2010 Inaguration

2010 Inauguration: Friday, Jan 1st at noon:

Everyone is invited to attend the inauguration ceremony, where the Board of Aldermen, City Clerk and the Mayor will be sworn in. The ceremony will begin at noon on Friday, January 1st at the Cooperative Arts High School in Downtown New Haven. Free parking will be available in the Crown Street Garage and in the ProPark lot across from the school.

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year (and tree collection)

Hope everyone is enjoying the Holidays!
And, Happy New Year to all!!

Christmas Tree pick-up begins Monday, Jan. 4th:

The Department of Public Works will begin holiday tree collection on Monday, January 4th and will continue this effort through the end of January. Residents are asked to please place their trees outside with their trash on their regularly scheduled collection day.
All decorations must be removed from the tree. If a tree becomes frozen to the ground, it will become the responsibility of the homeowner to remove the tree. For more information, please call the Department of Public Works Citizen Response Unit at 203-946-7700.

NHPS Reform

I had promised to provide the link to the hand-out I received back in October at the School Change meeting at Edgewood....
At that meeting, several Reform Objectives were illustrated: an outline of "Why New Haven?" (they state they have "A Strong Foundation to Build On"), and a chart, "Focus and Coherence in the Management of Schools," showing what Asst. Superintendent Garth Harries described as some of the how the main goal of "Raising Student Performance" will be accomplished. It also shows four "planks," each with a "vision," having several "potential components." Here's the just posted Overview of School Reform Initiative (PDF). And here's the NHPS Foundations's official reform website.

Office Hours: Tuesdays 9:30 @ Deja Brew

Yep, I'm still available at "office hours," Tuesday mornings, 9:30-10:30 at Deja Brew (corner of Edgewood & W. Rock). Please stop by to chat if you can. I plan to expand these hours to other locations and times as needed.

for the new Alders...

Thought I'd let everyone know that the City is introducing us new Alders to City Department heads, and Alderwoman Ina Silverman is hosting "boot camp" to get us up to speed on BOA procedures.

Dec. 1st, I attended a meeting to meet folks and hear from several City Departments. NHPD Chief Lewis was there with Asst. Chief Brown. Chief Lewis presented the recently released crime data report (NHI story here) showing improvement from 2008. Mike Piscitelli, Director of Transportation, Traffic & Parking and John Prokop, Director of Public Works, both summarized their roles. Pat Wallace, the new Director for Elderly Services gave an update on what she's hearing from the 55+ community. Che Dawson introduced us to the City's Youth Department. Rafael Ramos, Dep. Dir. Housing Code Enforcement, explained his duties and the services that the Livable City Initiative Bureau (LCI) provides, including the second phase of the relatively new Rental Property Licensing & Inspection Program. NHFD Chief Grant gave an overview of the FD's organization and expressed his excitement on moving forward with much needed Lieutenant & Captain promotions.

Last night, Alderwoman Ina Silverman, BOA President Carl Goldfield, and Al Lucas, Dir. of Legislative Services, taught part-one of "New Alderman 'Boot camp'." We were all provided with lots of helpful information, as we all get set to help our neighborhoods and our City as soon as we're all sworn in to office at noon, January 1st at a ceremony at Coop High School.

W. Elm & Forest - Neighbors chat w/ TT&P Director

Several neighbors met near the "T" intersection of W. Elm St. & Forest Rd. tonight to take a look and chat with Mike Piscitelli, Director of New Haven's Transportation, Traffic & Parking Department. He also brought a rough drawing based on an on-site meeting he had with a CT DOT engineer last week. Residents of this block of W. Elm, and many Westville neighbors, know of the many accidents (including the 2008 death of a Forest Rd. neighbor) and the hazards of this particular intersection.

The City will soon get back to the neighbors with a proposal of what TT&P can do (with cooperation/permission from CT DOT) to mitigate the dangers at this intersection. The State did study and provided a recommendation (6/09) against installing a traffic light or stop signs (email me if you want a copy). Also, CT DOT advised that perhaps making the street one-way from Forest could help. This "one-way option" has largely been dismissed after the City formally surveyed the W. Elm St. neighbors. However, nothing is completely off the table as far as remedies go. Director Piscitelli will now consult further with the City's engineers (get CT DOT input and permissions if necessary) to get a plan that can be assessed by the New Haven Traffic Authority and the neighbors.

Neighbors attending tonight seemed to agree that striping and/or an island to direct flow to a Right-Turn Only from W. Elm to Forest would be a welcomed first step. Signage for No Left Turn onto Forest would also accompany this design. Further addressing the many hazards at this intersection, also led to considering blocking all incoming traffic from Forest onto W. Elm. This two-part idea will also be compared to completely blocking off access, to and from, Forest Rd.; thus making W. Elm a cul-de-sac at Forest.

TT&P will be in touch with Ina and me when they have something more to share.

Roger Rd Block Watch Meeting

I was happy to be invited to and attend the Roger Rd. Block Watch Meeting last night. If any other neighborhood Block Watches are meeting in the near future and would like to invite me, I'd like to try to attend.

-Greg

In-street Pedestrian Crossing Signs - removal for winter

Thought I'd make everyone aware that most (maybe all) of the popular, in-street pedestrian crossing signs will be removed for the winter. These signs - State Law, Stop for Pedestrians in crosswalks - are still just a "trial program." None (in our neighborhood) are permanently anchored and thus can't be left in place during snow removal season. Also, Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TT&P) wants to inventory and assess the signs. Many have been hit and damaged. They are also evaluating requests for more of these signs in addition to their own analysis for "how many and where" throughout the City.

DPW Leaf removal info

Street Sweeping becomes Leaf removal in November. Deputy Director of Public Works, Howard Weissberg, who spoke & answered questions at Nov's CMT meeting, reports that DPW has finished removing leaves from Ward 25/Route 11's streets. They will probably be back for more in December, as leaves fell late this year impacting the schedule and removal efficiency and completeness. Starting in November, DPW assesses the need for leaf pick-up, route-by-route, and formulates the schedule based on need and efficiency and not on a set schedule. This year, DPW also even added a "scraping" crew with a front-end-loader to go out ahead of the sweepers to remove big batches of leaves. Leaf crews AND garbage crews take away "resident bagged Leaves" during leaf season. It is illegal for anyone to rake or blow leaves into the street. DPW will warn and ticket violators. Howard does admit that communication could improve so they can get more cooperation from residents regarding moving cars and bagging leaves. Howard says he will continue to work to improve this program.

There is also a "night crew" to spot sweep and address arterial roads. CT DOT does not help with "their" many roads like Whalley & Fountain.

Please contact Ina or me to pass on any concerns about City Sweeping & Leaf removal to Howard. The concerns I've been hearing suggest many folks would like to see: ALL cars removed prior to sweeping and especially prior to leave collection (improve efficiency), more communication of schedule (via web or robo-phone calls), more information about "the rules" (website, flyers), and more enforcement of the bagging & not-into-the-street rules. Some folks would also like more supervision & evaluation of City crews/employees to ensure proper procedures (no leaf bags in with regular garbage) and increased efficiency.

Street Sweeping - some more info

There is info on DPW's website about street sweeping -- however it's from the Spring. It (click on the map) does however show Ward 25's Street Sweeping Route as #11. Route #11 is swept monthly between April - November on the first Monday (side 1) & first Tuesday (Side 2) of those months. According to Deputy Director of Public Works, Howard Weissberg, who spoke & answered questions at Nov's CMT meeting, the City's one crew takes care of the City's 14 Routes in a 28 day cycle (2 days/2 sides of the street). This full schedule does occasionally result in routes/neighborhoods being "missed" due to holidays or bad weather. Westville/Route 11 was "missed" 2 months in a row this sweeping season due to these factors. But, unlike "posted" routes, DPW can come back to our "in & out, un-posted" route, schedule permitting.

A set schedule and "posted" (permanent signs on poles) routes, does not allow for as much scheduling flexibility as DPW would like to accommodate needs and efficiency. Also, efficiency comes from having cars off the streets to be swept. Our neighborhood (Route 11) is one of the "un-posted" routes. This is suppose to offer the advantage of not being bothered with moving our cars on set days nor being subjected to ticketing and towing. Our neighborhood was identified as generally having fewer cars on the street which can be worked around. It also allows DPW to vary from the set two days they can come sweep our streets. In fact, for both these reasons, the City has been changing "posted" routes to "un-posted." Back to efficiency issues with "un-posted..." Crew supervisors (which go out a couple days ahead) do however assess how free of cars streets seem to be. And, they can then decide to "paper-post" streets as no-parking, providing 24 hours notice. This posting method too has it's pros and cons as you can imagine. Balancing desires, needs, requirements, efficiency, and inconvenience is the challenge. Howard is indeed re-evaluating the Street Sweeping program and will be working to improve it. He does want to emphasize that the City exceeds Federal & State DEP requirements. Cleaning the streets is done for both aesthetic and environmental reasons.

There is also a "night crew" to spot sweep and address arterial roads. CT DOT does not help with "their" many roads like Whalley & Fountain.

Please contact Ina or me to pass on any concerns about City Sweeping & Leaf removal to Howard. The concerns I've been hearing suggest many folks would like to see: ALL cars removed prior to sweeping and especially prior to leave collection (improve efficiency), more communication of schedule (via web or robo-phone calls), more information about "the rules" (website, flyers), and more enforcement of the bagging & not-into-the-street rules. Some folks also would like more supervision & evaluation of City crews/employees to ensure proper procedures (no leaf bags in with regular garbage) and increased efficiency.