February 2024 News: Exciting Shoreline Greenway Trail News; State Street Re-Design & Phase IV Updates; CT Trail Census; Rock to Rock
Dear Friend of the Farmington Canal Greenway,
We wanted to wish you a happy (almost-) springtime and provide you with a few important updates:
* Shoreline Greenway Trail Information Session, February 29, 6pm (Virtual)
The City of New Haven is hosting a public meeting on Thursday, February 29th to discuss plans for the New Haven portion of the Shoreline Greenway Trail, which the City of New Haven has received $9 million since December 2022 to complete. It will connect the current terminus of the Shoreline Greenway Trail in East Haven with the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail and East Coast Greenway in the Long Wharf area. This is a big deal for regional trail connectivity and we are very excited about the project. There will also be an upcoming opportunity to walk (or bike) the future route of the SGT in New Haven, see below.
Register Here for the SGT Virtual Public Meeting - Feb 29th at 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
* Walk the Route of the Future Shoreline Greenway Trail Extension in New Haven, March 23, 9:30am
The walk will be led by longtime advocate of a harborside trail, Chris Ozyck, along with Aaron Goode of NHFFCG and the Bioregional Group and Dan Buckley, Matt Lieber, and Doug Hausladen from the Shoreline Greenway Trail organization.
The walk will begin at Lighthouse Point Park at 9:30am. There will be an option for people wishing to do a shorter walk to join the group later at Eastshore Park. More details TBA.
RSVP here.
* State Street Re-Design Project Breaks Ground
This month ground was officially broken on the long-awaited State Street re-design and road diet project. This is part of a larger project that will include the pedestrianization of the entire east side of the State Street median, which will then serve as the route of the Farmington Canal and East Coast Greenway as these greenways traverse downtown New Haven. (More background here.) We strongly support this project which will have positive impacts on traffic safety and positive synergies with the Farmington Canal and regional trail connectivity more broadly.
* Phase IV Construction Update - Almost Finished!
Please follow our social media for additional updates on Phase IV.
* Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride, April 27
New Haven’s premier environmental fundraising event, Rock to Rock, is celebrating its 16th Annual event on April 27 and registration is now open! Pick from one of six thrilling routes: 2 family rides (1-mile flat, 5-mile-summit); 12-mile; 20-mile; 40-mile; and the metric century, plus park walks! All rides will begin and end in East Rock Park (College Woods) where there is a Kids Bike Rodeo and a Green Fair with live music and food carts.
After you register, you get to choose which Rock to Rock partner organization you want to support. Please consider selecting our partners Farmington Canal Rail-to-Trail Association or Community Placemaking and Engagement Network (CPEN) as one of the organizations you are supporting. Thank you!
We sincerely hope you can join us for the Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride!
* CT Trail Census - Get Involved with this Awesome Data Project!
We are really glad to be participating in the CT Trail Census again this year, as we have since 2017. Participating in this research project provides us really valuable data about trail usage in New Haven and across the state. Last year our infrared counters showed that there were over 150,000 trips taken on the trail in New Haven, and the trendline continues to go up, up, up! We need help this year with collecting manual count forms that enable us to calibrate our infrared sensors. Please contact us if you are interested in helping out with this fascinating and useful project – we really need help completing some manual counts to make sure our infrared counter is calibrated correctly!
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As always, thank you for your ongoing support.
Aaron G.
New Haven Friends of the Farmington Canal Greenway
www.newhavencanalfriends.orgfacebook.com/NewHavenCanalFriends