Allan Appel Photo
New Haven has $457,500 to spend on new signs. Should we buy one, trend-setting big LED sign that reveals the exact number of free nearby parking spots?
Or a bunch of traditional signs for drivers at major intersections like Ella Grasso Boulevard and Route 34? Or on neighborhood thoroughfares like Grand Avenue?
Or newfangled maps to direct walkers, to let visitors know that it’s only a short walk to from downtown to Frank Pepe’s?
Mattnew Nemerson posed those questions to the members of the New Haven Development Commission at their regular meeting at City Hall.
Nemerson and Economic Development Officer Latoya Cowan.
Nemerson, city government’s economic development administrator, said in the best of all possible worlds he would favor the one-big digital sign, because that would make New Haven “cutting edge.”
But the available money would at best buy only one of those, he estimated.
The money comes from a cost-sharing grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and administered by Connecticut’s Department of Transportation.
It requires a 20 percent city match — $91,500 on $366,000 — according to Anne Hartjen, senior project manager for the City Plan Department.
Nemerson made his remarks after he guided the commissioners Tuesday through a tutorial on the process the city is going through to analyze its signage needs of the future, prompted by the grant. The city’s current signage is largely 20 years old.
Detail with black squares representing some of proposed new sign locations.
He posed the question: “What are the navigational problems we’re trying to solve?”
His answer was prescient, with a warning: If we’re trying to make visiting New Haven a nicer experience, maybe signage has become less important over the years. “Experts tell us that’s changed because [people] have GPS. Some say maybe we’re upgrading to a system that is 20 years old,” Nemerson said.
Another big question: Should the new signs direct people to specific attractions, like the Shubert or the Yale University Art Gallery, or to a district?
Yet another one: How much of the signage system should be for people on the street once they’ve parked? Spend it on drivers or walkers?
Another: Should the signage be deployed downtown or in the neighborhoods?
And most of all, should they be traditional directional signs for drivers, or maps geared to walkers passing by?
“We’ve found with good maps, people will walk farther; if not, they’ll get back in the car. So how many of the dollars should we put in for local neighborhood signs?” Nemerson asked.
Commissioner Peter LeConte asked to see a mock-up of the proposed signs. More fundamentally, he wanted to know how the city knows this re-envisioned way-finding is a genuine need.
The Philadelphia-based design company Merje doesn’t have the mock-ups ready quite yet, replied Nemerson.
As to the need, he added: “We have the federal dollars but we haven’t surveyed people thoroughly.”
Nemerson, a former Chamber of Commerce president and parking authority board chair, said while people increasingly love to come to New Haven for its more than 100 restaurants and its culture, they often get confused or frustrated: “Parking’s expensive. And it’s a lot of one-way streets.”
Commissioner Pedro Soto with the proposed sign map.
Feedback Requested
Nemerson asked the commissioners for general feedback on matters ranging from construction to parking to restaurants.
“What about a New Haven app where you can get that information on your phone about constructions sites, restaurants” and parking? asked Commissioner Rob Bolduc.
“We have a wonderful app, Andi, but nobody knows about it,” Nemerson responded. (Click here to find out about that.)
Nemerson said the city also has a good relationship with the digital neighborhood-reporting tool SeeClickFix. “We’re going to bring this all together,” he said.
Back to Signage
A Seattle digital sign.
Nemerson said that survey information currently available indicates that people love coming to New Haven. Yet they want better information to make it easier to navitgate. He cited Seattle as shifting to digital signs like the one he’d like to bring here.
The hitch is in part that L.E.D. (light-emitting diode) signs are expensive,. They also require vandalism protection, and the blessing of the state.
The state Department of Transportation “is squeamish about L.E.D. signs” in the city proper (as opposed to on highways), he added.
A “branding” sign for an emerging district.
“For me urban signage is definitely digital. We want New Haven to be seen as cutting edge.”
But for now and with the current money available, “I’m leaning [toward] downtown pedestrians signs. We can solve that with this money,” Nemerson said.
The decision has to be made by May, and the project implemented by October, Nemerson said.