Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Grand Avenue business owners Carolina Vergara and Yolanda Guzman: Customers are getting assaulted.
Grand Avenue business owners left their shops and rallied on the side of the road — in hopes the city would hear their call to clean up crime across the streets of Fair Haven.
Fifteen Fair Haven business leaders and members of Unidad Latina en Acción gathered at the corner of Blatchley and Grand Avenues Tuesday at 5 p.m. They carried signs reading “Enough!” as they lamented the shootings, thefts and drug deals littering their neighborhood.
“People are moving their businesses out of New Haven because there is no security for them,” ULA President John Lugo announced through a megaphone. “If this situation continues, we will be on the streets, we will be doing different actions to attract the attention of the authorities.”
Carolina Vergara, who owns a nail salon on Grand Avenue, recalled getting robbed by an armed man who was then able to walk straight out of her store without any intervention. Police were late to the scene, she said, and when the cops arrived, Vergara “felt like they were laughing at us.”
Alberto Bustos, who offers accounting services out of the same stretch of street, complained of people loitering outside his work and “bothering customers.” Vergara and others, like Yolanda Guzman of Mi Lupita bakery, said their patrons have complained about getting “assaulted” repeatedly along Grand Avenue.
Erick Amaya, who owns a design company called Academy D‑Signs, said he moved his business to East Haven because “delinquents and drug addicts were harassing my customers” and such “conditions were very dangerous for my family.”
Erick Amaya.
Some business owners requested a more intensive police presence within the neighborhood, while others asked for additional social workers and harm reduction support crews given the high number of people without housing and or struggling with substance abuse concentrated in Fair Haven.
“We’re scared as merchants to keep doing business with Grand Avenue,” Bustos concluded. “We want to meet with the mayor to discuss the situation.”
Mayor Justin Elicker, meanwhile, said that he is happy to meet with the crew.
“My kids go to school in Fair Haven,” he said. “It is personally important to me too that the Fair Haven community is a safe place.”
That said, “overall we’ve seen crime in the city go down,” citing a decrease in shots fired between now and January compared to last year at the same time — despite an increase in overall homicides. In particular, he said crime in Fair Haven was down 14 percent in 2023 compared to 2022.
“Clearly it’s not time to take a victory lap,” he said. “Policing is important, but it’s not just about policing.”
He said the expansion of programs like the Elm City Compassionate Allies Serving our Streets (COMPASS), which sends social workers to New Haveners in need of emergency help, and Program for Reintegration, Engagement, Safety, and Support (Press), which supports adults transitioning out of prison, “are helping us prevent violence by helping people choose other pathways.”
“When people experience scary incidents, it can really impact someone’s view of the city,” Elicker said. “We have a lot more work to do still.”
Remember when there was that "Defund the Police" movement by mostly East Rockers?
Remember when we mandated this city be a Sanctuary City?
Once again the low income and working class people lose, at the hands of what?
Progressive Policies?
NHPD - thank you for keeping it real. Hopefully we can do something to change the tone of the blind in this town to see jus how important law and order is to the success of all in this community.