Neighborhood Fact-Finding Mission Begins

“This area have a name?” John Simone asked from the second of four rows of seats in a van cruising up Kimberly Avenue.

“Kimberly Square,” Jackie James responded from the front passenger seat.

“Kimberly Square,” Lee Cruz added from the way back, ​“is actually a triangle.”

Call it a triangle or call it a square. Either way it has a past — and a future — as a thriving neighborhood commercial strip.

The dozen occupants squooshed inside the Ford Van were scouting out that future Monday morning, in Kimberly Square, and throughout New Haven’s neighborhoods.

The van ride kicked off a week-long mission to map out a revival of four of New Haven’s neighborhood commercial corridors: Dixwell Avenue, Whalley Avenue, Congress Avenue (plus perhaps Kimberly Avenue), and Grand Avenue.

Toni Harp promised to revive those corridors during her campaign to become New Haven’s 50th mayor. Now, as Mayor Harp, she has hired a not-for-profit Simone runs, called Connecticut Main Street Center, to help her plan that revival.

For $10,000 (courtesy of the quasi-public Economic Development Corporation), Simone will spend the week touring city neighborhoods — first by van Monday morning, then on foot — and meeting with neighbors and merchants; and then, within 30 days, submit a detailed plan for how the city can help people in those neighborhoods build up their retail districts. The idea is both to sell more stuff to people already living here as well as to attract people from outside the city.

Simone’s not-for-profit has performed similar ​“assessments” for communities throughout the state. Simone (pictured) seeks to build on an already existing neighborhood commercial identity, help merchants work together to promote each other’s businesses, obtain grants and other assistance to develop ​“human scale, walkable” retail areas that ​“don’t accommodate the car at the expense of pedestrians.”

Mayor Harp noted at a pre-van-tour City Hall press conference Monday morning that Westville Village has already put the ​“Main Street” approach into practice. She said she’d like to connect the rest of Whalley Avenue to the Village; connect the Broadway shopping district to Dixwell Avenue (“In any other city it would be the same street”); build on the successes of Grand Avenue merchants, who organized a taxing and improvement district a decade ago with City Hall’s help; and ​“re-seed” commerce on Congress Avenue. Harp said she hopes to qualify city neighborhoods for state government ​“Main Street” grant money that usually goes to smaller towns.

Simone, who lives in West Hartford, got his first look at Congress Avenue from his second-row window seat in the Ford van that city development official Steve Fontana piloted down neighborhood corridors after the press conference.

Simone brought with him a retail consultant named Kent Burnes (pictured), who runs a resort on the Caribbean Island of Roatan when he’s not dispensing economic development advice. As the van passed through Kimberly Square, Burnes spoke of the potential of grooming local entrepreneurs to sell health foods and similar products. ​“People are shocked to discover the largest consumer of health products is the African-American consumer,” he said. Simone declared Walmart-style big-box retail dead and locally owned small retail shops back in vogue.

James, a former Hill alderwoman and current city official, narrated from the passenger seat, with back-row help from Cruz of Fair Haven and George Carter of Dixwell. ​“This is the beginning of Dixwell Avenue,” James narrated.

“This is Daddy Grace’s church,” Carter cut in as the van approached the United House of Prayer and its apartments across the street. ​“All of this is the church. On Wednesday, this is where we’re having lunch.”

“At a church?” Simone asked.

“This is Dixwell Plaza,” Carter continued as the van passed the Urban Renewal-era commercial strip about to embark on its latest renovation campaign.

“Seems like there are more churches than there are souls,” Simone remarked as Carter continued narrating.

“They turned a funeral home into a church,” Carter informed the consultants.

The van continued in the direction of Newhallville, then back downtown. The plan was to leave the van for lunch, and then get to know the city’s commercial neighborhoods closer up, on foot. First stop: Fair Haven.