Paul Bass Photo
Nemerson, Keitazulu, Holder-Winfield, and Fernandez check in with the Boys & Girls’ Club’s Stephanie Barnes.
(News analysis) Six men who want to lead New Haven tackled “youth” issues Monday night — without uttering the name of a single young person.
Henry Fernandez, Sundiata Keitazulu, Kermit Carolina and Justin Elicker did mention attending funerals. Fernandez and Carolina and Matthew Nemerson talked about having kids.
But all six chose to jettison one of the bedrock rules of modern political debating — talk about ideas that matter by telling stories about real people whose lives are affected, whose experiences voters can relate to.
The six candidates for the Democratic nomination for mayor participated in a youth forum at the Boys & Girls Club sponsored by the New Haven Register. (A seventh candidate, state Sen. Toni Harp, didn’t make it.) The event drew hundreds to the club’s gym. Scroll down in the story for a blow-by-blow live blog by the Independent.
The participants included state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, former Chamber of Commerce President Nemerson, former city development chief Fernandez, Alderman Elicker, plumber Keitazulu, and Hillhouse High School Principal Carolina. Click here to read about their previous debate.
Personal stories aside, the debate did reveal some differing opinions or at least emphases among the candidates.
Hundreds showed up for the debate.
Carolina, who showed the most passion in the debate (and looked more comfortable than in his previous appearance), called for police to “harass” the small minority of violent troublemakers and kids hanging out with them in rough spots on the street at night. Fernandez shot back by invoking the notorious police “Beat Down Posse” of the 1980s and decrying “stop and frisk” law enforcement.
Nemerson broke from the pack by repeatedly refusing to promise a new citywide string of neighborhood youth centers. He said New Haven has underused beautiful school buildings that should house programs; and he said that rather than replicate youth programs in each neighborhood, a budget-strapped city should concentrate its resources on fewer outlets to which kids from different neighborhoods could travel.
Next debate: Sunday at 4 p.m. at Davis Street School, on economic development issues. The full account of Monday night’s debate follows.
Abdul-Karim helps set up the show.
6:34 p.m. Everyone (minus Toni Harp) is here. The gym is filing up — four rows of about 80 chairs, plus the bleachers. Other campaigns have tried to score points for Harp’s absence; she has made a credible case that as co-chair of the legislature’s Appropriations Committee, she can’t miss crucial end-of-session meetings where hundreds of millions of dollars may be at stake. The Boys & Girls Club’s Stephanie Barnes is welcoming folks now. “This is an opportunity for youth voices to be heard here in New Haven,” she says.
6:39 p.m. The questions are all coming from young people tonight.
6:41 p.m. Candidate intros. Kermit Carolina says that “like many of you young people,” he has experienced poverty, feeling peer pressure, worrying about violence. “I have spent my entire adult life trying to change conditions for young people.” He quotes a rapper (sorry, missed the reference; I know it wasn’t Bob Dylan) to describe why he’s different from the other candidates: “boots on the ground — I’ve been in the trenches the last 20 years.” Carolina has the most to gain tonight — as a principal and former basketball coach and New Haven native, he has a potentially sympathetic audience to connect to and highlight what he brings to the race. Justin Elicker sets up a straw man: Some unidentified people claimed no one would come to this debate, because young people don’t vote. He knew better! Word.
6:45 p.m. Looks like about 200 people here. Henry Fernandez speaks of how he helped start LEAP; elicits some yelps from LEAPies in the hall. “in this election, we’re going to decide things like whether we have after-school programs” and “have great schools” and summer jobs.
Boys & Girls Club crew readies the clock.
6:48 p.m. Unlike the three before him, Gary Holder-Winfield stays at the table and speaks in the mic instead of walking up to crowd Oprah/Bill Clinton-style. Like the others, he seeks to create a personal connection to the crowd: He speaks of struggling as a kid in the South Bronx, where his mom pretended he lived somewhere else so he could go to a better school. Sundiata Keitazulu (who also grew up here, like Carolina) promises a teen center in every neighborhood. “I had a son that got killed in this city. Nobody can tell me how that feels,” he says.
6:51 p.m. Matthew Nemerson has the final slot for intros. He’s reading from a printout. He “levels” with the kids: “All the youth programs we have are great. Why can’t we hold them in our beautiful” existing school buildings? He’s the only one so far to admit you can’t just promise stuff to people: He mentions that the city won’t have a lot of money to pay for everything we want. I think he’s suggesting that rather than build new teen centers, make use of those expensive new school buildings. The city claimed it was going to do that with a robust after-school teen rec program in all the neighborhoods’ schools. Never took off.
Holder-Winfield, Fernandez, Elicker & Carolina.
6:55 p.m. Fielding a question about tight budgets, Carolina directly rebuts Nemerson: “Hillhouse is not empty in the afternoons. Hillhouse is filled with after-school activities” like clubs and sports teams. “… I’m walking the walk.” That’s clearly his theme for the night: They talk. I walk. Carolina then proposed a youth council to help advise him as mayor. He talks about a summer basketball camp (including academics) he ran for “20 summers” for kids in poor neighborhoods, busing kids in to West Rock; with 100 jobs for older teens to serve as “mentors.”
6:59 p.m. Fernandez takes a slap at his former boss in City Hall, part of the tightrope he’s walking in this campaign between stressing his government service and distinguishing himself from the 20-year incumbent: “The Q House closed — and the leadership of this city didn’t solve that problem. Trowbridge Youth Center closed, and the leadership of the city didn’t step up. Latino Youth closed …” Fair point, though there was also some serious responsibility on the part of community people who failed to keep the Q House afloat. It was too easy to blame it all on City Hall.
Abdul-Karim and Elicker at the debate.
7:06 p.m. Nemerson is seeking a larger audience here — not just the kids. He’s clearly seeking to establish him as the adult in the room by speaking “honestly” by not just saying yes to every idea. “I believe in kids. I also believe in families,” he says, suggesting that the best results come from stable households with employed parents. “Maybe we can’t have a youth center in every neighborhood,” he states, suggesting that “moving people around” from different neighborhoods could enable people to “get to know each other” and have well-run places to go.
7:12 p.m. Since Nemerson’s comment ending the first round of questioning, each of the candidates is following up with an effort to state that he, too, recognizes we have limited money and have to make choices — but also to say they consider youth programs a top priority, a way to cut crime or create jobs, etc.
“We have beautiful schools. We should be using them more. They’re going unused — not in the case of Hillhouse,” Nemerson repeats.
7:15 p.m. Second question: How will you reduce crime?
Amid vague “hope” comments, Nemerson raises in passing another underused-building point: Why aren’t we using all those police substations more? (A theme — school buildings, substations can be used more.)
All the candidates are relying on vague general themes — jobs, opportunity, hope, more youth activities. The tough questions are what can we pay for, how; how do we strengthen families, how do we create these jobs? What went wrong with the Q House (beyond just blaming one side or another) to prevent it from rising again? What won’t you spend money on? Nemerson’s coming the closest by suggesting (I think) that instead of building new centers, he’d make use of existing buildings, and not try to replicate the same youth program in each neighborhood. This is a big debate now in town: the Board of Aldermen has a special group trying to figure out how to bring back the opportunities that Trowbridge, the Q, Latino Youth used to provide. They’ve raised the right question. The answer won’t be to open 12 new centers, I think — because they also cost money to keep going.
“Police need not be an occupying force in the community” who hit “you upside the head”: Holder-Winfield gets applause of recognition from the crowd for that one. Several others have been making a point of applauding the return of community policing to New Haven over the past year — while of course saying they want to do better.
Tell Me A Story?
Nemerson and Keitazulu (left).
7:23 p.m. It’s about 40 minutes into this debate, and a candidate has only now told the first human story. Sort of. Fernandez talks about the first funeral he went to for a LEAP kid. However he doesn’t name the kid. He doesn’t describe the funeral. He doesn’t say how the kid died. He doesn’t draw a lesson from the story except to say that’s why this all matters. Earth to candidates: Public policy arises from the real-life experiences of real people. Real stories are why issues matter. And voters/listeners care more when you can tell a real story about a real person to make your point. That’s talking up, not down, to your audience.
7:27 p.m. Looks like Kermit Carolina already got the memo. He talks about two kids — his 13 and 16-year-old sons — and how he hugs them every morning because he worries about them. Not an amazing story. But it’s a start.
Now Carolina’s getting worked up, with results from the crowd. “Less than 1 percent” of the community are responsible for the violence in New Haven and “hide among us like terrorists,” he says. “We know who they are. They police know who they are.” Instead of “chasing the nickel-and-dime drug dealers,” “go after” the gun dealers. He wants police to “harass” kids hanging out late at night with drug dealers.
7:30 p.m. Question: Have you ever heard gunshots in your backyard? Yes, says Carolina, and “I’ve stood next to people who have been shot.” Then he blasts the cops for shooting at the gun range near his school during the day — calls it disrespect. Carolina has become the most animated speaker in this debate; he’s more relaxed than in the previous debate.
7:34 p.m. Fernandez shoots back at Carolina: “I don’t feel comfortable with the police harassing people.” Before he had grey hair, he used to get “stopped and frisked” by city cops here. “It was humiliating. It was painful. … I never want to go back to a time when we have the Beat-Down Posse.” That’s a reference to a pre-community policing crew of city cops who in the 1980s would stop randomly at high-crime corners and attack young men. (No joke.) Fernandez delivers the lines calmly. Carolina’s the only candidate so far showing passion.
How Will You Green New Haven?
Elijah Reeves read the questions.
7:45 p.m. Elicker calls for more bike lanes to help “green” New Haven. (As a bike rider, I find them useless, or even counterproductive, unless they can be separated from car traffic.) He also promises to fund a full-time city green coordinator again, a position that was defunded. He says the city can pay for itself by finding energy cost savings.
7:47 p.m. Fernandez recalls the time a “bunch of rich people” wanted to restart English Station, a dirty power plant in a neighborhood already with high asthma rates. He did that when he was the city’s economic development chief; he battled his predecessor, Sal Brancati, who was hired by the people trying (unsuccessfully) to restart the plant with dirty power and a “promise” to burn cleaner later on once they made money. Today he wants an “aggressive program” to clean up old junkyards that are “leeching pollutants.”
7:49 p.m. The mayor doesn’t “need to know everything,” Holder-Winfield says. He admits he doesn’t know everything about how to “green a city.” He says he’ll be good at listening to people who know the answers. He has seen cars driving 75 miles per hour outside his house on Winchester Avenue; slowing down the traffic can do as much as bike lanes, he says. (I’m trying to figure out if that’s a shot at Elicker, and if so, why.)
7:53 p.m. “I think the parks department does an OK job. In other cities they do a better job,” Nemerson says. He’s tougher on sanitation workers: They leave too much trash on the streets, he says. He wants more two‑, three‑, four-story buildings on Whalley Avenue to “build density.” No permission for new Walgreens-style stores without upper stories. Greater density, cleaner environment.
He seems to like bike lanes too. I’ve found they confuse the drivers more than before (thinking if there’s no bike lane on a street, they should honk you onto the sidewalk), while not really clearing the path of parked cars or car-door-openers.
Carolina calls for “holding slumlords accountable” for lead paint.
7:56 p.m. Questions over. Closing remarks now. Elicker repeats his approach from the last debate: Walking back out into the hall right up to the audience. Carolina does that now, too. “Help me, young people, help you and your families escape this vicious cycle of poverty,” he says. This debate had no clear winner, but Carolina succeeded in upping his game.
Why so little coverage of what Elicker is saying?
[Paul Bass: He's not saying much.]