New Haven Independent

The march, organized by Connecticut United for Peace to commemorate the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. a week from Saturday at the Fair Haven Middle School and continue down Grand Avenue for a noon rally on the New Haven Green.

D’Avino learned from Saturday parades in the past that cars that find the road blocked will just defect to another cleaners’. “If someone needs something, they’re gonna go somewhere else,” said D’Avino, who owns Green’s Cleaners. “It’s revenue you’ll never see again.”

D’Avino sees next Saturday’s march as another setback in a tough business year. “With the (Ferry Street) bridge closing, we’ve lost quite a percentage of customers,” said D’Avino. “We don’t need this.” He wondered why the protest couldn’t be held on Sunday, when most businesses are closed, or in another part of town.

“Why don’t they walk down Chapel Street?” proposed Anthony D’Amato, owner of D’Amato’s Seafood, also on Grand Avenue. “Every time there’s a parade down here, we always lose business for a couple hours.” While he said organizers had suggested the parade would boost sales, D’Amato flatly disagreed. “What’re they going to do, get out of the parade and come and eat?”

Denise Vargas, who owns Denise Beauty School next door, said she hadn’t even heard there would be a parade, but if there is, “It would be better on a Sunday.”

At Apicella’s Bakery, owners are already recalling bad memories from 20 years of previous parades: Delivery trucks unable to reach the building, customers driving from other towns then turning back due to traffic, baked goods going unsold because of the decline in business.

“It’s a hassle,” said Paul Cimino, whose parents own the store. Saturday is the store’s biggest day, and “we lose a lot of business,” said his sister and manager, Marybeth Galluba.

Asked if the date was negotiable, march organizer Stanley Heller of the CT United for Peace replied, “The war started on March 18th, and we’re going to march on the 18th.” He said the group chose Grand Avenue because so many Latino soldiers have died in Iraq. The group has not yet received a permit for the march, but Heller said that won’t stop them: “We’re gonna go from Fair Haven down to the Green, one way or another.” He said he expects about 1,000 to join the line.

Heller is meeting with members of the Grand Avenue Village Association, which represents local business owners, Friday to discuss the protest’s impact on local stores. In response to storeowners’ complaints, he said: “It’s critical for the city of New Haven to oppose this war — whatever losses some of us may have to make is nothing compared to the American soldiers who are being killed and the Iraqis who are being killed and the monumental cost of this war to the country.”

John Buturla, the city’s chief administrative officer, said he is “confident” the city will issue peace activists a permit after organizers meet with GAVA.