nothin Candidates: Bikes, Chief Good. Each Other Bad | New Haven Independent

Candidates: Bikes, Chief Good. Each Other Bad

Slower car traffic. Bike-friendlier streets. The police chief.

At their latest debate Tuesday night, New Haven’s five Democratic mayoral candidates all agreed to love all of the above. They spent the rest of the evening pummeling each other — and, with one exception, finding no one else besides themselves they could imagine as mayor.

Kermit Carolina accused Toni Harp of being a slumlord and Sundiata Keitazulu of being a paid” attack dog for her. Keitazulu attacked Carolina, Henry Fernandez and Justin Elicker — but not Harp — for failing to improve life in poor neighborhoods during their years in public service. Elicker attacked Harp for failing to lead more on traffic-calming proposals in Hartford and taking 20 years to discover local mismanagement of state money.

The topic for discussion was technically safe streets” and safe neighborhoods.” The occasion was the latest mayoral debate, at the Metropolitan Business Academy.

In practice, it became a tag-team wrestling match: Candidates Elicker, Carolina, and Fernandez taking aim at the presumed frontrunner, state Sen. Harp; and a fifth candidate, plumber Keitazulu, turning every question into an attack on Harp’s other three opponents while Harp herself stayed away from attacking.

The candidates were asked during the debate which opponent they’d like to see become mayor if they lose the race. Four refused to answer. Elicker chose Carolina. (Click on the play arrow to watch that discussion.)

Reginald Augustine Illustration

The Carolina campaign released this cartoon at the debate, depicting a new suburban union-led machine taking over City Hall if Toni Harp wins the mayoralty.

Throughout the evening, passions were high and the candidates at each other’s throats.

You’ve seen a show tonight. That’s great for an election. That’s not great for running a city,” Elicker declared in his closing remarks.

This has been democracy at work,” Henry Fernandez concluded.

A host of media organizations — La Voz Hispana, the Independent, the Register, Inner-City News — sponsored the debate, along with a variety of community organizations: The Democracy Fund, New Haven Votes, Elm City Cycling, the Safe Streets Coalition, the Violence Reduction Group, and community management teams. Event moderators Melissa Bailey of the New Haven Independent and Shahid Abdul-Karim of the New Haven Register asked the questions, chosen from among a batch submitted by the public.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Harp issued a public safety platform in time for the debate. She called for, among other ideas, financial incentives from the city to help cops and firefighters buy homes in New haven, a renewed focus on specialized police units to tackle narcotics and prostitution; and aggressive recruiting of neighborhood citizen participants for management teams.

Read on for a blow-by-blow live blog of the debate.

There will be sound: Doug Hausladen sets up the sound system for the debate.

6:17 p.m. First question, from Elm City Cycling: Will you support 20 mile-per-hour speed limits citywide? How will you accomplish that?

Elicker starts by mentioning that he rode his bike here. (You wouldn’t know it by his suit!) He says he absolutely” supports the citywide 20 mile-per-hour limit.

Fernandez: He too absolutely” supports the limit. This dramatically reduces the likelihood that there’ll be a fatality if someone is hit.” We can go further” on cycling: a citywide bike-share program. (Like New York’s?) It’s striking how cycling advocates have become a potent city force in town; people seeking office see the need to support the cycling agenda. Fernandez also speaks about fixing broken sidewalks to help seniors walk safely.

Harp too supports the speed limit proposal. She mentions that she sponsored a traffic-calming program for upper Whalley Avenue. (Will that counteract the effects of the widening of Upper Whalley by the state Department of Transportation?)

Carolina says he too is an avid bike-rider.” Says we need pedestrian- and bike-friendly lanes.” And he supports the 20 is plenty movement,” aka the lower speed limit. He says he’ll lobby aldermen to support it, too. He mentions the need to solve the Gabrielle Lee case, the girl run over on Whalley Avenue.

Keitazulu supports it — and challenges Carolina about why he hasn’t gotten speed bumps or other traffic-calming near Hillhouse High School, where he’s the principal. And he challenges Elicker: You’re an alderman. Why haven’t you succeeded yet in promoting state streets?

Carolina and Keitazulu draw names for the portion of the debate when candidates get to ask each other questions.

6:23 p.m. Fernandez interjects to swing to Elicker’s defense: Justin has been a real leader on this statewide.” Wow,

I have not seen that in the inner city. I don’t see them around Newhallville!” Keitazulu responds.

Elicker defends his record as a traffic-calmer — then criticizes a lack of state leadership” on the issue. In other words: Where has Harp, a state senator, been?

Harp mentions bond money that has gone toward traffic-calming. She says she and other New Haveners at the Capitol have pushed for a red-light camera bill supported by traffic-calmers, but the majority hasn’t gone along.

It’s starting fiery!

6:26 p.m. Do you support the new design for Route 34 with the 100 College Street project? This is a big issue for new urbanists. (Read about that here.)

Fernandez: It makes some improvements, but doesn’t go far enough. Road should have been narrower, with better access for cyclists.

Harp: It’s not true that traffic is too fast there. Gateway Community College’s new downtown campus has caused traffic jams. So yes, she’d like to see a redesign, but in part to make it easier to drive to Gateway.

Carolina: It needs to be better for cyclists. More raised roadway for cyclists and pedestrians. Use some of the wide lanes for off-street parking. More evidence that cycling advocates have emerged as a force to reckon with in New Haven politics.

Keitazulu speaks about … jobs. More city people should get work on the project, he says. Nobody from the city gets no jobs out of this.” This may reflect how, coming from Newhallville, he might see traffic-calming, cycling and pedestrian issues downtown as less important than job creation.

Elicker: This is tricky. He calls out Harp on the cars question; I was waiting for someone to pick up on how her comment wasn’t actually speaking to the cycling community, but to other people (drivers) who don’t like traffic jams.

Fernandez again asks for a quick rebuttal.” He’s piling on to Harp. He wants to mention that he was behind Gateway coming downtown when he was the city’s development administrator. And he says the traffic back-ups aren’t from the campus, but from construction on the 100 College project.

An Elicker-Fernandez alliance emerging here to take on presumed frontrunner Harp?

6:32 Question: Pick a neighborhood street, describe what you like about it, and tell us the city’s role in helping it? The question originally came from Brian Tang.

Harp’s favorite street in New Haven is Edgewood Avenue.” Not a lot of commercial development. Organized well. A park through the middle of it.” it’s beautiful. It’s a place where children can play next to the park in the center of the street.” It has bicycle lanes.

Carolina: Obviously Dixwell Avenue,” the heart of his support. (Click here about how many people he knows there.) Mentions old stores there, like Unique Boutique and Joe Grate’s barbecue. Mentions how streets used to be clean there, the pride and unity” in the neighborhood before politics and people were bought off in the community to support crooked politicians.”

The crowd filled the Metropolitan Business Academy cafeteria.

Keitazulu: He too supports Dixwell Avenue. Then he accuses Carolina of promoting something called Don’t come to school, I’ve got you covered” at Hillhouse, leaving kids to hang out on Dixwell. Looks like a second alliance is brewing here tonight: Keitazulu supporting Harp by attacking the other three candidates. Interesting subtexts and shifting alliances in this election!

6:36 Carolina shoots back at Keitazulu: I hope they pay you well brother for selling out like this.” I don’t know when the next time I saw you” at Hillhouse.

The two yell at each other; then Elicker takes his turn back to the question. His favorite street: Grand Avenue because it is representative of what is great about our city and what can be better. The bustling small-business community there of individuals … who need the support of the city to invest in streetscape and more predictable and reliable public transportation.”

Fernandez too mentions Grand Avenue as well as the street where he lives, East Pearl, which runs off Grand. He talks about neighbors working together to make it work, where we all look out for each other” and his son is learning to ride a bicycle.

Democracy Fund administrator Ken Krayeske discusses details of public-financing filings with Keitazulu.

6:39 Is Project Longevity, that gang-fighting police initiative, racist? Or a good idea?

Carolina: The program focuses on what people may do,” and makes an entire group pay” for one individual doing wrong. (The program in part relies on group accountability: One member of a gang shoots again, authorities clamp down on everyone.) Yes, lock up people doing wrong, he said; he mentions his idea of civil injunctions” barring people convicted of violent acts from hanging out with certain people in certain places.

Keitazulu goes back to attacking Harp’s opponents: Yes, Project longevity’s fine, but the big issue is getting jobs — and you, Henry Fernandez, didn’t get us jobs when you worked for John DeStefano as economic development administrator! What have you done when you was there!”

Moderator Abdul-Karim reminds him that the question was something else: Is Project Longevity racist? Now Keitazulu answers: No. You should get arrested if you commit crimes. I don’t care what color you are.”

Elicker: We need to use every tool available” to stop the violence, which Project Longevity does.

Fernandez: I do support Project Longevity. I think it’s a program actually developed by folks like Tracey Meares at Yale Law School” — one of his main early campaign supporters. Fernandez then speaks about legitimacy” in policing: Every interaction has to be perceived as legitimate.”

Harp supports Project Longevity, too.

6:47 Keitazulu jumps in again to Fernandez: What did you do” when you were at City Hall?

Fernandez: For 23 years I fought for this city… I developed youth programs for children who live in public housing projects. I have ensured that when schools like this were built, they were built by New Haven residents. … Sundiata, I think it’s time to simply let it go. I have no idea how it is that you have decided that you are going to play whatever role you know this it is you’re going to play in this election. But up until now everyone has treated you with dignity and respect … The point at which you determined that you were going to be a puppet for someone else” — Fernandez is on fire — then I don’t think that you should any longer expect that at least three of us will continue to treat you that way.”

Sundiata: What you have done in my community! Our community had the highest unemployment rate since you’ve been there! And you’re telling me you want to play Keno.” (?)

6:50 Question: What are you going to do to deal with absentee landlords, mortgage fraud, and slumlording that have plagued Newhallville?

Keitazulu: More vo-tech schools that rain young people to fix up those houses. Now he piles on again: To do that job that Mr. Fernandez … Mr. Eckler … uh … Mr. Carolina” never have. It’s kind of transparent: He leaves out Harp, who’s been a state senator for 20 years, in the group of people he wants to attack for not having changed the reality of New Haven while serving in public life.

Elicker: City Hall’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative, has to enforce existing rules much more on landlords. He mentions a fight he helped wage against notorious slumlords in Cedar Hill.

Fernandez: I am the one candidate here who has prosecuted slumlords in this city.” He as LCI director actually brought in the government to prosecute slumlords — and to break up mortgage-fraudsters doing phony flips in poor neighborhoods, which he mentions now, too. It’s something I spent seven years I think pretty successfully tackling.”

Harp mentions Newhallville efforts to provide homeownership for worker housing,” something that, for instance, Neighborhood Housing Services does. When an owner lives in a unit, things are much safer.” She gives a shout-out to ministers in the Promise Land project working with neighborhood groups on issues like that and better lighting.

Carolina: Harp’s family was the biggest slumlord in New Haven.” Her supporters boo. Carolina says LCI should hold slumlords accountable. And make sure they don’t abuse Section 8 — like certain family businesses are doing in the city.” He means the Harps.

Harp responds; All I can say is I didn’t have anything to do with my husband’s business or my son’s business.” Her late husband Wendell left behind the state’s biggest tax debt. Her son Matthew now runs the family business. I think it’s a cheap shot. I’m really ashamed of him,” meaning Carolina, for attacking her like this.

Carolina: I’ll take you to a number of those homes. I’ll let you speak to a number of residents of those streets. We’ll start with Rosette Street.”

6:55 Two lightning-round questions now, both submitted by Independent reader and commenter Three-Fifths.

Lightning round question one: Whom in the DeStefano administration would you keep if you win? All five say Dean Esserman, the police chief. Harp also mentions mayoral aide Becky Bombero and City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg.

Lightning round question two: If you don’t win, whom else would you want to see become mayor? Fernandez declines to answer, then answers catcalls from the crowd, telling people if you’d like to run, then you can sit up here, and you get to answer.” No one else answers the question, either, except Elicker. He says he’d choose Carolina if he doesn’t win. Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch the round. (Elicker later said he chose Carolina because Carolina participates in the public-financing Democracy Fund.)

7 p.m. Now candidates ask each other questions.

Harp touches on a sensitive question for Fernandez; His record as LCI chief going after a Dixwell not-for-profit that had received city money. Fernandez loves the question.

The Dixwell Community Development Corporation was corrupt … seemed to think its job” was to pay the political” executive director well, not to build housing and solve problems,” Fernandez says. Then he turns it on Harp: You were the alderwoman there at the time — and you never raised a question about corrupt” misuse of public money by politically connected groups.

Paul Bass Photo

Candidate Elicker checks in with moderator Abdul-Karim before the debate.

Carolina asks Keitazulu: Why aren’t you willing to hold Sen. Toni Harp accountable for being a slumlord in neighborhoods you say you love and not paying taxes” while you attack the others? Keitazulu: Nobody’s paying me nothing.” He disagrees with criticisms of her family’s record. Meanwhile, children are running the streets wild” rather than being in Hillhouse High School. As well as running wild in the school, having Mike Tyson fights.” Carolina: This community knows my track record … I have given you a pass for a long time. I was the one who parented your child at Hillhouse.” Whoa! Keitazulu’s daughter went to Hillhouse. Now Keitazulu accuses Carolina of teaching” his child not to follow rules. This is getting personal!

7:04 p.m. Keitazulu to Elicker: You wanted to give Yale [streets] away for free.” He’s referring to the recent city sale of parts of High and Wall streets to Yale for $3 million. He says that Elicker originally supported the final form of the deal, then opposed it when he became a mayoral candidate. Elicker denies he ever supported the deal. He says the deal changed” during negotiations between Yale and the DeStefano administration.

7:06 Fernandez to Carolina: You grew up here. You built up sports programs. What do we need to do now for kids? A softball question — clearly not a candidate in Fernandez’s crosshairs. Carolina: We need to make sure there’s a responsible adult in the lives of each and every one of our children.” Support two-parent households with both parents employed. Safe streets and safe school buildings.

7:08 Elicker to Harp: You said you’re running for mayor because you didn’t know how the city was spending city money. Having been a state legislator for 20 years and chair of the Appropriations Committee, how could you not know how money was being spent?” And he mentions that Connecticut has the nation’s highest per capita debt.

Harp’s response: There’s a difference between the executive and the legislative branch.” The state sends the money; the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Education decide how it’s spent. She did her job, she says: She got the money. Her supporters are cheering.

Elicker’s response: As an alderman, it took me four years to figure out the Board of Education wasn’t spending money” well — It didn’t take me 20 years!”

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