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A New Garage, Not Necessarily a New College, for Downtown
Rowland, DeStefano acknowledge potential Gateway budget shortfall
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Business New Haven
9/16/2002
By: Mitchell Young
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“If you don't have parking, nothing else works,” observed Gov. John G. Rowland at the September 10 “rededication” of New Haven's Temple Street Parking Garage.
The 1,200-space facility is located in the heart of New Haven's downtown and has become a key symbol and component of efforts to resurrect the central city's economy.
While no one at the rededication mentioned Concetta (Penny) Serra, the young woman stabbed to death in the garage in 1973, the specter of the crime has long been seen as a subtext of efforts to attract more businesses and visitors to New Haven.
The brutality of Serra's death, taking place in the garage at the then-newly built complex that included the Chapel Square Mall, the Macy's and Malley's department stores, as well as a host of conspiracy theories helped keep interest in Serra's murder alive for nearly three decades.
Some believe Serra's murder set the original downtown redevelopment project off in a direction that eventually led to the closing of the two department stores and to successive failed efforts to make Chapel Square Mall a success.
Edward R. Grant 59, with the aid of forensic technology unavailable in 1973, was this summer convicted of killing Serra (he will be sentenced on September 27). The crime went unsolved until Grant's fingerprint from an unrelated arrest matched one on a tissue box in Serra's car. His DNA was later matched to the crime scene.
A total of $12.2 million was spent renovating the garage - much of it spent arguably to exorcise Serra's ghost from the structure. Officials described the renovated garage as “overlit,” and it now includes 20 emergency call boxes. The renovation eliminated blind corners and added new elevator and stairway entrances visible from the street.
Rowland and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. discussed the garage development as only a part of a wide array of development programs in the city, many funded with state assistance.
In what sounded almost like a rousing “warm-up” speech for the re-election campaigning Republican governor, Democrat Destefano cited state assistance to a litany of New Haven projects includes several hundred million dollars in new school construction in the Elm City.
Rowland answered the call by declaring that DeStefano had answered the question being raised by Rowland's gubernatorial opponent, William Curry Jr., “Where did all the money go?”
Added Rowland, “What the mayor and I are are trying to do is to create a learning environment in this city.” Hartford's new downtown Capital Community College campus, opened this year at a cost of about $120 million was “lights out.”
Not discussed in public remarks were plans for the site bordering the Temple Street garage. The city is interested in siting a new Gateway Community College there.
Only $60 million is currently allocated to the project by the state. According to estimates by city officials and others, the cost to build a new Gateway will be upwards of $100 million - regardless of where it is sited.
Responding to a question about whether more money would be available, Rowland said, “No, we have to get it down to the [budgeted] numbers. We have the highest bonding cost per-capita [in the U.S.].” Reminded that he had identified education as the central focus of New Haven's redevelopment, Rowland added, “Why do you think I'm running? We'll do it.”
Acknowledging that state budget constraints may delay the building of a new Gateway - a cornerstone of the city's plans - DeStefano acknowledged the project might be set back a year or more. However, he added, “It will happen. It's a matter of sustaining a vision.”
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