Before Willie Griffin and his neighbors can get a new fence or safer swings for kids by Quinnipiac Terrace’s waterfront, a crumbling seawall will have to be repaired.
At least that’s the plan so far for a federal infusion of $600,000 to improve beautiful Dover Beach Park, right on the Quinnipiac River by the rebuilt Q Terrace public housing complex.
Neighbors like Griffin (pictured) told the city Tuesday night that they have different priorities for how to spend that money.
Griffin loves living at Q Terrace. He loves fishing in the early morning hours. So he’s a regular at Dover Beach Park, Q Terrace’s “front yard” by the river where bluefish and striped bass cruise in on the tide. He said Tuesday night that his wishis for more benches, picnic tables for families, maybe a fishing table, and safer swings for kids.
To discuss the mysteries of funding and to form a “Friends of Dover Beach Park” group, Griffin joined some 30 residents of the area who gathered at the Q Terrace community house.
David Moser, a City Plan Department landscape architect, explained to Q Terrace residents (left to right) Calissa Cole and Jessica Frazier (and her charming baby Lamar) that all the $600,000 set aside by federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for park improvements will now have to be used to repair the seawall in the park.
“It’s so unfortunate,” he said, “but that money, so the current thinking goes, needs to repair the wall as the number one priority, because the Department of Environmental Protection feels there’s no point in putting in amenities if the water is going to wash over and ruin them.”
Frazier and Cole, young parents, were concerned less about erosion and more about the safety of their kids. “Kids go down there all the time, even the little ones,” said Frazier, “and there are no signs, no fencing, nothing.”
“Frankly,” said Cole, “I’m afraid someone will drown there.”
“If the community wants a fence,” replied Moser, “you have to get people power and get your aldermen to be in touch with the mayor and get the mayor to have Bob Levine, the head of parks, put that and your other requirements in the capital budget. The city is strapped for money, but they respond to people power.”
Before people power can be applied, Moser explained, a philosophical difference on the sea wall had delayed action.
“We want to repair the wall where it’s crumbled,” he said, “and our application said so. The DEP feels that in areas where the crumbling has taken place and vegetation has naturally filled, that those areas should be left alone. We try to make the case to DEP that we’re an urban area, and we need that sea wall. We hope they’ll agree, and it may happen in two months. Then we can get going on the wall.”
But if the residents want amenities and want and need safety features now?
Moser estimated that an additional $500,000 would be needed to put in a splash pad, better tables, benches, swings, and shade trees.
Assembling that critical mass of people to come to consensus was very much on the mind of Carla Johnson (pictured with Chris Ozyck of Urban Resources Initiative), who is the president of Q Terrace’s tenants’ residence council. “The sea wall is fine and good, but someone drowned off the bridge nearby already. So, yes, safety is our first concern.”
“All right,” said Ozyck, “my sense is that the city is all about what the residents want. That can be worked out in the design of the park down the road. The city is here,” he said, referring to the presence of Doreen Larson-Oboyski, who’s the local government’s coordinator of gardens and greenspaces, “and all that can be worked into the ultimate design. But, you know, kids climb fences.”
“We can put up signs, and do some education and teach kids to swim. The mayor, I know,” Ozyck went on, “is committed to the idea that all kids who live in a city with three rivers should learn how to swim.”
The group agreed to try to drum up more community pressure through a barbecue in the park. Pat Bissell, the organizer of the meeting and the head of the nearby Riverview (Lombard Street) blockwatch, scheduled a barbecue early in August. While Chatham Square Neighborhood Association’s Kevin Ewing turns the ribs, the group will assemble petitions and a list of priority items.
Outside, Cordelie Benoit, who heads the Elm City Parks Conservancy (ECPC), who was there to explain how to form a “Friends” group, echoed many other participants in calling Dover Beach one of New Haven’s true jewels.
“Just look at those willows,” she said. “They do such a terrific job of screening the highway.”
While rock doves, aka pigeons, egrets, and grackles looked for their dinner among the spartina of the marsh, she wondered why the sea wall had to wait for an expensive reconstruction. “Isn’t this the kind of project that Job Corps could take on?
“Maybe kids from Q Terrace can invest in their own front yard, and learn some masonry skills in the process? So what if it doesn’t last forever. Get some results, and fast. That’s what we need here, to start.”
“Don’t worry,” said Ozyck, “the city was here in the person of Doreen. They heard the safety concerns. They’ll be here at the next tenants residence council meeting in August.”
Stay tuned.
Last nights meeting was a great start to a new 'friends' group at Dover Beach. I was most impressed with the residents of Q Terrace who came out to have their voices heard and their issues addressed. Having said that, I was also a little alarmed by the 600K price tag for the sea wall. While something must be done about the crumbling infrastructure, I think a gabion system of caged rip rap stone as described in Lauren Ducharme's "Rediscovering the Connections to the Quinnipiac" would be much more inexpensive and fit better within the context of this estuary. The gabion can be planted as well and offers a more natural buffer to the ever changing river. Lauren's publication (see article on Lewis St. Park) is chock full of amazing ideas for this and other parks in the greater Front Street Neighborhood. The City should take note and save themselves some serious money in an economy that demads so. Hats off to Pat Bissell for getting the ball rolling for this new friends group.