Build a community center/parking garage at Fort Trumbull
There are some issues that have haunted New London over the years, with no resolution in sight.
Parking is one.
It is hard to imagine that the city is again considering installing meters downtown. Why punish surviving businesses, who already must compete with a surrounding suburban world of endless free restaurant and retail parking?
When was the last time you couldn't find a parking space downtown?
And yet Electric Boat workers are allowed to park for free all day throughout Fort Trumbull, while downtown workers must pay to park all day.
The lack of development in Fort Trumbull is another haunting issue.
It's been 16 years since the City Council gave a green light to the destruction of that neighborhood. I think sometimes we will all be dead or in nursing homes by the time anything ever happens there.
The strategy, it seems, continues to be to the same: Wait for the next fickle developer to come along and propose taking the land for free to build suburban-style rental apartments the city doesn't need, with tax abatements.
Another vexing city issue is the lack of a community center.
I heard a lot of voters at the polls last election complaining about this.
Mayor Michael Passero has been working at it, presumably with all the best intentions, for six years, with no plans to show for it.
Maybe it's a question of connecting the dots.
I would not be the first person to suggest building a parking garage at Fort Trumbull. It doesn't take a genius to see that revenue from charging the dozens and dozens of EB workers who park for free there now could go a long way toward financing a building.
If you are going to build a garage with a built-in revenue stream, why not make it a really interesting project, and add a community center.
The Ocean Community YMCA, which already serves communities from southern Rhode Island to Groton, has shown an interest in New London. The organization is adept at charging fees for those who can afford it, and giving scholarships to those who can't.
A spectacular waterview facility in New London, adjacent to a state park, would be an amenity for the area, a draw for other neighborhood development.
It also could draw members from downtown and Groton, with the new river water taxi. It would be within walking distance from a lot of challenged city neighborhoods.
Maybe someday Shoreline East trains could stop there, and commuters could park nearby.
It would be good penance, for a city that destroyed a neighborhood, to create a community center in its place. It would be good, too, to finally build something, anything there.
A parking garage with revenue could not only solve the Electric Boat parking problem but also could help ease parking issues for the downtown, in the event the National Coast Guard Museum is a success.
I would bet that the planners with the Yale Urban Design Workshop, which has done so well in helping launch the new Thames River Heritage Park, would be happy to consider plans to jumpstart Fort Trumbull development with a solution to the city's parking and community center issues.
Or the city can just wait 16 more years for the next apartment complex developer to come along, looking for free waterfront property and tax abatements.
This is the opinion of David Collins.
d.collins@theday.com
Twitter: @DavidCollinsct
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