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Harp at this month’s Q House groundbreaking.
Enlist businesses in the quest to create more jobs for New Haveners. Up the city’s game in cleaning up neighborhoods. Get more students up to grade level.
Those are some of Mayor Toni Harp’s top goals for her third two-year term as mayor, which starts Jan. 1.
She discussed those goals on her latest appearance on WNHH FM’s “Mayor Monday” program.
She said she believes the city can do a better job involving local businesses in the job-creation push. She also spoke of her administration’s new effort to send crews from various city departments to sweep through neighborhoods together to root out slumlord problems, overgrown trees blocking lights, crime hot spots, traffic-calming woes; then follow up with citizens to stop the problems from recurring. (Read about that effort here, here and here.) Developing that effort citywide will be a priority in her third term, she said, along with using a new app called “CitiStat” to get all city departments working more collaboratively to address problems at specific addresses.
Perhaps her most ambitious goal, she said, is to get 75 to 80 percent of students in the system performing at grade level in all subjects. In some cases the numbers are half that right now, she said. “That’s going to be the hardest one,” but an important goal to pursue.
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Rendition of 385-apartment Munson St. plan.
She spoke as well as a slew of projects taking shape in the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods: 385 new apartments eyed for a vacant former factory site, a new senior housing complex, the new Dixwell Q Community House, a new Henry Street artists’ center. So put the “Dixwell-Newhallvilel Renaissance” as well on the list by which to judge her third term.
Also on the radio program, Harp said it’s time to start over in figuring out what to do with the vacant former Strong School in Fair Haven.
Last week an advisory committee recommended rejecting a developer’s proposal to buy the property from the city and build market-rate micro-apartments. By law the Harp administration can ignore the recommendation and proceed with the sale. But Harp echoed her economic development administrator’s reaction, that the committee’s (and the neighborhood’s) voice should be heeded.
“I would support starting over again. I’m not as interested in micro-apartments. I’m a little concerned that they might start a whole series if we start approving them,” Harp said.
Mayor Mum on Governor Run
Leave Harp off the list of Democrats ruling out a 2018 gubernatorial run, at least for now.
Harp — who two weeks ago won election to a third two-year term as New Haven’s mayor with 73 percent of the vote — formed a committee last year to raise money for a potential statewide run.
She was asked Monday if she is considering running for a statewide run next year.
“Right now I’m not considering it. I’m going to do whatever is best for New Haven,” she responded.
She offered the same response when asked if she is specifically ruling out a run for governor: “I’m going to do whatever’s best for New Haven.”
Other top elected Democrats who have mulled runs — such as Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, Comptroller Kevin Lembo, and Attorney General George Jepsen — have decided not to seek the office. Internal polls are apparently showing strong support for a Republican to win the office, at least for now; a posse of Republicans have already launched campaigns. Democrats who have formed committees include Middletown Mayor Dan Drew and Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim.
Harp said Democrats shouldn’t be scared away by polls this far out: “We don’t know what will happen in the world between now and the next eleciton. By the time we select a candidate as Democrats, it’s quite possible that something may happen to change the way that people view Democrats.”
She said she’s “working with my [Democratic] town chairman, Vinnie Mauro,” to “make sure that New Haven has some sort of impact on the Democratic slate.”
Reached for comment after the show Monday, Mauro remarked: “I think New Haven is the largest Democratic Party in the state of Conencticut. We put up more votes than anybody else. I think New Haven should be well-represented on the ticket.”
Click on the above audio file or the Facebook Live audio below for the full episode of “Mayor Monday” on WNHH FM.
This episode of “Mayor Monday” was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.
She spoke as well as a slew of projects taking shape in the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods: 385 new apartments eyed for a vacant former factory site, a new senior housing complex, the new Dixwell Q Community House, a new Henry Street artists' center. So put the "Dixwell-Newhallvilel Renaissance" as well on the list by which to judge her third term.
The question is how many will be able to afford the rents if and when these apartments will be build?Take bets the major of the people of Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods will not be able to afford the rents.
Harp said Democrats shouldn't be scared away by polls this far out: "We don't know what will happen in the world between now and the next eleciton. By the time we select a candidate as Democrats, it's quite possible that something may happen to change the way that people view Democrats.
The Democrats should be scared by polls.You got Democrats who will vote Republican.Any Democrat who stood by Slick Dan Malloy who laid of state workers will not win.In fact if she runs.The Democrats are dead in the water.
Erin Elizabeth Stewart (born May 4, 1987) is an American politician who is the 40th and current Mayor of New Britain, Connecticut. [1] She was elected to her first term on November 5, 2013, at the age of 26, [2] and reelected to a second term on November 3, 2015 and a third term on November 7, 2017.[3] She is currently the youngest serving female mayor in the United States for a city the size of New Britain. [4] Stewart describes herself as a fiscal conservative and social moderate, a mayor who likes to accomplish achievements by working together, regardless of political affiliation.