Outsider Finds Himself Running From The Inside

Sure you can have my vote, one constituent told City Hall critic Darnell Goldson. Just make sure the city cleans up this downed tree by election day.

A potential voter offered that deal Tuesday afternoon on the campaign trail, as Goldson canvased his neighborhood, looking for votes a week out from the Nov. 8 election for alderman in West Rock/ West Hills’ Ward 30.

The interaction was emblematic of the challenge Goldson faces as he seeks his second term in office.

In a ward that often feels neglected by City Hall, Goldson has to convince voters that he’s still an outsider, agitating for more from City Hall. He has to win votes from a neighborhood that continues to feel overlooked by city government — of which he is now an elected member.

When he ran two years ago, he might have simply promised that if he were elected, a downed tree wouldn’t lie for days in the backyard of an abandoned house. Now, as the incumbent, he has to make sure it doesn’t. Without necessarily receiving help from city officials who are hoping to help unseat him.

Goldson also has to win on Tuesday against an opponent who beat him in the primary election: City Hall-backed Carlton Staggers. Goldson will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as an independent despite losing the September Democratic Party primary election for the seat. (He petitioned for the independent slot in advance of the primary.)

While Goldson recently lost to Staggers, he’s also beaten him before — in the 2009 Democratic primary. Goldson went on to earn a reputation in his first term as a contrarian on the Board of Aldermen and an irritant to the administration, leading the charge to sink proposals ranging from charter reform to creation of a new stormwater authority.

Staggers and his campaign manager Honda Smith did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this article. Click here to read a previous story about Staggers’ campaign.

Staggers and Goldson are vying to represent Ward 30, which comprises the West Rock and West Hills neighborhoods in the northwest corner of the city. It’s an area characterized by housing projects and working class African-American families, and a ward that has historically complained of being overlooked by downtown decision-makers.

Goldson tapped into that frustration to win his seat two years ago. He pointed out, for example, that Mayor John DeStefano had never appointed a single Ward 30 resident to a board or commission. (Staggers later became the first appointee.)

Two years later, that frustration still exists. Goldson said that as he’s walked the streets of Ward 30 this campaign season, he’s heard a similar refrain: Neighbors feel ignored and neglected.

“People complain about the lack of services,” Goldson said Tuesday afternoon as he set out from his house on Valley Street wearing a blue fleece Reebok track suit and white Reebok sneakers. He was armed with orange campaign flyers he designed on his home computers and postcards advertising the fact that New Haven’s police and fire departments are hiring — part of his efforts to get more New Haveners into city jobs.

Goldson mentioned last year’s record-setting snowfall as an example of what his constituents complain about: When the city was hit with fierce blizzards, some dead-end streets in Ward 30 remained unplowed for days.

He listed two other, more recent, issues that neighbors have raised and that he said he’s not been able to get the city to act on.

In a cul-de-sac on Rock Creek Road, neighbors would like to have parking lines painted. Without lines, it’s a jumble of cars, especially in the winter, Goldson said.

On Genesee Street, a one-block one-way road between Harper and Pond Lily avenues, neighbors would like to put in a speed bump or simply reverse the direction of the one-way, to slow down speeding cars, Goldson said.

He said he’s spoken with the traffic department several times about these issues, but gotten nowhere. At the last Board of Aldermen meeting, he went so far as to submit an order calling for a public hearing on the responsiveness of the traffic and parking department. 

As an incumbent, Goldson has to show his constituents results, he noted. ​“It’s a challenge. People expect things.”

He said the question in politics isn’t even, ​“What have you done for me?”

“It’s, ​‘What have you done for me lately?’”

In some cases, very lately. At 22 Valley Place North, Goldson asked a woman in a black hoody if he could count on her support on Nov. 8.

“If you can see about that yard being cleaned up,” she replied, referring to the abandoned property next door at 23 – 24 Valley Place North. An enormous tree came down in the recent snowstorm, crushing the chain-link fence between the two houses.

The tree had clipped the corner of number 22, cracking off some shingles. The woman, who declined to give her name, had already had the limbs that landed on her property sawed into firewood-size logs. She wants the rest cleaned up, she said, as she got in her car to take her son to a job interview.

She acknowledged that Goldson didn’t have much time to make something happen before Nov. 8. ​“I know we’ve only got a couple days,” he responded, ​“but let’s see.”

As she drove away, Goldson said he plans to talk to City Hall’s Livable City Initiative to see if the agency can get the landlord to clean up his property. He said he hopes to at least make some progress to show the woman before Election Day.

For Ward 30 voters, it’s not enough to simply ask for — or even request hearings and demand — services from the city, he said. ​“I can do all the screaming and hollering I want. If it doesn’t get done, they don’t care.”

At the next house he visited, Goldson made sure to mention something he said he’s gotten done: The city has made plans to fix the Rock Creek flooding that has long plagued neighbors.

“I still have that water issue,” said a woman at 10 Valley Place North, referring to the flooding.

Goldson promised the work would begin shortly. ​“You should see that happen in the next couple of weeks.”

On Valley Place South, Goldson ran into Jerome Barnes, a 56-year-old who said he’s lived in the neighborhood for 45 years.

“I think he’s a great leader. He managed to get a project done that should have been done 12 years ago,” Barnes said, referring to the work to prevent flooding. ​“He managed to get that stuff pushed through. … He showed me he’s a man working for the people.”

“You going to make sure I’m good up here?” Goldson asked. Barnes promised to help deliver his neighbors’ votes for Goldson on Election Day.

Barnes is one of 10 to 15 volunteers Goldson said he plans to have working for him on Election Day. That’s a change from his primary election personnel total of precisely three campaign workers.

“I’m not making the mistake I made last time,” Goldson said. He said he didn’t work as hard as he should have to try to beat Staggers in the primary. ​“I kind of slept on him.”

Goldson said his supporters in the ward also took it for granted that he’d win the primary, and then were surprised to see that he didn’t. He said he’s received calls from several people volunteering to help now that they’ve realized he’s not a shoo-in. Goldson was outnumbered a dozen to one at the West Hills polling place during the primary by blue-shirted Staggers campaign workers.

He said he’s focused on voter registration this time around, and has signed up new voters. He’ll have a serious vote-pulling operation in place, he claimed.

If elected, Goldson said, his ​“big focus in the next two years is job creation.” He’ll also focus on opportunities for young people, he said. He plans to start proposing amendments to big spending items that he might otherwise oppose. For instance, if the city wants to spend $200,000 on a $1‑million trolley study, Goldson will propose an amendment calling for $200,000 to be spent on summer youth employment.

Goldson said when constituents ask him what he’s done as an alderman, he points to his work on Rock Creek flooding, his ​“aggressive” advocacy for plowing during last winter’s snowstorms, and his work trying to get more New Haven residents hired in and by the city. And he promises to ​“continue fighting the fight,” he said.