Commuter Rail Advocate Asks: “Where Are The New Cars?”

by matt.hintsa/flickr creative commons/A Metro North Commuter Railroad train arrives at Westport station

by John Dankosky - The Chairman of Connecticut’s Commuter Rail Council wants to know why new Metro-North train cars still aren’t in service.  He’s asked officials from the manufacturer and the company testing the cars to attend a meeting tonight in Stamford.

The new Kawasaki M8 cars were purchased six years ago at a cost of $866 million dollars.  They were meant to solve a big problem on the busiest commuter train service in America – the Metro-North New Haven line.

“The cars we have are a legacy of the neglect that the state has paid to transportation for decades.  They are 35 years old – they’re older than many of the passengers on the trains – they’re falling apart,” said Jim Cameron, the Chairman of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council.  ”The real question is where are the new M8 cars?”

Well, the answer is, they’ve been delayed again and again – first by a shortage of steel to make the cars, then because of problems found during testing.  Cameron has asked – unsuccessfully – for officials from Kawasaki and LTK, the consultants running the testing to appear in front of his council.  They’re not expected to be at the Commuter Council’s gathering at Stamford’s Government Center at 7 p.m. tonight.

“I don’t understand why commuters can’t get a straight answer from consultants that are getting paid 27 million dollars, who are involved with this testing on a daily basis, why these trains aren’t in service,” Cameron told WNPR’s Where We Live.

And, Cameron says they’re desperately needed, with the current fleet of cars being decimated by winter weather.  Because so many of the older cars are out of service, Metro-North has cut back its schedule on the New Haven line by ten percent.  Cameron says the new cars would help during what he’s called a “winter crisis.”

“Interim commissioner Parker of the DOT testified two weeks ago that the trains will probably be in service mid to late February.  Hello…it’s mid February, and their trains are no closer to being in service,” Cameron said.

DOT Commissioner Jeffrey Parker told Where We Live that the trains are in the final stage of testing, and should meet that deadline.  ”As I’ve always said, the testing is dynamic, and problems could crop up that would delay us, but as I stand here today, that’s what we’re headed for,”  Parker said.

And, Parker says that commuters should separate the long-term need for new rail cars, and the problems caused by the worst winter weather in decades.  He said that even if the new M8s were in service, it wouldn’t have led to “salvation” for the New Haven Line riders, jammed onto overcrowded trains.

Parker said the crowding on trains isn’t “terrible” this winter, but says that, on average, 1,000 to 2,00o more people are standing during their commutes than usual with the reduced schedule.   That’s out of 140,00 people a day.  But, Parker admits, “I’ve been on those trains, and forced to stand, and it’s not a comfortable thing.”

As for Cameron’s repeated request for Kawasaki and LTK to attend tonight’s commuter forum to answer questions about the delay, Parker doesn’t see the need.  He’ll be there, he says, along with a project official from Metro-North.  ”We really don’t want to have a real in-depth complex conversation about the inner workings of the car,” Parker told me.  ”Bringing in an electrical engineer who knows how the car works internally is not the best use of time for us.”

Tonight’s meeting of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council takes place at 7 p.m. at Stamford’s Government Center.

Marie Leaves DOT, Leaves Questions Behind

by John Dankosky – To a person, every single conversation I’ve had about outgoing Connecticut DOT Commissioner Joe Marie has been positive.  That’s mostly because as Ed Mahoney correctly puts it in today’s Courant, Marie was credited with “turning the focus of one of the largest and most expensive components of state government from road-building to mass transit.”

That’s a turn the troubled state department long needed – and Marie seemed to be making headway.  And that’s not just in Connecticut, either.  Marie seemed to understand – in a way that the Rell administration hasn’t always – that Connecticut’s geography makes it a major player among Northeast states…that we need to aggressively work together on big problems.

Marie was an advocate for the New Haven to Springfield rail line, that not only connected our major cities, but also connected us to Massachusetts and points North. Marie discussed the plans with us on Where We Live last March.

As Don DeFronzo of the state Transportation Committee told The Connecticut Mirror’s Keith Phaneuf, Marie was the point man for the project:

Not just for Connecticut but for New England,” in pursuing federal aid for a proposed $800 million commuter rail line initiative designed to serve communities between New Haven and Springfield, Mass. Connecticut already has secured about $40 million in federal aid and applications for a second round of funding are due in August, DeFronzo added.

But, as Keith also reports, Marie’s department may have had a vision bigger than it’s pocketbook would allow:

In a report issued earlier this year, the transportation department projected a $926.4 million gap between the cost of planned highway, bridge and transit projects for the next five years, and the level of anticipated funding available.

And state workers wonder about the timing of Marie’s departure, too.  They’ve been sparring with Marie over contracting issues, and union spokesman Matt O’Connor told The Mirror, “His departure in the midst of this series of contracting questions left unanswered is certainly cause for concern.”

Deputy Jeff Parker takes over immediately.  We’ll try to get him on the show soon.

Looking for Jobs in the Neighborhood

by John Dankosky – On the heels of our “what makes a good neighbor” show with Mark Oppenheimer and Peter Lovenheim, we see two more stories on the places we choose to live.

In the Atlantic this month, Christopher Leinberger writes “Here Comes the Neighborhood,” an exploration of “smart growth” that’s right up our alley:

Conventional suburbs are overbuilt and out of favor. In cities and suburbs alike, walkable neighborhoods linked by train are the future. Here’s how a new network of privately funded rail lines can make that future come to pass more quickly and cheaply—and help reinvigorate housing and the economy.

Waterbury - Forbes Magazine

The story is linked to their special report “The Future of the City.”

Neal Conan and Talk of The Nation brought in Joel Kotkin, suburban evangelist and author of The Next Hundred Million. We featured him recently in a conversation that we called “Smart Sprawl.” Conan had him in to talk about his new Forbes list of the best and worst cities for jobs. Where did Connecticut rank?  Well, Waterbury made the list at No. 10…as one of the worst cities for jobs in the U.S.

Hello, Neighbor!

npr/getty images

by John Dankosky - Fresh off a near sub-freezing mowing of the lawn (including the little patch in front of the abandoned house next door) I’m digging into my Sunday reading list about neighbors.  We wanted to think a bit more about who our neighbors are, what we know about them, and why we should care.

We couldn’t help but wonder more, as we saw scores of stories and video clips from Bridgeport and Shelton over the last few weeks.  Dozens of international and local reporters descended on these towns, hungry for any shred of information about the alleged Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad.   NPR’s Robert Smith’s story bears the headline that – while seemingly dead-on – is almost a cliche of crime stories:  Faisal Shahzad: ‘Nice Guy’ Turned Terrorism Suspect

Shahzad’s Bridgeport neighbors paint the standard picture: “We’ve never seen nobody coming out of the house … or coming in,” says neighbor Lavonne Muse. “We really thought it was vacant. We didn’t know people was living there.”

NBC Connecticut’s story talked about a “quiet, normal” man – the description most associated with neighbor’s shocked reactions to tragedy.  In fact, a search of “neighbor a quiet man” drew me to dozens of links, including a Christian Slater movie I never saw, and a YouTube video about reaction to a courthouse shooter. The first neighbor’s sound bite could essentially be copied and used in nearly any television report on a similar incident.  ”He was very, very quiet.  He kept to himself,” Johnetta Watkins told the AP.

Then there’s the New York Times headline about Shahzad, seemingly asking for a bit more from those who live next door.  It screams:  Suspects’ Neighbors Say There Was No Hint of Evil.  Whoa.  We’re supposed to be sniffing out evil now?

So, the question is, how well should we get to know those around us?  Not for reasons of international security, but just so that we have someplace to go when we get locked out of the house.  Just so there’s someone to call if you need a favor.  Just so your home, already a castle, doesn’t turn into a fortress.

We’ll be talking with Mark Oppenheimer, a regular WNPR contributor, whose essay “It’s a Wonderful Block” in the Times, explores what makes his New Haven street work.  He writes that his street, while no “real estate agents dream,” also “values community without requiring conformity.”  That the neighbors are “friendly but not nosy.”

We’ll also hear from Peter Lovenheim, the author whose new book, “In the Neighborhood” has him sleeping over at the houses of people who live near him, but whom he’s barely gotten to know.

I hope you can join us.  What makes a good neighbor?  Leave a comment below, or call 860-275-7266 from 9-10 am ET.  You can also send an email to wherewelive@wnpr.org.

Imagination: LIVE in West Hartford!

Imagination Conversation at UConn Greater Hartford (from left) Producer Libby Conn, Steve Dahlberg, Scott Noppe-Brandon, John Dankosky- photo by Catie Talarski

by John Dankosky – I am, by nature, both highly skeptical and wildly enthusiastic about conversations like the one we had last night in West Hartford.  It was an “Imagination Conversation” sponsored by Lincoln Center Institute, and recorded for Friday’s Where We Live. That organization is putting on similar events in all 50 states, but they usually don’t take the form of a radio show.

Catie encapsulated the basic idea in this blog post, as we hoped to continue a discussion of the way creativity and imagination can be used in schools, civic life, politics, business and city planning.

That’s a pretty tall order – and, as I say, I’m pretty skeptical of the applicability of ideas as open-ended as “imagination.”

But guest Scott Noppe-Brandon of Lincoln Center, and Steve Dahlberg, head of the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination brought some very interesting ideas to the table – and the discussion seemed mostly very focused on specifics.

We largely steered clear of the fields we’ve previously plowed: How to make cities more vibrant by bringing in more “creative capital.”  We also made a pretty good case that business, government and science are all places where creativity and imagination are sometimes more welcome than in the traditional arts communities we often think of.

The evening also included a very profitable networking session before and after the event, and an artist doing live

Artist John O'Donnell and his live "imagining" of the conversation

sketches onstage to correspond with our conversation (an animation of this, I hear, is to come).  A group of very sharp visiting entrepreneurs from Kenya gave our discussion a global feel, and a Simsbury high school student brought things into perspective as she talked about the need to be able to speak openly about scary ideas – something most schools don’t stomach.

You’ll be able to listen for yourself on Friday morning, and I’m very interested to hear your feedback.  Did we help explain why creativity and imagination are important?  Are there ways they can be better integrated into our daily lives?

Continuing Creative Conversations

by Catie Talarski

Photo by Chion Wolf

This past November, Where We Live paired with Real Art Ways to explore Hartford’s Creative Class: Can Hartford, the former insurance capital of the world, support a creative class? What (and who) is already here – and how can we connect them? How does the greater Hartford region contribute to Hartford’s creative landscape? What are the elements of a dynamic city – and where should Hartford focus its energy? What are the city’s barriers to a bustling creative economy?

We had a great conversation with artists, community leaders and residents of Hartford.   Coming up on Monday April 19, we’re continuing the conversation on Creativity with Scott Noppe-Brandon, the Executive Director of the Lincoln Center Institute.  He’s on a mission to have  “Imagination Conversations” in 50 states over two years.  All of the Conversations will be documented and final proposals for nationwide educational reform will be made at a national Imagination Summit in New York in the summer or fall of 2011. At the Summit, Imagination Conversation findings and an action agenda will be presented to public policy makers, educators, legislators and the media in an effort to make cultivation of imagination a key element in our schools.

Steve Dahlberg, head of the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination has been instrumental in bringing this Imagination Conversation to Connecticut.    This Conversation will focus on the role of imagination in education, creative community and economic development, and creative leadership in organizations. It seeks to build a relevant imagination-fueled agenda for the state to pursue. ICCI will coordinate follow-up action that emerges from this conversation, as well as additional future conversations.

The Conversation, moderated by John Dankosky, will feature Scott Noppe-Brandon along with leaders from an array of fields — government, business, science, education, and the arts — to explore the ways they experience and promote imagination in their work and communities. The goal of the Conversation is to present imagination as a key cognitive capacity, one that leads to creativity and innovation; and to help build awareness of imagination as a key skill in work and in life.

The Imagination Conversation will be in the auditorium of the Library Building at the University of Connecticut Greater Hartford Campus, 1800 Asylum Ave., West Hartford, Conn., 06117. The event begins with networking at 6 p.m. and the Imagination Conversation at 7 p.m. More details, along with parking and registration information, are available at: http://www.appliedimagination.org

The taped broadcast will air on Where We Live Friday April 23, 9-10AM.

Tuesday’s Where We Live: Parent Power

Avon Budget Protest (JOHN WOIKE/HARTFORD COURANT / April 5, 2010) Parents and students, members of the Coalition of Citizens for Avon, march from the Avon Middle School to the High School for a town budget meeting Monday night. Thousands packed Rt167 enroute to the high school carrying signs and shouting support for the increase.

by John Dankosky – If Monday’s program about life in the suburbs brought anything into focus for me, it’s this: No matter how much smart growth advocates may push for densely settled urban centers, complete with world-class public transit, and a so-called “creative economy,” there’s a lot of reasons why people still love the suburbs.

Open spaces, fresh air, spacious lawns…and really good schools.  If author Joel Kotkin is right in his book, The Next Hundred Million, we’ll have to listen to the voices of suburbanites even more in the next 40 years, as suburbs outstrip the cities in growth.

That’s why last night’s events in Avon were so, well, shocking. It’s a district that prides itself on good schools – they’re a big reason many people moved to the town in the first place.  Now, facing the possibility of cuts to sports, languages and arts, a fairly sizable coalition of parents, teachers and students have banded together to support a hefty tax increase.

By my rough guess, more than one thousand residents marched from the middle school to the high school in advance of a budget hearing.  It’s a big twist on the kind of activist outrage we’ve been seeing around the country – staged by those who don’t want their taxes to go up.

On today’s show, we’ll talk about this movement in Avon, and about the “parent trigger” legislation, that would allow parents to vote to reconstitute a failing school.

Portland: Connecticut’s Model City

by John Dankosky - And I’m not talking about the charming town across the river from Middletown.  Today on Where We Live, we got to talk – once again – about one of the most admired civic planning projects in American history: Portland, Oregon.  And, we did it with one of the architects of the plan, Rick Gustafson.

Rick Gustafson - photo Chion Wolf

He was in town for a conference on “Smart Growth” conducted by 1000 Friends of Connecticut. Gustafson heads up Portland’s wildly successful streetcar system, which some advocates are trying to replicate in Hartford. (Listen here for our program with transportation consultant Toni Gold about her ideas for trolley cars in downtown)

On previous programs, we’ve discussed how Portland’s light rail system could be a model for the larger region, but today it was really about integrating all our transit plans with a vision for densely-populated, vibrant urban cores.

So, how did Portland become the “model city” for this kind of development?

In the 1970s, aided by strong regional government (which Gustafson was part of), the city and surrounding communities began blocking highway development in favor of rail and densely packed urban areas.

In 1986, Portland’s light rail line was the first built with a federal grant, and a succesful streetcar line began in 2001. The region continues to recieve tens of millions a year in federal transportation dollars.

The key, according to Gustafson, is the commitment by local residents to development inside the city – rejecting the car-spawned sprawl found in many urban areas.  The result? A region pulling together toward common goals of downtown housing and accessible transit to connect them to work and leisure.  Gustafson says the plan worked:

“And that’s what happened with us, with a good street frontage, good walk-able community, and then good transit access, good bicycle access. What that did was make the high-density area the most desired living location in the Portland region.”

But how does that translate into a Connecticut that’s bound by tradition, ancient town governments, and devotion to plans that generate revenue? Well, Gustafson says, look at how Portland’s civic investment paid off:

“Our streetcar line cost us $100 million. We built it over a 10-year period. Within 750 feet of that line, there’s been $3-and-a-half-billion of private investment. 10-thousand new housing units and 2 and a half million square feet of commercial space.”

During the show, that statement was followed by seconds of silence, then laughter.  They drew that kind of private investment?

Yeah, he told me – there’s a cache to being a business on the streetcar line.  Everyone wants to be part of a winner – and a relatively modest public investment became one of the biggest winners the city has seen.

Our other guests today included the indispensable Tom Condon of the

UConn Professor Norman Garrick - photo Chion Wolf

Hartford Courant, and Norman Garrick from UConn and 1000 Friends.

After spending quite a bit of time with Rick Gustafson, I come away still thinking that Tom Condon is right: Plans like this start with leadership.  But, there’s a key element that Portland seems to have that this state might lack.  It’s a vision of the future, beyond the next few years, where planning strategies are based on their merits and projected outcomes – not politics and patronage.

• Read Condon’s most recent “Smart Growth” column in the Courant here.

In New London, “Shoeless” Joe Dupnik Saves the Day

by Catie Talarski and John Dankosky- If you listened to this morning’s broadcast from the Hygienic Art Gallery in New London, it was in large part due to Where We Live’s wonderful interns Joe Dupnik (who has been nicknamed “Shoeless Joe” by Colin McEnroe) and Jonathan McNicol (who is yet to receive a catchy nickname – but perhaps will now be referred to as “ethernet tossing McNicol”).  Up until about ten minutes before the live broadcast, we weren’t able to secure a solid internet connection – which means we couldn’t get a clear audio feed back to Hartford.

But Joe, Jonathan and some wonderful folks at the Hygienic went knocking on neighbors doors, throwing ethernet wires out windows, and scrambling to make the program fly.  And it did.  Guerrilla radio at it’s best.  Thanks guys!

Audience at the Hygienic, photo by Jonathan McNicol

Also, thanks to all those who braved the rain and participated in the live show, and to the Bean and Leaf for providing coffee for the early risers.  We try to get our show on the road at least once a month – and New London is one that we’ve been talking about coming back to for months.  The charming little city has been getting a lot of attention lately, both for the fact that Pfizer is leaving and also because of the thriving grassroots arts scene.  New London stands out as a truly successful example of how a “creative economy” helps to revitalize cities, which we’ve been talking about on the show.

A few notes:

• We were surrounded by an amzing art exhibit, “gesture: making the mark” (right) featuring the work of these regional artists: Greg Bowerman, Don Eccleston, Denny Rivera, Tekla Zweir, Ken Steinkamp, Eva Leong, Joan Levy Hepburn, Judith Osbourne; also from New Orleans, Tony Nozero and from Mexico City, Maria José Romero.

From "gesture: making the mark"

• You can check out more photos from the visit, taken by Jonathan McNicol.
• Stay tuned to Where We Live in the coming months as we follow up on some of the issues we covered this morning, including Shoreline East expansion, the future of Fort Trumbull, and the creative class in Connecticut.
• And, listen to “The Potential of New London” our live broadcast from the Garde Arts Center July, 2008.

Thursday’s Where We Live: LIVE in New London!

New London Lighthouse - image by slack 12/Flickr Creative Commons

by John Dankosky - We’ve been talking about how a “Creative Economy” can be the key to revitalizing Connecticut’s cities.  New London is leading the way, with a bustling, creative arts scene.  It’s part of a grass-roots effort to remake the city’s identity.

Today, we’re live at the Hygienic on Bank Street – it’s become a center for this transformation that’s stretched beyond the arts.

We’re also here to consider what’s changed in the city since our last town hall meeting here, and discuss the impact of Pfizer’s decision to leave its new research facility.

Is this the end of the “big bang” redevelopment project?  Can New Londoners reshape their city as a creative center of Southeast Connecticut – one storefront at a time?

Join us live at 9a.m. ET…we’ll save a seat for you!