I completely agree and will provide some rationale below.

But first, have you considered working with your local Aldermen & neighbors to submit a "Complete Streets Request Form"? They are available at http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Engineering/completestreets.asp. New Haven's Complete Streets manual has been widely recognized as one of the best in the country, but requires ongoing public pressure -- I believe that getting these types of public requests on the official record, alongside similar requests from the many other neighborhoods within New Haven, will help provide an impetus for the city improve the safety of roadways over time. The requests will be documented in annual reports and implementation (or lack of) can be tracked each year. If you need help completing the form itself you may want to contact your local alderperson, some of the folks at New Haven Safe Streets at newhavensafestreets at gmail.com or folks at Elm City Cycling, a bike/pedestrian advocacy group at elmcitycycling.org.

We do need a strategy to lower the speeds here. This street, as well as all other residential side streets throughout New Haven, should be posted at 15 or 20 miles per hour. Within residential sections of other Connecticut towns and cities, posted speeds of 15 or 20, and sometimes even 10, are common. New York City is implementing 20MPH speed limits within 75 neighborhoods starting this year. Speeds of more than 15 or 20MPH are completely unacceptable in residential areas because they create noise and lead to numerous pedestrian injuries, and sometimes fatalities of young children. Are New Haven's children worth less than the children of other towns and cities in the state?

I would start by lowering the speeds using an MUTCD area speed limit, but in the longer-term, narrowing the street down by deploying changes to the physical condition and/or the visual perception of it, would be by far the most effective way to create a more "livable" street.

There are dozens of options for doing this, ranging from more costly to less costly:
-New curbs, bump outs, shorter curb to curb crossing distances, chicanes, physically narrow streets
-Raised crosswalks at intersections, such as http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/edwards_st._raises_the_bar/
-Alternative Painting and striping techniques, additional speed limit indications on roadway or other progressive roadway markings
-Many types of so-called "temporary" (in reality, semi-permanent) traffic calming measures that the city has largely ignored up to this date, even though they cost almost nothing to install and are extremely effective.
- Traffic circles: Very cheap, and the City of Seattle has installed over 1,000 of these, see http://www.usroads.com/journals/rmej/9801/rm980102.htm to see exactly how effective they have been.