Tear Down Fence? Idea Shelved

A raucous meeting of suburban neighbors of New Haven’s rebuilt Brookside projects had barely begun when a man rose and angrily asked Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson how many times his house had been broken into.

It ended with New Haven Mayor John DeStefano taking a long sought proposal — to remove the Berlin Wall-like fence that has the isolated West Rock neighborhood from Hamden for decades — off the table.

DeStefano did that because of the overwhelming public outrcy from irate neighbors just over the town border over fears of an increase in crime, traffic, and taxes.

That was the outcome of a two-and-a-half hour meeting Wednesday night at the Keefe Center about New Haven’s desire to eliminate the fence as it ramps up the new community it is building in the former Brookside, Rockview, and soon-to-be-former Ribicoff Cottages.

New Haven Hamden leaders had worked together on a proposal to remove the controversial fence, which blocks access for public-housing tenants in New Haven’s West Rock neighborhood from jobs and stores across the border.

But Tuesday night’s overwhelming outpouring of anger appears to have killed the proposal.

“I don’t want to force this on this neighborhood,” DeStefano said. ​“I don’t want a fight between Hamden and New Haven. Hamden and New Haven have been neighbors for hundreds of years. At the end of the day we’re important to each other. We have far more in common than not,” DeStefano said.

Instead, he proposed a committee of 20 people from the neighboring communities meet, get to know each other, and address problems. ​“Over the next year, let’s deal with each other with a fence there. Let’s be the best neighbors we can be.”

DeStefano’s proposal was met with loud applause, a contrast to the interrupting and skeptical outbursts that accompanied explanations offered by the Housing Authority of New Haven about the negligible traffic impact of proposed new roads from Brookside onto Woodin Street, among other plans discussed.

Click here to read a previous story about the resentments and hardships caused by the fence in the view of tenants of the Brookside project, and their threat of a civil rights law suit to remove it; and here for a story on the objections raised by Hamden officials during a recent tour of the renovated Brookside community.

The public opposition from the Hamden side was unrelenting and passionate throughout the evening. The targets in particular were fear of increased crime and overburdening already beleaguered, winding, and dangerous Woodin Street with new roads and traffic.

“You put a street through, you’re jeopardizing the life of everyone in this room,” declared Scott Nicoll (pictured), who lives on Woodin.

Michelle Ortiz lives on Westside Drive, one of several tiny streets that abut Woodin. She said she’s had three car break-ins within the last six months. ​“It’s going to get worse without a fence. What will they do next? Go inside my house? Keep it in New Haven!” she said.

“I’m sleeping with a gun at night and two baseball bats ​‘cause of the garbage that walks up the hill on Woodin and go into the development,” said Marilyn Hutsell, an 18-year resident of Woodin Street.

Her husband Mike was the audience member who had challenged Mayor Jackson about break-ins. He, like Jackson, like most Brookside tenants, is black. ​“It’s not about race, it’s about crime,” he said.

After the meeting, DeStefano said that his decision to drop the fence-removal plan emerged spontaneously from what he witnessed in the room. ​“You’re dealing with people who are hearing about this for the first time. You’re dealing with people who think fences make them safe. My saying that [they don’t] doesn’t make it so for them,” he said.

Even after his declaration in effect put the kibosh on the fence removal for now, he had to reassure dozens of Hamdenites who remained that New Haven would take no legal action against Hamden on the matter.

“Over time I trust we’ll deal with the legitimate issues,” he said.