Paul Bass Photo
City officials Doug Hausladen, Aïcha Woods, and Mike Piscitelli at WNHH FM …
… and inside the studio as the station returns to in-person programming (suspended during the pandemic).
As they remake New Haven, Mike Piscitelli, Aïcha Woods, and Doug Hausalden wonder what people will say in 60 years.
Right now, the trio of city officials are busy undoing mistakes that their predecessors made 60 years ago. They’re trying to stitch back neighborhoods destroyed by highways and car-centric, suburban-style zoning.
That ongoing quest — to replace old-style urban renewal with “new urbanism” — hit two milestones this week: A groundbreaking for the next phase of filling in the old Route 34 Connector mini-highway and the construction of a new 101 College St. biosciences tower; and the submission of the second of two major proposed overhauls of New Haven’s zoning code. Read about that here, here, and here. All this is happening amid a building boom in town, a boom they’re trying to encourage while steering in a direction that includes local hiring, diverse neighborhoods, and pedestrian and cyclist-friendly streets.
New Haven is one of four U.S. cities at the forefront of dozens nationwide refilling highways and fixing the damage wrought during mid-20th century Urban Renewal, as noted in this recent New York Times article.
Piscitelli serves as the city’s economic development administrator. Woods oversees the City Plan Department, Hausladen, traffic and parking. They reflected on this week’s events, and their larger challenges in rebuilding a city in the 21st century, during an (in-person!) appearance Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven program.”
One way to avoid making mistakes that become apparent decades later is to take extra time to listen to concerns expressed now about ambitious plans, they agreed. Hill neighbors, for instance, have raised objections (read about that here) to a zoning revision Woods submitted calling for making it easier for people to add new dwelling units in their homes, such as in basements or garages.
The voicing of those objections will only make the final plans better, she said. “We need to take the time and get the public feedback.”
“The voices and perspective and perspectives all make a better product in the end. The worst thing we could do is rush, try to force it, try to be a little more righteous. Listen, improve the draft, keep doing it in an iterative sort of way,” Piscitelli said. “It’s going to take some time.”
Work begins on the next phase of “Downtown Crossing,” filling in the mile-long Route 34 Connector mini-highway constructed in 1959.
As they work to fill in surface parking lots and allow builders to include fewer spaces than in the past, the officials also work to find ways for people to still be able to park easily when going to work. For instance, these week’s groundbreaking for the Route 34 and 101 College St. project did not include plans for a big new parking lot or garage. That’s a change from the past. But, Hausladen said, officials revisited how spaces are used in the existing Temple Street garage and other nearby facilities to draw up plans to accommodate commuters to jobs at Yale New Haven Hospital facilities.
Ultimately New Haven is becoming a place where more people choose to walk or bike or take transit to their jobs rather than drive. “Over 1,700 people walk to the School of Medicine every day to work,” Hausladen noted.
“It speaks to a faith to live where you work,” to get beyond “this model of a commuter town and really have the jobs in in New Haven in walking distance, in the neighborhood, close by, so people can get to their jobs without parking,” Woods said.
In 2081, what might their successors look back and consider failures from this period?
The guests rattled off potential candidates: A failure to address climate change adequately. The box-like construction designs favored by some current builders (who are currently further hampered in part by rising lumber prices). A failure to include enough affordable housing in new developments.
“It’s important to provide an inclusive environment where these apartments are going up,” said Woods, whose new proposals include a requirement for builders to include affordable units in new developments. She spoke of riding the bus and hearing people ask about the new apartments rising downtown: “The answer is always, ‘Those are way too expensive. There’s no way you can afford to life there.’”
With an ear to community management teams and alders and others who speak up, Piscitelli, Woods and Hausladen said, they’re looking to avoid those pitfalls and help this round of renewal earn New Haven a more positive place in the history books.
As they remake New Haven, Mike Piscitelli, Aïcha Woods, and Doug Hausalden wonder what people will say in 60 years.
I tell you what the poor and working poor people will say.They will say how these three,Along with judas goats help the Gentrification Vampires push them out of new haven.