Ready to lead the Elm City for two more years

By Ben Gray and Sheela V. Pai

LIZ OLINER/YH

The Yale Herald: What are the current plans for the redevelopment of the downtown area as a whole?

John DeStefano, Jr.: You see all the Class A office space in the city is occupied. You see all the expanding institutional uses. You see residential as a big part of downtown. You'll see in the heart of downtown two projects, one on Temple Street, which will have about 100 housing units, and the probable conversion of the former SNET headquarters on Church Street to residential use. I think you will continue to see development that will focus on more residential use. On lower Chapel, you will probably see development that will focus on upper-floor residential space and ground-floor retail. I think you will see something develop for the Macy's building, and something for the Malley's site should it be put together before the year ends. I think those little pieces, once they are done, will weave together that part of downtown pretty well.

So what it will add up to is a lot of street-level specialty retail. It will not be the central retail of the region. It will be retail that services mostly people who work here and in the downtown area and who are attracted to specialty types of retail. You will continue to see a strong mixed demand for downtown space for offices, arts and entertainment, and professional activities such as accounting and law.

YH: In light of Omni developer David Cordish's plans to redevelop Chapel Square Mall, what path do you see this redevelopment taking?

JD: Chapel Square Mall is one small piece of real estate in downtown New Haven. I would guess its future direction is going to be worked out one way or another in the next few months. The idea of it as a bunch of retail shops only worked when it was connected to two large thriving department stores of 400,000 square feet each. Particularly since Macy's closed, Chapel Square Mall has not been viable. It will have to be changed. David Cordish exercised an option in January; we accepted within a couple of days. He has until Feb. 27 to take title to the building. If he does, fine. If he doesn't, then we'll have to go down another route.

But I think the concept of Chapel Square that will emerge probably under anyone's scenario is retail on the first floor, the closing of the interior of the mall to public traffic, and the incorporation of the second floor into the [Omni] hotel, or, like with the Yale Co-op, some absorption of it, perhaps the use of some of the corners of the first and second floor. But what the Mall is and what it was designed to be doesn't work anymore.

YH: Critics of the Long Wharf development plans claim that Long Wharf Mall and a revamped Chapel Square Mall will detract from each other. How do you respond to this criticism?

JD: That's a misinformed position. Chapel Square is surviving only because we're keeping it alive. [These critics are] ignoring the flight of retail not from downtown New Haven, but from downtown U.S.A. The issue for me in developing Long Wharf is not about retail, it's about 3,000 jobs for people who live in New Haven. It's about a development that pays taxes. That's the critical issue here. I don't see how it could have an adverse impact on Chapel Square, because short of the Yale Co-op and the Omni, Chapel Square is a challenged place. It's going to need a serious workout within the next several months.

YH: In your State of the City Address, you pointed out that crime rates are dropping significantly in New Haven. However, the perception of New Haven as a dangerous city still exists. How do you plan to fight this perception?

JD: The perceptions are perpetuated by the media. You can look at how murders are portrayed in the New Haven Register on the front page. I read a letter to the editor in the Register today saying that Gateway Technical College shouldn't be located downtown because downtown is violent, because there was a murder in the Chapel Street garage a few years ago. Well, a few years ago was in 1969. I can't help people who choose to have those perceptions of crime or race or poverty. I can't help them, particularly if the media wants to perpetuate [those perceptions].

What we can do about the perceptions is talk about the facts. Crime has dropped 35 percent since 1990. I expect it will drop again in 1998. We've got a real focus on burglary and auto theft, which are bigger problems in residential areas than downtown. I'd like to talk about it, but, again, it's hard to compete with the daily newspaper and a local TV station.

YH: You have cited specifically the drops in burglary, robbery, and murder rates. What do you believe to be the cause of these drops?

JD: In the more violent types of activities they've been due to the cooperative actions of the U.S. attorney; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; and the F.B.I. The state police and the New Haven police departments have been very active using wire taps and surveillance activities to go after organized drug dealing.

The fact that these lead to federal prosecutions and convictions means criminals are more likely to be taken off the street for a longer period of time. In a state criminal system, jails are overcrowded so they release criminals
much sooner.

It has also been the fact that the New Haven police department is decentralized. They developed better intelligence systems; people talk to them more frequently. People have better relationships with the police. That's a big part of it. What you'll continue to see is more of an emphasis on street crime, less serious offenses that would be characterized as "quality of life" crimes. What you'll probably see is the police department being more aggressive about moving people off corners and doing other things they might not have before.

YH: What role has the relationship between Yale and New Haven played in your redevelopment efforts?

JD: The relationship between Yale and New Haven is multidimensional and very varied. Specific projects develop differently, under different circumstances. Relationships exist between the President's office and the Mayor's office, between the School of Medicine and the Health Department, between the School of Forestry and the Livable City Initiative. So, the important thing to note about [the relationship between Yale and New Haven] is that it's not just two points meeting, it's many points coming together. For example, the homebuyer's program was mainly a Yale initiative. Yale felt strongly about it, and at its inception it had a lot of involvement. Also, the School of Medicine helped set up a number of public health clinics in city schools using University donated equipment.

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