Tour Brings Berlin Wall Tensions To Fore

Hamden neighbors drove the long way around a contentious border fence to arrive at New Haven’s rebuilt Brookside housing complex —to clamor for the fence to stay up.

The occasion Monday afternoon was a blunt, on-site face-to-face between New Haven public-housing people and Hamden neighbors who spend their days mere steps — yet worlds — away from each other.

The subject: the fence that divides their borders, offering Hamdenites on one side the perception of safety, New Haveners on the other side a feeling of having their lives blocked out by a local version of the Berlin Wall.

About three dozen Hamdenites showed for the meeting at 295 Wilmot Rd., a community building that’s part of the New Haven housing authority-run Brookside, which is nearing the completion of a massive redevelopment.

As the colorful rebuilding of the housing development nears completion, the authority invited Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson, Hamden City Council members, and neighbors to tour the progress and talk about the plans for the area.

Of particular importance to the Hamdeners was the fate of the decades-old fence that separates their town from New Haven. The reinforced chain link fence — built by Hamden — has for years divided the town from Brookside and the housing authority’s other projects nearby, Rockview and Ribicoff Cottages.

One New Haven participant accused the Hamdenites of being stuck in ​“the mentality of yesteryear” and making New Haveners like her feel like ​“rodents.

A Hamden neighbor, meanwhile, accused New Haven of shoveling ​“dirt” at the crowd and trying to ​“change our community.”

The fence, which closed off Wilmot Road, has meant isolation and inconvenience for people living in the housing projects. They have had to sometimes travel miles out of their way using public transportation to reach Hamden grocery stores or workplaces that would otherwise be easily accessible. New Haveners have begun talking about suing Hamden if it won’t remove the fence.

For some neighbors on the Hamden side of the fence, the barrier has meant protection from the threat of crime coming from over the border.

Monday’s meeting turned out to be a heated and contentious affair, as some of those Hamdeners spoke out strongly against taking down the fence. They cited concerns about crime and increased traffic.

Jimmy MIller, deputy director of New Haven’s housing authority, told them the authority would eventually like to remove the fence at three points, to connect the housing projects with Hamden.

The plan for two of those points, near the Ribicoff Cottages, is years away, part of a future redevelopment of that housing complex.

First, however, the authority would like to take down the fence at Wilmot Road, connecting it to Hamden’s Woodin Road as part of the completion of the Brookside redevelopment.

Doing that would require approvals from Hamden’s zoning board, traffic commission, and legislative council, said Mayor Jackson. He declined to say whether he thinks the fence should come down.

Hamden Police Chief Thomas Wydra was less circumspect about voicing his opinion on the fence: ​“I’ve always hated it,” he declared. He said unequivocally that he thinks it’s time to remove the wall.

Chief: Tear Down That Wall

“My hope is that we can connect these neighborhoods,” Wydra (pictured touring Brookside) said as people filtered in to a meeting room for the 4:30 p.m. convening. ​“Tall fences and walls are a symbol of what is wrong.”

The fence never reduced crime, Wydra said. He recalled working on Hamden’s narc squad in the ​‘90s and doing undercover drug buys near the fence from people who came through the fence into Hamden. ​“Did the fence eliminate that crime? No,” he said. The wall didn’t stop crooks from coming into town, he said; it only made it easier for them to hide and ​“conceal their movements” from the cops.

Mayor Jackson arrived, tieless and wearing a Spider-Man watch. Although he declined to state officially his position on the fence, his comments indicated that he’s not a huge fan of it.

Historically, the housing projects — with the fence — represented ​“maybe the best example of the effect of the concentration of poverty,” Jackson said. ​“One way in, one way out, and two big bad developments locked in there.” 

“What the housing authority is attempting to do here is to demonstrate to the people of Hamden that the page has turned,” Jackson said. ​“I’m here to listen.”

As he walked out to waiting vans to take a tour of the new Brookside, Mike Colaiacovo Sr., who lives on Woodin Road, sought proof that the housing projects are not going to be a source of robberies, break-ins, and kids throwing bottles, as they have been in the past, he said. ​“Show us first.”

“I Still Want Some Separation”

Housing authority staff showed the Hamdeners the brightly painted new houses in the new Brookside.

“What is this? You’re selling real estate to us?” grumbled a woman in a polka-dot dress as the tour entered a new home.

“Yes, this is for sale,” announced Miller, hoisting himself up onto a new stone counter top. He said the housing authority made sure that the homes abutting Hamden are all ​“homeownership units” rather than low-income rentals.

Years ago, the fence was broken and ​“we had nothing but trouble,” said a Hamden man who declined to give his name. He said ​“kids” would come over to his neighborhood and break into people’s houses. ​“It a constantly a gun battle over here.”

“Anywhere you have low-income housing, you have more crime,” said Robert Parson, who lives in Hamden and works at Yale-New Haven Hospital. When the fence went up, all the crime stopped, he said.

Outside on the sidewalk, Peter Wood, vice-president for the Michaels Organization, which will own and manage the new projects, sought to convince Parson that the new developments will be different. They won’t concentrate poor people, he said. It will be a mixed-income neighborhood with homeowners who have a stake in the safety and upkeep of their property, he said. Even in the rentals, the architecture is designed to create a sense of ownership, with individual patios and porches, he said.

“It’s not barracks-style housing anymore,” Wood said.

Wood wasn’t convinced. He said he used to live in New Haven and moved to Hamden to have some ​“peace.”

“I still want some separation,” he said.

“You Can’t Ban People”

Back at 295 Wilmot Rd, attendees tucked into ziti and chicken parmesan as a discussion got under way.

Taking down the fence is ​“something we don’t intend to force down anyone’s throat,” housing authority Director Karen DuBois-Walton said. All the proposed new connections to Hamden would have to be approved by the town, she said.

Only the first — Wilmot Road — is being proposed right now, Miller said. But eventually the authority would like to put three in, he said. That prompted a ripple of murmurs.

Miller said the new tenants at Brookside will all be subject to ​“very rigorous and thorough” criminal background checks.

The whole make-up of the community will be different, said DuBois-Walton. ​“What used to be here was all public housing,” she said. ​“It was the poorest of the poor who were living here.” The new development will be a mixed-income community with people who get up and go to work everyday, she said.

The meeting proceeded in fits and starts, featuring frequent interruptions and outbursts of objection.

A Hamden woman named Janet Mills interrupted New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman as he was speaking about his experience overseeing policing in Brookside and Rockview 20 years ago.

“Isolate. One way in. One way out. And good luck,” he said, describing the projects back then. ​“It was an American failure.”

“People need to be living amongst one another,” Esserman said. ​“You can’t ban people.”

That’s when Mills interrupted, objecting that Hamdeners are not looking to ban people. ​“You want to change the way our community is,” she said. ​“Don’t bring up that other stuff. That’s dirt, I don’t want to hear it. … Don’t make it seem like there’s an animosity.”

“My experience is that I don’t like isolation,” Esserman said. Both sides could benefit from removal of the fence, he said. ​“I know that what was here didn’t work. This is a much more thoughtful project with ingredients for real success.”

The housing authority has seen a ​“dramatic” difference in crime after redeveloping other projects in town, DuBois-Walton said.

Traffic Trouble?

A number of people brought up concerns about traffic, including Jack Kennelly, Hamden’s previous chief of police. He predicted the completed housing project would generate daily traffic of between 600 and 800 cars.

Miller (pictured) said an independent traffic study found that only about 12 percent of residents are likely to have cars.

“Gimme a break,” Kennelly muttered.

“No one can ever predict the future,” Mills said.

Dave, a Hamdener who declined to give his last name, said traffic on Woodin Street is already a problem, with a steep hill that ​“cars come down sideways” in the winter.” He objected to a sidewalk the housing authority planned to put in there.

“We thought that was an amenity people might like,” DuBois-Walton said.

Mike Montefusco said he wasn’t buying the independent traffic study. If so few people are going to have cars, why do they need three more roads? he asked.

And if there’s not going to be a problem with crime, why do we need the buffer of homeowner units between the projects and Hamden? he asked. ​“There’s only so many times you can contradict yourself before I stop listening” he said.

Gilligan’s Island

The meeting closed with plans to hold another, in Hamden on Aug. 29.

Colaiacovo said he was still unconvinced that the fence should come down: ​“If it doesn’t work, we’re screwed. We can never go back. All these guys’ll be gone in five years. When the shit hits the fan we’ll still be here.”

“The people of Hamden need to understand the importance of the fence being taken down, said Honda Smith, a New Havener who sits on the West Rock Implementation Committee, a group of neighbors who have helped shape the redevelopment plans. ​“We’re living on Gilligan’s Island here” — isolated with no way out.

A senior citizen in the projects who needs to get her medicine has to take an all-day field trip by bus when there’s a Walgreen’s nearby in Hamden and inaccessible, she said.

The Hamden neighbors are stuck in ​“the mentality of yesteryear,” she said. ​“They want to live that suburban life. They think people over here are rodents. That’s how they made me feel. Like a rodent.”