Lisa Reisman Photo
Zoom? What’s Zoom?: Sunday’s gathering.
A neighbor’s raucous late night parties. Speed bumps. How to close down parts of State Street for a spring festival.
For a time, the first in-person monthly gathering of the East Rock Community Management Team (CMT) since the pandemic started, seemed, well, a return to normal.
The meeting took place Sunday at East Rock Market on Nicoll Street, the first time members have conducted monthly business face to face rather than online since early 2020.
Stefan Santiago-Chambers shared his plan for the tentatively named East Rock Spring Festival as a way to introduce residents to businesses on State Street. Meanwhile, a group of three East Rockers wandered into the cavernous interior of East Rock Market, looking for familiar faces in an unfamiliar venue.
“This is just a chance to get together after so many months, to meet the team, and also an opportunity to check out a new local business in our neighborhood,” CMT chair Elena Grewal told them.
“Who’s Rick?” CMT member Sheila Jennett asked, of Rick’s Cafe, the full-service bar that is one part of the Nicoll Street food hall, which opened in mid-October. “Is he from East Rock?”
CMT Vice Chair Kevin McCarthy with real estate developer Alex Opusynski, Opusynski’s mother Diane AmEnda, and his wife Berna.
“I’m the vice chair, and I’m happy to hear about any issues, big and small, people are having. But this is just people hanging out,” said Kevin McCarthy, before reminiscing about the challenge of sitting in chairs designed for 10-year-olds when the CMT met at East Rock School.
CMT Chair Elena Grewal with Alison Chapman and Frank Chapman.
Frank and Alison Chapman, longtime residents of Edwards Street, took seats at the end of the long table.
“A friend of ours suggested that it would be interesting to join, and we just want to see what’s going on,” said Frank, an architect, amid the sound of lively conversation reverberating through the space.
For East Rock Alder Anna Festa, “it’s good to get to know your neighbors and meet them again after such a long time.” She said she looks forward to hearing from her constituents on how to improve the quality of life and safety in the neighborhood.
For now, “this feels great, people really seem happy to be here,” she said, as Grewal welcomed another group of residents.
Amid the reacquainting and reuning, issues pressing on East Rock, and the city, crept in.
“I think this neighborhood is moving in the right direction,” said Paolo Desiato, as he sipped a smoothie from Raw Bowls & Juice. “My immediate concern is the empty lot behind the gym parking lot. That land is just sitting there fallow.”
As for improving the city, Desiato, a nurse practitioner at Yale-New Haven Hospital, said “they need to improve the bus service, and that means 24-hour bus service. They also need to make buses better for the middle class, and the hospitals and the universities need to give free bus passes to employees.”
“If you do that, and you jack up the parking prices, you’ll inspire people to take the bus,” he said.
Neighborhood Alders Anna Festa, Eli Sabin, Abby Roth.
Alex Opusynski, a real estate developer who runs Vanguard Private Client Group on State Street, is planning construction at 793 State St., a former blighted property.
“I like to get feedback from people in the neighborhood,” he said. “It gives me an idea of what East Rock has an appetite for, and it’s heavily impacted my design plans, the aesthetics, for the building.”
By then, CMT member Lorena Mitchell was offering to volunteer at Santiago-Gamble’s spring festival, and someone else was advising him on how to get parts of State Street shut down, and McCarthy was enlightening the group on alternatives to speed bumps.
East Rocker Joel LaChance.
“You can do things with engineering like speed tables,” he said, adding that he’s been working with CMT member Max Chaoulideer on traffic-calming. “Or you can do things that are psychological. People will drive more slowly if the lanes are narrower and will drive faster on a street with no trees.”
At a nearby table, Joel LaChance, who was seated with his wife Jane Hindenlang, sampled Mexican street food.
“We think this is a delightful neighborhood, we enjoy living here, and we want to do our part to help it stay delightful and affordable,” he said. They live on Bishop Street. “We’ll definitely be back for the next meeting.”