Some powerful voices roared last night, as the Zoning Board of Appeals considered an application for a new entrance/exit from the Post Plaza Shopping Center onto South Morningside Drive.
The proposed driveway — referred to by some proponents as a benign-sounding “curb cut” — would be built directly opposite the Green’s Farms Elementary School bus exit. Hundreds of area residents fought the idea, citing safety concerns.
The main entrance and exit for Post Plaza Shopping Center. The entrance and exit would be at the rear, on South Morningside Drive.
Opponents included State Senator John McKinney, who represents Green’s Farms in Hartford, and presumably had other things to do — hours earlier, he announced he’s running for governor.
First selectman candidate Jim Marpe also blasted the proposal.
But some of the strongest words belonged to Joan Constantikes. In 1971 she helped lead the original fight against an entrance/exit there — before construction of the shopping center even began.
Calling the design “selfish and aggrandizing, which would endanger the entire neighborhood,” the octogenarian said (in a letter read by RTM member Dewey Loselle):
It is never too late to do the right thing, and the same issues exist now as existed back then: Do you put the desires of a business group before the needs and safety of school children? I sincerely hope that the kinds of people who joined our cause back then will come to the fore again, and that right will prevail.
More than 4 decades after she began, Joan Constantikes still battles for children.
And still wins.
The ZBA denied the application.
Unanimously.
