YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
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NEWS
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST
Alders delay Brewery Square action BY NOAH DAPONTE-SMITH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The owners of the beleaguered Brewery Square apartment complex in Fair Haven will have to wait to receive financial help from the city, after the Board of Alders delayed approval of an assistance package at their meeting last week. After the brewery shut down following World War II, the building sat empty until developers converted it into apartments with the city’s assistance in the 1980s. As a part of that assistance, the city delayed payment of taxes for a set time period to limit expense on the project at its outset. But, in the intervening 30 years, the project has proved less profitable than expected, leaving it to face significant debts. The owners of the Square requested a deal that would have allowed the owners to pay $300,000 of their $525,000 deferred tax bill — which is due in 2025 — immediately. The city would forgive the remaining $225,000. The Shoreline Corporation, which owns the apartments and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hopes that, after paying the deferred tax debt, it will be able to locate new funds to keep the complex afloat. Ward 5 Alder and Board President Jorge Perez said that the alders delayed approving the deal due to a lack of information. “The reason we didn’t want to vote on it last time was that someone had put it on the agenda, but none of us knew it was coming to a vote, so none of us had any idea what to think of it,” he said. He said the alders gave the bill a first reading at the meeting last week, but it will come up for consideration at a later date. In the meeting, Perez raised questions over the forfeiture of $225,000 in tax revenue. But Matthew Nemerson, the city’s economic development administrator, said that the city was not concerned. “The net present value is the same as if it was paid at the later date,” he said. “Sometimes it’s
better to get the money now — and in financial terms we’re getting the same amount of money.” Laurence Grotheer, the director of communications for Mayor Toni Harp’s administration, echoed that sentiment. He said that the city would not view the $200,000 in forgiven tax debt as a loss. Instead, he suggested, it would be considered an investment that did not fully come to fruition. “The city always works to balance its investments with private developers with the potential return on those investments,” he said, adding that, in negotiations, the city would treat the tax credit as an investment in the apartment complex. A representative from the Brewery Square Limited Partnership, the organization that directly runs the project, said the complex has only two or three vacancies. Under the terms of the deal, the owners would be required to keep a certain percentage of apartments as city-subsidized affordable housing units. Perez added that the City Plan Commission recommended to approve the deal in June, but he said that they failed to provide the alders with enough warning on the vote. The apartment complex, built in 1896, sits at the corner of Ferry and River Streets in Fair Haven Heights, about 200 feet from the Quinnipiac River. The deal further stipulates that the owners of Brewery Square would surrender an area of undeveloped land between the apartments and the Quinnipiac River. Nemerson said Shoreline Corporation had planned to build townhouses there, but financial conditions prevented that goal from being realized. Nemerson said he was hopeful about the future of that land. “We don’t have any plans right now,” he said. “But it’s a spectacular piece of land in a neighborhood we’re particularly bullish on.” Grotheer said the city has plans to redevelop Fair Haven Heights. He pointed to the
Connecticut Main Street Center project — an effort championed by Harp to increase economic activity along four of New Haven’s “major arteries” including Grand, Dixwell, Whalley and Congress Avenues. Nemerson concurred with Grotheer and said the city has high hopes for Fair Haven Heights and eastern Fair Haven. He cited the Grand Avenue project, adding that the city is eyeing the industrial buildings around River Street for a “long-term renovation project.” If that project goes through, he said, the buildings will likely be converted into apartments, or another nonindustrial use. Though the Brewery Square project started 30 years ago, Nemerson said that many similar projects, aiming to repurpose old industrial buildings, are appearing throughout the city. He pointed to numerous efforts to repurpose unused buildings for high-tech and residential purposes. “The most prominent one is the supply building on the corner of Nichol and State,” he said. “It’s about to be converted into several hundred apartments.” Other examples, he said, include the old coal building at the corner of Water and Chestnut and the former clock factory on Hamilton Street. None of these projects are currently receiving financial assistance from the city, Nemerson said. Similar projects have been completed across the state. In Waterbury, part of the former Waterbury Clock Company factory was converted to apartments about 20 years ago. In Stratford, the conversion to apartments of the former Southern New England Telephone Company building is underway, and the empty Addison Mill building in Glastonbury was recntly turned into luxury apartments in 2009. The Board of Alders will give the bill its second reading and a vote at its meeting at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20. Contact NOAH DAPONTE-SMITH at noah.daponte-smith@yale.edu .
Journalist tells story of violence BY STAPHANY HOU CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Sept. 21, 2001, Mark Stroman walked into a convenience store and attempted to murder Raisuddin Bhuiyan. Ten years later, in a twist of fate, Bhuiyan campaigned against the Texas courts to save Stroman from the death penalty. In his most recent book, “The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas,” New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas, who spoke at a master’s tea in Ezra Stiles College on Wednesday afternoon, tells the story of Stroman’s shooting spree and Bhuiyan’s mission to prevent his execution. At the event, which drew about 30 people, Giridharadas talked about the process of writing “The True American.” Giridharadas explained the backstory to his audience — Stroman was a white supremacist who wanted to retaliate against the racial group he held responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi Muslim, was the sole survivor of the shooting. His campaign to prevent Stroman’s execution ultimately failed, and Stroman was executed in July 2011. Giridharadas said he wanted to write about the story of Stroman and Bhuiyan because of its far-reaching implications. “I was excited by telling a story that was small in its contours but big in its ramifications,” Giridharadas said. “I saw an article about Mark Stroman’s death penalty case at 9 a.m., and by 11 a.m., this amazing story had formed in my mind.” As an Indian-American, Giridharadas said he had to approach Bhuiyan and Stroman’s family cautiously in order to write his book. Unlike his previous writings, which involved sourcing a multitude of individuals, this book only focused on two men and the worlds around them. By the time Giridharadas began writing, he said, Stroman had already been executed, making the reporting process even more difficult. But Giridharadas said he managed to obtain access to restricted information, such as the court documents from the case —
sometimes using unorthodox means. “I sweet-talked a woman in the courts of Dallas,” he said. “For three days, eight hours each day, I took pictures on my phone of every single page of the documents and ended up with a 88GB file.” After discussing the writing process for “The True American” Giridharadas shared his opinions on modern journalism and society. Giridharadas said he is optimistic about the current state of the journalism industry. Problems people frequently bring up, such as declining revenue, increasing layoffs of journalists and diminishing readership, are only temporary, he said.
I was excited by telling a story that was small in its contours but big in its ramifications. ANAND GIRIDHARADAS Author “The New York Times has become 10 or 100 times more influential than it was 30 or 40 years ago,” he said. “The quality of investigative reporting has also improved, and journalists are doing complex, data-driven work.” Audience members interviewed said they were impressed by Giridharadas’ talk, and that they found his views compelling. Kevin Escudero LAW ’15 said he was struck by how Giridharadas challenged his idea of the American dream. At the conclusion of the tea, Ezra Stiles Master Stephen Pitti ’91 said Giridharadas’ work is an example of remarkable investigative journalism. “I very much admire what you [Giridharadas] do with race as a person and how you develop the characters over time,” he said. Since 2011, Texas has executed 53 people. Contact STAPHANY HOU at staphany.hou@yale.edu .
NOAH DAPONTE-SMITH/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Originally a brewery, the building was converted to an apartment complex in the 1980s with financial assistance from the city.
Tikkaway to open by hospital BY ISABELLE TAFT STAFF REPORTER Tikkaway Grill, which many students and city residents dub New Haven’s “Chipotle of Indian food,” got one small step closer to national ubiquity Wednesday morning when owner Gopi Nair announced that he will open a second Elm City location within a few weeks. The new shop, located at 2 Howe St. near Yale-New Haven Hospital, will operate like the existing Tikkaway on Orange Street: customers choose a salad, rice or roti roll and add their choice of meat, vegetables and sauces. The restaurant has attracted a devoted following since it opened in August 2013 and now claims the top spot on New Haven’s Yelp page. Nair, who cites as inspirations Henry Ford, Subway founder Fred DeLuca and McDonald’s Corporation founder Ray Kroc, said he will explore other expansion opportunities, but is focused for now on ensuring the second Tikkaway is as successful as the first. He said he hopes the new location, about a mile from the Orange Street store, will give hospital workers a healthy option for lunch or an afternoon meal. “The intent is to make Indian food accessible, approachable [and] easy to understand,” Nair said. After helping operate restaurants in India, Nair immigrated to the United States in 2001 to pursue an MBA at the University of Northern California. Prior to opening Tikkaway, he worked in Norwalk. Conn. as managing partner at the Coromandel Group of Indian restaurants. Nair said it took him six years to craft the concept for Tikkaway, including designing the restaurant’s brand and developing the recipes. Though the fast-casual style of
the restaurant is recognizable to diners who have embraced chains like Chipotle and Panera, Nair and several customers said that the cuisine itself is less familiar. Tikkaway is among the first restaurants of its type in the country. Toronto and the San Francisco Bay Area are each home to a fastcasual Indian chain, and New York City has a few takeaway Indian restaurants. But the concept has yet to fully take off. Nair said he believes Tikkaway could be a “game-changer” to catalyze Americans’ interest in Indian food, adding that the restaurant serves as a way for people to get comfortable with new flavors.
The intent is to make Indian food accessible, approachable [and] easy to understand. GOPI NAIR Owner, Tikkaway Grill “My thought process is, if I do this right, and I do well, the standard Indian restaurant will benefit in the long run,” Nair said. Hospital employee Orville Abbott said he had never been to Tikkaway but that he would consider trying the new restaurant, particularly since many of the food trucks near the hospital stop serving in the winter. He noted, however, that the location could present problems, considering there is not much parking near the hospital, and few employees walk along Tikkaway’s new block. Navjot Kaur and Mansoor Ahmed, post-doctoral researchers at Yale-New Haven, saw Nair’s announcement on Facebook and made a special trip over to 2 Howe
St. to check out the restaurant. They were disappointed that, for now, the only resemblance it bears to the Orange Street location is a few brightly colored signs. “I can’t count the number of times I’ve eaten there,” Ahmed said of the original location. “Maybe 50.” They said that, when the restaurant opens, it will likely become a frequent lunch break destination. Yale undergraduate fans of Tikkaway also said they were excited to hear that New Haven will have a second location, though many said the Orange Street store, about a mile from 2 Howe St., is more convenient. Lily Sawyer-Kaplan ’17 said she appreciates that Tikkaway provides a “Chipotle-like option” in a city filled with more upscale Indian restaurants, like Zaroka and India Palace. “It’s good to have a range in terms of affordability and style,” Sawyer-Kaplan said. Anirudh Sivaram ’15 said he now often eats at Tikkaway over Panera or Tomatillo, but still opts occasionally for meals at sit-down Indian restaurants in the area as well. Ram Shrestha, the owner of Zaroka, said that he has not been to Tikkaway but has heard of it. Since Zaroka opened 14 years ago, Shrestha said, he has noticed Indian food becoming more popular but is not concerned about additional competition among New Haven Indian restaurants. “Everybody is doing good,” Shrestha said. “That’s all. Everybody should do good, and may God help everybody.” The original Tikkaway, at 135 Orange St., is open on the weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends. Contact ISABELLE TAFT at isabelle.taft@yale.edu .