Mill River Trail reconnecting neighborhood with its waterfront

NEW HAVEN — No one was carrying a machete, but that’s what it has taken.

That plus perseverance and the ability to see what an an overgrown easement along the Mill River could look like if people viewed it as an opportunity.

Longtime volunteers and city officials, who often were one and the same, Thursday celebrated the progress made on the Mill River Trail, which extends from Grand Avenue to an entrance from Murphy Drive with plans to negotiate an easement along the next segment with Amtrak officials that will bring it to Humphrey Street.

Shortly, there will be a second celebration when color-changing LED lights will be installed to illuminate what is now a dark tunnel under railroad tracks on Humphrey. It will be an art piece and a gateway to Fair Haven.

From there, it is a short walk along the river at the edge of property known as the District, a tech center and co-working place, and then to Blake Field near the ice-skating rink. In the other direction it will connect with Criscuolo Park.

Chief among the volunteers are architect Aicha Woods, who is now New Haven’s city plan director, and J.R. Logan, who runs MakeHaven, New Haven’s maker place that attracts the many tech workers in the area who like to tinker, as well as those up to more serious endeavors, such as Nicholas McGhee designing an incubator to use on Mars.

Woods said Logan remains the “driving force” behind the beautification of this space for residents in the area, as well as workers at companies that abut the river.

“J.R. is able to make these kind of things fun. My kids have grown up weeding with J.R. on Thursday afternoons,” Woods said of her sons, who would tag along with the grownups and now are teenagers.

Mayor Justin Elicker supported it when he headed the Land Trust and has continued to do so as mayor.

He said he called up emails he has gotten on the project going back to 2013 from Logan, Woods and now state Rep. Roland Lamar, D-New Haven, on how this trail could save this area.

“You are right that this is a complex mess,” Elicker quoted Lemar as saying in 2013. “But it is exactly the type of thinking that could turn this horribly underutilized area into a a spectacular asset for the neighborhood, while providing multi-modal access across multiple neighborhoods.”

Woods said she can remember sitting at a table with city officials at former Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s retirement tribute that year sharing the vision, which had always been promoted by her predecessor, Karen Gilvarg. The project is now is under the supervision of Anne Hartijan, a senior planner for the city.

Logan’s sees the trail eventually extending from Sleeping Giant in Hamden all the way down and around the shores of Fair Haven with a spur that goes into Long Wharf. He said the celebration it is not just about the infrastructure.

“Without people who care about it, there will be weeds that grow in . ... There will be new environmental threats to the river that need to be handled. What really lasts is our shared understanding and appreciation of the river,” he said.

“Too long we have ignored our urban rivers and it is time for us to remember some of the older stories of what this brought to us. Settlers and Native Americans chose to live on this land because there were rivers . ... The work we have put into this trail is really the manifestation of the idea that this asset is valuable,” Logan said.

Woods said the most valuable tool the city has is the ability to get access to the rivers through easements sanctioned by federal law. She said often property owners will say, “‘why would anyone want to go there,’ but it is consistently recognizing the value that is important.”

John Wilson, an executive with Industrial Flow Solutions, is the latest property owner along the trail who has partnered with the city. “We are exciting about our ability to grow in this area, to attract new talent and really happy to be part of the team,” he said.

Michael Harris, executive director of the New Haven Innovation Collaborative, one of the funders for the trail, took the long view and how the area could be a major economic driver by connecting assets along the river, while also bringing jobs to the area, which is in a federal opportunity zone.

He said New Haven is ringed on all all sides by infrastructure that disconnects it from its waterfront. He said the trail is one of the ways to reconnect with the water, but he has found that the residents are already using it to fish.

The real challenge is to make the developments that happen here meaningful for the residents who live two blocks from the river, by making sure they share in the economic growth.