Michelle Turner Photo
Most of the customers coming in the lobby of the Dixwell Avenue branch of the Bank of America didn’t know the branch is closing in June. But a customer named Karen did.
“Yes, I got the letter,” she said as she pulled up in her car. “I wish they didn’t, but [I] can’t change it.”
Front of Dixwell Plaza bank branch at 224 Dixwell Ave.
Asked about the bank’s closing, Manager Cynthia R. Daniels responded with a notice on Bank of America letterhead: “We’d like you to know that at 2 p.m. on Friday, June 22, 2012, we will be closing the Dixwell Plaza Banking Center located at 224 Dixwell Avenue, New Haven, Connecticut.” It went on to explain customers can use the “Broadway Banking Center.”
It’s not just another corporate chain downsizing in the eyes of the neighborhood. Under its various names — which longtime customers still recite — the branch at Dixwell Plaza has been a lonely remaining financial outpost for a neighborhood whose customers don’t all have mobility.
And even if they can get around, they appreciate the convenience.
Bank of America Northeast spokesman T.J. Crawford said a lack of sufficient foot traffic led to the closing.
“After doing an assessment of the area, we found that there were branches less than three miles from one another,” Crawford said. “We will provide assistance to impacted employees to find work in other branches.”
Dorothy Agnew couldn’t believe it when informed of the news by a reporter. “Is this true?” she asked branch manager Daniels.
“Yes ma’am,” Daniels responded.
“Wow,” Agnew said a few minutes later, after making her withdrawal from the ATM. “You know, I’ve been with this bank since …since it was Union Trust, then Shawmut, then Fleet and now, Bank of America.”
She worried about elderly people who live right nearby, in the Hannah Gray Home and at the Monterey homes.
“I’ve had an account here the last 30 years … too bad, too bad,” Agnew said.
Will she keep her account? “Oh yes! My grandson, in college, and my granddaughter, who will be in college next year, have accounts here, and I can transfer money from my account to theirs.”
“Why in our neighborhood?” asked Derrick Miller, as he was walking out of the bank. “It’s convenient for seniors. They can’t afford to get on the bus lines and all kinds of stuff. I been with them 30 years. Convenient [for the neighborhood]; they don’t have to go all the way to Milford. The next one is downtown, Whalley [referring to the Broadway branch], or out Hamden — a lot of people have never been out of the neighborhood. What do we have to do to get it back?”
He lamented it was another loss for the Dixwell neighborhood. “The Q House is closed,” he emphasized, pointing across the street. “The kids have nothing to do.”
Miller said he remembers when the branch“was Fleet Bank, y’know? That’s how long I been with them.”
Maurice Smith, on his way out of the bank, said he’s been a customer three years .His reaction? “Bad; inconvenient. It’s close to my house. I utilized this bank.”
He shook his head and turned away, ducking into the front of the truck he was riding in.