The New Haven Coliseum - Urban Renewal

The New Haven Coliseum, a portion of Mayor Dick Lee's dream for urban renewal was demolished in January 2007, just one piece of the bigger story: an American city in ruin. "Build It and They Will Come" doesn't always work. The story of this era was Tear it Down - Build This - Start Anew. Make Bigger. (Sadly what is thought of as better.) Unfortunately stories such as this can be found in many of America's once booming cities now in decay.

The New Haven Coliseum, although many have fond memories of the handful of notable concerts, games, and monster truck shows, never reached it's complete potential of the creators' intentions, and cost the city millions of dollars to maintain each year. Not to mention - it was an incredible eye sore.

Will New Haven, even with the progress it's made over the last ten years, ever be the productive commercially successful center it once was? Perhaps.There are no simple answers.

For now - we have parking lots.

I found this website - and borrowed interviews from it. Definitely Check it Out.

http://www.yale.edu/nhohp/modelcity/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• urban
• renewal
• connecticut
• demolision
• richard
• lee
• dick
• explosion
• implosion
• building
• rebuild
• metropolis
• construction
• blow
• up
• history
• last
• days
• of
• the
• coliseum
• cptv
• documentary
• city
• dreams
• talking
• heads

[angelf1]

This is really awesome did you edit this or was it a clip like this already?

[jjred86]

I edited this. The interviews were pulled from Yale's collection. I had made a video with footage of the coliseum implosion I had shot with some friends set to Talking Heads - City Of Dreams, but the song got pulled b/c copyright. So I tweaked it, and made this.

[angelf1]

Ah thank you friend I remember that video im not sure if you had it or your freind had i think his name starts with a J, I dont want to sound like a idiot but the microwave guy? i seen the video quite some time ago but i dont remember it too well can i ask why this is so important to you?

[jjred86]

Yes, Jonathan Paula, aka Jpizzle 1122 is a good friend of mine. He helped shoot this. You may recall his "Slow Motion" video of the implosion. I actually did camera for the episode, Is It A Good Idea to Microwave Dynomite.

This is important to me because I grew up in the New Haven area, and the stories of old timers always fascinated me - "the way New Haven used to be". I worked in the coliseum briefly as a teenager, and I loved hearing about it's history.

[angelf1]

Ah thank you friend it is sad to lose things from memory. Take care, live long!

[EzraHorne]

A very nice job. Classic tongue and cheek satire.