agripiery

A Message to the Community:
In mid-February, Supervalu Inc. announced that it was pulling all Shaw's supermarkets out of CT. Immediately upon hearing the news, the Greater Dwight Community Investment Corporation and its partners began examining options and seeking a replacement. No one is willing to accept a "food desert" in this neighborhood, and GDCIC is working initially with Yale University Properties, which has both extensive experience in supermarket real estate and a strong desire to avert this possibility.

It is of critical importance that the community remains engaged on this issue. Attached to this sheet we have included a brief survey, the data from which may be valuable in assisting the GDCIC and its partners secure a new, full-service supermarket for the Dwight location. In addition to distributing the survey, here are things you can do to help:

1. Once Shaw's goes dark at the end of March, help us ensure that the Plaza remains a safe place. Visit the site often and shop at the other stores in the center to that it remains a financially healthy community asset. Also, consider creating a formal block watch.

2. Collect the names and signatures of people committed to having a full-service supermarket in central New Haven, and have them complete the survey attached.

3. Make it known in conversations with friends, elected officials, and inquiring journalists that the community deserves a full-service supermarket in this space. If you have a moment, submit a comment to Supervalu, the owners of Shaw's, at http://www.supervalu.com/sv-webapp/contact/contact.jsp. Let them know how important it is to the community that they assist us in obtaining a full-service replacement store (please keep the messages civil, as we continue to work with Supervalu to reach a mutually-acceptable resolution).

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT. WE ARE COMMITTED TO KEEPING THE COMMUNITY INFORMED AS THIS PROCESS UNFOLDS. WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE.

What can we do as neighbors? We can go door to door and bring this survey to your neighbors! Instructions for returning the survey are on the bottom of the page: http://tinyurl.com/newhavengrocer

Recent layoffs have meant that as of February 28, 2011, the total number of hours that the New Haven main library branch opens have been reduced from 185 hours per month to 148. The branches have taken the brunt of the reductions, with monthly hours reduced from 136 to 96 including elimination of Saturday hours.

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/branches_make_last_saturday_loans/

The closing of the libraries is a crucial issue of public space and civic vitality in New Haven. Libraries should be active community hubs where neighbors can meet and cement relationships, not abandoned buildings.

Public Libraries are educational agencies that provide materials and services to all members in the community from preschoolers to seniors. The library is accessible to students for study and research when public schools are not open. The library provides the only computer access some public school students have to complete their homework assignments.

Public Libraries help build a strong economy. Our unemployment rate has been at least 12%, and likely to be above 50% among youth in some city neighborhoods. Many employers have transitioned to online employment applications. Public Libraries provide the only access some people have to computer technology and job searches.

Please "vote" here if you believe that the City of New Haven should immediately restore all of the eliminated library hours, either through re-hiring of laid off employees or through other measures.

Information, updates and additional ways to advocate for this issue will be posted here and you will receive them if you request to be notified of updates.

(I have posted this at the request of an elderly New Haven resident who no longer has access to the internet, due to closing of library hours on Saturday in her neighborhood)

Water running from taps and faucets is brown. Problem apparently shared by others in East Rock .

A former comedy club, this Yale-owned storefront at 986 Chapel Street has been empty since before Bruce Alexander came to New Haven in 1998. (Out of fairness to Bruce, Yale didn't take ownership of this piece of the Schiavone portfolio until 1999.)

C'mon Bruce, you're a real estate whiz. I know you and Yale can do better, -- especially given the fact that this is such a great location. Renovate the hideous storefront into something respectable, and then I bet you'll find a good tenant in a hurry.

PS -- It is not okay that next door at 976 Chapel is also a permanently dead storefront. I understand that it is such a big space that it's tough to rent. However, lower the rent if you have to! This is prime real estate, and the neighborhood deserves another lively retail tenant.

Bruce's bio here:
http://www.yale.edu/about/alexander.html

email Bruce, (politely please), at bruce.alexander@yale.edu

This police cruiser pulled up and blocked half of the intersection at Chapel and High. Then the two cops went to starbucks to get their coffee.

I wish I could get away with parking like that.

Shaw's is closing all CT stores but has not found a buyer for the Whalley Ave. location. The New Haven region could really benefit from the opening of a year-round market inside and around the Shaw's shopping center (there is an enormous, underutilized parking lot there also). I'm not sure about the zoning so I'm hoping someone could check on that.

The market could potentially provide year-round access to fresh produce and crafts, it could serve the city as a public space, and simultaneously help to sustain the local economy in these uncertain times.