Matt Fantastic, the owner of Elm City Games: Plaza events “raise sales in a meaningful way.”
Eddy Jabbour: The plaza is “the worst thing ever.”
Ninth Square’s “Rainbow Road” has once again closed to cars — this time with fewer tables and a shorter season — after a failed effort by some business owners to end a five-year tradition of turning the block into a pedestrian-friendly plaza in the warmer months.
A random survey of business owners on Friday found strong disagreement over whether the promenade helps or hurts the neighborhood. The tables, at least, were full: through the late morning, a dozen New Haveners occupied all six, eating and drinking in the sun.
The pedestrian-only plaza opened — that is, it closed to vehicle through-traffic — on May 15. It stretches along one block of Orange Street from Center Street to Crown Street.
In late 2025, Andres Cordido, a co-owner of Somos Arepas at 63 Orange St., started a petition for ending the promenade. He told the Independent in December that the plaza had become a “hangout for crackheads, drug dealers, and the homeless.”
On Friday, Cordido declined to comment on the plaza, saying he was in the middle of something.
Back in December, Mayor Justin Elicker and two promenade occupants, Elm City Games and the New Haven Pride Center, were among the strongest supporters of the plaza.
Matt Loter, a co-owner of Elm City Games at 71 Orange St., told the Independent on Friday that he eats lunch at the patio tables nearly every day.
“Any of the issues that we have” with the promenade “are city-wide, if not country-wide,” he said. In the winter, when the promenade is closed, drug use, panhandling, and other “issues” still exist; they just take place on the sidewalk instead of the street.
Loter noted that Elm City Games is not an obvious beneficiary of events on the plaza, as it does not sell alcohol or food. Even so, he said, they “still raise sales in a meaningful way.”
Elicker told the Independent in an email comment Friday that the city worked with the Town Green Special Services District and Boston-based landlord Beacon Communities to address concerns from business owners.
In this season’s plaza, Town Green Downtown Ambassadors and the New Haven Police Department are both increasing their visits to the area. The number of tables has also decreased from ten to six, and the block will reopen to cars at the end of August instead of October.
“While we understand the concern of some of the businesses, residents are overwhelmingly in favor of the Orange Street promenade,” Elicker said. “We hope these adjustments help strike the right balance” by addressing concerns while also keeping the street “open and accessible to pedestrians.”
Other than those changes, this season’s plaza is similar to the prior iterations. The Orange Promenade first opened in August 2020 to give restaurants and retailers a way to serve customers during the pandemic. Town Green and Beacon Communities filled the plaza with rainbow street markings, sidewalk planters, and outdoor tables.
Over the last five years, Town Green has used the space to organize salsa dance nights, art markets, and other events. Already, this season’s plaza has seen a night market and one salsa event.
Beacon owns the storefronts and apartments along the promenade. The landlord makes the pedestrian-only plaza possible by filing annually for a special events permit with the city.
Kristie Tafel, a senior vice president at Beacon, said the company decided to reopen the plaza after conducting a survey of all commercial and residential tenants along the promenade. They also solicited ideas for improving the plaza from community partners, including the mayor, the Economic Development Corporation, the Town Green District, and the NHPD.
“We understand this is not a decision that aligns with everyone’s preferences,” she wrote. “We will continue to reevaluate this decision each year to ensure we observe, listen, and take appropriate actions.”
Even with the adjustments, Eddy Jabbour, the owner of Ninth Square Market on 72 Orange St., called the plaza “the worst thing ever.” Between making sandwiches for customers, on Friday, he showed the Independent multiple pictures of people drinking, smoking, and falling asleep on the patio chairs.
“Would you buy a sandwich and sit outside here? I wouldn’t,” he said. In his experience, the plaza scares away customers. Some of his regulars have told him that they choose not to go to his store because of the panhandling and drug use nearby. “You don’t want to lose any customers,” he told the Independent.