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Auto Neurotica
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Business New Haven
6/4/1995
By: BNH
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Never in the history of the Special Olympics, we're sure, has so much ink been spilled to such futile effect than in the case of the Great Traffic Scare.
To anyone who has not spent the last few months in a cave, this needs little explanation. People who live and work in New Haven have expressed ever-louder concerns that the Elm City will become Gridlock City over the course of the July 1-9 World Games.
So shrill and silly are the extremists in drumming up fears that they paint pictures of workers forced to sleep in their offices at night because they simply can't get home.
For the defense, event organizers have adopted the What, Me Worry? attitude that traffic will flow just fine, thank you, during for the duration of the Games, and that those deck chairs would look nicer on the starboard side of the Titanic.
The high-toned tenor of this debate spilled onto the pages of the New Haven Register's “Soundoff” feature on May 15. Asked, “Are you worried about traffic problems during the Games, the get-a-lifers who respond to such things answered with predictable alacrity: “I'm angry that with all this hoopla, the only ones who are going to benefit are the Kennedys” (“Mary” of North Haven); “I'm hoping I'm going to wake up and find that this is a big joke. It's impossible to over the Q Bridge during commuter hours now” (“Ellen” of Guilford); “The truckers were already warned months ago that we're going to have terrible gridlock during this time” (“Lynn” of New Haven). (Memo to “Lynn”: Warned by whom? Aliens? Or was it Elvis?)
As is often the case with flaps such as these, both sides are wrong. Obviously, with anything approaching 500,000 visitors, traffic volume will increase. The shuttle buses will help, but you can't prohibit people from driving in their cars, and many will no matter what alternatives are offered.
No one, however, is going to be trapped anywhere for the week. That's patently silly. More to the point, all the gnashing of teeth about traffic sends a very plain message to those involved in the event itself: You're not worth the inconvenience you'll cause, so we don't really want you here.
Unlike some of our media brethren, this publication has not been uncritical of the sacrifices the community has made in order to attract the Special Olympics. As our page 3 interview in this issue with Connecticut Special Olympics President Timothy P. Shriver indicates, we believe legitimate questions are in order about the Games' economic impact on the area, and the event's sometimes-controversial relationship with businesses that were here before the event and plan to still be here for the long haul. From the start, we've been asking them.
Nevertheless, to the doomsayers and those planning to escape the early July hoopla, we ask: Where are your manners? We have guests here.
The time for cry-babying, frankly, is in the past. Now is the time to smile, to make some money off the event (one hopes), and just deal with it. For Pete's sake, it's one week out of a lifetime.
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