New Haven Independent

The primary is for the party nomination for alderman in the 23rd Ward, which includes the area around the Hospital of St. Raphael.

Incumbent Yusuf Shah is running for his fourth full term; he currently serves as the board’s president pro tem.

His challenger is prominent criminal justice reform activist Barbara Fair, a newcomer to electoral aldermanic politics.

“Barbara’s not really knowledgeable about what’s going on in the community,” Shah charged. “I haven’t seen her at community meetings, like the Dwight Management Team or West River meetings, or block watch meetings. What’s her agenda? I know she’s been doing work with the prison-industrial complex, but that’s not our agenda in the 23rd Ward. We’re trying to keep people from being arrested in the first place, through training and entrepreneurial efforts to give them opportunities so they can live better lives.”

“It’s not that I don’t care about those who’ve been incarcerated…” he added

“I’ve already lived a life of public service as far as I’m concerned,” Barbara Fair responded, “and this is a different way to serve. Hopefully I’ll be able to give voice to our community.”

Fair is a co-founder of People Against Injustice and a clinical social worker. She said when she thought about running and learned the current alderman was Shah, she pulled back, thinking she didn’t want to run against him. But then she paid more attention to his votes on the board, she said, and was concerned about three of them: “Another increase in property taxes. His vote for police to get Tasers. And when a police officer from New Milford who shot and killed a kid said he wants to be a New Haven firefighter, Yusuf said OK, as long as he can pass the test. Then I felt he’s definitely not representing our community, so I didn’t feel bad running against him.”

Asked what she thinks are the top issues in the neighborhood, she mentioned high taxes, parking problems for residents because of the proximity of St. Raphe’s, and poor conditions and maintenance in public-housing units. She’s not sure how much oversight the Board of Aldermen has on New Haven’s housing authority, but said it should have some leverage.

Would she have voted for the Shartenberg project, a city-aided 31-story downtown apartment tower, if she’d been on the board? “I would have to get more information,” she said, “but my first reaction is: How can we give a building away for a dollar when people here are strangling under heavy taxes.?”

Would she have voted to raise taxes by approving the new $443 million city budget? “Defintely not.”

And what does she think of the state of community policing? “It doesn’t exist as far as I’m concerned. It’s difficult to say there’s community policing when I have my ears to the community and hear how many officers — not all — are so abusive; they approach people with so much hostility; they actually beat some people. I remember when there really was community policing. That was under [Chief] Nick Pastore.”

Does she see any progress in recent months? “They’re trying to restore it, but it’s going to be very difficult to restore trust. There’s been some movement and most of that is from officers who live in our community. That’s what’s going to make it easier to get back to community policing, when there is some investment [by cops] in the community.”

Another difference between the candidates is that Shah supports the New Haven ID cards that are available to all residents regardless of immigration status. Fair does not.

“From what I heard in my community,” she says, “they’re against it. I don’t know that much about it, but our resources are already so strained in New Haven, why would we invite a whole group of people to come in when we can’t handle the ones already here?”

The Other Side

Shah sees just about every one of those issues differently.

He said his priorities — which he stresses are those of residents of the community, from whom he takes the lead — are economic development and keeping the neighborhood clean and safe. “Youth entrepreneurship is part of it. That could be the solution to the problems we’re having with youth, because if they want money what better way than to train them to write a business plan. I’m running because our agenda in the 23rd Ward is to own and operate businesses on Route 34. We’re still in the process of negotiating with the city and we have partners who are going to help us bring that plan to fruition.”

Shah, a case manager at AIDS Project New Haven, said crime reduction is a priority; the neighborhood has seen several recent shootings. He supports more police and walking beats in the ward.

As for the state of community policing, he said, “PERF’s evaluation clearly showed there are some things we can do better, but it also showed we are doing some things well. We have to work with Chief Ortiz and give him time to make corrections. We want to slowly bring about change and corrective measures because if we move to quickly and rush to judgment we tend to make mistakes.”

In the cleanliness department, he said he’s wielded a rake and shovel at several neighborhood clean-ups “to show that it’s our neighborhood; we have to keep it clean.”

In the realm of citywide economic development, he voted for the Shartenberg deal at Tuesday’s BOA meeting, calling it “a great project for the city.”

And he voted for the latest city budget. “Nobody likes to vote for higher taxes,” he said, “but we have to realize that we have many properties that are exempt in the city, owned by Yale or other non-profits. We do have a tax problem; we’re doing everything we can to keep from raising taxes but at the end of the day we have to pay the bills, and by law we have to balance the budget. Yes, there’s people in my neighborhood who are very upset about the tax hike, but we have to look at getting more businesses on the Grand List, redevelop Route 34, bring in the Shartenberg project. Tough decisions have to be made; I’m confident we’re going to see better times, but sometimes you have to sacrifice a little to get there.”

Related stories on the Sept. 11 aldermanic primaries:

Dixwell Primary Puts Plantation Politics To A Vote

Unions Back A Challenger In Dwight

Rodriguez Foe Opens A Hatch

Dwight Candidates Differ On Hospital

Immigration Splits Westville Candidates