Dear Friend of the Farmington Canal Greenway,
We wanted to wish you a happy springtime and provide you with a few important updates about exciting events and developments related to the Farmington Canal in New Haven:
* REMINDER: Rock to Rock, Saturday April 26 - You Can Still Donate To Support Our Work and Our Partners' Work
We hope everyone has a great Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride on Saturday, April 26! Good luck to everyone riding and thanks to all the great organizations who come together to put on this wonderful ride and fundraising event every year.
You can still make a donation to the Farmington Canal Rail-to-Trail Association here or to our wonderful partnering organization CPEN here. (CPEN has just opened their nonprofit Urbanscapes Native Plant Nursery for the season, which you should definitely check out and support.) Thank you in advance for your generous support!
* Jane’s Walk: 200 Years of Transportation History on the Farmington Canal, Saturday May 3, 2pm, Meet at William Lanson Statue (Near Lock Street) Join us on May 3 for a guided tour of Farmington Canal history as part of “Jane’s Walk,” a statewide program of guided tours taking place May 3-4 to celebrate the birthday of legendary urbanist Jane Jacobs.
We will explore 200 years of transportation history, from canal to railroad to beloved multi-use trail, led by veteran tour guide Aaron Goode of New Haven Friends of the Farmington Canal Greenway. Learn about the engineers, entrepreneurs, financiers, dreamers, and immigrant laborers who built the Canal and created New Haven as we know it today. We will discuss murals, historic sites and other place-making efforts along the Farmington Canal Greenway that have made the Greenway one of the signature places in New Haven. We will also look at new segments of trail that will soon open in downtown New Haven.
Meet at 2pm at the William Lanson statue near Sachem Street. The walk is flat and about 2 miles total. Rain cancels. * Bike to Work Day Breakfast on the Farmington Canal, Friday, May 16, 7-9am, @ William Lanson Plaza Join us for a free breakfast and social gathering along the Trail for National Bike to Work Day.  Come by for some refreshments and learn about upcoming bike rides, history tours, clean-ups and other programs. Sponsored by Farmington Canal Rail-to-Trail Association and Yale Sustainability.
* Ride The State, Saturday, June 28, 2025 - Recruiting Volunteers (and Riders!)
This is a great opportunity to ride the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail all the way from New Haven to Massachusetts in a supported group ride setting. It is an amazing way to see the many sides of Connecticut including vibrant cities, murals and public art, historic architecture, and spectacular rural scenery. This year, instead of a shuttle back to New Haven, riders will be able to take the CT Rail Hartford Line train.
Ride The State is always a great experience and a unique way of seeing Connecticut! Register for the ride here. (We have some scholarships available for low-income riders – please contact us if interested in this opportunity.)
Volunteers are also needed for the ride. You can sign up to volunteer by filling out the registration form above. If you have questions about volunteering, please contact Stephanie Levitt (sle...@globalimpactpro.com). We would love to be able to recruit a solid contingent of volunteers from New Haven!
* EXCITING NEWS: Construction Begins on New Trail Segment in New Haven (Water Street Cycle-Track Extension)
Some of you may have seen recent "news" about the imminent opening of the new below-grade section of FCHT in downtown New Haven. But we also wanted to make sure you knew some other VERY EXCITING NEWS about an important and related project that is part of the Farmington Canal and East Coast Greenway route through New Haven: the extension of the Water Street cycle-track that will connect the previously built cycle-track beginning at Olive Street to the "new and improved" Phase IV route along State Street, and includes the bridge over the train tracks, which has always been a dangerous choke-point for biking and impediment to access to the train station. This work started a few weeks ago and is proceeding quite quickly and we would expect it to be completed soon.
You can always sign up for our newsletter for construction status updates on FCHT and FCHT-related projects in New Haven, which we share whenever we get them. We will always provide you the most accurate and detailed information that is available. Stay tuned for more exciting updates as this project progresses!
* Update on Phase IV -- Getting Very Close! Thank You For Your Patience!
You may have seen some of the recent articles about the imminent opening of the below-grade section of Farmington Canal in downtown New Haven (sometimes known as "Phase IV").
We still don't have a date yet for that opening, and we understand and share the frustration of community members who look down at the new segment and see that the work is essentially complete but it remains blocked off. Nonetheless -- we are very excited about this section finally opening at some point later this year and we hope to be able to show it to you -- and take you through the historic railroad tunnel -- on a walking tour we are leading May 3 (see above notice about Jane's Walk event). Look out for further announcements! * Bike Repair Pop-Ups and Maintenance Classes at the Learning Corridor / Newhallville Bike Box Thanks to Bradley Street Bike Co-Op and CPEN for offering free bike repair classes and pop-up workshops at the Learning Corridor Bike Box (right next to the Trail) once again this year.  Free bike repairs will be offered two Saturdays a month, 10am - 1pm, and the full schedule of maintenance classes will be announced soon. CPEN will also be offering other bike programming this summer, details TBA.
* Cover Story in Rails to Trails Magazine - Check It Out! (ICYMI In Our Previous Newsletter)
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: We were honored to have the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail featured as the cover story in the Winter 2024-25 edition of Rails To Trails Magazine, the flagship publication of the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The story includes quotations and photographs not just from us but also from many of our community partners. We worked extensively, over the course of several months, with the author and editors of the story to make sure the details were captured correctly, and we're very pleased with how it came out!
You can read the story online but we also have some hard copies of the magazine if you'd like to take a look. Let us know! (And here's another excellent just-published story, an in-depth feature from Yale's New Journal looking at traffic safety issues in New Haven, which includes some comments from us.)
________________________________________
As always, thank you for your ongoing support. Hope to see you out on the Trail this spring and summer!
|
