by Paul Bass - The New Haven Advocate, April 1, 2004

It just might happen this Friday. New Haven's politicians and their un-friends in the Rowland administration just might stop sniping at each other and get a stalled stretch of downtown moving again.

Then again, maybe not.

The state's budget chief, Marc Ryan, has a meeting scheduled with the city's state legislators and Mayor John DeStefano to discuss three long-stalled projects at downtown's front door: demolition of the empty Veterans Memorial Coliseum; a $30 million-$60 million new home for Long Wharf Theatre on part of that site; and a proposed $140 million campus for Gateway Community College atop the graves of the old Macy's and Malley's department stores.

All three projects have stalled for years amid squabbling. The Rowland administration says New Haven keeps failing to come up with hard figures and detailed plans. The DeStefano administration argues that after making public pronouncements indicating their support, Rowland administration officials have made the city jump through hoops to delay and delay while throwing hundreds of millions of dollars to other cities for similar projects.

State budget director Marc Ryan will repeat on Friday that the city should forget about getting $6 million to demolish the Coliseum. Period.

Why? Because, Ryan says, there's local controversy over the idea; the state already pays $600,000 a year in debt service on the building; and he hasn't seen a "detailed plan" for how the city would replace the building.

The city did, in response to the Rowland administration, have architect Herb Newman draw up such a plan last year. "I have never seen it," Ryan claims.

After waiting more than a year and a half for the state money, DeStefano now says the city's prepared to spend its own $6 million for the demolition.

Ryan says the Long Wharf and Gateway college projects are still on the table. DeStefano and legislators are pushing for the state finally to commit to the second half of an estimated $140 million needed for the new Gateway campus. Proponents must convince the Rowland administration (or a Rell administration) to put the item on the Bond Commission's agenda. Ryan says that in concept, the administration supports both Gateway and the theater project, although he wants harder numbers on the costs.

"Any time you're talking about $140 million, you need to know everything about it," Ryan says. "At no time did I saw we were signing on to the full cost. I didn't rule it out. I didn't rule it in."