Is "Freedom" Worth $5,000? | New Haven Independent

Sections

Neighborhoods

Features

NHI Newsletter

Legal Notices

Some Favorite Sites

Government/ Community Links

Is “Freedom” Worth $5,000?

by Thomas MacMillan | May 17, 2011 11:30 am

(16) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Black History, City Hall

With $40,000 from the state, the city will hire a consultant to look into creating a waterfront exhibit on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. The city will kick in $5,000 in bonding to make it happen—too high a price for one alderman.

That alderman is West Rock’s Darnell Goldson. Goldson voiced his displeasure at the plan during Monday night’s meeting of the Board of Aldermen. The proposal was approved over his vociferous objections, which included an invocation of his father’s bonafides as a Black Panther.

The kerfuffle began in the public information meeting before the board meeting, where aldermen heard from City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg about the proposal.

The plan calls for the acceptance of $40,000 from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. That money, combined with a matching $5,000 in coastal area municipal bonding, will pay for a “museum study” to see how to create some “interpretation” of the Connecticut Freedom Trail at the new boathouse planned for Canal Dock.

“Museum” is a bit of a misnomer, Gilvarg said. The end result will likely be some sort of “kiosk” with a video screen, she said. The idea is that it would serve as a sort of “trailhead” for the Freedom Trail, the string of sites commemorating African-American heritage and Connecticut’s abolitionist history. The $45,000 will pay a consultant to come up with a plan to make that happen.

The city’s portion of the bill drew the ire of Goldson.

Thomas MacMillan Photo “I must be living in an alternate universe,” he began, as the item came to the floor at the full meeting. New Haven is running a deficit, the state is running a deficit, the country is in a recession, and the city is borrowing more money, he said. “Why can’t the city take five minutes to find a private enterprise to fund the study?”

Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark stood to defend the plan. Connecticut was a “state of refuge” for slaves, she said. Many people fought for years to create the Freedom Trail, she said. “I can’t imagine that we would ever deny money to something this important,” she said. “To deny $5,000 to something this historical is just unbelievable.”

Fair Haven Alderwoman Migdalia Castro stood to agree. “New Haven is the place where justice happens,” she said; $5,000 is “nothing” when you think of the contributions of people who fought for freedom.

“If $5,000 is nothing, then perhaps people should take it out of their own pockets for the consultant,” Goldson responded. Or, he said, the study should be conducted by existing city staff.

“My father was a Black Panther,” Goldson said. He was “bugged” [illegally wiretapped] by the New Haven police, he said. “Nobody needs to tell me about freedom and abuse of rights.”

“If it’s only $5,000, then you pay it. Don’t ask me to pay it.”

Fair Haven Heights Alderwoman Maureen O’Sullivan-Best said she would vote for the plan. It’s a way to spend some money to make more money in tourism revenue, she said.

The consultant is only going to tell us we need to spend more money, Goldson said.

When the item came to a vote, he cupped his hands to his mouth to amplify his lone “nay” vote.

Comments

posted by: William Hosley on May 17, 2011 12:44pm

While, of course, it would be wonderful if private individuals raised this token amount to supplement the State grant to develop an exhibit on the Freedom Trail, it sends the wrong message if New Haven - govt or community - doesn’t embrace this effort to capitalize on the city’s extraordinary tourism potential. New Haven is loaded with astonishing stuff to see and do. But there has never been an effective mechanism, web site or gateway experience designed to orient and inspire visitors (and residents) to find what New Haven has to offer. This is a start. The fact that New Haven has some of the best stories related to this freedom narrative, together it’s central location, make it the perfect jumping off point for a African-American Freedom Trail experience. It’s all good. Hopefully in time efforts like this will transform New Haven into a tourism magnet - good for business, good for self-image and a magnificent way to assure that the qualities that make New Haven special get the care and attention they need

posted by: FacChec on May 17, 2011 12:49pm

Goldson is correct on this issue.

Not only can the city ill afford to Bond any more $$$ against their already maxed out credit card, this proposal is not even contained in the current 10/11 budget (4.2M in the hole) or, the proposed 11/12 budget, (recently amended by this same crowd).

Each time a city department wants to display its grant seeking prowess, they almost always place the city in a position to find city matching funds in order to achieve their objective. History shows that after approval, the city is thereafter straddled with years of up keep and maintenance fees, or, lowering pilot payments from the State of CT. to the city of New Haven each year.

Clark, Castro, O’Sullivan and the rest of the irresponsible band of the BOA should stop and consider the important first step involving a review of our current and proposed commitment to the city bond budget, before running half cocked into a new proposal which seeks to produce a plan leading to more future bonding.

Contrary to O’Sullivan’s belief, this proposal makes no claim about improving the city’s economic climate now or in the future.
If O’Sullivan expended more time and effort demanding a monthly accounting of the current and proposed bond fund expenditures, she might, just might, come to a more realistic and fiscally conservative outlook.

Clearly, the Mayor is not the only problem in this town government.

posted by: streever on May 17, 2011 1:28pm

While this is a great and noble goal, why not use that 45,000 total to build real walking/biking infrastructure in the Hill, New Haven’s least served neighborhood?

While I commend our civic leaders on their thoughtfulness and recognition of historical struggles, I think they are missing out on the very real class warfare occurring right now.

Residents of the Hill and Dixwell do not have streets that their children can safely walk along or play along. They do not have streets that the elderly can navigate.

Is 45,000 on a kiosk really a good expenditure of funds, when BASIC transportation rights are denied to others?

I’m glad that Alderman Goldson stood up on this.

We literally have citizens who are denied basic access to the streets in our city right now. Shouldn’t that be one of our top priorities?

posted by: streever on May 17, 2011 1:33pm

This is a problem that goes beyond just municipal borders, too—while I do think that arts & culture should be more deeply invested in by our city and state, I don’t think that this is the right way to do so right now.

New Haven faces extensive challenges, and currently is an incredibly UNJUST city when you look at the handling of environment, land use, and public safety.

East Rock is a yuppie dream with careful zoning attention, better (but not well) engineered streets, and one of the only decent schools in town.

Meanwhile, other neighborhoods suffer under antiquated and archaic zoning laws that promote corner stores, encourage multi-lane traffic, and our city simply rolls over and lets the DOT pat it’s belly as they expand Whalley avenue in the same area that a hit and run driver killed a little girl, ensuring higher speeds and more dangerous conditions.

Is this really the city we want to live in? A city that fights hard for feel good programs like the Resident ID which do not actually see fruition (how many undocumented people got access to a bank? 0), while ignoring the REAL challenges that face our citizens?

posted by: cwhig on May 17, 2011 2:05pm

People raise good questions about why the $5000 voted by the city for the waterfront exhibit should not be spent on human needs. The answer is that it will generate far more than $5000 in tourist-related tax revenues for the city, making it possible to do more for the neighborhoods. This is an investment, with 9-to-1 leverage—not a shabby deal.

posted by: Noteworthy on May 17, 2011 2:09pm

Nice idea. Bad timing and poor judgment. The city has no money and is facing big deficits current and projected. If this BOA can’t even say no to a lousy $5,000 for yet another bloviating consultant who will inevitably come back and tell us to spend even more money - likely in the tens of thousands if not the hundreds of thousands - we are bad shape and getting worse. What is wrong with these people? Seriously and with respect, what don’t these people understand about being broke? Does anyone think a kiosk will get 5,000 looks in a year? Will one soul visit New Haven to look at a kiosk? I love Culture and Tourism. It is a gem of a state agency but this expenditure from them and having one of our employees asking for grants which require a match is worse than stupid. That the BOA has no backbone to turn down even small expenditures of money explains precisely why we are broke and getting more broke. They are the same ones who would finance a micro-wave or buy Cocoa Puffs and candy bars when they can barely put real food on the table. Where is the common sense and why is a city employee out there allowed to do pursue this kind of program and that’s before I even start on bonding the $5K.

posted by: streever on May 17, 2011 2:33pm

cwhig:
forgive my cynicism! I do think this is a good and noble goal, I am just skeptical that it will pay off in real tourism benefits.

I’m not against spending on this type of thing—in general—but a kiosk in a neighborhood without any real parking just seems a little, I don’t know, lazy?

Maybe they should work on actually making the waterfront a real spot that people want to go, instead of just, you know, dumping a kiosk there.

If this would bring in tourism, I’d say go for it. Just, I’m skeptical, because the waterfront isn’t actually very appealing.

posted by: Sim on May 17, 2011 6:39pm

Bitsey Clark is they to show she loves black people. This whole thing makes no sense give me 5 k and I will tell you you need to spend more for this trail. At least I will spend the money in new haven

posted by: Thomas on May 17, 2011 6:49pm

Has New Haven ever taken a look at mid-sized tourist cities like Newport and Charleston SC or smaller cities like Savannah as to how to link sites better and form a transportation/tourist trolley systems, New Haven has many great neighborhoods but like the state they are all disconnected

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on May 17, 2011 7:49pm

The benefits of tourism are overstated. It really doesn’t matter how many attractions a place has in the form of civic centers, museums, theaters, hotels, etc if the permanent residents are struggling just to live their lives. Attracting permanent residents and long-term investments should be the focus of the city.
Look at any European city - they are not successful because of tourism, they attract tourists because their underlying economy and permanent residents are successful. Real culture is located in conversations between the everyday store owners and workers; culture cannot be adequately manufactured in a Yale Theater or a city exhibit, those are mere supplements that can be used to back up an underlying structure in the city made up of happy residents who live in neighborhoods that meet their needs.

posted by: Darnell on May 17, 2011 8:19pm

Tom—“kerfuffle”?! Thanks for the vocabulary lesson.

posted by: JB on May 17, 2011 8:49pm

Pay a consultant to create a viable plan to make the NH waterfront a nice place to visit and then you’ve got a tourist project worth pursuing.

posted by: Nick on May 18, 2011 6:08am

I don’t often agree with Darnell, but he’s right on here.

This is crazy. Despite what the aldermen and some posters seem to think, $45,000 is NOT going toward a tourism project that will create revenue. $45,000 is going toward paying someone to think about a tourism project. The price seems ridiculously high and there are plenty of very bright people in New Haven, particularly graduate or undergraduate students at Yale, who would likely do it for free.

The city’s $5,000 contribution should go toward something tangible that will improve people’s lives. This tourism project will only make any difference to people after a further investment by the city - and even then the benefits are uncertain.

posted by: westvillelocal on May 20, 2011 2:53pm

Why would the city even consider paying someone to study new havens tourism when we have almost nothing left for out of towners to come see. The current administration has kicked to the curb and left for dead most of new havens attractions.

We dont need the bond and cant afford it. As a city are almost broke.

posted by: William hosley on May 20, 2011 4:25pm

Dear Westvillelocal

That is an almost bizarre comment. Nothing anyone from out of town would care to see.

This is a link to a short version account of the Destination City program I developed when I served as Director of the New Haven Museum. The long version of the program contains 5x as much stuff and even that is incomplete. You couldn’t see and do all the really interesting things there are to see and do in New Haven in less than 4 days and very little of it has been promoted effectively - using the power of niche marketing via social media. Take a look and tell me if I am crazy.

http://www.slideshare.net/Billhosley/destination-city-raising-the-bar-on-geotourism-in-new-haven-trailer

posted by: westvillelocal on May 21, 2011 3:51pm

William..You do have some excellent examples of places to see and things to do in the city. Most of them do well on their own and sure some marketing wouldn’t hurt. Most things left to see are owned by Yale and Yale supported. KoC museum, Yale art, and the like are attractions that are wonderful and well worth the travel but what else is left? We dont need to bond money to have someone tell us their opinion. We know what we have.

My point is that the city has had great opportunities to bring in outside visitors and their wallets. We had sports.. dead. we had concerts (both on the green and at the coliseum).. dead. The city wants tourism but is missing the fact that we once had it and the city either pushed it out our never got behind it to begin with. The blueprint for getting tourist dollars is already there and doesnt need to be resurrected with a new price tag.

New Haven Independent

New Haven Independent Login Form