Notes: East Rock Community Management Team (CMT), Monday 01/28/08 Mark Abraham, ElmCityCycling EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR ELMCITYCYCLING - The city transportation department is looking for a prioritized list of citizen concerns. - Whitney Avenue is being repaved this summer. This is good news to some local residents and cyclists, even if it does not solve all of the problems involved with that street. - Whitney Avenue (and Yale's Science Hill) remain as major obstacles between the Orange Street Lane and the Canal Trail. A route desperately needs to be found that connects the end of the Orange Street bike route with the Canal Trail, because the Canal Trail allows for connections with every other part of New Haven. Yale's Science Hill complex is a major problem in achieving this, unless a bike route can be routed around or through the block. - Traffic calming is a major neighborhood concern. It is being addressed in certain ways, but not in others due to "selective enforcement." This has to be addressed at a city-wide level. - City's new WEB 311 system is very successful, and should be used by cyclists to report problems -- including potholes, speeding traffic and other things. FULL MEETING NOTES About 30-40 citizens attended this regular monthly meeting, which was held at the East Rock School. The East Rock CMT is one of the most active community groups in New Haven. GUEST SPEAKER Mike Piscitelli, the City of New Haven's Director of Transportation, was the guest speaker at this month's meeting. Here is a brief outline. - City Transportation department wants to know community concerns in order to be able to prioritize the Transportation department's activities, in the face of limited resources. - The City Transportation Department has 3 goals: integrating transit and economic development, improving the environmental performance of transportation in the City, and improving the quality of life for residents overall. - City Transportation has operational concerns including meters, tickets, towing, signals, 10,000 street signs, 100+ bus shelters. - City Transportation's specific project priorities are: 1) Route 34 Corridor and expansion of downtown, in order to grow the city's tax base and make downtown more vibrant; 2) Improving Union Station by making it more of a front door to the City, connecting the station with downtown, and increasing ridership; 3) Improving Port of New Haven so truck traffic can be reduced; 4) Expansion of airport so that businesses here can be more efficient and so people don't have to drive so far (creating pollution) just to get on a plane. - East Rock neighborhood issues include: 1) State Street bridge repairs - trying to scheduled in advance so that bridge can be repaired more quickly, because the bridge closing will be a major neighborhood problem otherwise; 2) Whitney Avenue in New Haven is in poor condition, and will be repaved this summer; 3) Extension of residential parking zones (I won't get into this here, but they have to do with Yale Shuttle's skyrocketing ridership); 4) Pace Car program and Traffic Calming - speeds have declined significantly on Woodward Avenue after installation of roundabouts there; speed bumps on Perkins Street have reduced speeds by over 10MPH; City is currently analyzing what to do at the Trumbull & Lincoln Intersection and the Court & Olive Intersections; 5) Reconstruction of State & Ferry intersection with new technology allowing smoother traffic flows. Following the talk, citizens asked a number of questions. Snow emergency procedures, parking, access to downtown and traffic safety were the chief concerns. Regarding the Yale shuttle, citizens pointed out that it is at capacity and seeing skyrocketing ridership, but that it could be better integrated with CT Transit. Mike Piscitelli mentioned that signage for the shuttle route will be added and that system-wide integration for shuttle/trolley/Yale shuttle is currently being studied at the regional level. Citizens mentioned that unless CT Transit won't be optimal unless it improves ontime performance and has a GPS system like Yale does. Someone brought up the point that increasing walking and bicycling trips in the neighborhood could help solve some of the parking issues and allow people to own fewer cars. Mike Piscitelli responded to this that one of the major issues preventing better connections with downtown New Haven is how the Orange Street bicycle lane currently ends. One way to solve this issue is to encourage Yale University to allow the bicycle route to cross the campus from where the lane currently ends at Humphrey Street to where the Canal Trail crosses the end of Sachem Street. Currently, Whitney Avenue runs there and is a major obstacle to encouraging more cycling.. ZIPCar, which is expanding in New Haven, is another way to address this. POLICE UPDATE Next, the police supervisor for the district, recently-promoted Lieutenant Rebecca Sweeney-Burns, gave the CMT an update on the state of East Rock. According to the supervisor, the major crime concern in the area the past month was a number of automobile break-ins, specifically the theft of GPS devices. The NHPD has identified the main suspect in the thefts and is gathering evidence for an arrest. Following the talk, citizens asked a number of questions about traffic calming, including the problem at Trumbull and Lincoln streets where cars do not stop. Lt. Sweeney responded that this was an issue of "selective enforcement" and that officers have made mistakes in how they enforce the issue of crosswalks in the past. Citizens spoke in strong support of measures to better identify crosswalks and enforce traffic at them, because it would greatly help improve the neighborhood's quality of life. ALDERMANIC UPDATE Ward 10 Alderman Allan Brison and Ward 9 Alderman Roland Lemar both gave neighborhood updates involving issues including tree planting, recycling, and the state legislative agenda. Roland mentioned the city's new WEB311 system at http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Ask/index.asp and encouraged residents to continue using it for any neighborhood problems. These problems would include those related to transportation, such as potholes on streets that are supposed to be bikeable. Roland also very strongly encouraged everyone to attend the Mayor's Community Meetings, scheduled next for: Wednesday, February 13 at Celentano School Library at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 27 at Edgewood School Library at 6:30 p.m. and Thursday, March 18 at Martinez School Library at 6:30 p.m.