Paul Bass Photo
Seventy-five young people and their adult supporters marched through downtown rush-hour traffic to demand jobs and safer streets — then brought their parade to the porch of a 16-month-old boy named Tramire who almost died from a random bullet.
The event began at 5 p.m. Monday with hot chocolate and graham crackers and some speeches inside the People’s Center on Howe Street. The New Elm City Dream, a youth group affiliated with the labor-backed majority that took of control of the Board of Aldermen and local Democratic Party last year, organized the march to keep pressure on New Haven decision-makers to follow through on a promised jobs pipeline, renewed community policing, and neighborhood rec centers.
The group also released a survey of 570 New Haveners between 10 and 25; “well over half” of those surveyed “have been exposed to violence,” the group reported.
Aniyah Rivers (pictured), 3, asked to come along with her family to Monday’s march, which called for “Love, Jobs & Peace.”
Nate Bobby, 10, held aloft a sign reading “YCL,” referring to the Young Communist League. Montell Wright (pictured next to him), 17, told the gathering that “YCL is Elm City Dream.”
“Your struggle is our struggle. We will be with you guys always,” declared immigrant-right activist John Lugo (at left in photo). He stood beside Josemaria Islas, a Mexican immigrant facing deportation under the controversial “Safe Communities” program . (He has a hearing in Hartford this Thursday.) WQUN’s Melinda Tuhus recorded the action.
The group then grabbed placards and gathered once more in the warmth before venturing out onto frigid Howe Street.
Joining them on the march were Yale Alderwoman Sarah Eidelson (at left), who chairs the legislative committee responsibility for crafting a new citywide youth program; and East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker (at right), who’s running for mayor.
Cops in five cruisers escorted the marchers up Howe as they chanted “This is what democracy looks like!”
They demonstrators marched into the midst of stopped Whalley traffic, where, at 5:45 p.m., they passed Popeye’s …
… and shifted onto the sidewalk in front of D’s Barber Shop. D stood outside watching the procession pass. He said he was glad someone’s marching for jobs; thanks to unemployment, he said, his customers are waiting longer between haircuts.
The marchers coursed through stopped traffic once again to turn left onto Orchard, left onto Elm, then right onto Kensington …
… to the porch of the Miller family. A gangbanger from the Hill sprayed that porch with bullets last Oct. 10 at 2:35 p.m. One of those bullets hit 16-month-old Tramire Miller. Tramire survived; his shooting shocked the city. Tramire, his mom, and his siblings greeted the marchers Monday night. Elm City Dreamer Capria Marks, 17, scooped Tramire up in one arm as she addressed the crowd through a megaphone.
Then her father, the Rev. Scott Marks, took the megaphone. He spoke about the mass murder of schoolchildren that occurred in Newtown two months ago. And he spoke about the violence that takes place daily in cities like New Haven.
“The stars, the athletes came out of the woodwork to support Newtown. We support them too. We also want support for people who fight for their communities every day. There has to be justice” there, as well, Marks declared.
To create jobs and reduce violence, we need to begin by getting the powers that be (the Unions and the City) to put neighborhoods first, all other considerations second. So far, neither Marks, nor the Board of Aldermen (CCNE), nor City Hall have done this.
We can begin by asking, for example, what percentage of City/Yale Union jobs are held by suburban residents? When residents of areas like Newhallville do get those good City/Yale Union jobs (if they even get them at all), how long do they continue to live there?
If people move out as soon as they get a decent job, that doesn't help our neighborhoods much, and may just make violence worse.
As it is now, we are levying ever-higher taxes (rents) on a mostly non-unionized City population that has declining incomes. About half these families are now Latino.
We are doing this in order to pay for the (relatively) enormous salaries, pensions and benefits of Union/CCNE members who live in places like Westbrook and Hamden. We are giving the Police and Fire Unions a raise, even as the typical incomes have fallen by 20% or more.
If our focus were on City neighborhoods first and Unions second, crime would be rare and good jobs in the inner city would be plentiful. Politicians like DeStefano and Perez have miserably failed to do this. Under their watch, neighborhoods like Tramire's have seen more and more gunshots and fewer and fewer jobs each year, as we funnel our local money out of town in ever-increasing proportions.