Besides the fact that housing project are associated/ promote crime, Traffic would be a real problem. Woodin street is not capable of handling such a large influx of cars and buses. 1,000 families driving to and from work, 1,000 families worth of friends/family visiting, and dozens of CT Transit buses. There are roads already connecting the Brookside Projects area to New Haven, Hamden and Amity. Route 10 to Dixwell Ave, Wintergreen Ave to Rout 10, Springside Ave to Rout 10 and route 63, etc. Forcing all this traffic onto a small road through a residential area is not safe for homeowners backing out of their driveways, kids playing in their front yards or cyclists traveling from the Greenway to West Rock Park via Woodin Street to avoid such traffic. The 5-10 minutes a commuter will save from Brookside to Save-a-Lot is not worth the risk of a child, cyclist, pedestrian or homeowner being injured or killed.

Just a quick response to Hamdener

I am offended by your use of over exaggeration. It is not 1000 families who all have cars and are driving. Many are using public transportation. It is a scare tactic you are using to keep saying "1000 families worth of friends/ family visiting". Currently if you ever visit the different housing projects in that area ( Brookside St, Wayfarer st., etc" , it is NOT a mass of cars and congestion. It is a quiet neighborhood with some cars driving by, children playing and folks sitting out on chairs socializing. Yes there is some "criminal element" as in any neighborhood, but it not the scary scene you are describing.

Agreed,This Housing project is quite and well maintained for now. It is also brand new and 1/5th complete. Only a very dozen buildings are standing. This is way it looks nice and calm. In the near future, however, the Brookside projects will expand. Then both Rockview and Ribicoff projects will be rebuilt with the West Rock Manors housing project to rebuilt as the last phase. Once completed, 1,000 families will live in this community. Traffic, be it car and public transit, will increase to the demand of such a population. Routes and Avenues are capable of handling this increase while a street is not. The fence, in this capacity, serves as a traffic calming device. Forcing vehicular traffic onto roadways that are able to safely handle the flow.
Crime is also very low in this area, for now due, to the same reasons that traffic is calm. The same reasons that will increase the traffic flow will be exponential to the growth of crime. That crime my come from within a public housing project, as seen from 1980-2000 in the former Brookside projects, or from a neighborhood adjacent to a public housing project, as from 2005-2012 in the Monterey Place project on Dixwell Ave. Either way, the fence serves to solve both aspects of the situation by keeping a troublesome Brookside out of nice Hamden or by keeping a troublesome Hamden out of a nice Brookside.

I still think you are over exaggerating the negative to create fear. Not all the people who have cars will be driving exclusively on Woodin St. if the fence comes down. A portion will still be using the other routes to go into New Haven and other towns to the south and east. So by saying that there will be 1000 families living there when it is all rebuilt and that they all will be driving on Woodin St is untrue.

Hamdener is not creating fear because fear already exist. The people who live in this section, like me and many others, do not want to go through what we did from 1978 to 2000. New Haven is wrong in claiming that the past is the past and this is the future. The same people are moving back into the same area during harder economic times than the 90's. The only thing that has changes is different houses. It is a bandage on a gunshot. It will only look nice but the problem will still be there. Who would live in and walkthrough Lower Dixwell if they had a choice? There is a huge project that looks nice but is a dangerous place. How many people have been shot, mugged, killed, carjacked, raped in New Haven? How many cars have been stolen? Home broken into? How many of these crime were committed in a housing project? near a housing project? or by the people who live in a housing project? Unless you own a home in lower Hamden you have no right to tell us what we can do and can't do with our section of town. You can't understand what it's like to live here now or during the 1970 to 2000. No one wants to go back to that terrible time. Woodin street is beautiful with nice neighbors and well kept homes without serious problems and it will remain that way. IF WANT THOSE PROJECTS PUT THEM NEXT TO YOUR OWN HOME!

It is the truth. There will be 1,000 families living in Brookside, as reported by the New Haven Independent. Here is a link to the news article.

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

Also, what will happen to Brookside, and all of New Havens housing projects, when federal funding for the maintenance of the buildings and grounds is cut, do to congressional budget difficulties? Are renters in a section 8 housing complex going to pick up the litter? cut the grass? trim bushes? paint the houses? fix items that will break? History will say no, economics will say no, society will say no. Brookside needs to prove itself by saying yes.
By proving it I mean several years of good neighborly behavior. Then maybe we can talk about the fence.

Trust must be earned not given.

It is true that 1000 families will be living there, But that does not correlate to all the families having cars and all the cars driving exclusively on Woodin St.

The meeting is over....for now. Thanks to everyone for coming out and showing your support for the fence.