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Harp: “New Haven has emerged as a pillar of hope.”
Alluding to clashes on race, class, gender, sexuality, religion and nationality that currently roil the country, Mayor Toni Harp singled out New Haven as an American “beacon” in an annual “State of the City” address.
Harp delivered her address Monday evening in the aldermanic chamber at City Hall.
She didn’t focus on challenges the city could face in the future by butting heads with the new presidential administration or looming budget cuts from Hartford.
She instead focused on successes that her administration along with the Board of Alders have achieved in the last year to move the city forward.
“New Haven has emerged as an American microcosm – we’re making it work for all those who want to be here,” she said.
“There is a beacon of stability emerging from the city we call home, providing sanctuary, not just for people, but for a time-honored sense of respect, acceptance, and dignity,” Harp said. “In New Haven, a collective determination has emerged to continue providing for one another equal protection, and equal opportunity under the law.”
Click here to read the mayor’s full prepared remarks.
The fire department got a shoutout for reducing overtime.
Harp said New Haven is marching forward on how it treats its residents, models economic growth and stability for the region and leads the nation on policing and interventions for at-risk youth.
“As the economic, educational, cultural, and population center of this region, New Haven has literally emerged as the picture of America,” she said, pointing to U.S. Census data that shows that the demographics of greater New Haven most closely mirrors America today by age, educational attainment, race, and ethnicity. “The symmetry is not lost on me: how fitting that the place to emerge as a demographic postcard for this nation has also emerged as a portrait for what it means – for what it is – to be American.”
“Would that more of America would mirror more of the many good things to emerge from New Haven this past year,” she added.
The recent razing of the old Q House in Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison’s ward got a mention.
Other positives Harp chose to highlight include:
• A reduction in the number of lead poisonings in the city from a high of nearly 500 cases 15 years ago to 92 reported cases last year.
• Three consecutive balanced budgets with the past two featuring no change in the mill rate, and a modest rainy day fund.
• A Grand List with a nearly 8.5 percent growth in aggregate property value, and a 3.3 percent growth in the Personal Property Grand List.
• A continued decline in violent crime.
• Shrinking overtime expenses and a continue reduction in the number of sick days used by the fire department..
Harp also praised the work of the New Haven Public Schools in increasing school attendance and reducing the suspensions, expulsions and school-based arrests.
“I am proud of New Haven Public Schools,” said Harp, who until recently served as the president of the board of ed. “We are not a prison school to prison pipeline.”
Harp said there’s no other city where she’d rather be mayor.
The mayor also doubled down on her stance that New Haven will remain an immigrant-embracing “sanctuary city” as long as she is at the helm.
“For as long as I’m mayor, New Haven will be a welcoming, accepting place for new residents – for those moving into town from nearby, and for dispirited foreign refugees fleeing unspeakable heartache,” she said. “It is my hope New Haven remains a sanctuary and refuge for them, and for the robust dialogue, disagreements, collaboration, cooperation, innovation, and civic pride that makes this city so attractive to them and to so many others.”
“As I look around Connecticut, as I look around New England, and frankly, as I look across America, there isn’t a city I prefer; there isn’t a city where I’d rather be mayor, and there isn’t a group of people I’d rather serve as a public official,” she concluded. “There’s no question in my mind but that New Haven has emerged as a model American city, not because it’s perfect, and not because there are no challenges ahead, but because of its determination to continue working together to overcome those challenges and make this a better, and better, and better place to be.”
Hill Alder Dave Reyes praised Harp’s recognition of what the executive office and the legislative branch of city government can accomplish when they both have the same goal.
“Wanting to make New Haven better — we both have that in common,” he said. “We’re working together to make this the best city in the United States, and I’m proud to serve in this great city because of that.”
He also praised the city for standing firm as a sanctuary city. He called current timesa test of whether people are willing to protect the dream of equality that slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. proffered.
East Rock Alder Anna Festa expressed skepticism on the positive spin she felt Harp put on the growth of the grand list and a lack of focus on state budget woes Hartford. She said she’s waiting on the city’s proposed budget, which Harp will deliver this month to see if taxes rise.
“There are things that come off the grand list and things that come on,” she said. “I have to see the grand list for myself and see the budget for myself to be reassured as to what’s going on and what the future really holds.”
Festa said she hopes that the Harp administration is looking for ways to keep lifelong New Haveners in the city.
“We have to think about those lifelong residents. We have to think about our elderly,” she said. “We have to think about our youth — the well rounded child, not just the straight A student. I’ve got kids in New Haven Public Schools, and improvements are only a blessing. I’ll do anything to help schools succeed.”
I quite like Toni Harp. I think she's done a pretty good job balancing the many difficulties of running a city in this state right now. I consistently find her very intelligent and well-informed on an enormous amount of subjects when I get a chance to catch her on the radio or making a speech. I think New Haven is in pretty good hands, overall.