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You seem to forget that the state spent $1.2 billion rebuilding the Q Bridge and I-95 in New Haven. They also spent $1 billion in rebuilding the New Haven Railyard and built State Street Station downtown. The State also paid for the entire Church Street Extension bridge that connected Union Avenue to Long Wharf Drive. The state also has spent millions building the new roadway network for Downtown Crossing and giving up the land for it. The latest phase is costing the state $24 million. Beyond Downtown Crossing, the state has turned over to the city all the land it acquired along Route 34 for new development. The Canal Dock Boathouse at Long Wharf was entirely funded by the state. And the state mostly paid for the Farmington Canal Greenway. This kind of shows that New Haven has hardly been neglected by the state.
The state did not pay for the Xfinity concert venue. That was a private development. Nor did the state pay anything for Dunkin Stadium which brought the New Britain Rockcats to Hartford as the Hartford Yardgoats.
As for the airports, the state does not have any big project at Sikorsky Airport. It is only in discussions with Bridgeport to take it over. I will point out though that Sikorsky is in a largely industrial area off of I-95. Tweed is in a largely residential area kind of far from the highway. Much of Tweed New Haven Airport is in the Town of East Haven which is pretty much against its expansion and has been pretty successful at keeping it from being expanded. Plus Sikorsky is closer to Stamford. It might be easier and more advantageous to expand service there instead. Jay
Right - not the State but the CAA (which runs Bradley and stopped progress at Tweed for decades).
Just one data point to add: Tweed was there before the houses built around it. The expansion is a done deal - East Haven and New Haven Mayors were both for it.
The State (CTDOT) is a lot more involved in the NH Union Station redevelopment as they see it as a big bet compared to some of the other projects out there.
Right - not the State but the CAA (which runs Bradley and stopped progress at Tweed for decades).
Just one data point to add: Tweed was there before the houses built around it. The expansion is a done deal - East Haven and New Haven Mayors were both for it.
The State (CTDOT) is a lot more involved in the NH Union Station redevelopment as they see it as a big bet compared to some of the other projects out there.
The Connecticut Airport Authority is a relatively new agency, established in 2011. It has little power beyond operating state owned airports so I doubt it tried to stop development of Tweed. I’ve certainly never heard it saying or doing anything like that. If anything it’s the local politicians that slowed it. The expansion is a compromise between the two communities but to become a true regional airport, more will be needed. Will see if that happens. Jay
Right - not the State but the CAA (which runs Bradley and stopped progress at Tweed for decades).
Just one data point to add: Tweed was there before the houses built around it. The expansion is a done deal - East Haven and New Haven Mayors were both for it.
The State (CTDOT) is a lot more involved in the NH Union Station redevelopment as they see it as a big bet compared to some of the other projects out there.
This is actually untrue. Most of the homes surrounding Tweed in both the Lighthouse Point section of New Haven and adjacent East Haven were built in the 20’s. I know because friends of mine live in a beautiful little old home just a few streets over that was built in 1924. Aside from a few tear downs and renovations, the homes in their neighborhood are much the same. Tweed opened in the 30s.
It’s also important to note that even if Tweed were there first, they certainly didn’t operate Boeing 737s.
The Connecticut Airport Authority is a relatively new agency, established in 2011. It has little power beyond operating state owned airports so I doubt it tried to stop development of Tweed. I’ve certainly never heard it saying or doing anything like that. If anything it’s the local politicians that slowed it. The expansion is a compromise between the two communities but to become a true regional airport, more will be needed. Will see if that happens. Jay
CAA definitely has power - think of it like a public utility (quasi-public agency). The State and the Feds set the guidelines while awarding it a contract to run the airport. Bradley was previously under relatively full state control before that and guess who determined the parameters then - legislators and governors based in Hartford. In this case, it was a combination of Bradley-connected interests and local politicians that were blocking progress (mainly from East Haven since the airport was owned and operated by "diverse" New Haven).
I would've thought you would be for this private-sector led investment into expanding New Haven's airport to better support and grow the economy.
This Courant article aligns with my point about CAA being "concerned" about Tweed (i.e. more competition).
“Unconstrained competition between two airports that are located within 50 miles of each other is not necessarily a good thing for either airport,” Kevin A. Dillon, executive director of the quasi-public Connecticut Airport Authority, said.
We all know this is hogwash.
Sean Scanlon, executive director of Tweed’s airport authority, said this week a study by Tweed showed there are about a million people in what it considers its market: south of Middletown and Meriden; east to Old Saybrook and west to Fairfield.
“Statistically, those million people more often than not go to New York to fly and not to Bradley,” Scanlon said. “So we don’t really view this as a competition with Bradley. Yeah, in some sense, maybe it would be, but we’re not looking at them as where we are going to take from. It’s more about a two-airport strategy for Connecticut.”
This is actually untrue. Most of the homes surrounding Tweed in both the Lighthouse Point section of New Haven and adjacent East Haven were built in the 20’s. I know because friends of mine live in a beautiful little old home just a few streets over that was built in 1924. Aside from a few tear downs and renovations, the homes in their neighborhood are much the same. Tweed opened in the 30s.
It’s also important to note that even if Tweed were there first, they certainly didn’t operate Boeing 737s.
I disagree with this point as well. That was one area - the vast majority of the homes in the area came after the 1930s (Tweed opened in 1931 and sits on about 400 acres covering more than just that side of Lighthouse Point). Nice hedge with the last sentence, but the point still stands that there was very little around Tweed when it was first built.
Tweed isn't trying to be a JFK. It is trying to be a first-class regional airport that's focused on a currently underserved market undergoing an economic restructuring after decades of deindustrialization.
Looking forward to stopping by G-Cafe and of course checking out the new terminal when it's finished a few years from now.
New Haven's private investment and growth is all the more remarkable considering that for decades CT's bigger state funded projects just seem to favor HFD and BPT year after year.... As a NH Coliseum fan, watching CT fund and build BPTs Arena and their Harbor Yard stadium helped put nails in the coffin for NH's Coliseum and impacted NH minor league baseball. All the while we watch HFD and HFD-area get funding for the XFinity concert venue, the Science Center, the Convention Center, Rentschler Field, the Bus-line-Mass transit, and to be honest not sure if their AAA new stadium had a big government push but I believe so. Still New Haven flourishes with their small-scale growth, and private investment now even not including the big blue school. But just the same I hope for the airport it is just one time that CT favors and funds New Haven's Tweed over BPT. With all the private dollars ready to build New Haven's new terminal, I cringe when I am seeing reports that CT is lining up behind funding a big airport project in BPT. It just never ends.
Happy NH is starting to do well again, but NH sports went unsupported and would have ceased to exist even if Bridgeport did not build new arenas.
Yale was a pithy place for MLB baseball, just as West Haven was, and the Coliseum was not a 21st century quality arena.
Hartford IMO has a far better shot than southern Ct with minor league baseball. Southern Ct had many chances, and except for the initial 2 years of the Bluefish, did not support minor league baseball well at all.
I disagree with this point as well. That was one area - the vast majority of the homes in the area came after the 1930s (Tweed opened in 1931 and sits on about 400 acres covering more than just that side of Lighthouse Point). Nice hedge with the last sentence, but the point still stands that there was very little around Tweed when it was first built.
Tweed isn't trying to be a JFK. It is trying to be a first-class regional airport that's focused on a currently underserved market undergoing an economic restructuring after decades of deindustrialization.
Looking forward to stopping by G-Cafe and of course checking out the new terminal when it's finished a few years from now.
That one area is the area of the flight paths (landing) and is the area that would be directly impacted should operations expand further. The area between Huntington in New Haven and just west of Charter Oak in East Haven was developed in the 20s, as was much of the point area directly west of the north/south runway. That’s a big area that was already developed and/or privately owned before even the groundbreaking of Tweed.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m fully in support of Tweed flourishing. It’s bridged a gap that Southern Connecticut has had for a long time, but the “Tweed was there before it’s neighbors” argument isn’t exactly true. Saying that makes it sound as if suburban 90s McMansions were built there, when the reality is the entire area was developed in the 20s and 30s - both commercial and residential. Any local historian can confirm this.
Right - not the State but the CAA (which runs Bradley and stopped progress at Tweed for decades).
Just one data point to add: Tweed was there before the houses built around it. The expansion is a done deal - East Haven and New Haven Mayors were both for it.
The State (CTDOT) is a lot more involved in the NH Union Station redevelopment as they see it as a big bet compared to some of the other projects out there.
Forgot to add that the reason the state is involved in Union Station is that it owns the building and leases it to the city. Jay
CAA definitely has power - think of it like a public utility (quasi-public agency). The State and the Feds set the guidelines while awarding it a contract to run the airport. Bradley was previously under relatively full state control before that and guess who determined the parameters then - legislators and governors based in Hartford. In this case, it was a combination of Bradley-connected interests and local politicians that were blocking progress (mainly from East Haven since the airport was owned and operated by "diverse" New Haven).
I would've thought you would be for this private-sector led investment into expanding New Haven's airport to better support and grow the economy.
This Courant article aligns with my point about CAA being "concerned" about Tweed (i.e. more competition).
“Unconstrained competition between two airports that are located within 50 miles of each other is not necessarily a good thing for either airport,” Kevin A. Dillon, executive director of the quasi-public Connecticut Airport Authority, said.
We all know this is hogwash.
Sean Scanlon, executive director of Tweed’s airport authority, said this week a study by Tweed showed there are about a million people in what it considers its market: south of Middletown and Meriden; east to Old Saybrook and west to Fairfield.
“Statistically, those million people more often than not go to New York to fly and not to Bradley,” Scanlon said. “So we don’t really view this as a competition with Bradley. Yeah, in some sense, maybe it would be, but we’re not looking at them as where we are going to take from. It’s more about a two-airport strategy for Connecticut.”
Given the heavy traffic on I95 thru FFC and NH, Tweed's director is very wrong about FFC travelers preferring Tweed over NY airports.
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