Coalition Receives Response from Mayor DeStefano on "Progress Report" Letter

Dear New Haven Safe Streets Petition Supporters:

Yesterday, Mayor John DeStefano mailed a written response to a group of elected officials and civic leaders who represent New Haven's 12 Community Management Teams and other associations within the New Haven Safe Streets Coalition.

Following up to our larger-scale Petition drive in 2008, this core group of neighborhood leaders had recently authored a detailed "progress report" on the city's Safe Streets programs, law enforcement activities, and Route 34 designs. Please click here to read the original "progress report" letter, and list of authors: Letter to Mayor DeStefano - August 24 2011

Please click here to read the Mayor's response: Response from Mayor DeStefano - September 22 2011

Regarding these requests, the City has proposed three follow up actions:

1) The Coalition will schedule a meeting with the City's Transportation Director, Jim Travers, in order to review each of requests in our letter. Please contact newhavensafestreets at gmail.com, or call (203) 500-7059, if you would like to attend this meeting. We will share the results of this meeting with this group and on the New Haven Safe Streets website.

2) The City has invited all of us to attend and participate in upcoming public workshops and hearings on major city development projects. In particular, several meetings and public hearings will be held regarding the Route 34 reconstruction project in the fall of this year. We strongly encourage you to attend these hearings, and demand street designs that comply with city regulations by prioritizing the accessibility of walkers, cyclists and public transit users of all ages and abilities.

3) In early 2012, City Hall will make a full report to the Board of Aldermen regarding the Complete Streets program (which has been recognized as one of the nation's best, according to the National Complete Streets Coalition), including a review of all requests submitted to date using the "request form" system. Please contact us if you have any questions about how this works, or if you would like help filling out "request forms" in your neighborhood. The forms are available at http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Engineering/completestreets.asp. Although we will demand that all streets be considered for improvements (and have requested next year's project schedules to help ensure this), we encourage every neighborhood and elected official to complete the official "request form," because this will help provide a greater degree of transparency.

To view a Sunday, August 28th feature story in the New Haven Register about our original letter, please visit the following article: New Haven Register: Advocates pleased with New Haven safe streets efforts, but say much work remains

Thank you again for your assistance as an author of this letter, and/or as a general supporter of the Safe Streets Coalition. We will continue to monitor New Haven's progress on the Safe Streets Petition, and look forward to additional successes in the coming years. Please feel free to forward this email to your neighbors and friends, or unsubscribe if you no longer wish to hear from us.

Best regards, New Haven Safe Streets Coalition Coordinators & CT Livable Streets Campaign Steering Committee