nothin Harp Bullish On New DOT Chief | New Haven Independent

Harp Bullish On New DOT Chief

Paul Bass Photo

Rush hour on bus formerly known as the B, now the 243.

New Haven Mayor Toni Harp pitched better bus and air service to Connecticut’s new transportation chief — and came away optimistic.

Harp met with the Department of Transportation (DOT) commissioner, Joseph Giulietti, in Newington this past Friday.

He wants to work with us,” Harp reported during her latest appearance on WNHH FM’s Mayor Monday” program. He’s very interested in being the commissioner of all transportation, not just the train. He recognizes more than many that economic development and transportation go hand in hand.”

Giulietti previously served as president of Metro-North Railroad. The DOT operates the bus system through CT Transit.

If Giulietti does work with the city on bus service, that would be an improvement: Transit advocates spent the past eight years pleading for better bus service, then watching promises ignored while the state spent a million dollars on a study finally concluding that the system in New Haven is indeed broken in all the ways New Haven has been saying for years.

Harp said she hopes the state now takes the conclusions from that study, called Move New Haven,” and puts recommendations for updated routes and schedules, among other changes, into practice. He’s very interested in moving forward.”

He does get buses,” Harp said of Giulietti. I think he’s going to do something.”

She said she also pitched Giulietti on the city’s plan to develop Long Wharf, including protecting the train yard from future flooding; and on the city’s quest for a lengthened paved runway at Tweed-New Haven Airport and for better train and bus connections to Tweed.

Harp noted that Giulietti grew up in New Haven’s City Point neighborhood. He’s got relatives who still live over there,” she said. He knows the city well.”

Their discussion included the governor’s plan to institute electronic tolls on highways. Harp said she and the commissioner were on the same page in supporting it.

People Hug In New Haven”

Also on Mayor Monday,” Harp:

• Sided with the New Haven Preservation Trust and a developer in supporting plans to demolish 95 and 97 Howe St. to make way for 30 new apartments. (Click here to read a story about some preservationists’ objections.) The Preservation Trust is usually pretty conservative,” Harp noted.

• Questioned a proposed set of new design restrictions on a house Yale architecture students plan to build in the Hill for Columbus House. (Click here to read a story on that.) Some neighbors raised concerns that the annual houses built in low-income neighborhood clash with historic architecture. Harp, a Yale School of Architecture graduate, argued that there’s a place for new architectural ideas in housing built in neighborhoods as long as the designs fit in with the scale. Some of these buildings that look a little bit different add spice to a neighborhood” and can incorporate new ideas, she argued.

• Argued that Joe Biden should go ahead and enter the Democratic presidential primary campaign despite accusations of unwanted touching.

I think it’s cultural. Some people are huggers. Some places they do a lot more hugging. Some people have said to me who have come from elsewhere, they have to get used to the hugging in New Haven,” Harp said.

I think he should still run. For crying out loud: Look what they’ve allowed to have happen with Mr. Trump! Why does he get a pass on this when he said horrible things about women?

People hug here in New Haven. This didn’t come up when he was vice-president; interesting…”


Click on the video below to watch the full episode of Mayor Monday” on WNHH FM:

WNHH’s Mayor Monday” is made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.

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