Markeshia Ricks Photo
Hamilton, Douglass and Walker at the announcement.
They’ve worked together to fight blight and slumlords and to plan for development on Route 34. Now the three alders — dubbed “Three the Hard Way” and the “Three Musketeers” — representing Dwight, Edgewood and West River are seeking another term to focus in on jobs for their constituents.
The three Democrats alders from adjoining wards on the west side of town, Frank Douglass, Evette Hamilton, and Tyisha Walker, were joined by more than 50 supporters at the Troup School Tuesday afternoon to announce that they’d be seeking another term in the upcoming election. So far no one has filed papers to challenge them, according to the city clerk’s office.
The trio’s event followed by two days a similar event in which four Hill neighborhood alder candidates announced their candidacies as a team.
Tyisha Walker, who represents West River’s Ward 23, said that when people see the three alders united in their purpose, they know that the trio means business.
“That’s why they call us ‘three the hard way,’” said Walker, who serves as Board of Alders president. “Because we make sure we’re always advocating on behalf of our constituents.”
Frank Douglass.
They stood together when Douglass was negotiating the expansion of the Courtyard Marriott hotel and the building of a Stop ‘n Shop, they said. They stood together when discussion of temporary development on Route 34 was being discussed, and when Mandy Management had taken over rental properties in the neighborhoods and they needed to get the company to clean up.
Walker said the three want to continue to stand together as they work with their fellow alders on trying to make sure that New Haveners have access to good jobs. She said one of the things that the three alders are working on is a way to get more use out the job-training-and-placement agency New Haven Works specifically for their three communities.
“We try to work most of our initiatives together,” she said. “When there are neighborhood cleanups we try to coordinate them because all of our neighborhoods need to be beautiful. When ever one of us calls and needs something, there is no time where we’re not ready to support each other.”
Evette Hamilton, who represents Edgewood’s Ward 24, she said the mean reason the three musketeers are running is because their work is not done. “We still have a lot of work to do, not only in Ward 2, 23 and 24, but throughout the city of New Haven.”
She pointed to jobs as well as to the continued need for new sidewalks and paved roads as a priority for a new two-year term: “There are a lot of services that our constituents deserve and need and pay for that’s still not been completed.”
Walker and Karaine Smith-Holness.
Walker touted the Board of Alders not raiding taxes and holding city services to a high level of service. She called being an alder a labor of love.
“We do that for our constituents because that’s what they deserve,” she said. “They pay taxes and they deserve services, plus.”
Douglass, who represents Dwight’s Ward 2, said he has seen a lot of development in the city including in the neighborhood, and that’s one of the reasons why he wants to continue to be a voice at the table.
“When decisions are made in our community, I’d like to continue the effort of being that voice for the people here in Ward 2,” he said.
Hamilton and Dillon, who worked together for improvements at the intersection of Ella T. Grasso and Chapel Street.
New Haven State Rep. Pat Dillon, who used to represent parts of what are now Wards 2, 23, and 24 on the Board of Alders, said Tuesday that the three neighborhoods could not be in safer hands than with the incumbent alders.
“These folks are all about community,” she said. “It’s not about ego. It’s about team, and it’s about results. I’m proud to stand with them.”
We used to have activists who went into politics but now we have career opportunists.
MARCUS GARVEY ON "Negro leadership and what it means"
"I would not exchange two five-cent cigars-even though not a smoker-for all the Colored or Negro political leaders, or rather misleaders, of our time. The fraternity is heartless, crafty and corrupt. They exist for themselves only and give no honest thought to the future, nor the condition of the people, except to exploit the aid condition to… their political benefit.The leaders of the race are vision less and selfish. They think of none but themselvesAmong the whites, we have a few political charlatans and crooks, but that race can well afford, under the circumstances, to tolerate them, because they are surrounded and circumvented by Statesmen and race Patriots who are ever vigilant and on guard in protecting the rights of their people. Among us Negroes, there is no relief from such a class, because they monopolize our politics and obstruct our outlook.
Judas Goat
A Judas goat is a trained goat used at a slaughterhouse and in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared. Judas goats are also used to lead other animals to specific pens and on to trucks.
Mark 8:36 KJV: For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
No shame hast the Judas Goat!!