New Haven Independent

After three public hearings (see here, here, and here) on a proposed youth curfew that would keep kids under 18 inside after 10 p.m., an aldermanic committee of the whole met Wednesday to deliberate on how to proceed. They tabled the curfew, and focused on concrete ways to improve youth programming and parental involvement.

Roman, a JROTC cadette and Hillhouse High School senior, said in just three lunch waves, he got half the student body to sign a petition against a proposal they say misses the true causes of youth violence: Parental involvement, lack of role models, and lack of youth programming. He and the JROTC gave a list of suggestions: Improve block watches, “help us find better role models,” and open empty buildings that could hold teen centers.

“Whether or not we are for or against the curfew, it is clear to all of us that many, many interventions need to take place” to respond to youth’s needs amid a spike in teen gun violence, said co-chair Alderwoman Bitsie Clark (pictured), calling the meeting to order at a round table teeming with aldermanic colleagues.

“It did create an atmosphere for a dialogue that has not happened in a while,” agreed Hill Alderman Jorge Perez. The group proceeded to work on a to-do list drafted by Clark and Beaver Hills Alderman Carl Goldfield, and weaving in the Black and Hispanic Caucus’s Year of the Youth proposal unveiled Monday.

Suggestions included:

• Mapping a comprehensive list of the youth services available in each neighborhood of the city. Pierette Silverman, who just took over the Mayor’s Youth Initiative, said she’s already been at work on this, finding many people just don’t know about existing programs: “There’s a lot of rich resources here, it’s just a matter of kind of linking everything together.”

• Calling on state and federal legislators to fund youth programs in the city, as Perez has suggested. With a newly Democratic U.S. Congress, “there’s going to be hundreds of millions, if not billions, in pork barrel. We’ve got to make sure New Haven gets some of that pork barrel, too,” said Perez. Board President Goldfield suggested sending a busload of youth lobbyists to the state Capitol to plead New Haven’s case.

• Updating the 2000 Comprehensive Youth Plan, to see what has been accomplished, and what remains to be done since then. Alderman Yusuf Shah rose and declared the initiative had yielded nothing but “political mumbo-jumbo.” “In the year 2000, we sat here and talked about the same thing, and what happened — nothing! … It takes a police officer out of his own money to take 55 kids into the woods … to get something done.”

Shah suggested the city stop giving money to “top-heavy” non-profits and get a timeline for a comprehensive strategy.

Clark responded the youth initiative had spurred expansion of the Youth @ Work program, as well as the summer’s open schools. Components of Perez’ comprehensive plan were welcomed at the meeting.

Both sides came on board with a plan to take a field trip to visit model youth programs in NYC. Alderwoman Jackie James said the caucus plans to take a busload of 55 youth and adults at the end of January.

Aldermen agreed to allocate parts of its to-do list, including a parental training component, to the board’s committees. Then the committee of the whole would meet again next year to deliberate further action.

The youth curfew was tabled, but some had not given up on the proposal altogether. Goldfield (pictured at left) said the idea might still work for younger children: “I haven’t given up entirely on the idea of a curfew.”

Hill Alderwoman Andrea Jackson-Brooks chimed in that an alternate form of the proposal could work, such as the one proposed by the junior police commission: To enforce the curfew through truancy officers, not beat cops.

The curfew’s main proponent, Dwight Alderwoman Joyce Chen, could not attend the meeting because of a law school exam. She wrote in a letter: “Even though we may have differing ideas of how to tackle the problem, I think we all agree that something has to be done.”

After the meeting, cadettes Manuel Roman and Denzel Jean were awarded student government pins for their involvement in the curfew debates.