By Mark Pruner
Dashboard Editor
I am writing to you about the poor condition of the Merritt Parkway and how it affects Greenwich, Fairfield County and the State of Connecticut. For the thousands of people that drive the Merritt Parkway from the New York line to the Stamford/New Canaan line every week what they see is a highway with road signs that are lying on the ground, a temporary road surface that is rough and corrugated and Jersey barriers that have taken away the breakdown areas and dangerously narrowed the road.
As a resident, I can tell you that when driving next to a large SUV in the left lane that is inches from the Jersey barriers and with another car driving in the right lane with their tires bouncing over the washboard temporary with minimal traction on a rainy day it’s scary, actually worse than the FDR in NYC. While the Merritt is not always this scary, it has looked shabby for months. Many of the large signs marking exits are either missing entirely or have panels missing. I can’t understand how the DOT can leave these large signs lying on the ground for months at a time. How is someone who is visiting supposed to find these exits.
I also can’t understand why each project isn’t completed before winter and we have to wait until spring for these temporary fixes to be completed. In other states they strip off the old asphalt, groove the surface, pave, and then roll a small section of the highway every night, so come morning, there is a section of brand new highway, not months of a parkway in disrepair.
As a realtor in Greenwich, I can tell you that the state of the Merritt Parkway is a factor costing Connecticut millions of dollars of lost income tax revenue.
At the present time here in Greenwich we have 169 houses over $5 million listed on the Greenwich MLS.
From $6.5 to 10 million we have a four year supply of houses, while over $10 million dollars the bar showing months of supply is literally off the chart. The majority of these houses over $5 million in Greenwich are within a few minutes of the Merritt Parkway.
Now some of this excess supply is due to listings coming on in the spring market, but the shabby condition of the Merritt Parkway is hurting the sales of these properties and the image of the State.
Some people will say well who really cares about the rich people in those houses; they are already better off than most. Well the answer is that everyone should care about those “rich people”. I understand that the residents of Greenwich send $99 dollars to Hartford for every dollar they get back in state aid. All of these revenues are revenues that other Connecticut residents don’t have to pay or looked at another way money that can prevent the budget cuts the state is going through now. If people with the incomes to afford these houses don’t buy them the State is not going to be getting the income taxes it needs so badly and income tax revenues are likely to continue to drop.
It’s not only the income tax that the state of Connecticut is losing out on. Last year, Greenwich home sales reported through the Greenwich MLS fell by $214 million from $1.8 billion to $1.6 billion. The drop in sales of houses over $5 million accounted for $202 million of the $214 million sales drop. This is a reduction in just the state real estate conveyance taxes of over $2 million dollars, plus an additional $500,000 to the Town of Greenwich. Who knows how many of the dozens of other taxes that the high wage earners would have paid?
I’m not saying that this area should have better roads than the rest of the State, but they should be at least as good. Nor am I saying that the the Merritt Parkway is the main reason for poor high end sales, but it is not helping. We shouldn’t have large signs that fall apart and stay that way for months.
We shouldn’t have maintenance programs that leave our roads severely narrowed and in shoddy conditions for months at a time. Our highways should be a plus for the State and a way to attract people to Connecticut.
