ConnCORP Pitches Guv On Dixwell Plaza

Erik Clemons took advantage of a 20-minute audience with Gov. Ned Lamont to make a multimillion-dollar pitch — for bond money to help revive the commercial heart of New Haven’s Black community.

Clemons is the CEO of the Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program (ConnCORP), a for-profit subsidiary of the Science Park-based job training non-profit Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) that undertakes economic development projects in communities of color.

One of those projects is the planned remaking of Dixwell Plaza on Dixwell Avenue. ConnCORP has purchased the fraying, mid-century shopping strip and received approval to transform it into ​“ConnCAT Place on Dixwell,” a seven-acre, bustling block of housing, retail centers (including a supermarket), and performing arts space. Read more about that plan here.

Gov. Lamont, who’s running for reelection, stopped for a tour Wednesday afternoon of Community Economic Impact Lab, an entrepreneurial incubator ConnCORP has opened over the Hamden line on Morse Street. It was one of several local stops in the state’s richest vein of Democratic votes, including a bilingual radio interview and a session with alders on Long Wharf, where skeptical attendees pressed him on education funding. (More about that later in this article.) Lamont is scheduled to return to New Haven Thursday for a summer-internship press conference with business leaders, then an announcement in Trowbridge Square of state support for rebuilding a community center. 

“Our ask and our hope is that the state will join in the impact that we are expecting to make in this neighborhood that has languished in poverty for just about a century,” Clemons told the governor during his visit.

The redevelopers have so far raised $100 million to pursue that plan, Clemons reported. They currently need $38 million more.

“We’re here ​’cause we’re interested,” Lamont said.

He then took the opportunity to highlight certain state financial opportunities designed to foster economic development in historically underserved communities, such as The Community Investment Fund, a new $1.5 billion five-year grant program targeting ConnCORP-like initiatives in poor communities, and a newly announced $150 million lending program that you can read more about here.

Ultimately, he said, Clemons and ConnCORP should focus on swaying local officials closer to home — like State Senator Martin Looney. 

“We’ve allocated a lot to our legislative leaders,” Lamont reasoned. ​“If he [Looney] says it’s important for me… that weighs a lot with me,” he said.

Reached for comment Thursday morning, Looney said he can’t commit to specific proposals coming before the Community Investment Fund, because he serves as board co-chair.

He did express overall support and enthusiasm for the Dixwell Plaza project. ​“I think it’ll be transformative for Dixwell,” he said.

Having dispensed advice and seen the cardiovascular research, beauty and wellness work, and philanthropic consulting taking place inside the walls of ConnCORP’s southern Hamden incubator, Lamont had to run — over to the New Haven Independent’s Elm Street office, where he was scheduled for an interview with WNHH FM/La Voz Radio’s K‑Pasa bilingual radio show. He spent a half hour on air fielding questions in English from hosts Norma Rodriguez-Reyes and Jose Candelario, while his campaign deputy political director, Gabriela Koc, translated into Spanish for listeners.

Education Talk At Brazi's

Next stop: Brazi’s restaurant on Long Wharf.

Twenty-five of New Haven’s 30 alders (who, like Lamont, are all Democrats) showed up at Brazi’s restaurant there for a scheduled discussion with the governor. Audrey Tyson, a Lamont campaign staffer long active in city politics, organized the session so that Lamont could hear from representatives of different constituencies around the city. A similar event was hosted at Brazi’s four years ago during Lamont’s first campaign for governor.

This time, with four years under his belt, Lamont was ready to speak on the accomplishments of his administration as well as a vision for the future of the state. 

“I ran four years ago because people had lost faith in Connecticut. Today, we have more people coming to the state than ever before with stronger infrastructure, schools, and privacy protections,” said Lamont. 

Alders lauded the governor’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis and praised him for improving business confidence in the state.

They were more concerned about the state of public education, in the wake of a new round of disappointing public school test scores, including one report showing 84 percent of third graders reading below grade level. (Click here to read about that an acknowledged ​“crisis” in reading and math.)

Out of five questions posed to Lamont, three concerned education funding and youth services. A fourth focused on broadband investment to expand access to New Haveners, especially students. 

“You mentioned a lot about access to opportunity, and I wanted to connect that to education. We’re receiving an extra $4.5 million [in school support], which is a big jump, but there’s so much more we can do,” said Prospect Hill/Newhallville/Dixwell Alder Steven Winter. 

“Frankly, our reading and math are way behind. So I wanted to ask you, governor, how you can help us to increase funding and lower the student-teacher ratio?”

“We had the biggest investment in education we’ve ever made in the state,” Lamont responded. He also cited an expansion of state programs to provide mortgage subsidies and tuition reimbursement for teachers. 

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller followed up after Winter with a question specifically about the Educational Cost Sharing formula through which the state provides funding to school districts.

“We know the education cost sharing formula doesn’t reflect the cost of education, so I’m wondering if you have plans to reflect our actual costs,” asked Miller. 

Lamont’s response: ​“The new formula is less money for wealthy schools and more money for New Haven, and we’re celebrating that right now. We’re getting an extra $100 million in April, and the biggest thing for New Haven is to show us that the additional funding is working for more funding.”

“I think he heard our concern,” Winter said after the event, ​“but there’s just so much more the state can do in terms of funding. New Haven needs that money and needs that help.”

“He didn’t really answer the question,” was Miller’s reaction to Lamont’s response. ​“I didn’t hear a real acknowledgment that our schools are significantly underfunded, or any sense of urgency to fix the ECS so that it reflects the actual cost of educating children well, given actual rates of poverty, special education, and English language learners,” said Miller. Miller said she left the event ready to vote for Lamont in November, but with a feeling that Lamont didn’t sense the urgency of underfunding for schools.

As for the response on teachers, Miller stated: ​“Incentives are great and all, but why don’t we just pay our teachers more? All of these programs, until we fix the true root cause of funding, is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” 

Nora Grace-Flood’s reporting is supported in part by a grant from Report for America.