Lucy Gellman Photos
Pundits Turner, Ugly, Rawls-Ivy.
When Newhallville seniors grilled a new manager this week about conditions at their housing complex, it came as no surprise.
Not only because they’ve shivered through the past winters thanks to heating problems that never seemed to get fixed.
But also because the neighborhood has a tradition, going back decades, of grassroots challenge to government institutions from the housing authority to, especially, City Hall. That challenge was most recently on display when Delphine Clyburn, an alder who has organized challenges to how the authority manages senior complexes and how the city is spending grant money in the neighborhood, crushed a primary challenge that was stoked by City Hall. City Hall-stoked challenges to outspoken Newhallville alders goes back to the days Chuck Allen and Joshua Moore in the 1980s.
Speaking on the weekly news-in-review pundits panel on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven,” journalist Michelle Turner traced the phenomenon back to the high percentage of homeownership in Newhallville following the arrival of African-American families to the area in the mid-20th century for since-gone Winchester arms factory jobs. She argued that Newhallville people developed a sense of ownership in the neighborhood, a practice of speaking up that has been passed down. Also discussed were the newer forms of activism spurred by the spread of a new generation of Newhallville homeowners (in part helped by Neighborhood Housing Services).
The pundits — Turner, Babz Rawls-Ivy of the Inner City News and WNHH, and Joe Ugly of Urgly Radio and WNHH — discussed as well Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hockey exploits and challenge to President Obama’s geopolitical approach; and new Texas textbooks referring to American slaves as “workers.” Click on the play arrow above to listen to the episode.
It seem like it only takes about 2 minutes to explain that Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) is the MOST IMPORTANT non-profit in the entire city. Why can't the city do more to encourage these kinds of non-profit organizations. They're MORE IMPORTANT than developers. They are people that care about the EXISTING housing stock and they believe in the EXISTING residents and their RIGHT TO STAY WHERE THEY LIVE.