East Rock Athletic Fields Upgrades Advance

A city on the verge of collapse and mired in debt should not be wasting money on frivolities

Meanwhile across town, the varsity soccer teams of Career high school are relegated to the Boulevard field shared with a homeless encampment. They deal with trash, needles and all the associated mental health behaviors of the homeless.
What other town would disrespect their children this way?
I guess if it isn’t in the Mayor’s backyard, it doesn’t matter.

@NHPS family: Career soccer plays joint with Hillhouse. Why don't they have access to the brand new athletic complex at Hillhouse?

I'm a governor, so no neutrality claims. But I do remember when someone required stitches up and down his leg after getting cut by a broken bottle in the field at Rice. We combed the field before every game and found plenty of needles and other dangerous trash. That was a few years ago, but I'm told things haven't changed much.

All teams -- including Hillhouse-Career!!! -- deserve at the very minimum to play and practice in a safe environment. Hard to see how adding a field that will be heavily utilized by NHPS students / New Haven residents is a bad thing.

@NHPS family now I wonder if you are aware in the 20 plus years since any update has been done to the fields/playing surface at cross were you this opposed to the pair of multi million dollar projects completed at Hillhouse for their sports programs to take advantage off. Do the kids at Cross not deserve anything because the school is located in the shadow of East Rock?? Also if you are so worried with Career high and fields maybe it should be "rethunk" abut why does that school even have sports programs separate from the comprehensive high schools? maybe those kids should be able to join Hillhouse or Cross teams like in the past it would save the city money and if we are being honest Career's purpose is that off its namesake in certain industries am I correct, look where the school was built very tough location for all the gentrification and developments adjacent to secure adequate sports facilities and as for the trash and homeless you do know that's also an issue for where the cross kids practice and compete at right??

If we taxed all our properties at market rates instead of undervaluing them for assessments millions of dollars less than what they are worth in todays real estate market, maybe we would have enough money to pay for nicely maintained sports fields and equipment for our students at our schools.

CY2, "the project would be funded by $1.1 million allocated by the state Department of Education as well as $1.5 million approved by the State Bond Commission last July." Potentially, there will be federal funding as well. No mention of local funding.

Heather, the under-valuation that Tom Breen (and I) have noted is limited to certain commercial properties and expensive homes. It is a big deal. But in contrast, the recent sales prices of most 1-4 family residential properties have been quite close to their appraised values.

Just let the kids have something to be proud of. Stop all the hate and remind yourself of the excitement you would of had if this happened to you when you were a kid.

New, Fencing at Wilbur Cross?… now that’s excit…. Awww. I guess not fencing 🤺 fencing.

:-(

Does anyone know how to propose converting the mini tennis courts to pickleball courts? These courts are in high demand and used by many in the community. Very few people use them for mini tennis.