Laura Glesby photo
Mayoral opponents / allies Wendy Hamilton and Tom Goldenberg, with a poster designed by Bill Saunders.
At a joint press conference on Monday, mayoral challengers Tom Goldenberg and Wendy Hamilton agreed on what they wouldn’t do if elected mayor — namely, they wouldn’t “sell” a block of High Street to Yale University.
If elected mayor, Goldenberg (a Republican and Independent Party candidate who’s personally a registered Democrat) said at the press conference, he wants to bring a “partnership-oriented approach” to negotiations with Yale.
Meanwhile, if elected, Hamilton (an unaffiliated candidate who has petitioned her way onto the Nov. 7 ballot) said she wants to “sanction” the university by shutting off some of its water supply, pulling all its building permits, ceasing Fire Department services on campus, organizing a mass strike and boycott, and “embarrassing” the university in the “national press.”
So it might come as a surprise that the two candidates came together to send a joint message on the city’s agreement with Yale that was struck in November 2021 and won aldermanic approval in April 2022.
The candidates were congenial with one another from the start.
“You look handsome,” Hamilton told Goldenberg before the press conference began.
“You look great!” Goldenberg said.
“I love ya,” replied Hamilton.
Even their outfits might have been coordinated: A keychain on Hamilton’s coat zipper matched the shoes on Goldenberg’s feet.
Hamilton and Goldenberg were united in their Elicker critiques — and duck boots. (They also agreed that voters should vote against proposed revisions to the city charter.)
On Monday, the candidates were united in their criticism of the 2022 city-Yale deal, in which Yale agreed to pay a total of $52 million more to the city over six years, while the city is allowing Yale to pedestrianize the block of High Street between Elm and Chapel Streets.
Two-term incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker (the Democratic and Working Families Party candidate) has explained since 2021 and throughout the campaign trail that the city never actually “sold” that part of High Street to the university.
Rather, the city has agreed to allow Yale to transform the street into a pedestrian walkway, where no vehicles except for emergency services will be allowed to drive through. Yale will have the power to design renovations to the block, subject to review by the City Plan Commission and Traffic Authority. And Yale will be responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the block. But the city will retain ownership of the street itself.
To Goldenberg, all of this amounts to the “sale” of the street — even if Yale hasn’t technically bought it.
“If Yale has design, development, and maintenance of a city street, why does the mayor think that’s not a sale of a city street?” he asked.
After the press conference, Elicker responded in a phone interview that “a sale is losing a city asset permanently. This is a pedestrianization of a block of High Street, it is not a sale. I’m not sure how to be clearer on that point.”
The mayor said that the city’s continued ownership of the street is not merely a technicality. It means that “public access to the street will be maintained forever,” he said; Yale can’t just decide one day to plop a building or only allow university affiliates on the street. And he added that “frankly, it’s leverage in future negotiations.”
He added that at the time of the agreement, the public had an opportunity to offer input to the Board of Alders, and “Mr. Goldenberg did not testify.”
The press conference at Chapel and High Streets.
Goldenberg and Hamilton were pressed on what, exactly, they would have done if they had been in negotiations with Yale officials in Elicker’s place.
“I don’t plan to negotiate with them,” Hamilton said. “They’re totally unreliable. I plan to sanction them” until Yale pays “at least 50 percent” of the city budget.
Goldenberg replied that had he been in Elicker’s place, he would have prioritized “not being misleading to the public.” He added, “I would like to see more investment from Yale in beautifying our parks and capital projects.”
Pressed on how he would have approached the High Street portion of the agreement by Fox 61’s Julia LeBlanc, Goldenberg said, “I am objecting to Mayor Elicker saying it’s not the sale of a street. If he had said that he sold a street… and I got a good deal for the street, that would be honest and transparent, but that’s not what we’ve got here.”
Asked again by the Independent whether he would have sold, or traded control over, High Street, Goldenberg said, “The details matter. I was not in the negotiating room, so I’m not at liberty to comment on this.”
Pressed one more time to take a stance on the matter about which he had organized a press conference, Goldenberg said, “Would I have sold a street? No, I would not have sold a street. No.”
“They own enough, and they’re not paying their share,” Hamilton added.
Elicker added in an interview that he supports creating safer avenues for pedestrians to get from place to place in New Haven. “We’re working to create more pedestrian streets in the city, so this is a good thing for the university, but it’s also a good thing for the city,” he said.
When the candidates were asked for their opinions on whether the city should redesign more streets to be closed off to cars or otherwise pedestrian-oriented, Hamilton did not respond.
“That’s the city’s decision to make. I like, for example, what’s been done on Orange Street in the Ninth Square. And for specific events, closing streets to traffic,” Goldenberg said before pivoting. “But, that’s not what’s up for discussion today. Here, we’re discussing a deal that the city made with Yale, where the city gave up its right to design, develop, and maintain the street, and then saying to the public that it is not a sale, which is misleading and dishonest.”
Smart move from Wendy Hamilton to give a press conference with Tom Goldenberg. It makes her look like a much stronger candidate for mayor!
She is certainly the more reasonable, experienced, and trustworthy of the two candidates!