New Housing OK’d After Park Sale Debate

City plans to trade Kensington Playground for 15 new affordable apartments won a key aldermanic approval — but not before over a dozen Dwight neighbors gathered in the public greenspace to voice their live-streamed, virtual opposition to replacing urban parkland with housing.

That remote protest and local legislative vote both took place Wednesday evening.

The in-person meetup was held at the public park on Kensington Street between Chapel Street and Edgewood Avenue. Surrounded by protest signs reading ​“Hands Off Our Grass” and ​“Don’t Steal Our Park,” the neighbors gathered around a single Apple laptop perched atop an electrical box to video-call in to a public hearing hosted by the Board of Alders Community Development Committee.

The committee’s virtual meeting was broadcast live on Zoom and on YouTube Live.

At the end of the nearly three-hour meeting, the committee alders voted unanimously in support of the city selling 17, 21, 25, 29, and 33 Kensington St., which comprise Kensington Playground, for a total of $1 to the Boston-based landlord The Community Builders (TCB).

In exchange, TCB has agreed to build 15 new units of affordable housing atop the current park site and limit rents at those new units to tenants earning 60 percent or less of the area median income (AMI). TCB has also agreed to invest $80,000 in improvements at the nearby Day Street Park, and it has promised to make further improvements at a Garden Street green space.

To make up for the lost Kensington Street parkland, the city would also as part of this proposed deal create new public parks in Newhallville at vacant, publicly-owned lots at 100 – 102 Shelton Ave., 16 Thompson St., 24 Thompson St., and 506 Winchester Ave.

The proposed land swap, which was approved by the parks commission in August after months of debate, now advances to the full Board of Alders for a final vote later this fall.

Land Swap Supporters: $30M Neighborhood Rehab

Livable City Initiative (LCI) Executive Director Serena Neal Sanjurjo, who will soon be stepping down after seven years as a City Hall department head, told the alders that the planned land swap represents a key component of TCB’s $30 million Phase 2 redevelopment of the Kensington Square apartment complex. 

Phase 1 saw the rehab of 120 affordable apartments in the neighborhood back in 2017. Phase 2 will see new kitchens, baths, floors, and exterior improvements put in place at 88 additional Dwight apartments owned by TCB, along with the construction of the 15 new units planned for Kensington Playground.

“I understand the concerns,” Neal-Sanjurjo said about neighbors’ protests against the building up of the Kensington Street parkspace. She said that the proposed deal would double the net amount of greenspace when taking into account the new planned parkland in Newhallville, and would also see improvements made to Day Street and Garden Street parks.

“Most importantly, [this deal would] bring on new affordable units for our residents in this city. It has been a long time coming.”

Several TCB staffers spoke in support of the proposed deal during the public testimony section of the meeting. The land swap also won the vocal support of Kensington Street daycare owner DeLisa Tolson as well as Board of Alders President and West River/Dwight Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers, who represents the neighborhood.

Tolson said she grew up at Edgewood Avenue and Garden Street and spent years living at Orchard Street and Elm Street. She has run the Advanced Childcare Center at 65 Kensington St. for 20 years, and regularly serves between 25 and 40 kids on a daily basis.

“In 20 years, we have never, ever, ever used that park,” Tolson said. ​“That park has never been accessible to the children in this community or at the daycare because it has a lot of goings on.”

She said people routinely sleep, do drugs, and sell drugs in the park. She said the greenspace is often littered with dog poop, broken bottles, needles, and drug paraphernalia.

“This is not a safe place for kids to play,” she said. ​“I feel it is a hazard. It’s dangerous. I understand people want to save the grass and the trees. I’m about saving lives.”

Walker-Myers said that, as a neighborhood elected representative and leader on the Board of Alders, she is concerned about her constituents who can’t afford rents that run as high as $1,500 for a one-bedroom apartment on the Dwight Street and Howe Street side of the neighborhood.

Preserving and creating new deeply affordable housing on the Kensington Street side should help working-class residents from being priced out of the neighborhood.

“Parks are really important,” she said. ​“We need greenspace. And health is important. But at this time, we have an opportunity to offer all three of those things. We’re gonna have a greenspace that they’re going to invest in. We’re gonna have affordable housing. And we’re gonna have a much safer and better community, ​‘cause we’re all working together.”

Critics: ​“Park Worth Saving”

A majority of those who testified Wednesday night — including the roughly 15 people who gathered in person in Kensington Playground to call in to the virtual meeting — spoke out in strenuous opposition to the deal.

A mix of Dwight residents, Kensington residents, and citywide environmental activists, the proposed deal’s opponents cited a number of reasons for not selling off the city park to a private developer — based on environmental sustainability, racial justice, and not concentrating affordable housing exclusively in working-class, Black and brown neighborhoods. That same group had gathered over 180 petition signatures in advance of Wednesday’s meeting of people also in opposition to the land deal.

“This is one of the most insane things I’ve ever heard,” said Phillip Bruton before the virtual meeting began. He grew up in the neighborhood, and has spent the past five years living near the corner of Chapel Street and Kensington Street. ​“This is part of the community. Leave it alone. This is a piece of happiness.”

He said the city would never look to sell and build up a public park in a predominantly white and affluent part of the city, like East Rock or Wooster Square. Neighbors simply wouldn’t stand for it, he said.

“I pay taxes,” he said, ​“and the city’s supposed to clean this park. I demand that this park don’t be touched.”

LaQruishia Gill and Nia Campinha-Bacote agreed. Both live in the neighborhood. Both visit Kensington Playground every Sunday for outdoor services that their church, Elm City Vineyard, has been hosting during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Campinha-Bacote said the neighborhood shouldn’t be forced to choose between having affordable housing or having a public park. ​“I think we can do both,” she said. That would just mean finding a different space — ideally, not a public greenspace — to build the new apartments.

Gill said that the neighborhood’s residents shouldn’t be punished for the city not maintaining one of its parks. If the park had a working splashpad, a swing set, and routine maintenance from the parks department, then perhaps it would be used more frequently by neighborhood kids. She said her fellow church members pick up trash and help clean up the park during every Sunday visit.

Furthermore, Gill said, demolishing a park is not a sustainable solution to addressing crime or drug use in the neighborhood. It will simply push those issues elsewhere.

“They shouldn’t do it,” said longtime Kensington Street resident Rosetta Mack. ​“All the young kids, what are they gonna do? Think about the grandkids. Let it be what it be.”

Joe Elko, who has served as the pastor at Dixwell Avenue’s St. Martin De Porres Church for over 30 years, said the park offers a necessary respite for neighborhood residents looking for peace, quiet, and shade. Plus, its trees pull in carbon and keep the air cool and clean in the otherwise closely-built up neighborhood.

“This park is worth saving,” he said.

During the actual public testimony section of the meeting, those gathered in the park took turns in front of the laptop, addressing the alders two minutes at a time and listening to fellow members of the public call in and testify from around the city.

Dwight resident Jane Comins said that she recently canvassed the neighborhood in her attempts to get a sense of if and how the park is used. She spoke to a family from Antillean Manor that comes to the park during breaks from all-online school, to a Yale New Haven Hospital nurse who walks around the park during his lunch breaks, and to other school-age kids who regularly run and play in the greenspace.

“I’m here tonight to tell you with all of my neighbors, we want to tell you that this park is an important asset that we need to keep. That people in the neighborhood use it for potluck dinners, for exercising, for playing. A church group meets here every Sunday. … This is an asset that needs to be treasured.”

Olivia Martson (pictured) said the same. ​“It’s not a net gain” for the neighborhood, she said about ditching Kensington Playground for improvements to current parks on Day Street and Garden Street and then adding new greenspace in Newhallville. Look at other lots, she encouraged the alders. And don’t sell off a greenspace with over 25 trees for $1 to a developer that has an iffy reputation in the neighborhood.

Yaraliz Dippini (pictured) grew up in the neighborhood and currently lives in a TCB-owned building immediately adjacent to the park. She said she used to come to the park all the time as a kid with her cousins to run and play in the splashpad.

As an adult, she and her family often travel all the way to Criscuolo Park in Fair Haven when they’re looking to enjoy the outdoors on city parkland. That’s because that park has a brand new jungle gym and feels safe to play in, she said. The Kensington Street park next door, meanwhile, has nothing but a broken splashpad and sometimes dangerous and unsavory activity.

Dippini said the solution to this issue is not to get rid of the park entirely, but rather to improve it with new amenities and better maintenance.

“Why can’t we have a new water park or swings for the kids or little benches and table to do activities?” she asked. ​“It has its ups and downs,” she said about the park as it currently exists. Getting rid of it entirely struck her as a short-sighted move for a neighborhood that, like any other, needs safe and accessible greenspace.

One of the protest’s lead organizers, longtime Dwight resident Patricia Wallace, told the alders that neighborhood top cop Lt. John Healy has successfully pushed his colleagues in the police department and other city workers at parks and LCI to keep the park safe and clean in recent months.

The park may have once been neglected, she said, but that has changed and the space continues to be used and improved. ​“It was cleaned up,” she said.

Wallace also noted the flurry of construction that will be taking place in the coming years, particularly at Yale New Haven Hospital’s planned new neuroscience center and parking garages at the nearby St. Raphael’s campus.

“There is going to be construction all around,” she said. ​“This park is a peaceful place,” and the neighborhood needs to hold on to as many such places as it can while other sections get built up.

Committee Alders: Housing Wins Out

Hours after the sun had set, and after the public testimony section of the meeting was wrapped up, the remaining half-dozen people in Kensington Playground gathered around one of the park’s benches to watch and listen to the committee alders deliberate.

Each committee alder praised the neighbors for organizing in advance of the meeting and, as Walker-Myers said, for ​“wanting to take ownership” of the park. Each ultimately sided with the city in prioritizing the construction of new affordable apartments over keeping the parkland as is.

“Yes, the park is an important thing, but we in New Haven have to take the leadership in affordable housing as other suburbs and towns choose not to,” said Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola. ​“We are willing to fight for the Black and brown families that need a fair shake. It’s very disappointing that other towns and municipalities do not step up to the plate as we do.”

“I would hate to see them lose the park,” said Beaver Hills Alder Jill Marks. But, ultimately, she was swayed by the argument made by the neighborhood daycare center owner. When confronted with a choice of saving grass and trees or saving lives, she will always go with the latter.

Dwight Alder Frank Douglass said he had lost many a night of sleep over this issue. ​“I don’t want to see the park lost,” he said, ​“but I do believe we are in dire need of affordable housing.”

He said he believes it’s more important to go ahead and do this project, considering that TCB has all of the money lined up and so many apartments will be rehabbed in addition to the 15 new ones being built.

“I think it’s going to brighten up the whole area,” he said. ​“It’s gonna hurt me to see the park go, but at this point it’s not doing us any justice. We have great space at Chapel and Day.” There’s even a huge field at Amistad School that’s not being used to its fullest extent, he said. Hopefully that can be opened up to the neighborhood in some way.

“I’m really glad to see that people are coming together on this issue. Maybe we should come together more in the future.”

Click on the Facebook Live videos below to watch excerpts from the in-person gathering at Kensington Playground Wednesday.