Skate Park Protest Sparks Dialogue

by Thomas Breen | Sep 16, 2019 7:22 am

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Posted to: Parks, Sports, Dixwell, True Vote

It started as a protest. It ended with both sides talking, and hearing each other out, about a controversial new skate park proposed for Scantlebury Park and Yale’s future role in the neighborhood. That rally-turned-dialogue took place in the golden hours of Friday afternoon in the Dixwell park bounded by Bristol Street, Ashmun Street, Webster Street, and the Farmington Canal Trail. Before a backdrop of kids playing on the park’s jungle gym and splash pad, around 30 neighbors and anti-gentrification protesters associated with the Room for All coalition spoke out against two major upcoming initiatives slated to affect the Dixwell neighborhood. The first was over the city’s planned rezoning of parts of Dixwell Avenue to be one of the three pilot Commercial Gateway Districts, along with portions of Whalley Avenue and Grand Avenue. The proposed rezoning, per past city pitches, would implement parking maximums, increase the baseline Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for new buildings, and require 10 percent of new apartments to be set aside at affordable rental rates as a means of encouraging denser commercial and residential development along the avenues connecting downtown with the city’s neighborhoods. The protesters called out the proposed rezoning, which is scheduled to be the subject of a public hearing at the City Plan Commission’s meeting this Wednesday, as bringing taller buildings, more commercial businesses, more traffic and noise and higher-income renters that might ultimately price out Dixwell’s primarily working class, black and brown populations. Click here, here, here, and here for more on the proposed rezoning. Click here or watch the video at the bottom of this article for the protesters’ full remarks on the planned rezoning. The second subject of the protest was more directly related to the location of Friday’s event: a new skate park, funded in part by the Could Be Fund, Yale’s Schwarzman Center, and the city’s parks department, slated to be built in the center of Scantlebury Park. The protesters described the skate park project as unasked for and unwanted by the community, despite having the local alder’s support. “Dixwell residents have repeatedly asked for basic amenities and refurbishments to park facilities,” longtime Gibbs Street resident Joy Dunston read in a prepared statement, “including benches for parents to use near the splash pad and more trash cans. “Instead of seeking funds to address these issues, the Board of Alders accepted money from the Schwarzman Center at Yale and the Could Be Fund to build a concrete skate board stage that will take away green space from Dixwell families and increase traffic, parking, noise, and safety concerns.” The protesters criticized the park as nothing more than a “Yale land grab” designed to push student skaters out of Beinecke Plaza and into a partially Yale-funded project in a community park that, they said, many residents didn’t learn about until the 13th hour. Skate park critics weren’t the only attendees at Friday’s protest. Also in the crowd were Steve Roberts and J. Joseph: the two young local men who conceived of the Scantlebury skate park idea in the first place, and who have been its primary backers. After the protesters had put down their signs and their microphone and started to disperse, Roberts and Joseph engaged a small group near the edge of the crowd. “I Feel This From Both Sides” Roberts wrote down his phone number and email address and passed it to an attendee. And the two local skaters started doing what the protesters had accused them of not doing enough of during the project’s gestation over the past two months: They spoke face to face with neighborhood critics. “I feel this from both sides,” Roberts said. He lives in the neighborhood himself, on Gibbs Street. He hears the noise from the frequent parties and family reunions that take place late into the night on Scantlebury Park. He’s sensitive to not wanting to bringing in a new bit of infrastructure that will only exacerbate the current level of loud noises emanating from the park. On the other hand, he said, the intention behind this skate park is not to gentrify. It comes more from his wanting to give the 10 to 12 year-old Dixwell kids he teaches how to skateboard through the “Push to Start” program at Stetson Library a place in the neighborhood for them to practice their moves, build a sense of community, and learn from and interact with skaters from throughout the city. “Come out and see how excited these kids are about skateboarding,” he implored the group. This project will be for Dixwell, he said, as much as it will be for anyone else in New Haven. What about the other skaters this park is bound to attract? asked Dixwell resident Adair Franklin. If Yalies or skaters who otherwise might use the Edgewood Skate Park start coming to Scantlebury instead, they might treat this neighborhood park as just a place to practice tricks, dump trash, blast music, and then move on back to wherever they live in the city, Franklin argued. “They come over here and they may not respect the space as much as you do,” she said. That’s why establishing a set of norms and rules for the new skate park will be so important, Roberts said. The park’s backers have to set a tone of “Cut the nonsense,” he said. That said, he would much rather see people skateboarding in Scantlebury Park than riding dirt bikes up and down Dixwell Avenue, or getting into some other kind of trouble. “I had a friend who died in a dirt bike accident on Sherman Avenue,” he said. “If we could get the kids into something like skateboarding,” they may not turn to more dangerous activities. As for Yale’s investment in the project, he said, “it’s satisfying to me to see Yale make the effort to deal with the problem” of the town-gown divide by putting money into a skate park that will not just benefit Yale students. “Is it really for the neighborhood?” fellow Dixwell neighbor Lillie Chambers asked. “Or is it for people from outside” the neighborhood? The answer, Roberts said, is both. “We want everyone in our neighborhood to be around thinkers, creatives, artists,” he said. He said that, when he was 15 years old, he started hanging out at Lou Cox’s Channel 1 skate shop downtown. He met artists, skaters, filmmakers, and other creative people who turned him on to the skateboarding in the first place. “It changed the way I think,” he said. Skateboarding encourages young people to put their phones down and engage in an outdoor activity in a group setting, he said. It builds character, community, athleticism, creativity. “Believe it or not,” Chambers said, “I used to skateboard myself. I was one of the first women in Dixwell skateboarding.” Kerry Ellington, a community organizer for the New Haven Legal Assistance Association and one of the leaders of the Room for All coalition, said that the protesters on Friday have nothing against skateboarding in and of itself. They just feel that this particular project is inappropriate for this particular park. “This is a deeper, political issue,” she said. “This is about whose park this is.” Even if the skate park will ultimately be city-owned property, it’s being funded in large part by Yale. And anytime Yale gives money to some cause, she said, it usually expects some level of de facto ownership. “Whose interests are we serving here? The residents didn’t ask for this.” The more black and brown youth in this city see themselves as skaters, Roberts responded, the more that Dixwell as a neighborhood will feel that ownership over the skate park in Scantlebury. Partnering with Yale and leveraging the university’s resources is one avenue to up that diversity in the skateboarding community, he said. “But at what cost?” Chambers asked. More Yale students in the park might mean more Yale police in the park. And that could lead to more tense police-community interactions, like the Hamden and Yale officer-involved shooting in Dixwell earlier this spring. “Can this skate park live somewhere else?” Ellington asked. Does it have to go right in the middle of Dixwell’s neighborhood park? Roberts and Joseph said they would still like to see the skate park go into Scantlebury. Now that the alders have voted to allow the city to accept $50,000 from the Could Be Fund and $25,000 from the Schwarzman Center to build the park, the two skaters are planning to meet with the city’s new landscape architect to talk about early stage designs. They’re also planning on reaching out to the community, they said, to talk with neighbors about what specifically they would like the skate park to look like. They will be attending a Parks Commission meeting at the parks department’s Edgewood Avenue headquarters on Wednesday evening to talk about the project. “The emotional impact is what it is,” said local musician Paul Bryant Hudson. He said that the skate park, the planned commercial corridor rezoning, the Winchester Lofts and 201 Munson apartment projects and the NXTHVN art studios have all struck him as of a piece: Foisted on Dixwell with minimal community engagement. “The way these conversations have been conducted have been eerily similar,” he said. Roberts and Joseph didn’t pledge to move the skate park elsewhere. Ellington, Chambers, and Franklin promised that they would keep showing up to public conversations about the park to voice their concerns and call for it to be moved. But the two sides were listening to each other. Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full protest.

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posted by: Politics 101 on September 16, 2019 8:56am “And anytime Yale gives money to some cause, she said, it usually expects some level of de facto ownership.” Ha! Well, in that case, Yale already (de facto) owns the whole park! It paid for the expansion and renovation of the park about ten years ago, if I’m remembering correctly. I am, as always, happy to be corrected, Tom and Paul. In all seriousness, though, much credit to Roberts and Joseph. The Board of Alders wouldn’t have approved it if they hadn’t already shown community support. The fact that they continue to show up to meet the concerns of this small group of naysayers is a real credit to them.

posted by: Politics 101 on September 16, 2019 8:57am (actually, w/r/t my earlier comment, it’s gotta be more than 10 years, maybe 15?)

posted by: Checking on September 16, 2019 9:16am Perhaps the “Could Be Fund” is way overrepresented by a certain segment of the city. https://www.couldbefund.com/team

posted by: MattFantastic on September 16, 2019 9:32am Local young people have a passion, they got engaged, worked hard to convince multiple organizations to give them a ton of money to build something they deeply care about, and instead of embracing them and lauding their drive and effort, we have people complaining that some neighbors don’t want the same things they do. I really don’t get it. Shouldn’t we be celebrating this huge accomplishment of young people doing something impressive and meaningful rather than NIMBY complaining? Sure a skatepark isn’t for everyone, but neither is a splash pad or a big expanse of lawn. The whole idea of community is accepting that not everything is for or about yourself. This is a positive improvement that is paid for, approved, and ready to go, driven by engaged neighborhood youth, yet we have people complaining about it not being X or Y or that they weren’t personally consulted. This speaks volumes to why it’s so hard to get young people involved in the system and overall civic life.

posted by: Checking on September 16, 2019 10:17am @MattFantastic Yes, because kids want to pave over the greenspace in a public park that is used by mostly people that do not skate, it should happen. Grow up.

posted by: CT DRV on September 16, 2019 10:20am Hey all, I helped spur the conversation about the city’s expansion of the park in Edgewood and am a skater myself. That expansion was ideal as the area already had a park, was in sore need of updating, was funded by the city, and really really took the input of the community of skaters (and bikers, and scooter kids, and their parents…) into account. This is quite different, as it’s private money (Yale money at that!) coming in at the same time as a bunch of zoning modifications. Clearly, they haven’t taken the input of the community into account. The community is correct in coming out to assert their needs for more affordable housing and other issues. The skaters (and would be skaters) in this part of New Haven would do good with a park for sure, but I fully back the weariness of having Yale continue its expansion of infrastructure even further into working class neighborhoods The needs of the community have been stated and they gotta be heard. Also if Yale actually cared about skating and creating a place for it, they’d turn their spaces like Beineke into a free spot (those ledges are already waxed!) and would stop sending Yale PD after the skaters.

posted by: 1644 on September 16, 2019 10:23am I must sympathize with these good burghers of New Haven seeking to protect their children from the corrupting influence of degenerate Yale students. I recall some of the FHA “redlining” maps Kevin McCarthy posted links to, which showed various red (bad) and yellow (declining) neighborhoods which banks were to avoid lending in. Each such area had a group that predominated in the neighborhood, presumably the reason for the classification. Common were “negroes, Poles, and Italians:, but the declining area east of Whitney and west of Orange was being dragged down by the presence of “college professors”.

posted by: Paul Cezanne on September 16, 2019 10:36am Kudos to J and Steve for working so hard to get this done. The zoning and developers are legitimate areas to focus on, the skatepark is not part of the issue. This is such a positive achievement, and it’s unfair that this small group is calling it gentrification. It’s not the skateboarding communities fault that they were able to get money, ACCEPT that money, and put it into a project they are passionate about and one that will benefit young people in the margins. I’ve been skateboarding as long as I’ve lived in New Haven, Yale is not going to flock to your neighborhood because of a skatepark. Everything @Mattfantastic says is true, especially the part about why young people are detered from taking the initiative like these two young men have.

posted by: 1644 on September 16, 2019 10:45am Politics: It looks like Yale contributed $750K toward the park in 2006, and the city contributed $10. https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/scantlebury_park_grows/ There’s also this building, which seems intended to be at least a partial replacement for the Q House settlement house. I presume it was funded primarily by the Rose family of NYC real estate fame.

https://dixwell.yale.edu

posted by: Politics 101 on September 16, 2019 10:46am The ease with which small groups of New Haven’ers claim the legitimacy and authority of speaking for The Community astounds me. Community ought to be an inclusive term and yet it is used much more frequently to exclude. Roberts and Joseph sound like members of The Community to me. The Alders who voted for the project, dependent as they are on voters, sound to me like they have reason to be responsive to The Community. Why do the 15-20 people who show up on Friday afternoon (some of whom are paid staff at New Haven Legal Assistance Association) get to speak for The Community? Why is the event cc’d by one of those paid staff members, and not a resident? Why do we so glibly accept people’s assertions that they are The Community? Why are we quick to accept those assertions when people are yelling, “No!” to any and all forms of development while doubting those assertions when people are saying, “Yes, we can build infrastructure and housing and resources that are desirable and beneficial for people who already live here and who may choose to live here in the future.”

posted by: Politics 101 on September 16, 2019 10:53am emceed, not cc’d

posted by: mom247 on September 16, 2019 11:07am It is beyond sad that because of past behaviors everyone has to be so skeptical. We are exposing our children to new activities and forms of entertainment so it would seem like a win win to bring the skate park..never having thought about the fact that it would encourage others from out side of the neighborhood to want to come play here too could be a bad thing. Until I read the fears of the long time NEWHALL residents I never could have thought of any problem. Unfortunately we have to offer more and we have to include others to be better and have better. New Hall as a whole has every right to fear being taken over but unless it finds ways to invest in itself others will come in and in some opinions NOT NECESSARILY MINE make it better. Offer more things to do, offer nicer homes, cleaner neighborhood, maybe even get more attention and resources towards the schools,parks etc. There has to be compromise but its always hard when the scorpion has stung you and the scorpion will always revert to what it does and that is sting. I cant imagine that it wont be a sell factor for the two and three thousand dollar apartments being built right around the corner but those people will have NERVOUS BECKIES dialing fingers every time they see a crowd of brown children running, yelling, playing. PS I grew up going to Harlem weekly when others wouldn’t cross the line and now I hate it. It is no longer our HARLEM !I almost wish they would rename it because it doesn’t reflect us ,our history or ANY of the things we so loved about it. Yes I fear this too will happen to NEWHALL…..Yale already in crouched when it built its Police Dept slowly but surely Yale will have its way

posted by: Babz Rawls Ivy on September 16, 2019 11:12am As it stands now kids are skateboarding behind Stetson library. A terrible place to skateboard. Many of those children are too little to travel to Edgewood park… Its too far and hard to get across Whalley avenue. We tell young people to seek opportunities to get things done. This is an example of such. Both of these young men are New Haveners. They spend a great deal of time working with our kids. Skateboarding is growing worldwide. Our kids ought to have access to this world. The skateboard park would have a footprint that would not change the overall scope of the park. And not for nothing, there were a series of meetings. These young men went door-to-door talking to folks. They put out flyers and they came with money. I hope this community doesn’t thwart this before it gets started. Young Mr. Roberts and Mr. Joseph are dedicated and committed and I might add quite respectful of processes and community engagement. They are not the enemy.

posted by: EngagedCitizen on September 16, 2019 11:18am We, the neighbors and residents around Scantlebury Park, DO NOT WANT your skate park. Our position is not anti-skating, our position is that WE want to decide what does or does not happen in our local park. And our position is this: We do not want a skate park. We have been asking the city to make improvements to Scantlebury for years (literally, for YEARS) and none of our requests have been delivered by the city. Now, within months of you wanting a skate park, magically the city is bending over backwards to accommodate you. Something doesn’t smell right here. Please, if you want a skate park, may we kindly ask that you build it in a location where it is wanted by local neighbors. Because these neighbors are not interested. We want a park that is mainly green space - plants, trees, flowers, walking paths, benches, etc. What we DON’T want is a concrete monstrosity that will decimate our quiet and peaceful park.

posted by: Samuel T. Ross-Lee on September 16, 2019 11:21am I live near and have been heavily involved in the Tennis Community at Edgewood Park for the last 18 years. My involvement ranges from playing and coaching in a local program called Aces and Academics, where we teach youth from all over the city to play and compete with tennis players across the state. I completely understand what the residents near Scantlebury Park are concerned with, as we experience similar issues on the Edgewood Tennis Courts. But, there is a flip side to their argument, and it’s called consistent community involvement. The players and even the former players at Edgewood police the tennis courts there. We do not allow people to ride skateboards on the tennis courts, bounce basketballs, or even hold exercise (yoga) classes there. We are meticulous about making sure that tennis players take their tennis cans, tops, used balls, and any other trash they may bring to playing area, away from the courts. While the courts are in desperate need of repair and upgrade - all public tennis courts should be resurfaced every 5 to 7 years - the tennis community at Edgewood tries hard to keep the courts clean and as playable as much as we can. Hands-on community involvement is vitally important for all of our shared space. If city residents fail to get involved and to help police our communities, they will fall into disrepair, and they will be disrespected by those who do not live in the city and don’t care about its upkeep. The Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 16, 2019 11:35am That Matt Fantastic couldn’t even say in his post ‘Hey, I’m on the Board of Directors for the Could-Be Fund’ tells you everything you need to know about ‘being up front’. Here is a link to the entire Board—mostly insiders—where is ‘the community’? https://www.couldbefund.com/team

posted by: BetweenTwoRocks I actually find this pretty fascinating and see both sides have pretty legitimate claims, which explains part of why governance is so hard: How do you represent the people when the people are a diverse group of voices with different values, interests, desires, etc? A skate park is a great way to get kids out of the house and off their computers and doing something that engages them in a community and allows them to be a part of something, learn something cool, make friend.s A skate park is also going to be a noisy, totally non-Green space which will absolutely change the character of Scantlebury Park. You can’t blame someone for feeling frustrated that they can’t get more garbage cans, benches, etc but suddenly a skate park is allowed? You can’t blame someone for feeling frustrated that they felt they engaged the community and did the legwork for the skate park and suddenly at the last minute a small group representing the community feels differently? These are the challenges of living in a civil community. I hope everyone can listen and find an amicable solution that makes both parties happy, or at least, equally unhappy.

posted by: Really From New Haven on September 16, 2019 12:03pm Same ole Yale - first they tear down the Elm Haven Housing Projects and get rid of thousands of Black people off their doorstep and now they want to build skate and dog parks. Meanwhile New Haven is still top 3 among poorest cities in the state. It’s gentrification and they do it because they can get away with it. The people who live there don’t matter and instead of the people really behind the park, they put two young people of color out there to argue their case - Sad and predictable.

Yale will spend millions on remaking their world minus people of color - people in New Haven don’t consider Yale to be part of New Haven -it’s some white isolated empire that imposes itself on the rest of New Haven. Why not take that money and build more community centers, after school programs etc… if they are SO CONCERNED - take some of the $30 billion endowment and really invest in the city…naw, forgot - they don’t really care about the people of color in New Haven. The Empire Strikes Again!!!

posted by: MattFantastic on September 16, 2019 12:25pm @Bill When the people in charge invite me to the table to help get more public art and projects going in New Haven, I’m going to step up and push for the things I believe in, just as I’ve always done. You know damn well I’m not an “insider” nor am I looking to sell out or buy in or grow up or whatever. If they want to invite a weirdo agitator and career creative to the conversations about public art and cool creative projects, why would I say no? Don’t pretend like you know what I’m saying and advocating for at these things. (You really think I’m not talking about how we need more transgressive “outsider” projects in the city? Next year fill out a form and give me the chance to convince the state to help foot the bill for the return of Ideat.)

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 16, 2019 12:33pm Also Matt, “Being invited to the table by people in charge”—there is nothing more ‘closed door’ than that!!!

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 16, 2019 1:10pm Could Be tried to ‘lump too much together’ on the front end… Usually the way ‘public oriented projects’ come about (especially ones dealing with public resources and public money) is first, by identifying ‘siting’ for potential projects. The Next Step is to have an ‘open call’ for individuals and organizations to ‘submit proposals’ for those ‘sites’, and then finally a ‘public approval process’ that picks the ‘best community oriented proposals’. By tying the ‘siting’ and the ‘individual’ together’ at the beginning of this ‘so-called process’, the ‘committee’ is put in a position to ‘force their will’ on the community to get these projects moving, when the truth is, it is the ‘Could-Be’s’ lack of ‘foresight that has caused this ‘problem to begin with.

posted by: 1644 on September 16, 2019 1:59pm Really: 1, Yale didn’t raze the Elm Haven: HUD and the Housing Authority did because the Housing Authority and the residents had failed to maintain it, as with so many other low-income projects in New Haven and the US.

2. Yale took over the former laundry site at DeStefano’s request. He himself was responding to neighborhood opposition to a waste handling firm locating there.

3. If New Haven wants to be less poor, it should welcome gentrification and wealthier people wanting to move to town.

4. Given that Yale’s freshman class is 47% non-white, many on scholarships, it’s doing a bad job of remaking its world minus people of color. It may be an isolated empire, but certainly is not a white empire.

5. Skaters damage Hewitt Quadrangle, which wasn’t built for skating. This park will give skaters an alternative place, as while as, perhaps, making Yale less of an isolated empire if Yalies and townies both use it.

posted by: MattFantastic on September 16, 2019 2:08pm @Bill - That’s a complete mischaracterization of the CBF process. One of the most important factors in the decision making process was how the community was engaged (or not). Just because a handful of people didn’t get personally questioned about the skatepark doesn’t mean that this project didn’t make successful efforts to engage the neighborhood (as already reported and further posted about here). How many meetings, conversations, and outreach efforts are needed for “the community” to officially be included? Who actually speaks for the community? The people behind this project are just as much part of the neighborhood community as anyone else. This isn’t some mystery project that Yale secretly decided to force upon a neighborhood. This is a locally built effort, that did have meetings and outreach to neighbors, has aldermanic support, and managed to secure funding. If someone in the neighborhood wants to go through that process for something else they would like to see in the neighborhood, I’d love to help support that as well.

posted by: Really From New Haven on September 16, 2019 2:18pm Is Yale going to build the park? Hell no! They do like most wealthy do they hire someone else to do it. Yale pretty much engineered the destruction of Elm Haven - if you don’t get that, then you don’t understand New Haven. Everyone knows they are the only group in the city that can greenlight anything. Just look at the areas around Elm Haven and look at who has taken over those areas - all the way through Science Park - the next stop for the Empire is Newhallville.

New Haven is poor because of institutions like Yale and other elite schools who make a decision to exploit the communities around them in order to make life more convenient for their elite classes. New Haven is primarily Black and Spanish - how many students at Yale are either? Same old stupid pet tricks.

Let me say what Yale can do with their $30 billion earned like other major universities in part through the slave trade, if they want to really help New Haven. For one pay the regular employees what they deserve and the benefits they should get. Two, actually work with local residents to provide support residents really need instead of a new dog park or skating park. Three, own up to their history of exploitation - they could have revolutionized what a small city like New Haven could be and instead all they do is work in their own interests with no concern about the rest of the city.

posted by: Politics 101 on September 16, 2019 2:23pm @1644 You are correct that Yale purchased the site, slated to be sold to an asbestos removal company, at the behest of neighbors, I had momentarily forgotten that. Maybe those neighbors constituted The Community, maybe not. But, in any event, while sometimes Yale is the Big Bad, it isn’t always the Big Bad and it is in fact quite simple to trace the ways in which Monterey Place, Scantlebury Park, and the Rose Center were and have been part of a coordinated planning process involving Yale, the City (which, through the democratic process, represents residents, not sure if those residents constitute The Community), and neighbors (who may or may not be The Community, according to the folks who seem to want to grant the moral high ground to The Community, whatever that may be). When Elm Haven was redeveloped as Monterey Place, there were tenants who were for it and tenants against. Just as when, also in early ‘00’s, a Cambodian couple tried to put a C Town in at Dixwell Plaza, there were neighbors for (because it would have been a much-needed amenity that would have helped the Plaza to have a chance to thrive) and neighbors against (because the family did not belong to The Community). We should be very skeptical of claims that something shouldn’t happen because The (self-anointed, self-appointed, self-described) Community doesn’t want it. Doesn’t want it, why? Less process, more substance.

posted by: Kevin McCarthy on September 16, 2019 2:38pm I have no views on the merits of the skate park. But as I understand it, the Board of Alders has given final approval to the project. There may be a further site design review process, but the protest may have come too late to affect whether the project gets built.

posted by: Politics 101 on September 16, 2019 2:42pm @ Really You have to be quite a conspiracy theorist to think that Yale is the reason Elm Haven, the oldest public housing project in New Haven and one of the oldest in the country, was targeted by HOPE VI, a program created to rehabilitate (you guessed it) old housing projects. Sometimes the simplest theory is the correct one. Elm Haven was old. There was a pot of money available to fix old public housing (which pot of money came with certain parameters and requirements). Not much more to it than that.

posted by: 1644 on September 16, 2019 3:16pm “This is a deeper, political issue,” she said. “This is about whose park this is.” Even if the skate park will ultimately be city-owned property, it’s being funded in large part by Yale. And anytime Yale gives money to some cause, she said, it usually expects some level of de facto ownership. “Whose interests are we serving here? The residents didn’t ask for this.”

Yes, it is a political issue, the issue being whether or not we respect decisions made through our democratic processes. The park was vetted through several public hearings. Residents opposed spoke, but, in the end, the people’s representatives, including the Ward Alder, decided the community’s interest were best served by building the skate park. It’s sad that NHLAA opposes our democratic processes for balancing interests.

posted by: Checking on September 16, 2019 3:23pm @1644 This was democratic process in the way that Republicans institute process. Move quickly, don’t tell those impacted, keep it to a small group of mostly pale folks and make sure it kills greenery.

posted by: Really From New Haven on September 16, 2019 3:29pm Right, there’s never a conspiracy when people of color are the target- just Russian ones. Like DC, Harlem, New Haven, no conspiracies- just gentrification. Same story, and no institutions like Yale played any role. People who never lived here in Elm Haven think they know the story better than people who lived there!LOL!

What was the hope six money spent on?

Who did housing authority report to? Or did they make all these decisions on their own with no accountability?

posted by: ItsGettingBetter on September 16, 2019 3:53pm There were multiple community meetings held with an outpouring of support from neighbors and well as other city residents. The script is twisted. The idea for a skatepark at this location came from New Haven Parks. Yale was invited into support the project once local residents from Downtown and Dixwell picked it up. I understand the frustration with lack of community involvement and ivory tower decision making, but this is not place where you will find it. The voices of a few uninformed and biased individuals run the risk of taking down something wonderful for the children in the neighborhood and yes, beyond. Edgewood Skatepark is mostly used by people outside of Westville and yet they are generally respectful and clean up after themselves or their fellow skaters when they don’t. In the past year they planted nine trees, installed murals, got a water fountain donated, provided free lessons for kids in skateboarding and painting, removed invasive species, donated money for more obstacles, built obstacles, generally improved the perception of public safety in Edgewood Park, threw free music events including a female focused learn to skate event and fundraised for the family of a lost and loved local skater. If these few neighbors don’t want that kind of community, I’m sure another neighborhood would gladly jump on board. That said, this location is perfect because of its location as an axis between many neighborhoods as skateboarding is an intersection between many walks of life.

posted by: 1644 on September 16, 2019 4:00pm Checking, the park’s promoters did survey the residents, and some did register their objections. The entire process has been well covered by NHI.

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/skate_park_proposal_/

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/scantlebury_skate_park/

As for Republicans, there are none on the BoA, and pale folks are a minority. So, it was supported by dark Democrats, by definition doing what dark Democrats do. (You, like Paul, seem to suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.)

posted by: TheMadcap on September 16, 2019 4:12pm “What was the hope six money spent on?” Monterey Place I imagine

posted by: FlyinLuchador on September 16, 2019 4:37pm Wake up Ms. Ellington…..“More Yale students in the park might mean more Yale police in the park. And that could lead to more tense police-community interactions, like the Hamden and Yale officer-involved shooting in Dixwell earlier this spring.”

What a ridiculous statement! Yeah, New Haven doesn’t need any police bothering citizens in areas where there’s high levels of crime!

That would be a great location for community policing.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 16, 2019 4:43pm Matt, How is it a mischaracterization?

Where were the other ‘proposals’ from this ‘immediate community’? When ‘Could-Be’ was first unveiled, it was pretty apparent to me that ‘problems like this’ would arise. I was not wrong.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 16, 2019 5:06pm I also harken back to the ‘Underpass Mural’ that got approved with no artist or design….. As I said, to much ‘expectation’ tied together and loaded in up front….

posted by: WMACHQ on September 16, 2019 7:06pm An Inaccurate statement about Yale demolishing Elm Haven Housing, and building the “Monterey” housing development. It was a “Hope 6” HUD project sponsored by the New Haven Housing Suthority. I know this because I was the project manager for the project, and lived on Henry Street across from the then, Cardinal’s Club. Approximately 86% of the residents from Elm Haven moved into the new Monterey housing. The other residents moved to other NHHA properties. To say Yale was gentrifying the neighborhood by building Monterey is highly did-ingenuous.

Please research your statements more thoroughly. Yale had nothing to do with Elm Haven/Monterey.

Wmachq

posted by: Where there’s smoke on September 16, 2019 8:14pm What a dumb idea. Within a year the place will be a graffiti laced eyesore with a bunch of loud disrespectful punks hanging around, half from out of town. Has anyone ever thought about the amount of liability this concrete sh!thole creates for the City. Not well thought out, but in New Haven ideas usually aren’t.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 16, 2019 9:36pm Just remember Matt Fantastic, I did not misconstrue anything…. all I did was present an ‘idea’ about what real ‘community art’ should look like. Here is your ‘decision process’, as to not mischaracterize anything…. HOW WILL WE CHOOSE? https://www.couldbefund.com/about 1). How well does the project Proposal address the goals and values (above) 50% a). Connectivity: Show how the work will enhance connections as an experience. For example by brightening a passage or gateway between neighborhoods, or collaboration. b). Inclusivity: Tell us how your project and process is inclusive. How do you listen, how do you show this in your art? c). Civic Empowerment: How does your project make a difference? d).Joy: :) 2). Place: Show what is great about your site and why your art belongs there.

a). Creativity and Originality of Concept 15% 3). Well documented, clear description and illustration of concept 15% 4). Demonstration of capability such as prior experience, project team, budget, schedule, permissions required 15% 5). Neighborhood resident bonus! 5% Now, these are all ‘subjective’ indicators at best.

How would the vote differ if the ‘community’ decided rather than your ‘inside committee’? Drastic differences that show drastic flaws with ‘your program’! We see them already. This ‘community dissent’ should be a ‘red flag’! But it was nice of you all to give a few ‘extra credit point’s for actual resident’s of the affected community, should they apply. Also you were the ‘point man’ for application submissions (was that a paid assignment?) which adds another layer to your supposed ‘outsider’ commentary’ on this thread. From the ‘decision criteria’ it looks also looks like you ‘pretty much’ ignored the part about ‘getting the proper permissions’ required….. put that is what politics is great for!!!! How many ‘formal applications were actually under consideration for projects in this neighborhood? We all want to know!!!!!!

posted by: MattFantastic on September 16, 2019 10:48pm @Bill I was the “point man”? I wasn’t the point man for anything. I was an unpaid volunteer (like everyone else) who was asked to help connect with artists I knew and help choose which projects could get funding that was available through a specific system. I know you like to ride around on a high horse about being this perfect “outsider”, but some of us don’t mind sneaking into more establishment spaces so we can help pull the conversations and money and whatever else in cool directions. As mad as I am at you now, if there is money being given out for public art and projects, I would love to help get some of that money in the hands of you and others who I know will do something interesting with it. Being in the room while these conversations happen makes that much more possible. With specifically the skatepark, this project is all ready to go, and it was when it was approved. It went through a series of community forums (as someone else already posted about) and everything has been in place. At this last minute, a handful of people are up in arms that “the community” doesn’t want this, while unironically disparaging all the community members who created, grew, and supported this project in their own neighborhood as not being part of their specific definition of “the community”. You will find opposition to quite literally any and every project if you ask. Accepting that not everything is for everyone and moving on to help build up the things you do care about is a much better way to live and make positive change.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 16, 2019 11:01pm Matt, I am glad that you distinguished your volunteerism, but maybe you should look at the ‘Could Be’ Website and how it promotes you as their creative ‘point man’. It reads: We want to be sure you feel supported in writing your proposal.

Head to one of our Office Hours slots: Idea/Vision Office Hours with Matt Fantastic, Agora/Elm City Games Need support on building your broader vision for your idea?

Need a burst of creativity? Meet with Matt during his Office Hours. • Monday, January 28th, 3-5pm

• Tuesday, February 5th, 11-1pm

• Thursday, February 14th, noon-2pm

• Sunday, February 24th, noon-2pm

All sessions at Agora (760 Chapel Street) in New Haven, CT

Email Matt to reserve a slot at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) . That seems pretty ‘spelled out’ to me.

posted by: WinchesterResident on September 17, 2019 12:00am We DO NOT want your skate park!! Take your money and find a neighborhood that’s interested. I’m disgusted that this concrete catastrophe has gotten as far as it has. But I’m glad to see the community around Scantlebury organizing against it.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 17, 2019 12:04am As an addendum, the application deadline was March 1st.

posted by: BhuShu on September 17, 2019 3:32am I wholeheartedly agree with Bills points. The community should be brought in from the get go.

It is critical to advertise to the community and to create a grass roots outreach community comprised of the community for decision making. Local business leaders (aside from Alders who don’t always have the best interests at heart although they should), local school works, parent/ children teams, artists and activists, etc should comprise a group of community representatives who also get the word out. When the community is brought in the decision making process from the beginning, the community then will stand behind an idea. Obviously with this kind of decent that did not happen. Of course there is legitimate skepticism since Yale has not been a good town partner. It’s shut out the community on many levels including hoarding buyouts of city blocks sitting on more and more property that brings in no revenue. There is mistrust because Yale created it,time and again it’s burned the community more than benefited it.

posted by: NeoHavener on September 17, 2019 8:18am Stunning-not-stunning to read through over 40 comments and not once see anyone mention Blackstone. It’s not simply Yale that should worry people, but specifically the fact that this is being pushed by Yale’s connection to Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzmann. Blackstone became the largest landlord in the country during the foreclosure crisis during the Great Recession, largely by gobbling up properties that went into foreclosure. The hundreds of millions of dollars Schwarzmann is “giving” to Yale to get his name on a new “cultural center” and other projects like this one, come directly from displacement in neighborhoods like Dixwell all over the country. Do not be naive: this is *not* about a skate park. Making it about a skate park is the strategy to obscure the longer term goals, which are and have long been (since the late-1970s) Yale’s real estate & commercial expansion from it’s central campus up to a functional Science Park (as well as, of course, down further into The Hill).

posted by: dad101 on September 17, 2019 8:28am Its really sad that many people are screaming how they dont want this park in their community and that it is being forced on them by outsiders without acknowledging that one of the premiere people involved with getting this up for approval and helping find investors etc is a life long New Hall resident who teaches children and exposes them to skateboarding. The park is not exclusive to the crowd who yells the loudest. Children making noise running out doors laughing playing with local neighborhood officers in their mist seems like an ideal circumstances. Isnt that part of community policing. Don’t we want officers engaged with the youth in our community showing them who they are as human beings? If those parents and elders are concerned that there will be a strong arm of the law isnt it up to them to not shut themselves up in the house and come out and watch these children engage with the officers and children. You cant just expect that your wants and needs are the same as every one elses. I hope the park comes to fruition. I would be more than willing to bring my boys the mile and a half from the other side of NEW Haven and have them play with other children some that they may even know seeing as they don’t go to neighborhood schools anymore with all the busing this is another opportunity to engage ! We enjoy Edgewood,Mill River,Lighthouse and we would like to enjoy Scantleabury as well. My taxes pay for all parks just like everyone else’s not just whats on my side of the street.

posted by: BhuShu on September 17, 2019 9:11am NeoHavener- I did not know about Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzmanns $$ behind Yale and his huge property role. Now it makes even more sense !! By the way they have seized property on East Street in New Haven so believe me they are all over the city and then some . I hope people who have commented on this article have read your post .

As for others since the process seems to be in motion and at this stage it might not be preventable I suggest keeping a green space is critical to the park being paved both which can be for youth. I think the park would have to be very carefully designed and the community would need to be in on that design so that there is enough green space that can still remain . This just goes to show you that you cannot move forward without a grassroots process in place .

posted by: 1644 on September 17, 2019 2:22pm Politics 101: According to this article, there was a C-Town at Dixwell Plaza, but it closed because it was unprofitable.

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/c-town_slipped_away._what_next/

The Cambodian market may have been a different proposal.

posted by: Politics 101 on September 17, 2019 2:44pm @1644 You’re right. The Cambodian American family proposed to do a laundromat and grocery store, not necessarily a C Town. The C Town came later, after alders shot down the Cambodian family’s contract with the City and, as a result, the site lay vacant for some years. https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Signs-of-growth-emerge-at-Dixwell-Plaza-11701012.php “The city has a deposit from a Cambodian couple who will spend $205,000 to open a grocery on city-owned property where the Valu Mart stood. If the purchase is approved, they’ll also take over the defunct Elm Haven Laundromat, equipment and all….Rev. William Philpot Sr. of Christ Chapel New Testament Church ... wonders whether the group has been committed to bringing black-owned businesses into the plaza. ‘The most recent business owners have not been from the community, but it bothers me that we haven’t been able to recruit from our own community,’ Philpot said of the plans for the Asian-owned grocery store. Philpot said he wants to see a business school in the plaza, as well as a quality restaurant that would serve the predominantly black neighborhood.” https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Stores-breathe-new-life-into-Dixwell-Plaza-11661021.php “Two years ago, controversy enveloped the plaza again when a Cambodian couple from Hamden put down a deposit for space to open a coin-operated laundry and grocery store. The couple later pulled out of the deal after one alderman’s objection to the sale. Willie D. Greene, a former area alderman, wanted the property re-bid so people from the community could bid on the property.”

posted by: Politics 101 on September 17, 2019 2:54pm (an addendum: it’s hard to do retail when the housing is not sufficiently dense to support that retail, particularly low margin retail like grocery stores and affordable restaurants, exactly the kinds of retail existing residents often say they want.)

posted by: John Fitzpatrick on September 17, 2019 4:32pm A few commenters have written warily about the people a skate park would attract and the scene it would create. If the Edgewood skate park is any indication, they have nothing to worry about. I’m not a skateboarder, but I’m there frequently with my kids, who are 6 and 8, and I watch and marvel at what goes on there. It’s a mix of ages (toddlers to middle-aged) and races, and they’re on skateboards, bikes, scooters, and roller blades, and everybody gets along. I’ve never heard anybody say a harsh or angry word. This happens completely on its own—there’s no oversight by any type of authority, nor even so much as a sign with a list of rules. The community self-organizes to shares a public resource. It just works. The teenagers and grownups have no problem sharing the place with little kids like mine and are really careful around them. Plus the murals are beautiful. Really impressive, and several of them are about the skate park itself. As for Steve Roberts, he’s the reason my son skateboards at all. He offered free lessons at Edgewood last fall on Saturday mornings. We showed up, my son learned the basics, and now he loves it. I don’t know Scantlebury Park, so I don’t the scene or the vibe nor what a skate park there would displace. But I do know that when a change is proposed, it’s easy to focus on you might lose and hard to see what you might gain. If the Scantlebury neighbors are interested in finding out they might gain, they could stop by the Edgewood skate park this weekend. The weather forecast looks good, so I bet it’ll be packed.

posted by: Stephen Poland There are a couple of things I think would be helpful to disentangle. No one is saying that the “life long New Hall resident who teaches children and exposes them to skateboarding” is wrong or bad. People are saying that the community in which the development is being proposed deserve to have a voice in an inclusive process through which there is ample opportunity to make an informed decision about the long-term impact. This should actually be a point of agreement among residents across the city, given, for instance, the really great work that was done to make sure Westville residents had a voice in rezoning & redevelopment in their community a couple of years ago: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/westville_zoning/?fbclid=IwAR0oc4mzJkO8a5vSTKfmPRJXuxMuZUC7ncs3MYdJukSd0EzMzMf5MvHuWRc. As someone who lives a couple of blocks from East Rock Park, it’s pretty unimaginable that people in the neighborhood wouldn’t demand a process in which they had a voice in a patient, transparent process. Why wouldn’t we support the same for Dixwell residents? Something can seem like a cool idea on first glance, but when you take a step back there may be downsides worth considering. Kerry Ellington’s points about increased Yale police presence ought to make anyone pause, especially given the life threatening shooting Yale police was involved in just a few months ago. It’s also pretty difficult to read about this proposed development and not think of the long-term development whereby Yale continually expands its reach out to Newhallville & up Dixwell Ave, displacing residents along the way. Gordon Lafer’s 2003 article about Yale’s long term plans for Science Park remains very a prescient and important read on the topic: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58f0de30725e25edc2da0af5/t/58f6b0daa5790a2b63b148a0/1492562138642/Land_and_labor_in_the_post-industrial_university_t.pdf.

posted by: Stephen Poland One more thing: I’m really glad @NeoHavener brought up Stephen Schwarzman. As a New Haven resident, I don’t want to see *ANY* public project with his money or his name. Not only did Schwarzman personally make unfathomable amounts of money as Blackstone CEO through post-2008 foreclosures ($800 million in 2017 alone), but African Americans lost *HALF* of their wealth in the housing crisis that Schwarzman capitalized so richly on (https://nlihc.org/resource/report-shows-african-americans-lost-half-their-wealth-due-housing-crisis-and-unemployment?fbclid=IwAR0f8PVKmHrlZiNzA_Wzs67F2qv6sZNlAB2_JyZlDhgORfr6X9rMe5Iw4zk). For this skate park to be built in a predominantly African American neighborhood carrying the name & wealth of Stephen Schwarzman is deeply, deeply troubling, and a very likely harbinger of what is to come.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 18, 2019 1:06am Matt Fantatistic, I would also like to thank you for your ‘invitation’ to use the Could Be fund to ‘bring back’ Ideat Village. That you would even proffer such an idea is absolutely preposterous, and shows your lack of understanding about what our ten year independent festival was actually about. For the record—Ideat Village was entirely self-funded through small donations and local fundraisers. We never took one cent of ‘government’ or ‘corporate’ money. Our budget for TEN YEARS of events that served countless hundreds of artists and musicians totaled less than 25k. For the public spaces that we used, we took out legitimate permits, paid the fees, and followed the rules. We never looked for any special ‘favors’—and, in fact, were targeted because of our strident independence. The only true currency that makes public art viable is cooperation.

City Hall has showed its true colors too many times in ‘that regard’.

The minute you take a cent from them, they own you! It is no different than Ben Berkowitz encouraging me to use the fund to bring back my ‘Breast Cancer Awareness’ Bus Stop show. That was a ‘personal project’ that I believed in, put forth the effort, and found a way to bring it into the public sphere. For me to make any money off of an issue like Breast Cancer Awareness is insulting to my integrity as an artist. Ideat Village fought hard to maintain its philosophy and independence for over a decade—all of our events were free to participate, free to attend, with no ‘application process’ except the will to be involved in a community ‘art party’. We still stand by that philosophy.

We had also hoped that we also taught some people ‘how to fish’ in the meantime… apparently not! Sorry you took the bait!!!!

posted by: 1644 on September 19, 2019 8:48am Mr Poland: Your link says Yale was disinterested in Science Park. To the extent that it has been involved, it because it has been cajoled by the city, not because the area is targeted for expansion. More recently, Yale bought land on the southern ends of Dixwell and Goffe, which, unlike Science Park, does fit Yale’s strategy of building a buffer between its campus and the ghetto, as well as banking land for future academic expansion. The Law School paper linked in another article is more accurate in describing Yale’s objectives regarding New Haven real estate. Yale’s primary objective in its New Haven real estate acquisitions has been campus safety both real and perceived. Thus, it wants its commercial tenants open until 9 pm, and is sensitive the the class of clientele its tenants will attract. As your link notes, it has long been a buyer in economic downturns, most notably in the 1930’s.