Long Wharf
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Long Wharf is a waterfront district and neighborhood of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. Its location can be defined as the area stretching inland from the west side of New Haven Harbor northwest to Church Street and west to Howard Avenue. It is located directly south of downtown New Haven and the Wooster Square neighborhood.
The Long Wharf district contains several notable features and buildings, including the Long Wharf Theatre, Gateway Community College, the Long Wharf Maritime Center, the headquarters of the New Haven Register, as well as New Haven's Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park which stretches for seventeen acres (69,000 m²) directly along the harborfront. Long Wharf is also the home port of a life-size replica of the historical Amistad slaveship, and has recently become host to an IKEA super-store which atrracts shoppers and visitors from around the state.
The neighborhood is primarily a mixed-use district, with a combination of commercial, educational, industrial, port, and recreation facilities taking up the majority of the neighborhood's land space. This area is currently undergoing a significant redevelopment process as spurred by the city. It was once hoped that a large shopping mall would be constructed in Long Wharf, but those plans have since changed to a toned down vision of the area as a more low-key mix of commercial and artistic facilities, with the IKEA store as an anchor; road construction has been encouraged to reconnect this neighborhood directly with downtown.
Interstate 95 bisects the neighborhood from the southwest to northeast; it intersects with Interstate 91 in the extreme northeast section of the neighborhood. The Oak Street Connector/Route 34 also connects with Interstate 95 in the selfsame section.