Little Pink House_ A True Story of Defiance and Courage - Jeff Benedict [158]
“Rich,” she whispered, choking back tears, “I think the only thing you can do is pray. Just pray, Rich.”
She hung up and buried her face in her hands. Then she called Von Winkle and exploded at him for not warning her before she talked to Beyer. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she shouted.
“Well, I thought he would have called you.”
“You should have told me,” she cried. “You should have told me!”
There was a long pause.
“What do you think is going to happen?” Von Winkle said softly.
“She’s going to die, Billy,” she said. “She’s going to die.”
Von Winkle didn’t know what to say next.
Susette gathered her composure. “I want to go down to New Haven and see Rich. Will you take me?”
“No. I’m not going.”
“Why?”
“Susette, let me tell you right now. If anything like that ever happens to me, just leave me alone.”
The next day, Beyer’s daughter passed away.
A consultant specializing in conflict resolution, Dr. Robert Albright II got a clear mandate from the governor to find a way to settle the standoff in Fort Trumbull that totally averted forced evictions. And to do it quickly.
Albright had mediated bitter disputes involving steelworkers and miners and their respective management in America’s rust belt. In such cases, he always began by getting the heads of the labor unions and management to simply start a dialogue. Albright decided on the same approach in New London, reaching out to Londregan and Bullock.
Bullock welcomed Albright’s arrival and wasted no time submitting a comprehensive proposal to resolve the standoff. Rich Beyer, the Cristofaro family, and Byron Athenian and his mother were willing to have their houses on Parcel 3 relocated to Parcel 4-A. This approach would completely free up Parcel 3 for development. It would also confine all the holdouts’ properties to a small cluster on Parcel 4-A, where the city had no development plans. Bullock pointed out that this would save the state a significant amount of money because none of the property owners would have to be paid compensation and the city could commence construction immediately. “It could be a classic ‘win-win’ solution for all concerned,” Bullock told Albright.
But Londregan shot down the idea. At this stage, why deviate from the ruling? The city had waited seven years to carry out its development scheme. The last four and a half years had been stalled by tough, expensive litigation. Along the way, the city had taken a tremendous beating. For starters, all the negative publicity around the lawsuit had prompted Pfizer to back away from its previous commitment to help pay for the hotel. Without Pfizer’s occupancy guarantee, the developer no longer wanted to proceed with the hotel construction.
On a much broader scale, lenders and investors had fled the overall redevelopment project due to the stigma slapped on it by the eminent-domain dispute. No institution wanted to back a project built on land that had been acquired under one of the most despised Supreme Court decisions in decades.
Rather than compromise, Londregan dug in. He told Albright that law, ethics, and precedent made it impractical and improper for the city to go along with Bullock’s suggestion to relocate the homes. Instead, Londregan gave Albright a simple response: Albright should tell the state to refuse to consider Bullock’s proposal.
From Bullock’s standpoint, it was Londregan—not the homeowners—who had most hurt the city. More than anyone, Londregan had led the city’s relentless quest to defeat the seven property owners. This obsessive approach had put the entire ninety-acre development plan at risk. Now his equally stubborn position had everyone on a fast track to a confrontation in the streets of Fort Trumbull.
“Londregan is unbelievable!” Bullock told Susette. “He truly doesn’t care about New London. The new city council needs to fire him, fast. Rell is pretty smart, though.