Nemerson Rejected For Redev Role

The Board of Alders put the kibosh on Matthew Nemerson’s potential return to City Hall by rejecting the former economic development administrator’s bid to breathe new life into the city’s redevelopment agency.

Local legislators took that vote Monday night during the latest regular bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders, which was held in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

In a voice vote, the alders voted overwhelmingly against Mayor Justin Elicker’s appointment of Nemerson, who spent four years as former Mayor Toni Harp’s top economic development official, to serve on the city’s Redevelopment Agency Advisory Council.

That’s the city board that, per the city’s website, ​“works to approve redevelopment plans after receiving approval from the City’s City Plan Commission. This body shall also be authorized to acquire real property required for redevelopment purposes, by purchase, exchange or gift.” During the height of mid-20th century urban renewal, the Redevelopment Agency was a powerful designer and implementer of rebuilding plans in the city. The agency and its board have since been relegated to a minor advisory role, with periodic attempts to increase its relevance.

Westville Alder Adam Marchand said he opposed Nemerson’s appointment during Monday’s meeting because ​“I found him difficult to work with” and because ​“I didn’t think he shared our values” around prioritizing affordable housing during his tenure at the head of the city’s Economic Development Administration. Marchand also criticized Nemerson as ​“too focused on downtown” and as someone who ​“didn’t share the passion for creating more affordable housing.”

During a Wednesday morning phone interview with the Independent, Board of Alders Majority Leader and Amity/Westville/Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow described Nemerson as ​“someone who has a wealth of knowledge and information but, in my dealings with him when he was with the city, I don’t feel that the knowledge that he has was congruent with the [alders’] vision and our legislative agenda around affordable housing.”

“I hope he is interested in doing something else in the city,” Furlow continued, ​“because I think he offers some value. Just not in that area for redevelopment.” He added that the alders’ rejection of Nemerson’s appointment on Monday was nothing personal.

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, who missed Monday’s meeting and vote because she was at home with Covid, also told the Independent that she supported the board’s decision to vote down Nemerson’s appointment.

“The first step in development or redevelopment is to understand the needs and priorities of the people who live there,” Miller told the Independent. ​“The city doesn’t always do this effectively, but at least there is an effort. Nemerson by contrast acted with a disregard bordering on disdain for the views and interests of residents. Bringing that orientation back into play would set us back.” Miller singled out for criticism Nemerson’s clashes with her and other Fair Haven community members about how best to redevelop the vacant former Strong School on Grand Avenue.

Nemerson: "Politics Is A Contact Sport In New Haven"

Reached by phone for a comment on Wednesday, Nemerson stressed that he had volunteered for the redevelopment council position because of his love for New Haven, his decades of experience working in the fields of economic development and redevelopment, and his desire to give back to the city now that he’s no longer working in the public sector.

“Politics is a contact sport in New Haven,” he said. ​“I don’t take it personally.” And he said he’d be willing to sit down and talk with aldermanic leadership and anyone else who may have opposed his nomination to hear out their visions for economic redevelopment and, if possible, to get another shot at joining the board.

“I’ve been working on redevelopment since literally I was a college student,” Nemerson said. ​“I’ve been working on affordable housing since the mid-’80s,” including by helping bring on line owner-occupied affordable homes in Newhallville near Science Park.

Reflecting on his time at City Hall, he said, ​“I believe that in the service of Mayor [Toni] Harp, that we had an agenda. I was always following her agenda. We worked together for neighborhood development.”

He recognized that he failed to successfully redevelop the old Strong School. And he noted how he had disagreed with Miller and some other Fair Haven neighbors about how that site should be used. 

“If you have a point of view to develop in a certain way, you don’t give up right away,” he said. ​“You try to explain why you think that growth and investment and new development is a good thing. We disagreed, but I don’t think that you want city officials that cave right away. … I think you want them to be strong. And I am strong.”

Finally, Nemerson said, he was most interested in joining the city’s redevelopment board to reinvigorate the agency’s work in New Haven. He said redevelopment plans represent an underused, powerful way for government to make its economic development vision a reality. 

“I believe that redevelopment can be a very powerful tool to do affordable housing, to do what I would consider equitable and inclusive development,” Nemerson said, ​“because of the control over land and because of some of the ground rules you can set over redeveloped properties” thanks to special powers granted to such an agency from the federal government.

“It gives more power to government to help steer and influence things,” he said. ​“Whether it’s me or somebody else [on the board], redevelopment is something that we have ignored for 20 years. … We can do more for neighborhood development and affordable housing” by being more proactive around redevelopment.