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Three and Out
Would-be mayor Looney says DeStefano has failed business — and New Haven
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Business New Haven
4/16/2001
By: BNH
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Democrat Martin S. Looney practices law in New Haven, represents parts of New Haven, East Haven and Hamden in the state senate - this year has taken the plunge to unseat three-term incumbent Mayor John DeStefano Jr. BNH sat down with Looney April 6 in his Orange Street offices to talk about economic development.
You held a press conference [April 5] about downtown parking issues. What are the key ones?
There is concern about getting sufficient turnover in the downtown spaces, but there is also concern about the distribution of parking. The actually is a fairly substantial amount of parking downtown, but a lot of it is parking that people don't choose to use - notably the parking garages. People don't like to use the parking garages, and that continues to be a real perception problem for New Haven. Parking garages do not have to be as forbidding as they are in New Haven. There are ways to improve signage, appearance, security - all of which are things the city can use to market itself as a safe place.
Have you issued a comprehensive economic-development agenda, or is it still in the formative stage?
We have a downtown that's been struggling for many years, but we also have neighborhood commercial districts - Whalley Avenue, Grand Avenue, Dixwell Avenue - that also have to be incorporated into any economic-development plan for the city. Job-creation is going to come primarily from small business; we don't have the large employers - other than Yale and the hospitals - that we had a couple of generations ago. We must nurture small business whether it's downtown or neighborhood-based.
What about biotech?
We clearly need to find ways to develop [it], but we shouldn't oversell it as the panacea that's going to solve all of New Haven's problems. That's clearly been the focus of the mayor, that in the wake of the collapse of the [Long Wharf] mall, he turned around and said, 'Well, we're going to do biotech instead.' Well, biotech was going to develop on its own, one way or another, whether or not we had a mall. The main problem with the mall failure was that so much time and political and governmental capital were used up that other opportunities were missed.
You are a champion of a new ballpark for the Ravens. The mayor says he also would welcome a new park. Is the difference between the two of you merely one of priorities?
I think it should be a priority. I envision a multi-use stadium - for baseball, but also to attract soccer, lacrosse, high-school and college sports tournaments of one sort or another. In other communities minor-league baseball has been a significant generator of economic activity - Trenton, Portland [Me.], for example. [Eastern League] baseball provides 71 home games, and if you have a team that can draw 5,000 a game that's 350,000 people being brought into an area over five months. That's an extraordinary magnet you can draw upon for other purposes. Look at how successful Bridgeport has been with its new stadium.
What do think should happen on the Macy's and Malley's blocks?
I would like to see an enhancement of activity all along Church Street, from Frontage Road to the Green. We need to create street-level retail and develop as much as we can an active presence on that street. Right now it's completely desolate; you don't have a sense that you are in a downtown at all. It's eerie. It's interesting that there was a proposal a number of years ago that the city rejected from Westfield [of America, owners of the Connecticut Post Mall and others] about creating a downtown retail initiative. The city rejected it in favor of the New England Development-Fusco proposal for Long Wharf. Six years later, we're now back trying to look at downtown once again. I think we need to focus on street-level retail uses, and loft-apartments and other uses for the spaces above the street. The other challenge is lower Chapel from Olive Street to the Green. The Strouse-Adler building should be developed as apartments. We must increase the density of livable space in that part of New Haven.
Since you represent both New Haven and East Haven in the Senate, how could the dynamic between the two be altered in a way that would get Tweed airport improvements off the schneid?
The legislators who represent East Haven have generally cooperated pretty closely on issues relating to the airport. What we have seen is the town administration of East Haven taking a more aggressive anti-airport stance than previous administrations did. And some of their concerns are legitimate. There are good neighborhoods surrounding that airport on both the New Haven and East Haven sides, and we need to make sure those neighborhoods are not disrupted or damaged. At the same time, we do need to have a viable regional airport there. No one is saying that should be another Bradley Airport, but it does need to be a functional regional airport with connecting flights to hubs. It needs to be restored to what it was ten or 15 years ago.
As a legislator, do you receive many calls from business people about the need for Tweed - chamber-of-commerce types excepted?
Frankly, no. I occasionally hear some, but not as much as you would expect if there were a general perception of urgency.
Let's talk tech: Does New Haven need to publicly incentivize technology companies to be here, or can we build that industry without the public opening its wallet?
We have to be prepared to develop whatever opportunities we are going to get because of Yale's presence here. There will need to be some incentives, because New Haven is coming somewhat late to the game since Yale has only made [technology transfer to commercial application] a priority over the last five years. The real challenge is to not have what happened in the early years of Science Park, which is, when you have an incubator business, once it gets to be somewhat healthy it no longer needs the cheap incubator space and flies off to the suburbs.
Is the Shubert [Performing Arts Center] going to need a third bailout - and should it get it?
I think the Shubert is going to need some additional government help, and should get it. It's an important cultural institution in the city. There's been discussion in recent economic-development theory about “niche” development: A city has to carve out a niche that doesn't overlap with what other cities are doing. Clearly, the arts and culture are our niche.
Public education - should we have an elected school board?
I think we need to have a hybrid school board. I don't think we need an elected school board, because as we saw that turned out to be a disaster in Hartford. One of the benefits of our current system is clear lines of accountability. If you have an elected school board, the mayor can wash his hands of it. In New Haven, the lines of authority clearly go back to the mayor. Clearly, the New Haven school system under Mayor DeStefano has failed in its mission. The last seven and a half years, the state has poured resources into all of the cities, New Haven included, but we don't have as much to show for it as we could. He touts the school-construction program, but neglects to mention that it is 80-percent paid for with state funds.
Education isn't about buildings…
He has used to school-construction program as a smokescreen to avoid talking about what goes on in the buildings. We have a schools system that is top-heavy administratively. We hear from teachers all the time that the encrustation of bureaucracy prevents creative methods from being used; that's why teachers are some of the strongest proponents of opening charter schools.
Should [Schools Superintendent] Reggie Mayo be fired?
I don't think you can attach it all to one person. One of the things I have proposed is we need to create a competitive-entrance-exam public high school in the city along the lines of Boston Latin or Bronx High School of Science to say [to middle-class parents], 'You don't need to send your kid to a private high school to have an extraordinarily enriched atmosphere' as a way to keep people in the system who have the option to leave and send their kids to private schools elsewhere.
So, the answer to my question is, Reggie Mayo shouldn't necessarily be fired, but his boss should be.
Absolutely.
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