nothin Will New Haven’s Berlin Wall Fall? | New Haven Independent

Will New Haven’s Berlin Wall Fall?

122209_TM_11.jpgHamden’s Campbell brothers were unmoved by the news that New Haven’s nearby housing projects are being rebuilt. They said the fence separating them from New Haven needs to remain, to keep the riff-raff” out.

Vincent and Herbert Campbell made their comments this week after New Haven’s Board of Aldermen signed off on a $173 million re-do of the Brookside and Rockview housing projects, in the West Rock neighborhood.

For years, the projects have been separated from Hamden by a tall, double-layer chain link fence. That fence has stood as a symbol of closed opportunity to project tenants: They have to take two buses, and sometimes travel hours, to get to jobs or shopping just past the fence across the town border.

With the reconstruction of Brookside and Rockview, officials said, plans are in the works to open up Wilmot Road, which has been fenced off at the town line for over a decade.

That is something we very much hope will happen,” said Karen DuBois-Walton, head of New Haven’s housing authority. Opening Wilmot Road would connect Brookside and Rockview to Hamden, and allow direct bus service.

DuBois-Walton said that a January meeting is planned with new Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson to discuss the matter. DuBois-Walton said the authority had an agreement with Jackson’s predecessor to open the road.

However, Jackson said he doesn’t see a reopening of the road as an immediate possibility. It would require significant reassurance of nervous Hamden residents, he said.

A later part of our plan would look to remove the rest of the fencing,” DuBois-Walton said. When the Ribicoff Apartments, another development by the fence, are redone in the future, the housing authority would like to remove the fence that separates that neighborhood from Hamden, she said. We’d love to have those two communities reconnected again.”

The Campbell brothers and several of their Hamden neighbors don’t like that idea.

I’d have a very serious problem with that,” said Julia Antoine. She’s lived on Thorpe Drive in Hamden for 16 years, directly across from a large gray fence separating Hamden from the Ribicoff Apartments.

The fence exists to protect Hamden residents from any criminal element that might wander over from the housing projects, said Antoine and her neighbors. A few years ago at Halloween, some kids” came over and stole from my van,” she said. Everything that was in my van was stolen.”

The people that are over there, they just rob,” Antoine said firmly. Why should we have a street going into Hamden? These people take the bus into New Haven.”

Such comments drew a sharp rebuke from West Rock Alderman-Elect Darnell Goldson. He called the fence a lawsuit waiting to happen.”

My question is: What right do they have to fence out a community? Can we put up a fence between us and East Haven? Where do they get the right to cut off a community from another community?” Goldson asked.

It just limits the ability of the people in that community to have free travel. I think it’s illegal. I think we should have a conversation with mayor of Hamden again and say, You can’t restrict the travel of Americans from one town to another.’”

Goldson also took issue with Hamden neighbors’ depiction of West Rockers as criminals.

Right now the people of West Rock are elderly. That’s all who are out there at this point,” Goldson noted. If someone can show me statistics that crime is happening in Hamden because of Brookside, maybe they have an argument for more police protection. To characterize a group of people based on conjecture and innuendo and rumors is unfair.”

122209_TM_05.jpgJames Lucas lives a few houses down from Antoie on Thorpe Drive. His side yard is separated from New Haven by a fence topped with barbed wire. Kids come every Halloween and climb over the fence to go trick or treating in Hamden,” he said. Once, a kid with a BB gun shot out car windows on Thorpe Street from behind the fence, he said. He shot mine out.”

Lucas added the barbed wire to his fence to keep people from cutting across his property. I had to secure my little home here.”

The fence helps deter drug trafficking, Lucas said. There are disabled people at the Ribicoff Apartments, and some of them are drug addicted, and connected to that is crime,” Lucas reasoned.

In the public housing nearby, people are struggling and some revert to crime,” he said. They’re in pain, so some of them cause pain.”

However, Lucas said that he would be open to tearing down the fence, as long as that helps the entire neighborhood,” which is trying to live in peace … We’re not trying to keep nobody out.”

If the new Brookside and Rockview create an environment that will encourage people to take more responsibility for themselves and their neighborhood, then it might be okay to take down the fence, Lucas said. He said he was happy to hear that some of the new homes will be ownership units, as that might increase a sense of responsibility.

122209_TM_0005.jpgVincent and Herbert Campbell (pictured), who were heading out for a doctor’s appointment, said the fence helps keep the neighborhood quiet.

It prevents all the riff-raff from coming around,” said Herbert. People come from New Haven to sell drugs, he claimed.

We had a lot of problems in the past,” said Vincent. You never know who’s going to come break into your house.”

At another Thorpe Drive home, a woman who didn’t want to be named said that the fence could come down if they can keep the unwanted people from dumping and looting.” She said that people from the housing projects regularly crawl under the fence and go grocery shopping in Hamden. Then they wheel grocery carts back and ditch them outside the fence or in a nearby stream.

Like her neighbor Lucas, the woman said she was pleased to see that there will be home-ownership units in the rebuilt developments. If people are just renting, there’s no respect,” she said.

Still, she said, if the fence were torn down it could be back to thievery and vandalism” on Thorpe Drive in a heartbeat.”

A Lot Of Effort Needed

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson said that a Hamden-West Rock reconnection is not imminent.

This is a very important issue to the neighborhood,” Jackson said. They remember the bad old days of Brookside and Rockview” when there was a lot of crime and bad behavior.”

It’s going to take a lot of effort to convince the neighborhood,” he said. There’s a huge trust debt that’s going to have to be negotiated.”

Jackson said that Hamden neighbors are going to have to see some evidence that the new Brookside and Rockview are a distinct break from the past before they will feel good about opening up the border. He said his constituents are telling him, You have to see more before you commit to it.”

Speaking for himself, Jackson said, I’m excited about the direction we’re going in. I think we can get there.”

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