Marta Mera replaced the windows at Pan Del Cielo bakery after a shooting last month around Ferry and Chatham streets that cracked the glass.
Mera (pictured at right in the above photo) told that story to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who toured four of Fair Haven’s Grand Avenue businesses Monday morning as part of Hispanic Heritage month. The politician urged city leaders to get the police involved and make the area safer for local business owners.
Mera and her husband Edwin took DeLauro around the bakery’s operation — which they are hoping to expand to the lot they own next door. They have already managed to get C‑Town and Shop Rite to sell their bread. DeLauro took home 12 empanadas, a bag of churros and a couple of loaves of bread.
Miguel Xicohtencatl, who owns Xicohtencatl grocery at 271 Grand Ave., also told DeLauro he was worried about crime. The store is open until 9:30 p.m. most days. By the time he and his family leave for their West Haven home, they are “nervous to go out.” Often customers report being robbed in the area.
Despite that, he said, business is booming — people enjoy their frozen fruity desserts.
DeLauro grew up in New Haven’s Wooster Square neighborhood, another area teeming with immigrant businesses. She compared Grand Avenue to Wooster Street, with “a series of small businesses” owned by local immigrants.
“That’s how we grow,” she said.
She didn’t only visit bakeries Monday — she went into Grand Medical, an internal medical practice at 258 Grand Ave. that opened in June. Dr. Sameer Syed said he is one of two people on the staff at a business that is “picking up slowly.”
He accepts all insurance and most of his patients have state insurance. Syed makes necessary referrals to specialists and surgeons, usually within Yale’s system.
Part of having a local business is “building relationships with people,” said Janet Ruiz (pictured at left above), manager of Durango Insurance Agency at 266 Grand Ave.
The only concern Ruiz had to share with DeLauro was the number of “solicitors” coming to the door and “asking for stuff” throughout the day, which can disrupt business.
Before the tour, DeLauro met with leaders of the Spanish American Merchants Association (SAMA) and Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Connecticut District Office, to determine what resources they needed to boost local Latino-owned businesses.
“We need resources,” said Joe Rodriguez, a city legislative liaison and former Fair Haven alder. Without public money, the city has been “leveraging resources in the private sector,” he said.
The Small Business Service Center has “leveraged money to create a comprehensive” program to train new local business owners in how to succeed, said Jackie James, a city development official who directs the center. Banks have not been helpful partners in getting resources to continue programming, she said. “I don’t think banks understand the spending power of the Latino community.”
She said she would like to see more people from neighborhoods like Dixwell patronizing Fair Haven businesses. C‑Town, a supermarket on Ferry Street and Grand Avenue, is “cheaper” and “cleaner” than Stop & Shop on Whalley Avenue, she said.
Another photo op for a stale and useless politician. I hope she paid for those empanadas.