He Can Go Home Again

As officials broke ground on rebuilding the West Rock projects, Edward Salmond reflected on the close-knit past there — and his future return to a remade neighborhood.

Work is now beginning on rebuilding the housing projects where Salmond spent his younger years.

To outsiders, the old projects, now torn down, represented public-housing failure; the new effort represents a new approach.

To former tenants looking forward to returning, the old projects were home — a model for community they hope returns.

The 18-year-old Salmond (center-right in photo) was one of dozens of people who showed up Friday for a groundbreaking on West Rock’s Brookside Avenue. The event celebrated the commencement of work on the Brookside Housing Development, a reconstruction of the former housing project that once stood in the same location. That development — along with the nearby Rockview development — was torn down years ago.

The former barracks-style projects are to be replaced with colorful new-urbanism-style buildings. Together the new Rockview and Brookside developments will comprise nearly 400 new rental units and nearly 60 home ownership units. The multi-million dollar project will take several years to complete.

Friday’s event marked the start of the first part of the first of several phases of construction. Workers are beginning to create the roads and infrastructure necessary for the new Brookside development.

At 11 a.m. on Friday, over 60 people crowded into a white tent on the construction site, trying to get out of the piercing winter wind. A pile of ceremonial dirt lay in the center of the tent.

Salmond stood to the right of the podium as city officials and neighbors spoke about the importance of the project. Among the speakers were State Sen. Toni Harp, State Rep. Toni Walker, West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson, and federal and state officials.

The project is of personal importance to Salmond, who lived in Rockview as a young boy. He hopes to return to live in the rebuilt projects when they are complete in a few years.

Salmond listened as speakers underscored the importance of local involvement in the reconstruction process. He put his hands on his aunt Shirley Banks’ (at right in photo) shoulder as she was recognized for her work as the co-chair of the West Rock Implementation Committee. That board, which comprises former and returning residents of Rockview and Brookside, has served as an advisory group, looking at plans and assuring that residents, locals, and minorities are hired to construction jobs on the project.

Salmond listened also as speaker after speaker recognized how long the reconstruction project has been in the works. ​“It has been a long time coming,” said Karen DuBois-Walton (center-left in top photo), head of the New Haven housing authority. ​“After all these years we are moving forward.”

Banks later said that she has been working on the reconstruction effort since 1990, when the old projects had not yet even come down.

DuBois-Walton told the crowd that the first phase of construction includes the creation of a number of new streets, some named in honor of residents. That includes Shirley Way, named for Salmond’s Aunt Banks.

After the ceremonial dirt was tossed, Banks said she was feeling ​“wonderful!” She said she looks forward to moving back into the development. She lived in the West Rock projects for years and was relocated along with many others when the buildings were torn down. Everyone she knows who lived there is planning to return once the homes are rebuilt, she said.

That includes her nephew, Salmand.

“I was born in Rockview,” he said. He lived there until he was 4 years old and then regularly visited family in Brookside and Rockview, until they were torn down.

Now he’s planning to move back. ​“I’m hoping I can get my own apartment,” he said.

Salmond said his family was all together when they lived in the West Rock projects. ​“The old community was families on top of families on top of families,” he said. When they had to move out, his family became scattered, Salmond said.

Salmond said he wants to return to the close-knit community living that he knew in Brookside and Rockview. ​“There was always kids outside,” he said. ​“Everyone was so close in the community. That’s the feeling I want to go back to.”

Salmond, an aspiring gospel singer, is working on finishing his high school degree.

Peter Wood (at left in top photo), vice president at Michael’s Development Corporation, said the construction of roads and infrastructure will take 10 months to complete. Building construction on the first phase of Brookside will begin the spring and the first 101 rental units will be ready by the fall of 2011. There will be two phases of rental construction at Brookside, plus 20 homeowner units. There will be three phases of rental construction at Rockview, plus 38 homeowner units. All of those construction phases will overlap in the years to come, Wood said. So there are many more groundbreaking ceremonies to look forward to.