Evergreens for Walgreens, Godot for Winthrop & Whalley

The news from the latest ​“WEB” (Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills) management team meeting: The new ​“cookie-cutter” Walgreens will at least have some older trees around it. No prospective buyer’s in sight for the lot at Whalley and Winthrop. And crime has dropped.

Even though the violence has settled down and new beat cops are in the pipeline, Sgt. Stephen Shea (pictured in his civvies) still had some sober news to deliver at the 25 people gathered over cookies and donuts at the group’s year-end meeting Tuesday night.

“Basically it’s been a tough year, ​“he confided, ​“and we’re all concerned, citywide, about the increase in robberies and burglaries. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m pleased the new recruits are in the pipeline.”

But, honestly,” he added wryly, ​“sometimes I feel like it’s the Iraqi Army here: When are they going to be fully trained and ready? I mean they’re far from being on board yet.”

Sgt. Shea sreported a decline in crime in the Elm-Whalley corridor, due to greater police presence already, with under ten burglaries and ten robberies and two gunshots fired by mid-month.

One of the most promising aspects of community policing, as practiced by the WEB group, is the regular infusion of new citizen participants. Latoya Myers (bottom right in the photo above) and Madeleine Torres-Baird work for New Haven Home Recovery (NHHR), a Hill area non-profit that helps low-income people obtain and maintain housing. They were at their first management meeting.

“We came,” said Torres-Baird, ​“because NHHR recently acquired some properties in the area that we may use for permanent or transitional housing. We came to find out what’s going on in the community.”

Karyn Gilvarg, executive director of the City Plan Department, had some news for them. The special guest for the evening at the management team, she reported that the site plan review for the proposed rebuilt Walgreen’s store at Whalley and Boulevard had received a conditional approval by City Plan Commission. But nine conditions, advocated by residents at previous meetings, had successfully been incorporated into the plan.

“It’s going to be one of their cookie-cutter stores,” Gilvarg explained, ​“but the conditions of BZA approval will have some features to mitigate that look.” These included that existing and mature trees on the site will remain; there will be no moving signs; there will be some solid fencing, and a line of evergreens along the border, as well as plantings in the parking lot, and plantings around the pylon signs for the store.

Beaver Hills Alderman Mordechai Sandman asked whether there were going to be roll-down security gates. Gilvarg responded that these were not permitted by law, although the hours of operation, also a condition of approval, would be long, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week.

Regulars at the meeting, such as Nan Bartow and Edward Hollingsworth, expressed concern that the plantings be maintained and not grow wild and cover up the lighting on the site, which would be a detriment to security. In particular, Hollingsworth wanted reassurance that the Walgreen’s sign would not be of the LED (light emitting diode) variety, which dominates the intersection of Ella Grasso Boulevard and Whalley. That kind of lighting moves and flashes, is unsightly, and is dangerous to drivers.
​“Strobes are not permitted,” Gilvarg answered, ​“but the big pylon signs such as Walgreen’s is proposing are. If you want that changed, you’ve got to talk to your elected representatives and amend the zoning ordinances.”

Sheila Masterson, of the Whalley Avenue Special Services District, a business improvement group, described an ​“urban nightmare” at the lot where a building was razed at Whalley and Winthrop, that all too often plays out all along the avenue, resulting in many empty lots and burned out buildings. At one point a Wendy’s was considered for the lot, but it never came. Other potential buyers have passed on the lot. ​“There’s a lot of greed at play,” she said, ​“between the asking price of the landlord and what a national franchise is willing to offer. To make that site substantial for a franchise,” she explained, ​“a national franchise also would have to purchase two more houses on Winthrop in order to get enough area for parking. That ups the price substantially. So what do you do?”

Keep working, was the answer. Gilvarg extended the hand of City Plan to work with any interested developer .

Alderman Sandman reported that a 1,200-car garage that Southern Connecticut State University had proposed for Crescent Street will not be built there, or anywhere, in New Haven. ​“We won that one,” Sandman said.” Apparently, it’s now going to be Hamden’s problem.

Oh, and the most important information that participants were eager for the attending press to convey is that spots are available next year in the WEB management team’s Reading Club, which convenes every Saturday, beginning Jan. 6, at the substation, between two and four in the afternoon. It’s for readers, six to fourteen years of age. If you’re interested, contact Sgt. Shea at 946‑7065 or Sheila Masterson at 776‑5455.