New Haven Independent

Posted by: bugupit | January 1, 2008 8:38 PM

New Privately Funded Economic Development Agency

The Mayor announced it, so it is a public initiative. Businesses=Jobs=Economic Wellbeing, but what alternative City problem might these private funds have been coaxed by the Mayor to address? For example, Pre-K programs, or reconstructing our CAA. Where are the Alders, the voice of the people, in this decision? Oh, that's right, the rubber stamp will come later.

Skeleton Economic Develoment Staff

The staff is skeleton due to the Mayor's choice. ED used to have more staff with expertise and direct contact to assist businesses. DeStefano cannot blame City Hall.

Business recruitement like what is described is often based on consultants, studies and marketing --- $$$$$. Has Market New Haven produced results since its 2006 announced broadening into business assistance?

"One Stop Shopping"

1-800-392-2122 is the number for resource agents at the CERC Business Response Center. New Haven does not need to invest in providing one-stop State information.

Main Street

Good for small business, only a trickle down beneifit for neighbors, customers and taxpayers.

So, a new slush fund? When the money flows, NHI knows!

Posted by: Gary Doyens | January 1, 2008 11:06 PM

Once again, Mayor DeStefano serves up a plate full of platitudes and happy speak to support his lustful spending, runaway taxes and debt, and public policies hatched in secret intentionally misrepresented as "progressive." But all of it pales in comparison with the complete prostitution of Christ's words found in the book of Matthew. Has this mayor no shame?

Matthew Chapter 5 is the portion of Scripture that teaches us about the Beatitudes. This is the time of Christ's life when he was at the height of his healing and teaching ministry throughout Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem and beyond. Multitudes of people were following Him to see Him heal the sick and to preach the gospel of repentance.

According to Matthew 5:1 Seeing the multitudes, he went up to a mountain with his 12 disciples and taught them because he knew what they didn't: His time was limited on earth and these men would go on to lead the first century church after Christ's death on the cross and subsequent resurrection three days later.

So Jesus told these 12 men, "You are the salt of the earth." If you lose your flavor, you'll be cast out and thrown away. You are the light of the world. You're like a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. Men don't light candles and put them under a bush, they put them on a stand in a candleholder so it can provide light. Be that light. And Christ tells his disciples to let their light shine brightly before men, "that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."

Mayor DeStefano intentionally took this important passage of Scripture out of context and bent it to support his soviet view of how to run the City of New Haven. Aside from completely distorting these Bible verses, DeStefano edited Christ's very words by leaving out the most important phrase of all: "...and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."

DeStefano prostituted Christ's direct words to create the allusion of Biblical support for his "progressive" agenda. There is nothing worse and it's insulting to Christians everywhere.

Now for the fact check:
*The mayor pledges to govern with open hearts and open minds. This sounds like his pledge of "good politics" when he announced his re-election campaign. He defined good politics as not being a zero sum game of winning or losing. His machine activities lead to the Vito voting story; his sneaky pay raise and his latest open hearted, open minded move of demonizing and denigrating the owner of the fire damaged building downtown. Good politics never happened. An open mind at City Hall? I'll believe it when I see it.

*The police department lacks not for resources - it lacks from a shortage of vision, ethics, accountability and leadership. There's a direct reporting line to the mayor's office.

*Property Tax Relief: It's only partially found at the state level. It most definitely is NOT found in the checkbooks of New Haven homeowners who are already struggling under the mayor's punitive spending. The state income tax already collects our money based on income - all the mayor wants to do, is raise property taxes even more and avoid taking responsibility for having done so. It's pass the buck the time. What the mayor doesn't talk about is limiting his spending. His spending increase this year was nearly $30 million - twice the normal bloated increases. Last year, his office blew out his mayoral budget together with a lot of other city budgets by more than $6 million. This year, he has demanded double-digit pay hikes for him and his City Hall executives - none of it budgeted. It will continue and state intervention will not solve it.

*Graduation rates are increasing? Not true. We have three schools that have been called drop out factories. More than half the incoming freshman class at Wilbur Cross will not graduate in four years. We have more schools and children failing NCLB as well as the CT Mastery Test. These are facts. Where are the mayors?

*Re-cycling a slush fund for business but better governed because it will have a "strong board" - this is a crock. What board has the mayor EVER appointed that could be described as strong and independent?

Bottom line: It would have been nice to hear an honest acknowledgement of the true state of our city and the challenges we face together with a roster of realistic, practical solutions that we could rally around. What we got was platitudes, promises and prostitution. There is not one word about DeStefano's personal and continuing responsibility for any of these never ending problems. Happy New Year.

Posted by: darnell | January 2, 2008 10:21 AM

Gary,

Great work.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | January 2, 2008 2:34 PM

I was there, I listened to the speech. It was a good speech. It was a speech made at a celebration. Did I like the ideas stated in the speech...of course I did. Did I agree with all of it. Of course not. But again it was a speech at a celebration it was meant to be uplifting and bring hope of a greater tomorrow.
A while ago I had asked about, what is the city doing in Hartford to try to make the changes on a State level to help with property taxes. I must say that I am happy that we are at the least going to be up there working on it at that level. Can we make it happen, well we all know that it is not going to be happening tomorrow but at least we are trying to get the wheels rolling on it. Reality is it may not happen but lets at least plant the seed for that change.
bugupit
I think the Main Street program does help the neighbors more than you think. I am going to be looking into it for our area. Our strip of State street is the worst part of our area. Our vendors are working with Econ. Delv. right now but I will get the info on this and see if that may something for them as well. The blighted and blight looking stores really bring down a community. Not just in a apparence but in the quality of usable vendors that set up in these stores.
As far as the police changes are coming and happening so I personally am happy with things I see happening on that level.
And I do agree this city needs to bring in a bigger tax payer but is it going to happen?? I fear that it may not. We seem to keep missing the bus on that. I see Hart., Bpt., and Stfd all getting breaks and I fear we are to slow and are not marketing this city the right way. Which can happen but we need to stop wasting money doing study and stat's and get down to the nitty gritty. Dam it I'll call Trump up my self and ask him for help!

Posted by: Da Hill | January 2, 2008 2:54 PM

When the Mayor ran for Governor his stump speech would start with the definition of insanity being the repitition of behavior seeking different results each time. I agree that the ECO-DEVO department needs to be private (It takes private involvement and investment to recruit businesses to this state, not to mention this city), but if you dont change the people behind it, your results wont change very much.

Placing lipstick on a pig, does not make it more attractive, a complete hands-off approach to Economic Development within the city removes the politics behind who gets what deals and when. As New Haveners we believe people should be knocking down our door to relocate here, the reality is that we are not that attractive on a national level. Yes, location is great, but what else do we have? In order for this to work, develope strategic partnerships with the State and other cities of similar size(Hartford, Stanford, Bridgeport) to create a package that sells Connecticut first, and the cities as a by-product. This collective approach forces each city to place their best foot forward. This may not be a popular approach, but what were doing now between the city, chamber, market new haven, and the role the state plays is pitting everyone against each other. Whos over who, who should be doing what, Etc.

The Mayor could use this as a state wide platform and still have sifnificant local benefits. If he was smart.

What is the Mayor's thinking behind this move? Is this a way of saying the old system was a failure? Due the the collective bargaining agreement with the Unions, it makes it very difficult to move people out who are ineffective within the City. Not Saying anything neg. about the Two/Three Staff members working for the City (Tony and Helen are hard workers) but if you dont have the support, it becomes impossible to improve.

Great move by the mayor in theory, if hes willing to relinquish contact/control.

Posted by: charlie | January 2, 2008 3:26 PM

We can start the process of making New Haven more business-friendly by removing the ridiculously high building permitting fees here. Yes, the city will lose some revenue. Make that up by cutting staff and asking current staff to do more with less. How do you do that? By establishing a rigorous, public job performance evaluation procedure, starting with the very top and extending all the way down to each public works route, department head and officer beat, like what Bloomberg has done in NYC. Forming a public-private EDC, with Yale heavily represented towards the top, is a step in the right direction.

Second, make the city a nicer place to live. It's already much improved and better than the lifeless, strip-malled, kill-yourself-while-driving-45MPH-to-work suburban towns, but in order to be economically viable it has to compete more with the likes of Boston, Seattle, and Denver, which it can easily do. Start by calming traffic and giving out ridiculous tickets to speeders. Build better sidewalks (which the Mayor has done pretty well, but could do more) and make the city more bikeable. Improve our public spaces and the money and investment will follow.

Posted by: Ned | January 2, 2008 4:55 PM

"[The mayor]He'd specifically like to see an effort to draw financial-sector businesses here, to move beyond the local economy's dependence on "institutional" employers.

A "Main Street" program. That refers to a specific national approach to helping neighborhood-level commercial districts beautify, plan how they'd like to develop, and implement those plans."

Regarding these two objectives: demolish the abandoned building at the corner of State and Willow Sts.! The first thing one sees, when entering New Haven, from the Willow St. exit, from I91, is a total, scary, blight. Can you imagine a "financial sector employer", other than a check cashing place, relocating to a neighborhood where the first and overwhelming impression is of urban decay and abandonment? Welcome to New Haven: lock your car doors, roll up the windows and flee...

Posted by: charlie | January 2, 2008 5:41 PM

Ned, I agree that attention must be paid to image. Our city's physical image is more important than Market New Haven advertising campaigns in Rhode Island. There are empty lots, like on Water Street, that look like something out of Detroit (well, maybe not that bad) when in reality they are just construction sites for one of our gliterring new schools. There are downtown buildings under renovation for luxury housing that still look like they were hit by shrapnel in World War Two.

There is a balance between transparent boosterism and the City completely failing to communicate that New Haven is a very valuable place to live and do business. It's time to find that balance. If a building is empty because it is caught up in a lawsuit, I don't see why we can't put up a sign to that effect. If you don't communicate, people will assume the worst -- especially first-time visitors to New Haven who don't necessarily know what, say, Gateway Community College is. Also, put up a sign on the Coliseum lot that says "future home of Long Wharf Theatre" and one on the train station lot saying "future home of mixed-use development." The Shartenberg site, the soon-to-be home of a $180 million development, looks like a wasteland. If you don't pay attention to such details, the tens of thousands of people who come to New Haven every day will continue to go on assuming that New Haveners like parking lots... or worse.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | January 2, 2008 6:04 PM

Ned, That was my point
I have on my end of state street:
-A pawn shop
-A check cashing place
-A corner store with no real food
-1 "Barber Shops" ??? (one with a club in back)
-A junk store that is never open.
-Another corner store with no food at all (total joke)
-A gas station (which alot of drug deals happen at)
-3 clean and sober houses
-1 homeless shelter (not a shelter but apts)
-1 HIV and Aids housing complex
plus a few long timers that still believe the area can make a comeback.
-ohhh and 3 small churches which one is opening a recovery center.
So maybe this program can make the area nicer. We can get some real stores I have the old YMCA and the building next to it. Great pieces of real estate. And the Robbie Len building is in the Cedar hill area (that is the crappy building you spoke of. (which I saw a list for the space on Craigs list)
http://newhaven.craigslist.org/off/518630193.html
What a wasted space.
My point our residential area is amazing! It is close to a perfect little blue collar family community. We are a gateway into the city. It needs to say WELCOME TO NEW HAVEN...not omg this is New Haven.
It is these smiple things that can make a differce to buissness when thinking of coming here.
Plus some of the thing Charlie mentioned are true.

But we need to figure out a way to not use Yale as our marketing plan. That will not bring money in. We need big industry. And I am sorry but we the tax payer can not get up in arms if we do not like the companys if they are willing to pay high taxes I will roll out the red carpet for them.

Posted by: WEBbloger 1 | January 2, 2008 6:09 PM

For the first time in three state of the city addresses we didn't have to hear the Mayor declare economic assistance for the neighborhoods, as his priority.
We now know that was BULL!
Instead, we can focus on Economic Development... (for Yale.) Just recently, as you know, Yale called for a round table meeting for business interest, and only invited our state representatives.

I am turned off by the Mayors comparison between the 4-day riots of 1967, as being the catalyst for the then economic downturn, and his cry for renewed spending in order to alleviate that malaise today.
In 1968 the only economic development program financed by Mayor Lee's initiative was Community Progress Inc. Ironically, CPI was less of a failure than the Community action agency of today.

I see no need to comment on the school test scores and the graduation rate, that subject has been well addressed by the commenter above.

Instead, I will focus on the Mayor's property tax reform based on income. As you know, tax reform was the Mayor's cornerstone issue when he ran for governor. At that time he did not propose tax reform based on income, instead he proposed a hybrid of tax increases on the rich and mixed spending increase financed through budget voodoo economics. We know the results of that election initiative. While it's fine to speak in rosy futures, it's also expedient to speak in real terms that reflect real time expectations. The mayor's speech fell far short of real time economic expectations, stired by a new commission of Yale sponsored advisors.

In as much as the implementation all-57 or so of the Perf recommendations, this is simply NOT, a real time expectation.

The moral of the story is:
Mayor, you gotta keep it REAl, not Y.a.l.e.

Posted by: Ralph Ferrucci | January 2, 2008 8:03 PM

Mayor DeStefano opened his inaugural speech by saying "Gun crimes escalated to the highest level in a decade; foreclosures are up 80% from 2006 and three New Haven officers plead guilty to federal corruption charges."

None of these are news to any New Haven resident, In fact myself and Ricther Elser attacked the Mayor on these issues throughout the campaign.

This is the first time the Mayor has admitted to there being a problem with gun crimes in New Haven, hiding behind the statement that violent crimes are down. A shooting whether it hits a target or hits a stop sign still terrorizes the public. Many people hid inside afraid to go outside for the fear of an accidental shooting.

During the drug wars of the late 80's and early 90's many innocent people were shot because of stray bullets. You do not have to have a homicide to make people afraid to walk down the street.

So what has the Mayor done in the past ten years to attack crime in New Haven? Community Policing has diminished to almost extinction and a failing police chief is left in charge of the police department.

Community Centers like the Q house no longer exist in New Haven which gave children and young adults a place to go rather then the streets of New Haven where they can get into trouble.

In my neighborhood of East Rock, I have seen an increase in crime from gunfire to my car being broken into twice in the last four years; the last time was last week. I felt safer campaigning in the Hill then I have in the last week at my own home.

Like crime, Foreclosures are also a major problem in New Haven. We have seen an increase in home fuel, electricity, Southern CT Gas and fuel for our vehicles doubling in price in the last five years.

Home assessments have doubled in the last ten years yet the mill rate went down a little over one point. Most New Haven residents cannot afford the increase in taxes, the mortgage and to fuel their homes and vehicles.

The Mayor's response during the campaign is that taxes have gone up with the same rate as inflation. This may be true but wages has not gone up at the same rate.

Most households need two parents working two full time jobs just to get by and yet they still cannot get ahead. This also causes the problem of leaving children at home where they can get into trouble.

And last, lets talk about corruption in New Haven. We need a full investigation into the New Haven Police Department. There are 400 police officers in New Haven; most are great police officers that look bad because of a few corrupt officers.

We need to get the corruption out of the police department so the residents will respect the department again.

But we should not stop there. We need to fully investigate all the offices of City Hall. We need a clean, non-corrupt and transparent City Hall.

Whether any of these issues are attacked under this Mayor is unknown; it is easy to come up with the problems but harder to find the solutions to the problems that plague the city. Only time will tell.

We need to make it clear to John that he has two years to fix these problems or we will find someone else who can fix New Haven.
Ralph Ferrucci

Posted by: Eli | January 2, 2008 8:18 PM

Just curious cederhill, can i get weed at any of these "food shops" you speak of?
Hey, don't forget the store that sells statues of mexican saints and blackface minstrell era figurines, it's a real special place.
No really though, can i get weed there?

Posted by: Darnell | January 2, 2008 10:02 PM

Before this administration starts any new initiatives to attract anyone else to New Haven, perhaps they should work on initiatives to keep people in New Haven. One very important initiative would be to REDUCE the tax burden on the citizens of the city. Instead of increasing taxes for his "progressive optimism and activism", he should spend time and capital on drawing in other resources and foundations to fund these initiatives, while focusing OUR tax income on providing the fundamentals: public safety; public works; and most of all, PUBLIC EDUCATION.

All he talks about sounds good, until the bill becomes due. Then we begin the game all over again in Jan and June, when the tax bill comes due and 25% of the city residents park their cars in their garages so they won't be towed while they try to figure out how to pay the mortgage, food bills, skyrocketing energy bills, gasoline bills to get to work, rising insurance rates, the tuition at the catholic school (because the city school system is so bad)and the list goes on, and on, and on.....

Posted by: observer | January 3, 2008 7:06 AM

All the above just illustrates how tired everyone is on this mayor. His speeches are B.S. and its a wonder he keeps a straight face as his dribble comes out his mouth. 'Nuf said.

Posted by: westvillecharlie | January 3, 2008 1:29 PM

This is the price we (the general population) pay for not getting out and voting - except of course for those mentally challanged folks in the mighty 25th who were forced to vote...
Perhaps we can spend this year working to entice the voters of new haven to realize the importance of voting, and the consequences of not voting .

Posted by: westvillecharlie | January 3, 2008 9:46 PM

Just a note to this subject and my comment. I'd like a complete retraction to my comment. Everything that is written is what i've commented on, however, everything i wrote is not present.
I doubt this will be published, however, i've contatcted paul bass about his decision to publish what he thinks is acceptable.
The NHIndependent crowd is a progressive, concerned bunch. Any comments that are not popular with the readers are quickly blasted and torn apart by the readers. This blog is not supposed to be censored or edited to be palatable for the masses, we're too smart to see through Bulls$%t (my own censoring). However Bass has taken it upon himself to be the moral leader of the elm city left. Well, then, let me off, i'll walk home. with my views in tact.
So Paul, i'm telling you what i'd tell Jack Valiente or Bill O'riely if they were here, go to hell, censorship can only bring about farce.
Adieu readers.
the mighty 25th forever, or until i can afford that house on St. Ronan St..
westvillecharlie

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | January 4, 2008 9:55 AM

Ironic that they should invoke the name of Dick Lee when discussing DeStefano, as though it were a badge of honor. Dick Lee laid the foundation for New Haven's demise by physically busting up huge family neighborhoods in favor of massive projects that all failed. Now DeStefano is poised to finish the job in eradicating the remaining middle class by thumbing his nose at the federal government and pandering to a dependant population. How much do you think people would put up with? At least Lee ultimately recognized that laws mattered.

As I had mentioned in earlier postings, anyone in East Rock can count the number of owner occupied houses on their block with one hand. Only took ten years to accomplish that feat. Read the writing on the wall!

Posted by: cedarhillresident | January 4, 2008 6:45 PM

Eli
Not sure if it is weed. I do know you can get a fine hooker there...at least that is what I have been told ... I am glad I am not the only one that noticed that statute :O I blew it off as a cultural thing and so far none of my community have mentioned it as offensive. But last night I was told the whole back of 1314 state street is being worked on demolition is under way NO PERMITS!! hmm and still LCI has not fined or shut them down.

Darnell I agree with you. I did explain to one rep there... "I am a struggling single mom I was barely getting by and now it has gotten even worse with the tax increase"...I am swinging it but in two years I may have to sell. And I LOVE NEW HAVEN!! It is like cutting an arm off.

And Ralph Your comments hits alot of important things that have happened. Can this city learn from them?? Will things change? Will John be running next time around?? So many questions.

I really have to stand up for the cops I think they are all under the "gun" right now. I think things will be happening. They may be behind closed doors and not right out in the open but they are happening. Give it time.

Westville charlie you are right the voting did not happen. Maybe next time it will be better...but for now people can still get out and get involved! go to the board meetings. Shoot watch them on TV they are live! Learn what is happening! There are small groups all over this city trying to make the changes and with numbers they have more power then the government....problem is every one is complaining but not willing to do!

Posted by: DEZ | January 4, 2008 9:20 PM

How aggressive can we be when we are bowing to tax breaks the likes of 480K for the politically connected Anastasio's in Fair Haven? How many of the Anastasios's live in New Haven and add to the tax base in any other way, shape or manner? Aggressive? I think not! Who writes these speeches? This drivel? Give them a wake up call or a shot of Viagra, and call it a day! The burbs are looking better and better each day...!

Posted by: cedarhillresident | January 6, 2008 9:55 AM

My one thing is that if we want to make this city better the voice of the people that live here have to matter. Not just the people that work here. We are the back bone.

Posted by: Chris Gray | January 9, 2008 2:04 AM

Besides being left speechless by the speech from the moment I first saw excerpts of it on tv, I can find nothing more eloquent in criticism to say than what has already been written here.