Clyburn Seeks 4th Term

Delphine Clyburn plans to hit Newhallville’s ​“Learning Corridor” as usual this Saturday — this time to announce she’s seeking a fourth two-year term as Ward 20 alder.

She picked the open-space spot at the juncture of Shelton Avenue and Hazel and Starr streets because it symbolizes the work she and neighbors have done to boost Newhallville.

Back in the 1980s the same spot was called The Mudhole. It was the center of the crack trade. A series of New Yorker stories memorialized it as a symbol of urban disaster.

The spot plays a far different role today — as a convening spot for communal activities. Like a bike lending program on Saturday mornings. A weekly Thursday meeting on neighborhood beautification drives. Free food and clothing giveaways. A harvest festival.

In an interview Thursday on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven,” Clyburn, a Democrat who has worked as a state group-home employee for 32 years, said she wants to continue as an alder to continue collaborating with her neighbors on efforts like that.

She rattled off examples: The community gardens continue to grow and bustle in the ward. Organizing homeowners to obtain available help fixing up their properties. The creation of the new Cherry Ann Park. Neighborhood clean-ups with teens, including a crew of summer ​“ambassadors.”

Clyburn is also known downtown as one of the most persistent advocates of constituents needing help with, say, sidewalks or snow-plowing.

Two of Clyburn’s active ward supporters joined her on the radio program to talk about the work they do together in the neighborhood. Zelema Harris, an accountant and musician who still lives in the home she grew up in on Dorman Street, spoke of how Clyburn got her involved in the community management team and has succeeded in pressing the city to crack down on problem landlords who have bought up a lot of property in Newhallville. Democratic Ward Co-Chair Barbara Vereen, who took a lead on the Cherry Ann Park, spoke of how much positive work neighbors do such as the weekly basketball tournaments on Bassett Street and Saturday morning clean-ups, that fail to receive the attention that bad news does.

The neighborhood has been hit with a spate of bad news in recent weeks, with three shootings of yougn people, including the murder of a 14-year-old boy. Clyburn noted that crime has dropped in recent years in Newhallville. She said she considered it part of her job as alder to spend time with the mother of 14-year-old Tyriek Keyes as he lay in the hospital, then help take care of her after Keyes died from his wound. She spoke of how neighbors cooked meals for the family. Clyburn said she has also been advocating for the family a 14-year-old girl who was with Keyes at the time of the shooting and was traumatized by the event.

Clyburn has no opponent in the race. If reelected, she’ll become Newhallville’s longest-serving alder. The other two wards’ alders, Brenda Foskey-Cyrus and Alfreda Edwards, are retiring.