When Rt9 was put in, it was the only light between the Long Island Sound and the Canadian border. You could just drive all the way up, but that’s the only light you’re going to find. – William Vasiliou, Executive Director Middletown Housing Authority
There are two signalized intersections [on Route 9], one in Washington Street, one in Hartford Avenue. And they’re the state’s only signals on a highway. They may be the only signals on a highway in the entire Northeast. We can’t find other locations where there are [signals on a highway in the Northeast]. – Howard Weissberg, Deputy Director Middletown Public Works
When you come over from Portland and the road hooks about 45 degrees. I know you’re thinking… why is that there? Okay, well, it’s not supposed to be there. The bridge was supposed to go direct, straight, and come up on to Route 66 sort of up by Wesleyan. But, the retailers and business people [wanted] business to come to Main Street, because traffic was good for economic development. So they changed it… and now it’s a mess. – William Vasilliou, Executive Director Middletown Housing Authority
To me this just seems like an antiquated solution to a broken system as in the highway has been built there. A decision was made in the 50s and that was a bad decision to build a massive highway in between the city and the river. Now we are pouring money into fixing this problem that has been created by bad decision-making. – Dennis Law, Middletown Resident
The other problem is that infrastructure decisions can be used as a tool of racist development. … If you know the history of the riverfront, they leveled the slums to build a highway on the most valuable part of property in the town. But it’s not valuable. It’s occupied by a bunch of poor people, right. But the short sightedness then led to, we now have a major highway running in our most attractive part of town. – Bridge St. Neighborhood Resident
