Yale-New Haven Eyes
West Rock Outpost

We have to stop dumping money into housing projects that are a hive for crime. Two murders this week. Both in housing projects. Your "fence of separation" was the only thing that kept people in that area from having their homes routinely burglarized and cars stolen.

Why is the city handing out ANY tax abatements that won't expire quickly (5 years) and quickly generate tax income? Already tax paying citizens need tax relief.

Hey Robn...

Why don't you vote with your feet? I did and haven't looked back...lol.

I grew up in the Hamden section next to this area before the fence went up. Nothing good ever came from the housing projects. Crime was insane. The fence was and is a great idea. Ask anyone who lives in Hamden on or along Woodin street. They do not want another housing project next door. Turn the ara into a park or sell it to Southern so they can expand the campus. KEEP NEW HAVEN OUT OF HAMDEN!!!

EX-TOWNIE,

Thanks. I prefer to vote with my vote and in between to stay noisy.

I'm a little confused - is the development 433 units, 425 or 1,000? Where did the 1,000 number come from?

Paul Martin,
Those two murders occurred at McConaughy Terrace and Church Street South. McConaughy Terrace was built in 1948 based on the conventional design standards of the time. Early in the projects existence, it was fairly successful - most people workers, two parents in each household, and crime was low. As the job base eroded from underneath the feet of low-skill individuals by the second half of the 20th century, the out-dated design of the complex became a large problem for casual surveillance, sense of ownership, and other physical factors that made for an environment not resilient to crime. Even the good design of a neighborhood like Newhallville can't combat the effects of job scarcity for low-skill people.
Church Street South was designed by a leading architect of his day, Charles Moore, who was dean at the Yale architecture school. Although the project wasn't completed to the original design, it is a close realization of Moore's intention. What was initionally a captivating design that played with light and shadow and created different spaces of hard-scape and greenery became a deficient design for controlling gang activity by the 1980s. Until the 1992 FBI and State Law Enforcement intervention, the Jungle Boys drug gang basically ran the project at least partially because of the project's lack of street connectivity and sight lines.
The body of knowledge that informed the design of those two projects (and most others in New Haven) has been nearly entirely replaced with a new model that can be seen in the HUD Hope VI program as designed by the New Urbanism reform movement. These new design standards mandate income integration, traditional building typologies, and layouts that enable casual observance, sense of ownership and pride, and lower crime rates.
The new Quinnipiac Terrace, Eastview and Monterey Homes are an example of this new design criteria. Monterey Place, for example, replaced the Elm Haven projects, which had one of the highest per square mile crime rates in the northestern United States. Today, that area has one of the lowest crime rates in the city, thanks partially to the design.
Brookside and Rockview were designed on the old model of public housing development, and are being replaced by a design that is based on the new, Hope VI model and it will likely be one of the best examples of this in the country. Check out the architect's renderings for a sneak peak:
http://www.kbarch.com/on-the-boards/west-rock/

Ex Townie,
A lot of people have voted with their feet in the past and it just makes the problem much worse - it means less political opposition and civic life, less tax revenue, less street activity to discourage crime, and a whole slew of other issues. A weakened New Haven will mean a weakened county as well.

@ Paul Martin:

You are incorrect. The murder in West Rock did no occur in a housing project, McConaughy Terrace, but instead was across the street at a private home where he may or may not be living. The victim did not live in the project, and at this point we do not know where the shooter resides. Therefore, there is nothing to connect the project with the murder. In addition, most of the murders this year did not happen in low income housing projects, and if you look at crime stats, you will not see any spike in crime happening in any New Haven housing projects, so your theory that housing projects "are a hive for crime" does not hold water. But, if we were to take your theory further, and say that places were crimes/murders occur are hives for crime, then we would need to eliminate rental housing, where most of these crimes have occurred. But, of course, that would just be utterly foolish, wouldn't it? As a person who was raised in public housing, and now is a homeowner, I am personally insulted by your insinuation that these people are all criminals. The overwhelming majority are not. So let's just stop the generalizations, and have a real conversation about crime. This is the first murder in our community in nearly 10 years. Most of the recent murders in New Haven have occurred in areas that DO NOT have housing projects.

Paul, are you a renter or owner?

Thanks, Jonathan, for your continued patient explanation of the effects of community design on social conditions. I've never understood how the (for lack of a better word) ideology of design blinded architects and planners to the obvious problems arising from the layout and location of so many of New Haven's projects. "Garden apartments" in near-identical buildings -- not to mention high rises like the old Elm Haven -- with common entrance halls belonging to no one, and buildings scattered campus-wise with winding drives, in "green space" that no one is responsible for maintaining, and interrupted vistas, stack the deck against community safety and quality of life. The isolation of the projects way out on the edge of town -- let's charitably assume it was for the sake of cleaner air and to avoid "overcrowding," that bugaboo of the early "slum clearance" days, and not a way of stashing the poor out of sight and out of mind -- means there is nowhere to go and nothing to do unless you have a car. Whoever you are -- a mother needing to get to work and appointments and run errands, a kid or teenager in search of some fun -- the isolation is a major problem and adds stress to an already stressed life. West Rock needs so much: stores, workplaces, recreation, a clinic, you name it. I'm so glad steps are being taken, finally, to create a livable neighborhood instead of a barracks for the marginalized.

And here for a story on the groundbreaking for construction of the first phase of the West Rock Redevelopment plan. It includes the razing and rebuilding of the former projects at Brookside and Rockview to create 425 new housing units, rental and homeownership.

The abatements for the 47 apartments will mean the landlord, that is, the housing authority, will pay only $250 per year for each of them in taxes. That abatement will be in effect for longer than he'll be alive, Miller joked. That is 39 years. These conditions are fairly standard, Miller said.


Snake oil being sold. How will the keep Affordable Rents.

Gretchen,
Excellent post.
It sounds like you're familiar with Oscar Newman's work, which is still probably the pre-eminent work on the subject of modernism failing to meet the design needs of low-income individuals.
Public housing in the US took the forms of barracks, garden style apartments and high rises because those were the modern building typologies of the era that were developed as a result on new technology, new materials and a desire to avoid the issues of over-crowded urban environment, as you mentioned. The FHA required an unprecedented scale of housing development for low-income households that could not have been met by conventional private development techniques, so new typologies were required to achieve the "needed" density with avoiding the unsanitary conditions and crowded feeling of urban blocks.
Designers, politicians and agents honestly thought they were doing good things for poor people by creating the FHA, dumping large amounts of capital into these housing developments, and imploring experimental and innovative designs.
The new West Rock developments are certainly a step in the right direction and hopefully this will result in Hamden opening the border and getting involved with the communities and helping to ensure the continued success of the area. If a middle class population can be accessed through the wall being removed and roads opened, we could see a large commercial development take place in West Rock. Job Corps is there, schools are there, a mix of housing will be there, natural green space is amble, formal green space is planned, health services will be there, some retail will be there, and it really has the chance to be quite the successful development.

Excuse me! Tax abatement? When are we going to stop this craziness of giving up revenues. We can't afford this. We need money now, not 5 years down the road. ...

3/5s,
The redevelopment is public housing, it's rent controlled. Except for a few market rate units, I think most residents will be paying 1/3 of their income as all public housing tenants do.

I haven't read Oscar Newman, but I'm familiar with Jane Jacobs ... and, you know, all it takes to see the basic unlivability of the projects' design is just to imagine living there, even if one had more resources than most of the actual residents. It's not rocket science.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on April 22, 2011 5:50am
3/5s,
The redevelopment is public housing, it's rent controlled. Except for a few market rate units, I think most residents will be paying 1/3 of their income as all public housing tenants do.

Sorry this state has what is call rent control preemption meaning No rent control.Here is the list with the states that have rent control.


http://www.nmhc.org/Content/ServeContent.cfm?IssueID=66&ContentItemID=1162

This state has what is called fair rents.

How Does Fair Rent Differ From "Rent Control?"
"Rent control" which sets maximum rents that may be charged for apartments and rooms does not exist in Connecticut. However, Fair Rent Commissions may be authorized to adjust tenant rents on a case-by-case basis in response to "excessive rent complaints." Fair Rent Commissions cannot set rent levels for vacant apartments, apartments in public housing complexes, or apartments occupied by tenants who have not filed complaints.

http://www.ci.stamford.ct.us/content/25/52/140/214/364/402/437/46175.aspx

It wont change my fear of this terribly dangerous area.

Darnell said: "The murder in West Rock did no occur in a housing project, McConaughy Terrace, but instead was across the street at a private home where he may or may not be living."

Oh.. it "did no occur" in the housing project?

Darnell i think is trying to say the house where the murder occurred was across the street from the projects. How does this argue for the fence being taken down?

This should explain exactly how the violence and mayhem centered around the projects can affect homes not located within the projects. A real home across the street from the projects was affected by crime and should sum up the feelings of the concerned citizens. I doubt most citizens are concerned about what goes on inside the projects. If the full depravity and violent tendencies festering in this area were taken into account the fence would be extended or heightened. I for one will be more terrified to approach the brookside projects if any steps will be taken to re-integrate that mess into the beautiful area surrounding it.

DJNB,
How do you know details about the involved parties of the murder investigation if that information has not been made available to the public? Do you have inside knowledge of the suspects or are you just blabbering prejudiced nonsense informed by little more than false assumptions?
The reason Brookside and Rockview were demolished was because of the poor design of the developments that resulted in segregated poor housing that was difficult to police and gain access to employment and services. The entire point of rebuilding it is to avoid those problems with a new design that integrates incomes with market rate housing and subsidized housing, adds commercial space to the area and connects to the shopping and job center in Hamden Plaza. Success is not guaranteed, but it certainly won't help to have Hamden cut-off public streets and force residents to take multiple buses just to get to places just a few blocks away. If the residents of Pine Rock got involved in the development, rather than turning their backs, the development could be very successful and create a demand for further private development in the area that serves both communities well.
If you'd like to get a feeling for what the new Brookside and Rockview will be like, I suggest taking a look at Quinnipiac Terrace over in Fair Haven - check out the park, look at the community center, and talk with some of the residents. McConaughy Terrace was built in 1948, it is precisely the type of design that guided the HUD reform movement that resulted in HOPE VI and the re-writing of development standards for public housing.
Brookside and Rockview also have an advantage that Quinnipiac Terrace and Monterey Homes - two Hope VI projects in New Haven - don't have, which is proximity to a sizeable, stable middle class neighborhood. Both Dixwell and Fair Haven have large low-income populations, high unemployment rates and high crime rates, while Pine Rock does not suffer from these problems.
For instance, Upper State Street in the 1980s in East Rock was a run-down street with boarded-up buildings, drug dealing, and prostitution. Fortunately, the rest of the East Rock neighborhood was fairly affluent, which created demand for private investment in the street with groceries, restaurants and shops. The same opportunity exists for Pine Rock and West Rock, if Hamden decides to grow up and get involved. East Rock could have decided to focus on Orange Street and turn their backs to State Street and allow it to degrade, but they saw the opportunity that existed and turned it into one of the most sought after retail spaces and restaurant destinations in the Greater New Haven.
So far Hamden has taken the shameful route of avoidance, rejection and denial, which will be seen as an embarrassment in the eyes of history. I hope this changes and that Hamden gets involved so that West Rock can actually raise surrounding property values and increase access to goods, services and recreation for both communities.

@DJNB:

Nothing at this juncture points to any involvement of the housing projects in this murder. NOTHING! Do you know something we do not know?

You state "A real home across the street from the projects was affected by crime and should sum up the feelings of the concerned citizens." What evidence do you have to back up your statement? What about all of the other murders in and around New Haven that did not occur in or near housing projects? The biggest question is why am I even engaging you in conversation with you?

A wise person once told me that if you walked upon a genius and idiot arguing in the street, would you be able to tell who was the idiot?

I'm out.