Thomas Breen Photo
The State-Ferry intersection where plans have divided Cedar Hill.
Mayor Toni Harp took a stand on who most represents and speaks for a neighborhood: People who sleep in the neighborhood do, she said.
Her administration faced the question of how to define the voice of a neighborhood this past week when two distinct groups from Cedar Hill pressed the city to take two opposite positions on a controversy: Whether to allow the owner of the gas station at State and Ferry streets to operate a new 24-hour convenience store there.
PMG Petroleum, the Virginia-based company that bought the gas station at the corner of Ferry Street and State Street last year for $1.55 million, proposed demolishing the station’s current take-out kiosk and building a new convenience store to be operated by a 7‑Eleven or a Circle K. The proposal also included adding more pumps.
Several people who live in Cedar Hill, a set of streets cut off from the rest of New Haven by East Rock and I‑91, showed up at a Board of Zoning Appeals meeting Oct. 9 to blast the idea. They complained that the overnight business would draw crime. The zoners sided with neighbors and denied PMG the right to stay open 24 hours a day if it adds the convenience store. PMG subsequently stated it will therefore probably not proceed with the planned expansion. (The current gas station does have permission to operate 24 hours a day without a convenience store.)
The zoning decision upset others in Cedar Hill: merchants. They blasted the decision at a meeting two days later with city officials about how to tackle blight and crime in the neighborhood. They argued that a 24-hour convenience store would help make the neighborhood more secure and improve the commercial strip.
During her most recent apperance on WNHH FM’s “Mayor Monday” program, Harp was asked how she figures out who truly represents a “neighborhood” when that happens.
“I think we’ve got to do what the people who live there want,” she responded.
Her economic development chief, Matthew Nemerson, said he was caught by surprise by the differing reactions. “We’re going to do some more canvassing” to get a sense of where “the neighborhood” truly stands. “We’re going to folow this down and see if we can get a compromise.”
Alder Festa: Agrees with Harp on which “neighbors” have most say.
After hearing both groups, the neighborhood’s alder, Anna Festa, said she will advocate the position taken by the neighbors, even though she understands the business owners’ perspective.
“They don’t live here. They don’t witness what is happening. At the end of the day they collect the checks and go home to wherever they live,” Festa said.
“We have to consider the safety of the residents. They’ve been made promises in the past that didn’t come to fruition. The residents are scarred. When you’re scarred, trust is earned. Now this person has to prove themselves to be a good neighbor.”
Festa said the new owner should “earn the trust” of neighbors over time, and then return with the expansion plan if he’d like.
Pedestrian Plazas?
Also on “Mayor Monday,” listener Helen Ward posted the following question on Facebook: “I just traveled to several cities here and in another country and was impressed by what closing a street to cars in the center of the city did so much for the life of the city. I think this would be a great addition to the street life in New Haven. Has this ever been considered and if so, where?”
Harp noted that the city did that on the Yale campus when it closed portions of High and Wall streets to automobile traffic.
Looking beyond that, Harp said “I think the real problem for us is: where will cars park? Because our streets are also places where people park. I don’t know besides those streets we would close off.”
The mayor suggested that closing off part of Court Street downtown might work. The head of the Downtown Wosoter Square Management Team, Caroline Smith, recently suggested closing off Orange between Elm and Crown from traffic, with cars being able to cross Orange at Chapel. (Click here to read a story about that.)
Listener Aaron Goode posting a question asking, “when will Mayor Harp announce her plans on whether or not she will run again in 2019?”
Soon, Harp responded. “Probably within the next month.”
Harp was reminded that when asked on a recent episode whether she plans to run next year for a fourth two-year term, she had responded, “Absolutely.”
“I haven’t changed my mind about that,” she said Monday. “I’m not ready to make a formal announcement.”
Click on the play arrow to watch the full episode of WNHH FM’s “Mayor Monday.”
This episode of “Mayor Monday” was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.
It's getting more and more impossible to traverse city streets in a car. Parts of Westville have multiple speed bumps on them so that you can't even drive 20 mph down those streets - whole neighborhoods. The bike nazis and City Hall are going to take over a perfectly good street on Edgewood and make it almost undriveable during peak times - parking spaces are being taken up with bike racks very few people use and outdoor seating (why anybody would want to sit in smog and exhaust) in parking spaces - and now somebody wants to close off Orange? There goes parking, access to parking lots, access to all sorts of office buildings, city hall, the feds - good lord.
As for the mayor running again - I'll count the days and the issues. She best run from them not on them. Her administration is a complete disaster.