Shafiq Abdussabur.
A diverse cast of neighbors from one of New Haven’s most diverse neighborhoods gathered virtually Monday to help formally launch an alder candidacy.
The occasion was the formal announcement of Democrat Shafiq Abdussabur’s candidacy for the Board of Alders seat from the 28th Ward, which covers the Beaver Hills neighborhood.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the announcement took place over Facebook Live. Campaign Manager Salwa Abdussabur (yes; Shafiq is their father) hosted the event.
Abdussabur, who retired from the police force after 21 1/2 years and currently runs a construction and cleaning company that hires ex-offenders, promised if elected to tackle both rising crime and broken sidewalks, poor street lighting, and tree stumps needing removal.
Armed robberies doubled in Beaver Hills last year, he reported. He said gun violence has hit its highest levels in the city in 15 years. He recalled how he helped spearhead the creation of a Street Outreach Worker program back then, among numerous official and unofficial violence-prevention efforts he had undertaken. He vowed to be part of the solution again this time, including a call to craft a citywide violence-reduction plan and to avoid “defunding the police.”
“We have been patient, only to find ourselves being victims of increased violent crime and hate crimes. We have demonstrated unity, only to have been met with empty promises, like the multitude of broken sidewalks, sidewalks that should serve as the pathway to bring our families together,” Abdussabur, wearing an American flag pin and celebrating his 54th birthday, said during the livestream. (Above video of the event starts at the 8:50 mark.)
“Strong communities build strong cities. Strong families build strong neighborhoods. Strong youth build strong futures for us.”
Incumbent Alder Jill Marks has not filed papers yet to run for reelection and has not publicly disclosed her plans. She issued a written statement Monday welcoming Abdussabur’s interest in working on community issues; she argued that he doesn’t need to run for alder to work on them. (The statement appears in full later in this article. Click here for a previous story detailing Abdussabur’s campaign as well as Marks’ accomplishments in office.)
File Photos
Among the Beaver Hills supporters endorsing Abdussabur at Monday’s event (from left): Former Alder Moti Sandman, Nan Bartow, Gary Hogan, Natreece Mayes
Before Abdussabur spoke at the event, neighbors offered their endorsements. The neighbors included former Ward 28 Alder Moti Sandman, current president of Congregation Chabad Lubavitch on Norton Street; Natreece Mayes, whom Abdussabur helped raise money to pay for damage caused to her car during a Carmel Street shoot-out; parks preserver and neighborhood clean-up organizer Nan Bartow; and Elks Club President and longtime city housing and neighborhoods official Gary Hogan.
Activists Rodney Williams and Barbara Fair added their support via the livestream’s comment section.
Abdussabur recalled heading over to Beaver Hills while growing up nearby at the Florence Virtue Homes, to make money shoveling when it snowed. He has lived in Beaver Hills for 23 years; his son, daughter-in-law and grandchild now live in the neighborhood as well.
Paul Bass Photo
Shafiq Abdussabur and Rivka Fenton with one of the lawn signs they have distributed in the neighborhood in response to hate crimes against Orthodox Jews.
Jill Marks: Plenty Of Work To Do
Thomas Breen Photo
Alder Jill Marks at a press conference about neighborhood crime.
Following is a statement released Monday by Alder Jill Marks in response to Abdussabur’s announcement:
It is great to hear that Shafiq is stepping up to provide more leadership in our neighborhood.
We have lots of work to do, and many hands make light work — I’m committed to reducing the violence in our neighborhood and city, continuing to push Yale to pay their fair share, and as always, continuing to fight for my neighbors, improving streets, and our parks.
I’m proud of my work with Friends of Goffe Street Park in improving this community space. This year we will break ground on a new Splash Pad, see improvements in the park’s community building, and have new traffic calming infrastructure installed around the park. I’m also proud of the traffic bumps that we have installed throughout our neighborhood and a new roundabout near Hillhouse high school.
These are accomplishments that save lives. We know that creating a safe neighborhood requires our entire community. I’m also proud of my work with Ice the Beef and the police to help our entire neighborhood stay safe. As we see more violent crime across the city, I will continue to work with all community members to find solutions.
Finally, we know that our biggest challenges require deeper commitments from powerful organizations like Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital. Shafiq and I have the same goals and share a deep commitment to our community.
But he doesn’t need to be alder to start working with me on addressing these problems now.
I look forward to working with him this spring and summer in community building efforts that help our neighborhood and our city move forward.
I am a big fan of Shafiq's, and I am glad he is running, but just a comment that the lawn sign project was really spearheaded by Rivka and Mareika. While I'm sure Shafiq helped with getting the signs out, they did an amazing job designing the signs, ordering, collecting money, and distributing them.
Also unless there are additional efforts I'm not aware of, raising money to help Natreece Mayes was a collective project of folks who are part of the Beaver Hills WhatsApp group.
Again, Shafiq is a great leader, and I'm excited he is running, but I also want to recognize that a lot of our neighbors are stepping up to make our neighborhood and city a better place.
[Paul: Thank you for the comment. Accurate on all counts! Shafiq was the one who met Natreece on the street after the shooting happened and first called attention to her situation, and advised her about how to get help, which led to the creation of the neighborhood WhatsApp group effort.]