge that narrowly cuts between the museum and the train tracks, the actual underlying infrastructure likely won’t change much due to this project.
But how this space is used will change dramatically. And the city has not yet settled on what exactly that use should be.
So, Zinn asked, “What else could this be?”
“A pickleball court?” safe streets advocate Aaron Goode ventured with a smile.
A full basketball court likely wouldn’t fit, Sabin said. But “you could get half of a basketball court” onto this space.
What about bringing in dirt and trees? Sabin asked. And picnic tables and parasols? another tour attendee said.
“This could be a gorgeous sculpture area,” said downtown resident Polly Russell.
Will emergency vehicles still need to travel through this area on occasion? asked New Haven Urban Design League President Anstress Farwell. How might that affect this area’s future use?
That could be the case, Zinn said about emergency vehicle use of the area. But, he continued, the city’s vision for what this stretch of State Street behind the museum should be used for is in an early enough stage that all ideas are welcome.
With one last look at the to-be-transformed State Street roadway, Zinn urged the group forward, continuing north on the street to talk about each intersection along the way and the safety and walkability improvements in store.
Click here for more details on the State Street redesign, and to provide feedback to Zinn and Assistant City Engineer Dawn Henning about the project. And see below for more photos of current State Street intersections, and city designs for how these will be reconfigured.
State and Chapel.
State and Elm.
State and Grove.
Nobody says you can't walk there. You are as safe there as anywhere in NH.....