Whalley Car-Slowdown Picks Up Speed

July 13, 2015, The New Haven Independent, by Markeshia Ricks - "Lyn Sabatasso looked out of the front window of her Whalley Avenue business and cringes. “First of all,” she said, “the elderly crossing here—forget it.” Sabatasso owns Odeon Boutique at 918 Whalley. She said for years she has watched people risk their lives trying to cross at the small stretch of Whalley Avenue intersected by Philip Street and by Blake Street. She sometimes left her building to assist people across the street. “They’re so scared,” she said. “They wait and wait, but people turn right there and they’re not supposed to.” Some of her customers who are elderly or have a disability are dropped off in front of her store, but she doesn’t recommend it. “I’ve seen so many trucks over shoot this light coming down that hill,” she said. “I’ve seen so many people nearly side swiped.” Some relief could be on the way—in the form of a half-million dollars worth of traffic improvements now in the process of receiving final approvals. Three years ago, State Reps. Pat Dillon and Toni Walker, along with then-State Sen. Toni Harp, sponsored and ultimately got a bill passed that set aside more than $400,000 in state bonding money for new crosswalks and street lighting in Westville Village. (Read about that here.) The city has now finalized its version of those plans and forwarded them to the Board of Alders and the state for approval..."

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