Melissa Bailey Photo
Standing before the backdrop of a fuel-cell-powered downtown tower, mayoral candidate Toni Harp vowed to continue the city’s emerging green transportation agenda — and vowed to make Long Wharf the next frontier.
Democrat Harp, who’s running for mayor against petitioning candidate Justin Elicker in Tuesday’s general election, made the remarks at a press conference at 360 State, downtown’s new green apartment tower.
Harp held a press conference on the 6th floor to announce a “green economy position paper.” Click here to read it.
Harp called for improving public transit by converting bus stops into “more substantial structures” with LED screens advertising upcoming arrivals and schedule changes.
“These changes will increase ridership, help tourists to get around the city more easily, and increase street activity for local business owners and restaurateurs,” she wrote.
She called for continuing work already done by the city transportation department, such as creating “bike corrals” for bicycle parking and adding bike lanes. She also called for creating a bike-share program to the city.
With those remarks, Harp claimed turf that Elicker has staked out since early in the campaign. Elicker, an environmental consultant, has promoted bicycle- and pedestrian- friendly initiatives. Her proposal included some ideas that Elicker has been talking about on the campaign trail, such as integrating the Yale shuttle and public bus system and encouraging local colleges and universities to offer students public bus passes. Harp, too, has promoted environmental causes during her career; she first ran for alderman in 1987 on both the Democratic and Green Party lines.
Harp was asked Thursday if she would keep the architect of many pedestrian- and bike- friendly initiatives, city transit chief Jim Travers, in her administration. (Travers has been on a tear recently introducing new ideas around town—click here and scroll down for a list of examples.)
Harp said she has not decided which department heads she would keep. She said she would evaluate Travers’ work.
“If he’s doing a good job, I would certainly consider keeping him,” she said.
Reached later Thursday, Elicker declined comment on which mayoral appointees he would keep, beyond reappointing Police Chief Dean Esserman and schools Superintendent Garth Harries. But he lauded Travers’ work: “Jim has been an incredible asset to this city because he has embraced the idea that his transit system is more than just about automobiles, but to improve bicycle and public transit system too.”
At her 360 State event, Harp also called for creating a “green revolving loan fund,” initially funded by outside donations, “to finance energy savings investments in public works and buildings.”
She called for more job training programs sending people into jobs in the green economy.
And she pitched Long Wharf as the next green frontier.
Long Wharf, the industrial stretch along the New Haven Harbor, “is our greatest underutilized asset,” Harp said. She envisioned transforming it into the next Chelsea Piers in New York City, with a mix of apartments, retail, office, hotels, and outdoor space, connected by port and ferry. She said the mixed-use development would become a “statewide model” for renewable energy and “energy-efficient technologies.”
She cited 360 State, which is powered in part by a fuel cell and includes other environmentally-friendly features, as “emblematic of the type of green [development] that we want to see.”
Harp was asked how she would execute the Long Wharf development, given that most of the land is privately owned. She cited the abandoned Gateway College campus, the New Haven Register building, and the U.S. post office as potential development sites.
Elicker has floated several green-themed ideas among his 75 solutions on his campaign website, including a new centralized downtown transit hub for shuttles and buses—click here to read more of his ideas.
A "green policy" position paper just days before the election? Really?