Allan Appel Photo
Volunteer and activist M.Z. Pearl of Westville Manor.
Speed bumps. Stop signs. More lights and cameras. More cops, after the new classes are trained. And maybe even a new splash pad.
City decision makers said those fixes can happen relatively soon to make West Rock a safer, healthier neighborhood.
As for $500,000 worth of new sidewalks or a $300,000 new traffic signal, and reconfigured bus routes, those longer-term fixes are going to have to wait a bit.
That was the upshot of the latest traffic-calming meeting with West Rock residents, which drew 22 participants along with Mayor Toni Harp and city and state transportation officials to the Brennan Rogers School auditorium Tuesday night.
The organizers were Southern Connecticut State University graduate student in public health Meadesha Mitchell and Rockview resident Makia Richardson. The two have stepped up as area leaders through the overall supervision of Alycia Santilli, the director of CARE (Community Alliance Research and Engagement), a grant-funded public health organization active out of Yale University and for the last year at Southern.
Their aim: to highlight poor public transportation, inadequate sidewalks and street lighting, and dangerous traffic that have long plagued this bucolic yet isolated neighborhood on the western edge of New Haven by the Hamden border.
Monday’s meeting follows up on a brainstorming session in January in which residents settled on better public transportation, public safety issues like the need for more cops, lights, and cameras, and safer streets as the three key areas they want to improve.
In the month between the two meetings, city and state Department of Transportation (DOT) officials, among others, were contacted and then showed up Tuesday night hear residents lay out their concerns.
“The idea is to try to get some commitments from city officials to address the priorities of the community,” said Santilli as participants gathered over pizza and salad.
“I’m a Southern student,” said Meadishia Mitchell. “I don’t drive. I walk here, from Southern, and there’s no sidewalk. I walk facing oncoming cars. Personally, I want to feel safe coming here.”
80-year-old West Rocker Harris, in the middle.
Retired social worker Dorothy Harris, who said she has lived in West Rock for 57 years, declared that she fears no one but the Lord. But she no longer feels safe walking around the neighborhood, especially at night, she said. During an exchange of gunfire, she said, she shivered in her bed.
“It shouldn’t be that way,” she said, calling for a more visible police presence, especially at night.
Neighbors also spoke of poor CT Transit bus service, especially in snowy weather that leaves single moms and little kids and the elderly unable to get down the hill on Brookside Avenue. Santilli asked officials to address what might be improved in the short term and in the long term.
New DOT Public Transit Administrator Dennis Solensky and CT Transit Assistant General Manager for Planning and Marketing Joshua Rickman were in attendance and ready to discuss possible re-routing, bus driver lay-overs, schedule, as well as bus service during snowy weather.
However, because those issues are complex and connected to larger traffic issues — the neighborhood has a city “Complete Streets application” in the pipeline seeking road changes —organizers and officials decided to convene a separate meeting to discuss transportation.
“We can do [in the shorter term] speed bumps. We can do that,” said Mayor Harp in her response to residents’ concerns. “And we can do street calming.”
She also said initiatives are already underway to link the different sets of cameras in the area.
More of a police presence in the area is possible, the mayor said, after two more classes of officers have been trained.
“You’re not the only under-served area, but we’ll try to get you some [police] help out here,” the mayor added.
“The sidewalk gap here is immense,” with about a third of a mile of road needing walkways, said city traffic director Doug Hausladen. He said it will cost about $500,000 eventually to put those in.
The mayor urged residents to attend city capital budget hearings in March and advocate for the West Rock sidewalk improvement to become part of the city’s Community Development Block Grant request this year.
Longer term would also be a new traffic signal, should that be deemed necessary. Cost: $300,000.
Solensky, at left in photo.
In the meantime, Hausladen said, streetlights can be fixed and improved. He echoed others’ suggestions that walking groups, especially at night, would be a good way to continue to build community.
Also doable in the shorter term would be getting kids trained in how to operate bicycles safely. Hausladen called attention to the new and growing bike share program. The closest bike share station is at Hillhouse High School. “We can train [West Rock] kids to be bike mechanics, maybe to work on our own bike share program,” he said
Hausladen, the mayor, and the DOT officials complimented residents for being organized, for identifying their issues with clarity. “I want to applaud your way of approaching it in a positive way. I’ll leave compelled to help you,” said Solensky.
Hausladen smartphones in broken streetlight report.
“To be truthful, New Haven and maybe Stamford are the two biggest opportunities to make improvements,” said Solensky, who has been on the job nine months.
After the brisk meeting, perhaps Hausladen drove his car to locations on Wayfair and Level Streets and Brookside Avenue, where residents had mentioned more illumination is needed. He noted light pole numbers where bulbs were out and instantly posted the information to SeeClickFix. He spoke of training neighbors to use that online community problem-solving tool.
The transportation, traffic meeting date is expected to occur on a Saturday during March.